The Realm of Death

A bundled-up man with a trumpet was playing a beautiful rendition of “White Christmas” as I walked through my neighborhood amongst crowds of shoppers pushing past each other on the narrow sidewalks of Rue de Passy. Immaculately-strewn Christmas lights liven the streets almost as much as the stoked faces of the kids admiring the twenty gigantic Lego models by the Passy market – an almost-life-size Storm Trooper guarding the mall entrance with his gun; a pink Lego city, complete with Polly Pocket dolls playing harmoniously with their Lego people counterparts; models of the Eiffel Tower and Sacré Coeur, accurate, albeit with strange curves from the limitations of rectangular blocks. I avoid going inside the mall, where the other displays are, at all costs. My normally spacious mall has turned into a holiday tourist attraction that reminds me of trying to maneuver my way through the metro on a Friday night. My trips to Monoprix for groceries have been nearly cut in half the last few weeks.

The Christmas displays in the mall don’t compare to the world-renowned ones we saw at Les Galeries Lafayette, though. Fuzzy colorful puppets bigger than my little sister dance in circles around wrapped Christmas presents, reminding me of creepy Youtube videos made specifically for teenagers tripping on acid, and dolls with yarn hair float through the air around golden stars to piano music. Kids press their snotty noses and mittens to the glass and are bombarded by the marketing industry capitalizing on Christmas. Men push grocery carts topped with a metal plate filled with roasted marron nuts – I swear there were always at least four of these guys set up in my line of site at one time by Les Galeries Lafayette and Printemps. The smell sunk into my jacket like bonfire smoke; it almost smells the same.

Right around the corner from Les Galeries Lafayette is L’Opera de Paris – The Opera. I received one of the loveliest birthday gifts of my life from Gael and Laetitia this December – two tickets to see the ballet at The Opera with Laetitia! She found out that I did ballet for 8 years, and she also did ballet (for even longer, I’m pretty sure), and we had spoken briefly one time about how we both loved going to see the ballet. I thought it was so thoughtful that she remembered. Plus, holy cow. The Paris Opera at the Palaias Garnier! Before, seeing something there had been a dream I didn’t think I’d be able to afford for years.

That being said, I also can’t exactly afford fancy clothes, but the night of the show I put on my nicest outfit and met Laetitia on the steps of the entrance. Any of [very slight] apprehension I had about my appearance was replaced by the glorious appearance of the building when I arrived. The enormous staircase, the statues, the pillars, the whole style of the architecture and the inside all reminded me of Italy, especially a particular square in Verona we visited. The building was built in the late 1600s. It always strikes me how the older the building, the more intricate and mind-blowingly beautiful it is. Technology seems to have had the opposite effect of “progress” when it comes to aesthetics in architecture.

Le Grand Foyer is lined with dwarfing, magnificent chandeliers hung from tall ceilings painted in the Italian style. The stairs leading to the auditorium reminded me of the famous staircase in Titanic. You know the one I’m talking about.

People murmured quietly as we found our seats – dead center on the ground floor, from where I could admire the gold balconies and the painted red curtain. I settled into my red velvet seat, and when the curtain rose I witnessed the most magical ballet I’ve ever seen. We saw La Source, a mystical ballet written in the late 1800s. I’d never heard of it. The setting is the Orient, and the costumes were designed by a famous French fashion designer, apparently. They were impressive, to say the least, and ranged from charming to sensual to ethereal. The set was simple but original, two adjectives that, when put together, have a soft spot in my heart. It was just thick ropes hung at different lengths from the ceiling. A hundred thick ropes were tied together to form a few “pillars,” but the others just suspended in space, moving up and down so slowly that the movement was barely perceptible, as though the set were breathing. Green and blue nymphs sat in the ropes, and my eyes were dazzled by all the sparkles in the performance – definitely the glitteriest ballet I’ve ever seen, and certainly the most captivating. By intermission, my skin hurt from getting goose bumps so much.

Laetitia showed me around a bit more during intermission and bought me macarons at the table where people were buying glasses of champagne and little chicken sandwiches. I don’t know that I’ve ever been to a more “refined” event, but I wasn’t uncomfortable like I would’ve thought I’d be a year ago. It was all breathtaking, and I couldn’t have dreamed of a better birthday present.

I did receive some other lovely gifts, though. Ben bought me a Simone de Beauvoir novel that I’ve wanted, “The Mandarins,” from the Shakespeare Bookstore, and a French press, and Liz sent me the most thoughtful package of novels she thought I’d like, complete with little notes on the inside of each one, as well as leaves from home pressed into every hundred pages or so. Matthieu brought Ben and I out for a night on the town at Oberkampf and paid for all of our drinks; Ben and I missed the metro before it stopped for the night and ended up crashing at Matt’s. It was a memorable night, to put it lightly. I’ll just say there were a few drunk firsts between us. And by “us” I mean Benjamin. (You’re welcome for the lack of details, love.)

The week after my birthday Ben and I woke up early so we could go to Catacombes de Paris before I had to work à seize heure. The line stretched around the corner, but we weren’t waiting for more than 45 minutes, which flew by as we talked and talked, probably about capitalism or how much we hate cops or something.

