Dateline France, 14 December 1989
Report 9

The major visit of the past few weeks was a trip Kaye and I took to Dijon,
in the center of Burgundy.  The DeWitts kindly took the kids, and we will
watch theirs some weekend in return.

Dijon saw its cultural peak in the days of the Great Dukes of Burgundy,
whose reigns spanned from 1363 to 1477.  At its height, the Duchy of
Burgundy controlled more land than the Kingdom of France did directly,
including parts in the south France and pieces of Belgium and (I think)
Holland.  The line of Valois dukes began when the position was left without
an undisputed heir, and King John the good of France solved the problem by
installing his youngest son, Philip the Bold. Philip begat John the Fearless,
who begat Philip the Good (he wasn't).  The last begotten was Charles the
Bold.  He died without heir, which gave Louis XI an excuse to take over.

At the height of their power, their court outshone that of the king of
France.  They also engaged in little gambits aimed at rubbing salt in the
wound, like being allies to the English when they attacked France.  The dukes
built a grand palace, which still stands as the Fine Arts museum, with the
largest art collection in France, after the Louvre (which is about like
saying Portlandia is the largest hammered-copper statue in the US, after
the Statue of Liberty).  They were also patrons of the arts, particularly
attracting Flemish painters and sculpters, including Claus Slutter, who
started a magnificant tomb for one of the dukes.  The most impressive
room remaining in the palace is the great hall, which features the tomb
above, and another one, tapestries, plus two elaborate gilt altarpieces
moved there from an abbey outside of town.  One of the tapestries featured
the siege of Dijon by the Swiss.  An end to the siege was negotiated after
the Dijonaise had the idea of sending out a wagonload of good wine to the
Swiss officials in advance of sending out emissaries.  In the palace/museum we
were also able to see the original kitchen, with six fireplaces, each large
enough to roast an ox.  The museum also has an exhibit of medieval armor,
which led me to reflect a lot on the technology and use of pikes and lances.
I'm sure all the hooks, cutting surfaces and points had their purposes,
but I was at a loss to figure them out.  ("This little hook will catch the
edge of the breastplate of a mounted knight when he is charging uphill and
you are in a tree overhead.  This short blade cuts on the pull-stroke, and
can hamstring an archer at close quarters."  "Oh, and what's this curlicue
at the side do?"  "That's to hang it up.")

Dijon is full of churches, some in better repair than others.  On one we
saw, all the figures on the arches over the doors had been methodically
chipped away by a dentist, who came ever day with a ladder and chisel during
the early days of the revolution.  There is also a style of tile roof seen
in Dijon and the surrounding area that involves geometric patterns of
red, green, tan and black tiles.

Okay, so when is he going to get to the food?  Yes, the area is known for
its food.  In addition to the wine, local specialities include snails, spice
bread, creme de cassis (blackcurrant liqueur) and mustard.  The retail outlet
for Grey Poupon is in Dijon, and if you are a real mustard afficianado, you
buy a mustard pot and bring it in daily for refilling.  We had one of the
best meals of our stay so far at the Vinarium, a restaurant in a 13th century
crypt.  They cater to tourists, but many locals seem to eat there, too.  I
had eggs poached in meurette (a reduced red wine sauce) and duck breast in a
cassis sauce.  Kaye had a ham/parsley/aspic terrine that is a local specialty,
and rabbit in grainy-mustard sauce.  Of course, we started the meal with a
variation on Kir, a white-wine + creme-de-cassis cocktail.  (Ours also had
some framboise (raspberry liqueur) in it.)  We found some of the local
spice bread (harder than gingerbread but less so than German Lebkuchen) and
cassis candy to bring back with us.  We bought dessert one day
from an "African Bakery"--the desserts featured a lot of honey, sesame
seeds and pistachios.

Our trip back was on a TGV (Train Grande Vitesse -- train of great speed),
which cut an hour from the time of the trip going down.  The TGVs give
you such a smooth and quiet ride that you are able to get irritated at all
the crying babies and loud talkers you would never hear on an ordinary
train.  About 10 days ago, a TGV on the new Altantic line set a train speed
record of 298 miles per hour, eclipsing the German record.

