The Latin Quarter (10)

The other day, a couple friends and I took a little spin around le quartier latin, or as we good anglophones say, "The Latin Quarter." I think I should first explain the name. When I first heard it, I was thinking salsa bars. Nope. Actually, in the Middle Ages, German, English, Spanish, Italian, French, etc. students gathered to Paris, a university center, and communicated in the then-universal language of instruction, Latin. The Sorbonne, founded in 1253, is in this quarter, thus "Latin."

Today, the Latin Quarter is a very ethnically diverse neighborhood, meaning there's good falafel, kebabs, Indian food, sushi, couscous, and even Mexican. I did this walk with my dears, Ryan and Judy, and we split a kebab assiette (a kebab on a plate, rather than in a pita) and ate it on the steps of what I think is my favorite cathedral in Paris, Saint-Séverin.

From the outside, the cathedral is pretty shabby and dirty looking (if you can call something painstakingly chiseled form rock "shabby") but the stained glass windows at the east end are awe-inspiring.



Again, the photo can't do the reality justice, but the abstract shapes and vibrant colors of the windows are truly enchanting. I think the most elevating experience I have had in Paris was gazing at this window, deep in thought:



Beautiful, isn't it? Some time, you should go and spend a long moment in front of that stained glass.

For me, the other highlight of this walk was seeing the building the French Academy meets in. If you're unfamiliar with the institution, it's basically the French language police. They decide what usages are acceptable, what new words can come into the language, and back in the age of strictly regulated artistic productions, even governed public aesthetic tastes. In the 17th century, the Academy condemned Pierre Corneille's Le Cid for failure to conform to the three unities of time, place, and action (which is dumb enough that it's not worth the time to explain) and for crossing the tragic and comedic genres to create the "tragicomedy." Can you imagine A. O. Scott as a government minister condemning Iron Man 2 for its multiple shooting locations? Weird. Of course, the Academy lost such power long ago, and is now stuck to policing misuse of the imperfect subjunctive and inventing words like courriel to replace the English word "email," which still gets used in the daily French.

What snobbery. One more thing white people like: hating the French Academy.

Here's the building, in any case:



Also, just as a final note on the academy: Is it not perhaps a bit ironic that the linguistically xenophobic French Academy is in the heart of a district so culturally, ethnically, and linguistically diverse? Got to admit, I like that.