In which a Jewish family from Brooklyn moves to Paris, France for two years of work, school, and adventures.
About me
Recent comments
Links
101 Cookbooks
A Day in Paris
Alesian Literary Salon
Balabusta
Bus 38 Online
Chocolate and Zucchini
Cucina Testa Rossa
Daniel Gordis: Dispatches from an Anxious State
David Byrne's Website
Dispatches from France
Eurecole
French Wine a Day
French Word-a-Day
Hannah Senesh Community Day School
International School of Paris
Jewish Roman Tours
Kane Street Synagogue
L'Amerloque
Manhattan User's Guide
Microcosmos
Mollie Katzen Online
NYC a Paris
Orangette
Overheard in New York
Pie in Paris
Red Wheelbarrow
Sentence Guy
Speak E-Z Food Reviews
strongbad emails
The Aimless Files
The Julie/Julia Project
This Blog
This Normal Life
Archives
today
September 2005
August 2005
July 2005
June 2005
May 2005
April 2005
March 2005
February 2005
January 2005
December 2004
November 2004
October 2004
September 2004
Categories
Members
Counter
visited *loading* times
At long last, more about our recent trip to Andalucia. But first, I must mention the wonderful visit we had from my father and stepmother, who spent a long weekend with us in early February. In just a few days we managed to eat at some of Paris’s best kosher restaurants (including Les Ailes and Le Telegraphe), and to otherwise cover a lot of ground. It was a great visit, and we wish they could have stayed longer. And now, back to Spain…
Our first full day in Granada found us at one of the world’s great monuments, one of many people’s top ten destinations, and Spain’s number one tourist attraction: the Alhambra. Situated on a hilltop overlooking Granada, with the snow-capped Sierra Nevada mountains behind it, this palace and garden complex is staggeringly beautiful and fascinating. It includes the ruins of the Alcazaba, a 9th century fortress built by the Moors; an almost perfectly preserved Moorish palace from the Nasrid dynasty (14th century), and a renaissance palace built right next to it by Carlos V in the 16th century.
Our kids were bored.
So after we told them off for their lack of culture, and threatened to leave them behind in the hotel room for the rest of the vacation, or to cut the trip short and return to Paris, we took them to lunch at the Parador de San Francisco, located within the Alhambra grounds (where we hadn’t been able get a room reservation). Some food calmed everyone down. It was the usual variations on gazpacho, potato omelet, and fish, but the menu was a bit more creative than a typical tapas joint. For example, we had ajo blanco, a white gazpacho made with almond, garlic, grapes, and bread.
The next day, we decided to explore a neighborhood not far from our hotel called the Albaicin, described by our guidebooks as a well-preserved example of Moorish architecture. I later found out that it was once a Jewish neighborhood as well (no sign of that anymore). With narrow pedestrian streets and small touches of charm, such as tiled window sills and doorways, the quiet Albaicin at first felt like a neighborhood forgotten by time. But we quickly realized that renovations were going on everywhere around us. This neighborhood is obviously experiencing fast gentrification, and the adorable Moorish houses are being bought up by affluent families.
For a couple of hours we climbed around the hilly streets of Albaicin, just looking around. Unbelievable, no one was bored. Why? J. brought along his book, and R. his Gameboy. For the rest of the trip, we let them—nay, we encouraged them—to bring along these distractions, and all was well. They just hadn’t thought to bring them to the Alhambra the day before—what a mistake! (For E., we always bring a notebook, pen, and a small toy or two. That keeps him happy.) Eventually we found our way to a mirador (scenic overlook) at the Plaza San Nicolas with a dazzling view of the Alhambra and the Sierra Nevada behind it. The boys actually looked up!
Let me now fast-forward through the next few days, or this entry will never end. From Granada, we moved on to Seville by way of Cordoba, where we spent an afternoon. The old quarter of Cordoba is charming and well preserved, and its Jewish Quarter includes a tiny synagogue and a statue of Rambam (Maimonides), a native son. The main attraction, though, is La Mezquita, an enormous 8th century mosque into which a cathedral was shoehorned in the 16th century. The contrast in styles is bizarre and fascinating. Much of the original mosque was, amazingly, preserved, including an ornate niche called a Mihrab, which indicates the east and Mecca, much like a Mizrach plaque in a Jewish home indicates Jerusalem.
