the living and the dead
february 23, 2011
Salaam Dear Ones,
Mercifully, the sun came out on our last morning in Paris just in time for us to enjoy our last stop, Cimetiere du Pere Lachaise, the famous cemetery where Jim Morrison, Oscar Wilde, Edith Piaf, Chopin, Maria Callas, Sarah Bernhardt, Stephane Grappelli, Isadora Duncan and so many other famous people are buried. The day was absolutely resplendent as we spent our last remaining Parisian hours wandering through a city of the dead. About a half hour into our meanderings, we asked some fellow directions and he was nice enough to lead us to a nearby tomb. We struck up a pleasant little conversation which turned into an hour and a half guided tour of the entire cemetery. Turns out Olivier was a "cemetery freak" as Aenni called him to his face, and he knew every grave, who was in it, who had done the grave stone, who had done the glass, when they lived, who their friends were, all the dates... Olivier was not only a walking encyclopedia, he was a perfect gentleman, and we had the most wonderful time looking around with him. He was so passionate about the cemetery that we got inspired too.
I'm sending some pictures of a few gravestones. The one attached here is of Olivier and Aenni discussing the tomb of an artist that Aenni had marveled at in the Louvre. You will see a bas relief beneath the sculpture of the artist. The bas relief is of an enormous painting that hangs in the Louvre. It's a scene of humanity struggling to stay alive on a raft, tempest tossed by the waves. Olivier explained that the painting created a huge stir when it was first done, because at the top of the heap of people on the raft, at the apex of the triangle of humanity, is a black man. This created a huge uproar and the painting almost wasn't displayed.
We felt like meeting Olivier was the final blessing of our trip. To have a personal tour of the cemetery and to be able to ask all our questions to someone so nice. It was lovely!
I can't figure out how to downsize pictures and attach them, so I'm sending them under separate cover. They range from the sublime to the absurd. You'll see what I mean.
Now I'm back at Dayemabad and it's wonderful to be "home." Today it was back to work at 4am. God I love this job. I learned how to make strawberry cream cake, German cheesecake, the basic dough for steusel kuchen, milchbrotchen, plunderteig, weekend bread, zopfli and also Wienerboeden which is much like our shortbread and the basis for classic German cakes. Juergen gave me a little metal scoop as a present today. The joke is that the three bakers share a big scoop when they're shaping loaves, but I need so much flour and my reach is so short, that I need a scoop of my own. I also showed Andreas how to make fudgy brownies. He had made them twice before, but each time they were cakey, and he liked fudgy better which I'd brought in once as a treat. Thank God they turned out.
Tonight Aenni, Julia and I are going to Bonn to a Mark Gillespie concert. He's the musician that Aenni and Wahid saw playing on the streets of Dortmund and turned a lot of people onto. Sabine might join us. There's no break in the action. Faize and Paul are coming from Switzerland this weekend. Monday's my last day at work. Wrap up loose ends and, voila, I'm back. I gotta jet!
I look forward to seeing you all really soon. I'll be in touch. Much more to come!
Love you all so much
fattie
Mercifully, the sun came out on our last morning in Paris just in time for us to enjoy our last stop, Cimetiere du Pere Lachaise, the famous cemetery where Jim Morrison, Oscar Wilde, Edith Piaf, Chopin, Maria Callas, Sarah Bernhardt, Stephane Grappelli, Isadora Duncan and so many other famous people are buried. The day was absolutely resplendent as we spent our last remaining Parisian hours wandering through a city of the dead. About a half hour into our meanderings, we asked some fellow directions and he was nice enough to lead us to a nearby tomb. We struck up a pleasant little conversation which turned into an hour and a half guided tour of the entire cemetery. Turns out Olivier was a "cemetery freak" as Aenni called him to his face, and he knew every grave, who was in it, who had done the grave stone, who had done the glass, when they lived, who their friends were, all the dates... Olivier was not only a walking encyclopedia, he was a perfect gentleman, and we had the most wonderful time looking around with him. He was so passionate about the cemetery that we got inspired too.
I'm sending some pictures of a few gravestones. The one attached here is of Olivier and Aenni discussing the tomb of an artist that Aenni had marveled at in the Louvre. You will see a bas relief beneath the sculpture of the artist. The bas relief is of an enormous painting that hangs in the Louvre. It's a scene of humanity struggling to stay alive on a raft, tempest tossed by the waves. Olivier explained that the painting created a huge stir when it was first done, because at the top of the heap of people on the raft, at the apex of the triangle of humanity, is a black man. This created a huge uproar and the painting almost wasn't displayed.
We felt like meeting Olivier was the final blessing of our trip. To have a personal tour of the cemetery and to be able to ask all our questions to someone so nice. It was lovely!
I can't figure out how to downsize pictures and attach them, so I'm sending them under separate cover. They range from the sublime to the absurd. You'll see what I mean.
Now I'm back at Dayemabad and it's wonderful to be "home." Today it was back to work at 4am. God I love this job. I learned how to make strawberry cream cake, German cheesecake, the basic dough for steusel kuchen, milchbrotchen, plunderteig, weekend bread, zopfli and also Wienerboeden which is much like our shortbread and the basis for classic German cakes. Juergen gave me a little metal scoop as a present today. The joke is that the three bakers share a big scoop when they're shaping loaves, but I need so much flour and my reach is so short, that I need a scoop of my own. I also showed Andreas how to make fudgy brownies. He had made them twice before, but each time they were cakey, and he liked fudgy better which I'd brought in once as a treat. Thank God they turned out.
Tonight Aenni, Julia and I are going to Bonn to a Mark Gillespie concert. He's the musician that Aenni and Wahid saw playing on the streets of Dortmund and turned a lot of people onto. Sabine might join us. There's no break in the action. Faize and Paul are coming from Switzerland this weekend. Monday's my last day at work. Wrap up loose ends and, voila, I'm back. I gotta jet!
I look forward to seeing you all really soon. I'll be in touch. Much more to come!
Love you all so much
fattie