Final Campaign Meeting Paris

Since I often don't have much to do in the office, I translated a Le Monde article about the meeting I attended last night. It was a fun and interesting show. Quand l'Europe veut, l'Europe peut!

At the UMP, the final show on a note of unity
Le Monde, June 5, 2009

The UMP teams had worked on the set-up for several weeks. The bar was set high: the last meeting at Porte de Versailles in Paris, Thursday, June 4, was meant to be the final act of the campaign. “The most beautiful,” assured Xavier Bertrand, the Secretary-General of the UMP, so that the activists and citizens retain only these last images, three days before the vote. To succeed with its final flourish, after a wheezing and FALOTE campaign, the UMP looked to Serge Khalfon, director of Thierry Ardisson’s show and the Guignols de l’info and a specialist in election parties.

After hesitating with the Palais des sports, the UMP eventually decided on Pavilion 6 of the Parc des expositions, a completely convertible room, where Nicolas Sarkozy’s victory was “made” in 2007. This because they needed to create a “mass” feel, to erase the bad memories of the meetings in Lille and Lyon, where the overlarge gages gave the impression of sparse attendance.

The installation of the stage was conceived as follows: in the form of a T, the speakers were surrounded by activists, “5,000” according to Xavier Bertrand, doubtless fewer. The scriptwriters left nothing to chance: certainly not the music, with young singers from a Hauts-de-Seine school performing the European anthem and musicians playing on the bagpipes, accordion, and mandolin Edith Piaf’s L’Hymne à l’amour.

Symbolism was not forgotten, with the heads of the party’s lists signing, one by one, on stage, an immense plaque meant to record the candidates’ seven promises, including the refusal of the entry of Turkey, the fight against illegal immigration, and the obligation for future Euro deputies to be “present in parliament and in their regions.”

Even the placement of the representatives of the majority – Eric Besson, Hervé Morin, Jean-Marie Bockel, Xavier Bertrand – at the four corners of the stage, and that of the members of the cabinet and of parliament summoned en masse and seated among the spectators, was meticulously managed. Finally, the remarks given by the heads of the lists had been learned by heart, to avoid the gaffes of the beginning of the campaign, with Rachida Dati. “Everything was regulated down to the wearing of socks,” mocked Eric Besson.

“I NEED THEM”

The image of the last UMP meeting must first be that of unity, unity of the majority enlarged to the centre and to the left and united around the head of state, against “divided,” “confused,” “shamed by internal quarrels,” according to François Fillon.

Absent from the party, Nicolas Sarkozy was applauded throughout the meeting. “I had the President of the Republic on the telephone a while ago. He told me: ‘send them a simple message from me: I need them,’” Xavier Bertrand told the activists. Several clips glorifying the head of state and the French presidency of the European Union punctuated the meeting. Wednesday, in a cabinet meeting, Nicolas Sarkozy scolded his ministers who, in his eyes, had not sufficiently implicated themselves in the election.

Prime Minister François Fillon made an effort to laud him, describing his “pride” in “serving the President of the Republic because, in the face of the storm, he is the man of the situation.” Although it had largely campaigned around the outcome of Nicolas Sarkozy’s European policy, the UMP claims to be the only party “talking about Europe.”

“On the extreme left,” Mr. Fillon noted ironically, “the European vision is nothing more than a copy of the Marxist Internationale! On the extreme right, they still dream of a Europe bristling with border stations even though France figures among the largest agricultural and industrial exporters in the world! At MoDem, every day is the presidential election. As for the Socialist Party, it is staying true to itself: divided and hesitant.”

The only wrong note in the show was the absence of Jean-François Copé, the head of the UMP group in the National Assembly and rival of Xavier Bertrand who, last week, set for the majority’s lists a minimum floor of 25%.

Niger Blog

Hi guys,
Sorry for utterly failing to keep this blog updated throughout the semester. Anyone who sees this for whatever reason is welcome to follow my adventures this summer in Niger at http://news.haverford.edu/blogs/cpgc-niger/

Take care!

Barcelona, España

Yesterday morning, Janet, Liz, Benji, Brian et moi woke up at the crack of dawn to take the RER out to Charles de Gaulle to catch our flight to Barcelona. It was my first EasyJet experience, and it was a pretty good one, except for not being able to sleep well. Who knew they sold lotto tickets on airplanes??

Barcelona's airport looks awesome on the inside, and the whole Spanish thing made it exciting. We took Barça's equivalent of the RER train downtown. We were in some serious countryside for a while, nothing but farms and shack-style houses. Then we got into a banlieue feel, which honestly looked pretty Latin American and pobre. Once in the city, we transferred to the metro and went to our hostel.

