French Strikes

Tomorrow I've been told not to come into work, and no it's not because I've been fired. Tomorrow is a major French public transport strike, and when I say major, I mean system-wide. The only line running normally will be the express metro line without a driver, thank god for robots right? The website of the transport company is posting updates on the traffic situation and apparently the line I catch to get to work (which is about 30kms from where I live and a 30minute train ride) is almost completely stopped. Which means there are probably going to be only 2 trains running during the entire day. So no work for me tomorrow, but it's not like it's a holiday though because I can't go anywhere, being completely reliant on public transport to get anywhere. Still it's nice to have an unexpected day off work every now and then.

Tomorrow there is also a researchers strike to protest against proposed funding cuts. I'm not sure why they hold it on the same day as the public transport workers, as I don't think the researchers are going to be getting that much media attention, what with the whole of Paris completely incapacitated around them. My thinking though is that researchers figure that they will have to take the day off anyway, so this way if they hold the strike now, they don't have to take another day off work later. Kind of defeats the purpose of the strike though. I'm thinking of going along to the meeting, if I can get there that is, maybe take a few photos. Hopefully it will be a proper French rally with burning cars, but I think it's more likely to be a whole stack of nerds in lab coats. If I get some good photos I'll post them though.

People really just seem to accept that strikes occur, they don't get angry, they just plan their day around that fact. I am planning on going to England this Friday to visit a friend, I already have my Eurostar tickets and everything. The thing is though that these transport strikes can go on for longer than the one day, meaning there may be difficulties in getting to the station on Friday as well. So today I got an email from the train company I got my ticket through telling me that there could be problems due to the strike, but that I can use the ticket on other days or get a full refund. So hopefully that doesn't happen and I am able to get to the station, but we'll see what happens.

Markets

Coming back to the rural attitude of the French, it means that people still do their shopping at open air markets which are only open on Saturday mornings. I can see why though because the food there is so much better than what you get at the supermarkets, where the fruit and veg is of even lower quality than Woolies, which is difficult I know :). I'm going to have to take some photos for you because it is pretty cool, it has a very 1900's feel to it, with whole fish spread out on ice, big buckets of oysters and big slabs of meat. So far I haven't been game enough to buy the meat or fish, just because half the stuff I would have no idea how to cook. The fresh fruit and veg is really good though, and I've been pretty proud of myself being able to order stuff in French. I usually ask for the stuff in French and then the shop-keeper will answer me in English, I persist with the French though, damn it, they will listen to my crappy accent!

The French are really big on only eating food that is grown a short distance away, which means the food you see in the stalls is very dependent on the seasons. At the moment we are in fig season, so I've been going a bit crazy with the figs. I'm interested to see what they eat in winter though, whether it's just all potatoes and cabbage. Anyway next time I go I'll make sure I take some photos for you.

The Rugby World Cup and the Eiffel Tower (Again!)

Some of you may know that the Rugby World Cup is on at the moment in France, and in that group of people some of you may know that Australia was playing England today for a spot in the semi-finals. I was pretty keen to watch this game and I had heard there were some screens set up near the Eiffel Tower. So I headed off there this afternoon and found "Rugby Town", a haven of English-speaking drunkenness in the middle of all this French sobriety. Even the commentators were in the English so I could actually know why the penalties were being awarded for once. Too bad Australia lost, but they made too many errors and I don't like George Gregan anyway, it's good that he is retiring. Now I just have to hope that New Zealand beats the French, otherwise I may be forced to cheer for England, which would be a tragedy.

One thing I noticed whilst watching this game is the difference in quality between the French broadcast and the English broadcasts (either here or in Australia). I don't know who is organising the French one, but they really like arse and groin shots, so a lot of the time you have no idea what is going on. Say there is a scrum you don't know where the ball is, because the camera is trained on a guy's bottom, rather than pulling back a bit and giving you the overall shot. Strange.

Rugby Town is set up over the river from the Eiffel Tower in the Jardins du Trocadero and it is from here that I think you get one of the best views of the Eiffel Tower. It isn't even mentioned in the metro-maps or the tourists guides that when visiting the Eiffel Tower you should walk from here, so I'm letting everyone know, when you go see the Eiffel tower get off at the metro stop Trocadero.

There is a big square here, which was built for the 1937 World Fair and the youth of Paris has taken it over. Rather than the underage drinking you could find in Australia these kids are actually doing constructive things. There were groups of kids having dance-offs, seriously they were having dancing competitions. Also groups busking with acrobatics and finally there were these crazy kids on roller-blades jumping over things. They weren't wearing any protection or anything, and were doing this on the marble-style stuff paving which is all over Paris. I suppose you don't get the asphalt-rash you get from concrete when you fall over, but I reckon it is still pretty hard when you fall over.
They were pretty good too, nearly every kid I saw managed to clear the pole.

