November Review
November is always a special and hectic month. Everyone begins the ramp up to the end of the year whether they like it or not. Every other person seems to be celebrating a birthday, like Russ! The weather is changing, more in some places than others. Most people agree that it’s warmer than it should be around this time of year, but most Parisians were in full scarf and winter coat mode by the end of the month. In the early days we decided to take a walk through a small park called Square des Batignolles and then continued on to admire the surrounding modern buildings taking a pause to appreciate the classic Haussman design standing right across the street. Along the way we also discovered a different part of Le Petite Ceinture railway nestled in Batignolles. La Promenade Plantée (also called Coulée Verte) was the only nature walk we had been able to see until now and there is supposed to be at least one or maybe two other locations. From what we’ve heard these small pieces will eventually become connected as the city furthers its efforts in renovating and revitalizing the old railways to make way for a continuous pedestrian nature walk.
As a detour to a visit to the Castorama, I decided to pay a visit to Montmartre Cemetery. I had found an entrance under the bridge at Rue Caulaincourt and you can’t help but notice the tops of the tombs under the bridge reaching past the lowest parts of the beams. Walking along I discovered a few historical figures. The clue? A human statue instead of a normal headstone, whatever that means. I only guessed that these statues might have been people of interest so I looked them up and voila. I did manage to miss a few others, but with 20,000 burial plots it’s easy to do so. While I didn’t try to find every historical figure in the place, I managed to easily stumble upon Jean Bauchet who had contributed to the musical entertainment scene, Alphonse Baudin, a doctor and politician whose remains lie in the Pantheon of Paris, and the designer, Otto Klaus Preis, although the statue that stands at his grave site is not of him. It’s a replicate of one you can find in Jardin des Tuileries that Otto acquired and by his will was placed on his grave.
One surprise that I really appreciated was finding a stone with names carved for Petits Frères des Pauvres. It’s an organization that helps keep the elderly from being too isolated and the grave lists those with no other family to claim them after death. Besides learning a bit of history, I really enjoyed seeing how time ages the environment and life just takes over. The grounds keepers do their best to control it all, but the vining plant-life can’t be stopped.
On the 22nd I decided to meet Russ for lunch in La Defense. He text me asking if I saw the wire yet so I looked around and saw the tightrope walker. He said he first noticed just the wire as he arrived to work, but by the time I came a man was maybe 90% of the way across. It was already cold and windy on ground level so you can imagine how much worse it probably was 150 meters above ground. As seen in the link to the BBC video, at least one of them was barefoot! This event was held for the French Telethon which occurs during December to raise money for muscular dystrophy. By the time I arrived to meet Russ for lunch, the walker was already near the end on the other side. However, coming back from lunch, another walker had just begun.
As featured in a previous post, we got to see Chemical Brothers at the Seine Musicale, but then we were invited to see Max Cooper and other musical artists at La Gaîté Lyrique at the end of the month. This place used to be called Théâtre de la Gaîté and was used as a concert hall, but is now a place dedicated to digital art and modern music. This was yet another treat as we aren’t as exposed to heavy bass sounds these days
I’m not sure when the open air Christmas Village popped up near the base of the Grande Arche at La Defense, but you can be sure that Christmas is coming. Here you can find all sorts of gifts like laser-cut wooden toys, wooden natural amplifiers for playing music off your phone, handmade scarves, hats, and blankets, cheeses, foie gras, teas, chocolates, and other baked goods, or a booth dedicated to just about every kind of fairy. One of my favorite booths sells fantastic colorful clothing with African printed fabric. I wish I took a picture, but I’ve been cautious as some booths don’t want pictures taken and with all the people walking around, it’s hard to take a good shot of something without a face popping in the frame. I will have to try again this month. If you get a little hungry or cold while looking for that perfect something to give to someone, there’s all kinds of kebabs, raclettes, sandwiches, hot cider, hot chocolate, hot wine, ramen, and even Mexican food & margaritas. The Mexican food isn’t quite like what we’re used to, but not a bad try and the music and masks really perk up the surrounding booths.Throughout the plaza, storefronts advertised Black Friday sales which kind of surprised me because I only thought it was an American phenomenon. We were told the event here is influenced by America, although a bit less enthusiastic. I wonder if it will gain more popularity over time, but Halloween here isn’t that big either.
All in all, not a bad 30 days. I’d been looking up all kinds of Thanksgiving recipes because we decided to do it on Sunday, December 1st because of scheduling issues and of course… France doesn’t celebrate it so we had to improvise. Post on that to come very soon. I have a few things I’d been leaving on the back-burner and would like to complete before the end of the year. That’s so soon!
