Les Schtroumpfs

This is one of the most fun words ever in French! It's said pretty much how it looks: shtroompfs. Go ahead, try it! And make sure to get that gutteral French R.

So what are Schtroumpfs? Any guesses?

If you guessed Smurfs (all two of you) you're right! It's actually the original name, as it was first a Belgian cartoon.

Anyway, one of the kids called me this morning to ask if I'd go see the Smurf movie. It was cute, and surprisingly easy for me to understand - it was dubbed in French.

The kid was super excited when the Schtroumpfs were sent to NYC, where I just came from.

I met up with the mother afterwards, and she had the baby with her. He was so very excited to see me! I was surprised. He insisted I hold him for a while then actually started to cry when I left. I'm glad he is happy with me as he's so attached to his mother I was afraid he'd be trouble.

The movie ruined my plans for buying apartment stuff today but I should be able to do it Monday. Bonus points to the movie anyway for having Tim Gunn in it!
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I'm back in Paris, safe and sound! I was sort of dreading coming back to my apartment because I was afraid that, after several days of no use, the door would be tough to open again. But there was absolutely no problem, which probably means I'll be okay for the rest of the year.

So usually I'm very efficient at getting over jetlag, but when I got home today I fell asleep for almost 8 hours! Sleeping 8 hours at once is an impressive feat for me in most circumstances, but not a good idea this time as it was in the middle of the day, Paris time.

I'm starting up work with the school schedule on Monday, so I'm a bit anxious about that.

Tomorrow I'm planning to get things I need for my apartment: cooking things, a pillow, something to dry my clothes on, and possibly a bin for clothes, if I can find a cheap one. The total of cooking supplies in this apartment when I got her was one pot and one sautee pan, some silverware (butter knives but no other knives), a bottle opener, and a wooden spoon. This has been somewhat of a problem thus far so I'm excited to get some new supplies.

Sunday I will try to arrange my apartment, finding places for things mostly. That's difficult in a space that is about as big as my bedroom at home.

No news to report from Paris but I'll try to keep things updated.
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Disney!

One of the benefits of working as an au pair is the fun things you get to do with the kids.  I worked for almost two weeks before I left, and the children weren't in school yet, so I spent a lot of time preparing for the new school year and hanging out with them.  I got their school books, ran errands, helped the mother shop for new shoes/clothes, etc. 

The highlight of this time, though, was definitely taking two of them to Disney last Monday!  I took the 14 year old and 10 year old there because they had season pass type things that they wanted to use again before starting school.  It was sort of rainy and the day the younger kids all start school, so the lines were amazingly short.  Normally you can wait over two hours to ride some of the roller coasters, but we never had to wait more than a half hour.  It was awesome!

EuroDisney is really just like the American Disney places: the rides have the same names, they have similar kinds of shops, and overall it's the same kind of vibe.  It's smaller though, and doesn't have as many attractions.

I hadn't been to any Disney place in many years, and I had a blast there.  I love roller coasters and for the most part the kids were fine because they wanted to do the rides in peace.

However.  These two kids do NOT get along.  It started out okay, but by the end of the day they were both super tired and upset at each other - J, the 10 year old, was in tears and wouldn't speak to his sister or even me for a while.  Both felt like we had done more rides for the other kid, and they generally disagreed on what rides to visit and in what order.  I was able to maintain the peace for the most part but the last couple were really no fun at all.

I'm hoping that once school starts and they're not constantly around each other anymore things will be better between them.  They're both really great kids and I like spending time with them individually but they're somewhat of a nightmare together!

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I'm trying to think of other news on the Paris front but am not coming up with much.

Obviously I was (finally!) able to move everything into my new apartment, and I'm completely installed there now.  I was even getting used to the 6 flights of stairs before I left.  The area is pretty much the same as where I lived before, just about a 10 minute walk away.  I now have a bigger, slightly closer market, but I'm not sure the products are as high quality as my other market. 

There are more students around this immediate area which is fun and sort of interesting.  Although it's generally a livelier neighborhood I don't hear nearly as much noise as in the other apartment - over there it was not unusual to hear people being loud until 5am, even on week nights.  That kept me up a LOT.  This is much more peaceful and quiet, probably because I live in the attic.

