Flore Power
The fashion designer Sonia Rykiel is here, upstairs at Le Flore, my Paris office. She gave me a big smile as she came in. She’s always very warm and friendly when she sees me. I think she finds me amusing, with my zebra striped iBook and manic typing. She once told me she liked my pants –- a black and white pair with newsprint all over them that I bought for $20 at a designer resale store in LA.
It’s always interesting upstairs at Flore…occasionally, I see Deneuve here, sometimes with Yves St. Laurent (easy to play it cool around slobbo LA movie stars, but hard not to sneak a peek at La Deneuve). There’s always somebody -- Greil Marcus or various and sundry French novelists or Freud-clingers -- getting interviewed by a TV crew...in addition to the usual crowd of gray-skinned depressive intellectuals and preternaturally tanned BCBGs. (BCBG is short for Bon Chic, Bon Genre –- the 80s French term for “yuppie” –- probably as creaky in France as the term “yuppie” is for us, but it’s hard enough to learn to speak intelligibly in ordinary French without keeping up on all the “argot.”)
Although I usually spend most of my conversational time at Flore torturing French people (ie, forcing them to pick out the meaning from my attempted français), I met a very interesting British woman here yesterday -- a lawyer for a big company living in Paris for 20 years, with a pretty good French accent (at least, to me). I only learned she was British because she forgot her purse, and as she was hurrying down the stairs, I was trying to quickly collect the French to tell her: “Madame, vous avez oublié votre sac!” She came back and sat beside me for quite a while, talking about the state of things in America, the Middle East, and Europe, and asking about what I do. Like many Europeans, she's surprised (horrified?...translation from British) by the advance of religion in America.
They've got a lot of dumb policy in France (all the commie-inflected stuff), but they've got one thing right -- separation of church and state, and not just as a matter of lip service. I was talking yesterday with a French man about the principle of Laïque (secularism) in the public schools in France. When you go to a public French school, you are a little French child, not a Muslim, or Jewish, or Christian -- hence, the prohibition on religious attire like head scarves. You want to wear the trappings of religion? Attend a private fundamentalist institution. The man also told me how shocking it would be for a head of state here in France to take an oath of office by swearing on a bible, like our president does...or to talk about god in relation to matters of state. We Americans might be economically ahead, but philosophically, we have "reculé" (backed up).
By the way, my American friend Jason, who’s a Paris resident and blogger with a Harvard MBA and a degree in chemical engineering, is looking for a job, toute de suite (pronto!), befitting his serious credentials -- but, in France with an American or international company. The reader of this blog who leads him to one he lands gets a free hour telephone consultation with me on the problems of their choice –- romantic, aesthetic, or dietetic…since I am now an expert on how to lose weight while burying one’s face in a plate of bleu des Causses cheese or other equally calorie-neutral delicacies. (If you want to pack on some pounds, eat Snackwells and other calorie-reduced crap!)
You forgot to mention the occasional Lena Cuisina sighting at Flore, Amy. Hi? Deneuve? Chopped pate!
Lena at January 18, 2005 7:47 AM
I was only trying to protect your privacy.
Amy Alkon at January 18, 2005 7:59 AM
Good luck to Jason. My dad looked for a job in Paris for two years before going back to his old one, thus forcing him to split his time between NC and Paree.
LYT at January 18, 2005 8:25 PM
To Amy's one hour consultation, I will add a dinner at L'Ambroise.
By the way, Amy, thanks for the plug. I was wondering why I was getting all of those "hits" from you.
Jason Stone at January 18, 2005 9:03 PM
Well, at the very least, everybody will get some blogger-tainment out of the deal!
Amy Alkon at January 18, 2005 11:02 PM
I'm not so sure religion is "advancing in America." More like coming under extreme duress due to the slow but steady advance of rationalism, science and Libertarian principles.
Organized religion and its tenets were accepted as pretty much as the status quo for the last two centuries. No one was rocking the boat. Now with the progression of tolerance toward gays, legalized abortion, women's rights, and other hot-button issues, the fundamentalist stranglehold on this country is really being challenged for the first time.
No action was necessary when everyone towed the party line, but now the shrill voices of rightwing Christian fundamentalists continue to rise. They realize their grip is slowly eroding, and so must become vocal activists to maintain the power of religious control (isn't it always about fear and control?) over people and politics.
I predict the shoring up of the fundy faithful will continue, giving the appearance that religion is advancing in America. But in the end, the handwriting is on the wall.
Jeff R at January 19, 2005 2:40 AM
I'd love to believe you, Jeff, but by that standard, shouldn't the writing have been on the wall in the '80s, especially after all the televangelist scandals?
I know many California conservatives, most of whom have never been to the South, who are convinced that religious nutters are a slim and powerless minority on the Right. They're wrong.
LYT at January 19, 2005 6:03 AM
Quite right, Luke. I'm forever surprised by friends of mine who lean right who think the religious nutters are nothing to worry about.
Amy Alkon at January 19, 2005 7:53 AM
The 'religious nutters' are quite possibly the most viable threat to our personal freedoms in these times. That being said, they have always been the source of death, war, destruction, and subjugation of women, children, people of color, the queer community, etc. Shouldn't freedom OF religion also mean freedom FROM religion?
Goddyss at January 25, 2005 10:00 PM