Paris Journal 2014 – Barbara Joy Cooley Home: barbarajoycooley.com
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“I would kill
for this rug,” Tom said as he stood before a 1920 Kazak carpet on the wall in
the big exhibition tent at the Azerbaijan festival. He was kidding, of course, but we both were
magnetically drawn to this museum-quality piece of hand-woven art. Rugs like this
are from the Caucasus region, some of which is in Azerbaijan, as we
understand it. The Kazaks are probably
our favorite of all Caucasian rugs. Europeans and
Americans perhaps have the wrong image of Azerbaijan; some may think it is
one of those Islamic countries mired in the middle ages. Islam is the major religion in Azerbaijan,
but this country was the first Muslim-majority secular democracy. Plus, in Azerbaijan women were granted the
right to vote in national elections in 1918 -- a couple years before
American women obtained that right. Azerbaijan has
a high literacy rate, and a large number of its people are highly
educated. Science and industry thrive
in Azerbaijan. Yet the
government there has problems with corruption, and has been accused of human
rights violations, as well as the conduct of “caviar diplomacy.” This term was
coined after it was found that Azerbaijan “pursued a policy of bestowing
gifts of caviar on parliamentarians and officials at the Council of Europe,”
according to euobserver.com. An article
in The Guardian elaborated on the situation. I’m not sure
how much this differs from western countries efforts to promote themselves in the world, but Wikipedia states that a major
foreign policy priority for Azerbaijan is “integration into European and
Euro-Atlantic structure.” The country
could apply for membership in the EU someday. The Azerbaijan
Festival may be an example of “caviar diplomacy,” but there is no doubt that
it is also educational. The first
exhibition tent facing visitors as they enter the festival features the work
of Nizami Gandjavi
(1141-1209), an influential poet and philosopher. In that tent, gorgeous illustrated books
about Gandjavi were being given away for free (like
the caviar). A beautifully packaged CD
of the music of Mahsati Gandjavi
was also freely given, as well as a lovely exhibition catalog. All of this was paid for by the Fondation Heydar Aliyev. The president
of Azerbaijan, by the way, is Ilham Aliyev. The most
beautiful objects in that first exhibition tent were some large, framed,
finely woven silk carpets that illustrate historical tales, much as old
European tapestries do. Upon leaving
that tent, to the left we saw a restaurant tent featuring Azerbaijani
cuisine. It would open for service
later in the evening. We walked on
toward the north side of the square, where there was a row of several tents
featuring Azerbaijani food and drink items, namely candies, pastries, and
wines. Yes, wines. The wines and liquors produced in
Azerbaijan are a source of pride. This
proves the secular nature of government in this predominantly Muslim country. Across from
these tents was a tent devoted to rugs and carpets made in Azerbaijan. What’s the difference between a rug and a
carpet? The smaller ones are rugs; the
larger ones are carpets. Kazaks, Karabaghs, and Gingi’s are
among our favorites, and they were all represented. Quba’s were less
familiar to us, but evidently we like them a lot, too. The tent is
being operated by Azer Ilme,
a company that now makes rugs, turning what was a traditional, family craft
into a sales production. I mean that
in a good way. Azer
Ilme is preserving this cultural aspect of
Azerbaijan; else the art of rugmaking might
disappear in such an utterly modernizing society. We enjoyed
talking about the rugs with Vidadi Muradov, the English-speaking general director of Azer Ilme. He received his higher education degrees in
the U.S. Part of the time he spent in
the U.S. was in Tampa. He enjoyed speaking
with us, too; he said that we were the first people – the “only people” -- at
the exhibition who knew about the existence of star Kazaks and eagle
Kazaks. I blushed and said, “Oh, but
the week is young.” He laughed. He showed us
several rugs that we liked. We finally
asked if they were for sale, and he responded that yes, they were. Making money clearly is not the emphasis of
this festival; featuring the culture and products is primary. The rugs we
liked ranged in price from 750 euros to 2500 euros. My favorite was a 2100-euro carpet – a
ram’s horn Quba. We did not buy
any . . . yet. I asked Vidadi if his company could custom weave a runner for a
stairway and landing, and his answer was an emphatic “yes.” In some parts of the U.S., he has people he
could send out to the site to do measurements and preliminary design. But he doesn’t have anyone in Florida. He said, with confidence,
that they could work from the house plans, however. That’s good to
know. Just beyond the
food and rug tents was an open area where acrobats
perform at mid-day. The tightrope
walker was amazing. The final tent
was a big one featuring an exhibition of traditional costumes, rugs, kilims, other weavings, metalwork, embroidery, stained
glass, and more. Everything was
beautifully displayed. We examined a
couple additional booths featuring books about various aspects of the art and
culture of Azerbaijan, and then saw that a traditional dance/music group was
getting ready to perform on the stage, which was under yet another big tent. I should
mention that the language spoken by people who staffed the festival tents was
English. When a French person would
ask a question, the staffers would have to round up one of their younger
colleagues who’d been brought along because they spoke French. Even Vidadi Muradov, who I think is
an A.B.D. (Ph.D. without finishing the dissertation), spoke English but not
French. The official
language, Azerbaijani, is a Turkic tongue.
