Day 7: Prepping my class

Got the tickets bought and either printed out (Paris exhibits) or waiting in Will Call (London tours and show). Huzzah!

Today's Task: outlining the Oxford course and prepping the syllabus. I've taught this course 5 times already, but this time I changed the list of plays, slightly. I've got to organize a day-by-day approach, including my Week #1 absence (for Exeter) and our Week #3 London trip.

I've also decided to provide handouts for each day-trip with information relative to our course and pictures/tasks to do. Something for them to think about.

I will also be emailing my students and introducing myself, while giving them tasks to do prior to arrival in Oxford. Good thinking: get them intrigued and involved ahead of time.

Discussion, Paris: Bibliotheque Nationale de France. The group of archives where I work, from Tolbiac to Arsenal to the archives in the Opera Garnier. I'll be spending time at Tolbiac and Arsenal during this visit, putting in more work on both the paper for Exeter, the entries for Cambridge, and my own work on French actresses. I rarely work at Richelieu any longer, because the theatre collections isn't here any longer, but it is probably my favorite of the spaces. I have fond memories of the lines, the bureaucracy, the twisted hunt for information... Tolbiac is so organized and polite after the snotty labyrinth of the old reading room. Like the difference between the airport in Frankfurt and Hogwarts.

What I'll do on Day #3 in Paris: Get my BnF card on Rue de Richelieu.

So much easier in the New World of the BnF than it was in 1996 when I first stepped up to the office, my papers clutched in my hand. Need the card to get access on-line and in person to the collections. For old time's sake I'll have a cup of machine coffee in the BnF lobby--literally, some of the best machine coffee, no coffee, I've ever had and cheap. Ridiculous secret! And you don't need to be a BnF member to enjoy it, but I shouldn't be spreading the secret. I'll also check to see what changes they've made to the old building: they were in the middle of a huge backside re-do in 2010, when I was there last.

In that neighborhood, I can also visit the Comedie Francaise and one of my favorite cafes on Place Colette, the Palais Royal gardens, or the Opera Garnier, one of my favorite cafes on l'Avenue de l'Opera, and possibly stroll in the Caillebotte exhibition area, on Bd. Haussmann.