First steps in Beijing

Daily life into the artistice place of the city

Because of the 6 hours difference with Paris, it’s hard to wake up in the morning. We woke up at 9 :30, an hour at which we were actually supposed to be leaving with a friend, and once my father’s student, who owns a gallery. Finally he left alone and we had breakfast and took a taxi to go to 798 in Beijing’s Art quarter that was originally old army factories. It was AWESOME! Just to explain, it’s like New York’s SOHO in the 80’s. My father’s student and his wife have the largest photography gallery. They invited us to an art festival’s inauguration where they were showing a film about post-war France that had as the soundtrack LA MARSEILLAISE. I was so surprised that I put my hand on my heart and sang loudly. I took a lot of pictures and dad told me I made progress. Actually, we found our trip’s mascot, it’s the hat we make everyone wear. After that we went to another old student of my father’s who had 6 month old twins; they were SO ADORABLE! Just then I thought of Djanan and Oshi, my cousin, who love babies. She showed us her recent work on the earthquake in Sichuan that touched us a lot. After that, she and her husband who is a lawyer spread a map of China on the table and recommended a few places and I ate delicious litchis…I didn’t used to like them back in Paris! After, we went by car to a restaurant in a little space with a couple of other huge restaurants almost only for rich people. But coming out of the car I broke my cell phone. It was frustrating but dad consoled me by telling me that the people in the telephone store would know how to fix it, and then he took a picture of me in front of a Ferrari after I asked him to. At that place, there were only nice cars. I even saw a Porsche Cayenne. Don’t worry Djanan, one day I’ll pick you up from school in a car like that. What we ate was really good. After, we went back to the hotel, I wrote, read Camus’ “L’Étranger”, a story I find interesting and makes us think of the different problems of 19th century colonial society, and then went to bed. Tomorrow is July 14th and I will think of my favorite little Mireille (Djanan will dress up as Mireille, the traditional “Provençal” dress) and wish her good luck. VIVE LA REPUBLIQUE and VIVE LA FRANCE.