In a little less than a month from now, 230 years ago, Georges Jacques Danton will be guillotined to death a short time before the French Revolution's aftermath - The Reign of Terror - will come to an end. He was one of the major figures of the Revolution and one cannot say that he had pure motives at the outset of it, when he exclaimed "Il nous faut de l’audace, encore de l’audace, toujours de l’audace, et la France est sauvée!" (We need audacity, more audactiy, always audacity, and France is saved!")
So, in solidarity with this ugly, really not at all good looking guy, and with my own recently scarred up face, it was time for the Krblich revolutionaries to descend on Paris with all of our audacity and see what we could overthrow.
In fact, "Today" began at 9am in the morning in Sarasota, Florida. We began the day by driving to Naples to pick up Grandpa, and then heading down to the Miami International Airport. This is roughly 5 hours by car.
We timed it well enough to be at the airport 3 hours early for our flight which left at 8:50pm Eastern Standard Time. The flight crew were fantastic. They accepted my orders in French, and apparently kids are given their own Air Mail package that has colored pencils, a coloring book, and a small toy airplane. When I saw the package, I thought of the audacity of another Frenchman Antoine de Saint-Exupery. Exupery was an airmail pilot and is best know for his book The Little Prince. I like him for his novel Wind, Sand, and Stars, and it's message that there is a Mozart that lives in each of us. Something I did not believe myself for a long time.
We arrived in Paris this morning at 10:15am local Paris time. The Charles De Gaul airport is a maze that involves several flights of escalators, a tram ride, and a big maze of customs lines before you then get to ride another escalator down another level to the actual baggage claim.
Charles De Gaul is another French politician in the spirit of Danton. His "Politics of Grandeur" asserted that France is a major power who shouldn't rely on other powers like the United States to provide protection. He opposed the creation of a supranational Europe, opposed the American intervention in Vietnam, and controversially exclaimed "Vive le Quebec libre!" (Long live the Free Quebec!) Audacious for sure. Frankly, I'm surprised there is still an airport named after a guy like that.
His airport must be a ruse to throw off unsuspecting Catholics not supporting the Jacobin French Revolution! (More on this and Danton later...)
My French was put to a true test today. Completely exhausted, I've made several mistakes. I used "Vous" (You) rather than "Votre" (Your). I went into a restaurant and used the informal you (Tu) rather than the formal you (Vous) to ask for a table. I completely flubbed asking "Can we have some water?" And I apparently need to learn the words for Still vs. Sparkling water.
No civilized person drinks sparkling water. The French Revolutionaries spent all that time creating their own calendar and they became stuck with this divide over the proper type of water. C'est Fou!
That said, I did get a compliment on my French, and I complemented the proprietor of our apartment and her cleaning lady in French for their speed to assist us with cleaning it so we could move in for the week. I'm pretty sure I surprised them there. That one I did not mess up!
So, at 4pm Paris Time - 11am Florida time (more than 24 hours after we started, and with less then 30 minutes of sleep I could manage on the plane), we settled in and are calling it a night for this group of revolutionaries.
Tomorrow, we storm Versailles!
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