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.
I’ve created a photo book of the best moments I experienced in Greece last summers, and would like to share it with you here. If you wish to order a printed one (39cm X 29cm), do not hesitate to contact me. The price is 50 euros per book + shipping.
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.
Strike in Paris. Better prefer your own feet as a means of transpot 🙂
After work is finished
and a job contract is over
We danse
Paris Northern part
Below you can find my announcement saying that I give private lessons of Modern Greek (my favourite language!) and that I’m looking for students to share my love to Greece and its culture. Join me, prices are lower if one learns via skype. It’s funny, it’s the best remedy against the bad mood! The first 30 minutes – for free.
It’s the Indian summer here in Paris. I’ve stayed THREE weeks in the city without my long walks in the fields 40 km from it: it was raining, and I had to finish my dissertation and to send it to my professors. Yesterday, though, I went there. Coming back to the fields is like listening to eternity. Nothing changes, almost no movement, no people for sure. There’s a striking difference between urban noise and serenity of nature. You also can feel the purity of its air. And if your eyes get used to the beauty so that you are not able to amire it with the same intensity, silence is always a great and precious surprise for your years. You have to make breaks. Hear silence. This is our mental and bodily hygene.
This week I managed to spend 40 euros on food. That’s about 5 euros per day. My colleague asks me why I don’t eat with them at the restaurant. ‘Cause it’s expensive. – How much? – It’s not the question of ‘how much’, rather if it’s affordable for me. And it is not.
She shows her ‘deep concern’, but in fact I have an impression that she does not really realize what it means, the shortage of money. If she did, they would arrange a more flexible working hours for me at the library, so that I could also do some babysitting. But my actual schedule blocks everything, any additional ‘income’ is impossible, except of long quiet work over my thesis, which would be my symbolic capital in future.
I wonder how many people describe their everyday life in terms of survival in the megapolises. If you search for “Paris” on wordpress for instance, you’ll only find love and light, dreams and romanticism, only the “post-card” stories. It’s the only accepted way to represent your own life: to expose its “shadow” side and difficulties is almost obscene, you are only allowed to show success and happiness.
N.B. If you are planning your visit to Paris, remember that I would be glad to help you with arrival and to hang out with you in the city or even in the fields outside, if you’re walkers a little bit. There are châteaux / palaces in almost every village outside Paris, don’t be Versailles-addict! 🙂
Hi everyone!
It’s raining in Paris, but I’m only happy when it rains:))
Don’t forget to contact me in case you’re planning a trip to France and in Paris! I shall meet you at the airport and accompany you to your hotel. Then, we’ll discover the city of wine, light, cheese, culture, and long walks along the Seine river.
I’m puctual and responsible; sometimes lazy and sometimes hard-working. Want to share my knowledge of the city with you! Hurry up!
31 May 2019, my contract as a touristic agent at the château de Versailles came to its end. What happened after? 3 months of research on Hippocrates and of pure happiness of a free, liberated human being.
16 September, one week ago, I started to work again for one library (Gernet-Glotz / GG) dedicated to the sciences of Antiquity. The contract is for two months, just 15 hours per day and only 500 net euros per month, but these days I couldn’t believe I was back to the library. The difference between two jobs – tourstic agent and librarian – is huge, they’re like earth and heaven, so last week I was at heaven. It is not only quiet and you don’t need to communicate with thousands of angry, arrogant, barbarous, asking too many questions people all day long, but also it gives you some time to continue your work on your post-doc thesis.
The librarians have their lunch at the INHA restaurant. Not just them of course, but all the staff of all the research units and institutions in and around. So once upon a time (last Thursday) I came there, looked back and saw one of my ex-colleagues from Versailles! What a surprise! Such a small world! This guy from Columbia was one of the most amiable in our team, he always seemed to me to be the most fragile and most suffering from Versailles. Now he is here. And me, I’m here too.
– S., what are you doing here?
– And you?
– I’m a proud librarian!
– So am I!
I aksed my colleagues sitting at another table to excuse me, I’d rather have a lunch with my old friend S.
So we ate and talked, talked and ate…
I was so excited by this funny coincidence 🙂
How to survive in Paris 