The hostel we're staying in is lovely and clean, with a friendly, helpful staff. And no curfew. After settling in, we set off around noon in search of our first Spanish meal. Noon is actually almost too early to eat lunch in Spain, where people eat much later than in the U.S. or even in France. We found a place with sandwiches and had a great time explaining to the server that Benji doesn't eat carne. Once i pointed at him and said "No Carne", she informed us of Benji's lunch selection: the vegetarian sandwich that represented the only non-meat selection on the four page menu.

After lunch, we took the metro to the marina, which is fantastic and wonderful and makes me homesick. They have a really cool wooden pier/bridge deal going on down there, and basking in the sun was like seeing an old friend. We then walked into town, admiring the pretty buildings and cool architecture. There is an area full of gothic architecture, which is my fave, so that was extremely exciting. They also have an arc de triomf (approximation of the Catalan spelling). Then we checked out a really cool apartment building designed by Gaudí, Barcelona's most famous architect. Photo ops galore.

After wandering around at length, we bought a tub of gelatto and ate it on a bench. Excellent idea. Then it was time for a nice siesta, we went out to get tapas for dinner. We didn't end up being seated until 23h. Yeah, 11 at night. That's pretty late. But it was worth it. The food was good, the atmosphere was really fun.

Next morning, we got up decently early and grabbed some croissants and café nearby. Ordering in Spanish is surprisingly NOT as easy as ordering in French. And when I say surprisingly, I mean unsurprisingly. Our interactions with the employees at the café were comical.

From there we stopped by the city museum of Barcelona, which includes an audio tour of the Roman ruins under the site. Similar to learning about Lutece (Roman Paris), but nonetheless very interesting. Next we went to a place called the Sagrada Familia. REALLY COOL. Apparently, since the end of the 19th century they've been building a massive naturalist, art nouveau cathedral in Barcelona, also designed by Gaudi. WHO KNEW? Probs tons of people, but not me.

That night, we decided to head to the Carnaval parade. Carnaval being the celebration, before Lent starts on Wednesday, where everyone goes crazy and wears strange costumes. Can't miss that right? Because Barcelona isn't a main international Carnaval tourism destination, the parade was actually very local, which made it really cool. They had a series of groups representing neighborhoods in Barcelona. One of them was a cool Colombian theme. One of them was some freaky naked people and red paint. One of them was "Thriller." N.B. When in Spain, buy churros. Or xurros as they say in Catalan. They're the crêpes of Spain, and they rock.

After a chic Barcelona dinner, we met up with a group of people staying at our hostel's sister hostel across town and followed the hostel guy into a club for free, where he then bought us each a glass of champagne. The music was all Spanish/Latin, which was fun but nullified our American dancing skills. Luckily, our information was correct and the metro was still running around 3:30 when we got tired.

Next morning, after a delicious croissant con chocolate, we trekked to Park Guell, beautifully designed by Gaudí and absolutely swarming with tourists. The trip involved the metro, numerous outdoor escalators, and a great deal of hiking up and down the big hill the park crowns. It was worth it though, since the park gave us panoramic views of the entire city and had interesting architecture to boot.

By the time we finished there, it was time to head to the airport for our flight to Granada. Description of Granada coming soon!

La visite de Jacqueline

This weekend my dear friend, Jacqueline, traveled approximately 234,234,754,173 miles (from Bretagne, northwestern France) all the way to Paris to visit her friends in Paris. Once she had seen all of them, she had time to kill and called me up.

We basically walked for 2 days, and came across an awesome variety of cool things in Paris. We met up Saturday after lunch and I took Jac to my sweet apt. to show off my view of the Eiffel Tower and introduce her to my host mom, who likes her because they both live in Brittany (kinda).

Day one of our walking tour of Paris included the Eiffel Tower and a long stretch of the Left Bank, hot chocolate and my first visit to Gilbert Jaune, an enormous bookstore where I bought a copy of L'Etranger that I have been enjoying since.

Day two took us to the Jeu du Pomme art gallery in the Tuileries garden, where we got free admission thanks to Jac's friend of a friend. The exhibition consisted of two French photographers, one of whom focused mainly on the United States, and the other of whom was weird as all get out. Very cultured. From there we checked out the Place de la Concorde, which I had never really spent time in. Most of Paris's major landmarks are visible from Concorde; the Eiffel Tower, Invalides, etc. line the horizon, plus you can see all the way down the Champs Elysées through the Arc de Triomphe and the modernist Grande Arche at La Défense.

We then hit up the Marais for some killer falafel at L'As du Falafel, endorsed by Lenny Kravitz. Lenny wouldn't lie; it's very good. (Still, I later visited the much less popular falafel stand across the street and found their falafel to be just as good without the wait. You gotta try L'As Du, though. I mean, come on, Lenny Kravitz.) After lunch, Jac's friend Lenaïc drove us (very well, I might add) to the Mosquée de Paris, where we gave ourselves a little self-guided tour. It was my first time in a mosque, and I really wished Professor Zadeh was there to explain everything to me.

