PARIS: THE CALL TO ACADEMIC ADVENTURE
Professor Evergreen
went
to Paris at the age of nineteen to do a Master's in French Literature at
the Sorbonne:
Evergreen
wrote her thesis on "La Chute de La Tradition Theatrale," analyzing
the plays of Ionesco, Beckett, Genet and the philosophy of Sartre, Heidegger
and Nietzsche.
She
defended her thesis while walking through the Jardin de Luxembourg with her
professor. 
In
Paris the tops of the trees are cropped so they never grow higher than the
buildings,
and the gardens
are designed geometrically so they never look too wild, which is why Professor
Evergreen would have trouble living in Paris now.
On
this recent trip she walked through the Jardin des Plantes 
through
the Quartier Latin to the Seine
and
she prayed 
at
the Grande Mosquee of Paris and visited the
Institut
du Monde Arabe, where she saw beautiful views of Paris from the rooftop terrace:
While studying at the Sorbonne, Professor
Evergreen 
lived at Montmartre,
on Rue du Chevalier de la Barre
Here
is her tiny studio where she lived with her husband with no bathroom or hot
water, near the theaters where she took acting lessons, 
where
she moonlighted as a cafe chanteuse, singing folk songs and playing the guitar
in the coffee houses around the Sacre Coeur.
At dawn she would watch the sun rise in the Cimetiere de Montmartre,
where great writers and artists such as Emile Zola, Stendhal, Nijinksy etc
are buried. 
What
a beautiful place to die!
While
Evergreen lived in Paris, she ate these "religieuses" pastries, (which
means nun in French) every day and got very fat.