Reise, Reise

It's much, much better to enjoy freedom when your legs and feet are ready to enjoy it)) so I went yesterday as far as Lainville-en-Vexin making a 25km circle and was back home not completely worn out.  Only yesterday I noticed the Saint Jacob's sign at Oinville-sur-Montcient: the pilgrims moving from Haarlem to Santiago de Compostella go through this village too.  I said to myself how strange that I did not pay attention to the sign earlier... There were still many people in the fields. Many cars, extremely noisy motorcyclists training in the Domaine Forest Hill in front of Lainville. And again, I wondered HOW the locals had accepted that their beautiful silent landscapes were pull apart with the motorbikes! Still I felt much better than the first time here after the lockdown one week ago. (find info and write about the Château de Oinville)

I made an nice acquaintance. It's a guy from Algeria. He looks completely like a French, at least not like a Muslim. His slight accent, though, betrays his foreign origin. He's a painter but he cannot make money as an artist so he, mathematician, works at the same time at a famous French gas company. He loves blue colors and all the time makes jokes about his 'manias' and about everything around reacting vividly to any comment or phrase of mine. His and our manias concern everything in our everyday life; I think the way we organize space we inhabit is marked to a great extant by our phobias and manias. I came to his perfectly clean flat in a close South Parisian suburb, and my mission was to clean it even better. "Don't you regret of coming here?" he asked. "Of course not. I'll always find what to do even when there's nothing to do". He explained meanwhile his philosophy of the "fainéant", of a lazy man: "I hate doing a lo...

Almost one year ago... 26/11/2018: such a humid grey day... Almost all of the French clients who came for a lunch at Mavrommatis Passy ate KREATOPITA, a meat pie (meat wrapped in phyllo)! That's what astonish me every time: they don't know what others eat or have eaten and all of them order the same thing! my hypothesis is that the tastes and needs are directlyinfluences by the weather. Now you can cook kreatopita on your own, and follow the French example. Another example: there was an epidemics of stuffed aubergines' eating when the hot and sunny weather abruptly finished and changed to the cold one. Today, after 4 hours work, I've got the tips: 7 euros and 42 cents for me + 4 euros for 2 people, Amara and Christos, who helped me with preparing dishes. I like this job; still I think 630 euros per month is not enough. This amount would be OK if paid for one week.

It's the Indian summer here in Paris. I've stayed THREE weeks in the city without my long walks in the fields 40 km from it: it was raining, and I had to finish my dissertation and to send it to my professors. Yesterday, though, I went there. Coming back to the fields is like listening to eternity. Nothing changes, almost no movement, no people for sure. There's a striking difference between urban noise and serenity of nature. You also can feel the purity of its air. And if your eyes get used to beauty so that you are not able to amire it with the same intensity, silence for your ears would always be a great and precious surprise. You have to make breaks. Hear silence. This is our mental and bodily hygene. A road from Oinville to La Chartre, 12 oct 2019 This week I managed to spend 40 euros on food. That's about 5 euros per day. My colleague asks me why I don't eat with them at the restaurant. 'Cause it's expensive. - How much? - It's not the quest...

I am an angry bird today. The representative of the Saudi family called me this morning again. Again, they propose me to give French lessons for 20 euros / 1,5h, or for 15 euros / 1h. So, once again, we're at the beginning of our highly diplomatic dialogue . For those who doesn't know: in Paris, this is more or less what one can earn as a housecleaner. NOT as a professor speaking 5 languages and having his/her PhD degree. And although I do need money at the moment and I love money, the principle is much more important: if there is no respect for the teacher's work, adieu! Burning from anger, I've made all the way back home by foot, from 2e to 19e arrondissement. The weather is changing all the time, and there are very few people outside.

If you're planning to visit the Château de Versailles, I'ld like to share with you some lifehacks so that you could feel better there, especially during la haute saison . 1. WC There are two entries, A and B. Most people enter via the A, the groups via the B. After the security and the audioguides the visitors head from A to B across the court-yeard, where the visit starts. So imagine how many people are in the restrooms of the B in the beginning of the day. My advice is to visit first the WC of the A and then discover the Château, if you come shortly after the opening. They're situated on the -1 floor (EXIT from the Château to the Gardens). If you come in the afternoon, it's better to visit the toilets of the ENTRY (building B), as the crowds are now concentrated in the area of the EXIT (building A, -1 floor) making a looong line to the restroom. 2. To snack There's nothing INSIDE the palace except of the restaurant Angelina which is expensive. You may f...

Un coup d’œil sur la Normandie Jamais, jamais, ou presque, n'écoutez pas votre fatigue, parce que souvent c'est la paresse qui se dissimule sous la masque de la fatigue. Un des weekends, j'ai décidé de me promener à pied, sans la trottinette, pour ne pas faire des efforts. J'ai choisi la chaussée Jules César comme lieu de la promenade, tout près du rail et des gares ; la journée était froide, nuageuse, avec pourtant quelques éclaircies mais aussi du vent du nord. La chaussée va tout droit à Rouen, mais j'ai réussi de me tromper du chemin trois fois. Finalement, je suis rentrée encore plus fatiguée et insatisfaite, et toute la semaine suivante m'a paru une pesanteur insupportable, je me traînais à peine d'un lieu à l'autre, du jour au jour, jusqu'au samedi. La météo promettait le dimanche ensoleillé, et, à l'accueil de la bibliothèque, devant un grand écran que j'aime bien et beaucoup, je me suis mise à l'étude de ma prochaine destinat...