Leaving the mosque, we happened to notice a massive park across the street, the Jardin des Plantes. Apart from having a sweet labyrynth (i.e. a spiral pathway to the top of a gazebo-capped hill), the Jardin also includes WALLABIES. Who knew? Next we walked to the Panthéon (awesome) and along the way saw remnants of Paris's 12th century city wall, the Enceinte de Philippe Auguste. From there we went to have tea with Jacqueline's old host family from her study abroad semester in Paris. They were lovely and I managed to understand them during our conversation. Win.

We tried to hit up a sweet restaurant Jac found at Trocadéro, but after a lengthy voyage we realized it was closed due to a major disaster? a national holiday? No, just because most places in France are closed every Sunday. Lucky for us, we managed to find possibly the best deal I've gotten in Paris (rivaled only by my 24 euro dress shoes that I wear constantly): menu crêpe in St. Michel - 1 jambon fromage oeuf, 1 banane nutella, 1 bouteille of cider = 6 euros! Unbelievable deal, which I will surely take advantage of many times this semester.

After 3,253,436,235,423 kilometers walked and many sights seen, Jac went back to (boring) Bretagne and I kept living my (exciting) life in Paris. I can't wait to visit Bretagne though!

Encore deux semaines

Courses

I am planning to take three courses this semester, plus an internship for credit. Two of my courses are Sweet Briar courses, meaning they are taught by French professors at the Sweet Briar program office (which is in the Alliance Française building in the 6ème arrondisement. The other course is at Paris III, one of the public universities.

My first class is Atelier d'écriture — a grammar class, but the best one I've ever taken — and the History of Paris through its monuments, which is divided into one classroom session and one visit to a Parisian historical monument each week. I also have started taking a third SBC course about France and Europe since 1945, which is a backup political science class in case the French university goes on strike.

At Paris III, I'm hoping to take l'Europe et ses nations, 1914-1945, which is basically the same class as I'm taking at SBC, except it covers the two world wars instead of the postwar period. I had my first class Tuesday, which was extremely intimidating because a) it was my first time in a room full of 20-year-old French kids and b) they changed the meeting day of the class without telling us, so another SBC student and I missed the first class. It turned out that the professor was very nice and used to having lots of international students, so he is fairly accomodating and often explains vocabulary words by giving synonyms... even when the vocab terms are laughably easy for anglophones (e.g. he defined the word rudimentary).

The class was quite large, and many kids kept talking through the beginning of the class. The professor actually had to tell people to be quiet multiple times. This reinforces my general impression that French kids get babied by their parents even as teenagers and 20-somethings, so when they get to class, they continue to behave immaturely. At one point, Prof Delauney explained how Americans overreacted to 9/11 because compared with WWI, not that many people died. Welcome to France.

Strikes

For the last couple of weeks, we have been brusquely introduced to the world of national strikes. There was a strike Thursday that affected public transportation (although it didn't really have any effect on me). More significantly, on Monday a national coalition of university professors voted to call for a "grève illimitée" (unlimited strike) throughout the country. I nonetheless had my first Paris III class Tuesday, but we're still not sure if the class will be disrupted, requiring me to take a third Sweet Briar course.

Historical Places

Of course, being in Paris I have had the opportunity to visit a number of very cool historical areas, mostly with my Sweet Briar history professor, M. Peigné. During orientation, we visited Île de la Cité (the larger of the two islands in the middle of the Seine, upon which the city of Paris was founded). On the Île de la Cité are located the infamous and ultra-gorgeous Notre Dame de Paris as well as the fantastically stained-glass-ornamented Sainte-Chappelle. We also visited the Basilique Saint-Dénis, where are buried almost every French king since Clovis I (who ruled around the year 500). Partly because it's in the poorer area of St. Dénis (originally a separate city, now a banlieue/suburb of Paris), the church is in need of some restoration, but it's still awesome.

I've also visited two châteaux, Versailles (just southwest of Paris) and Vincennes (on the eastern edge of the city). Versailles is a grand palace, with huge gardens that I avoided due to extremely inclement weather. Vincennes is a medieval castle, a true military castle with a moat and drawbridge and keep and everything. It was the first castle I've ever been to, so it was really cool to see.

Also of note is the weather. Winter is in full effect here, and M. Peigné's visits, while engaging, informative, etc. are also mostly outdoors. I guess eventually I'll get used to spending 2 hours in the freezing cold...

