Respect to the Lizard King

Sunday afternoon Jen and I decided to pay our respects to Mr. Jim Morrison resting peacefully in the cemetery of Pere laChaise. It was an easy metro ride to the 20th arrondissement. The day could not have been more lovely. It is odd to think of a cemetery as being a nice place to hang out but this one was in every sense of the word, awesome. Occupying over a city block, the cemetery gradually ascends until you realize you can look out and see the Montparnasse tower all the way across the city. It is jammed packed with the most beautiful tomb stones, shrines, headstones, and memorials laced with winding cobblestone paths. (again I feel slightly creepy writing about how struck we both were by a resting place for the dead.) That being said, I would definitely recommend it as a place to visit when coming to Paris. Jim Morrison is among noted company in his final place of rest among the likes of Balzac, Chopin, Delacroix, Max Ernst, Moliere, and Oscar Wilde. I am still unsure as to what the necessary qualifications are to be allowed permanent residency in Pere laChaise but I would like to look into it...I think we will definitely revisit the cemetery on Halloween!

Firday Night at the Louvre

Musee Palais du Louvre at sunset. Last night we toured the Louvre. Acting as locals, we chose to have our visit between the hours of 6 and 9 at night on Friday as youngsters under the age of 26 are admitted for free. The lighting last night in the courtyard was absolutely spectacular. The temperature had dropped to right around 60 degrees, a cloudless sky, and a brilliant sun all contributed to the overall perfection of the experience. You enter the museum through the glass pyramid, descending down into the depths of history. Our visit consisted of about an hour of strolling through one wing of the grand palais. Don't get me wrong, the Louvre is a wonderful, wonderful museum, but not one of my favorites. There were three items on my 'must see' list. The Winged Victory, the Venus de Milo, and of course, the Mona Lisa. I think no matter what time of day one visits the museum, there is without fail, always a mosh pit of people clustered around the slightly underwhelming Mona Lisa. I think that without this permanent fixture, one might even pass by the old bat without even knowing! At the risk of sounding uncultured and unappreciative of art, which I'd like to think I am neither, I find the actual architectural structure of the museum almost more appealing than its contents....which brings me to another point. Cameras in the museum. There are signs around every corner indicating cameras and touching are under no circumstances permitted. That being said, at any given moment, there were at least 20 flashes going off left and right! Absolutely mind-boggling! Being the good tourist I was, I had retired my camera to its case upon entering the museum. However, deciding I didn't want to disrespect the unspoken rule of paying absolutely no attention to the rules, I promptly pulled my camera back out and began snapping. There was one point I made direct eye contact with a museum curator as I was taking a photo...I sheepishly backed away with a slight shrug and the guilty grin of 'stupid American' on my face. When in Rome! Moral of the story, I left the museum quite satisfied with the pictures I had captured...more of the ceilings and walls than the actual art...I wonder if one day centuries from now, people will studied this period of time and think we could have preserved so much more art had the tourist actually been forced to obey the rules and put their cameras away. Until then, oh well!
Much Love,
SF
-Also, I still realize the grammatical mistakes I make in these posts. Perhaps one day I will write first in Word before copy/pasting to the blog...

Birds & Flowers

This guy was channeling Marie Antoinette.

Dancer II

Words are not needed here.

Dancers

This kid was maybe 10 to 12 years old... I walked away feeling somewhat untalented...

Our New Friends

At the beginning of the week, Jen and I were promptly greeted with delicious aromas the minute we emerged from the giant wood doors of our apartment building. We quickly realized the source of these intoxicating scents was a quaint little brasserie not 3 feet from our apartment entrance! (the whole of France closes up shop and heads out of town for vacation lasting the entire month of August...the US should take notes!) Needless to say, the re-opening of this brasserie is beyond convenient!

When lunchtime rolled around today and we, on cue, became painfully aware of our rumbling tummies by the dishes being prepared by our neighbors (maybe we should start closing our windows around meal times...) it seemed only natural that we should try out our new little brasserie. Still in my sweatpants, Weston and I made the grand trek next door to check it out. Absolutely delightful! A creperie/bar/cafe/deli all in one...what more could we ask for? The host, a wonderful little man seemed more than happy to oblige the yanks who, of course, wanted something "a emporte" to go. The French are always a little bewildered at the idea of taking food or coffee on the go. (Not haveing coffee to go has been a bit of an adjustment for me and Jen...to say the least) After we had ordered our crepes (nutella and banana obviously) there was a flurry of action as all four people working there ran around shooting French back and forth trying to find plastic plates and aluminum foil. Weston and I were very entertained, I must admit. I thought I just about sent them over the edge when I added a cafe creme to the order! How serious they were! Throughout the commotion, a conversation was had between all of us in a mixture of broken French and English (primarily about how difficult it is to get take out items in France). I decided all of them were more than pleasant and very accommodating...making them my new Parisian friends! (In addition to putting to rest the stereotype of all inhabitants of the city being rude). With our pile of crepes in tow, we departed thanking them profusely with promises of returning quite frequently. Good thing we had four flights of stairs to walk up...nutella crepes can be a very dangerous thing for the waistline!

