Soccer Juggler at Montmartre

Nancy, Karen, and Don watched this young man do wonders with a soccer ball for about 45 minutes. Here is a short segment that show off his ball handling abilities. This is an example of the sort of thing that one can encounter at Montmartre in Paris.

Enjoy!

Montmartre Vine Festival

Montmartre, a hilly area of Paris, was from early history covered with vineyards. Because of lack of good transportation to bring the “better wines” into Paris, the local vineyards produced the wine for the local taverns and cabarets. About the time the early 20th century transportation had improved and wine could be brought in from other areas, the plant lice had about decimated the vineyards in Montmartre. Most vineyards were then used for other purposes.

In the 1920’s a group of artists decided to start a project to turn one sloping piece of property back into a small vineyard. The vineyard was planted in 1933 and the first harvest was in 1934. This area is not large….probably about ½ of a block by USA standards, but it contains 2000 vine plants which produce about 1,700 half liter bottles of wine a year. Regretfully, this is not available for purchase, but is all auctioned off for charities in the Montmartre area. (Some people say that this is not all bad as the wine is not very drinkable anyway!!!)

Parisians hardly need an excuse for a celebration, but each October they have a wine festival in Montmartre, timed to the arrival of the new wine. This celebration includes parades, booths, fireworks, musical events, food, drink (of course) and just general festivities. This year it was called the “Montmartre Fete Les Trois Baudits which interprets as the “Montmartre Festival of the Three Mules”!!! I’m not sure if the parade was dedicated to the mules, but there were three of them leading the parade….

As we were making our way up to the Montmartre “hill” we happened onto the parade viewing stand which was also where the parade would begin. Hundreds of costumed people were milling around and with different instruments tuning up, it was a great time watching just that. Also, before the parade began there was a stunt group that made several human pyramids climbing up each others backs until they were 5 or 6 “stories” tall. There were lots of cheers for this.

The parade was an exciting, festive affair with ‘wine tasting knighthoods’, ‘wine brotherhoods’, local growers (some of which were passing out wine samples), bands, and other beautifully costumed people.

Montmartre I

The word Montmartre itself means hill of bones and there was found a burial ground full of bones that were assumed to be Christian martyrs atop the hill. But the year 250 AD something happened that has been talked about ever since. When St. Denis brought Christianity to Paris he was decapitated as his thanks, but he apparently picked up his head and walked about 6 miles to a place that is now known as St Denis. Believe it or not!!! there are statues all over Paris of St Denis with his head resting in the crook of his arm….including on the front of Notre Dame.

About 1100 the church of St Pierre de Montmartre (St Peters) was built atop the hill where it still stands and in 1534 it was in this area that St. Ignatius Loyola founded the Jesuit movement. There was a large nunnery here also that largely attended the vineyards in the area.

By the 1850’s during the time that Baron Haussman was tearing apart the Paris area and replacing it with the wide, straight streets that we know today, many people were relocated to the outskirts of the city. One of these places of relocation was the Montmartre area which increased the population of that area tremendously. After the Paris Commune political affair of 1871 (google it) the beautiful Sacre Coeur was built in 1876 of gleaming white stone and remains an outstanding church monument to this day.

You may know that in the 1900’s Montmartre became the gathering place for artists. Many lived and worked in this area where they could live with their modest income. Today it is still somewhat of an “artist’s colony” but much more. It has several large spaces where street musicians, artists and performers can “do their thing” and collect a few tips/fees for a later day. In front of the Sacre Coeur is a favorite place because it is a series of steps and flat places that can be used as a sitting and performing areas. On the weekend is a favorite time to go as you can enjoy a wide variety of talent and eat a decent meal without spending a lot of money. Too bad that lots of people have discovered this, but this adds a new dimension….people watching!!!

Chateau de Baronville

In late September Don had a wedding for a young French lady and her fiancé, a man from North America. The wedding was held at the American Church in Paris on an early Saturday afternoon. After that all the guests (including us), except those who had cars, were bussed out about 30 miles southwest of Paris for the reception and dinner. The “party” part of the wedding was held at the Chateau de Baronville. We had all brought along an overnight bag as we were spending the night at the castle!!!

