This is how the new year has begun for me.
One of these days, I caught the morning sun and took the ticket from Paris to the zone 5 of Île-de-France. It was a freezing morning and silence poured serenity around me and over the fields on the top of a hill where Jambville village seemed to be on the top of the world.
It is the top of the world, because I can’t stop returning over there again and again, when I am longing for silence, for beauty, for space and for peace
in my soul.
The isolation helped me to prepare the escape plans, in other words, I looked for ideas to go for a walk somewhere else except of Vexin, in Île-de-France. I thoroughly examined every inch of the google maps and photographs, and made a list of things I would like to see. When the confinement became milder, I visited Saint-Prix, a small town just nearby the famous Montmorency Forest, to the nord of Paris, in Val d’Oise. When the weather is sunny, it’s like a small Switzerland, and it is a good option for a not very long walk not very far from Paris (25 minutes by train from Gare du Nord).
Last Sunday I took another direction – to the south-east of Paris. I took the train doing to Provins from Gare de l’Est. In about 40 minutes it stoped at Mormant. From the railway station, it took me two hours walking to the south, where I expected to find a fortified medieval farm dating back to the 13th century. And I found it. There where only pigeons, ducks and me, and it was beautiful.
The farm is called le fief des Époisses. I think the peak of its glory was in the 70s, when it was in possession of the Maire of Mormant Mr. de Wulf, who transformed the farm into a place for musical events. Mstislav Rostropovich gave a concert here one night in 1975, and up to a thousand of people came from France, Belgium and Switzerland to listen to him.
It was later sold to the society Bis which accomplished the restoration works here in order to create a museum of agriculture. This dream didn’t come true. The farm is now closed to the visitors as private property (but is still visitable from outside). As it is the case of so many small historical buildings in France, it has become a place for meetings and seminars.
Around the end of 2019, I thought, “OK, great, I’m finished with my post-doc, I travel to Ukraine for the winter holidays, and the new, happy epoch is going to start: hunting for a good job, well-paid, and in a sphere where I love to work. Therefore, I should transform this blog How to Survive in Paris into a book, sell it (as a best-seller), become rich, forget about survival in Paris and move to Greece, to live my life amidst the last ancient Greeks in a remote tiny village above the ever-rough Aegean!”
The universe wanted it otherwise, however.
So, instead, I have not only to complete the first chapter of the story, but also to start a new season of How to Survive in Paris : CoronApocalypse.
At the moment I can describe you the end of the first season. Some of you already know that in late January, February and the week just before the global lock-down in March, I was a genius intelligent cleaning woman in three houses. That was not enough to survive, but thanks to my Dad and Friend it was possible to live and… to go for 10 days to Greece exactly around the end of February. At the time, I told to myself that we should go now when we have time, even for one week, because in summer it could become impossible: I imagined I found a job by that time and could not move for at least one year anymore. And we did it. We traveled to Greece and came back each to his / her city. In Ukraine, the quarantine began in two days after his arrival. In Paris, one week later.
The week after arrival I earned 30 euros for 2 hours cleaning, another 30 euros for 2,5 hours were paid before my voyage in Greece. That’s it. By the end of the week I started to feel not well, and my gentle lazy mathematician did not force me to come to his place. So, 30 euros of “income” the last week before the new era.
Meanwhile, an interest in languages arose… and the first week of the quarantine I managed to give three lessons of Modern Greek and two Russian language lessons. Next week, another lady contacted my for Modern Greek and we had two lessons. One more lesson of Russian and… the last one. Suddenly the girls could not continue any more… until the situation got better. In this way, during the first quarantine week I earned 133 euros, the second week 85 euros, and the third one 75. I pray for every next week to bring me 50 euros. But I still hope that some individuals have language thirst and hunger and they will find me. Better sooner!
Thanks to the imposed restrictions, I discovered an absolutely nice place just one kilometer to the north from my house. I think it’s a great place for excursions too, so when we’re all out, that would be great to show to the Parisians my discoveries! I only have to look for a historical and other related information about the Canal Saint-Denis. If 98% of the runners run around the canal de la Villette, Canal St Denis is much more quiet, but also quite industrial, but there’s a charm in that. It’s full of sun, it is open, and you can find the walls with funny and ridiculous and smart street art. This channel became the place of my everyday walks.
If you like my sketches or some of them and if you can afford a small contribution, I will be very grateful! paypal: valerie.sarine (a) gmail.com.
Stay safe!
How to survive in Paris 