São Caetano do Sul

São Caetano do Sul is a large city in the Greater São Paulo area. It has one of the best standards of living in the country. Home of the brazilian GM headquarters, it is also an old industrial city and it has a lot of abandoned plants around the city. I used to come to the city to visit friends and also to the Sam´s Club store, where my wife likes to go shopping for american products. This last time we parked at Sam´s Club and I left alone for a walk around the Fundação District. Found these old and abandoned plants, one of them belonged to Francesco Matarazzo, an italian immigrant who was one of the most important entrepreneurs in the history of brazilian industry about 100 years ago. We see his mark in one of the pictures that says IRFM (Francesco Matarazzo United Industries - Industrias Reunidas Francesco Matarazzo). I also found a nice little church and watched an indoor soccer game, at the Fundação Sports Club, where children played a wonderful soccer, better than many pro players.

Aldeia da Serra

Aldeia da Serra is a district of Santana do Parnaíba City, close to São Paulo City, and a upper middle class neighborhood. It is divided in plots and in the entrance of each there is a entering and exit control of people and cars. You´ve got have a registration to get in. So the people inside feels safe against robbery and urban  violence. This is very common around the big brazilian cities.

We have visited Aldeia quite a few times over the past years to visit very good friends who have moved over there.

São Paulo Trees

This Ipê Rosa Tree (Tabebuia Pentaphylla) stands at Riachuelo street, close to Vinte e Três de Maio street, in Downtown São Paulo. This picture was taken on monday, august 23. After some days of cold, in a hot and sunny day of winter, the tree still had its pink flowers (it starts to blossom in june).

Vienna

I hadn´t thought about going to Austria when I went to Europe the first time in 1995. I had planned, as soon as my exchange programm at the University of Nantes was done, to travel through Italy, Switzerland and Germany. Then one day, during my stay in Nantes, I was convinced to come with Vivian C. to spend a weekend in Vienna.

We left Nantes on a friday by noon. Stopped in Paris for a quick visit to the La Défense District and went on to our destination on early evening. I remember the train moving slowly through the city of Nancy. It was possible to see people walking back home after a day of work, the old downtown buildings with an orange light in the rooms, and the cars moving in the streets. I took a nap and then woke up when the train was in Stuttgart, and that made me remember a nice dream I had had years ago in which I and my father rode in a white car in Stuttgart. Then I told Vivian I was going to get out of the train and stay out as much as possible, before the train left again. It was around 5 am, and still dark. A little after the train started moving again I seemed to see a brown bear in what seemed to be a zoo, but didn´t know for sure if it was real or if I was dreaming.

I woke up again with the sun coming out, already in Austria, near the city of Linz, and started to enjoy the landscape that passed outside the train´s window. We passed over a river that seemed to be the Danube.

We arrived in Viena very early in the morning of saturday. Walked to the youthhostel, left the bagagge and went out to wander around the city. We walked downtown and attended a mass at the cathedral of St. Stephen. Shopped around the Ring, and visited Schubert´s house, Mozart´s house and Freud´s house. Finally got the tram  and tried to visit the Zentralfriedhof cemetery to see the great musicians tombs when it was already getting dark and did´n´t find them. A lady that was leaving warned us not to get out of the main routes because many people get lost and can´t find the way out during the night. It was winter and freezing in Vienna. We left for a pizza at night.

NuBdorferstraBe

On sunday we left early in the morning to see the Boys Choir in the chapel of the old Imperial Court. After lunch, we came back again to the cemetery to finally see the famous tombs, and because we were in Vienna, we couldn´t leave it without seeing the Danube. We got the subway and headed to one of the bridges to take a fast look at the river.

Now, 15 years later I come to read "Danube", by Claudio Magris, and review "Vienne La Rouge", by Jérôme et Jean Tharaud, in order to revolve memories and sugest programs to my friend Alberto who is visiting Vienna next month.

Nantes III

When I left Nantes for a tour around Europe, I planned to come back. Christian was going to Hamburg about 20 days later, to buy a used Mercedes car. I would also be in Germany by then, to visit an old friend. We adjusted that I would call and maybe meet him and he would give me a ride back to France, from where I should fly back to Brazil.

