le 16 janvier

Aujourd’hui, on a passé le temps à essayer de retrouver les traces, les lieux d’un homme/une femme connu(e) qu’on a choisi. Pour moi, il n’y avait pas de doute que je voulais trouver les lieux, les maisons, et les cafés d’Alexandre Dumas. Pour moi (qui ne connais pas très bien Paris), c’était un peu difficile de trouver tout les vieilles maisons d’un auteur qui aimait la ville et voulait vivre partout dans la ville.

Mais, pour moi, c’était une découverte de la ville. J’ai passé ma journée à traverser quatre arrondissements, trouver les théâtres, les maisons, les banques où on ne peut pas entrer (je l’ai découvert en entrant, bien sûr). C’était la journée pour découvrir Paris par moi-même—avec un peu d’aide de « Paris plastifié ». Peut-être, c’est trop cliché de le dire, mais après cette journée je me suis sentie comme la femme dans le film Paris, je t’aime : je savais que j’adore la ville, mais après cette journée, je pense que Paris m’aimait aussi.

— Anya

Today, I was off on my own. I slept in a little bit later than usual, but I was still out of the hotel by 10:30. For my ‘sur les traces de’ project, I chose to follow in the footsteps of the Marquis de Sade as best I could. Sade was born at the Hotel de Condé, which was supposed to be about three blocks from the Odeon metro stop. I searched incessantly for the hotel for about an hour, walking in and out of shops asking people if they knew where it was. I finally gave up and went to a cyber café to try and find out if the hotel still existed. As it turns out, the hotel was demolished after the revolution to build the Théâtre de l’Odeon.

Unhappy that I had missed the opportunity to visit the Hotel de Condé by 300 years, I continued on my way to Saint Sulpice (where Sade was baptized), La Madeleine (where Sade’s children were baptized), and the Lycée Louis Le-Grand, where Sade studied before he performed his military duties. My visit to the school wasn’t very productive…I got kicked out by an elderly woman claiming that the school was ‘private property’ when she saw me taking pictures of the inside. I was shocked…but I felt better knowing that the kids inside were being protected from real intruders.

For my last site, I went to the Château de Vincennes, the fortress where Sade was imprisoned after being charged with rape. It is located in Vincennes, a commune in the eastern outskirts of Paris. The castle itself was a beautiful structure surrounded by a dried up moat, but I was saddened that the church and the castle towers were off limits because of restoration efforts. Nonetheless, I took tons of pictures and wandered around the compound until it was time to leave.

On the train ride back, it started to dawn on me that our trip was nearing its end…I couldn’t believe we’d been Paris for 11 days. Pretty soon I’d be back in Boston…

— Jerry

Related links:
Sur les Traces de...
L'Emission de Télévision