Saturday, May 15, 2004
Salut de Paris!
The heading of this e-mail should actually read “Hello from Montreal” since I just returned home to Montreal earlier today after spending three days in Paris. I had been meaning to send this e-mail from Paris, but timing did not permit, plus Internet cafes are far less common in Paris than in Southeast Asia – probably since most Parisians have Internet access at home. In any event, when I did find an Internet café in Paris, the keys on the computer keyboards were located in different places than on North American keyboards, which made typing a very slow and laborious process. So it is probably best that I am typing this message in Montreal.
After a 12-hour flight from Bangkok, I arrived in Paris. During the flight, I was seated next to an employee of Michelin tires who works with the BAR-Honda Formula One team and attends most races as the tire expert assigned to race car driver Jenson Button. He offered to try to arrange a visit for me to the pits during the Montreal Grand Prix in a few weeks. I hope that can work out.
Paris was refreshing because of its familiarity. Unfortunately, I cannot regale you with tales of elephants or cows walking along the streets of Paris. Also, after two-and-a-half weeks of constantly attracting attention as a foreigner, it was nice to be able to blend into the crowd and to understand exactly what everyone was saying. Moreover, compared to Southeast Asian drivers, the Parisians were actually quite well-behaved and their manoeuvres predictable – and not a single tuk tuk to be seen! As a pedestrian, I felt much safer than I had in a while.
Paris is a great city for walking. Each morning, after reading my International Herald Tribune over a café au lait and a pain au chocolat in a café in the 5th arrondissement near my hotel, I would set out on a long walk. I was thrilled to have the opportunity to visit some of my favourite spots in Paris, such as the peaceful Jardin du Luxembourg and the bustling Champs Elysées, and to soak up the atmosphere and admire the beautiful Parisian architecture.
Among other landmarks, I visited Shakespeare and Company, a favourite bookstore of mine. Shakespeare has been selling used English-language books from its Left Bank location, across from Notre Dame Cathedral, since 1951. It is located on the first two floors of a small ramshackle apartment building. The store resembles a haunted house, with old chandeliers lighting the various rooms. Some books are hidden on bookshelves located in hard-to-find nooks and crannies, such as under a stairway. An interesting Canadian connection: When he studied at the Sorbonne, Pierre Trudeau rented a room on one of the upper floors of the building where Shakespeare and Company is located.
All my walking around Paris built up an appetite. I dined in some fine restaurants. Parisians take great pride in the quality of their food.
However, I must admit that, whenever I am away from home, the food I miss most is a good Montreal smoked meat sandwich. Therefore, one day at lunchtime, I sought out the closest thing to Schwartz’s that Paris has to offer, the famous Goldenberg’s delicatessen located in the Marais district. Unfortunately, one of the reasons that Goldenberg’s is famous is because it was blown up by the PLO in the 1980’s.
It was subsequently rebuilt and has since been frequented by Israeli prime ministers such as Yitzhak Rabin and Ariel Sharon and by French presidents Valery Giscard d'Estaing, Francois Mitterrand and Jacques Chirac, as well as by many other senior French politicians. All are pictured on the walls of the restaurant. (Mitterrand must have really enjoyed a good pastrami sandwich, since he is featured in numerous framed photos.)
It should be pointed out that a Parisian delicatessen differs in certain respects from the delicatessens that one would find back home. For one thing, a Parisian deli features an extensive wine list (no Manischewitz or Cherry Coke for these sophisticated deli goers). Also, a Parisian deli has the requisite snooty Parisian waiter. In addition, they do not simply serve you a large pile of meat on some rye bread and squirt some mustard on it. No, in Paris, they present you with a variety of gourmet-quality deli meats neatly set out on a beautiful platter. Next, they bring you a basket containing an assortment of breads, including the requisite Parisian baguette, although there is rye bread, too – probably for the tourists. Finally, only fine Dijon mustard is available to garnish your sandwich – no squirt bottle mustard for these gourmets! To top off the meal, you must order nothing less than a fine espresso.
Further evidence of the importance that Parisians place in their food can be garnered from the school lunch menus that are posted outside the many elementary schools in the city. No hot dogs and hamburgers for these future gourmets of Paris: Every day’s menu reads like the menu of a fancy French restaurant, complete with a different sophisticated main dish, usually topped off by a cheese platter – and no Kraft slices for these kids; only fine cheeses such as Camembert are listed.