This is a much bigger building, almost an apartment complex, and I see my neighbors much more.  I'm hoping I can find some nice ones to ask questions: I still don't even know the code to one of the outside doors (there are two) or where I'm supposed to put the trash! 

I'm still settling into the whole au pair schedule and lifestyle, so I'm not sure anything exciting will be happening anytime soon.  I'll report as I can from my phone!  I hope you're all well, and to whoever I saw while I was here: I was glad to see you all and keep checking in here!  I haven't left forever, I promise, but it's difficult to blog from a phone.

Return to NY

Hello!  It's been a while since I've updated so I'll probably be going through a lot.

I got back to New York just fine and have had a pretty busy week or so here.  Lots of things to do, people to see.  And of course I've been answering the same half dozen questions over and over since I got here!

I was fortunate enough to hang out with my little niece a few times while here; that was really nice!  She is an adorable little thing, and a very good baby.  Mostly she doesn't cry much but she's very wiggly and attentive - she has these huge blue saucer eyes and she'll just stare and stare, without blinking, when something interests her.  Last time I saw her she was only a couple of weeks old and now she's three months, so it was really fun to finally see her again.

I also saw a bunch of friends from Northport and some NYU people - all the visiting worked out well and kept me busy.  As per usual I also have had some doctor appointments while I'm here.

So, the questions I've been asked multiple times daily since being here:

1) How is Paris?  Do I like it?  -  Yes of course I love it!  It's wonderful and interesting and lively and all around great place to live.  My apartment is very little but it works for me and my situation is good.  There are really too many things to go into in writing, but I love so many aspects of the city and its culture.

2) How is the weather in Paris?  -  It's like London but slightly less rainy.  It's been a rather abnormally cold for summer in Paris (as I complained about a lot in July).  It's more temperate than NY.

3) How is the family I'm working for and how are the kids?  -  The family is very busy, but fun, and they're very generous.  I usually eat lunch with them during the day and sometimes stay for dinner or take something home with me.  The schedule with the baby is not bad, and by the time I left he was really getting used to me.  In fact, the last day I was there he kept asking his mother for me - he has a tough time saying Angelica so he will call me "elica" or "lica" and it's adorable!  I hope he'll be as enthusiastic when I return.  The rest of the kids are really good although they can be a handful.  More on that in the next post.  The only one I'm not too sure of is the 12 year old, he and I don't seem to have that much in common and he's rather quiet, but I'm sure I'll get to know him better soon.

4) Will I be coming back anytime in the next year?  -  Yes, I'll be back around the end of December.  After that I probably will not be back because I'm plotting to travel elsewhere during their spring break from school: a friend of mine is spending the year doing a program in Israel, and it would be awesome to visit.  IF (and that's a big IF) I can find a cheap flight over there in April I might do that.  So it's likely that after December I won't be back until next September.

5) Is it hard being away so long/do I miss people?  -  Of course I miss people in the States, but when I have internet access it's really not that different from the times I was away at school.  I keep up with people via Facebook, email, and Skype, and I do have some limited phone access.  So aside from my little nephew and nieces, who are too young to use the internet like that, I have much the same contact with a lot of people as I did during college.

6) Am I fluent in French?  -  This is kind of difficult to answer.  I can certainly express anything I want to express, and make myself understood.  I rarely have trouble understanding people and can read completely fluently.  However, I always make tons of grammatical errors and my vocabulary is seriously lacking.  I probably speak on a similar level as a 7-8 year old: I can say whatever I want to say, but I'm somewhat limited if I want to deal with complex issues.  Language is not really a barrier in everyday life.


Not much else to report regarding the trip back home, actually.  I haven't done much of interest, so in the next post I'll move on the what I was up to in Paris before I left.

PS

As of now there is no internet in my new apartment, so unless there is a wireless network I can connect to it's possible I won't have internet access at home until November!  I can bring my computer to the family's house and I'm planning to keep my smartphone until then.  I'll try my best to keep everything updated until then.

Fourth attempt...

I just returned from my fourth consecutive attempt at moving into the new apartment.  This time the main door (to which I don't have the code, but it's unlocked during weekdays) was locked - apparently they lock it around 8pm.  I got home from work around 7:30 and left here at 8 only to find myself unable to get it.

But good news: the oil worked and I can now get in the apartment door with only a medium sized struggle.

