London v Paris revisited (1)

Two years ago, newly redundant, I went back (from Paris) to London to see family and sort out a few things concerning my future. I was doing quite a bit of that at the time, when I knew I would soon be setting myself up as a freelance journalist in the south of France but had no idea that, only a year later, I would be heading to the Middle East.
I came across this piece from that time while pottering about behind the Salut! scenes, peeking at where visitors to the site were coming from - and what had lured them here.
Now, of course, I am in neither city. But both are in my thoughts; I will see one of them - London - for Christmas, and one of the press releases I continue to receive from France informed me that the excellent Claire Chazal switched on the seasonal (pre-seasonal) lights at Galeries Lafayette in Paris a few nights ago. Forgive me for thinking it was worth sharing the results of my backstage meanderings. So many of the things I said then are still likely to apply two years on....

All that flitting between France and Britain has sharpened my appreciation of the little things that separate the two countries.

There are bigger distinctions too, of course, and I have a feeling these will crop up here as they did at another blogging place.

Picture by Paul Cooper

I always look forward to visits home but this has a lot to do with the people I want to see when I get there, and - as a past master of juggling travel plans with football fixtures lists - what I may want to do.

But on a largely football-free weekend (my regulars know of my less than wholehearted passion for internationals, though I will make a point of watching my younger daughter play for Acton Ladies tomorrow), I have been reduced to contemplating matters London vs Paris.

There is plenty wrong with life in Paris. It is stressful, crossing the road is perilous even on green, you get ripped off in many restaurants and bars and there is never an employee on hand to help when the machine rejects your perfectly valid Metro ticket.

But no Parisian, or French for that matter, barman has ever asked me to accept a cardboard cup for wine, as happened in the cafe next to Eurostar arrivals at Waterloo as I waited for my wife's train.

And no one is yet accosting me in Parisian streets with copies of free newspapers they want to shove in my face. Effectively unemployed for the first time since I was a teenager, I grudgingly acknowledge the boost this war of the freebies has given to a certain corner of the labour market.

Yet I cannot help sympathising with one wit I saw trying to win readers and reduce his pile of papers in the rain outside the Monument Tube station. "They're rubbish but they're free," he cried. "And they make good umbrellas."

Then there are the first stirrings of Christmas and New Year promotional activity, perhaps even more pronounced in the provinces. I came across Xmas dinner ads in Britan at the end of September; I don't think we'll see much of that in France for weeks to come.

London did threaten a late equaliser, though. A simple Indian meal in Chiswick, nowhere near the best I've encountered even in London W4, was nevertheless so good that I was quickly reminded of a significant downside to expat life in France.

Then a visit to the National Gallery enhanced our London experience by being free, which the Louvre isn't. Unfortunately, the paintings of Cezanne, Monet, Manet and Renoir made me homesick for the places depicted: the Bois de Boulogne (yes, by day), the Tuileries, Montmartre and Provence.

The honest truth is that I cannot wait to get back to the Gare (Gard for one reader's benefit; see comments) du Nord tomorrow night.

Comments

[Bill Taylor]

Good lord, is it that time of year again? We're into reruns already. I must look on Salut! North in case Colin is repeating the early episodes of Angel of the North.
I remember when the Channel Tunnel was completed, my father saying dourly, "Britain is no longer an island," and getting quite upset when I replied, "Thank god for that."
I try to stay away from London but the odd time I find myself there, it's comforting to think, "In three hours, I could be in Paris." Though two years ago, we saw in the New Year in Rome (if Alitalia can only keep flying, that's the plan this year, too) and then travelled by train for a few ill-advised days in London. I found it very distressing to whip across Paris from one station to another -- though we had a very entertaining cab driver who expounded her philosophy of champagne drinking -- and leave the city as abruptly as we'd arrived. London was miserable, and miserably expensive. Heathrow was as close to hell on earth as I care to come.
Ever the glutton for punishment, I'm heading to New York for a few days at the end of this month; another city I'm not at all fond of. I lived there for four years in the '70s and that was enough for me. It's changed quite immeasurably, of course, but I expect it'll remind me once more of how much I'd rather be in Chicago.

[Bridget Jones]

Nice site and content, Bridget likes! Keep writing of France, and she'll be back for more! Salut! ;)

[Colin]

Bridget's comment is one answer to the first part of Bill's....with apologies to Mary Tudor, when Salut! dies, you will find France engraved on its heart

A second answer is that each time Bill complains about archived material being given another airing, he finds the subject sufficiently interesting (again) to add related thoughts of his own

[Roads]

How wonderful to be able to read Colin's desires -- if only through the tiny nuances of language, right at the end.

'I cannot wait to get back to the Gard du Nord tomorrow night.'

Now don't tell me whether that's incredibly sophisticated linguistics, or a tiny Freudian slip, cross-wired across our narrator's translation software.

But Paris - 'the Gard du Nord' -- now that's a neat allusion which works well beyond these pages. The Midi at the top, and Paris as fair substitute.

[Colin]

Sorry Roads...was simply a typo left over from the original Salut! site at Blogspot. Sophisticated linguistics indeed.

[Bill Taylor]

"Each time Bill complains......" I wasn't complaining! Not a bit of it. I hail these occasional reprises with delight; it's like meeting an old friend and finding you have more to say to him/her. It's one reason I eagerly anticipate the release of "Salut! The Boxed Set."

[louise]

You're in luck, Bill! Colin will run yet another competition to push up his stats and guess what is first prize ?

'The complete compendium of the best of Salut 2005-2007'.

And if you don't win this original 10 volume set, you can order it on the right hand side of this page - just click on the link ...

[louise]

... and I forgot to add that there will be a special Christmas treat - the remasterised DVD of Sunderland football matches during 2007; this special edition also has folksy music playing in the background and you can sing along to your favourites of the '70s.

Come on Colin, get the Christmas tombola up and running!!

[Bill Taylor]

Many a true word is spoken in jest. . .