Day 12 - Paris

I wish that I had more time to write, as I could give you more blow-by-blow descriptions of what I have been doing each day. Having little time, I may as well assume that those are not as interesting as my generalizations about travel and that the most interesting things that I have thought or experience will remain in my memory.

When I last left you, I was lamenting having gone to Amiens and been unimpressed, I believe. I took the twelfth day of my trip, whenever that was - I am probably on my fourteenth or fifteenth day, at this point - fairly easy, getting up as late as I could without missing breakfast and lounging in my room for awhile before heading out to see the parts of Paris that I had not yet visited. Paris had been having spectacular rainfall and thunderstorms over the past few days, and these continued through the early part of the morning of my twelfth day of travel.

I started my day by visiting the Chateau de Vincennes, which predates the palace of Versailles by roughly four centuries. As usual, I did not go inside, as that would have cost money, and I wanted to end my day early to get some work done in the evening. I visited a few plazas that I had not yet visited, looked at a few churches, found, perhaps, the only free public bathroom in Paris, learned that it would cost 8.5 Euros to climb the tower of the cathedral of Notre Dame, and learned that the catacombs, like many museums in Paris, were closed on Mondays. I dove into the nearest subway entrance right as another shower began, went back to my hostel, and had tinned halibut (I think) for dinner. I do not remember if I got any work done that evening, but I would not be surprised if I did.

A few interesting things happened on my last full day in Paris, the first of which was that I bought fresh fruit for the first time on this trip. On my way from one church to another, I found a Chinese greengrocer selling figs, of all things, at a rate of four for 1.70 Euros. I washed them with a bit of water and ate them on the spot. I expect to be able to eat much more fresh fruit in northern Germany, where, if it is anything like the rest of the country, I will be able to buy one-pound boxes of fresh-picked cherries and strawberries on the street, and I may be able to get fresh fruit in England. Until then, I am going to make do with canned vegetables, fruit juice, and whatever fruit or vegetable matter makes its way into the food that I buy at cafes, restaurants, &c.

The other big event of the day is part of what will go down in history as the Pastry Question. In what quantities should one allow oneself to buy pastries abroad? How able is one to resist doing so, even if one decides to eat healthily? I bought an almond-chocolate croissant-like bun the other day; I think that it was partly to fill me up, partly because it looked delicious, and partly because it was cheap and available. Finding food that can quickly be consumed is always difficult for the traveller who does not stay for long in one place and does not want to spend much time or money on restaurants in the middle of the day. Bread on its own is no good; cheese takes a working fridge; those sausages with a sort of skin around them that can be stored outside of a fridge are overly fatty; one cannot live on trail mix and granola bars alone; and so on. There is not much food that one can simply grab and eat on the spot, and pastries are often a cheap, filling, and delicious option.

What I have decided - I promise to return more directly to the Pastry Question in a moment - is to start looking for "boulangeries" (bread-bakeries) and, even better, sandwicheries (sandwich shops) to eat in the middle of the day. I had not decided that, though, on Monday, which, I believe, was my last full day in Paris. Having eaten the almond bun and, the previous day, my second helping of flan, I made a rough decision: I want to try to eat more or less one of each distinct type of pastry in France. Once one knows a pastry's taste, one does not need more of it (at least, in the context of a single trip), as a second taste of the same thing will not offer a new experience. I had fantastic pain au chocolat in Strasbourg last year; I have already tried flan and croissant-like desserts; I already know that the fruity, ornate pastries held together by gelatin are not that good; and I have yet to try a fruit tart (though I had a low-rent fruit-and-custard tart at a cafe earlier on this trip) and a cream-based, chocolate eclair-like dessert. I will try to eat one of each of those two pastries over the next two weeks, but I will otherwise steer clear of pastries, on the whole.

I forgot to mention something in my last post, which is that religious music is some of the most beautiful and life-affirming that I have ever heard; Christianity is not all about death and shame (or guilt?). If "God" were replaced with "life" and the church's idolatry and conformism were cast aside, I would be on board with it; but that would be something totally different from what we call religion.

My final point is that I have found my evenings boring. I often set them aside working on my translations, a grant proposal, and a conference proposal, and, while I often get some of that stuff done, I find myself searching for distractions. Perhaps the issue is that staying in a one-person room is less socially stimulating than being in an ordinary hostel; perhaps the issue is that I have rarely gotten enough rest on this trip and am pushing myself too hard. I have a final image of Paris with which to leave you: as soon as it starts to rain in Paris, people materialize in the entrances to subways with cheap umbrellas for sale, almost as though they had come out of the woodwork of the subway itself.

The castle at Vincennes predates that of Versailles.