Change And Reconnection

Early yesterday morning I rode Tosca, my Mercian fixed-gear bike, along the waterfronts of Astoria, Long Island City, Greenpoint and Williamsburg.  Another heat wave, like the one we had last week, was on its way.  But that was just one reason why I took an early ride.

After showering and a cup of coffee, I pedaled my "beater" to Court Square, near the much-missed (by me, anyway) Five Pointz building.  Riding there allowed me to take a more direct subway ride to Montrose Avenue in Brooklyn.

There, I met two old (OK, longtime) friends:

On previous trips to France, I've spent time with Jay and Isabelle who, I now realize, are my longest-standing friends. They came to town because their son has just begun to live and work in New Jersey, for an American branch of a company for whom he'd been working in France.

 

Meeting in Bushwick was Jay's idea.  This wasn't his or Isabelle's first time in New York--Jay actually lived here for a time--but he was looking through the Guide Routard (a sort of French counterpart of the Lonely Planet guide) for something "different."  So, as per the guide's suggestion, we started at the Montrose Street subway station, crossed Bushwick Avenue (the bane of Brooklyn cyclists) and wended our way through the back streets of a Bushwick industrial zone.

I have cycled through those streets, sometimes as a destination, other times en route to or from other places.  While I've seen buildings torn down and built up, spaces opened and closed, people and organizations coming and going, I don't think there's any neighborhood or district that shows me how much this city changes over time.  For one thing, some of the murals themselves change.  Also, I remember when the graffiti on the buildings wasn't of the kind that people like Jay and Isabelle would take a subway ride, or people like me would take a bike ride, to see. About twenty years ago, people--mostly men--worked in the warehouses and workshops during the day.  Anyone who stayed after business hours was too poor to live anyplace else.  Young people didn't move to the neighborhood; they looked for ways out of it.  And whenever I rode through it, I was the only adult cyclist for blocks, or even miles, around.

Of course, people change, too.  After a morning of wandering through one of the most expansive displays of truly public art in this city, we went to Christina's (Was our choice influenced by the mural? ;-)) in Greenpoint. It's a sort of cross between a New York/New Jersey diner--complete with Frank Sinatra and '70's pop tunes playing in the background--and a working-class eatery one might find in Cracow. I think we were the only non-Polish people in the place. Over pierogis and blintzes, we talked about their son, Jules, and how he wants to "voyager a travers  le monde"--see the world--just as we did when we were young. Actually, there are still places I want to see, and to re-visit.  But the pandemic has postponed travel plans for the past two years.  And, although I am fully vaccinated and take precautions, Jay reminded me of why I want to wait.  He and Isabelle didn't plan on coming here until a week or so before they arrived, which meant that their flights were expensive.  But, more to the point, he said that if, by some chance, he or Isabelle were to test positive and had to quarantine, or new restrictions were imposed--or a flight were abruptly cancelled--it could cost thousands of euros or dollars.

I told them that, if everything works out, I hope to return to France in January.  Seeing them gave me hope for that.  If nothing else, I felt as if I'd reconnected with what and whom I have known and loved, in all of changes and the ways they haven't changed.  

After I send this post, I will take another early ride and get home in time for brunch.

A French Lunch With Old Friends

On this visit, I've ridden more than 20 kilometers on only two of the seven days I've been here.  But cycling lots of kilometers (or miles) wasn't the point of coming to Paris, though I didn't want to go without pedaling the pave (cobblestones) as well as the paths and paved streets.

Yesterday I didn't ride at all.  I did, however, visit two more old friends who had me to their house for one of those wonderful and inimitable French lunches.  In many ways, it was the best of all worlds:  the lunch was both civilized and leisurely, and they live in a house full of sunlight in a town that feels like the country even though it's only 15 kilometers from the center of Paris.

I met Michele about 15 years ago through my late friend Janine, who lived nearby.  Since then, she re-connected with Alec, whom she met when they met in Spain.  At the time, they've explained, they were living as hippies and hitchiking around Europe--much to the dismay of both of their parents.


Neither of their parents approved and each of them eventually married people their parents approved.  From the way I'm telling you this story, you've probably guessed that their unions didn't work out.  Well, Michele's didn't, anyway, and Alec's wife died.  So, nearly four decades after first meeting, they reunited and married four years ago.

Our lunch started around noon, when I arrived and lasted well into the afternoon.  I, of course, am on holiday, and they are retired, so we don't really know--or care--when the lunch ended. (Does it end when you stop eating or after you take a walk and come back for more cidre rose and coffee?) 

