Usual Large Paris Program

At the Issy métro exit; you can't miss it.

Unusually Small Edition of Metropole

by Ric Erickson

Paris:- Monday, 13. April 1998:- This column usually gets written on its 'date' and today is no exception - except that it is about 12 hours late.

Until 15:00 last Friday I was chugging merrily along on my own private railroad, putting together a really 'big show,' as Ed Sullivan used to say. While waiting for a contact on the quai aux Fleurs, on the Ile de la Cité, the weather changed from 'spring' to 'Easter' within an hour, and I became a victim of it.

For this reason there is no 'Au Bistro' column this week, and a much larger article I was planning to do about Issy-les-Moulineaux, fell by the wayside.

For Europeans, this is a very popular time for a short visit to Paris. Easter is early this year, or I think it is because it is late, and I had forgotten all about it until I happened to use the parvis in front of Notre Dame for a shortcut Friday afternoon.

When I saw the crowds lining up to get into the cathedral, the penny dropped. When I also saw the front of the church buttoned up to the neck in scaffolding, another niggle started. Didn't I say some time ago that this renovation work had been completed? If I did, I was wrong.

If so, was it my fault all those good people were there? I really doubt it. In any case, everybody was headed inside to see the splendors there, and get out of the rising 'Easter' breeze I had not yet noticed.

"The 'Dictionnaire Argot Français sur le Net' might be quite interesting - and I have read that it is - but I did not have the patience to try and figure out the author's conception of his Web pages which are supposed to explain it.

"Maybe it is because I don't understand French well, and it is therefore futile for me to learn any 'argot' - slang - or maybe it is because the Web was full, or because I have a lousy connection and use an old browser. I don't know. If you try it and it doesn't make much sense to you, don't spend a lot of time on it. If you turn up something interesting, let me know."

The two paragraphs above appeared in the Metropole's last issue of last year. The only person who has bothered to write to me about it, is Patrick Lecrosnier, the dictionary's author. He says the Web address has changed. Fine, I say. I'll change it too, right here and now, and I urge everybody to give it a hit. I'm going to. Hit! It works fine and it's a lot of fun. There are competitions for thinking up new argot too, with prizes.

Hanky-panky at Paris' Hôtel de Ville: the centre-right's week of the long knives is not our business. So read about it in Friday's The Toqueville Connection: on Metropole's Links Page.

Triple for 'Delacroix' Season:

An exhibition of about 250 drawings, watercolors and engravings, by Delacroix - showing him to be a master of color and line. The exhibition has two parts; the essentials of his engravings, including the series of lithos for Hamlet and Faust, and the other shows off the artist's different techniques.

Bibliothèque Nationale de France - Richelieu
Galeries Mansart et Mazarine
From Tuesday, 7. April to Sunday, 12. July. Open daily except Mondays, from 9:30 to 18:30. Entry, 35 francs; catalogue, 160 pages, about 145 francs. 58. rue de Richelieu, Paris 1. Métro: Quatre-Septembre or Bourse. Info. Tel.: 01 47 03 81 10.

This exhibition accents the copies of Delacroix done by Frédéric Villot, painter, engraver, art historian and friend of the artist. The original and the copies of Sardanapale are shown side by side, for the first time. Other engravings, designs, letters and manuscripts by Villot are also on view.

Musée Eugène Delacroix
From Thursday, 9. April to Friday, 31. July. Open daily, except Mondays, from 9:30 to 17:00. Entry, 30 francs - allows access to the permanent collection as well. 6. rue de Furstenberg, Paris 6. Métro: Saint-Germain-des-Près. Info. Tel.: 01 44 41 86 50.