Church of Saint-Roch known as the “parish of artists” and was built in 1653-1740.

At the end of our hotel street we could see a very old church. One day we went inside to check it out. It is called Church of Saint-Roch known as the “parish of artists” and was built in 1653-1740. It is still full of beautiful artwork, but in need of restoration.
Another thing I don’t think many of us realize is that we have so many French words in our English language. For example: allowance, bachelor, cinema, debris, hotel, irony, television, helicopter, parachute, harmonium, magnificent, novel,  rich, salad, soup, oxygen, hydrogen, optimism, carbon, utensil, photography, metro, cafe just to name a few.

Paris I knew would be a fantastic trip, but it was beyond my wildest dreams! Great accommodations, delicious food and incredible sights!

Photos by Paula Nicewanger/Weekly view
(Top) One of the exhibits of film props and poster in the Cinema museum (bottom) One of the displays of very early projectors used in film making.

The museum was very dark inside like a movie theater with just enough lighting to highlight the exhibits with explanation signs in French and English.
The exhibit explored turn of the century magic and illusion technologies as the precursors to film, and displayed early equipment, props, storyboards, models, and films. There was a Magic Lantern invented by the astronomer Christiann Huygens in 1659 (in the Nertherlands), which is an optical instrument that makes it possible to project images (painted on glass plates) onto a screen in a darkened room, using the light of a candle or oil lamps. Kinda of the first slide projector.
In the 1790s, elaborate magic lanterns were used for a new kind of light show, the “phantasmagoria.” A mobile lantern would slide on rails for producing more modern tracking shots that could expand or contract. This method was the ancestor of what is often used in today’s horror films. Méliès was a very skilled “lanternist” and the “phantasmagoria” was a major source of inspiration for his macabre, burlesque, high-flown style.
There was a model of the studio that Méliès used to create his films, including the famous “Voyage to the Moon,” It was a greenhouse structure with glass walls and ceiling to let in as much light as possible during filming.
On another floor of the museum was a temporary Wes Anderson exhibit, which totally made my granddaughter’s day, and made up for missing the catacombs. Wes Anderson films were not familiar to me, but I must have seen one because the model of the Grand Budapest Hotel seemed familiar. It was nominated for an Oscar in 2014, so I probably saw it then. My daughter and granddaughter know and love this filmmaker. This filmmaker’s style is so eccentric, he is his own genre.

My grand-daughter loved seeing the actual Fantastic Mr. Fox figure from her favorite film.

I was thrilled to see my granddaughter get so excited about seeing the actual figures from her favorite stop motion film, the “Fantastic Mr. Fox,” produced the year she was born (2009). When we returned home, I did watch that and his newest film, “The Phoenician Scheme” and enjoyed it very much. Often Bill Murray, Anjelica Huston, and Jeff Goldblum are in his films and I like them all.
We took an Uber back to the hotel to rest and start packing for home. For dinner, my daughter and I walked a few blocks to a Japanese restaurant. The food was good and the place very nice. We had hot tea for dinner, so we stopped at a little pub around the corner from our hotel for my usual glass of cab and she had an exotic looking cocktail. A nice ending to another great day!

Next Time: Our last day in Paris and highlights

Remember the phone number prefix Melrose or Fleetwood? If you do, then you were probably born before 1960. I remember our number was Melrose (ML) 22962. We had the big old heavy black rotary phone. That phone was heavy enough to be used as a weapon if anyone broke in. The clicking sound as you dialed was very soothing. The receiver was nice and big and easy to hold and you knew right where to talk into it. We had a party line like most people in the 50s, and you knew your ring: 2 shorts and a long or 3 shorts. You could eavesdrop on someone’s line if they didn’t hear you pick up, but I never did that! I miss those old phones … and we only had one in the house and it was attached with a cord so you couldn’t carry it around. They even made little phone tables for them — very stylish.
I remember when the push button phones came about and it was kinda cool with the assorted colored phones. You could get a “princess phone” which even came in pink! There were phones that hung on the wall and had the push buttons in the handle which was very modern at the time.
Then of course cordless came along and  — wow! — you could carry it everywhere. We have one that I think is about 25 years old and we just retired it to the upstairs hall. Still works, but won’t stay charged.
And now we all have cell phones — I still have a couple of friends who refuse to get one just on the principle of the thing. Who needs to be found every moment of every day? I, of course, need my cell phone and now that I’ve had one over 5 years, I wouldn’t go without one, but they are annoying. I can barely see the numbers to dial and it has all kinds of functions and icons on the screen that I have no idea what they mean and I have no intention of learning. As long as I can get my messages and make calls to the family, I’m content with what little I know. My brain can’t hold another set of instructions. If these phones get any smaller we won’t be able to find them at all.
Do you realize that so many people don’t have land lines now, and there is no directory to find them?
And where did phone booths go? Superman would be hard-pressed to find one now. Even the few pay phones left in the world rarely work — and how much is a call now?
And please don’t get me started on texting  — I don’t want to learn and I don’t want to do it. My son only texts people — I don’t think he ever actually talks to his friends.
Update 2024: I now have an iPhone like most everyone (it’s old at 7) but it still works and I’ve never cracked it’s screen, lost it or dropped it in the toilet (knock on wood!). Mostly because I seldom carry it on my person — my daughter had to buy clothes with big pockets so she is never without hers. I only use it to call or text people and it takes darn good pictures. It’s a shame I seldom use my good 35mm camera because of that.
I still don’t know what all those icons mean on it and I really don’t want to learn. I’m on Facebook, but seldom post and just want to see photos of what my grandkids are up to this week and what my country cousin Barbara cooked for dinner (I love fried okra).
My weekly usage report says I average 30 minutes a day usually. When I go into a doctor’s office and see everyone, but everyone, on their phones, I wonder what is so fascinating. I’d rather talk to a person sitting near me or check out a magazine.
It makes me crazy when I see couples out having dinner and both are on their phones — I bet they’re texting each other.
My biggest pet peeve is people texting while driving or sitting at a stop light and not looking up until the light has turned red and you’re afraid to honk or they might shoot you! Also  pedestrians walking down the street or crossing the street looking at their phones — no wonder so many pedestrians hit by cars.
I’m afraid our young people are going to never learn how to have a really good conversation with their fellow man.
Unfortunately, I usually only just get short grunt responses from my teenage granddaughter, but my 10 year old grandson talks my ear off (no cell phone yet).  I miss the great conversations I had with my granddaughter when she was 3 or 4 and we were sitting in her tent in the playroom— she told me she wanted to be an astronaut and go to Mars or a crop duster (her Dad had a single-engine plane).
Now the big controversy is cell phones used by students in the classroom. The parents want to be able to contact the child if pick up has changed or in emergencies. My suggestion is to hang shoe holders on the back wall of the classroom with enough shoe slots to hold their phone (names on the slots). At breaktime or recess they can check their phones — otherwise no phones at their desks. If the class is large it’s gonna be a congested mess at the shoe holders, but most classrooms nowadays don’t have huge amounts of students — unlike when I was teaching in the 70s and averaged 35 to 40 kids per classroom. Another problem is cyberbullying and it’s a shame that kids can text horrible things to each other that they could never say out loud.
Anyway, even though cell phones keep us in touch with our loved ones and friends, we need to stop and look around and appreciate our surroundings — hear the birds chirp or the old saying stop and smell the roses!