(I know, tacky. But who can resist la Dame de Fer de Paris?) I wasn’t thinking I’d be going to Paris any time soon, but it so happened, thanks to the magic of Schengen.
The highlight of my 56 hours trip was a visit to the brand new ‘Cité et Musée de l’Histoire de l’Immigration’.
Weird that France would have a museum celebrating migration - France being the country of the ‘blend in and keep a low profile, bitch’ rather than an American ‘pitch in and let’s see what you’ve got, babe’.
But I was very pleasantly surprised.
The temporary exhibition, about the Armenian refugees/diaspora, was rather interesting, although a little too weepy - it was organised by Armenian organisations in France - to be an objective museum thing.
Then it was aaaaaaaaaaall about France. And I think the main message - or the one I got, at least - was that, despite the ambient madness about conformism, France is one heck of a patchwork of nationalities - to me, a real work of art. France just forgot that.
Click HERE for my photos!!
4 comments:
Et à l'inauguration, point de Sarkozy (c'est une première en Sarkozie), point de Balkany, de Devedjian, de Yade, de Dati, d'Amara (qui éventuellement auraient pu se sentir concernés), point de Hortefeux, ministre de l'immigration et de l'identité nationale. Et pourtant comme le montre bien la Cité, l'immigration est plus que partie intégrante de nôtre 'identité nationale'...
No kidding!! C'est assez honteux, je trouve.. Sarko a tendance a l'oublier - et a nous le faire oublier - mais c'est aussi un fils d'immigré (et fils de collabo, aussi, m'a-t-on dit?). Comme quoi, l'integration est plus une question de couleur et de prénom que d'autre chose.
Les autres.. la honte. Hortefeux: ne soyons pas mechants avec le pauvre Brice. Je doute qu'il sache faire ses lacets tout seul, alors prendre des décisions..
Oh my! You speak French? An Egyptian who speaks French? :D
When I was in Paris last summer, a girl asked me -more tourist than her- about the way to the mosque. I thought I'd rather go with her and show her the way, than just mislead her by wrong directions. Anyways, I got to ask her where she was from because she wore the veil and had familiar features (in Morocco we say ddem l3erbi ka yjbd khouh - meaning Arabic blood attracts Arabs-), and she said that she was Egyptian. I was like: Shut up!!! Egyptians don't speak French! -- A wrong impression about Egyptians I should definitely correct.
"France being the country of the ‘blend in and keep a low profile, bitch’ rather than an American ‘pitch in and let’s see what you’ve got, babe’." -- Oh my world! Never heard this, but it sounds SO TRUE!
"ddem l3erbi ka yjbd khouh" -- hilarious. I'll remember that one!
And yes, some of us can speak French... more than you'd think, I believe. I guess it's the remnants of the old missionary schools, or this old impression that punctuating your speech with some francais is classy.. But there's a bunch of us down there! come visit!!
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