Let freedom sing

The St. Lambert park was built on the site of a former gasworks.  Dimitry
Vicheney's first job was working on the crew that demolished the gasworks and created this fine park.

July 15, 2017 – Under the guise of a holiday stroll along a lively street in Paris, we continued my investigation into Russian influence on the history of Paris.  Specifically, we wished to locate the other two Russian Orthodox churches that Dimitry Vicheney mentioned in the interview with the Paris 15 magazine reporter.

We’d already seen the doorway to the Russian Orthodox church on the rue Olivier de Serres.  And on the 13^th, we visited the big, shiny, new Russian Orthodox church and cultural center at the corner of Avenue Rapp and the Quai Branly. 

Now we had to find the Russian churches on the rues Petel and Lecourbe.  I’ve been wanting to explore the rue Lecourbe anyway; it is a busy shopping street not far from our apartment, and for some unknown reason we haven’t walked or shopped there much at all in the 20 summers we’ve been here.

Old fashioned roses still blooming in the St. Lambert park.

First we took a diversion on the rue Peclet (near the town hall for the 15^th arrondissement) and noticed the Chaplin St. Lambert cinema.  This summer, the cinema is featuring an Alfred Hitchcock retrospective.  There is another Chaplin Cinema in the 14^th, in the Denfert neighborhood.  Good to know.

Next we found the odd little Russian Orthodox church at 3-5 rue Petel.  It is a small, flat-roofed, one-story, strange structure made of ceramic-faced block with a stark, 1930-vintage appearance.  The bulletin posted on one side of its doorway is entirely in Russian – no French or English.  On the other side of the doorway is a wooden plaque that does give the name of the church, which is very long and includes the names of a number of saints.  Obviously, a committee charged with naming the church could not reach consensus. 

Plaque by the door of the Russian Orthodox church on
the rue Petel.

Back at the corner of rue Lecourbe, we turned and walked past the side of the town hall.  There Lecourbe becomes a shopping street with wide sidewalks, and lots of stores and restaurants.  

Lecourbe is not chic; the buildings have not been recently cleaned, and the street infrastructure is a little bleak; it does not have lots of street trees the way that rue de la Convention does, for example.  The shops and small restaurants seem to have plenty of business.  Many were open even though this was a national holiday. 

We found the doorway to the last of the Russian Orthodox churches on our short list.  It was a door to a Haussmannian building with a couple courtyards.  The sign indicated that the church was at the back of the second courtyard.  It had to be a small church, like the others, and we did not intrude.  We continued our walk.

Sign for the St. Seraphin of Sarov church at 91 rue Lecourbe.

When we reached the end of Lecourbe at the Place Henri Oueuille we turned around and walked down the sunny side of Lecourbe.  The temperature was just mild enough that we enjoyed the sun in our faces.

At rue Mademoiselle, we veered off toward our neighborhood.  An entrance to a Haussmannian building caught my eye because of whimsical carvings of a dog and a cat hovering over the door.  Nice!

Back at the apartment, we did our usual July late afternoon thing: rest and watch the Tour de France for an hour or so.  Then we dressed up for our holiday dinner at Le Tipaza.

Tom waits for dinner at Le Tipaza.

We like to be seated toward the back of the restaurant, and without asking for it, we were given our usual favorite table.  The fancier dining room with crystal chandeliers is toward the front, but we like the cozier back room – especially when air conditioning is needed.

Service was wonderful and the tagines were delicious.  It was a simple dinner, without starter courses or desserts – except that Tom had a café gourmet, which included a piece of Turkish delight and a small pastry stuffed with fig – a sort of fancy fig newton.  We left feeling well nourished on meat and vegetables.

We especially enjoy the walk to and from Le Tipaza because it includes the shady, broad avenue Emile Zola, and the shady shopping street, rue Saint Charles.  The streets are usually calm during our after-dinner walk home.

This time, however, traffic was backed up everywhere because of people trying to go somewhere where they could watch the Quatorze Juillet fireworks, which are set off behind and from the Eiffel Tower, nearby.

Dog and cat carvings above door
on rue Mademoiselle

But there aren’t only fireworks to celebrate the national holiday.  Just in front of the Eiffel Tower, an elaborate stage had been erected for a concert that began at 9PM.  This annual concert features mainly the national symphony orchestra – which is fantastic – as well as some featured opera stars from France and elsewhere.  Two American opera singers were included this time.  You can watch the entire concert here, on YouTube.

