a letter from Henri IV

dropped by the MUSEE DES LETTRES ET MANUSCRITS yesterday in the quirky little rue de Nesle. i went to see an exhibit organized around the journal of Calamity Jane--only to discover that the journal itself has a dubious provenance and may or may not have been written by the Wild West icon. However, the museum's permanent collection more than made up for the quirky Calamity exhibition...i spent time gazing at letters by Henry IV (my favourite of the French kings--after all, he was responsible for Place des Vosges), a military memo from Cardinal Mazarin, and a polite note from Anne of Austria. i admired the very nice handwriting of Gustave Eiffel and the careful yet messy calculations of Marie Curie, and i wondering how anyone managed to read the skinny flat letters written by Charles de Gaulle. Graphologists would have a field day with him! i have no idea what it means that Isaac Newton had very small slanted handwriting, or that Albert Einstein's scientific notes are much neater than his hair...but it was quite amazing to see the original letters on display.

rockin' the Horse

i'm impressed with The White Stripes' upcoming tour plans...they're going to include three dates in Northern Canada, one in each territory, including a stop June 25th in Whitehorse. on the band's website, Jack White writes: "Having never done a full tour of Canada, Meg & I thought it was high time to go whole hog. We want to take this tour to the far reaches of the Canadian landscape. From the ocean to the permafrost."
i saw them in Paris a couple of years ago, when they were promoting Elephant--great live show. too bad they can't make it to Dawson City...

Art process at Flateurville

Flateurville...a real but imaginary installation you can visit every Thursday night, created by artist/story-teller Laurent Godard. I was invited by the organizers of the Art Bus--a monthly tour through the most interesting contemporary art in Paris (next one is May 26th, find out about it here). Godard uses donated temporary spaces for Flateurville (he's starting to work on one in New York, apparently on Mott Street). in Paris, the space is an old print shop on a crooked lost street near Saint-Denis, transformed into story-teller's rabbit warren of paintings, furniture, and objets trouves, creatively inhabited by an entire village. This virtual village is Flateurville (the walls are filled with portraits of its citizens), invented by Godard. It's a kind of Micronation--you can have an ID card made for you in Flateurville, if you choose to believe in the place, and last night's crowd seemed willing...

Cinderella reads Geist

Paris is experimenting with later-running metros...long overdue, in my opinion. Because there's nothing worse than glancing at your cellphone at a little after midnight & having to calculate how much time you've got left...before you either turn into a pumpkin or run for the last metro.

however, once you've caught that last metro, it's crucial to have good reading material (otherwise you'll get caught in conversation with the crazy drunk guy to your left...trust me on this). one of my favourite metro reads is GEIST, the Vancouver-based quarterly mag edited by the incomparable Stephen Osborne. if you're in Vancouver, drop by their upcoming issue-64 bash May 5th. meanwhile i'll be on the metro savouring Geist's controversial issue #63...

gin & jazz

the FESTIVAL JAZZ A SAINT-GERMAIN-DES-PRES starts next week...most appropriately, i passed this pianist busking last night on my way to a little festival preview at Chez Castel (the exclusive sleazy club in St-Germain's rue Princesse--get the inside scoop on that from Petite Brigitte!)

fortunately the usual Castel crowd wasn't in residence: the labyrinthian basement was packed with musicians & journalists elbowing their way to the open bar where, to our ladylike disappointment, there was no champagne, only hard liquor. to go with the gin & tonics, waiters sidled around with plates of macaron cookies. i have no idea how this all connects to jazz, but we devoured the cookies while waiting for festival officials to finish their speeches...then New Zealander Aron Ottignon played piano. he's featured at the festival's closing night, May 17th, at the "nuit electro-jazz".

not all baguettes

are created equal. i tried a new bakery today, because its owner just won the covetted "best baguette" award for 2007. now, admittedly, the winning baguette comes from his original store on rue des Martyrs, an excellent bakery but too far for me to walk in the mornings. but this second branch is mere blocks away from chez mois...so i thought why not?
alas, the bread was a sorry disappointment...too dry & over-baked. my dog is currently profitting from the remains. and i'm going back to my local favourite bakery tomorrow. i may even apologize for having strayed.

un pot de depart pour Chirac

on Saturday night, my street association hosted "a good-bye drink for Chirac"...the outgoing President didn't show up, but my neighbours dressed for the occasion, including some Marie Antoinette hairdos (royalist coiffure being de-rigueur for Royal supporters!) ...with the help of a song book, we managed to keep track of the endless lyrics of French chansons, while tiny pirates staged coups at the soda table.

last night, the mood in the villa garden was more serious as neighbors gathered to watch the results on a little television set up outside on an iron table. everyone was relieved that Le Pen's support has dropped since the last election and he won't be in the second round.

election day in France