A went to Paris Disneyland yesterday for a friend's birthday (I liked it better when it was called EuroDisney. Do you think old trinkets with that name are worth holding on to?). I lent her my "dressy" backpack because she looked so pretty with her new coat and hat. I was invited along, but the very idea of the crowds at Disney at Christmas made me shiver in horror. The Paris schools got out Friday for Christmas and on top of that, Saturday was a freezing cold blue-sky day.
After A left, I read in the newspaper that the Paris Disney employees had just discovered that they weren't getting their usual Christmas bonus of 100 euros, even though the executives all got their bonuses. The Paris Disney employees have never been a very smiley bunch. It's not in the culture. In general, the French believe that if you smile a lot, you are either hypocritical or stupid. When EuroDisney first opened, there was a lot of hubbub in the French media about how Disney was trying to impose rules like no big earrings, no mustaches, no long hair on men, and mandatory use of deodorant. Reaction: total outrage! Of course, Disney couldn't force people to smile either. As far as I can see, they got around that by hiring mostly non-Gaulois French people, and a lot of Irish and Spanish young EU citizens who have no trouble smiling at strangers.
Gaulois is what the franco-français often are called these days, as in Nos ancêtres les gaulois [our ancestors the Gauls], the famous phrase in old French textbooks. I once heard a policeman retort to a North-African-origin jeune, "If you're French, then what am I?"
Anyway, last night I went out to a drinks party where I almost met the British ambassador. I met several Important People who all asked in the politest way possible what I did ("I have a very influential blog"), then to a favorite resto for dinner where we closed the place down while talking politics. One of the people at the table had barely missed being killed by a bomb in the Middle East recently, and another was just back from there, and a third is good friends with a Middle Eastern Prime Minister, and we always have arguments about Islam and whether or not it's wonderful. I think he's ripe for conversion to the Religion of Peace, like so many European atheists. I think it would just take a good strong push and the whole continent would basculer.
In the U.S., most of the time you feel really unwelcome when you are the last people in the restaurant. The waiters start wiping ostentatiously near your table, clattering the silverware, and stand around with cross expressions leaning on the wall, watching you. I should know, I did it myself when I was a waitress. But here, no one showed the least impatience, and after the entire restaurant was empty, we were served a nice café with little tuiles d'amande as if there were all the time in the world. When it was time to leave, the chef came out, shook our hands, and personally made sure we all got cabs.
In the middle of dinner, I got a phone call saying that A had still not come back from Disneyland, even though it was almost 11 and Disneyland usually closes at dusk. But when I got home she was there, very penitent. "I lost your nice backpack!" She said that while they were watching the parade they kept getting separated, so they all held hands in a chain and she slung the backpack over one arm so no one could get into it. But when the parade was over it had disappeared. It had her cell phone, her glasses, and fifty euros in it. She wasn't sure it was stolen, but it was gone. The Disney people say that we can call the Lost and Found tomorrow.
Yesterday we put up the Christmas tree. It is so cheerful to have the lights on when it's so dark most of the day outside.
Hi There! I was looking for Paris-based blogs and came across your nice one. Well done! The run up to Christmas is always a kind of slippery slope, fraught with dangers for disappointment in this time of high expectations of 100% fun and frolicks, where disasters sometimes seem much more serious than they really are.
In any case, keep up the good work and Happy Christmas in Paris!
Posted by: Sab | 19 December 2005 at 03:14