The Ryndex

Well, it’s springtime in Paris — the most beautiful season in the most beautiful city in the world. Or so they say.

By “they”, I mean the unimaginative travel log hacks that drone on about the breezes and blue sky that makes the city fresh and clean, the old stonework and forged iron standing out strongly in the clear light, the springtime flowers making the public green space more prominent. Even living in Paris all year, they promise you will only remember it in the Spring.

It does, they do and you will, of course. It’s a cliché but it’s true.

About mid-March, we went for a walk through Parc de Bagatelle — just like this time last year. It was only the second annual visit, but still felt like a tradition. The roses weren’t out yet, but that’s hardly a surprise. This time of year is for flowering trees, some early tulips and the dozens of varieties of daffodils.

Unlike most commuters, I live in the intensely dense urban area and take a 30 kilometre commute out to the office in the country. We have five or six large office buildings surrounded by larger fields, farms and tiny villages. There’s also some woods right on our campus, with a 6 kilometre jogging trail. The fields and trees are just starting to push out springtime leaves, and yes — even wildflowers. Lots of wildflowers.

We normally go running through the woods about once a week, in good weather. The wide, open space I get every day at work makes it possible to appreciate Paris without being overwhelmed by it’s incredible tightness.

I’m still diving weekly, and took my Niveau 2 theory exam. It was much more intense than the equivalent PADI courses, but that could be partially related to language issues: twelve long answer questions in French, each divided into several parts. In fact, there was only one word that I didn’t understand immediately (entamer), but it was obvious in context (a transitive verb meaning to start). The kindly examiner offered to let me respond in English if I was having any troubles, but I think she was just showing off. I have some more training to do at the fosse, a circular pool about three metres wide and fifteen metres deep, and then I’m going to the south of France to complete the practical exam for this level of diving.

Along with diving and running, I’m doing a little bit of roller-blading. It’s springtime — you’ve got to be outdoors. Although I’ve graduated to the Sunday easy balade through the streets of Paris, I’ve mainly been sticking to easier trails while some of my colleagues gain confidence to take to the streets. There’s an extremely smooth track out in Massy which is excellent for practice. We spent a couple of Saturdays out in the natural setting of the Bois de Verrieres, which is excellent for simulating really bad, dirty pavement. More recently, we retook to Les Invalides, the former military hospital and presently a war museum and Napoléon’s tomb.

What else did I do this month? I finally regained my legal status in France by going to the prefecture and picking up my carte de sejour. In fact, that’s a bit of an exaggeration — the paperwork had been filed and finished well before my old residence permit expired. The first time I visited the main prefecture (on the Ile de la Cité, beside Notre Dame), I went to the North-East tower as I was supposed to, and timidly pushed through a heavy wooden door that exclaimed (in French) “DO NOT KNOCK”. This time, they had a line outside the prefecture to get through the ‘air-lock’ (apparently the ancient stone building is protected against accidental decompression), and then a take-a-number system outside the forbidding wooden door. Apparently the computers were down, so I caught a bit of heck when it was my turn and the clerk saw that my occupation was informaticien.

I spent quite a bit of time this month doing some 3D animation for the opening credits of Roger’s pet project — a short film submitted to festivals in Cannes and Toronto. I’ve switched between different free animation packages and ended up with Blender, a top quality Open Source tool with more features than a fromagerie has fromage. The preliminary edit of the film is outstanding; it’s a pity that my opening animation merely achieves expectations.

The city lived through another one-day métro shutdown. It was exceedingly unpleasant. Canadian public transport strikes have the right idea — continue to provide the service but forget to charge the peasants. Of course, that wouldn’t work in a population where the majority of métro users have monthly passes.

Did you know that the French shopping carts (or chariots) have four independently swivelling wheels? It’s just one of those little things that scream ‘foreign’. In a way, it makes sense — you benefit from increased manoeuvrability in the little supermarchés of Paris. On the other hand, I’ve only ever seen carts used in the giant hypermarchés outside of Paris. In the little grocery stores, everybody uses those little personal caddy-tote things. It was odd, at first, to watch people take stuff from the shelves and store it in their personal luggage before going to the checkout, but I’ve gotten used to it. I doubt I’ll ever get used to a full shopping cart that willingly turns, but continues sideways in the prior trajectory.

Did you know that you can get season passes to cinemas in France? I’m so hopelessly behind in American film that I will shame my friends on return. I saw the top ten box-office results for this week and the only one that I recognized was Chicago. Did you know that ‘The Santa Clause’ was translated to ‘Super Noël‘ in France (a pretty good translation playing on père noël being Santa Claus). The sequel was, of course, Hyper Noël‘. ‘Sweet Home Alabama’ turned to ‘Fashion Victime‘, and ‘The Bourne Identity’ into ‘La Memoire dans le peau‘.

Did you know that the use of English in French product/business names can be very amusing? ‘Candy Up’ (flavoured milk drink), ‘Mr. Bed City’ (hotel) and ‘Festy Party’ (what the?) come to mind.

The next couple of weekends are going to be action-packed! Stay tuned…