The Arc de Triomphe and the Champs-Elysees

I suppose no trip to Paris is complete without a trip to the Arc de Triomphe and a walk down the Champs-Elysees, with the obligatory stop at the window of the Cartier store. The Arc is situated 2km from the Place de Concorde at the very top of the Champs-Elysees in the middle of the largest roundabout in the world. It really is a bit of a meeting point for Paris, with 12 massive roads radiating out from here. It was commissioned in 1806 by Napoleon to commemorate his victories, but then he started losing (way to jinx yourself Napoleon, with a 50m high arch proclaiming what a great fighter you are) and it wasn't finished until 1836. There have been a few armies to march along in front of here, the Germans in 1870 and 1940 and then the allies in 1919 and 1944. At the top of the Arc there is a viewing platform, where you get a pretty good view of Paris, and my favourite building, the Tour Montparnasse.

The first photo is of the Grande Arche in the skyscraper district of La Defense, just oustide of Paris. I think this was a good idea to put all the big company buidlings in one section and keep Paris-proper with the lower buildings and the older style facades. I'm going to have to go out here just to see this Grande Arche, apparently it is a hollow cube, with 110m sides, so it's pretty impressive. The next photo is of the Eiffel Tower and my favourite building.


















This third photo is the Champs-Elysees, and I know it is meant to be a really famous Parisian street and the name comes from the Elysian fields, which is heaven in Greek legends. But really I can't think of anything that is further from my mind as to what you would want heaven to be like. An 8-lane dual carriage-way swarming with tourists and homeless people. Still it was kind of cool to look at all the ultra-expensive shops.

The very first shop at the very top of the Champs-Elysees is the Cartier jewellery store. That store is really dedicated to those people who have so much money they have run out of things to spend it on. Possibly also those rich people who like to show off to other rich people by spending greater and greater amounts of money on things that are just the absolute epitome of useless. There was one ring there for 49,000 euros which was basically a massive (and I mean MASSIVE!) blue diamond (?). I think it was a diamond, it looked a bit like crystal so I'm guessing diamond. I mean something like that you don't just wear to the local grocery store. Anytime you wore it you'd have to have 2 security guards following you. I think you just buy it to show how rich you are, that you can drop 49,000 euros on, quite frankly, a fairly ugly ring.

Underneath the centre of the Arc de Triomphe is the tomb of the unknown soldier. It's a symbol to honour those who died in the First World War. One unidentified soldier's remains were brought back and buried here in 1921. The flame of remembrance was lit in 1923, with the idea being that it would never go out. Unfortunately the French back then didn't plan for drunk soccer fans. In 1998 a Mexican soccer fan peed on the flame, extinguishing it, after France beat Brazil in the World Cup. He was charged with public drunkenness and offending the dead and has to live with the shame of being named in every tourist publication since then.

Jardin du Luxembourg

I went for a walk around the Jardin du Luxembourg, its one of the most popular parks in Paris and it really is quite pretty. It really is a jogger's heaven too, there were hundreds of them. You feel a bit sorry for runners in these big cities, because they are forced to just do laps around these small little parks rather than run in the street. At least the parks are pretty, but you probably don't really notice after you've already run around it 10 times that morning. Apparently there is some massive number of bees here, I think maybe there are hives somewhere, so I left it until later in the season before visiting. I'm pretty allergic to bees and don't yet have my social security card so I could end up with no medical help, better to just avoid the danger. It is a pretty park, and if it is a nice day I recommend a visit.

The picture to the left is some statue, there were quite a few in this park, and the Pantheon in the background. You can see here how big the Pantheon is and it really does dominate this section of Paris. You can see on the trees that the leaves are already starting to change colour and fall.

Paris is much further north than Canberra is south, so you notice the change of the seasons much more here. The sun is accelerating away from us at the moment and so the days are getting shorter by between 3-4 minutes everyday. The sun is now rising at about 8am and setting by before 7:30pm. When I first arrived it would rise at about 6am and not set until about 10pm.


Another building which dominates this section of town is the Tour Montparnasse, here it is again, along with the Grand Bassin. You can hire little sailing boats here, this park is very much a park for the children. As well as the boats there is also a Punch and Judy theatre and a massive playground which has been separated for the big kids and the little kids. The other picture is the Palais du Luxembourg which was built in the 1620's for a consort of King Henri IV who was missing the Pitti Palace in Florence where she grew up. The French Senate now works here, nice parliament house, they have been here isnce 1958.

There is also an exhibition hall, the Musee du Luxembourg, in a converted Orangerie of the palace. There can be quite pretigous (read expensive) exhibits on here, but when I went there was a free exhibit where all the art was made of food or plant material, very high-brow :). It was pretty cool, I think the French really get into the harvest festival mood of autumn, they seem to still be quite a rural people, or at least they give that impression.

They had little demonstrations and free fruit for people which was pretty nice, a pear and some art, a good day all round. This was a guy who was demonstrating how to carve stuff out of vegetables and the next shot is the things he had already made. It was a bit of a waste of food, turning it into entertainment for people, but it looked pretty good.


