The Catacombs are ossuaries holding the remains of six million people 65 feet under the streets in the heart of Paris. Needless to say, Ben and my heated anarchist discussions turned to revered silence as the energy quickly transformed while we descended lower and lower down the narrow, winding steps.

“Arrête, c’est ici l’empire de le mort” (Halt, this is the Realm of Death). That’s what the engraved stone reads before you enter.

We followed what felt like miles of tunnel on a path wide enough for a single person, surrounded on all sides by limestone and silence. Occasionally, we passed other people, also wandering around the realm in silence. Somehow Ben and I failed to take into account that we both have claustrophobic tendencies, so the first ten minutes before we reached the actual catacombs was interesting as we exchanged short, strained words of encouragement and deep breaths. I kept feeling my arms start to go numb like they do when I’m about to hyperventilate from being in small spaces, but I willed myself to keep my fists from clenching and I breathed through it. When we reached the gate, the space opened up considerably; the claustrophobia dissipated when we found ourselves surrounded by human skulls.

Walls of brown bones arranged meticulously, artfully in rows. Bones, bones, skulls, bones, bones, skulls. The air was wet, and the lights cast an orange glow as we walked as slowly as a bride toward the altar. Of course, signs screamed not to touch, but I couldn’t help feeling the skulls under my fingers. In Anthropology Club when I lived in California I got to hold human skulls in my hands, and also in the tombs in the anthropology building in Plattsburgh, but it never fails to be an insane experience. I kept stopping at random people’s dead head bones and wondering what their lover had looked like who had kissed the place where I was placing my fingers. It’s a weird experience for the human mind to encounter its fragility and biology in such a naked way.

The walk took about 45 minutes, and even though the bones all look exactly the same the whole way (another weird thing to grasp, I think), we were engrossed the entire time. I don’t think the finest art museums in Paris could have so aptly garnered our undivided attention for that long.

Ascending the limestone stairs again into daylight was like waking up from a dream. Outside, it was sunny. One of the only nice, sunny days of Ben’s visit (Paris’s autumn/winter is rainy and chilly), and of course we had decided to spend it underground in a dark tomb.

On the walk to the metro we stumbled upon a medieval attire shop that sold hand-crafted leather boots, bags, and belts, as well as swords, armor and other random medieval stuff. Ben was like a little boy again as he admired daggers and swords and those metal glove things. I forget what they’re called. I found a cute little leather belt with pouches stuffed with corked glass viles. That was the coolest thing I saw. I totally would’ve been a medicine woman in medieval times and had that strapped around my waist, the viles filled with all my favorite healing herbs. Or I could just use it now for different iggy mixes. (Liz, if you’re reading this, know I totally thought of you when I saw it, too, and if I were rich and had sixty euro to blow I totally would’ve bought it for you for your iggies.)

That night, Tuesday, Maia took a train from Lille just to have a night out the four of us. Matt, Maia, Ben, and I headed to Le Caveau des Oubliettes, the bar we went to the first night we all went out together in Paris. It’s one of the best bars in the city for live music, especially if you like blues. A band played blues, and the guitarist blew my mind on his electric. I was totally sober, but the way he was playing literally made me tear up. He shredded. He beyond shredded. He pulled out all the stops. And his stage presence was awesome.

A group of teenagers sat together chatting noisily, some of them turned away from the music, very obviously not enjoying or even listening because they were caught up in getting drunk and gossiping together. They didn’t didn’t clap at the end of songs or shut up when the singer talked between songs. We could all tell the singer/guitarist (his name is Khaled, as I later found out Matt works with him through his company and is helping him put out his c.d.), did not appreciate this, which made total sense, because the guy was wicked talented and deserved at least the respect of his riffs not being yelled over.

Instead of letting it get to him, though, Khaled started calling the kids out specifically, making them sing after him, and finally he sat down at their table and played right there in front of them until their thick heads were drawn out from their inner drama and engaged in the awesomeness that was his music.

At another point a guy randomly showed up with a sax, and Khaled noticed and beckoned the guy to come up. It was just what I like when I want live music – lively, interactive, bluesy and full of surprises and good vibes, people coming together.

Speaking of music, Benjamin and I visited Jim Morrison’s grave the other day – the third cemetery we experienced together in Paris. I keep laughing in my head imagining Ben going home and people asking, “So what did you do in Paris?!” and him responding, “Walked around graveyards.” I just have a love for cemeteries, especially European ones.

 There were a bunch of other Americans there paying respects to Jim. The coolest thing about it was this weird piece of “art” seemingly created randomly by Morrison’s mourners – a little fence that looks like these bamboo placemats my mom used to have is wrapped around a very average tree and then plastered with people’s used gum. People have such strange ways of expressing their fandom. Somehow it made me hungry.

It was a dark, cold, rainy day that would have been perfect for raclette, a famous French dish I’ve now tasted twice and crave any time I’m cold and hungry. It’s a melted cheese that you eat with cold cuts and potatoes. (It’s not the same as fondue.) Ben and I ate it at M&M’s house, and then Gael and Laetitia made it for my birthday dinner; it’s a winter dish because it’s so heavy. I won’t post the post-food baby pictures Maia and I took, but here's a photo of the Eiffel Tower the night of my birthday.