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I am becoming an expert
Feb. 15th, 2005 02:57 amin the clandestine consummation of cheese. I want to maximize my time in the library, so I only take a short lunch (which I usually bring with me), but typically by about 4 p.m. I’m really hungry. So instead of taking a break and leaving the library, I sneak a Babybel out of my knapsack and find a quiet corner to eat it in. This was much easier at the Opéra library, because it was part of the opera house which is full of out-of-the-way corners; the BN-Musique, not so much.
The reading room has places for about 50 people, most of which were filled yesterday. Their card catalogues take up half again as much space, and then across the back of the room you find the microfilm/microfiche reading area, and several computers. It isn’t, however, as beautiful as the Opéra library, neither inside nor out.
The building is an office building kitty-corner from the BN-Richelieu (which is a forbidding building at the moment: its stonework is a dirty grey and the upper level is enclosed in mesh all along the rue du Richeliu; I don’t know why). There’s one entrance in, and only one of the three glass doors is for incoming. A guard sits there, inside a wicket, and she told me that the BN-Musique is on the cinquième étage: that means not the fifth floor, as in Canada, but actually the sixth. I didn’t see the elevators, so I climbed the stairs. I was a little out of breath by the top, but since it’s all the goal of avoiding pain-au-chocolat-related weight gain, it’s all good. There actually are elevators, but they have room-type doors on them, so they just looked like rooms to me.
Once in the reading room, they assigned me a place; I began to set up and then they came around giving us keys to lockers so we could stow our bags, something I had never had to do at the Opéra library. There are only about 30 lockers, so you want to arrive early! Otherwise, the room feels very secure and many people left their computers at their desks while they checked the catalogue or read a microfilm.
There’s one more floor in the building about the reading room, but the room itself is open to the second floor, with a skylight giving additional light – and noise! Yesterday it rained for the first time since I’ve been in Paris, and the sound of the raindrops hitting the plastic skylights was like the sound of sleet. I was prepared for the worst when I went outside at 6 p.m., but in fact it was hardly raining at all. It is cold now, though – just above freezing, so I suppose sleet is a possibility! It snowed while I was in Holland, but it didn’t stay.
Last night I stocked up on groceries; at the Monoprix it seemed as though half my neighbourhood had or was having the same thought: there were long lines at the checkout, and the shelves were very picked over. That’s probably because many stores are closed on Sunday, and some, like the bakery just on the corner, are closed both Saturday and Sunday. But now I have food once again for the rest of week (very un-French of me, but I just don’t have the time to shop every day!)
A bientôt!
The reading room has places for about 50 people, most of which were filled yesterday. Their card catalogues take up half again as much space, and then across the back of the room you find the microfilm/microfiche reading area, and several computers. It isn’t, however, as beautiful as the Opéra library, neither inside nor out.
The building is an office building kitty-corner from the BN-Richelieu (which is a forbidding building at the moment: its stonework is a dirty grey and the upper level is enclosed in mesh all along the rue du Richeliu; I don’t know why). There’s one entrance in, and only one of the three glass doors is for incoming. A guard sits there, inside a wicket, and she told me that the BN-Musique is on the cinquième étage: that means not the fifth floor, as in Canada, but actually the sixth. I didn’t see the elevators, so I climbed the stairs. I was a little out of breath by the top, but since it’s all the goal of avoiding pain-au-chocolat-related weight gain, it’s all good. There actually are elevators, but they have room-type doors on them, so they just looked like rooms to me.
Once in the reading room, they assigned me a place; I began to set up and then they came around giving us keys to lockers so we could stow our bags, something I had never had to do at the Opéra library. There are only about 30 lockers, so you want to arrive early! Otherwise, the room feels very secure and many people left their computers at their desks while they checked the catalogue or read a microfilm.
There’s one more floor in the building about the reading room, but the room itself is open to the second floor, with a skylight giving additional light – and noise! Yesterday it rained for the first time since I’ve been in Paris, and the sound of the raindrops hitting the plastic skylights was like the sound of sleet. I was prepared for the worst when I went outside at 6 p.m., but in fact it was hardly raining at all. It is cold now, though – just above freezing, so I suppose sleet is a possibility! It snowed while I was in Holland, but it didn’t stay.
Last night I stocked up on groceries; at the Monoprix it seemed as though half my neighbourhood had or was having the same thought: there were long lines at the checkout, and the shelves were very picked over. That’s probably because many stores are closed on Sunday, and some, like the bakery just on the corner, are closed both Saturday and Sunday. But now I have food once again for the rest of week (very un-French of me, but I just don’t have the time to shop every day!)
A bientôt!
