Mon Carnet de Voyage

Today, Trinh Vu (the George Mora Fellow from the State Library of Victoria who is also living in Paris) and I took a Saturday morning expedition to the Marché Aux Puces, at Porte de Vanves in the 18ieme. This is one of the three main flea markets in Paris. I am glad to report I didn’t catch any fleas, but sadly, I didn’t see any flea circuses...

The place is a little on the odd side, but very interesting in terms of discovering those historical artifacts that find their way to flea markets - the undistinguishable plethora of consumable culture, that someone, somewhere considers valuable. Most of the prices were extraordinarily high, with 19th century porcelain, silver, mountains of furniture, paintings, and antique jewelry, at every turn. And of course, the obligatory canister set:

This was the ugliest thing I saw:
Now who wouldn’t pay 80 euros for that I ask?

...and this was the cutest:

He wasn’t for sale, but I just couldn’t walk past without taking his photo. I think he was on his way to the flea market.


This week at the Bibliotèque nationale de France

This week I learnt that because of a French Employment Law called Comité d’enterprise, every organisation with over 50 employees, must have a social club, and one percent of the total payroll must go toward this fund. At the BNF, this translates as quite a lot of services for the staff.

Onsite at the BNF is a gym with trainer, a rockclimbing wall (and it’s pretty impressive), a doctor, a nurse, a private staff library (that is, a large room full of books to help staff improve their knowledge of the library industry, the professional world, and...how to apply for a job), a social lounge, which also includes an exhibition space to celebrate the artistic endeavours of its staff all year round, and the ability to get very cheap travel and tickets for cultural events.

Further to the Comité d’enterprise, spending on meals during work hours in France is considered a joint expense between employer and employee. Therefore, as with many other places of work, the BNF provides a very low cost canteen (with chefs and quality food that changes menu every day) for the 2000 staff on the François Mitterrand site (but only about 900 eat there every day), and your meal is subsidized according to your salary (which is clocked on your ID tag at the cashier). On average, it costs about $3 to eat a two course meal (and cheese is mandatory).

However, it’s not quite as good as Mr. Tulk!

I also found out that 55 pompiers (firemen) live onsite at the library, each living there one day on, two days off round the clock. The BNF really don’t want to take any chances with the collection!