Black Thursday!

Well what an adventure today has been! In case you didn't read the New York Times (which had a better explanation than any of the French papers or tv news programs I examined), the French transit industry is on strike. At first it didn't seem like it would be a big deal since it was just the train lines that are going on strike to protest against reforms against their pension funds (apparently back in the day workin on the railroad was considered a fairly dangerous job so as a RR employee, you could retire after 37.5 years of employment, as opposed to the 40 years that normal chaps must put in). But, as tends to happen here, the subways, buses, and apparently everyone else also decided to take the day off and run around the streets yelling loudly.

I, after eating one of the largest meals of my life last night, decided a nice walkie would do me good so I walked to my archive, which is about an hour away from my apartment. It was a nice walk though, and I discovered many things I would never have seen, including the scene of a murder in an outdoor sculpture garden next to the river, and the most beautiful view of Paris in the mid-morning sun (I unfortunately didn't take a picture). And I had my nice walk only to get to the archive to see that the entire building was closed. It's not really an archive, but a real working aid organization for asylum seekers and I just sit in a room with some boxes and don't interact with anyone. But still - they could have told me yesterday that they weren't even planning on opening today.

My plan to be a good graduate student foiled, I decided to hike a few more blocks over to the Bibliothèque nationale, where I found out that during a strike you can easily get a place to sit in the reading rooms, but you cannot get any books. I did, however, read some interesting reference materials - for about 4 hours - until I decided it was time to trek home. On the way home I walked by the Jardin des Plantes (I'm mystified as to why you have to specify that it is a 'garden of plants' - aren't most gardens full of plants??), where they had this lovely dragon sculpture made out of recycled metal and spewing more metal out of its mouth. Pretty cool!


Finally on the way home I crossed a different bridge than usual and saw the front of this sculpture on the bridge I usually cross. I think it's fairly beautiful, even if it's made out of cement.


But of course the big news of the day, which you will only catch if you read the BBC and not just CNN, is that Sarkozy and his wife are divorcing! So shocking! Well not really, since everyone has been anticipating this since she disappeared from public view as soon as he won the election. Some funny cartoons in the paper this morning said that "Cecilia is on strike indefinitely, and will not offer a minimum of services." This is only funny, I guess, if you know that everyone is debating about what a "minimum of services" means during this strike. Apparently not much.

Well I have 4 different beverage glasses on my desk so I had better get busy and do some dishes. Hopefully there will be even more excitement tomorow to report.