Begins with a sunset on the Pont Marie next to our pied-à-terre in the Île Saint-Louis, one of two natural islands in Paris.
The next evening we invited some folks over for a small fête to kick of the week of events planned for the Henry Miller Memorial Library’s Aller Retour Paris literary festival. Naturally this involved much wine, bread and cheese. The calm before the storm:
Pont Marie Gang at Sunset (not featured, our photographer and pal: Debi Lorenc)
I wanted to only eat bread, cheese and butter the whole time in Paris, but after two days, I had to add some roughage. That’s all I’m saying. I made everyone go out to the bridge at sunset where we drank German sekt (sorry France) and ate petite madeleine from Combray and talked about Proust, yes, I am serious. Reading the new translation of Swann’s Way right now.
Wine Tasting!
Petite fete
Then the Ping-Pong kickoff Party at Shakespeare and Company on Monday night! As I read I looked out and saw this:
Yeah, Notre-Dame Cathedral: Cathédrale Notre Dame de Paris. Unbelievable. If you’ve read the poetry on this blog, you’ve read at least one of my Quasimodo and Esmeralda poems. And the bookstore, wow:
Shakespeare and Company
I’m that little dot of rust reading there. Also reading were poetry editor, J. Hope Stein:
Parisian artiste, Jean-Noël Chazelle:
Jean-Noel Chazelle
and Ping-Pong’s fiction editor, Shelley Marlow:
Chicago cool cat: singer-songwriter Al Rose played music and really, the world spun on its axis in a way that made you want to sway.
And also to the other folks: the inimitable House of Nod filmmakers und wunderkind extraordinaire, Bennett Elliot and Rob Kolodny. And the Henry Miller Memorial Library could not function without Mike Scutari (he’s always eating, when he’s not eating, he’s hungry).
house of nod
and that’s just up until Monday . . .
Linda Bastide wrote up a piece about our reading that night, so if you speak French and want to read it, click here: Les Bavard du Net
And for you English speakers, you can also read Henry Miller Library’s account here: Ping-Pong slays in the Heart of Paris
Special thanks for our friend Debi Lorenc, who is not only one of the angel-headed hipsters seen here, but also a wonderful photographer.
mlu, debi and adrienne
