Washington Mews...and the French and German Houses

La Maison Francaise, the NYU institution where as a student and later I came to see French celebrities speak in their native language ( then Paris Mayor Jacques Chirac was extremely easy to follow, to my surprise)...plus films. In the little library upstairs I listened to a lecture the French novelist Robbe Grillet had given on his novel "Les Gommes"..that was NOT so easy to follow.

 Deutsche Haus is at right. Same deal as the Maison Francaise, but all in German. My attendance there was limited because I started studying German late and never became all that truly proficient at it, although I could read it pretty well.

Once an alley with carriage houses and stables on it, it was gentrified in the 1920's and when I was at NYU certain lucky professors lived there. Had one as an English Lit professor, a woman named Geraldine(?) Case --she was so nice and encouraging towards all her students, that was unusual at NYU back then. She had us all over one at a time for conferences about our work and she also wanted to know what we wanted to do in Life.