We then had the vegetable people, I liked these, especially the newspaper one of them was reading, a nice touch.




























I really liked this mushroom piece, it was a whole bench of them, some of them were being painted red whilst these are getting their white spots added. There was just such an attention to detail.

The Pantheon

Last weekend I had a bit of a wander around the Latin Quater, it's where the Sorbonne is, still haven't visited that though. Apparently it is called the Latin Quater because all communications between lecturers and students used to be in Latin, at least until the Revolution, those poor students! The Pantheon is alright, it's got a pretty cool crypt underneath with all these famous people in tombs there, my pick was Marie Curie, I think she was one of the only women in there. It's pretty funny that some people have been removed from the crypt as they were deemed not famous enough. I wonder where their bodies go, do they keep them in storage in case their fortunes change?

It's pretty expensive though and you can only go up to the top of the dome with a guide, which is only once an hour. Unfortunately I missed the tour so couldn't get to the top, I think the entry price is worth it if you do get to go upstairs. It's free if you are under 18, but you have to enter with an adult. This poor girl in front of me nearly got caught out with that. She had obviously gone for the free option, but then they wouldn't let her in because she was by herself. Don't worry I let her go in with me, should have made her pay for half my ticket though :).

For all the nerds out there this is where Foucault built his pendulum to demonstrate the motion of the Earth, they have set up a replica there which is kind of cool. Foucault built it in 1851 for the Paris Exhibition, and it was the first proof of the rotation of the earth.

While searching for Foucault's pendulum on the internet, to make sure I wrote the right stuff, I found this website:
http://www.reformation.org/stationary-earth.html which is good for a laugh. It is some crazy Christian fundamentalist explaining how the "science" community (their quotation marks) is wrong in their thinking about the Earth's tilt and various other astronomical facts. This person really believes that it is the sun which rotates around the earth and they base their evidence on the bible (of course) and the science of the ancient Egyptians. Crazy christians need to learn that scientists don't wake up each morning going "Now which part of the bible shall I disprove today". We don't really care about them we just report what we see, except maybe the evolutionary biologists, but I think they get it a bit tougher from the fundamentalists than us physicists do.

According to this website the pendulum Foucault built actually has a rigged top which is what causes it to rotate, too bad we had a Foucault's pendulum in my old physics department which also rotated, I guess that was rigged too, you can't trust those scientists, just ask Joe Hockey. They never gave any explanations which fit observations as to how they are correct in their thinking, just a few quotes from the bible, that's evidence enough for crazy christians. Really it is quite scary that we have to live in the same world with these people who have such a screwed up view of reality.

The inside of the Pantheon is a bit sterile, they went for a very neoclassicism feel, but quite pretty, if a little cold, it is kind of peaceful though. It has a pretty long history, having started out as a church, but changing to secular and back to a church a few times before now, where it is a secular tomb for famous French people. Louis 15th commissioned it around 1750 to Saint Genevieve in thanks for his recovery from an illness. It wasn't finished until 1789, but that was around the time of the revolution when religion had fallen a little out of favour. Two years later it had been converted into a secular mausoleum for the great men of France of that time. It reverted to its religous duties twice more after the revolutions, but was finally converted into a secular tomb again after the death of Victor Hugo, and now the famous people of France are buried here in the crypt. Victor Hugo really was a national hero, 2 million people attended his funeral, that's a lot of people!

This is the a shot of the interior of the church as well as a shot of the dome from behind, it really is huge
























It is so big I had trouble getting everything in the shot, finally there is a shot of some random church next door, Eglise St Etienne du Mont (I think). A bit of an excess of churches in this area if you ask me.

Alliance Francaise .... Bliss!

I have started my new French course with the Alliance Francaise in Paris, and they really do some good courses. I went to their classes in Australia before I came over and they are really good at teaching French. They are really expensive though, at 50 euros/week, but I think they will be worth it, if I manage to learn as much French as I did when in Australia.

I already learnt some new weird French grammer and I've only been to one class. Imagine if you say "I look at the picture", in French you can also say "I the look", (if people already know you are talking about the picture), I have to find out if they also say "I look at it" I guess they must? I suppose I can just ask people at work, the benefits of learning French in France :).

The Alliance Francaise is so much better than this cheap-o course I did organised by an association designed to help foreign researchers. It was meant to be a week long intensive course, but I only went to the first day. I don't think the teacher actually had any qualifications, but was just someone who could speak French and could afford to spend a week "teaching" foreigners. So there was no real structure to the course, it may have been alright if you were already pretty fluent in French, but I'm still at the stage where I need the verb conjugation forms for things, so need real structure to my classes. Apparently there are 7 verb forms that you have to learn and these are just so you can communicate in everyday life, as there are a lot more than 7 conjugation forms. I think because of this massive range of verb conjugations the French are very impressive in their knowledge of grammer, unlike us english speakers who are just like "I don't know why I say it like that, it just sounds right."