circus time

worked on the onion still life for an hour; then, it was circus time!

years ago, when jj was little, i took her to a circus when we were visiting paris. it turned out to be a little family run one where the grandma was the mistress of ceremonies, her husband was the clown, the son was the macho tiger tamer, one daughter was the trapeze artist and horse rider and another daughter was the poodle trainer. the young grandchildren were in the wings mostly, working hard leading the animals in and out. there were zebras which were totally wild, running around the ring, kicking up sand and there was an elephant. i was not as amazed with the acts themselves, as i was to how this family could possibly afford to feed the animals when the show was barely attended and the cheap tickets were around $15. it seemed like a hard life and like something you’d see in an old movie. i had NOT been a fan of the circus before, but i thought this was incredible. so real, so down and dirty, so tough... the new yorker in me, loved the glimpse of this scene from a different time.

exams week finished and there was a day off, so it was a perfect time to go to the circus again. jj’s 3 friends all decided to go too.

i was excited about the idea. i thought that over time, we could go to all of the 4 or 5 circuses in paris. to the slick and formal “cirque d’hiver” housed in an 19th century wood structure in the 11th arrondissement, to the horse focused circus in the bois de bolougne and to other family run ones around paris. it was hard to pick which one to go to. i wanted to go to the down and dirty, trashy circus, but jj decided we should go to the horse focused one.

we got cheap seats in the back, but when we arrived, we were seated in great seats, down very close to the ring. i think they moved everyone down close, because otherwise, it would look very empty. there were several school groups. at the intermission there were 5 little kids, probably 5 years old, all in a row, asleep.

this circus is run by a man whose family has been in the business for generations. they specialize in horses and train them to do their tricks with just a wave of the hand. they stand on their hind legs and turn in circles in unison. there was an elephant too, who did tricks. sadly, though, we could tell that the animals really weren’t happy doing this. the horses foamed at the mouth. they did things hesitantly. jj was sad to see it. i thought it was a clever showman trick that the man smiled through the whole thing, which made you think that the animals were all having a great time. the rest of the circus just wasn’t that special either. family members did their acrobatics, which were hard to do, but i felt, anyone could learn to do with a good amount of practice. they were very proud of their music abilities. the men all played several band instruments. it seemed that in olden days this would’ve been very impressive. they were able to play the instruments, but they certainly weren’t prodigies. after the circus, i told jj about the elephant rampage video on youtube. quite frightening – an elephant in a circus just gets fed up. google “elephant rampage honolulu” to see it. anyway, so much for circuses. i don’t think we’ll be going to many more.

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