Apartment shenanigans

A lot of people are asking me if I've moved yet, and the answer is no.  I should be officially moving out of my current place on Thursday.

So I think I posted on here before that the mother and I tried to get into the apartment for me to see but we could not open the door to get in, and neither could a random lady we asked to help.  We weren't sure if it was perhaps the wrong key, but it didn't seem like it.  Her husband was away at the time and had the other key so we weren't able to try it with his.

Then she forgot to leave the key for me while they were in Montpelier, in the south, for a month.  I was annoyed about that, but it turns out it would not have done me any good - when I finally retrieved the key on Sunday I tried to get with the other key, the same thing happened.  Keep in mind that in between those two visits the father went by himself and was able to get in without much trouble (he said).

So I asked if he would come with me today to the apartment, hoping it was just that there is some trick to opening it.  But when he tried, he had a lot of trouble.  It took him more than five minutes to get it open.  It's even hard to open when it's unlocked!

He says he'll give me some oil tomorrow to put on the key and the mechanism and it should work - I really hope so, because if not I won't be able to get in to move my things.

Anyway, it was the first time I had been in the apartment, although I had some pictures of it.  It is super tiny, as I expected, but I had completely forgotten that the mother had warned me a while ago that the ceilings are low.  And indeed they are quite low!  It's essentially an attic room, so the ceilings are slanted.  There is a wooden beam between the room and the little kitchen area, and the bottom of the beam is a little below my chin - meaning it's about 4'7" from the ground.

It does have two burners, a little fridge, and a washing machine (yay!), which is the same I have here.  However it does not have a toaster oven; now that I know how to use one I want to keep it!  Sadface.  There is also a somewhat disproportionately large TV...not sure what I'm going to do with that as I don't really watch TV and it takes up some room.  I have decent cabinet space and a closet.  The bed is not really a futon but the same concept - it can fold into a couch but it's not a pull out bed either.

When I'm able to get in on my own I'll take some pictures.

One of my nerdier French Studies friends suggested I will be a modern grisette. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grisette_(French)  Um, presumably without the prostitution implications.  They pretty much all live in tiny attic rooms and then die of consumption - think Mimi in La Boheme (or Rent), Fantine from Les Miserables, or some of Zola's characters.

This quote from Twain on grisettes is pretty awesome (note that I am moving to the very heart of the Latin Quarter, still overrun with poverty-stricken students):

Ah, the grisettes! I had almost forgotten. They are another romantic fraud. They were (if you let the books of travel tell it) always so beautiful—so neat and trim, so graceful—so naive and trusting—so gentle, so winning—so faithful to their shop duties, so irresistible to buyers in their prattling importunity—so devoted to their poverty-stricken students of the Latin Quarter—so lighthearted and happy on their Sunday picnics in the suburbs—and oh, so charmingly, so delightfully immoral!

Stuff! For three or four days I was constantly saying:

"Quick, Ferguson! Is that a grisette?"

And he always said, "No."

He comprehended at last that I wanted to see a grisette. Then he showed me dozens of them. They were like nearly all the Frenchwomen I ever saw—homely. They had large hands, large feet, large mouths; they had pug noses as a general thing, and moustaches that not even good breeding could overlook; they combed their hair straight back without parting; they were ill-shaped, they were not winning, they were not graceful; I knew by their looks that they ate garlic and onions; and lastly and finally, to my thinking it would be base flattery to call them immoral.

Aroint thee, wench! I sorrow for the vagabond student of the Latin Quarter now, even more than formerly I envied him. Thus topples to earth another idol of my infancy.

Garlic and onions!  THE HORROR.

Bar mitzvah, French style!

It's much the same as bar mitzvah, American style, except on a (docked) boat.  Buffet of appetizers followed by dinner; DJ/performer with slightly-too-loud popular music; friends of the boy's family making up many of the attendees, awkward dancing.

What was different: the cake!  It basically a model of the front area of a synagogue, where the boy reads from during his bar mitzvah.  It had the table from which the Torah is read (bimah?), the scrolls on top of that, and the ark.  It was all very intricate and also, huge.  I have to say, I'm not sure I feel right eating a model of the Torah.

