The French Journal

Chilling out in the Pas de Calais

My vacations in France are not unstructured; while I'm not manic, I am "on-task," making the most of my annual week or so to see new sites, visit old faves, find restaurants, and walk, tour, walk. Sure, I'm relaxed -- this is activity of the most pleasurable kind for me -- and there are afternoons just wandering in and out of bookstores on the Boulevards Saint-Michel and Saint-Germaine, but, for the most part, it's not precisely down time.

A folksy story in the The Times (U.K.) about a sojourn in the Seven Valleys of the Pas de Calais demonstrates a different approach. A couple with baby rent a low-cost farmhouse in a "provincial backwater," and their days are filled with planning meals and --- it would seem -- little else. The story offers details that make you want to melt, like a mobile bakery which shows up on the visitors' doorstep every day to supply fresh bread and croissants. Perhaps I exaggerate the ease of the week -- there are visits to local villages and a memorable trip to a market. If desired, opportunities to explore the culture exist, like Agincourt, the Jardins de Valloires ("all Louis XIV in their symmetry and ostentation"), and Montreuil. Yet overall, it's a vision of a stay in France, in a less-traveled region, of the sort I don't allow myself, more akin to the time I might spend nearby on Cape Cod.

Another scenario to dream of...

Autumn, somber nombrilisme, and possible antidotes

October is the best month of the year in Boston. The days are still warm, the air is crisp and clear, the leaves colorful but not yet demanding a rake. The students who had returned last month (and who live near me) have released the exuberance that built up over the summer and have begun to exercise tentative control of their impulses. The Sox are winning, the Patriots are winning, energy is high. Life is good.

On the other hand, due to sad memories from my childhood during the first week of October, I usually fall into a mild seasonal affective disorder. Nothing serious, just a touch here and there of melancholy and disproportion. Using a wide-angle lens, political news (this week: Iran, torture, and child health care) makes me angst-y because I'm not chaining myself to the gates of the White House. If I put my universe under the microscope, typos become a reason for self-flagellation. Somewhere in the middle, professional situations make my mind swirl with martyrdom scenarios and conspiracy theories. Life sucks.

To combat my symptoms (which don't last too long, but whatever), I'm going dig into my trunk of Francophilia and find reasons to be cheerful.

• Funny Face. This musical with Fred Astaire and Audrey Hepburn running around Paris to a Gershwin score has been restored and re-released on DVD in a special 50th anniversary edition. I just posted this trailer a few months ago, but I need it again.
• Sarko's love letter. There was an incident in which a handwritten letter that was photographed in the hands of the omnipresident was blown up and determined to be some kind of love letter (The Guardian, UK). To no one's surprise, it was not in Cécilia's handwriting. A female friend of Cécilia's has claimed authorship, saying that it was written to France's First Lady and is totally innocent. Sarkozy doesn't do "totally innocent" well these days, but in my current state of mind the silliness of the story certainly beats the EADS scandal in promoting a move toward "bon courage."
• We'll Always Have Paris. A book by Harvey Levenstein that I've just started, well-written and gossipy, about American tourists in Paris since 1930. It remarks on a time when there were so many U.S. visitors to France that the "Place Vendôme was 'the most beautiful square in America.'" Then of course, the Depression hit, and the exchange rate went to hell, just like...wait! I'm supposed to be cheering myself up.
• A Foodie Froggie in Paris. A French woman writing in English about Paris, food, and other things I love. She's been stopping by The French Journal and offering some inside views, which reminds me of one reason I love blogging: you meet kindred spirits. 
• 48 hours in Lille. This little travel article from The Independent (U.K.) is one that I've been meaning to blog for awhile. Nothing like learning about an as-yet unvisited French city to generate pleasurable daydreams; Lille is "...worth a visit at any time of the year, but especially in autumn when walking the cobbled streets can be interspersed with pauses for coffee in the colourful squares."
• Building my vocabulary through music. Balladeer Michael Feinstein sings a cute song called "Patisserie" that buoyed me during my morning walk. Elementary French language teachers will love it.:

Okay, now that I've given myself several reasons to be happy, I'm going to hide in the closet for awhile to avoid anything that will negate them. See you later when I emerge for a glass of wine.

Arras: More history of WWI

In an article yesterday, I referred to towns that had been rebuilt after being destroyed in WWI. Arras is one of those towns. A reporter for The Times (London) reports that the restoration is exemplary, and he evokes none of the feelings of heaviness which characterized yesterday's piece about the Meuse-Argonne vicinity, even thought Arras is in the middle of WWI territory and memorials. A new tourist attraction is about to open there: The Wellington Quarries (pictured).

"Over two months in 1916, more than 400 Maoris working for the New Zealand Quarrying Company, tunnelled over 7km to join up medieval chalk mines to form a 24km network of tunnels that extended east of Arras and beyond the no-man’s-land that separated the German and Allied lines...Visitors will enter the network at the Wellington Quarry visitor centre, which has been designed and built half submerged to capture the subterranean essence of the exhibit. Once inside, a glass lift will transport small groups of visitors down a further 20 metres to the tunnels where a guide will take them on a 350m circuit of part of the network."

While the war sites are primary, Arras also offers the other kinds of attractions that one hopes for in France: a museum, squares and parks made for strolling, and a major Christmas fair. For a sample, there is Arras Web TV, with lots of little videos in French for you to watch.

Regions of France: Nord-Pas-de-Calais

Next up in my oft-delayed series of region-by-region overviews is Nord-Pas-de-Calais in the far north of France. Its position on the border of Belgium gives it some unique characteristics: pockets of Flemish culture; a major city -- Lille -- that's within 200 kilometers of six European capitals; status as a major point of entry, thanks to the Chunnel.

Much more information on Nord-Pas-de-Calais follows the jump.

Biking off the cliffs in Calais (almost literally)

If The Guardian is to be believed (and there's no reason not to), the town of Calais is one of those parts of France that most people view as somewhere you have to drive through in order to get to the real, better destination. However, to challenge that perception, writer Gavin McOwan took up a bargain offer to tour the Calais vicinity in northern France by bicycle, and he declares it to be "one of the most scenic stretches of coastline anywhere in France." He dipped into seafood restaurants, rode on the "firm wet sand where dozens of kitesurfers were at play," and took a side trip into the Parc Naturel du Caps with its "idyllic, pastoral scenery." And when traveling off-road for a moment, he nearly goes over a cliff. Not being a pedaler myself, this tour may not make the top of my list, yet I might be tempted to visit there someday...on my way to Lille.

Weekend Truc #4: Lille travel hints

There's an article from Travel + Leisure via CNN about Lille, dedicated mostly to the basics: hotels, restaurants, shopping, and not much travel writing about the city itself. But if you're thinking of going there someday, it's a clipping for the folder. For added flavor, try the official Lille tourism site, where there's a slightly frantic video with clips of the town's sites and activities.

48 Hours in Lille

The Independent from the U.K. continues its regular coverage of French tourism with this article on spending 48 hours in Lille, the city in France closest to the U.K. Among the attractions in the city these days are:

• Lille 3000, a festival which occurs every two years, and which adopts a theme from somewhere around the globe. This year, India's culture permeates the atmosphere of the town.
• The Christmas Market, which is in full swing, complete with lights and concerts.
• The Musee des Beaux Arts, one of the finest national museums outside of Paris, and the Hospice Comptess (fr), which features local history and an outstanding collection of art and porcelain.
• The charms of Vieux Lille (fr), the historic district of the city, with its bars, restaurants, galleries, and museums.