Paris Werewolves

Earlier this week we took in one of the shows at this year's Festival Jazz à Saint-Germain-de-Prés. Trumpeter Erik Truffaz's quintet was playing at the Odéon-Théâtre de l'Europe, a space for "les comédiens français" inaugurated by Marie Antoinette in 1782. Ceiling by André Masson (1965). The show was great, mostly an homage to film scores of classic noirs, the French new wave, and spaghetti westerns. For me, it really settled in about midway through when the program steered back to club jazz, including a duet for guitar and trumpet in the vein of Barney Kessel, and an accompaniment for two songs by a torch singer (whose name went past me in a blur of mumbled French). I could not bring myself to take photos during the show (etiquette, being present, etc.). From up in the balcony it was clear that many in the seats below were essentially recording the entire gig on their phones. I'm often struck by how much scorn is heaped on younger people for use and over-use ...

In Strasbourg's Parc de l'Orangerie, massive white storks ( Ciconia ciconia ) nested atop roofs and topped-off trees. There were dozens in all, cleaning and preening the nurseries, soaring high above, and swooping down to their roosts like pterosaurs. The white stork is one of the iconic symbols of the entire Alsace region, spanning both France and Germany. All the same, the population almost disappeared until preservation efforts began in the 1980s--centered on dedicated sanctuaries such as the park. I guess it worked--we seemed to be the only people showing much interest in the living dinosaurs clattering above.

  This mascaron caught my eye not just for being freaky, but for being carved wood. It's befitting for the timbered architecture of Strasbourg, but wood carvings just aren't as common in Paris. An example from the park on l'Île Saint-Germain near our apartment drives the point home. I can't tell if it's supposed to be Bigfoot or Ben Grimm The Thing. It might be clobberin' time.

We don't consciously seek out places that look like Castle Dracula. Well, actually we do. And compared to places like the Cathar castles in Queribus and Peyrpeteuse that we visited down south years ago, Strasbourg's cathedral really delivered. Château de Quéribus, Cucugnan Château de Peyrepetuse, Rouffiac-des-Corbières But that was not why we took a side trip to Strasbourg, in the Grand-Est region (formerly Alsace), just across the Rhine River from Germany. We had hoped to visit the famous Christkindelsmärik (Christmas Market) last winter, but got organized too late to get an affordable hotel room. So we contented ourselves with a post-May Day trip, principally to enjoy the Alsatian architecture and cuisine. Of which we got plenty of both. We stayed in a 16th century, half-timbered building that was the site of a continuously operating apothecary (later, pharmacy) from 1298 until 2000 (La Pharmacie du Cerf). The ground floor now houses an ice cream shop--which is probably a the...

An ominous detail in the neighborhood. More ominous still, it's in the window of a dry cleaner. To paraphrase my esteemed colleague, Monsieur d'Hardan: "maybe they exorcise demons from your pants." Or maybe my French is even worse then I thought. l'Église d'Enfer means "dry cleaning," right? And why is the place guarded by a hellhound?

The Pavillion de l'Arsenal began its life as a display space for a wealthy amateur artist's paintings. It has since become part of the Bibliothèque National de France as a center for the study of urbanism. Which means a lot of wall displays of the layout and development of Paris since the Gallo-Roman times, right through its plans into the mid 21st century. It's a big, open space with a glass roof and façade to allow natural light. I was drawn to l'Arsenal for an exposition on the city's animals--particularly the more exotic and quotidien ones that ended up on the menu when food became scarce during the 1870-1871 Paris commune. Think dogs and rats, but also working horses and mules, as well as elephants and antelopes from the city's zoological gardens. "Grand dîner parisien, 1870-1871" by Jean Gauchard (1871) captures some of the gastronomic desperation and horror of the Siege of Paris. Courtesy of Musée Carnavalet, Paris. What I did not expect was the...

  We had just left an immersive exhibit on Alfons Mucha when we saw these windows up the side of a building in the 12th Arr. Even if they ditched their other lovers, I don't give these two much of a chance at romance. Since it's day in her apartment, and night in his, how will they ever overcome the space-time continuum? The Mucha exhibition was neat, mostly wall-sized projections of posters and details from his Slavic epic, choreographed to transition more or less seamlessly. Still, for all the thought that went into the curation and narrative display of the artwork, almost none seemed to go into moving visitors through the exhibit. Basically they clogged into tiny doorways, and some lay on the ground to fully take in the wall-sized art in the too-small rooms (to be fair, they were provided pillows for this purpose). This is the same problem that occurs at the Louvre in front of the colossally overrated (and tiny) Mona Lisa, despite any attempts to mitigate overcrowding throug...

Lily-of-the-valley ( muguet in France) is France's traditional May Day flower ( la fête du travail , or labor day over here). It has a very light scent used in perfumes and is highly poisonous--the flower, that is, not the holiday.  Muguet is traditionally sold tax-free on May Day, principally by labor organizations but also by anyone who sets up a table or booth on any street. Muguet et sucre. It's also traditional in France to hold May Day protests and demonstrations. This year's actions promised to resume expressing the nation's vast dissatisfaction with the recent change in retirement age from 62 to 64. As of 5 pm local time, there have been reports in Paris of dozens of arrests and at least one seriously injured police officer. Water cannons and tear gas were used to disperse protesters at Place de la Nation in the 11th Arrondissement. In Marseille, the lobby of the InterContinental Hotel was briefly "occupied" by about 200 protesters. The CGT, one of t...