Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Hey, I've moved this blog to http://www.caylena.com/blog and/or http://blog.caylena.com if you want to keep reading.

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

À 7 rue Hernoux, 21000 Dijon

On Friday we were fortunate enough to meet a French film producer, Anne Bramard-Blagny of ABB Reportages, who is based here in Dijon. Bramard-Blagny has made around 150 documentaries and written countless articles. She worked as a journalist for a newspaper in Lyon. She also created an association called the Friends of 7, which is dedicated to maintaining a cultural and artistic atmosphere at the Hôtel Maleteste and in Dijon, by hosting concerts and other types of cultural events in the courtyard of the “hotel.”

We visited the hotel and had a tour, guided by Bramard-Blagny’s jolly husband. During the visit, he showed us a part of the house built in the middle ages, as well as a wall that used to separate the city of Dijon from the outside – which used old stones from the third century A.D.! We also went upstairs and saw the very fancy and ornate old furniture.

The cobblestone courtyard had a small raised garden area with white stone sculptures and trimmed trees. Yellow roses hung from the second story in one corner and red roses, on a diagonal from the yellow, grew off the garden and in front of the oldest section of the house.

Anne invited us to come to the Friends of 7 event happening that night – which happened to be a Bolivian-themed party. A fair number of us, maybe 14 or so, ended up going.

The event was quite nice; we all sat sipping our wine or shots colored like the Bolivian flag (red, yellow and green), while listening to traditional Bolivian music. The charming string melodies danced in the quaint courtyard.

I had a lovely time, until it started to get really cold and windy. As it got later, I left with a few people and went back to the hotel. Overall, Friday was a great day!

Saturday, May 29, 2010

From a seat at the Conseil Général de Bourgogne

In my time, I have seen quite a few governmental buildings, whether due to traveling or conferences or applying for a visa. I have also been inside of a few of them - sitting in counsel rooms and whatnot (thanks HOBY NYE) heard a few politicians speak live and in person, but never an international politician - until this past Thursday.

We had a planned visit to the Conseil Général de Bourgogne - the General Counsel of Burgundy - which represents the region of Burgundy and consists of representatives from the region's 43 "counties".

On the schedule it just said we'd be visiting the building with a person from the school, so I was surprised when I found out one of the representatives would be speaking to us while we sat in one of the assembly rooms.

The room was much smaller than the assembly room we sat in during HOBY, and neither was there a screen displaying all our names - but there were other main elements - chairs, microphones, and ancient architecture - from the building originally built for religious purposes in the third century! Also the chairs were apparently designed as replicas of those in Paris for the national government.

The discussion was quite interesting and I learned quite a lot about the divisions of the French government, a little about the recent reforms that have been put into effect and those being debated, as well as a breakdown of the budget of Burgundy, so the types of things the money is used for.

In general the national government takes care of the medical care, unemployment and housing, whereas this Conseil Général focuses on other things and has an entire section for the middle school program. Half of its budget is used on social aspects, and the other half for things like transportation, sports, culture, etc.

The politician spoke only French (well like 99%) and we had an American woman from the Burgundy School of Business as an interpreter. At the end she put me on the spot to explain to the politician who we were and what we were doing in Dijon, etc. It was ok in the end, but I was a little taken aback.

Overall it was quite an interesting experience.

Then once we got back to the hotel, there was apparently a demonstration happening - in the form of a parade! I think that it was against the recent reform to extend the age of retirement from 60-62.

Thursday, May 27, 2010

A Life Dedicated through Photography

Today I met Marianne Caron, the widow of famous French photographer Gilles Caron. 


Gilles was not a professionally trained photographer when he started, but he learned with a professional and by taking pictures of people. Soon after starting, he signed on to work for APIS - Agence Parisienne d'Informations Sociales - an important information agency in Paris. Soon after leaving them he worked started with Depardon, another important agency, which allowed him to travel and photograph the Vietnam War, student demonstrations gone awry in Mexico City before the Olympic opening, the 6 Day War and student riots in France, and much more. On a trip to Cambodia in 1970 Gilles went missing and has not been seen since. His widow Marianne has made it her life's work to catalog, archive and expose the photographs of her husband.


During our visit with Marianne, we were able to look at the black and white contact sheets of hundreds of Gille's photographs from Vietnam. It was unbelievable. As Janice Levy said, seeing someone's contact sheets is about as close as you can get to getting into their mind. 
When looking at contact sheets, one can see the photographic choices the creator made, such as framing and exposure, as well as a sequence of events. It really is fascinating and the images were quite arresting.


The conversation with Marianne was interesting since she does not speak much English and Janice had to translate for the majority of students. I understood both sides of the conversation, so it was a unique experience to hear both original and interpreted.


I, myself, spoke with Marianne and she is such an adorable old French woman. She showed us her studio where she works on archiving and such things. A wall of shelves, floor to ceiling, contained documents, boxes of negatives and contact sheets, binders of prints, and much more. Her computer on a table on the other side of the room, near a bed. 


Her apartment was very spacious and the shelves in her living room were crammed neatly full of books. The group of us took up the whole space.


Overall, the experience was quite lovely and Marianne and I exchanged e-mail addresses, to keep in touch for when I return to France in the fall. I'm looking forward to it.

That Homey Feeling

I have officially arrived in Dijon as of yesterday around 5 p.m. Life feels great, like the stars are in perfect alignment.

The flight was long and I couldn't sleep, and after arriving at Charles de Gaulle Airport near Paris, all I had to look forward to was a 5 hour bus ride to Dijon. So, 16 hours of traveling in total.

At one point on the bus we stopped at a rest stop for a mandatory break for the driver. I had accidentally fallen asleep, and when I woke, was severely lost. I did not know where I was, and when I got off the bus and heard French, was even more confused. Apparently I had forgotten I was in France. Weird.

In any case, I now know and love it. It just feels right. I can't explain it. Even though I've never been to Dijon before, I feel a deep connection, like I'm home or something.