My Burkina Journal: Back to Paris

Well loose ends or not, my time has come to an end. I wrote up my informal assessment of the SIL-Côte d'Ivoire library as I had of the one in Mali. I think the powers that me would like me to spend my time next year in Abidjan next year, with Ezechiél visiting me there, and late visiting Mali. I will have to wait on a report from Daniel Brubaker on the latter to see what the situation is like there in Bamako. I've also emailed both of these SIL libraries requesting that they upload their respective library book data to ResourceMate so that the company can run a test database of what if might look like if we combined our data in a networked union catalog. It has been a good time--I've achieved a few things--now it's time to move on and see what the year brings. As we know, the laid plans of mice and men often go awry ...

The return trip to Paris was exhausting. I had gotten up very early in the morning, put in a full day, and by evening, when I said farewell to Ezechiél, already looked like I could barely keep my eyes open. But my departure wasn't scheduled until nearly midnight, and dinner was served at 12:30 a.m. Despite an aisle seat on Air France, the narrow seats left me feeling cramped and I was unable to sleep ... So my first day in Paris was catching some 40 winks ... and then some ...

an evening farewell to Ezechiél in the library

I don't know whether it's an African thing, or not, but Ezechiél gave me an inexpensive dress as a farewell gift ... If you recall from an earlier post last year, I had received a couple of garments as gifts when I left Bénin in 2018. And I do love the colors and the tie-dying, which I mentioned when I thanked him. It was a thoughtful gesture, and most unexpected, but totally unwearable as it is ... Perhaps I can get Hervé, my tailor in Ouagadougou, to do something about the two strange strips of cloth that hang down from the sleeves and attach to the hip area (they look like "holes" in the photo). It might look fine on a very slim Burkinabé woman, but it looks a tad ridiculous on this 70-year old American one ...

Fina has since contacted me in Paris about using my address to have some French language books she needs sent to me. She will be visiting the US again, this time with a sister, and I will be able to give any books she has sent to my Paris address to her then. The one book she ordered became six, so my suitcase is going to be a lot heavier than I thought!

this is the second batch of books she requested

It was warm for Paris and the forsythia and flowering trees were in blossom. As I tidied up my place the first Saturday after my arrival, the gilets jaunes [yellow-vests] and casseurs [rioters, hoodlums] were doing some serious damage to the Champs Elysées which I didn't discover until days later.

Flowering trees and plants along the Couléé Verte René-Dumont:

As for the damage, by the gilets jaunes and casseurs, many buildings were simply boarded up, and business went on as usual. There were workmen and trucks on site in many locations.

the marble was smashed

this kiosk was completely gutted

even the walls of the building were attacked

at this bank all 4 ATMs were destroyed

So many people so little time! It has been a time of visiting with friends of long-standing like Jean-Jacques, Geneviève, Jean-Marc and Anne-Marie. I try to visit them at least once a year and I found it sad seeing J-M's deteriorating condition with Parkinson's. And my friend Judy Koucky, and my niece, Becky, will both be in Paris during my stay. With Judy I attended a semi-improv play, which wove in personal information from the audience, entitled Les entretiens d'embauche or Job Interviews. In an intimate theatre setting, holding about a dozen people, the attendees were first interviewed at the start of the performance about their own employers or work experience, which was then incorporated into the show itself. Thus every performance was unique. I invited another friend who lives in Paris, Rebecca Feryance, to maximize my time with each of them, and both seemed to enjoy the show and each other's company.

"Job interviews"

Because the Salle Cortot is so convenient, Judy and I caught one of their noon recital concerts featuring students from the Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris which are usually held there on Tuesdays/Wednesdays/Thursdays during the school year.

And then for a change of pace, Judy and I took a day-trip by train to historic Sens. Home of the Sénones in Celtic times, the place was called Agedincum during the time of Julius Caesar. In the Middle Ages Sens became known for its cathedral, the first to be constructed in the gothic style. Native son, William of Sens, who was instrumental in its building, was also the chief architect in the reconstruction of a damaged portion of the Canterbury Cathedral in England in 1174. It was in the Cathedral of St. Stephen in Sens that France's Louis IX [Saint Louis] married Marguerite de Provence. Sens also witnessed the so-called "trial" of Peter Abelard, and the exile of Thomas Becket in 1162. The later's vestments are exhibited in the Museum of Sens.

Cathédrale Saint-Étienne de Sens

Vestments of Thomas Becket

And the the following week, Judy and I visited the town of Senlis together with my niece. Senlis also has gallo-roman ruins, but the monarchs of France lived and hunted there as well, most notably from the 11th until the early 19th century. And during the end of the nineteenth century and the early years of the twentieth century, Séraphine Louis, a self-taught French painter known as Séraphine de Senlis, spent most of her life here. Unfortunately the Museum of Art and Archaeology was closed the day were were there so we weren't able to see any of her works.