Today is Saturday, May 8th, the day France celebrates the signing of the treaty ending WWII.
Yesterday (Friday) was somewhat tiring. I slept very poorly, which is invariably the case for me. The first night abroad is great, the second takes its toll and my clock needs to be readjusted. The night before, Janie prepared a wonderful dinner featuring pork roast done with prunes and finished with creme fraise, served with Janice's favourite--spaetzle and gravy. Yves joined the festivities and we had a great party. I had left a celebratory bottle of wine here last year, a Haut Medoc I have enjoyed off and on since 1970, so that wine was well rested and went beautifully with the pork and cheeses afterwards.
Back to Friday . . . this was originally the day we were hoping to take Ed and Frieda to Monet's gardens at Giverny, but Frieda became ill and they had to cancel their visit to Paris. Janice therefore devoted the day to the library, looking at books in certain categories to see whether the library does or does not need further classification divisions. As I understand it (frankly, I don't), the national classification scheme is changing somewhat. It used to devote as many numbers to Catholicism as to all other religions (including Protestants) and this is now opening up. Changing numbers will be very time consuming and ultimately may not matter for a specialized library of this size.
I worked on some photos in the morning, trying to wake up, and then headed downtown to see what there was to see. I knew there was an exhibition of photographs by Izis, Izis, Paris des reves, at the Hotel de Ville de Paris (City Hall). The exhibition was free, well attended and worth attending. The initial photos were the portraits which first brought his work to the attention of Parisians, portraits of members of the resistance movement, men of all ages shown with their guns in 1945, right after it was safe for them to be identified in public. I preferred his later work, all in strong black and white, showing ordinary citizens doing ordinary things.
After about 90 minutes at the exhibition (about all I can ever do in a museum), I went out to see what I could see. I virtually stumbled upon another church that was unknown to me, Saint-Gervais-Saint-Protais very near City Hall on the right bank. It was begun in about 1494 and finished in the mid 1600s. The Couperins had been the chief organists there and I got to hear the organ tuner get the instrument ready for Penetcost (next week). I have played some of their works for harpsichord. I took several hundred photos there and will eventually show them on Kreiders Korner after we return to Vancouver. What interested me in this particular church is its smaller size (width, length) and yet it had the very high vaulted ceilings. It has been used by The Monastic and Lay Communities of Jerusalem, monks and nuns who wish to live in major cities, support themselves by holding part-time jobs, renting (not owning property in order to avoid collecting possessions), and meeting for prayers early every morning before work, at noon (if their work is nearby) and in the evening as the day ends, and working with the poor. I was impressed by all the young and old men and women that were cleaning the place, mopping by hand, vaccuming, straightening the little stools, etc. They sit on stools rather than on chairs, giving the feel of a less formal establishment. They ignored me as I took pictures, which I very much appreciated.
For supper, I cooked up a fresh tomato sauce (onion, Roma tomatoes, garlic) for pasta, Janice made a green salad and some fresh strawberries, which are just starting to come in the south of France. Neal was at a meeting all day and late into the evening, and Janie was working on a paper and preparing a bed for one of her professors, a lady specializing in music and worship. To ensure I would indeed sleep, Janice and I took another long walk around St Maurice, seeing some of the more fancy homes overlooking the park (Bois de Vincennes).
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