I left Nantes to northern Italy, Genoa and Venice. Then Zurich, Basel and Anzère, hosted by swiss friends. Then Strassbourg, Heidelberg, Lubeck and Hamburg.

(Downtown Hamburg at night. I took this picture the day I arrived from Lübeck and was going from the train station to the Youth Hostel)

One morning Christian and a friend of his came to pick me up at a subway station in Hamburg. We stayed two days there together (I arrived 4 or 5 days before him). One night we went out and visited a bar where, some people say, the Beatles started. We saw Ringo´s drums and didn´t stay very long. Hamburg is a very nice city with great bars, nice beers, great landscapes (The Elber River, the city channels, beautiful parks), a big port and a marvelous architecture.

The second day we started riding back to Nantes. We left Hamburg in the afternoon, and our first stop was in Aachen (Netherlands), where I bought a little bottle of korn (a typical german brandy). Then we stopped in Liège for dinner. It was rainning and after visiting some bars in downtown, we finally found a restaurant, that was fancy. Christian chose my plates, so I could have a good idea of the local cuisine. I had frog in butter for the first plate and meat for the main course. It was great. We went back to the highway.

I was completely asleep as we passed through Paris, but I do remember that I opened the eyes to see some of the tunnels. I should help Christian on driving, but I was pretty much tired, while he was very awake and strong. Then I asked Christian to awake me when we passed through Chartres. I told him that my first view of the Cathedral from the road two months earlier (it was from a local road though, and not from the main highway), early in the morning was one of the most amazing view I had ever had in my life. The Cathedral was under a fog, standing up and high and all alone over a flat horizon. Seen from the countryside was astonishing. I wanted to repeat the experience.

But when Christian woke me up we were right close beside the Cathedral. He stopped the car and started looking at it, with admiration. I then looked out and was not sure if I was awake or dreaming. Christian asked me if I wanted to get out of the car and see it better. I said it was up to him. He said he didn´t care and then told me something I didn´t understand. I said: "What?" And he goes: "never mind". When I woke up we were already in front of his house in Nantes.

This picture of the Cathedral was taken in 1998 when I came back to France, and not the day I passed by with Christian very early in the morning.

Quand j´ai sorti de Nantes, après mon cours à l´Université, Christian m´a dit qu´il serais à Hamburg en vingt jours. Moi aussi serai là en voyage au tour de l´Europe. Je suis allé au nord d´Italie, a la Suisse et l´Alemagne. Allors j´ai rencontré Christian en Hamburg et nous sommes retournés à Nantes en voiture. Dans le chemin de retour on a passé en Liège pour le dinner, où Christian m´a sugeré de savoire la grenouille. C´était super. Avant l´aube on passait a Chartres pour voir la Cathédrale. C´est un site que m´a beaucoup impressioné. C´était mars, 1995.

Nantes II

The Place Graslin

I had a pretty much independent life in my days of Nantes. After waking up, I would take the trolley and go to college. I had lunch and dinner at the university´s restaurant. I walked through the city´s streets in the weekends, and visited museums.

But I also did a lot of things with Christian. He took me, one night, to see an Yves Duteil´s concert, one of the most celebrated French Singers. One saturday we went to a bar inside an old boat at the Loire River. Another weekend he drove me and some brazilian friends to the West Coast, to the cities of Guérande, Le Croisic, Batz-sur-Mer, Saint Nazaire and Pornic. One night I came with him to a show at Montaigu, where he played the drums.
One of the best things though was when some of his friends were in the house and Christian prepared something to eat and we drank wine until late in the night. I had good conversations about France and Brazil with Fréderic, who was then married to a brazilian woman. I ate marvelous mushrooms and the wine was always a bordeaux. Cheers Christian!

The Trolley seen from the Castle of the Duke of Brittany

Le tramway, la faculté des lettres, le château

Nantes devant moi

Christian m´a fait voir

Guérande, Croisic, Montaingu

Las nuits des proses
des vins et des champignons

la ville dorme et nous parlons

et nous promenons partout

Nantes I

After ten days in Paris, I got a train to Nantes. It was exactly 5:30 pm of January, 10th, 1995, when I stepped in the modern and fast TGV train at Montparnasse Station, in the west side of the city. It was me and 5 other brazilian girls who were coming to a month of studies at University of Nantes.