The French even celebrate food. This week, they are holding the “Festival of Bread.” To celebrate, I ate a baguette.
Although I visited all sorts of exhibitions and monuments and walked all over the city admiring the architecture, one theme seems to have connected many of my activities in Paris during this visit, and that theme is Law:
On my first morning, I walked into the Sorbonne’s Faculty of Law across from the Pantheon in the Latin Quarter. Although the old house containing McGill’s law faculty is a nice building, it is nothing compared to the Sorbonne’s elaborate marble columns and numerous statues.
I walked into one large lecture hall and listened in on the lesson, which coincidentally covered the exact same topic of international trade law that I had taught in Cambodia. It was interesting to observe the French style of teaching. The professor, despite being relatively young and modern looking, droned on without interacting in any way with the students. The students did not dare to ask any questions and looked quite bored. This teaching style contrasted with the more American style of teaching that we tried to follow in Cambodia, by which we would ask for class participation - in part to keep the students’ attention and in part to gauge whether the students understood the material. While I am certainly not qualified to determine which teaching style is more effective, I know that, when I was a student, a more interactive teaching style was more likely to keep my attention.
During another of my walks, I entered the Palais de justice (Courthouse), which is housed in an historic palace in the centre of Paris. In one courtroom, I watched a lawyer drone on for an eternity about the law of defamation as three very bored judges feigned interest. I can only assume that the lawyer in question is paid by the word!
In any event, the lawyers who work in the Paris Courthouse are privileged to essentially be pleading in a museum, surrounded by beautiful chandeliers, statues and marble columns. I also visited the Courthouse library, access to which is restricted to members of the Paris Bar. Nevertheless, I strode into the wood-panelled library as though I belonged and nobody stopped me.
The French are proud of their system of law. In order to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the French Civil Code, an exhibit is being held in the Paris city hall on the notarial profession (yawn). I spent at least five minutes attending the exhibit, but mainly I attended in order to be able to see the inside of the elaborate city hall.
On Friday, I visited a 22-member law firm headed by three lawyers who work with my friend Anthony on European legal matters that affect Anthony’s Canadian-based employer. These three lawyers recently visited my office in Montreal in order to establish links with Canadian law firms.
Although some Parisian law firms are located in modern skyscrapers in newer districts on the edge of town, most are located in older converted apartment buildings in the centre of Paris. The firm I visited is located in a former grand apartment building just off the Champs Elysées in the Faubourg St. Honoré district, a very luxurious part of Paris where the Elysée Palace, home to the French president, is located. To reach the firm’s fourth floor offices, one can either walk up a grand marble staircase from an inner courtyard or take a small coffin-sized elevator that has been retrofitted onto this 19th century building, alongside the original staircase. The lawyers’ offices and conference rooms are located in what used to be very large high-ceilinged bedrooms and reception rooms.
After enjoying an espresso in the boardroom while discussing the practice of law in Paris, we headed for a nearby trendy restaurant frequented by lawyers and businesspeople. It was very modern and could have been located on Saint-Laurent Boulevard in Montreal. The food and wine were excellent.
That evening, I was invited to a dinner party at the home of one of the lawyers. There were seven of us present at dinner. It was very interesting for me to dine with the locals in a private home. I very much enjoyed the dinner conversation. I was able to gain an improved understanding of and insight into the attitudes of the French that went beyond the stereotypes and generalizations that we hear in the North American media.
We discussed such topics as Iraq, the US elections, Franco-American relations and Franco-British relations, as well as the recent spate of anti-semitic incidents in France (i.e., physical attacks on Jews, fire-bombings of Jewish Schools and vandalism of Jewish cemeteries). In addition, the meal was excellent and I was made to feel at home.
This morning, I returned to Montreal after my three-week voyage, during which I took eight flights and travelled a distance of nearly 35,000 kilometres. It was truly a trip around the world, as it took me from the developing world (Cambodia) to the recently developed world (Thailand) and from the Old World (France) to the New World (Canada).
I feel very privileged to have been able to take this trip. I hope you have enjoyed reading about my adventures as much as I have enjoyed writing about them (and experiencing them). These e-mails will serve as a journal of my travels.
Given that the lawyers’ training program in Cambodia is on-going and that there will be another crop of students at the Lawyers’ Training Center in Phnom Penh next year, there may be more adventures to come.
Stay tuned . . .
--Larry
