Week one of Paris writing retreat.
I’m trying to put my finger on what makes Paris so amazing. It’s almost universal that people want to come here and love it when they’ve arrived. There are downsides to Paris too. It’s crowded, dirty, and confusing.
I’m fluent in French yet I routinely have difficulty understanding people and being understood. It might be because I express myself more like a French Canadian than a French person, and people might be confused by my odd accent, a bit of Anglo mixed in with some Quebecois, or it might be because I do have some issues with my hearing.
People claim that Quebecers are unintelligible to the French, but I’m from Montreal, not some rural area where people have a lot of twang in their accent. I also received some high school education in France. It’s not the accent I think, that inhibits, but the way sentences are formed and word choices are made differently. Imagine Americans compared with the English. Americans say elevator, truck and trunk, the Brits say lift, lorry and boot, but other than some vocabulary differences, we can understand each other if the accents aren’t too thick, though I imagine a Cockney having trouble communicating with a Texan.
Having some trouble being understood is nothing new to a traveller, but Parisians are impatient, which makes it more challenging. Not that I blame them. The whole world seems to descend on their city as soon as the weather warms up a bit and doesn’t cease as far as I can tell. Paris without tourists would be a lot more relaxed. But then, would it really be Paris?
Its week one of my Paris visit and we’re just getting our feet wet in Paris. Our rental apartment for the month is located a short walk from the Basilica of Sacré-Cœur in Montmartre. It’s very hilly there and the stairs up to the church are a good way to fit in some physical activity. If you haven’t got what it takes to make the climb, there’s always the Funiculaire.
Montmartre is a lively neighborhood filled with cafes, restaurants and a variety of stores, as well as a multitude of people, many who hail from other parts of the globe. It was the district where the artists of the impressionist period found inspiration for their work and a place to live and hang out with their artist friends. This was where the cancan girls strutted their stuff at the Moulin Rouge and other cabarets and where Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec hung out and painted the actors, dancers, and ladies of the evening.
We decided in advance that we were going to spend a lot of time in museums. The best deal for repeated visits is to join a museum as a member, so we decided that the Louvre and the Museé d’Orsay/Museé de l’Orangerie memberships were the best for our purposes. This also meant we could skip the long lineups out front and go straight in. What a time saver! It helped that we organized in advance and knew where to go (which entrance etc.) and what to bring (photos for the membership card) in order to do this, because normally you apply online and wait for a card to be mailed to your home, but we didn’t have time for that. Also, having communicated with these museums in advance, we were able to show the email as proof and skip the line on our initial visit.
The Orangerie has Monet’s famous rooms of waterlilies from his years at Giverny. The d’Orsay is an amazing space, a converted train station that is both open and airy and intimate and focussed. Quite an achievment! Here you’ll find the best of the Impressionists, Post Impressionists and other more recent art movements born in France.
The Louvre is massive, so it was well worth our while to return often there and pick a floor and a wing to focus on each time. Some of the best of scultptures from classical antiquity are here, as well as European and Northern European painting from the middle ages onward. You’ll have to wait in a long line to see the Mona Lisa (I still have no clue why it’s so popular) but seek out a few Rembandts, Titians and some fabulous Neoclassical paintings by Ingres, Delacroix and others. Beautiful stuff! While you’re there, check out the incredibly opulant apartments of Napoleon III.
Regarding writing, I was able to work on reviewing the manuscript for my upcoming novel, as well as make some headway in the novella I am writing for my newsletter subscribers. I also kept notes on many paintings in case I want to use them for my next series. I am planning an art themed historical fantasy series for my next effort. I still have much to do before it will even be ready to write but its a great excuse to visit a museum!
