F Train to Paris

In which a Jewish family from Brooklyn moves to Paris, France for two years of work, school, and adventures.

 As our departure gets closer, our schedule is becoming more crowded. The pages of my agenda for May and June are full of cooking classes, walking tours, dinners, theater, and concerts. We can't possibly squeeze everything we want to do and see in Paris into the next two months, but we're going to try!

Over the past two years, we've traveled extensively in Europe, although not too much in France itself.  To remedy that, we're planning a three-week road trip around eastern France this summer, after our belongings have been shipped. Our last (for now) trip to another European city was a long weekend in Amsterdam over the Ascension holiday, May 5-8. It was a holiday in Amsterdam, too-- the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Holland. A friend who moved from Paris to Amsterdam had said that the city would be empty over the holiday weekend, but in fact we found it packed with tourists. It was hard to find a hotel, and there were long lines at all the museums.

We stayed in an apartment on a small street between the Singel and Herrengracht canals. The apartment was a bit dingy and gloomy, but the location was very convenient, and we were able to walk everywhere. In fact, although the weather was chilly and rainy, we only took a tram once, on the way back from the Albert Cuypmarket where we shopped for our Shabbat meals. Our kids are great walkers and hardly ever complain.

Amsterdam is a clean, charming, lively city, where virtually everyone speaks English well and seems happy to do so. There's great ethnic food of every variety--we ate Indonesian, we found a great vegetarian restaurant that reminded us of Moosewood, and we ate plenty of bagels. At the market, we ate raw herring sandwiches, and we found a cheese seller who sold only Gouda, but dozens of varieties and ages. We bought three big wedges: an aged one, a young one, and a cumin one. Everyone liked the aged Gouda best, but we devoured all three.

Besides doing lots and lots of walking, mostly along the canals, we visited the city's main museums: the Rijksmuseum (which is closed for renovation except for one wing, where they have hung the highlights of the collection, including plenty of Rembrandts, Vermeers, and Hals),  the Van Gogh Museum, and the highlight of the trip, for me, the Anne Frank House.

It was Anne Frank who inspired this trip. I first read the diary in 7th grade, and it immediately influenced my own diary, which I began to address as Kitty, just like Anne did. I also tried to be a more interesting diarist, writing about my feelings and my impressions of the people around me, instead of just reporting on what I had done that day. (Of course, I couldn't possibly compete with a girl forced into hiding by the Nazis, and my diary seemed pitifully boring in comparison). I have reread Anne's diary many times, and just before the trip I read the recent edition that incorporates material Anne's father edited out of the original version.

Having "lived" in the Secret Annex with Anne so many times--climbing those stairs with her to visit Peter, sitting at the table peeling potatoes, trying to sleep while Mr. Dussell snored just across the room--it was unbelievable to actually walk through those rooms. The lines are long, and the tiny apartment is crowded with other visitors, but I found the visit so moving. I tried unsuccessfully to get the older boys to read the diary before we went, but at least they listened to Anne's story, and of course they have heard a lot about the Holocaust. It's hard to tell whether the visit was meaningful to them--certainly E. was mystified and bored by the whole thing.

On the train ride back to Paris (four hours), we met two charming young men from India who had just graduated from college in the U.S. and were treating themselves to a trip around Europe. They had spent two days in Amsterdam, and told us they had run out of things to do. They found Amsterdam boring. We were surprised to hear this, not only because we found the city so interesting, but because there was an entire aspect of it that we ignored--the red light district, nightclubs, coffeeshops that sell pot and hash--which we'd have thought would appeal to people their age. They got off the train at Brussels, and were going on to Madrid and Barcelona, then to Italy. I hope they're having a great time.

posted by: pariskleinmans at 21:57 | link | comments (1) |

Comments:

#1  23 May 2005 - 20:59

 

Sounds like another great trip. I saw Anne Frank's place years ago. It was amazing to be there after reading her diary years before.
On another note... any desire to join me on the Paris bloggers evening on May 31? Let me know.

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