16e Arrondissement Part II: Palais de Chaillot, Kenneth Goldsmith
So today I went to the Gare du Nord to recharge my Passe Navigo. Naturally, there was only one teller window open. The nice lady on the other side of the bulletproof glass decided I was a tourist when I didn’t understand her asking what zones I wanted the subscription for. She kindly advised me that it wasn’t a good idea to go around carrying large wads of cash on one’s person, especially in Paris, people were watching me even here etc etc. It occurred to me that this is one of the sillier pieces of standard-issue advice-to-tourists. I’m not contesting the validity of the advice in itself, mind you–I certainly don’t think it’s a great idea to walk around with large wads of cash if one can help it. On the contrary, it just seems too obvious to mention. It’s not a thing about being in Paris or New York or a big city in general, it’s common sense. Nobody walks around with large amounts of cash unless they’ve just gone and cashed their traveler’s checks or whatnot. You might as well helpfully remind tourists not to wander onto the subway tracks and touch the third rail; perhaps they don’t have to deal with subways in their hometowns, but some things are rather self-evident, yes?
So that was my deep philosophical pondering-on-the-nature-of-foreignernessicity for the day.
Back to Wednesday’s trip to the 16th:
I forgot to mention this cute little pulley at the Maison Balzac (also note old man giving sense of scale and charming atmosphere):
Ooh looky, you can see the Eiffel Tower from the street too!
Students flee the Maison Balzac:
Rue Des Eaux, one of those wonderful little very-Parisian streets:
Pretty old building!
(I mean that as a one-word adjective and a two-word noun phrase, not vice versa)
Ooh, park got steps:
With view of old archway thingy:
Say, you can see the Eiffel Tower from here too!
Ooh, vaguely Asian-type tree-shrub-things:
Hey, I know this guy!
Teacher: Julian, you’ll recognize him.
Me: Yeah, that’s Benjamin Franklin.
Teacher: People often don’t talk about how complex the French involvement was in the movement in America at the time.
Student: What movement?
Me: …
…
… Well, around the end of the 18th century, there was this little revolution…
Um, yeah, I don’t think it’s too americentric to expect people to know about when the American Revolution happened. Because, you know, if you talk about “what happened” in France in the 1790s, or Russia in the early 20th century, or Germany in the 1930s, or China in the 30s-40s, or Yugoslavia in the 1990s, Americans are going to know what you’re referring to. Just saying.
Moving right along:
Palais de Chaillot:
Where there were some guys breakdancing and whatnot, including lots of interesting stuff using soccer balls. Of course, I didn’t think to take video, and didn’t get any great pictures. They all kind of looked like the guys were falling:
Oh, and if you look carefully, you can see the Eiffel Tower from here too:
So that concluded the tour. I had a lovely overpriced ham-and-cheese crèpe and wandered about for a couple hours because I was meeting my MICEFA class at the Palais de Tokyo for a reading and there wasn’t enough time to go back to the dorms. Some highlights of the wandering:
Fire Escape Of DOOOM! seriously, the spiral-staircase thing is getting silly:
SuperDramatic angel-type statue shot:
Wheee, New York!
Really, the 16th should just be called The Arrondissement of Foreign Names. Avenue de New York, Rue d’Ankara, Rue Benjamin Frankling, Avenue du Président Kennedy, Palais de Tokyo, Rue (or was it Place?) Charles Dickens, Avenue des Nations Unies… I suppose it makes sense, what with all the embassies and the fancy vibe and the fact that they did a lot of stuff around there for the World’s Fair or whatever it was in the 30s.
A statue on a bridge:
View of the Passy Metro station from across the river, juxtaposed charmingly with a tree that refused to get out of the way:
Palais de Tokyo, southern entrance. Lovely neoclassical statue retrofitted to make an audience-participation piece:
The reading at the Palais de Tokyo was interesting enough. One Mr. Kenneth Goldsmith, an American fellow, dropping by on his way to accept some prize or other. Essentially verbal readymades: he did two sets, both radio transcripts, the first of 1010 WINS traffic reports on some holiday weekend, the second of reports on 9/11. He does a wonderful impression of radio announcers, their rhythm and momentum, complete with all the ums and aahs. Afterward there was wine and potato chips served, which struck me as an odd combination.
Oh, and one last picture, evening view from the Barbés-Rochechouart stop on the Line 2:
