Chene 2006 and other considerations

Last week was the Chene’s annual events period at the Mkhitarian Samuel Moorat Varjaran of Sèvres, in Paris’ direct neighbourhood, on the edges of Seine…

This Armenian historic building could deserve a story itself but to summarize, let’s just say that it is one of the oldest, most appreciated and famous Armenian school in Paris (since 1928), directed by the Mkhitarist congregation (the same that has an exceptional historic data base in San Lazzaro, Venice).

Because of the major reduction of pupils, and consequently financial fund reduction, now there only remain courses one or 2 days a week. Even if this is a common problem of Armenian education in France, this is rather sad given the value of the teaching (each ex-students of this school that you’ll meet keep excellent memories of this school, the French deputy Patrick Devedjian was one of them) and the special value of the building. All this united was for sure a big prestige for Armenians !

The building is from the 18th century, and has been registered in the list of historic buildings (that is to say protected) by the French Ministry for the Culture. Now its maintenance is a serious problem, as its frontage already shows, unfortunately…
The fact that Chene organises its braderie there, appears then like an important reason why their actions are appreciable. So, I went to the exposure and the braderie and took some pictures of the beautiful objects presented, which largely contributed to the nice moments offered to the numerous visitors… To discover here !

As usual, lots of people came last week end, and it is generally known that there’s more choice on Saturday morning (opening of the braderie) than Sunday afternoon, proof of success ! :o)
In fact, it’s not so easy to find such refined Armenian stuff around Paris (traditional Armenian objects, mostly from Erevan’s Vernissage : decorative pomegranates, alphabets, dolls (nourig), musical instruments, various wood, ceramic or silver creations, little sculptures, embroideries, books, …). This is what explains the success of the braderie.

Without transition, here’s a rough first thought I had while reading Leonid’s post, our new logging companion - by the way welcome Baron! It’s always nice to read other countries echoes!
He explained that he didn’t identify himself very much to Germany, which was surprising for me. I really can’t say the same about France where I live and mainly grew up. Of course that is not to say that France is the perfect country or that I know perfectly all of it (far from all that), but I simply have a deep attachment to it because it’s my place, my habits, the main part of my mixed culture, also a main cause of my present way of thinking, and well, simply my familiar environment that I can’t deal without… and I like it like that !

So reading Leonid made me realise how various can be the felt of each of us in our respective adoptive countries. How hard it can be to imagine the way of living in other countries when we don’t share the same obvious bases.
One colleague sent me this link of an interesting article about Christian minorities in Turkey.
Those minorities have to deal with anormal restrictions just because they’re Christians (it’s a usual thing for them), on a daily and ordinary basis. As I was telling her some family anecdotes, all of it was truly a hardly conceivable way of life for the standard french woman that she is.
It’s the same unawareness that was in action when I read Leonid.
It depends on the countries, the places, and each one’s history, but trying to find the reasons of those differences is a rich subject of study. Imagine how we – as diasporans – can contribute to it by confronting our experiences ! Imagine all that is to be discovered about our world in general, just thanks to our situation of diasporan Armenians…