Satori in Paris Uncut Quotes
Looking for the Library
While looking for the library, incidentally, a gendarme in the Place de la Concorde told me that the Rue de Richelieu (street of the National Library) was thataway, pointing, and because he was an officer I was afraid to say ‘What? ... NO!’ because I knew it was in the opposite direction somewhere—Here he is some kind of sergeant or other who certainly oughta know the streets of Paris giving an American tourist a bum steer. (Or did he believe I was a wise-guy Frenchman pulling his leg? since my French is French)—But no, he points in the direction of one of de Gaulle’s security buildings and sends me there maybe thinking ‘That’s the National Library alright, ha ha ha’ (‘maybe they’ll shoot down that Quebec rat’)—who knows? Any Parisian middle-aged gendarme oughta know where the Rue de Richelieu is—But thinking he may be right and I’d made a mistake studying the Paris map back home I do go in the direction he points, afraid to go any other, and go down the upper spate of Champs-Elysées then cut across the damp green park and across Rue Gabriel to the back of an important government building … I go down to the corner bar to have a cognac alone at a cool table by the open door. The bartender in there is very polite and tells me exactly how to get to the library: right down St.-Honoré then across la Place de la Concorde and then Rue Rivoli right at the Louvre and left on Richelieu to the library dingblast it. So how can an American tourist who doesnt speak French get around at all? Let alone me? To know the name of the street of the sentry box itself I’d have to order a map from the CIA. (Kerouac 29-31)
While looking for the library, incidentally, a gendarme in the Place de la Concorde told me that the Rue de Richelieu (street of the National Library) was thataway, pointing, and because he was an officer I was afraid to say ‘What? ... NO!’ because I knew it was in the opposite direction somewhere—Here he is some kind of sergeant or other who certainly oughta know the streets of Paris giving an American tourist a bum steer. (Or did he believe I was a wise-guy Frenchman pulling his leg? since my French is French)—But no, he points in the direction of one of de Gaulle’s security buildings and sends me there maybe thinking ‘That’s the National Library alright, ha ha ha’ (‘maybe they’ll shoot down that Quebec rat’)—who knows? Any Parisian middle-aged gendarme oughta know where the Rue de Richelieu is—But thinking he may be right and I’d made a mistake studying the Paris map back home I do go in the direction he points, afraid to go any other, and go down the upper spate of Champs-Elysées then cut across the damp green park and across Rue Gabriel to the back of an important government building … I go down to the corner bar to have a cognac alone at a cool table by the open door. The bartender in there is very polite and tells me exactly how to get to the library: right down St.-Honoré then across la Place de la Concorde and then Rue Rivoli right at the Louvre and left on Richelieu to the library dingblast it. So how can an American tourist who doesnt speak French get around at all? Let alone me? To know the name of the street of the sentry box itself I’d have to order a map from the CIA. (Kerouac 29-31)