Other short excursions:

We visited the museum at Marly-le-Roi, which documents the chateau that
is no longer there.  The chateau was commissioned by Louis XIV, and was
on the small side as chateaux  go, but there were also 12 or 16 guest houses
lining the large central pool there (no buildings remain).  It was meant to be
a more informal place than Versailles, and being invited there was a sign of
high favor in the court.  It was much used for hunting, and the President of
the Republic is still entitled to hunt there.  The museum shows paintings and
plans of the buildings and grounds, some fragments of tiles used in the
buildings and fountains, and statues and reproductions of statues that were
there.  It also has a model of the "Machine of Marly", which pumped water out
of the Seine nearby, which was carried in an aquaduct (still standing) for the
waterfalls and fountains at Marly, with some of it going through pipes all the
way to Versailles.  (Versailles was also fed by other sources of water.)  There
were once great reservoirs at Marly, too.  The machine was initially powered by
the flow of the river.  Later it got a steam engine, and became so efficient
that boats downriver sometimes ran aground for lack of draft.

Luke and I went back to the Palace of Discovery (science museum) one afternoon,
and took in a lecture on electric fish.  Most electric fish do not use
electricity to kill prey.  Rather they use it to sense objects around them,
and to find other fish of their species.  They have a sixth kind of sense
organ, sensitive to electric fields.  Actually they have two sets of them,
one for locating objects that's attuned to their own discharges, and another
sensistive to communications from other fish.  They shield one or the other
depending on what they are up to.  We also saw a lecture/demonstration on
static electricity, with some honker (adjective courtesy of Becky Lakey)
sparks being thrown around the room.  There was also a temporary exhibit on
cholesterol.  (Francois Bancilhon told me of an article he just
read in a French science magazine saying that no one has figured out
the exact mechanism whereby the French can eat the way they do and not
have high cholesterol levels.  The neighbor lady says that red wine will
cancel out problem with fatty foods.)

I also took Luke Christmas shopping at the huge Four Seasons shopping mall at
La Defense.  We weren't real successful.  Also, the Christmas decorations
had an outerspace theme (and no discernable holiday theme).

For Sarah's fifth birthday, we took advantage of the occasion to introduce
the neighbor girl and her mother to a bit of American culture, trooping off
to the McDonalds at St. Germain.   It is the busiest McDonalds I've been
in.  An image that will remain in my mind for a long time is the look on
the face of this Frenchwoman when she first regarded a Big Mac.  But she
ate it before it could eat her.  She was surprised by the number of
teenagers working there, too (about 30 working the kitchen and counters).
One advantage that a French McDonald's has over the US counterpart is
beer on the menu.

The family took in an exposition at the Grand Palace entitled "The Creators
of Europe."  It had displays by many cities of Europe touting their recent
or upcoming civic projects of an architecural nature, plus some works by
sculptors.  Some of our favorite things: A ferris wheel set up inside
the Grand Palace, which Sarah coaxed me to ride (of course there were no
doors or belts on the cars, which could be made to spin and rock); a
cacophonic concert given by 30 televisions, each playing a video tape
of some person singing as he or she pleased (a lot of exhibits featured
televisions of some sort--I think B&O was a sponsor); a giant musical
instrument which made its sounds in part by amplifying sounds of water--
as is cascaded down a trough, as it was sprayed against 15-foot strips
of brass, as it sloshed through a tube; a video of Gemany that might have
been entitled "Rube Goldberg meets the Torch": it was an installation in
a warehouse that produced a 15-minute chain reaction.  It had a lot of
tires rolling around, but the action was also conveyed by chemical
and pyrotechnic means.  Rockets strapped to tires, strings that burned,
supports that melted, fuses.  Can't wait to get back and try one in our
garage.

Short Takes:

1. PTAs (PTCs) in schools are a big deal, and are heavily politicized.
There are two main national organizations, one leftist, one rightist, who
each run their own slate of candidates for positions on the advisory board
at each school.  The are also some independent local groups that run
candidates.  The results are posted outside the school for all to see.

2. There was a big fuss here recently about several Muslim girls wearing
shawls over their heads at school.  Some principals and others contrued
this a prosletyzing, hence in violation of the separation of religion
and state schools.  But I noticed that Sarah's classroom had a Christmas
tree and visit from Pere Noel.

3. There was an encampment of gypsies at a fairground not far from our
apartment for about six weeks.  They almost all had the same kind of
trailer (but I couldn't tell the brand) and large cars to tow them.  Also,
there were two large Volvo trucks that showed up partway through, each
towing an extra large travel trailer.  I haven't figured out what their
livelyhood was while they were around.

4. Sarah was watching the news about George Bush's trip to Malta, and
wondered if they announced it on TV when we came to France.  Francois
assures me they did.



We are preparing for Christmas by sampling French winter diseases.  Sarah
tried the ear infection, Luke and I sampled the flu.  Kaye was trying to
cut down and only have a head cold, but she ended up with a serving of the
flu nonetheless, which she kindly split with Sarah.


COMING NEXT: Christmas in Malta