Until the last moment I was not to come, not even to Paris, since they had not gotten a host for me. In Nantes there was no such a thing like the dorms. Then Christian learned about that and volunteered to host me in his house. That´s the way I got to meet him.

He was an excellent host and taught me everything about the local culture. The brittany culture and its fight for independence in the past, the food and wines, the folks of this west part of France. From my room I saw a rainny, cold and gray Nantes, but with the help of Christian I learned a little bit more about the misteries of France than I would have if I was by myself.

The University

Tomei o TGV, na Estação Montparnasse, em Paris. Era o dia 10 de janeiro de 1995. Havia nevado naqueles dias. Fazia muito frio. Cheguei às 19:30 na Estação de Nantes. Christian me aguardava com outras pessoas e fomos todos a um café em frente à estação para bebermos alguma coisa. Christian pediu um pastis. Pedi um igual. Ele me alertou que era uma bebida um pouco diferente, feito de anis. Eu disse que experimentaria, e no final acabei gostando e tomando em várias outras ocasiões com ele. Foi assim que o conheci. Em meu primeiro dia de Nantes, sempre me explicando as coisas da França.

Só consegui ir fazer um curso na universidade local porque essa boa alma se dispôs a me acolher, por mais de 40 dias, em sua casa. O responsável pelas bolsas já tinha esgotado as possibilidades de hospedagem junto aos estudantes locais de letras-português com as cinco estudantes brasileiras que me acompanhavam. Ao saber que faltava uma hospedagem, se voluntariou, e acabei sendo chamado em cima da hora para viajar.

Não tirei fotos da estação de trem. Nem quando cheguei, nem nos dias seguintes ou das vezes que voltei. Deveria ter feito isso, porque da minha cama escutava, tarde da noite e no começo da manhã, o último e o primeiro trem que passava. Christian morava a apenas uma quadra da linha de trem.

Havia um quarto só para mim. Grande, e com uma vista para a rua Coulmiers. Da janela eu via o restaurante Le Havane, onde nunca fiz uma refeição, e a lavanderia, onde ia lavar as roupas. O tempo em Nantes porém esteve sempre chuvoso durante aquele inverno e a paisagem na janela não era animadora.

Eu conheci Nantes com a assistência preciosa de um nativo. A cultura bretã, a antiga luta pela independência da Bretanha, os prazeres da gastronomia e da vinicultura local, e a própria França em si e sua música. Tive a oportunidade de conhecer os pormenores e os segredos da cidade de uma forma profunda. Christian nasceu e viveu sempre ali. Foi à universidade em Rennes e tinha muito conhecimento sobre os assuntos que me interessavam.

Rue de Coumiers

Après dix jours à Paris, en flânand autour de la ville, j´ai finalement pris le TGV pour Nantes. C´était le 10 janvier, 1995. En novembre de 1994 je pensais que je ne viendrais plus à l´Europe. Il n´y avait plus de place pour que je puisse rester à Nantes pour suivre un cours à l´université. Mais c´était à cause de la générosité de Christian que j´était là, avec des cinq autres copines pour étudier un mois à l´Université de Nantes.

Et il était là alors, en m´attendant à la Gare, avec Saulo e d´autres gens, qui recevait aussi des étudiants du Brésil. Je lisais a propos de la France. Je lisais et écoutait a propos de la culture bretagne. Mais c´etais Christian, qui m´a offert la vision locale sur tout ce que interessais a moi dans ces jours là. C´était un vrai privilège de rester chez lui.

Dans mon lit je écoutait le dernier train de la nuit et le premier du matin. Christian habitait à côté de la gare. Je prendais le tramway pour aller à la faculté des lettres. La voix du conducteur du tramway repercute encore dans mes oreilles: Manufacture, Gare SNCF, Duchesse Anne, Bouffay. Et alors je changai de ligne, a la rue du Commerce, et prennai la ligne rouge vers la Faculté. C´était un temps de plain satisfaction.