Today I returned to the Antigone district in order to do
some research at the Médiatheque
Emile Zola. A médiatheque is a like a
really large library with every sort of media, not just books. In addition to traditional print resources,
this would include music, movies, and bandes déssinées (French comic
books). I was very impressed by the size
and services offered by the library. As
I walked through the Antigone in the afternoon, there were many passersby,
which served to make the place feel less like an ancient ruin and more like the
lively, upscale district that it was.
After supper, I went with Thibault and some of his friends
to see a Dvorak concert being performed at the Corum, a large opera theater
near the Minnesota Bureau. The orchestra
was amazing and the music was very beautiful.
Of interest to me at least, I counted twenty-nine violinists in the
orchestra. While there were many strings
(violas, cellos), there were relatively few woodwinds or brass
instrumentalists. Not that that affected
my enjoyment of the concert, it just caught my interest is all.
On the way back to the Place de la Comédie, I was reminded
by a story that my host brother’s friend Louis told me. There was a café on the Place de la Comédie
called “Il y a bon”, or “there is good.”
One day, a waiter from that café opened up his own café directly next to
it, calling it “Il y a mieux”, or “there is better.” The first place started to lose business. Let’s face it, why settle for good when you
can have better? The first café took the
second to court and the second was forced to change its name to “Café du
Théâtre”, which is a good name in and of itself, but I can’t help to think of a
better one…
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