I sing of arms...

I sing of arms and the man who first

Came from France to defeat the Germans.

I know what you may be thinking, I’m crazy, the French never beat the Germans (without significant help from Great Britain and the USA, who essentially fought their wars for them, “La Resistance” nothing), but it’s true. Not in our lifetime, or our father’s lifetime. Come to think of it, it wasn’t even in my great, great, great grandfather’s life (Joseph Skeen), but probably his father or grandfather lived to hear tale told of Napoleon Bonaparte, who defeated the Austrians at Austerlitz.

Let me make a brief aside to set the record straight regarding the wars between the French and the Germans. Louis XIV defeated the Holy Roman Empire, (which, though Voltaire rightly ascribed it as being not Holy, Roman nor an Empire, was full of Germans). The must disputed Alsace-Loraine was originally a part of the Holy Roman Empire (and thus was German property) and was taken from the Germans in the wars of the seventeenth century. Let the record show that the French are the ones who first took the Alsace and that they’re the ones who provoked the hostilities (which Kaiser Wilhelm finally took back in 1871, the Allies awarded to the French in 1919, and Hitler occupied in 1939). That makes the count Germans three—counting the Franco-Prussian War in 1871—French two. It’s been over two centuries since the French have won, though. Sad day… Poor French. Maybe they’ll stand their ground next time hostilities break out. Don’t count on it, though.

Back to Austerlitz, though. Napoleon captured 1200 cannons and melted them down to make this tower we saw today, and he put himself (in a Roman toga) at the top, with the entire story of the battle/fight winding its way up to the top. We also managed to stop by the Opera Garnier, which you may recall from such musicals as “The Phantom of the Opera” (that I am rightly listening to as I type). We went inside, and it was just as luxurious, creepy and cool as I had ever hoped. We were in a bit of a hurry, but we are going to go back later on.

Then we also walked through the Latin Quarter, and saw an old cathedral (where some man was playing the organ, so we sat and listened. It was pretty cool to sit and look at the stained glass windows and hear the echoes). I was tempted all through the walk to buy a Doner Kebab, but part of it consisted of buying a pastry at a Boulangerie along the way. Mine was a tower of strawberries with some honey sauce over the top and a cookie of sorts on the bottom. Disaster struck when I tried to bite into both the strawberries and the cookie as stawberries flew everywhere (on my shirt, coat, nasty hands). One even fell on the ground. I think it was the saddest thing of the day.

So, the adventures continue. I finish my homework before the class is over most days, and I’m ahead in all of my classes, so I’ve taken to reading a lot again, in addition to socializing and whatnot. I stopped at a bookstore on Monday and got a few books, but may have to go again soon. So, I’m reading Next by Michael Crichton (which I can’t really say that I recommend, even though it’s in every single bookstore from Denver to Chicago to Washington DC to Paris. I would have thought that a million people, or however many have bought a copy, would have had better taste in books, but it just goes to show you can’t trust stupid people, even en masse—a French termà look at how much I’m learning!). It looks like I’ll finish the whole book in about 6 hours, though, so it’s not such a big loss. I also bought Catch-22 (one of my longstanding favorite books that I cannot locate anywhere in my personal collection, and thus felt compelled to buy again) and A Portrait of Dorian Gray (which I feel I need to read after having seen Mr Wilde’s grave. He must have done something to get so many crazy women to come kiss his grave—see my last post).

Today’s pictures are of me eating a French Macaron—not as good as I might have hoped. Then there’s a picture of a girl named Susie with my pastry (not the same one as I ate today, but of the same variety) and lastly is a picture of a library in a big chateau we visited last week in Belgium (let’s be honest, I love everything to do with books…).

Life really is beautiful. I am happy here, and I am really enjoying everything. I am challenged in a different way than I normally am, which is happy and healthy for me. We shall see what it does for me. Paris and people here have kept me on my toes. It’s been a great life adventure. I even understood everything at dinner tonight (we have dinner every evening with our host family). Also for the record, even if they don’t fight wars, they still make tremendous food, from the pastries to the entrees to the baguettes. It’s all quite incredible. J

La Vie Est Belle!

La Vida Es Bella!

Jeff