Work like an Egyptian

civilisation
a history of building
still true to this day

So our Saturday was well filled, what with a lunch with a good friend, an exhibition (Richard Avedon, which we were not impressed with in the end, more about this anon), and this fortuitous meeting with an Egyptian citizen.

We were on the bus, not one we usually take, from the exhibition at Bibliothèque François Mitterrand (the main site of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, France's National Library) to Montparnasse Station from where our trains home depart. This gentleman was apparently a bit lost and a helpful lady told him where to stop. We overheard the conversation and were able to tell him we'd be getting off at the stop he needed to get off the bus too. He was indeed taking a train from the same station. We got to talk a bit with him and, although he didn't tell us his name, he said that he was on an engineering work exchange programme in Orléans from Egypt for a few weeks. He found it a bit difficult because he didn't speak French and found out not many people spoke English - which he did speak very well. He was considering learning a bit of French for his next stay.

To the exhibition. I knew it would be about his French photos. What I hadn't realised was that it was so much fashion work... Not my cup of tea. So in the end only two of the few rooms interested me (and Julie also), where many portraits of celebrities were shown. I much prefer what he did In the American West. I always find a bit of falseness, of superficiality, in star portraiture...

You'll find a photographic account of the afternoon (though not of the exhibition) here.