Semaine 2

It's Tuesday morning here and Paris. I sleep with the enormous window next to my bed wide open so that every morning at precisely the same time I find be awoken by the sound of one of our neighbors putting her dishes away...today, however, I was also greeted by the pattering of rain drops marking our first gloomy (perhaps typical) Parisian Fall day. As I am writing, Weston the Saint, is a busy cleaning bee around me...not a bad deal! His older brother Whitney arrives this afternoon.

I have so much to write I am not quite sure where to begin. As I left off with the promise of birds and flowers, I suppose I will start there. Jen and I spent more time than I care to admit google-ing markets of Paris. There is a different market for each Arrondisement, for each day, for each season, etc. The one that caught our eye however, was the markter dedicated 100% to birds and flowers. I mean, really?! Despite not being much of a bird enthusiast, I must admit, my interest was peaked. After a leisurely Sunday morning, we set off in pursuit of squawks and colors. We assumed this would not be hard to miss however, we wound walking/blading in Weston's case, for the better part of an hour before we found a permanent street sign, yes traffic street sign, indicating the direction. I must say, it was pretty cool. Rows of cages with the most beautifully colored birds I have ever seen collected in one spot. Not only that, but we were also pleasantly surprised to find bunnies and other various rodents chilling there as well. The flowers were pretty but the obvious attraction was the birds. I'm not sure I noticed too many locals there, mainly tourists of all shapes and sizes poking and prodding at the cages in marvel.
Mom: there was located next door to the birds, a whole shop filled with orchards...they were absolutely beautiful. I aspire one day to have a room like that in my house...

Sunday afternoon, as I previously mentioned, Jen and I spent at least an hour watching street dancers break dancing in front of the Pompidou centre. It was absolutely mesmerizing and an ideal way to spend a Sunday afternoon with no agenda. I have never seen bodies move like theirs could...head stands, hand stands, elbow stands, the works! If I were a talent scount, I would definitely be roaming the streets of Paris. Although I imagine one would run the risk of having a back up dancer from Paris out shining the main act. We could have easily spent another two hours watching them had the police not showed up and ended our fun. All I can say is that I hope to spend many more an afternoon watching them!

Adjusting to big city living aint always easy. May I propose as example numero uno, the metro. Being a big walker myself, I already have it out for the metro. However, yesterday I put in my head phones and set off for an excursion that would carry me over to the right bank to one of the busiest areas of Paris. Preface: yesterday was rather hot considering the nice cool weather we have been having here. I walked to hour nearest metro stop which is only a block away however, there is no easy, direct route that would take me to where I needed to go. Not having memorized the lines yet, I have to rely on finding the maps and looking at the names of the stops. This is quite a challenge when you are trying to look like a savvy Parisian. I have to admit, at times I found myself walking in circles in the underground labyrinth that is a metro stop because I just couldn't bring myself to sacrifice my air of confidence by stopping to study a map...Anyway, four trains later, I finally made it to my final destination. For the return trip home, I only took two trains and made the 15-20 minute walk from Chatelet across the river to home. I enjoy people watching as much as the next person (and the metro provides an abundance of interesting people to see) but I prefer to do my observing from above ground, preferably with an espresso in hand! Whoever comes to visit (which you all should) bring your walking shoes and be ready to hoof it!

On a final note, I have been going into somewhat of a slight withdraw as some of you may know, I have been without music here :( I went through the great effort of carrying on the airplane my speakers from home, cradling them as one might a child only to be informed the voltage is not compatible for the outlets here...devastating. Whitney, wonderful, wonderful Whitney agreed to bring me my ihome from home!! I am anxiously awaiting its arrival! For those of you who know me, which most of you do, there is hardly a moment when I don't have music in the background...needless to say, on top of moving to a foreign country, I have endured a very serious change in lifestyle! :)

Well I will leave you at that for now and promise to write again soon!
Love,
SF
ps- i am not proof reading so please excuse any typos