This was a grand experience for us!!! We have attended some elegant dinners in hotels, etc in Paris, but this was very special. While the bride and groom and their young adult friends all stayed in the actual castle, the rest of us stayed in a complete refurbished carriage house that overlooked the grounds and the castle.


After a champagne reception with lots of goodies on the lawn/patio, we were served a 6 course French type dinner in an elegantly decorated reception/dining room area.(There were 110 guests in total although some didn’t spend the night.) The dinner lasted over five hours and at 2am we finally tucked ourselves into bed. The music/dancing lasted until 5am I’m told, and the next morning some of young adults looked as if they hadn’t made it to bed at all.

Wedding cakes in France are a different sort. They are made usually out of macaroon cookies or cream puffs attached to a large cone with sparklers on top. On this occasion the cake arrived after 15 minutes of real fireworks that were set off over the lake near the chateau. What drama!!! and then eagerness for a bit of the cake and servings from the buffet dessert table.

Chateau de Baronville has quite a history with occupation of the land from Roman times. In the middle ages it was a fortified (with moat, etc.) manor house and passed down among seven families to the present day. After a very large house burned in 1867, the present chateau was built. The chateau was built in “Second Empire” style and adjectives to describe that would be symmetrical, rectangular and steep roof.



During WWI the chateau was used as a hospital and the Germans used it as headquarters during the early part of WWII. Later in the war it was used as a French orphanage. By 1975 it was being redecorated and was open for the publics use in 1980.

Needless to say this was a thrilling weekend for us and it seemed as if the beautiful fall weather had been planned just for the occasion.

Illegal Metro Music

There are many things that happen on the metro. But one that always surprises you is when all of a sudden you hear music in the metro car….and somehow this seems to always be behind you. As you twist your head around to take a peek, there is usually a male playing on some type of portable instrument. You don’t want to seem too interested because later when he takes a collection he will wait longer in front of you expecting a tip!!! Sometimes the performer has just the instrument and other times he will have a battery and some type of electrical accompanying device on a cart that he pulls with him.

Some of these entertainers are quite good and you don’t mind giving them a coin or two. Others need to use the money, if collected, to have a few lessons. But all of them are trying to earn a living, of sorts, instead of begging on the street

The little girl in the picture with the accordion player was so interested and tried to put her hand up to assist the musician. All in all, I find the musicians quite pleasant and a diversion from the clickity clack of the wheels on the track. Although I might change my mind, if the baritone horn and accompanying music has been on my car the other day. I could hear them three cars away and can only imagine how loud it was in the car with them.

Eiffel Tower

You just never know what you’ll see when you look at the Eiffel Tower. Normally it is a taupe color that turns to light golden with the lights at night. Last year they changed the lights to blue for six months in celebration of France being the president of the European Union. It sparkled blue with gold stars to mimic the European flag at night.


So, I wasn’t too surprised the other evening to see that the top part of the tower that we can see from our apartment window was a stark white instead of golden. The lights were placed to almost look like they were spiraling around the tower. But, an even bigger surprise came when we walked over to the tower and the legs were red!!! Why, we wondered.

Well, it was a gesture by the Paris Municipality to welcome the Turkish President Abdullah Gul when he arrived on October 6 to attend the opening of the exhibition “Istanbul through the Ages” which is being held at the Grand Palais.


The red/white lights lasted 6 days and now they are back to the comfortable light gold at night. What color will they be next???

UNESCO

UNESCO was having it's annual full membership meeting at the headquarters here in Paris. UNESCO...also known as the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization....was founded in 1946 and was ratified by 20 countries at that time. It was the result of countries, mostly European, looking for ways and means to reconstruct their systems of education once peace was restored.

While continuing its emphasis on education it has now branched into areas of natural science, social and human science, culture, communication and information with some special themes from time to time. There are now 193 member states and 7 associate members from around the globe.

Several of the members of the American Church work at UNESCO....including top and mid level positions and secretaries. One of the ladies promised to let us know when the meeting was "in full swing" and all the flags were out. (Part of the UNESCO building is in the background).

It really was a heart warming experience to see the different countries that are represented and know that they are all talking to each other about the common welfare of the world's peoples. (The large open metal globe is in the courtyard of the UNESCO complex)