Two French Literature PhD students from Princeton do Paris right!

After our disappointing fête de la musique experiences, Macs and I met up today and savored being in Paris in a much more classy and academic way. By that, I mean we caught a matinée performance of Molière's L'école des femmes, a 17th century comedy that the French theater director at Princeton actually put on last October. Both reasonably familiar with it (I believe it was on his generals lists too), we couldn't wait to see it performed by the Comédie Française and not by a bunch of American college students (though, to be fair, they put on an INCREDIBLE production). 

Well, after arriving an hour early to get our cheap student tickets (center orchestra—no big deal...), we headed across the street to get a coffee before the show. As we were discussing our disappointment in today's American ex-pats, we heard what I had expected to hear yesterday: a small string ensemble had assembled in the plaza in front of us and were playing Pachelbel and Beethoven. As we admired this amateur group, we noticed that they had an interesting audience member: a member of the Comédie Française. He was standing on the balcony of the building, watching him, and when he noticed we were watching him, he waved! 

Turns out, it was Thierry Hancisse, the actor playing Arnolphe, the main character in the play we were about to see! Little did we know, we were about to get a much better look at him during the play, because we would be sitting in row H! 

Overall, this afternoon more than made up for the disappointments of the fête de la musique, and I think Macs and I proved that Americans in Paris can be quite Parisian when we try. Though, we still feel obligated to apologize for our country from time to time.