On being motorised in Paris, disability images in adverts and access into the Tribunal building in Strasbourg

I am wondering if I should continue to stick to having just Sunday entries or to report on each day as it happens. I think I prefer to keep it to the Sundays.


On Tuesday I took the train to Paris with my power wheelchair. The train was late arriving. It felt very good to speed along the streets and pavements. Paris is so busy and buzzes with life. However I had to consult my map a few times. And every time I stopped to consult, a man will inevitably ask me if he can help and invariably he does not know that much more and will stop another passer by. It got a bit comical after a while. After all, the road to CNAM from Gare de l'Est is a straight road - even I could not get lost.


We had Rosemary Garland Thomson (who wrote Extraordinary Bodies )all the way from Emory University to talk about her new project on how disability images are getting into advertisments and fashion. She showed us images from alternative and high fashion (such as the cutting edge fashion magazine, "Dazed and Confused" ïn London, and in mainstream advertisements (such as the one for Walmart that she showed us where they had a model in a wheelchair in a sports outfit among other able bodied models. Whereas previous images of the disabled were of freaks at a circus or depictions of the deserving victim (mainly a child who will benefit from charitable giving) for exploitation for charitable purposes, now the exploitation might still be there but the target might be for a different purpose. It was good to hear Rosemary Garland speak however I couldn't join them for drinks after class because there was the one step to the cafe across from CNAM. Besides I needed to get back to the station.


It was our first court appearance on the divorce process at the Tribunal on Thursday. T offered to take me. My lawyer had said that I needed to get someone to tell them I needed access. I thought that they had a back access but actually they didn't. Two men came to pick me up and carried me up the stairs in the chair. It was a good thing that i did not go in my power chair. The whole experience was relatively painless: the judge saw us one at a time and asked each of us if we did not want to reconcile our differences and try for a conciliation. We both agreed to separate and on the previously set up terms.