“La Rafle” is a film portrayal of real life people and events: July 16, 1942, 13,000 Parisian Jews, men, women, and children, were taken captive by the Vichy government on Nazi orders and placed in Paris’s Vélodrome d’hiver (indoor bicycle racetrack), before being shipped off to the French camp, Beaune-La-Rolande, and later to their deaths. The movie was very difficult; we were emotionally exhausted by the end, crying before it was halfway through. And yet, it did not leave us with the impression that the world is evil. Instead, it reminded us that some people struggled against the persecution and terrors of the Holocaust, and, while thousands of people were beyond their grasp, they reached some people, and those few people were worth it! I feel that this film ties in appropriately with the celebration of remembrance and determination: the film’s opening falls in-between, International Holocaust Remembrance Day (January 27) and Yom Hashoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) (April 11).
Getting myself to the movie theater was a practice run for finding my way to Kelly’s house the next night – I have to take the C tram, instead of the B, aka she lives on the other side of town! Kelly is a former student of Paul and Victor – she came to Grenoble 10 years ago with the same Seattle University program I am currently following. She met a French guy, and ended up getting married, having three French-American children and living in Grenoble. (I believe this situation is my parents’ worst fear, so I would like to assure everyone now that I miss home too much not to come back. Seattle is my home.) Kelly would like to expose her children to as much English as possible, since they are surrounded by French, so she asked Paul if he would recommend one of his current students in Grenoble as a babysitter – he introduced me to her as his response. I went to dinner Friday night as a way of meeting the family (Kelly and Eddie plus two boys and a girl) and getting to know everyone. It was quite delightful, and I’m going back to play with the kids/play support troops for Kelly who will have hers plus two all afternoon by herself. Hopefully it won’t be pouring down rain, so we can go to the park across the street and play!
Speaking of rain, it rained all day Saturday. We left at 8:30 from Grenoble to spend the day in Lyon. It was raining while we were on the bus, then stopped as we drove into Lyon, but was drizzling a bit on our tour guided by some French students. For lunch and the afternoon, we were set free. Luckily for me, Michelle, and Christian, who picnicked on a bench, we had about a half an hour of dry, before it started pouring! We didn’t really know where to go, and we didn’t have a ton of money to spend on museums and restaurants, so we spent quite a bit of time in le Cathédrale Saint-Jean-Baptiste. We visited two churches in Lyon: St. John’s, which has an astrological clock, and la Basilique de, Notre-Dame de Fourvière, the interior of which is covered in mosaic. I didn’t really take many photos – between the rain and the cold, I was not inspired. Plus I kept getting rain drops on the lens of my camera the few times I tried.
France observed the switch to Daylight savings the next morning, so I am once again 9 hours ahead of Seattle. Palm Sunday evidently is almost as big as Easter here in France, at least for the church goers. The church I go to with my host family was packed! We started outside, and processed in, with our rameaux (branches). They don’t use actual palm fronds here; I guess they would have to ship them in from too far away. Instead, parishioners clip greens from their gardens – it looked to me as though everyone had clippings of boxwood, but I might have been mistaken. Claire gave me a piece afterwards, to put in my room. She told me that she always puts a piece of the rameaux in each of the four corners of the house. My sprig is hanging above the head of my bed.
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