Russian and English are the second and third languages of the country. We left the
festival on the square to buy coffee and a few other things at the Carrefour
Express on rue de Vaugirard – the only neighborhood
option on a Sunday. So of course, we
took the opportunity to also buy a fine baguette at the bakery near that
little grocery. When all of
that was done, we decided to have our Sunday dinner at Le Procope. We left the apartment a bit early, so we
had time to enjoy some street entertainment by the singer George Kettel (aka Gerd George Kettel, or Gee Gee Kettel), who’d been given the corner at the rue de Buci and rue Mazarine for the
evening. I believe
George Kettel is originally from Germany. In 1980, he “discovered the freedom and
life-style of a professional busker,” he says, and “there was no turning
back.” As a busker, he
has travelled and lived all over the world.
He spent a lot of time in the U.S., so he is absolutely fluent in
English. He plays guitar and blues
harmonica, and his singing is great for Leonard Cohen songs, but better than
Leonard Cohen’s voice. Yesterday was
Leonard Cohen’s 80th birthday, so George was singing Cohen songs
for the occasion. He thinks Cohen will
live to be 100. I doubt that, since
Cohen decided yesterday to start smoking tobacco again. That crazy Canadian . . . . If you get a
chance to hear George Kettel out on the street
somewhere, do it. It will be time well
spent. When it was
time to go to dinner, I put some coins in George’s guitar case, and we walked
the short half block to Le Procope. The maitre d’hotel remembered that we’d dined there last
week. How is this possible, I
wondered? This is a big, popular
restaurant. He took us upstairs and
showed us to our table himself. This time, we
were seated right by one of the open French doors, and instead of a crude
couple from New Jersey, a very polite and quiet couple from China were seated
near us. Through the
French door, we looked over a little balcony, across to the Hotel la Fautriere, a historic building where Marat once stayed
and established his print shop (1789).
I decided to
have the manificent coq au vin again, and Tom had the fixed-price Menu Philosophes at 38 euros for three
courses. So we shared an order of red-label
Burgundy escargots, which were really garlicky and really good. No, not good; excellent. Tom’s main
course was an onglet de veau and
puréed potatoes. He was very pleased
with this chunk of veal. We shared a
small slice of chocolate mousse tart, the dessert of the day. It was a serene
and splendid dinner. And now we begin
our last week in Paris for this year.
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Monday, September 22, 2014
The Kazak from 1920, and Tom.
The Azerbaijan (Azerbaidjan in French) festival on the
Place Saint Sulpice.
From the exhibit, we learned that pileless carpets such as
kilims and bags like this one were not made for sale, but rather were made
for use by “the poorer strata of society,” many of whom were nomadic. So the form of these pieces was defined by
their function.
Stained glass typically used in Azerbaijani homes.
George Kettel performing in the Carrefour de Buci. Quite a crowd had gathered around the curb,
but Tom wanted to stand by the storefront, out of the chilly wind.
Another beautiful dining room at Le Procope.
Burgundy snails at Le Procope. |