The guest demographics were also different.  It appeared that the boy didn't really have any friends of his own there - I think all the kids around his age were his cousins or children of family friends.  The vast majority of the people there were adults, friends of the boy's parents.  I don't know how it is in other places, but at the bar mitzavhs I've been to it's usually about half family/family friends and half the boy's own friends.  Secondly, I would guess around 95% of the attendees were Jewish - also unusual in comparison to others I've attended.

DC, the oldest child in the family I'm au-pairing for, told me at the start that she felt there was enough anti-Semitism and ignorance of Judiasm in Paris that she wouldn't necessarily want to invite her friends, had she had a bat mitzvah (she didn't).  She said there was only one other Jewish kid in her grade, and they're not friends.  She goes to a Catholic school.  Anyway, I asked her if she wouldn't want to invite her friends if they weren't Jewish and she said no...because they'd probably think it was weird.

I'm not really sure how right she is, either about the general low-level anti-Semitism, or that her friends would think it's weird.  They probably would be very unfamiliar with it, true - because they've never been to one.  It was clear though that she'd be uncomfortable with it, and it seemed her mother felt the same way.  Also she said it's rare for girls to have bat mitzvah parties in France unless the family has only daughters.

So I asked if she thought it was weird that I would go to this one (aside from that fact that I was working a lot of the time while there).  She said no, because "you're from New York!"  Fair point?

It was clear as well that as a whole this party had much more of a religious undertone than many bar mitzvahs I've been to, which are basically parties. 

Having said that, you'll probably think it's weird when I tell you the theme was Michael Jackson.  It was!  Every table had a two photos - one of the boy and one of Michael Jackson.  The DJ took great delight in taking Michael Jackson requests, and at the end the boy showed off his best Jackson moves.  Actually, he and two of his brothers were excellent mini-breakdancers and could do a mean moonwalk.  The party favors included keychains with a cute little Michael doll.

So what did I do during this party?  Mostly I ran after some kids and grabbed finger foods when I had a moment.  I was looking after baby boy O and 3 year old girl M, two of the kids from "my" family, and baby girl C, the little sister of the boy being bar mitzvahed.

O is a sweet, placid little thing and gave me no trouble.  M reminds me VERY strongly of my niece E, who is also three.  Anyone who has been around E probably knows what I mean - quite stubborn, fearless, energetic, diva-ish, and generally um..somewhat difficult to control.  But she's very affectionate and fun to be around.  I'm okay with both of them, as long as O doesn't grow up to be like his sister!  That would truly be a handful.

But little C, who is a gorgeous baby with the most beautiful blue-green eyes and dark blond curls, was kind of a nightmare.  And what I imagine I was probably like as a baby (if the stories are to be believed).  She basically hates anyone who is not one of her parents, though she'll tolerate her brothers as long as they're being entertaining.  I looked after her while her parents were doing official bar mitzvah business and every time they handed her off she would wail!  Not screaming, but the saddest, most miserable cry, and she wouldn't stop.  Most babies will give up after a while or at least calm somewhat, but she didn't.  The only thing I could do to settle her at all was put her in her stroller and push it around a bit.  She also liked when O would come to see her - they're both around 14 months.  Even then, though, she'd remember every once in a while that she wasn't with her parents and cry again.  Then she'd cry when I took her out of the stroller.

I would definitely go insane if I had to look after her all the time.  It brought to mind a story my mother loves to tell, about the time an older cousin helped take care of me for a few days when I was a baby and afterwards swore she'd never have children.  Now she has three kids, so obviously it wasn't THAT traumatic.

I hate shoes

This is going to be a little gross, as my feet are ugly.  Sorry.

This is my foot after wearing real shoes for the first time in months - mostly I wear flimsy sandals during the summer

Notice in particular - my middle toe is bruised under the toenail and the dark spot near my little toe is not, in fact, dirt, but a blister that got dirty.  Gross.

I hate when it starts getting cold enough that I have to wear shoes.  I only wore them today because I went to the bar mitzvah (more on that later) and I had no idea how conservative the family was.

Who needs friends?

Me, maybe.  Not sure yet.

All my friends from NYU except one have now left Paris.  The one remaining one is here basically until he finds a job in New York - his father lives here so he's staying here rent-free until he gets a real job.  With his qualifications I doubt that will take too long; he'll be here until October at most.

