Promenade into the Forbidden City

Between Empire and Communist ideology

In the meanwhile, we went to the “Forbidden City”, I tried to remember what was said about it in the documentary “Des racines et des Ailes” that I watched with Mina and Titou, my grandparents. It is magnificent, but not so great for your feet, especially if you wear sandals as I did. Coming from Paris, we were choked buy the Beijing heat, we were not adapted to. To shade us from the sun, dad bought us Mao hats, and all of a sudden, everyone wanted to take their pix with us. So yes, Andy, me, I got my 15 minutes of glory, I hope I will get others…The weather was so hot that dad bought me a bottle of frozen water, well, it’s really not that easy to drink! Afterwards, we went back to the hotel were our friends were waiting for us to go get my phone, my first ever cell phone. When I got it, I was super happy. My parents have resisted against allowing me a mobile phone, for five years, even if all my friends have one. But here, it is a necessity, in case I got lost. I really don’t know if they will allow me to keep if when back in France! The first thing I did was to check to see everything the phone could do! We went to have diner with dad’s friends and his old photography students. Dad used to teach photojournalism at the Beijing University for 3 years. We ate glazed duck and then, some pineapple, I thought of you again Marina. I played with the sons of dad’s friends, it was fun. Afterwards, we went back to the hotel and we edited the photos dad and I took, then, we slept.