The rain finally stopped here -- at least for today -- even though the skies are still gray.
One of the major stories on television is the flooding in north central France. The Seine is at it's highest point in years -- eighteen feet above normal -- in 1910, it got to twenty four feet and some people here are worried that that record may be broken. Parts of the roadway near the Eiffel Tower are under three to four feet of water and basements have flooded -- they're estimating 600 million Euros of damage here so far.
Yesterday they closed the Louvre and the Orsay Museum so they could pack up and move stored artwork in their basements and apparently some on the first floors. It hasn't actually rained that much in Paris but it has rained fairly heavily and steady in other parts of France that use the Seine for drainage to the sea so they're worried about what problems a surge of water from elsewhere might cause. To the east of Paris, four people have died in the flooding and significant areas evacuated.
Add that to the strike activities of the rail and aviation workers, the protests by unions against changes to labor laws and France has some major issues. They're also predicting a terorist attack in the near furture (you have the French Open going on currently and the France 2016 soccer championships coming up next week) -- glad I'll be out of here shortly and into the countryside!
Meanwhile, I'm just trying to keep on keeping on. Stopped by the US Consulate yesterday to pick-up some voting forms so I can vote next Fall. People here don't talk politics much but they're absolutely incredulous about what's going on in the US Presidential campaign -- have been asked at least half dozen times if the people in the US have lost their minds! Amazing how much negative coverage the US election is getting here in France and Europe in general.
Went to a farmers' market I hadn't been to before and picked-up a few things, then stopped by a cellphone store to have International minutes added to my phone. Interesting experience -- unless they feel they know you, people here don't seem to speak their mind. Before leaving for Europe, I had been told by a couple of people that even though I didn't speak French, if I tried, most people would work with me. I've tried to speak French whenever I can (and butchered it badly) and kind of bounced and bumped along with getting things done.
At the phone store, a guy in his 50's, who worked there, came over and started in with talking fast in French (the norm here) which comes across as abrupt, blunt and not very welcoming -- I stumbled trying to reply in French -- he stopped, looked at me and said "Thank you" in very good English. I apologized for my poor French -- he said "No, no -- at least you tried" -- and proceeded to vent about English-speaking tourists who come to his homeland and insist on speaking English in the stores (the term 'Ugly American" came to mind). He said -- "Even though your French is terrible, at least you tried" -- and got a big smile on his face -- thanked me for making his day. I've thought I noticed my attempts making a difference in other conversations, but he was the first to actually admit what people had told me a couple of months ago. He said it's common there for people in the stores to "blow-off" tourists who don't at least try. Thought his frankness was interesting.
Was supposed to attend a Coffee Meet-Up event this morning but I and the host were the only ones who signed-up so she moved it to next weekend. Went out anyway, had a cup of coffee and a croissant -- just sat for an hour relaxing and watching people walk by -- finding it's real easy to get comfortable doing that. It also feels like you begin to pick-up on cultural rhythms -- for instance -- in France, women (old and young) ride bicycles (most with a handlebar basket), men don't (or if they do, they're all decked-out with helmets, gloves, spandex or whatever it is) -- you're almost as likely to see fathers walking down the street with 2-4 year olds as you are to see mothers engaged in the same behavior -- there's no such thing as a parking "space" here, if three cars can fit into the space for two, that's all that matters -- women wear black stockings a lot (rarely do you see bare legs, and it's not the weather) -- you won't see young men wearing a shirt without a collar unless it's athletic gear and you won't see men over fifty wearing anything but collared shirts -- a lot of people have dogs in France, but not one of them cleans-up after their pooch when it takes a dump, even if it's in the middle of the sidewalk -- people walk really fast here, like they're in a hurry to get somewhere but they're not (they'll walk a mile a minute for a block or two, then abruptly stop, light up a cigarette and stand there smoking it before taking off like a bat out of hell again) -- eighty percent of Parisians smoke even though many of the older ones look like they're ready to "keel-over" in the gutter -- twenty five percent of men/women walking down the street in the early morning or late afternoon have at least one baguette tucked under their arm -- just observations.
Took a new route back to the apartment on a street I hadn't been on before and it was remarkable -- within a distance of 3-4 blocks, there were at least 12-15 violin makers -- not sellers (although they did that too) but makers -- they were small shops with big windows and you could watch them actually making the instruments five feet away from you -- the stenciled wood blanks, the half cut-out forms, the clamped parts -- it was amazing and most of the craftsmen were in their 60-70's. Within the same blocks there were a dozen plus stores just selling violins -- another store that specialized in bass (fiddles?) -- another store that had a huge collection of saxaphones, flutes and horns displayed for sale, some just jammed into large whiskey barrels like an umbrella stand -- another store specializing in jazz band instruments and memorabilia from the 1920's-30's -- and a piano store -- an amazing concentration of musical instruments!
Christine is due tomorrow morning followed by her sister in the afternoon so will have some company again for a short while -- and Christine speaks French!
