As this is my first blog post for the summer, I feel that it is necessary to start with the obligatory recitation of all of the good things that have happened so far. Thus….I had a very comfortable plane ride, the food is good, the hotel is excellent and I have had very little sleep, but am very pleased with things.
Now… for the important things…
This afternoon, six of the kids on our trip and I went out to Versailles to see the Chateau and Gardens. After returning to our hotel and securing our dinner reservations at Chez Clément, I decided to pop down to the local, free, internet café (aka the Auld Alliance Pub) to do some work. Once I arrived, I quickly set up my laptop and began to do the prep work for the following few days.
As I looked up to my left, at the bar were 2 individuals whom I had not seen in over a year. The first was David, the main bar keep for the day, whom I find absolutely hilarious because of his natural Scottish wit and incredible ability to make you feel absolutely welcome and completely absurd at the same time. The second was Grant, the main grounds keeper at the hotel that we stay at in the 4th district of Paris, called the Marais. Grant has been working for the MIJE (our hotel) for as long as Travel for Teens has been spending its summers there. Grant is a native Australian who doesn’t say much, but when he does speak it’s something that you want to hear. As I propped up on my barstool to catch up with these two, I noticed that another individual had just come in from having a smoke on the terrace and that he seemed to be exceedingly friendly with my other two friends. Naturally, not wanting to be left out of the conversation, I introduced myself as Graham and he introduced himself as “Shoggy” (shoooogeeee if you have an Scottish/Australian accent).
Almost instantly, Shoggy and I became friends and for absolutely good reasons. Our conversation started out with the usual banter about why we were in Paris, how we learned French, why you were in the Pub, etcetera, but it quickly came around to much more interesting things as soon as Shoggy let fly with the information that he was a film professor for the Brown University Graduate exchange program in Paris and that he was incredibly good friends with the European film maker Lars Von Trier.
Here is where we found our common interests. I informed him that during the 2007 year, I had studied film, art history, and political science in Paris with UNC’s Paris Consortium and asked him if he had met or was friends with Professor Costello. He answered that the name sounded familiar, but that he could not place the name with a face. I answered simply that I felt that the two of them would be fast friends because of their mutual interests in film and art history and that at the upcoming conference of Paris Program Directors they should make introductions. He responded with much enthusiasm at the idea and mentioned that he would make an effort.
As we talked further, our subjects ran from our experiences with tour groups to our various views on exchange programs and language acquisition to current news. Finally, he informed me of his story and how he came to be a film teacher...it wasn’t what I was expecting:
In 1974, abortion was the central issue in France, much in the same way that it exists today in America. In 1974, Shoggy was 14 years old and his mother was Lily de Lyon. For those of you reading at home, Lily de Lyon was extremely important in the Planned Parenthood movement of France called “Planning Familial”. She, and her son as you will soon see, were the driving force behind the legalization and regulation of abortion in France.
During a pro-abortion riot in 1974, the CRS (French riot police) were involved in an altercation with protestors demonstrating on Blvd. St. Michel in the 3rd district of Paris. During their operation, they misread the map of protest and instead of attacking the adults at the front of the manifestation; they attacked the rear, where the children of the adults were being taken care of. Then, as the CRS are famous for doing, they began clubbing anyone who looked like they were of age and arresting them. Shoggy, seeing the CRS advancing, grabbed 2 kids and threw them into a café and turned just in time to catch a blow to the head from a CRS baton. He was 14 years old. Luckily, a photographer from the Socialist French magazine “Libération” was able to catch of picture of Shoggy’s bloody face as he was being beaten by the CRS. That photo made it on the cover of the magazine and he became the literal “poster child” for police brutality in France. To this day, he has a divot in his skull where part of it was removed by the CRS back in 1974. Due to the outcry from the French people regarding the abuse of a child by the police, Abortion passed extremely easily in the French parliament.
As my face gradually receded back from its “jaw-dropped” stage, I began asking him questions about what happened after the attack. He stated that his mother, who had not realized that he had been hit and that he was currently in a Parisian hospital, saw the cover of the magazine and rushed back to Paris to be with her son. After several days of hospitalization, he was released and sent back to Lyon. A year later, a very famous event happened in French Parliament. A woman by the name of Simone Veil stood up to make a speech, she was a very influential Jewish woman in the Socialist Party and respect to her was supreme. During the speech, a young parliamentarian from one of the myriad of parties represented stood up and stated “You speak like a Nazi!!”. Simone, then tore back her sleeve and showed the tattoo she had received as a prisoner at Auschwitz and said, “I have been subject to the Nazis…I am not a Nazi!!”
I told you that story, so that the next part of Shoggy’s story will make sense. Shoggy was riding a train soon after this event happened in Parliament. He was around 16 years old and was in the process of helping his Aunt dispose of a dirty diaper, when he passed a train car with an older woman sitting very close to the trash can in which he was about to place the diaper. He apologized to the lady for the smell and she stated that it was fine because she had smelled worse. He laughed and sat down with the lady to talk for a few minutes. She told him her story and then, after realizing who she was, he stated that his mother was Lily of Lyon and she exclaimed, “You are the boy from the photo!!” Instantly, they had a strong friendship that lasted for years.
Again, after I picked my jaw off of the floor, I asked him about Von Trier and his methods of filmmaking. Our conversation continued over several topics and he described in great detail the meaning behind Le Corbeau, Les Enfants de Paradis, and other famous French films created during WWII. He also explained how Van Trier thinks and why films such as The Element of Crime and Anti-Christ constantly revert back to melodramatic themes, but proclaim to have great thoughts regarding the human experience…..or something like that. We both agreed that at the essence…it was just the recognition of human emotion and the actions these emotions effect.
It was an incredible experience and he was an incredible individual. Luckily, his favorite neighborhood bar is also my favorite neighborhood bar, so I am looking forward to picking his brain more. In typical style, I’m finishing off the day with a nice plate of rotisserie chicken and creamed risotto, while looking forward to sleeping and traveling to Joigny tomorrow.
- Pondhopper
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