The food was uncomplicated but exquisitely prepared:  a starter of sliced sausage, followed by three different kinds of salad:  one of shredded red cabbage, another of carrots and onions, and still another of creamy cucumbers.

What followed was a rare steak and some wonderful roasted sliced potatoes.  Of course, it was accompanied by bread.  Alec had bought some before we met, but in following an old French custom, I brought a baguette which we ate.  (I also brought a box of fancy chocolates.) And, after all of that, chocolate and cafe creme eclairs, with espresso coffee.

Don't believe for a minute that the French--even Parisians--are not friendly. When I toured the countryside by bicycle, I experienced all sorts of kindness.  And here in the Paris region, people have treated me well. They simply don't make friends with people immediately, as Americans and other people often do.  They have to get to know you, or meet you through someone they know well. 

Somehow, though, I suspect that I might've befriended Michele even if I hadn't met her from Janine, just as I would've been friends with Isabelle if she hadn't been married to Jay.  

He did more bike riding than I did today!

It was also fun to spend some time with Michele's grandson, who was spending the day with him.  Now, you probably think a prototypical (or stereotypical) name for a French boy is Jean or Jacques or Yves.  But this three-year-old boy has a name only a French person--or someone who loves impressionist paintings--could have given him.  Are you ready for this?  Matisse.  At first, I thought it was a French pronunciation of Matthis or Matthew.  But I learned that he is indeed named for the Picasso's friend and rival.

Don't you just love this water pump in the local park?  It actually works!

I would love to see what he becomes when he "grows up."  Will he rebel against it and become an accountant or lawyer, or even a physicist?  Or will he live up to the connotations of his name?

Of course, that is not the only reason why I want to visit Michele and Alec again, or have them visit me, some time soon!

What The Gilets Jaunes Couldn't Interrupt

Yesterday, I went for a short ride--not much more than an hour--through side streets and alleys in and around the neighborhood in which I'm staying.  One reason is that I limited myself to riding in one direction--north and east of where I'm staying--because of police checkpoints and barricades in the other direction.  Also, I had a date with old friends in the afternoon.

I actually wondered, though, whether I would make it to our planned rendez-vous:  When I was about to cross the Place to get back to the hotel, a seemingly endless procession of police vehicles descended from the Boulevard de Clichy into the Plaza.  As the line of gendarmes' cars and mini-vans extended as far as I could see, I really wondered when I'd be able to cross.

But, of course, it did pass, and I was able to return to the hotel, where I stashed the bike and showered and changed clothes.  I'd thought about riding to my "date", but realized that I'd probably stay out late (on a Saturday night) and might run into a stream of drunks or gilets jaunes along the way.

Well, I did encounter the latter as Jay and I sipped juices in a cafe near the Centre Pompidou.  But it didn't take them as long to pass as the police procession took to get through the Place de Clicy, and--as I expected--they didn't care about Jay, me or anyone else nursing juice or tea or whatever in that cafe. They yelled their usual slogans, like "Demacronization 2019!" (Emanuel Macron is the President of France.), but on the whole, seemed no more menacing than any other large group of people.

Before that, Jay and I sauntered through one of the Centre Pompidou's galleries, where some Cubist works, and those of artists who influenced them, were on display.  I had seen a few of those works before, and several more in reproduction.  Some others, however, were not familiar to me, including this wood cutting from Paul Gauguin, long one of my favorite artists:

The work is titled "Soyez Mysterieuses," which translates as "Be Mysterious."  One thing I've always liked about him is that he could control a line or brush stroke in the way Bach could control a melody but still create an almost dreamy--mysterious--atmosphere.  That quality was evident in the woodcut, which I don't recall having seen before.

Anyway, after our Pompidou visit, drinks and our front-row view of the gilets jaunes, his wife Isabelle met us.  She teaches and in France, most kids go to school on Saturday mornings.  After her students were dismissed, she had to attend a meeting at the school.  

I knew Jay when he had all of his hair--and Isabelle when, well, she was Isabelle, only younger.

We hugged. I did not want to let go.  Nor did she.  And Jay would do nothing to discourage either of us.  I met him before he met her, and he surely knows that the love she and I have for each other is entirely intuitive--like the love I feel for Jay, as she surely knows.  Probably the only other couple with whom I have ever had this sort of relationship was the one I had with my friend Mildred (who is caring for Marlee while I"m gone) and her late husband, John.

The only other relationships--save for some members of my family--that have endured the trials and other changes I have endured are, perhaps, the ones I've had with my cats (including Marlee) and with reading, writing and Paris.  And France--and cycling.