Our New French People

I left the Rhône in Lyon to go to the Prefecture in Paris.

At the Prefecture, we had the very French experience of waiting in the street for a door that should be open to actually open up.

Emily and Jessica: Americans in Paris

and then: French in Paris!

The ceremony was also French: a short movie and two not-so-short lectures, given by the head of naturalization in this prefecture.

The second was the most welcoming talk to new citizens that I've ever heard of.  He described France as a nation of immigrants. He named at least 20famously French people - scientists, painters, footballers, writers -- who were actually from somewhere else. He said, you have the opportunity to be proud of France, to make a France you can be proud of.   He said, France is very proud of you. He said,  France thanks you for having chosen us.


Then the "family celebration" as he called it began.  He encouraged pictures and movies. He became a film director, telling the kids they could have a Take 2.

Emily liked him too.

Emily and Jessica with two representatives of France

A reporter for a French radio network was interviewing people about suddenly being French.  He asked Emily if they sang la Marseillaise.  of course? - Did you sing it? Of course, Emily replied. Can you sing it?


Emily solos for France Inter

Then we continued the French day: crepes here

Notre Dame le coeur de Paris eternel

Rémy welcomes Jess and Emily to France all over again

Then dinner-  décor ultra-français

and the beginning of Jessica's gifts of French culture (Gigi, Gide, . .)

We found the perfect gift for Emily

And we wound up on the Champs-Elysees eating macaroons at Ladurée

and going to the cinéma Georges V just like Gigi did, and saw a not-so-good American movie to remind us of why we heart France.

London This Time

Elsewhere this week was England. We stayed in London at Davina and Dee Dee's place not far from Tower Bridge and where you could see a slice of the Thames. It was especially good at low-tide, half mud. Monday was the Institute for Race Relations and dinner with Davina, Tuesday some work and dinner with Irit, Wed was interviewing quantum-dot solar folks in Bath and dinner with Adrian and Denis, Thursday was Brighton and dinner with Celine and Ines, Friday was Cambridge and packed trains out of Kings Cross and dinner . . . at home! Saturday was Slumdog Millionare with Elizabeth at the Odeon on Shaftsbury, which turns out to be a slightly peaceful extension of Holburn, which I never knew. London doesn't fit together for me at all

London I liked better this time. There's good street life around Bond St Station and less of the Beverly Hills stretches in between the bank-driven mish mash. But after a few days the vanity atriums of the glass palaces don't seem so different for a few curves at the edges. They still have names like Plantation Place. They are still temples to their own power to waste London square footage to glass fishtank interiors 10 stories high. After a few days they are all exactly alike - even the good ones around More London on the south bank near the sliced boiled egg that houses the city govt - in the 1/2 invisible part behind the vanity atrium.

There's a UFO shaped street light, and a lit opening to the underworld. Those are the parts of More London I liked.

And I really like my friends there. pictures later on