We were home in time to watch the magnificent concert on TV.  When it concluded, we went up to the maid’s room, where we have an even better view of the Eiffel Tower.  We watched the fireworks from there.  You can watch them here, on YouTube.  The video is a half hour long; put it in full-screen mode, kick back, and enjoy the show.

You can see on the video that the Champ de Mars was full of people – mostly young people – screaming in delight at the fireworks.  There were plenty of families with small children.  I love these fearless people.  Paris is still Paris.  Paris knows how to do fireworks.

The sound track for the fireworks is great, too.  It includes a wide variety of music – classical and popular.  In the middle somewhere, Frank Sinatra sings “I Love Paris.”

I can’t imagine another city having a more impressive fireworks display.  Sure, some put on some great shows.  But no other city has the Eiffel Tower, which was made for a show like this.  Grande Dame de Fer et Dame de Feu.

An invitation to Jim

Interior of the new Russian Orthodox Church and cultural center at the Quai
Branly and the Avenue Rapp

July 14, 2017 – Yesterday’s Washington Post had a story with this lead: 

“As President Trump prepared to travel to the City of Light this week, this question came up: What does Jim think?

Some background: On the campaign trail, Trump would occasionally mention his friend Jim, who used to go to Paris every summer with his wife and family but stopped because ‘Paris is no longer Paris,’ a problem that Trump seemed to blame on crime in the city and an influx of immigrants.

After Trump mentioned Jim at the Conservative Political Action Conference in February — calling him a ‘very, very substantial guy’ — the New Yorker set out to try to find him and questioned all of the numerous Jims in Trump's life. Jim was not located, and an article about the hunt ended: ‘Jim, if you’re out there, levez-vous, s’il vous plaît.’ ”

Numerous journalists have tried to find this Jim in order to interview him; now it is not clear whether Jim exists.  However, this anonymous journalist did find Tom, someone the President of the United States has never met.

The new Russian Orthodox Church and Cultural Center as seen from the
Pont de l'Alma

Tom goes to Paris every summer with his wife and he refuses to stop, because Paris is still Paris.  Nothing seems to keep Tom away.  Even when forces conspired against him last summer, Tom still managed to take his wife to Paris for a month.  Normally, the couple spends two months or more anually in the City of Light.  They’ve been summering in Paris for twenty years.

What about all the immigrants, you ask?  Tom would tell you that they are an integral part of what makes Paris Paris.  For example, one of Tom’s favorite Parisian restaurants is Le Tipaza, on the rue St. Charles.  Le Tipaza is a beautiful North African restaurant, run by immigrants and people whose parents were immigrants.  Tom often takes his wife to Le Tipaza on the French national holiday, Bastille Day (called “Quatorze Juillet” in France) because it is a special place and it is open on that holiday, which happens to be today.  The food there is terrific; try the tagines.

Immigrants have been making Paris Paris for a long time.  Many Parisians have Spanish, Italian, Irish, or African surnames.  This summer, Tom’s wife, Barbara, has been fascinated by stories about Russian immigrants who came to Paris a hundred years ago, and who made valuable contributions to the city, which had been deeply wounded by World War I.

An exhibition of the works of artist Alexandre Serebriakoff was featured in the
Russian Orthodox Church and Cultural Center.  This illustration by Serebriakoff shows the
intersection of the Boulevards Raspail and Montparnasse.

Tom knows that France has a colonial history, and so it is obligated to accept immigrants.  And Tom knows that this immigration is a very good thing.  He loves the cultural diversity that a city like Paris provides.  Most of the year, Tom and Barbara live on an island that is beautiful, but lacks cultural, racial, and ethnic diversity.  Paris in the summertime gives them the exposure to diversity that they crave.

Tom has no idea who or where Jim might be.  But if Jim and his wife would like to come to Paris again, Tom and Barbara would love to show them the Paris that they know so well.  It is still Paris, after all.

Painting by Alexandre Serebriakoff

There was a time when France wasn’t so great, but you have to go back many, many centuries to find that time.  For example, take the experience of Anne of Kiev, one of Barbara’s ancestors.  Anne immigrated from the Ukraine to France in order to marry Henry I in 1051.  After the wedding, she was crowned at Reims.

Anne was not impressed by France.  She wrote to her father in 1051:  “What a barbarous country you sent me to – the dwellings are somber, the churches horrendous and the morals – terrible.”  Another translation states that she wrote that France was  “a barbarous country where the houses are gloomy, the churches ugly and the customs revolting.”  She thought the people were uneducated and unwashed.   When she saw that her wedding banquet had only three dishes, she was appalled.

