Yoga France Style

Well, I finally got to yoga. It took me TWO DAYS to find the place. Abe and I went out once to locate the studio but we had the incorrect address in our head so you can imagine how that went. Day two I had the correct address but could not find the street, streets merged into new names, my map didn't help me one bit and then I was late anyway so I came home all annoyed. Luckily going to the gymn and running and rowing took my mind off my second day of failure. This morning when I woke up I had about as much energy as a dieing snail but Abe was really mean and forced me to go to yoga. We found the place and he headed to a park to work on his new mini computer and feed the birds and I headed to Mysore -- terrified.

I managed to get the code to work to open the behemoth doors of the building where the studio was located and found the entrance to the Japanese garden that was also the entrance to the Ashtanga Paris studio. Gerald, the owner and instructor was there and was very calm and powerful at the same time (both Abe and I got the same vibe.). Now here comes the weird part for anyone who hasn't been in a "changing room" situation in Europe before (I could tell you about the health club pool in Holland where you are forbidden to wear a bathing suit for sanitary reasons as bathing suits are dirty!(yes, mixed company) but that would be a different story. So, since French women are very chic they don't tend to run around in their yoga clothing. You need to change at your club. Once I paid my moneyfor the month there was a little vestiare where you can change and hang up your clothes. The entrance to the area is about four or five feet wide and the little screen to give a bit of privacy to the area is two feet wide. You may think I'm joking but I'm not. So now you have just arrived at a new studio, you've met the owner andnow are basically getting undressed in front of him. He could have cared less about the naked women and no one else could have cared less either....just always a bit awkward for us North Americans with vestiges of Queen Victoria running through our blood.

I haev NEVER done Mysore and I was literally shaking in my boots. I knew that I could remember a lot of the asanas but certainly not all...I'm a long way from that. Only seven students could fit into the studio. Anyone who knows Silvia that is reading this knows how she can gracefullly flow from one position to another....well they all could. They looked like they had been studying for a million years. This doesn't mean Gerald wasn't going around repositioning people's hips, arms, feet, etc, as Erin or Gary or Sam would....just he had to do it to me every single move. I could hear Gary and Erin saying......relax your shoulders, etc. etc. and I wanted to tell him , "you aren't telling me anything I don't know! but what good would that do.....maybe in my next life my body will be supplea nd fluid and just flow....but this life time, not so sure. Sue....a sidenote for you, they were doing things I've never even seen Silvia attempt. This class was Mysore Levels 1 and 2 plus Kathryn! Every once in a while Gerald would say....and so do you know what comes next? UGH. I hate that. Can't you just show me! Where are the other beginners? How does everyone get so good?

The main thing is I survived the hour and a half. I felt like I should apologise for being there since I took up so much of his time but I don't think that is what he expects or wants. I'll go back. The Lulu credo of do one thing a day that scares you may last a long time for me in terms of Mysore.

The fun part of the day was wandering through Le Marais, the old Jewish quarter. It is Passover and all of the very orthodox Jews were out and about. All the children were racing around. It is poignant when you see a Jewish family walking by a restaurant where there is a sign about the round ups during the Holocaust. You know.....we are still here! Signs like this are all over the city, death of a resistance fighter here, children rounded up here. Abe and I seem to notice these signs everywhere without meaning to. Special foods are available in all of the bakeries and everything smells and looks delicious. Everyone is in a joyful mood. Juxtaposed to this is chocolate Easter bunnies (a thousand times more original and delicious looking than
our boxed varieties at Walgreens) in the other shop windows and people on their knees outside of churches as they listen to the Good Friday sermons. The churches are so packed that it is impossible for everyone to get into the building and the churches are large here.

Jack...if you are reading this we ate dinner with two guys the other night, one of whom actually worked for quite a while with Moshe Safdie! (architect of Habitat at Expo 67 in Montreal but even more importantly architect of Yad Vasehm in Jerusalem. He told us what a super employer he is (wife is a famous photographer in her own right) but how being Israeli they argue about everything all the time, which made me laugh like hell. He said Safdie did the work at Expo at the age of 19 as a project while at McGill.....I can't verify he was 19 but he was really young for sure. Cool, eh?

We are considering a visit to l'Abbaye du Mont St. Michel in Normandy. It is a medieval abbey (monastary) that beganto be built in the 10th century and was finished in the 15th. You can only see it when the tide goes out otherwise it is obscured....whether it is completley obscured or not I am unsure. We are debating whether we shall go or not. It is a two hour train ride each way and apparently there is really only the abbey to see.

Abe did his first Chunnetrip yesterday to London. In all the times he's been to Europe it is hard to believe he hasn't done the Chunnel before. In just two hours and fifteen minutes he was whisked from Paris to London -- unimaginable really.

It is grey, cloudy, and drizzly. It can't make up its mind whether to be cold or warm. It is still great. And to all of you who boo hoo hooed my jet lag......I'm sorry but it was hell!

Oh.....we stopped for lunch today at a tiny little restaurant. The bread was phenomenal (of course all bread in France is incredible) but last year.this place won the 2nd prize for the best bread in France. The competition will take place at Notre Dame on May 16 and the proprietor/baker was telling us that he has to make his bread in only six hours -- bread that takes 24 hours normally. He is plotting how and what to do. We enjoyed his bread so much that he brought us out a big basket....bread made with white chocolate, bread with olives and cheese, cheese bread, bread with apricots and nuts, whole grains......did I say it was incredible! And the wine......need I say more.

I had great plans of NOT looking like North American while here but we walk so much that I have to put on my running shoes. I've worn my good shoes as much as possible but my feet are starting to kill me. when you walk four or five hours in a day......how do those French women do it? they are really irritating. Ann....if you are reading this....Abe is wearing his boots everywhere. He at least looks very fashionable! We will get a photo of his boots, don't worry.