Summer Weather

Temperature. At Last!

Paris:– Monday, 2. August 2004:– It finally happened. TV–weather news said what the temperature was today. Usually I have to walk all the way down Daguerre to look at a pharmacy's digital sign. Well, I did this too – at noon it said 31 degrees.

So tonight, here's my weather guy and he's got some red dots on a map, and there was Paris with 32.4 written on it. My own copyrighted graphic temperature converter says this is approximately – oooh, about 90 degrees on the right–hand F–scale. But no, in other comments it was clear that this does not qualify in any way for 'heatwave' status. About 2.6 degrees short.

Now for the forecast. Tomorrow will be more sunny in the morning than in the afternoon. I looked away from the TV for 15 seconds and when I looked back, there was a weird curve from south to north, through the middle of the country. This curve, in the middle of a 'more cloudy' afternoon, will contain – get this – stormy weather! With merely cloudy weather on either side of it. High is supposed to be 28 degrees.

Thursday is simple. Something or other above a horizontal line above Paris, and pretty sunny below it. We have a forecast for a high of 25 degrees.

Friday is tricky again. Way out west, Atlantic–ways, ocean mess. Then a vertical band of very blue sky and lots of sun. To the right, or east, of this, another vertical band of semi–cloudy but still with sunshine. Further yet to the east, another vertical band of difficult weather. All over, up north here, the temperature is supposed to be 26 degrees.

None of the above is anything like the weather maps in this morning's Le Parisien. They must be for a different France in some other week. This said, I do remember that last night's long–range forecast on TV–weather news, seemed a bit optimistic.

Café Life

After squatting for 56 months at 59. Rue de Rivoli, the 'Electron Libre' closed at midnight on Saturday. Recognized by the minister of culture as Paris' third location for contemporary art, after Pompidou and the Jeu de Paume, the abandoned office building converted – illegally – into a honeycomb of ateliers will now get the 'official' treatment.

This means that it will be made safe for the art–loving public. In order to do this the whole thing will be torn apart, sanitized, normed, rationalized, for a period of about 30 months. By then the 300 starving artists who enlivened the wreck over its lifetime – in the midst of one of Paris' busiest shopping streets – may have forgotten all about it.

The 'highly symbolic' location was purchased by the city in June of 2002. Actually, the fact that it was a squat that was always open six days a week to the public was its biggest attraction. It had a loose set of open hours daily and a staircase for adventurers, and it was full of every sort of artist – mostly accessible.

After the city's architects are finished it may only have 25 ateliers and a couple of galleries, guarded by suits and closed on Mondays, of course. The original artists squatted there exactly because the city has too few free ateliers – and, places with 'rules' are inhibiting to some.

The artists in the squat received a fair recognition from the west – from California, and from Korea. Some other place near Trinité has been proposed by the city as a temporary 'squat' squat.

But this doesn't reflect the spirit of art squatters. They haven't, they say, been forbidden from 'requisitioning' some other abandoned 'space.'

Sixty years ago, after the landings in Normandy, it was Paris' turn to 'liberate' itself in August. Sixty years later, this August will mark the anniversary with a grand variety of serious homages, parades, and one big popular 'bal' at the Bastille.

In addition, there are several exhibitions, including 60 columns scattered all around the city to mark significant locations. Although not the final act, the film 'Is Paris Burning?' will be shown on the parvis of the Hôtel de Ville, at 21:30 on Thursday, 26. August. For more details, see the items on this week's 'Scène Eté' page.

I am developing a weekly column about Paris, which I hope to offer to your local 'community newspaper.' The columns will be about Paris, France, Europe, and the life here. Many trends affecting the French affect you too, and by reporting from here I hope to show that we are all in the same, sometimes leaky, boat.

Your emails and club memberships indicate that you live in areas where there may be others with similar interests. If you can, I will appreciate your sending me names of your 'community newspapers,' along with contact details, and the names of the editor, or managing editor. With your aid, with these in hand, I can make a pitch to the right address.

Although I will be seeking names of titles on the Web, your information will be vital. You know what your local paper is like. It will help my enterprise to know as much as possible. It will help Metropole too, because this is not to be 'instead of,' but 'in addition to.' Write today, and thanks!