Paul Sharits (1943-1993)

Journal 1

Return= Do

1. Niag. Mag. To Guy

Paris August 2, 1976

Meeting with Elizabeth Jouve was, at 1^st, ecstatic and then a disaster. She takes me to meet her husband in their little mansion outside the city. He is immediately suspicious (and rightly so!). We drink champagne, have dinner-then it gets rough and I leave, quite drunk/ end up in hospital, given a sedative shot and Claudine and Guy take me to rest in their Paris flat. (Liz’s daughters are even more lovely now, 2 years after they were so arrogant in Hydra, outraged that I preferred their mother to them…I still do…but the affair is ended, or so it seems.) I am an EXTREMIST! (Gauguin!) Then off to Givenry via Vernon. Hard at first to find Monet’s place (no tourists go there it seems).

8.3.76

Then, when I find the house(s) and pond, it is too late in the evening and it is not open to the public. But have the good luck to meet Lotte, an Austrian, and Martine, who lives in Vernon—both young school teachers.

8.4.76

They charm the caretaker and for the next morning we not only are given a special tour of the water garden (heaven reflected on earth! Now Monet’s paintings will be like memories to me, I have seen those multi-colors there with my own eyes—reflections of reflections of reflections) but also a tour of the house and 2 studios. Much more than I anticipated. Bathed my face in His Wholly Water, gathered agate from the walkway around the pond for a necklace (to wear whenever I create art), meditate and absorb Monet’s lingering spirit. The night before, stay at a most charming Inn, a horse-riding stable; closed, but, again with Martine and Lotte’s help, I get a small but lovely room, sleeping to the sound of a brook’s water fall outside my window. Normandy—I will return!