Letter From Paris
Paris Kiosque - September 2006- Volume 13, Number 09
Copyright © 2006 Harriet Welty-Rochefort - Used with permission.
Spanish women and French women. Dining in Spain, Dining in
France. « La Rentrée ». Sego and Sarko. Paris Is Home.
Letter from Paris ? Well, not really. I'm
writing this in a «parador» in Santillana del Mar, only
two kilometers away from the famous Altamira Caves, the grottos
in which figures of bison painted some 15,000 years B.C. were
discovered in 1819.
That's about all I can tell you given the fact that
(a) as with the Lascaux Caves in Dordogne, to visit the real thing
you have to write a letter requesting permission well in advance
(we didn't) and (b) you can always see the
museum and the caves as a second-best alternative but the
museum was full for the day and the cave excursions for the week
to come !
Fortunately, traveling isn't only about seeing the
sights. And although the euro has helped erase borders,
Europeans are still very different. One of my favorite pastimes
when traveling in Europe is to compare whatever country
I'm in with France where I live.
In Spain, I noticed four main differences : the « paseo »,
the times at which meals are taken, the Spanish women, and the
presence of children everywhere.
In Bilbao, of Guggenheim Museum fame, we watched the Spanish
go about their nightly « paseo ».
We'd picked the right night : there was a town
festival and the streets were jammed with musicians, street
performers, and strutting or sauntering strollers.
Spanish women, French women
As we sat sipping a cerveza, I reflected on the difference between
Spanish women and French women. French women, as we all
know, have a mysterious knack for throwing things together
- a simple suit or dress and a knock-out scarf tied just
so - or a piece of stunning jewelry - or to die for shoes. (One of
the above, not all at the same time, s'il vous plaît).
Their look of casual chic is one I've
been studying for the past few decades.
Spanish women don't look like
they've thrown things together. On the contrary,
it looks like they've done a lot of deliberate
planning. The young women sport their highest heels, sexiest
skirts or slacks, and their most dramatic make-up. The older
women mostly stick to dressy tailored conservative suits. Both the
old and the young pay more attention to their hair than French
women do.
Another noticeable difference between the French and the
Spanish : The Spanish have a lower birth rate than the French but
babies and children are everywhere, including until the wee hours
of the night, long past the time when French children have been
tucked into bed. As for the older set, they're out
and around in style. I watched in admiration a very old woman who
could hardly walk, on the arm of a gentleman, perhaps her son.
She was wearing a well-cut bright fuschia colored suit and big
silver jewelry, he, an impeccably tailored beige suit and white
shirt. I liked the idea that in Spain, as in France, being
« comfortable » is not a primary goal. One dresses to
be seen !
Dining in Spain, Dining in France
Coming first from the States where people can eat as early as 5 pm
and then from France where people start eating around 8 pm,
I'm always fascinated by Spanish eating habits.
Around 9 pm my husband went inside a restaurant to ask if they
were serving yet. The personnel were polite, but looked absolutely
horrified. No way we were going to eat in a restaurant until 11 pm.
Fortunately we stumbled across a tapas place down the street.
Saved ! We were so hungry and so happy to have found
someplace to eat that we ordered too many tapas -
potato tapas, wonderful regional ham, squid, cheese, fried
fish - little bites of wonderful tastes. And I wondered : Are the
tapas the meal ? A little appetizer before the meal ? How many do
they eat in that case ? And how do they stay slim ? The same
questions people ask me about the French !
Truth be told, it's relaxing to be in a country
where you understand a bit of the language but not too much, and
revel in customs you don't comprehend. In
Spain, I catch a few phrases and words but the rest is a pleasant
mystery. In France, I understand everything
that's going on - and conversations
are no longer a mystery. Now that I can read their lips and
understand what they're saying, I know that when
two French people are earnestly putting their heads together in a
café, they're more likely to be talking about their
latest great meal or the juiciest gossip at work than they are about
existentialism (although the French are indeed big on philosophical
conversations).
As for the dinner hour, by the time I left Spain, I was starting to
catch on. Dinner at midnight - why not ?!
La Rentrée and Sego and Sarko
Vacation can't, unfortunately, last forever so
it's back to France where the dinner hour is
earlier and I understand what's going on.
The big news in French politics these days is, of course, the
« Sarko Sego » match. « Sarko », or
Sarkozy, is the front-running contender on the right in the race for
president, « Sego » or Segolène, is the leading
female contender on the left.
Considering that the French presidential elections
won't take place until next May,
I'm seriously wondering how these two are going
to retain their appeal and how the general public will keep itself
from emitting one big yawn after seeing their faces almost daily for
8 straight months.
For the moment, Segolène is immensely popular
(she's bright, pretty, and a woman) but so far
she's managed to avoid spelling out a program
or engaging in debates. Her other main problem is that her fellow
Socialists are far from universally accepting her and are, even as I
pen these words, setting traps to trip her up. Sarkozy, on the other
hand, has a clear-cut program and ideas, clearly based on
bringing back law and order to this decidedly indisciplined
society. One of his ideas, for example, is to re-establish the
authority of professors. If he's elected, students
will stand when teachers enter the classroom. This used to be
common practice in France but has fallen by the wayside. In my
opinion, he should also require students to wear uniforms while
he's at it - but unfortunately no
one's asked me my opinion.
The two have another problem to contend with : the « people-
ization » of French politics. Gone are the days when you
knew next to nothing about the private lives of French politicians.
« Sego » and « Sarko » may complain about
the media sticking its nose into their business but both of them
asked for it early on : Segolène invited photographers to
the clinic where her daughter was born so all of France could
admire mother and child ; Sarkozy was only too willing to show off
his attractive wife until it backfired - she left him, but has since
returned. Segolène has never married her partner with
whom she has four children, and Sarkozy's
tumultuous private life has been played out blow by terrible blow
in front of the cameras.
All very titillating, but nothing to base a vote on.
The French, who up until now have shunned American-style politics
involving wife and family, seem to be headed for exactly the same - with a decidedly French twist.
Paris Is Home
So here I am back in Paris for the rentrée and in
spite of all the inevitable problems of the « back to
school », « back to work » entry into real life,
there is some good news. One, the number of dogs in Paris has
diminished 22 per cent over the last four years which could happily
result inÉ.22 per cent less dog poop in the streets. Who can argue
with that ? Two, I just learned that one of the neighborhood
cafés I frequent has changed hands : the new owners, a
Normand and an Auvergnat, are opening a non-smoking
restaurant/café. I can hardly believe the good news. A
smoke-free haunt in Paris !
Spain oozes with sights and sounds that intrigue me and
I'll go back as often as I can. A great place for a
vacation from France !
But Paris - well, Paris, even with its dogs and smokers
and non-inspiring politicians, is home.
Harriet Welty Rochefort is the author of
French Toast: An American in Paris Celebrates the Maddening Mysteries of the French and
French Fried: The Culinary Capers of an American in Paris.
French Toast was hailed by the Los Angeles Times as "wise and devastatingly
funny".
For world-famous chef Alain Ducasse, her second book French Fried
"in a lively and hilarious style ... gives an inside look at the world of
French cuisine and wine." Both books are published by St. Martin's Press.
"French Toast" will be published in French by Editions Ramsay in April 2005.
Harriet is currently working on her third book about the French.
For more information about Harriet and her ideas and reflections about France
click
here.
Editor's Note:
Dear Readers, while our writers are always
delighted to hear and to receive comments, both about their columns in the The Paris Kiosque,
as well as your experiences in Paris,
they are unable to answer requests for travel information.
Thank you for your understanding.
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