Friend #2 is of course Aurelien, who goes AWOL at times and has his own group of friends who actually speak the same language as him.

And..that's the entirety of people I know in Paris at this time. 

A friend from high school is visiting briefly at the end of October, and a couple of others are planning to visit over the next year as well.

So it's really hitting me now that I'm going to be here for the next year with one or two friends at most.  People keep saying I'll probably make friends but honestly?  Where would that happen?  I don't really think I'll meet other au pairs, although I guess I could end up meeting interesting people in my language course.  I'm not really one to just go out to bars or whatever by myself so I think it's unlikely I'll just meet people randomly. 

It's a good thing I'm not a terribly social person to begin with because I'd probably go nuts, but it's nice to have people to hang out with once in a while.  As of now I think this is what I'm most apprehensive about for the following year: I'm worried I'm going to end up being either a big loser and not do the stuff I want to do, or I'll just be lonely. 

One of my friends who just left suggested joining one of the many ex-pat meetup groups that are here.  It's an idea, but I'll probably only do it if I get desperate for company.

So in the future if you see me online too much or I seem like a shut in, please start bothering me to go out more!  It might take getting shamed into it.

I missed an earthquake?!

Oh man.  So I know earthquakes are pretty awful and devastating.  But (always the but) I am semi disappointed that I missed it!  I've never been in even a tiny earthquake and I kind of feel like experiencing a small (very small) earthquake is a life experience I would not mind having.

I hope everyone's okay!  I've already heard from a lot of people in NY that they felt it but so far haven't heard much about the damage.

On an entirely different note, it's my mom's birthday tomorrow! Well, technically today here.  Happy birthday Mother!

Still nothing to write about

Hang in there, guys.  I have two sightseeing posts planned but one is waiting for photos to be sent and the other requires me to go through a million pictures.

In the meantime, like I said last time, I haven't been doing much.  The weather's gotten much more summery, which is nice, but I haven't been doing a ton of sightseeing.  This is the time of year when Paris empties of Parisians and just as many tourists come to replace them, and I have a very strong aversion to tourists.  I haven't even been to Notre Dame yet this trip because each time I pass it's a mob scene.

I'm moving out of this apartment in one week!  I really love this apartment and its location; the other one probably has an even better location but is a six floor walk up, is tiny, and will not come fully equipped with cooking supplies and household items.  Did anyone see Midnight in Paris, the newest Woody Allen movie?  I haven't (sad!) but all my friends did and they've told me that "the street" in the movie is, in fact, where I will be living, La Rue de la Montagne de Ste Genevieve.  Longest street name ever. 

My first day of "work" is this coming Sunday.  The mother called me this past weekend and I discovered that the event she so urgently needs to go to on the 28th is in fact a bar mitzvah!  So I will be going with them to watch the baby and the next smallest kid, along with the other family's youngest child, who is the baby's age.  I have my work cut out for me I guess.  I'm not really sure whether to be interested in seeing a French bar mitzvah or to be dreading the inevitable bad DJ and awkward 13 year olds. 

The school year starts the following week I think, or at least that's when the mother is going back to work.  And then the week after that I will be coming back to NY to do all my visa stuff.  So pencil it in, people, I'll be in NY September 6-15 (if I haven't already said that). 

Je préfère le métro

Sorry I haven't posted in a while, I just haven't really had anything to write about!

No, I have not been traveling as some supposed.  I'm just hanging around Paris, mostly trying to get everything settled before I start working.  Many of my friends have been leaving Paris as well so there have been a lot of going away dinners and such.

Yesterday I hung out with some people I've never met before - the mother and sister of my cousin's fiancee, whom I have not met, either.  We went to Montmartre to walk around and have lunch.  They were very nice, and the best kind of travelers: very flexible, up for wandering aimlessly and changing plans at the last minute.  They're only here for about three days so they obviously can't do a lot while here but I think they'll have a good visit walking around and going to museums.

One thing I found a little strange - and I've heard it from a few people now who have come to visit Paris - is that they were wary of going on the Metro because it seemed complicated.  To anyone thinking of coming here: take the Metro, it's your friend.  It's pretty cheap, very quick, and one of the easiest subway systems in a large city I've ever used.  All you need to know is your destination, what line you're taking, and which direction you're going.  Compared to most subway systems it's much easier and more efficient.

