MY PARIS DIGS

Having posted YouTube videos of myself lecturing in my office in Chapel Hill, I thought someone might be interested in what my Paris workspace looks like.  Below is a photo I took earlier today.  The map of Paris over the desk dates from 1789.  Our little street, rue Maitre Albert, is on it -- too small to see in the photo, of course -- but back then it was called rue Perdu, the lost street.  It was renamed in the 19th century, when the Louis Napoleon/Baron Haussmann renovation of Paris took place.  Our street was named after the great medieval teacher of Thomas Aquinas, Albertus Magnus.

The shelf of books directly over the map holds one copy of almost every edition and translation of every book I have ever published -- the others are displayed on shelves not shown in the photo -- seventy-one volumes in all.  Above that shelf and extending to the right are the dark blue volumes of the complete German edition of the works of Marx and Engels.  I often wonder whether any of the more than one hundred renters have dipped into the Collected Works.  I hope so.

Opposite my desk at the other end of this tiny 330 square foot studio is the lovely kitchen area where I cook the dishes I mention in my blog posts.  Sitting at my desk, the big French doors that lead into the apartment from the interior courtyard are to my right.