Adieu, Paris!!!

Fortunately, the temperatures that managed to establish France’s hottest July on record accomplished their goal and Paris has cooled down to its seasonal norm. Strolling around has not been uncomfortable on the shady side of the street. Stuffy museums stay stuffy. The Hôtel de Cluny while it contained exquisite pieces was tomblike, lacking any form of ventilation. They were extraordinarily proud of their Unicorn tapestries but I promise you, the next time you are in New York, visit the Cloisters on the northern tip of Manhattan Island (our Unicorn is better than your Unicorn.)

This afternoon, I visited the Museum of Jewish Art and History, here in the Marais. There were beautiful liturgical pieces, scrolls, candelabra and torahs along with elements of daily life from the Middle Ages – Jews were expelled from France in the 13th Century - and a copy of the declaration giving them full citizenship at the beginning of the 19th Century was on exhibit. But, of course, hovering in the background and in the end, underlying all of the history and the art were the events of the holocaust. I was most affected by the color portraits of contemporary French Jews and their comments about their French-Jewish identity.

I wended my way to the Centre Pompidou, where I discovered they had wireless Internet. I had my laptop with me and sat in relative comfort in the mezzanine café, having purchased a tiny Dixie cup of Hagen Dazs ice cream.

This evening, I took a stroll in my immediate area. I headed into the XI e arrondissement, just across the Boulevard du Temple – my street. I discovered many Asian restaurants including a very pleasant looking Thai place – an eminently suitable place for my final Paris dinner. Paris is far from an exclusively French city. On any simple trip across town or anywhere in between, the number of Africans, Asians and Moslems is striking. As I no doubt wrote, that on the train from the airport, I was so reminded of similar trips in New York, but I think that Paris is far more cosmopolitan. My city is more cosmopolitan than your city.

French television – amazingly similar to our own. I’m watching a fake reality show – survival on a tropical island. But, a few nights ago there was a fantastic competition. Groups, primarily of young people, created theatrical illusions. The strip tease of the invisible man – so cleverly carried out in front of a black curtain. But, the prize winner, and I was totally in agreement, was an apparent ping-pong game in which the players flew into the air to return serves and then gradually the perspective changed and the table and players were seen from above and gradually the perspective returned back to a more usual view. There were at least 11 members of the team, mostly dressed in black, supporting the upper bodies of the players and their fake legs and, of course, lifting and turning the table. How fantastic, a competition which focused on imagination and creativity.

For some reason - blogger is not letting me upload any more photographs - perhaps I have reached my capacity. Here are two recent albums, curtesy of Yahoo:
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/spjacobs70118/album?.dir=/ffe0re2&.src=ph&.tok=phEHlQFBMphGOyyF
and
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/spjacobs70118/album?.dir=/83fare2&.src=ph&.tok=phDGlQFBbf.zCnQs