Place Beaubourg (Ninth Sunday in Paris)

Sunday, November 4. I'm feeling much better today, although tired as I stayed up until 2 a.m. looking at apartments online! Also, after a cloudy beginning, the sun is now shining. I'm starting to think I should make a list of what I want to do before I leave. I'm having lunch with Ursuline on Tuesday and my "afternoon of pampering" at the Georges V spa on Wednesday so I'm going to have to do some definite planning to fit everything in! Also, Anna (daughter of friend Marie) is going to be in Paris this week so will want to spend some time with her.

I spend the afternoon watching the ever-changing show at the Place Beaubourg (the big square in front of the Pompidou Centre). There are several different "performance" spaces so it's hard to keep up with everything at once. Each performer defines his or her space by laying down a long piece of rope. The audience understands that it is to stand or sit behind this "line" so as not to intrude on the space, for reasons of both safety and visibility. Finally I just settle in for a while, sitting on the cobblestones to watch the performers who put on a show basically by engaging various members of the audience in their routines. Some of them are hilariously funny. At one point, there seem to be a thousand people watching one performer, and the laughter just echoes around the square. It's school vacation week in France so lots and lots of families.

At a little before 5, I walk up the r. Saint Martin to the Maison de la Poesie (it's in the Passage Moliere) as I'm hoping to see a performance by Jacques Bonnaffe of the works of Jean-Pierre Verheggen (a Belgian poet). However, I've goofed on the dates: it doesn't start until the 21st of November. Rats.

So I wander back to the Place Beaubourg to watch one of the many "artists" doing business here (along with the usual charicaturists); he creates pictures out of the letters in names, and he has the biggest crowd around him. He's Asian, and there's an older Asian man with him who speaks some French, collects the money and explains the drill. It's simple, you write one or more names on a lined pad of paper, one name to a line. When your name reaches the top of the list, the artist does it, you pay your money, and you carry off your creation very carefully as the paint is still wet! The artist never looks up, he just goes from one name to the next. When one is finished, he unclips the paper, hands it to the customer and begins the next one. He uses several different "brushes" (they aren't really brushes, they look almost like very wide markers) and has a small paint tray of basic colors (red, green, blue, yellow) out of which he can make every color in the spectrum. His hands just fly. It is fascinating to watch the letters materialize before your eyes. There are various birds, including a peacock, different fish, bamboo. He even manages to work in an Eiffel Tower for an "A."

As I'm waiting for my "name" to reach the top of the list, a French family stops to have their children's names done as well (Margot, a little girl of about 8 and Quentin, a young man about 12, I would guess). Margot is so excited she can hardly stand still ! (She's thrilled that her name contains an "A" so she will get an Eiffel Tower!) Naturally, I end up in conversation with the parents and, as I've decided to add another name to the list, I'm there until Margot and Quentin's names are finished. They are from the eastern part of France, Alsace, and are visiting Paris for a few days with les enfants.

Dinner at the Grizzli Cafe: Veloute de fenouil, salade with eggplant, sun-dried tomatoes, olives and profiteroles for dessert! Janet calls from the US as I'm resting between courses, wanting to see how I'm feeling after the disappointment of yesterday. It's wonderful to hear from her.