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As much as I didn't want to be a tourist & take a photo of the whole restaurant, I couldn't resist just snapping one from our table with the Louis Vuitton headquarters right behind us. Kong was a lot smaller than I thought it would be, and I suspect that they really filmed the ex-wife/Carrie scene at Georges Restaurant on top of the Pompidou, and just used Kong's decorations as product placement. The view was beautiful though, right through Pont Neuf and over the Seine, with what I think is the most beautiful area of Paris [my area!] as the backdrop. The food was pretty standard upscale, but the cocktails were incredible. I had the Kong Martini [vodka, crême de cassis, pineapple juice, sake] & immediately wanted another. The bar downstairs seems like it would be really nice for après-work drinks, especially considering its very posh corporate proximity.
Moving on to the evening: Only in France, I think, could a very notoriously gay club become a place that not only hosts a ladies' night, but also attracts straight men because it is so fun! Queen was packed to the brim even before 12, & then closer to 1.30, when they start giving out free drinks at the bar, the entire place turned into a little sardine pit. By free drinks, I mean:
Very attractive shirtless man, pouring champagne into cups, mouths, shirts, and of course, all over himself. It was too priceless a moment to not take a photo. Followed by:
Yes, 2 male strippers, who would soon be completely un-clothed, in a mainstream club on the Champs Élysées... Apparently last week there were 2 policemen, & this week is was some sort of play off Risky Business, sunglasses & all. So Paris is not just well-manicured women in Chanel suits with small dogs after all!
Left me a little traumatized, but was overall a wonderful experience. The 14th of July here is the day the Bastille was stormed in 1789, starting the Revolution, & is pretty much the equivalent of 4th of July for us. Kelly & I, in our very American enthusiasm, decided we had to show some patriotism to fit in. Could you imagine being in public on the 4th of July without red, white & blue?
Well, we had quite an experience with those shirts. First it was just people smiling at us, then they were asking to take photos of us, then they were asking to take photos with us, & finally, at the end of the night, walking back through Châtelet, there were the men yelling "You love Paris, I love YOU!" French charm at it's height, I'm sure. Apparently the whole patriotism thing isn't big in France, because there is a bad connotation associated with being a nationalist. So, we stood out like 2 [very pretty] sore thumbs.
The one part that did resemble the 4th of July was the amazing fireworks!! We made it over to the Tour Eiffel, but couldn't get all the way onto Champ de Mars, so just watched from an adjacent road. Each series of fireworks was perfectly timed to accompanying music - including the theme song from Amélie, a Coldplay song, & some more modern ones as well! I thought that was something very special and purely French savoir-faire, & it was really the most beautiful fireworks show I've ever seen.
The Tour Eiffel was also sparkling behind us for most of the show, but they turned it off later on so the fireworks could be more visible. Like any big sporting event, we tried to rush out of the crowd before it was over, but the police had closed off most of the metros, so we had to walk around for over an hour to find a nearby one that was open. Most of the police had been shipped in from suburbs of Paris, and had no idea how to give us directions, so it was a little wandering, a little stress, & a lot of chaotic people! Our feet were definitely hating us the next day.
Palais Royal is so beautiful! I stumbled on it a few days earlier looking for the Marc Jacobs store [which is only men's and a tiny women's collection section] & had to come back to see more! I'm not sure exactly what the situation is, but there are all these striped columns coming straight out of the ground in the courtyard - the photo doesn't really capture the crazy visual play against the old building! Adjacent to the palais are the gardens, which like every other jardin in Paris, is perfectly manicured and full of couples canoodling on benches.
Just across the street from the palais is the Louvre, where we spent a full 4 hours going to every wing [something I've never been able to do before]. But before the serious museum-ing, we stopped at the carnival that I've been passing almost everyday along the Tuileries, trying my hardest to resist the smell of churros. Well, I gave in.
I'm blaming childhood nostalgia. Although, I will say, French churros are MUCH healthier than anything I've ever seen at Disneyland. For one, they make the dough and fry them right in front of you, & just lightly dust them with sugar. Nutella is obviously the additive of choice, but I did miss the perfectly homogenous cinnamon-sugar American version. We got on the ferris wheel and I got to snap a few photos of Paris from up high before [of course] my camera battery died.
There's the view down on the carnival and rue Rivoli, which cuts Paris right in half and can take you straight from one end to the other! And now for the amazing view from the top of the wheel: rive gauche and droit, all the way up to Sacre Coeur!
