Paris, days 1 and 2
I have photos up from the first two days of the screenwriters’ trip to Paris.
Day One
We arrived at 5:30 in the morning, and after meeting our hosts, promptly got on police boats to see the city from the Seine, including a trip under La Bastille and a welcome lunch on a barge.
The afternoon included a visit with the deputy mayor of Paris and the Paris film commission.
Day Two
We started at 5 a.m., meeting up with chefs from the Ducasse restaurants to visit Rungis, the largest food market in the world.
A sprawling campus of related businesses, it’s where all the restaurants in Paris buy their food every morning.
I don’t eat mammals, but visiting the meat warehouse was fascinating. With blood, fat and bone, everything still resembled the original animal. Our meat guide talked about veal very calmly, explaining his qualms while showing the differences.
After a breakfast with oysters, wine and foul-smelling but apparently delicious charcutterie, we headed back into the city for lunch with SACD, the equivalent of the Writers Guild. And more wine.
Then it was off to visit the control tower of the French railway system at Gare St.-Lazard, learning how the TGV trains are managed, and asking a bunch of questions that would seem well, unsettling if we weren’t action writers. (“So, if someone got stabbed on a train…”, “If you were to bomb three different lines…”)
For dinner, we ate at Beniot, where the chef cooked up the food we picked out in the morning. We were joined by American journalists and executives from Film France.
Articles
November 8th, 2008 at 12:22 am
So it IS unusual to ask what “if someone got stabbed on the train…” Good to know…
November 8th, 2008 at 2:16 am
Oysters and wine for breakfast. Do try to relax a bit and enjoy yourself, life can´t all be work, work, work.
November 8th, 2008 at 4:14 am
Your photos of fruit remind me of the photos in Transcending CSS.
November 8th, 2008 at 6:17 am
I love that phrase ‘I don’t eat mammals’. It sounds even more effective than ‘I don’t eat meat’. Even though I don’t eat anything with a brain, I think I may use that phrase sometime.
Enjoy the wine.
On a side note, I’m sure citizens of the U.S. will find they can travel more widely now without the obligatory negative glance or political lecture or from locals. Some might even throw away their maple leaf flags from their backpacks.
Well done America, you finally made a decent decision this millennium.
November 8th, 2008 at 8:14 am
Hey John, Are you guys going to do some kind of event with the SACD? Like a panel or something? Or is the trip just for you getting to know a bit more the loopholes in France’s TGV system so that you can successfully bomb it?
November 8th, 2008 at 8:34 am
That first photo – it’s stunning! it almost looks like a computer game. What camera are you using? The second photo is almost as good – it’s like nothing is too dark, everything is perfectly visible.
November 8th, 2008 at 9:20 am
What a fantastic idea to bring you and a gang of Hollywood writers to Paris. Very forward-thinking.
Looking forward to hearing more about the trip!
November 8th, 2008 at 9:50 am
@Tom Corwine:
I love that book.
@Lex:
We only had a lunch with the SACD folks. They were lovely. It’s Film France that’s sponsoring us.
@Donovan:
It’s a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX35. A point-and-shoot, set completely on auto.
November 8th, 2008 at 10:09 am
Hey John! Just wanted to say thanks for blogging! Always appreciated!
November 8th, 2008 at 10:48 am
Thanks for posting these photos. For whatever reason I never tire of looking at fruit in a basket. Don’t know why.
But… Um… where are the female screenwriters on this trip? Some of the photos show the back of heads and they all look like men.
November 8th, 2008 at 11:20 am
Why did you go to a butcher? Was it supposed to be part of an inspiration trip for horror movies?
November 8th, 2008 at 2:19 pm
WHAT, we don’t have sewers or warehouses in America?! What’s next, shooting Eurodisney for Disneyworld?? DISPATRIOTIC TRAITOR!!
November 8th, 2008 at 3:26 pm
@Carol:
Rita Hsiao is the only female screenwriter with us. Two others had to cancel for work reasons. Fortunately, Rita is awesome.
@Sarah:
Meat is part of life in France, and it was fascinating hearing an expert talk about it. I’m not into sailing, either, but to learn about it from a professional is valuable.
November 9th, 2008 at 10:26 am
Hey John! I’m glad you get to see Paris. I’m an aspiring swedish screenwriter living in Paris, and I love the town. Enjoy!
