Oh, to be a bobo of permanent residence in the city! Not only do you spend your days occupying café tables avec une clope au bec while simultaneously hanging all over your scowling girlfriend, but you also have at your disposal an obscenely endless menu of cultural opportunities that are on steady rotation in this city. It’s a good life.
Me, I’m just another American masquerading as a resident here, and judging by the amount of street directions that I give out each day, I’d say that I’m doing a fairly decent job. Additionally, I’m doing my best to plug into the cultural network and marry up the event roster with things that I’d interesting in doing. You’ll be shocked to learn that I can’t physically attend everything that interests me- but I’m doing my absolute best to maximize my stay in the City of Light.
Today is Sunday- my favorite day of the week, sans exception. It’s a day of rest, and a time to renew: whether I’m shopping for provisions at the Hillcrest Farmer’s Market, or heading out to the Shining Sea Bike Path for a morning run- this is the absolute best time to be alive if you’re following the Western work week.
Check out Sunday morning in Paris: You’ve got the added advantage of being able to cross grand boulevards without fear of car, vélo or puzzled tourist with big unfolded map threatening your intended trajectory.
This morning a large (and free!) yoga session was held at the Champ de Mars, in honor of the International Day of Non-Violence. I love yoga, and even here in Paris I have managed to keep up my practice twice a week in the space of my little apartment. I don’t blog about it much, but I’ve been doing yoga since 2004. I find it to be one of the best uses of a person’s spare time, and much like running it has gotten me through some extremely difficult periods of my life.
So while my circadian rhythm has me going to bed later than I normally would like, I still managed to get up early this morning to allow sufficient time to walk to the Eiffel Tower. As expected, Paris on an early Sunday morning was as groggy as me, but I still enjoyed a peaceful walk down the hill from Momtmartre.
The notion of rising early to get ahead of a city’s heartbeat is pretty attractive, especially when the payoff yields views like this one.
I arrived for the yoga class at about ten minutes prior to its start, just as the staff began the tedious task of processing the 2,000 people who registered on the website. This event, entitled “White Yoga”, encouraged all attendees to show up wearing something white in a nod to the day of non-violence. While picking out my own outfit for the class, I realized that I don’t have anything white (or clean) that I could wear for the class, so I showed up a bit worried that I’d look completely out of place.
Most people did indeed look resplendent in their white garb (I would expect no less from Parisians). However, this is Paris, and accordingly the high fashion of its people would probably mean that I’m not the only person wearing color at an all-white yoga event:
I spied this fantastic-looking French chick as I waited in line be admitted. Looks like I don’t need to worry about looking out of place in this class…
Free mats, white shirts and a goodie bag of Soyjoy bars were handed out to everyone who showed up. I kind of didn’t expect to receive anything at all- but being your standard human being who gets excited over a second bag of peanuts on an airplane, I was happy to receive some free stuff!
The class was held at Place Joffre, located just in front of the Wall of Peace (okay yes, and the Eiffel Tower). It’s been kinda warm here in Paris (we’re talking low 80s), and there isn’t a cloud in the sky. Talk about an Indian summer!
This event would mark two firsts for me: 1) this is the first time I’ve ever done yoga outside (and in front of that big pointy iron thing), and 2) the first time that I would do an entire yoga session wearing Ray Bans.
Whoever put this event together did a great job. It felt a bit like a concert, but with a vibe of sobriety and chill pervading the crowd. I appreciated that the organizers set up two big screens (and a sound system) to allow us to see and hear our teacher.
I had never heard of her before, but Elena Brower lead the practice. She is an American instructor who spoke some French, but also had a French translator at her side. You could tell that she was excited to lead such a large group of budding yogis and yoginis; she did a really great (and bilingual) job of creating a space of peace in one of the most touristed places on Earth.
Before I knew it, the event was underway. The stage not only had Elena leading the group, but there was someone playing a Contrabass throughout the entire session. I was a bit worried that this “class” wouldn’t provide much resembling a true yoga practice- only because we had so many people in attendance. Luckily, I was wrong.
I don’t ever make it a habit of taking photos during a yoga session, but I happened to be near my bag when side angle pose presented a fairly decent opportunity to snap a quick picture. Beside, I love the fact that you can see the École Militaire in the background: a juxtaposition of war and peace. I wonder if the organizers picked this spot on purpose. I hope so.
I’ve only been to one other yoga class that was taught in French- but I did learn some new words today! Downward-facing dog, for example, is chien tête-en-bas. Other fun words: bassin (pelvis) and coccyx (tailbone). Namaste is namaste.
Hey, I like to learn new words….
Another great thing about this class was the ability to reach your hand up to the sky, and actually see the sky. In yoga we always talk about rooting down into the earth, or reaching upwards- here we had the opportunity to see and feel both of these things. The evidence showed itself in the gravel that dusted across my mat as well as the bonus Vitamin D dosage that gave me a nice tan.
Again, I don’t normally video my classes, but I wanted to capture some of the morning atmosphere. I am sure that some of you will roll your eyes at this ‘hippie nonsense’, but I don’t care. Elena did an expert job of leading us through five minutes of meditation as we wound down the class. In addition to what you hear in the video (“Peace in, around, and among us”), she had us reflect on the importance of our families, and the importance of honoring those we love, as well as those who present us with the most difficulty in our lives.
And like most yoga classes, we finish our practice seated and prepared to carry on with our day. As you can see from this little boy, we had people of all ages and walks of life in attendance this morning.
So there you have a little window into my Sunday morning. It was a great day to be alive and out among this group of normally pressé city people. I know that I’m a military officer who by default is supposed to love the war machine (that’s sarcasm, by the way), but I appreciated being part of an event that leveraged a designated day of non-violence to bring people together for a bit of reflection. Yoga is great for that. It helps to slow us down and think about ourselves- and what we are doing with our bodies.