This was my second time up to the most northern arrondissement of Paris, but my first doing the royal Amélie sight-seeing tour. Not the formal one of course, just me & Kelly & my guidebook taking us around to the little sights. We started right out of the [very underground] metro & all the way up the hundreds of stairs to Sacre Coeur.
Finally at the top... the view down & my favorite scene from Amélie - the chase down the path!
It had been drizzling for most of the day, so the usual musicians and surrounding crowd weren't there, but still lots of people lounging around. If you go straight down the stairs, take a right at the base of the hill, go past Abessess metro, and left on rue Lepic, you arrive directly at the Amélie cafe! I'm so used to sites in LA being advertised & flashy that we walked past it before I realized we had gone too far down the street. There was nothing particularly special about it, & it looked like the normal customers having a coffee outside weren't as excited as I was to be there. The menu wasn't too wonderful, so I just took a peek inside and then went down the street for dinner.
Kelly & I also wanted to stop by a Dalí exhibition that is advertised in almost every metro stop here, so we found the little gallery space and paid the 6 euros to see what ended up being the strangest exhibit I've ever seen. Most of the works were prints of his drawings, & then there were a bunch of dresses scattered around, which were evidently designed by the likes of Sonya Rykiel, Phoebe Philo, & some other big names, as influenced by Dalí's work. I suppose it could have been interesting, but it wasn't really what I signed up for.
There was also this space where you could sit and watch one of Dalí's weird short films, my favorite part. I didn't recognize the one that they were playing, but it was much different than Un chien andalou, so that was interesting to see. I think next time the artist's square and a picnic with all the liberals in Paris is going to be enough Montmartre for me!
Not the Hermes bag, but even better -- my amazing friend Kelly, from high school AND USC! It has been perfect to do all the minorly touristy things with her... but also to share what I love about Paris so far with someone so close form home! We started out her first night here at VIP, and bumped into some of Eva Longoria's wedding party at the next table! Paris can seem to big, but in some moments you really feel like there are only a couple of places to be on a Friday night.
Sunday was decidedly relaxing day, so we braved the overcast weather and went out to Champ de Mars... picnicking in front of the Tour Eiffel!
A little cloudy, but the rain held off until we left. The whole area is completely populated on weekends with families and little children - there's even a go-cart track around the corner and a really sad-looking donkey-drawn carriage hobbling around the green.
Avec ses lunettes de soleil! Some more sightseeing today around the Latin Quarter after my class, but our walking was HAILED on! I cannot believe this global warming... I think it's especially targeting Paris. We were completely trapped in Benetton with 10 others until the hailing and thunder stopped, and then we rushed back into a cafe around Saint Severin. Even though I have been to Shakespeare & Co. every time I've been to Paris, it was so wonderful today! We found a cat napping upstairs, and wasn't sure if it was alive, until it twitched.
I love that it's almost like a hostel, with a little sink upstairs surrounded by a few toothbrushes and half-empty toothpastes. The inscription above the hall upstairs even reads: "be not inhospitable to strangers, lest they be angels in disguise."
I think the shopping here deserves its own post. I arrived just in time for les soldes, actually spending the whole first day at the Bon Marché with Shirin exhausted, thirsty, hungry, and endlessly digging through piles of clothes. We had a hard time finding the shoe department because neither of us could pronounce 'chaussures' correctly, until a nice guy on the second floor said, shoes? Right. They had roped off each designer section of the department, and were only allowing 4 people in at a time, so there were multiple lines all around the floor. Never seen anything like it before! It was one of the longest, but of course most wonderful being the shopaholic I am, days of my life. My new life love:
Even the pharmacies here have sales! I'm not sure how much I want discounted meds, but it's just completely crazy this time of year. In the chaos, I love going over to Etienne Marcel to Kiliwatch [I've already been there twice this week] for some vintage! Well, not all of it's vintage, but it's a huge mix of new, old, and foreign. The front section is all magazines and books, and then a jean bar, women's, leather jackets and accessories, men's shoes, men's. It looks like a big watering hole of the very edgy trendy of Paris [read: very hot guys]. Saint-Honoré has been crazy everyday, and although it's a really touristy area, if you walk a bit north to avenue de l'Opera, you'll find the best Monoprix ever!! If anyone doesn't know about my obsession with Monoprix, it started last spring when I first discovered it on an outting by the Bastille. The closest comparison I can think of in WalMart, but it's SO much better! It's all kinds of cosmetics [Bourjois, Vichy, La Roc, Nivea, etc.], every thing you could think of to put in a house, clothes [plus Petit Bateau!], a bookstore, AND a supermarket that actually has great food. So yes, I am obsessed. I spent 2 hours there yesterday.