Of Montreal and Casio Kids

So Janet, who excels in organizing activities, found out a while ago that Of Montreal was coming to Paris. Since they are American and we are too, we obviously went. It was a great time, surrounded by jumping French high school girls. The opening band, Casio Kids, was awesome too, and I had a nice little chat with one of the members after the show - nice guy. They're from Norway, but fortunately Norwegians all speak English! Check them out:


Teaching English

Starting tomorrow, I'm going to be an English teaching assistant at St. Jean de Passy, an all-ages Catholic school a 5 min. métro ride across the Seine from here.

Deux semaines à Paris

Whew. It's been two weeks since I arrived in Paris. That's in France. In those deux semaines, I've visited museums, palaces, cathedrals, gardens, and cafes, met new friends, spoken French, seen the Eiffel Tower countless times (it's right out my window), and even patted the shoulder of my personal hero, Nicolas Sarkozy, le Président de la République Française!

Life in France is terrific. For example, I'm watching a great movie on TV right now where a French-speaking Mel Gibson is leading a battallion of French-speaking American rebels in battle against the French-speaking British army. WHERE ELSE COULD I DO THAT? Nowhere but France. (It's called Le Patriote, in case you'd like to see it.)

I'm living with a French host family--a woman named Patricia and, every other weekend, her 15-year-old son Dorian. We live in a lovely 6th floor (a.k.a. 7th floor) apartment in the Dupleix neighborhood of the 15th arrondisement (district of Paris). The view out of my window is the Eiffel Tower. FUN FACT: It lights up at night and sparkles for five minutes every hour. It turns off at 1 AM. I use it as a night light.

France is connected to the internets (more or less), so if you would like to contact me during my stay here, clearly the best option is Skype. My user name is nckl12n, and you can instant message, voice and video chat for free. I also have a French cell phone; the number is (+33) 06 47 61 90 65. You can mail me at this address: Sweet Briar College / 4, rue de Fleurus / 75006 Paris, France.

I have compiled a short list of differences between the USA and la belle France, drawing on my experiences so far:

1. Language - The French are extremely proud of their language, which they consider to be one of the world's two most important languages, begrudgingly second to English, the language of the "Anglo-Saxons." So far my French has held up well, and many people have told us that we speak French well. We don't believe them, but it's nice to hear anyway. My internship will be in French, as well as all my classes, so I should have ample opportunity to practice.
   
2. Politics - In the USA, Obama bested McCain by seven points. In France, that lead was 40 points. Inauguration Day was fun. The Haverford gang found an Irish bar (the cool American one was full) and watched BBC's coverage (the Britishness was annoying, but hey, they didn't dub over the speeches). The admin change is a godsend for Americans abroad, because the world finally agrees with the US on something.
   On the other hand, the French are as pro-Palestinian as Americans are pro-Israeli. I couldn't get to a metro station I wanted to take last weekend because there was an anti-Israel rally going on (complete with riot police, just one of the several demonstrations I've witnessed) complete with flag-burning.
   
3. Food - Cheese, wine, and bread are just as important as the stereotypes tell you they are. Patricia is an excellent cuisinière (cook), so I enjoy fresh-cooked, mostly bio (organic), ultra-French dinners every night. It's fantastic. Also, banana - Nutella crêpes are one of the best things that have ever happened.
   
4. Money - In France, they use a currency called the Euro, which is designed to cause products to appear less expensive than they actually are. Most things are somewhat more expensive here than in the USA, although the Euro is much better now than last summer. American credit cards often don't work here, because they don't have a puce (electronic chip) like French cards.
   
5. Fashion - The French are relentlessly fashionable. They also do not accept "tennis shoes" as non-athletic footwear. Meaning I have one pair of acceptable shoes. Fortunately, France has soldes every January (massive sales in every store), so I should be able to find some deece shoes for cheap. I also had to buy un costume (suit) for my internship, so I now own a fashionable dark grey French suit. Sadly, due to #4 above, I had to walk to a bank & withdraw over 100 euros cash to pay for my new suit. Super!
6. Public transportation - This has nothing to do with France v. USA and everything to do with suburbs v. big city, but I thought I'd include it anyway. Paris has a fantastic transportation system (when they're not on strike) featuring the metro, nice busses, and the RER - a regional rail line similar to SEPTA. There's a metro stop right in my neighborhood, so it's all very convenient.

I'm doing an internship with the European Affairs section of the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) political party. As a result, I volunteered yesterday at the UMP's Conseil National yesterday (a big plenary meeting of the party's regional councilors and treasurers, with some foreign diplomats and a few VIPs). Anyway, Prime Minister François Fillon and President Nicolas Sarkozy both gave speeches and walked within two feet of me. It was great. If you read French, here's an article about the event.

That's all I have time for, but I will be back with more (hopefully) soon. A tout à l'heure!