Consider, at least, the NYC subway: we have multiple lines of the same colors on the maps, express/non express trains as well as the secondary lines of the same letter/number and the ones that run express sometimes and local other times; multiple lines using the same tracks; trains that will sometimes run on another track for just a few stops.  It's legendary for scaring off tourists.  But none of those things ever happen here - it's always one line, one color/number, one track with a set route.

Speaking of the Metro..I am obviously a Metro person myself.  Besides walking, it's the only way I ever get around Paris (I've taken cabs a total of twice ever besides going to airports).  Until last night.

Aurelien and I planned to see a movie a fair distance away from both of our apartments.  He said we'd meet at mine, since it's closer, and go from there.  Fine, I assume we'll take the Metro - but no!  He is not a fan of the Metro.  How does he get around?  On a bike.  Well, you might say, a bike is pretty normal, and a perfectly fine mode of transportation.  I wondered how I was supposed to go with him, but he said he had a bike that can hold three people.  I assumed that meant he'd gotten a scooter (it's the same word in French), one of the kinds with a really long seat so people could sit behind him.

I was kind of excited to go on the scooter but when we got to it...no, it's an actual bike.  Not a tandem bike where all the people riding can pedal.  Just, a large bike with places where people can sit while he pedals.  In other words, it's completely ridiculous.  I can't really find a picture of anything like it online but it's sort of like this:

There is a similar shelf sort of deal behind the seat where another person can ride (or two small people I suppose).  But also imagine where you might put a basket on this bike - in front of the handlebars.  Imagine another shelf thing there, and imagine I am the basket.  Yes, that is how we got to the theater. 

Obviously there was some squeaking and shrieking from me - it was scary! - until I got used to it, then I mostly just started cracking up at the looks people gave us.  I don't think I'll voluntarily do that again but it was certainly an interesting experience.  It was actually pretty fun going downhill!

Blogging = procrastinating

This will be pretty short as there isn't a lot going on around here at the moment.

It's August so everything is closed.  My favorite boulangeries (to get fresh bread), my favorite crepe place (Au Petit Grec, for Mom, is indeed closed all month), lots of restaurants and stores; my favorite sellers at the market - the Lebanese guy, the guy who sells nuts and dried fruit, both cheese sellers, my preferred fruit vendor - are gone until September.  I'm left with just the lettuce guy, the depopulated Mouffetard fruit market, inferior boulangeries, and Franprix for my food needs. 

The constant raining has stopped for the most part and although it's not quite warm yet it's been much nicer out.  I asked Aurelien if this has been a particularly bad summer but he said it's not surprising for Paris to be rainy and cold during late July-August.  And I was hoping this was an anomaly!  Ah well, with any luck I'll be in Montpelier next August.

I'm happy to report that Aurelien is just as awesome as ever.  But despite my much better grasp of French I still can't understand half of what he says.  He called last night and we spoke for almost ten minutes but all I got was that he had made a lemon tart and did I want to come hang out?  Either I have some sort of mental block or he really needs to work on enunciation, because I can understand every other French person I talk to!

Most people in my program are getting ready to leave, and will be going next week or the week after.  My plans have been settled, and I will be going back to NY on September 6th and coming back to Paris on the 15th.  Mark your calendars! 

Les Halles and St Eustache

I'm woefully behind in recounting the adventures my mother and I had so here's the next one on the list: Mother requested to go someplace she'd never been, so we picked an area and wandered.  This is always a good idea in Paris.

Fortunately, the chosen area - Les Halles - is a very interesting one.  You might say, "Oh hey, as an English speaker I recognize that word!  Halls!"  Indeed.  Les Halles used to be the place to go in Paris if you wanted fresh produce.  Or meat, dairy, fish, herbs, flowers, live birds, cloth...you get the idea.  And when I say "used to be" I mean, from 1183 when this area was established by the king as a market to 1971 when the huge iron rows (ie, halls) of stalls were demolished.  Yes, almost 800 years of all your shopping needs.

I am no expert on Les Halles but as I understand it the area always had rows upon rows of these:

You might very well be wondering, if this market is so old and stayed in business so long, why demolish it in the 70s?  I don't have a great answer to that, mostly because I am not inclined to research it at the moment.  But I think I can give a bit of information that could form a vague hypothesis.