Let me now fast-forward through the next few days, or this entry will never end. From Granada, we moved on to Seville by way of Cordoba, where we spent an afternoon. The old quarter of Cordoba is charming and well preserved, and its Jewish Quarter includes a tiny synagogue and a statue of Rambam (Maimonides), a native son. The main attraction, though, is La Mezquita, an enormous 8th century mosque into which a cathedral was shoehorned in the 16th century. The contrast in styles is bizarre and fascinating. Much of the original mosque was, amazingly, preserved, including an ornate niche called a Mihrab, which indicates the east and Mecca, much like a Mizrach plaque in a Jewish home indicates Jerusalem.
In sunny Seville, it took us a while to get our bearings. We never ventured far from our hotel, which was well located near the cathedral, in the Santa Cruz neighborhood. Most of the attractions and many restaurants were in walking distance—in fact, we didn’t take a bus once. Seville’s enormous cathedral (3rd largest in the world) was also once a mosque; it’s unclear from our various guidebooks whether the mosque was destroyed by an earthquake or just demolished, but again the most fascinating aspects of the cathedral, we thought, were the remnants of Moorish architecture. Columbus’s tomb (it may be him in there, or maybe not) is inside the cathedral. We climbed the 36 ramps to the top of the Giralda, the famous bell tower. (I stumbled over this site, about buildings on the U.S. that are modeled on the Giralda, including the Municipal Building in NY. Who knew?)
Seville has its own Moorish palace and garden complex, the Real Alcazar, right in town instead of up on a hill. Because it’s not as well known as the Alhambra, perhaps, so we had no expectations, we liked it even more. In this case there’s a Gothic palace right next to the Moorish one, parts of which are still used by the Spanish monarchs.
In Seville we learned about Mudejar architecture, developed by Moors working under Christian rule. A great example of this is the Casa de Pilatos, a private mansion that’s open to the public, which we toured (without the children). The hallways are virtually encrusted with colorful tiles, and the upper walls and doorways are made of intricately carved stucco. This was a highlight for Ralph and me, but the kids’ favorite monument in Seville was the Plaza de Toros—the bullring.
Some gastronomic highlights in Seville—churros and pudding-like hot chocolate for breakfast, eaten outdoors in the sun; a tapas bar with some innovative departures from the usual olives-cheese-tortilla troika, such as grilled garlic mushrooms and tuna with orange sauce; an Italian meal in a restaurant housed in a 12th century Moorish bathhouse, which was apparently shared (on alternate days) by Jews, Muslims, and Catholics.
We kept an eye out (with virtually no success) for remnants of Seville’s large Jewish community, which was expelled about a hundred years before the main expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492. Just before we left, we came across a sign for Jewish walking tours and managed to arrange one for our last morning. Despite the pouring rain (the only bad weather we had all week), our guides, Pepe and Christina, did a wonderful job bringing to life Seville’s rich Jewish history with practically no physical evidence to work with. A door on a church, left over from its former existence as a synagogue; a fragment of a wall that once enclosed the neighborhood; a street named “Calle Levies”—these are just about all that remains. Pepe led us down a flight of stairs into an underground parking garage, below the plaza where we had had our churros and chocolate in the sun a few days earlier. There, next to the parked cars, was a plaque with a photograph, explaining that a Jewish cemetery had been found on the spot. Displayed next to the plaque, behind glass, was a single tomb found in the cemetery; the rest of the tombs are apparently in storage at the archaeological museum. (Pepe and Christina's organization is Clavis Cultural. If you're interested you can email them at info@claviscultural.com.)
We kept an eye out (with virtually no success) for remnants of Seville’s large Jewish community, which was expelled about a hundred years before the main expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492. Just before we left, we came across a sign for Jewish walking tours and managed to arrange one for our last morning. Despite the pouring rain (the only bad weather we had all week), our guides, Pepe and Christina, did a wonderful job bringing to life Seville’s rich Jewish history with practically no physical evidence to work with. A door on a church, left over from its former existence as a synagogue; a fragment of a wall that once enclosed the neighborhood; a street named “Calle Levies”—these are just about all that remains. Pepe led us down a flight of stairs into an underground parking garage, below the plaza where we had had our churros and chocolate in the sun a few days earlier. There, next to the parked cars, was a plaque with a photograph, explaining that a Jewish cemetery had been found on the spot. Displayed next to the plaque, behind glass, was a single tomb found in the cemetery; the rest of the tombs are apparently in storage at the archaeological museum. (Pepe and Christina's organization is Clavis Cultural. If you're interested you can email them at info@claviscultural.com.)
We’ve been back in cold, gray Paris for almost two weeks, and sunny Spain seems like a dream. Finally writing this post has helped me get a handle on the many things we saw (and ate). I’ve skipped so much to keep it relatively short, but I’d be happy to supply more details to anyone who asks!
posted by: pariskleinmans at 15:20 |
link | comments (1) |
Comments:
Comments:
