The Bold Soul: A Writer's Life in Paris

Shakespeare's views on elected officials

There are presidential elections going on right now in France and everywhere I go there are posters and books on Nicholas Sarkozy and Ségolène Royal. And in the U.S. we're dealing with what has turned out to be NUMEROUS early candidacy declarations for the 2008 presidential elections which means we'll be living with these annoying politicians for a LONGGGGG time. So this quote from Macbeth seemed to sum up my mood about politicians in general. Much as I recognize the importance of these elections, the behavior of people in politics while trying to get themselves elected (and the behavior of their hangers-on) leaves a sour taste in my mouth and gives me a migraine. I can't wait until the dust has settled, but it's going to be a long wait. And so, my only recourse is to vent via Shakespeare: "Fit to govern? No, not to live!" -- William Shakespeare, Macbeth 4.3.102-103 Read more →

Thou smell of mountain goat*

Introducing a new feature here at The Bold Soul: Shakespeare's Insults! When I was in London recently, I visited Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, which was really interesting and which I highly recommend, and then visited the Theatre's gift shop which I also highly recommend. Can't get to London? Shop online! Normally, I think most tourist gift shops are complete crap but this one was really excellent and included a great book and CD/DVD section as well as some really creative souvenirs that were far less tacky then one might expect. My other favorites were the Plague Rat Hand Puppets and the bottle of fake blood (caution: it stains). I came home with all kinds of cool stuff, including a long sleeved black T-shirt with a modern drawing of a skull and "Alas Poor Yorick" printed on it. (I begrudgingly left behind the beautiful velvet handbags.) My friend got several age-appropriate books and other goodies for her kids. But my favorite two take-home items were a set of refridgerator magnets and a daily calendar, both chock full of prime insults from Shakespeare's works. As a writer, I love Shakespeare for many reasons but particularly because he has a way with a good... Read more →

Redfining normal

Living in a foreign country requires that the ex-pat redefine what "normal" looks like. There is no way you can uproot your old life and plunk it down in a new culture and expect it to work, because it just won't. Adjustments must be made and your expectations of what's normal must be shifted, or you'll be very frustrated and miss out on the great overall experience of living abroad and experiencing a new culture. It's not just the language barriers (and believe me, even if you moved to another Anglophone country you'd STILL have a language barrier of sorts). It's about adjusting to a hundred different small things that you take for granted every day in your "normal" life in your native country. Take just these few examples: Changing a lightbulb. Two lightbulbs blew out in my apartment within the past two days. A no brainer, right? Uh, not so fast. They're not lamp bulbs, they're small ceiling-mounted pot lights. I could reach the one in the water closet by standing on the throne, so I figured out how to remove the old one in order to make a note of exactly what kind it was. The other, over... Read more →

Some people will park anywhere

This was actually a HALF of a car, sawed neatly down the middle, and used as the window display in a nice little food/sandwich shop in Portobello Road, Notting Hill, London. They had a tray of pizza slices in the car window. No, I didn't see Hugh Grant, sod it all -- BELIEVE me, you'd have heard about it by now if I had. Or the house with the blue door. But I did buy some books in the Travel Book Shop. Read more →

N'oubliez jamais

The Deportation Memorial in Paris. Located at the tip of the Ile de la Cité, just behind the gardens at the back of Notre Dame, this memorial is a stark and haunting reminder of the tens of thousands of French people who were deported to concentration camps during the Second World War. In this part of the memorial, this "hallway" contains a light for each of the deportees. I decided to choose this image for today, given that a Vichy collaborator, Maurice Papon, died yesterday at the age of 96 after only serving a few years in prison late in his life (and going for decades without prosecution, being a paid civil servant, and even rising to the position of budget minister before his past was "outed" in 1983. It still took 14 more years to bring him to trial.) Read more →

Center of the Universe (in France at least)

Point Zéro, the spot directly in front of Notre Dame from which all distances in France are measured (in terms of distance from Paris). Read more →

So many countries, so little time

create your own visited countries map This is where I've been in the world, to date. It's not exactly impressive as compared to what some people have been doing with their time! Geez, I'd better get a move on. Read more →

Care package

The first of the six boxes I shipped to Paris on January 15th arrived just a few minutes ago, and it feels like Christmas all over again. This box was one of the two largest, and was very heavy, so although I couldn't recall what was in it I was pretty sure it contained some books. And it did! About a dozen books ranging from French language to English tutoring materials to books about France to some good fiction (Dan Brown's Angels and Demons is tops on my "to read" list). But it also included some personal items: 3 pump-bottles of Purell hand sanitizer for the WC (so American guests don't freak out about the absence of a sink in the room); my favorite brand of deoderant (which I have since learned I can get here anyway); a big container of multivitamins (because good health is important); two whopping big bags of dried cranberries (I love them in my cereal and they're très cher here); a few small clothing items; and Breathe Right strips (now you know - I sometimes snore). And best of all -- the box brought me the rest of my DVD collection from home! And just... Read more →

Waste not, want not?

I've been pretty much glued to my computer all week, catching up on long-overdue client projects that I'd been neglecting over the past few weeks. Which is why I haven't been posting as often as I'd like, and why I still haven't bothered to download over 300 images taken last week while playing tourist with my visiting friend. But I just thought I'd share something kind of interesting I observed this afternoon. It was a nice sunny and rather mild day today, nice enough that I could open the window just a little bit to bring in some fresh air. (Apologies to my friends, family and readers who have been slammed by the horrible frigid, snowy, icy weather hitting so much of the US this week -- seriously, I'm not trying to rub it in that I haven't had to shovel any snow and have barely even SEEN snow this winter.) At one point I stood up to take a stretching break, and went over and opened the window fully, and stuck my head out to see what was going on outside. It's an itty-bitty street without much of a view so I wasn't expecting to see much of anything.... Read more →

Le Valentine

The other day, my sister asked me if the French celebrate Valentine's day. I had to think about it for a moment, because unlike in the U.S., holidays in other countries are not dominated by Hallmark and as such are celebrated in a more moderate way. I have seen some Valentine's decorations in a few store windows, but it's far more subtle than what one typically sees in the States. I have seen heart-shaped jewelry in jewelry stores, designed (presumably) to give French men a clue as to what to buy for their cheries (men are pretty clueless about gift-giving in any language). Florists are always out in abundance on every day of the week here in Paris so I can't say I've noticed anything particularly excessive in terms of them pushing their wares for Valentine's day. And I did see one sign on a church referencing "St. Valentin" which of course reminded me that this day was (more or less) originally a Saint's day, dating back to the 1400s, when a man named Valentine passed a love note to his jailer's daughter that read "From your Valentine" -- this on the night before he was about to be martyred... Read more →