Elle était imprévue, inattendue, cette escapade en fin du janvier à la Côte d'Argent. Sur kelbillet , j'ai vu les billets de bus aller retour à Bordeaux pour 1.98 euros uniquement et décidé tout de suite d'y aller. Il me fallait de réserver encore un logement ; heureusement, je savais quelques bonnes adresses... À mon arrivée, j'ai trouvé Lacanau au cœur de la tempête Gabriel ... le vent était cruel comme jamais ! plus de 100 km / heure avec la pluie et la sable qui perçait le visage, et moi, il me'a fallu marcher 20 minutes pour accéder dans ma résidence Bleue Marine tout au sud de la ville. Bien arrivée, par contre, et bien installée. Mes bottes  ECCO  ECCO achetées en Suisse pour les montagnes et la neige en 2012, étaient toujours sèches, et c'est ça ce qui était le plus important. Rester sèche. Dans une heure ou deux après mon arrivée, j'avais fait quelques tentatives pour me promener et descendre sur la plage - sans succès ! Le vent toujours for...

21 September. The weather was hot, dry and sunny, I was eager to run away from the big city bits. Although I'm mostly sitting in Paris, sitting looks like running. I need to stop, and a walk that lasts for 6 hours is a goood looong stop, as long as 25 kilometers' walk. I started from Juziers, as you already know, and continued till Lainville-en-Vexin, village were I realized this time that the chaos in my head flew away. I was finally here. I didn't make a circle to come back to Juzi ers, but went further to Saint-Cyr-en-Arthies and, via Vienne-en-Arthies, arrived finally to Vétheuil. Last time I was here at the end of November 2018. All the way between Lainville and Vétheuil I wondered where all the people are. As if I were the only walker in the vast space of Vexin. But Vétheuil was rather too noisy, lots of people, lots of changes. Summer was still there, and everyone enjoyed drinks at the local Tabac near the bus stop. I prefer, though, the closer-to-winter we...

самое занимательное в этой нынешней работе - что она голову совершенно не занимает, но зато язык это ужас, на целый день я - попугай, одни и те же фразы приходится повторять миллион раз, и слишком их варьировать не получается, потому что надо быстро, телеграфически, и понятно. так что язык к концу дня сильно путается как пьяный и извиняется. я и так не особо говорлива, но по возвращении домой рот без извинений захлопывается насовсем (на вечер) нравятся китайцы. в предыдущем тексте я никоим образом не негативно о них, если кому почудилось. в основном это бабушки и дедушки, натрудившиеся в своей жизни, а может, и все еще. молодежь чаще всего уже холеная, упитанная, гладкая. лица у старичков морщинистые, сухие, похоже, всю жизнь пробывшие на солнце и ветрах. они перелетают с места на место стайками, не дай бог оторваться кому от всех! есть греки, но редко. "а греческого нет?" - "нет. только я тут по-гречески." - они хохочут: "прекрасно!" и я веселюсь...

This is perhaps the most beautiful, quiet and long (25 km) route not far from Paris for the one who loves grandes espaces… One summer day, I thought if it were possible to reach Vétheuil from Juziers. Yes, it was, phisically. But I worked also every Saturday, while the only possibility to go to Vétheuil was that one could come back home only taking a bus from this charmful village. The last bus from Vétheuil every weekend is at 16.45 pm on Saturday. As Sunday is usually the only day for my randonnées, I did not have this bus option. There are no busses at all in Vexin on Sunday. Now however I can escape from Paris on Saturday and on Sunday, and thanks gods autumn this year was dry. So the last Saturday I walked from Juziers to Montalet-le-Bois, and then reached Lainville-en-Vexin. This part of the trip was extremely quiet, there was no one except me, neither cyclists (perhaps because of the « gilets jaunes » manifestation), nor hunters. The blue sky is closer here, on t...

Our team at Mavrommatis is not big, I feel comfortable with them and at the Cave and Boutique located 70 av. Paul Doumer. Almost all of them are younger than me, most of them are Greeks. - Two beautiful and handsome Athenians, kouros and kora - One fragile, tall and skinny guy is West Macedonian from Fl. - East Macedonian is tough and rather looks like a Thracian. I don't remember where E. and M. are from, but A. is an Austrian girl whose Greek is awesome... because she studies Modern Greek literature at Inalco.

I will try to write here from time to time little drafts, tiny fragments about my life and work in Paris, or my life at work, or others life at my workplace in the ville de l'amour, Paris. Since june 2016, I've been working at the library of ANHIMA, where me and others used to and still use to study Greek and Roman and other ancient Antiquities. This quiet happiness lasted for two years, but in june 2018, the administration kindly asked me to try to look for another job étudiant, because the unit had not funds for my position any more. So since 13th September, I've been a proud waitress at Mavrommatis Passy/Trocadéro. I replied to an announcement about this position for one and the only reason: there would certainly be some Greeks beside me. M. turned out the only employer who showed interest in my candidacy and who signed contract with me. Sometimes it is a bit difficult and very sportive, but I like it. 70, avenue Paul Doumer

Place number one in Vexin Français. Absolutely THE must see and feel.

Les Écuries du château à Rueil-Seraincourt

Hérouville, château. #DavidBowie #EltonJohn

Festival du Vexin...

As far as I know, there is no name given to the chemin that embraces the southern sortie/exit of the village, and no maps that would mark the spot with an asterisk "panorama", "worth seeing", "beautiful view".

Il y a presque un an.