Last look: the graveyard of empty shopping bags in the corner of my apartment, casualities of the war we are fighting in Paris for fashion!
Not scary at all! The Sorbonne isn't really a campus, just one really large building and a few other faculty buildings in the same quartier, so my lack of direction hasn't hurt me yet. The one thing that does scare me is the guard at the entrance on rue de la Sorbonne. Every time I enter he asks me for my ID card and where I am going, as if I look like some homeless hooligan wandering into the university. He even high-fived the guy walking in front of me!
And here I am being a huge tourist in front of the main building, photo credit to Kelly for taking a great one of me waving across the street to her. Although I am almost always late to class, my walk goes past both Hôtel de Ville and Notre Dame, so I'll have to slow down every once in a while to enjoy this:
I am DYING to see Paris, je t'aime and it is nowhere to be found! I have been asking the video store right below my apartment everyday, and the answer is still 'pas encore.' Even Monoprix [aka the most amazing store in the entire world] isn't stocking it yet, so if anyone has a strong desire to make me the happiest person ever, maybe a little package from the US is in store?
I realized I forgot to share Fête de la musique, which was unbelieveable! It's a whole day of music and wine in the streets all over Paris, with people coming from all over Europe to perform live for the thousands of people roaming the city. We started in Le Marais and ended up in St. Germain, where most of the bigger concerts were set up.
Here's the start, while it was still light out... and then the people got a little more into the wine and the bars started to open up...
The French are such amazing lively people! I have no idea why Italians get all the credit for having a genuine lust for life and letting it all go. Everyone was out until really early in the morning, and the streets were so jammed with people, the taxis could barely get through to take people home! The metro here closes around 12.30, depending how far away from the center of the city you are, so taxis are essential after going out, and it is consquently pretty difficult to hail a cab from anywhere like the Champs Elysées.
The Parisian nightlife is definitely living up to the posh expectations, and I've just been to a few so far! Here's a photo of the girls at out table at VIP, a really cool new club right on the Champs E, posing with out champagne before it got too packed!
Manaray was also really nice inside, kind of a Bali meets vampire theme. What I keep being surprised by is how young people are who are in these clubs! On one of my first nights here, we went to Aqua, a new place right by Trocadero in the gardens, and it was packed with boys who looked like they could be in high school! Another Paris shocker: how much of a tourist I am in loving the Eiffel Tower sparkling at night. It is just so so so beautiful with all the glimmering lights right in front of you. I decided today that although I really want to sincerely understand living in Paris like a real person, I am still going to do all the touristy things -- first on the list: go to Kong, the restaurant on top of Kenzo where Carrie has lunch in Paris!
Third day in Paris, and it's still raining! The showers come in so quickly and totally soak you, so you have to spend the rest of the day walking around with wet clothes. Luckily today the rain came down while we were sitting at a cafe outside the Centre Pompidou, so no damage. I didn't think I would love the Pompidou, but it was really wonderful! I had no idea the permanent collection was so big, and they also have 2 gallery spaces for rotating exhibits. Eva Hesse's untitled fiberglass from 1970 was my favorite, it's just so different in life than in any pictures!
And here I am with Yves Klein and International Klein Blue!
And Mark Rothko and Barnett Newman in the same room with Shirin.
Other than that, Paris has just been lots of walking and amazing food, and I'm finally unpacked and settled in my apartment! I'm living in the 4th, in an area called Le Marais, which is really charming and just across the river from Notre Dame, and down the street from Hôtel de Ville. And my next door neighbor is L'église Saint-Paul-Saint-Louis!
Moving on to the evening: Only in France, I think, could a very notoriously gay club become a place that not only hosts a ladies' night, but also attracts straight men because it is so fun! Queen was packed to the brim even before 12, & then closer to 1.30, when they start giving out free drinks at the bar, the entire place turned into a little sardine pit. By free drinks, I mean:
Very attractive shirtless man, pouring champagne into cups, mouths, shirts, and of course, all over himself. It was too priceless a moment to not take a photo. Followed by:
Yes, 2 male strippers, who would soon be completely un-clothed, in a mainstream club on the Champs Élysées... Apparently last week there were 2 policemen, & this week is was some sort of play off Risky Business, sunglasses & all. So Paris is not just well-manicured women in Chanel suits with small dogs after all!
