Leaving Abidjan

The red-eye Air France flight from Abidjan was brutal as it was full, and I was between two rather large, broad-shouldered men, whose bodies kept creeping into my increasingly narrow seat alotted space. Lines were long at passport-control as well...

My bank card had come, so I made a bee-line the morning of my arrival to the Credit Lyonnais to have them to re-send the confidential bank-code to my phone as I had a different SIM card in Abidjan and didn't have access to my French messages.  That same day I received an order at my French apartment from Amazon.fr which I had placed for two books just before I left the Côte d'Ivoire for France.  One was a book on Sewing with African wax print fabric, with projects and patterns.  I have bought two lengths of cloth--one in Abidjan and one in Ouagadougou, and need ideas on what to do with the fabric.  I particularly like having the patterns and sewing tips.  What I find amusing is that the African tailors I have met never use patterns and find the concept complicated and unnecessary. 

 

 

 

Adjusting to the cold has been a challenge.  I so want spring to be here, but it seems slow in coming. I walked to the nearby [to my place] Parc Monceau looking for signs of it and saw a cute garden designed for children featuring the Smurfs [or Les Stroumpfs in French].

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There were a few flowers--mostly jonquils and primroses

When it's cold, it's often more fun to do things indoors, so my friend Judy and I have tried various restaurants

Lunch at Le Gevaudan

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 The Bistrot Tocqueville--a new discovery

Le Dumas where we've been many times

And La Pêche where I celebrated my birthday.  It also was also a first-time discovery, very close to where Judy is staying.

I am also very fortunate to have the Salle Cortot just down the street where, during the school year students and faculty of the Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris provide free chamber concerts of classical music at noon three days a week.

 

 

One on the perks of my neighborhood. 

 

The Covid-19 restrictions are slowly being lifted here, and Judy and I took the RER to Le Petit Jouy-Les Loges in the direction of Versailles to visit the Musée de la Toile de Jouy and their special exhibit Étoffes et Litterature. Housed in what is known as the Château de l'Eglantine, the museum boasts a lovely permanent collection dedicated to the former factory of printed fabrics founded in Jouy-en-Josas by Christophe-Philippe Oberkampf. It gives a history of the development of the fabric and its popularity in France and England during in the 18th and 19th centuries.

 

Museum [above] and gift shop [left]

 

Strange, I suppose, but the shiny chintz fabrics made me think of the African wax cloth ! Something about the whole idea of desiring a shiny surface to the cloth. Since the original inspiration for the chintz fabric came from India [the French call the printed cotton fabrics "les indiennes," I'm wondering to what degree African prints or printing methods were inspired from elsewhere...  Just a thought...