In the 12th century Paris was obviously much smaller than it is today - it started in the small central area immediately around the river.  Over the centuries Paris absorbed many of the surrounding suburbs/smaller villages into itself and now they are parts of what is considered "central Paris."  Even where I lived last time (the 13th arr) was a sleepy suburb of Paris in the 1830s-40s, though now no one would ever say it's not part of Paris.  This started happening at a faster rate a few centuries after the establishment of Les Halles, though.

So when Paris was just this little area Les Halles served most of the people - all classes came here to buy their supplies and it's within easy distance of all the important buildings of the time.  When expansion really took hold, in the 18th and 19th centuries, it simply wouldn't have been convenient for people who lived farther away to trek to the center to buy their groceries, and besides, most of the absorbed villages had their own markets that remained after they were integrated into Paris.  Today every neighborhood has its own open air market, and I can't imagine that's a new development at all.

My other hypothesis is that the nature of the area around Les Halles changed drastically over time, especially during the 19th century.  Les Halles and its surrounding area basically controlled the country known as France at the time of its establishment and for centuries after.  The royal family lived smack in the center of Paris; their government buildings were there, they worshiped and gave alms there, and of course their court and officers lived near them.  The central authority in France shifted to Versailles starting in the 17th century and the important buildings served more as local authorities or historical sites.

In the mid 19th century Paris was in need of modernization and medieval central Paris was one of the places where the drive was particularly strong.  In the 1850's there were massive construction projects in the area and it began to take on its modern shape, which is very much not conducive to an open market.  By the early 20th century the stalls had mostly been abandoned and were taking up lots of valuable property.

Reuters claims Les Halles "is now a 10-acre twilight zone, avoided by Parisians and tourists alike.
Drug pushers and gangs hang out under the dark and malodorous alcoves..."  Not sure if that's a bit of an exaggeration.

Right now they have a massive project going on to convert the former Les Halles into a sort of huge community center (in reaction to the above sentiments): there is already a big underground mall and...some other stuff that is unclear to me but meant to serve Paris' equivalent of the "bridge and tunnel" crowd rather than Parisians.  They're pretty unhappy with the whole thing.  The area, and the new construction, is a bit of an eyesore.

 So we marveled at its weirdness for a little and proceeded to go underneath the project and out the other side to explore this church, St Eustache, that used to serve both nobles and commoners coming from Les Halles for a long time.


It was really a quite extraordinary church, little known to tourists, and probably one of the most active churches I've seen here in Paris.  They hold a lot of concerts and seem to have a pretty large number of adherents.

St Eustache is younger than most of the important church in Paris - most of its construction was during the Renaissance and after.  So it has a much more open feel than most Gothic cathedrals and a few more modern touches.

I don't have a lot of photos of the inside as people were setting up a lot of tech stuff in through the middle aisles, but here are a few.  Stained glass (the second is particularly pretty and modern) and part of the seating area.  I was particularly delighted by the alter containing the piece of art in the last photo - it was donated by someone in the early 70s, after the demolition of Les Halles.  The guy seemed super upset that the market was destroyed and wrote a personal essay about it posted next to this.  The work itself represents the merchants being forced out of the area, carrying their goods.  Obviously it didn't go down like that, but like I said, this guy was pissed.

 Just outside the church is a very pleasant park that was full of Parisians picnicking (with wine of course) and lounging around.  The gardens are very pretty and somewhat rare for this area of Paris.  In this first shot my mom was mostly taking a picture of the black cat there but I thought it was a good shot.  The second is an interesting (and large) sculpture in the park.

This post is getting super long so I'll wrap up: there were a couple of other notable thing about that day.  We actually went inside the Tour St Jacques - if you recall, people are always asking me what that thing is and why it's there but I never had an answer.  Well, it's one of the towers put up along the route of St Jacques, who traveled on a pilgrimage all around Europe, eventually ending at a shrine in northern Spain.  There is really nothing inside it, but it's pretty.  See my June 28 post for a picture of it at night.

Secondly, we got amazing hot chocolate on the way, which is great as I'm always on the lookout for new cafes.  It was done "in the old style" which apparently means they give you hot milk and what is basically fudge to melt in it to taste.  Yum.