She complained bitterly about almost everything in France, including the food.  Fine French cuisine had not yet been developed.  In those days, the Ukraine had a more refined culture than France did – by far.  In fact, Anne’s father, Yaroslav the Wise, was known as the “initiator of the golden age of Rus.” 

Anne was well-educated in the fields of Latin, Greek, and medicine.  She signed her name beautifully on documents, whereas her husband, Henry I, signed with an “x”.  He was probably illiterate.

The cover of this week's Charlie Hebdo, a satirical publication.

When Henry I died in 1060, Anne became regent and ruled France for several years.  She was recognized by Pope Nicholas II as a skilled politician.  Even before she became regent, she had actively assisted her husband in ruling France.  The king had great respect for her.

She established an abbey and a nunnery. Her accomplishments are a significant part of French heritage. 

Most importantly, all subsequent kings of France descended from Anne of Kiev, an immigrant from Russia.

Take a hike

Wildflowers on the Petite Ceinture

July 13, 2017 – In spite of the slightly rainy weather, we decided to take a hike through nature, along the Petite Ceinture: a long section of what was once a beltway train around Paris.  The train was abandoned years ago, but the tracks and the banks of thick vegetation remained.  Under the green guidance of the Bertrand Delanoe administration, the City of Paris turned this neglected resource into a walker’s wonderland.

A couple beetles doing their thing

The gritty sandy mix used to fill and level the space between and beside the rails blends beautifully with the chunky gravel and stone mix that remains along the tracks.  That sandy mix is easy on feet that grow weary of walking on urban pavement.

To help the environment and to keep maintenance costs down, the gardeners have turned most of the work over to Mother Nature.  The native wildflowers that she fosters there are becoming more beautiful every year that we walk along the Petite Ceinture.  Surely the gardeners must pass through occasionally to remove noxious plants (does poison ivy grow in Paris?), but we’ve never seen them there. 

Like on the Ile aux Cygnes, there is no water supply along the Petite Ceinture, so the wildflowers and other vegetation must be tough; they have to make it on their own.

This year, Queen Ann’s Lace rules the Petite Ceinture, but there are plenty of other wildflowers adding spots of color everywhere.  I particularly love the orange-red poppies.  Can you identify some of the other flowers?

When we reached the end of the trail at the rue Olivier de Serres, we climbed steps to reach the street level.  Where we’d started our walk along the railway, at the foot of the Avenue Felix Faure, we were in former swamp land, so we had to climb a few flights of steps to get up to the trail.  Here, at the end, we were on the land that rises up to become Montparnasse, so we had to climb many steps again to reach the street.  The left bank of Paris seems fairly flat until you experience these steps (as well as those around the Pantheon area in the 5^th arrondissement).

On the rue Olivier de Serres, we located a doorway leading to one of the Russian Orthodox churches that Dimitry Vicheney mentioned in his interview (see yesterday’s journal entry).  Beyond the mysterious doorway were steps leading up to a courtyard, but because all the lettering on the bulletin posted at the door was Russian, we did not feel welcome to visit as we do the other churches in Paris.  Also, a school is associated with the church there, and we did not wish to be a distraction to the kids.  I wonder if the kids speak Russian in that school?  I suppose they do.

Bulletin, all in Russian.

Stairs leading to Russian Orthodox church and school

Continuing our trek down the rue Olivier de Serres, Tom was becoming footsore, so I suggested that we have refreshments at La Source again, at the intersection of the rues Alain Chartier and Vaugirard.  After a café gourmand which included a little ice cream, Tom was renewed and we walked home in the most direct way possible (rue Alain Chartier and rue de Javel to the Place Etienne Pernet and rue du Commerce) because of the rain. 

Axuria's incomparable souffle au Grand Marnier

At home we did the usual: relax while watching the end of the day’s stage of the Tour de France.  Earlier, as we’d started our walk, I’d ducked into Axuria to make a dinner reservation.  So in the evening, we dressed up a little and walked back down the Avenue Felix Faure for a fine dinner at 8.  It was a thick, juicy veal chop for Tom, sea bass with peas and risotto for me, and then soufflé au Grand Marnier for each of us.  That soufflé is heavenly, and it is cooked perfectly every time. 

By the time we walked home, we’d logged almost 25,000 steps for the day. 

The back of the dining room at Axuria.

Sunday dinner at Axuria is tempting.

Tom's veal chop was more like a slice of a roast.