May 1993
Wednesday May 5, Paris Went to Martine Boileau’s workshop in the rue Poliveau expecting at last to be given the sculpted teapot she owes me for translating her exhibition catalogue. Thinking I ought to…
April 1993
Thursday April 1, Paris Sitting in the café in the rue de Flandre in the break between my classes. The other customers, all standing at the bar, are petit parisien and working-class. Correction: unemployed…
March 1993
Friday March 5, Paris When I got Jimmy from school, he was over-excited so I took him out for a walk to “explore”. We took a path I’ve never taken before down under the…
February 1993
Wednesday February 3, Paris Heavily armed with arguments and statements to impress my second-year students, I gave two classes in which I did most of the talking and to which they contributed little. The…
January 1993
Tuesday January 12, Paris There’s a severely damaged van parked on the boulevard outside the kitchen window that attracts a lot of attention. Many passers-by stop to inspect the compacted, burnt-out engine. The wreck…
December 1992
Tuesday December 1, Paris I got an enthusiastic and intriguingly informal reply to my letter from the person in charge of the Association pour l’autobiographie, Chantal Chaveyriat-Dumoulin. She starts by telling me there’s not…
November 1992
Monday November 2, Paris Went back at long last to writing ‘Nadia Days’ and quickly finished the chapter I’d started. For the first time, I included a complete day’s entry almost verbatim. Thought again…
October 1992
Thursday October 1, Paris I dropped into Printemps to look for a book by Jean Echenoz called Le Meridien de Greenwich just because it uses a title similar to, (but not as good as)…
September 1992
Thursday September 3, Paris My opinion was that Mitterrand’s idea of holding a televised debate on the subject of the ratification of the Maastricht Treaty wouldn’t do him any good at all. I thought it…
August 1992
Thursday August 6, Paris In the afternoon, I took my mat and my book reviews and walked to the park. There was hardly anyone else there; a few parents with babies and some middle-aged…
July 1992
Wednesday July 1, Paris Went to post the pile of mail I’ve been preparing for the last few days. You don’t queue any more in the post office; you take a numbered ticket, sit…
June 1992
Thursday June 9, Paris When I left Emma in her classroom this morning, she clung on to me, saying she wanted to stay with me. I tried to talk her through it, even to…
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Paris Diaries of the 1990s 