Right now, I’m in a place close to Bordeaux called Cap Ferret. I’m here to get a couple of days of writing on my own, but I have to admit that I have peeked out of my hotel room once or twice to have a look around. And…this place would make a great location! It’s a thin peninsula with the roaring Atlantic Ocean on one side and a large bay on the other. It’s a summer holidays place for the french, but this time of year…kind of spooky. Last night, running through the empty, dark streets in the pouring rain trying to find a restaurant, I felt like I was in a scary movie (not Scary Movie, a scary movie). Every ten seconds I was hit by the red light from the tall lighthouse and…
Sorry, got carried away. What I wanted to say was that I then (while running) thought of your trip to Europe, and…I don’t suppose you will come here, but ask the french people you are with about Cap Ferret. Maybe they can tell you something useful.
I made it alive to the restaurant, as you may already have guessed. And it turned out to be great. No surprise. Would have made a boring film, after all.
Bon voyage! Claes
November 10th, 2008 at 12:44 am
Hey John, something of interest & of no importance, I was scanning the channels at 3 in the morning. 3AM and your movie GO had just started on The CW. Coincidence or well planned? Being that the tag line for the movie is “Life begins at 3AM.” I plan on staying up to watch the whole thing (even though I own the dvd). Small question, did you come up with the tag line?
November 10th, 2008 at 5:11 am
I’m going to tie this in with travel!
Tarsem Singh’s ‘The Fall’ just utterly blew me away. It took 16 years to make (over 4 in actual production) and is filmed in 18 countries. To my understanding Tarsem took advantage of locations he was currently working in for advertisements.
I’ve read a few blogs about it and it’s being compared to Pans Labyrinth and Big Fish (because of it’s dreamlike qualities).
Had to share… Tarsem said in an interview that it’s ultimately about the death of storytelling and I think you fellow storytellers will get a real kick from it.
November 10th, 2008 at 7:35 am
Oh my god, that top picture made me feel claustrophobic just sitting at my desk. Soundlike an awesome whirlwind tour!
November 10th, 2008 at 8:45 am
Looks fun so far!
November 11th, 2008 at 1:38 am
Baby, your gay legalization plan was beaten soundly. I am all smiles :)
November 11th, 2008 at 9:25 am
Based on his email and IP address, Baby (#19) is either a Georgia resident with one MySpace friend, or a resident of Queensland, Australia. Either way, that knowledge makes me just a little bit happier.
November 11th, 2008 at 2:46 pm
Re. Baby
Georgia the country, or the state?
What’s wrong with Queensland John? I liked it.
Why on Earth would a homophobe call you Baby? He sounds like a very confused degenerate. Perhaps it was Fred Phelps. He has to be a self hating gay, he’s so obsessed with homosexuality.
November 11th, 2008 at 3:01 pm
That first picture reminds me of that Sly Stallone movie DAYLIGHT. I just imagine Stallone breaking the surface, yelling at random people “We have to get you to daylight!”
November 11th, 2008 at 5:24 pm
John, I think you have a vanishing point fixation.
Get medercated ‘fore it’s too late.
November 12th, 2008 at 8:58 am
hello john,
I hope the next time you’ll come to France, you’ll get the time to meet your fellow french screenwriters (including me).
Outside of Paris, we have also very interesting landscapes and places, often underused… even in our own cinema!
I hope everything is fine and you’ll come back in USA with a lot of new ideas based on your trip here.
Regards.
November 12th, 2008 at 3:17 pm
Based on his or her comment, Baby (#19) is an idiot.
November 13th, 2008 at 1:19 am
RE: Baby (#19) I’d go off the IP. What sort of idiot gives their own email address when they’re about to troll a blog comments board?
Possibly the same sort of idiot who would, indeed, troll a blog comments board. Hopefully a candidate for a Darwin Award.
November 13th, 2008 at 2:53 am
One more thing… is it “Beniot” pronounced “Ben-wah” as in Chinese Love Eggs?
Tchoh… those crazy French
November 13th, 2008 at 10:42 am
Ah, I love Paris.
Thanks for the flickr links. I always wanted to see Rungis. Also that waterway beneath the Bastille looks incredible.
November 14th, 2008 at 2:50 am
To be honest, I found it quite distracting to read about elections, proposition nr 8s and Obama-is-so-great-McCain-sucks on screenwriters’ blog. I believe that same-sex couples should have the right to marry, but I don’t like if it’s pushed to my face again and again. I like your blog, John, but please try to keep your private life separated from your professional blog.
November 14th, 2008 at 4:43 am
Speaking as an Australian who has lived in Georgia….I can say there are some stark and unfortunate similarities between Queensland and parts of the South. So either address would not surprise me a great deal.
November 17th, 2008 at 8:55 am
Doggone it, John, you are not allowed to write about whatever the heck you feel like despite you owning this blog and your name being all over it.
And back to the topic that the owner of this blog chose to write about…
…am I the only one who finds those meat hooks disquietingly clean? Do they always polish them for visitors? Like, after disposing of the corpses?