This American Life
Did anyone catch the "Americans in Paris" show on This American Life? I ended up missing the beginning and the end but got a good chunk of the middle. Most of it was by or about David Sedaris. As Sedaris fans may remember from his book Me Talk Pretty One Day, he basically wound up in Paris with little to no knowledge of French, nor a particular affinity for French culture. And he's not famous over there, either. He has never been to the Pantheon, but he watches a movie a day, loves the frozen food store Picard, and frequents Deyrolle, purveyor of taxidermized animals (I guess he finds cool stuff there for his sister Amy of "Strangers with Candy" fame).
Weirdly enough, I was just checking some page numbers in Adam Gopnik's wonderful (but ever so faintly nauseating) book Paris to the Moon and he alludes to collecting posters from Deyrolle, too! So, kids, if you are looking to meet American expatriate writers in Paris, forget stinky old Shakespeare & Co, go to Deyrolle!
I have never been to Deyrolle, or Shakespeare & Co (I'll write on my immoderate love of Gibert Joseph someday) but I did get a kick out of the segment on Grand Jury butter. Apparently David is in charge of the shopping but Hugh, his partner, screamed at him because David served Ira Glass (the host of TAL) "Grand Jury" brand butter, which was a humiliation beyond recovery. Grand Jury is the store brand for ... what is it, Casino grocery stores? so obviously anyone with that on their table is un-discerning to the extreme. Monsieur will serve "Président" to the guests, I suppose.
What if there were a "Sénat" butter, or a "Chambre des députés" butter? Where would that fit in the hierarchy?
There was also a segment about race, class, and cross-cultural relations-- unfortunately the name of the woman interviewed doesn't come to mind, I'll listen to the bit again and correct this post-- but it was fascinating to listen to her commentary on the way Paris made her think about different parts of her identity and how they could be highlighted or ignored depending on the situation: when walking into a store, is it better to come off as Black or American?
Weirdly enough, I was just checking some page numbers in Adam Gopnik's wonderful (but ever so faintly nauseating) book Paris to the Moon and he alludes to collecting posters from Deyrolle, too! So, kids, if you are looking to meet American expatriate writers in Paris, forget stinky old Shakespeare & Co, go to Deyrolle!
I have never been to Deyrolle, or Shakespeare & Co (I'll write on my immoderate love of Gibert Joseph someday) but I did get a kick out of the segment on Grand Jury butter. Apparently David is in charge of the shopping but Hugh, his partner, screamed at him because David served Ira Glass (the host of TAL) "Grand Jury" brand butter, which was a humiliation beyond recovery. Grand Jury is the store brand for ... what is it, Casino grocery stores? so obviously anyone with that on their table is un-discerning to the extreme. Monsieur will serve "Président" to the guests, I suppose.
What if there were a "Sénat" butter, or a "Chambre des députés" butter? Where would that fit in the hierarchy?
There was also a segment about race, class, and cross-cultural relations-- unfortunately the name of the woman interviewed doesn't come to mind, I'll listen to the bit again and correct this post-- but it was fascinating to listen to her commentary on the way Paris made her think about different parts of her identity and how they could be highlighted or ignored depending on the situation: when walking into a store, is it better to come off as Black or American?
posted by Françoise Villon at 10:35 PM
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