Post-Paris

Back in the States!

My mom sent me grocery shopping the day after I returned from Paris (which has been almost 2 weeks ago). Funny thing is, I noticed myself going through my Parisian market routine of shopping, being all particular about the type of food and freshness of each kind: cheese, bread, fruit, vegetables and of course, pastries. Still driven by eclairs, I searched and scoured until:

Why, Safeway, why? I guess I chose to repress the knowledge of how the States' eclairs are no comparison of a small to completely non-accurate rendition of the real thing back in Paris.

And no, I did not buy them.

La Fin

Yesterday afternoon we visited the Musee Rodin after our last classes in the morning. I'm not just saying this because I have been an admirer of Rodin's work through pictures or because of my unexplainable fascination between his and Camille Claudel's esoteric relationship, but this museum was my favorite next to the Louvre. Perfect because:

A. It's Rodin.

B. It's small enough to feed continuing interest without feeling overwhelmed.

C. Original pieces were placed throughout the gardens. Though not sure exactly why this point is such a huge deal to me, I've decided for now that it is because it defies the typical museum standard of placing things out of their original, intended context(s).

I also enjoyed the random sprinkling of Van Goghs and other Impressionist artworks in one of the wings of the "interior museum" (aka inside the building).

Musee Rodin.

The Kiss, Rodin.

The Thinker, Rodin.

Later that evening we had our final group dinner at the same restaurant a few of us originally went to when we first came back to Paris after the first week of traveling about France.

Outside of the restaurant, Chez Clement.

For today we visited the Centre Pompidou:

It is a combined library, art museum, IRCAM and George's Restaurant with a stunning view of the city on the roof. I only saw the permanent collection and visiting exhibition, "The Promises of the past, 1950-2010, A discontinuous history of art in former eastern europe."

Last dinner party!

To End:

Christina: Guess how many eclairs I had today?

Nick: 2

Christina: 3

Nick: I like my women chunky?

I would write more but I have to go extreme paranoia a few more times, scouring the room to make sure I have everything in order for tomorrow, or more like in 6 hours.

Rape Cheese

Yes, it's an actual type of cheese and it is molding in our refrigerator, accompanied by the infamous purple lettuce, tomatoes, more cheese and whatever else that is or has developed (I dare not look in further).

Chateau de Chantilly!

We took the bus to the small town of Chantilly where this great chateau is known for its interior Musee Conde, which is acclaimed as one of France's greatest art galleries next to the Louvre. The "Painting Room" itself contained Poussins, Raphaels, Delacroixs and the like. I appreciated that the structure and placement of the items in the rooms remained as they were when the chateau was inhabited, but it was a little overwhelming; so much great art stacked tall and wide, all right next to one another in a huge barrel vaulted hall. I felt that if you had taken one single painting out of that room and placed it in a space of its own, it would be a striking sight, demanding all of your attention.

We had a brief guide-led tour of the interior apartments of the chateau that was cut short to break for lunch before the horse show, thankfully because I was lightheaded cross-thinking, "What if I fainted in a chateau? In the 'monkey room' of Chantilly, perhaps?" That's my own fault for not eating due to sick non-hunger, though my body wanted food enough (dinner Nutella and this morning's double grocery hunt for apple and Special K does not count for substance).

Lunch and coffee was amazingly good and so cheap - Marian got a combined sandwich, eclair and water bottle for about € 5,20. To be honest, I'm not sure if the food was really good itself, if it was just my hunger or maybe the two combined (probably the latter).

{Journal Note: Sandwich bread was 1/2 of a baguette; mayonnaise!; huge mug of very good au lait for € 3,10}.

We meant to walk through the gardens in the afternoon but it started to torrential downpour. I'm really going to miss an average high of 65 degrees.

One of our assignments here is to make homemade yogurt (without a yogurt maker) from the recipe in French Women Don't Get Fat. When we came back to the apartments, we cooked and attempted; the yogurt will now be sitting for 8 hours under a desk lamp.

http://www.youtube.com/user/FriendsOfMireille#p/u/16/O2N9xlnyeso

We shall see the turnout tomorrow.

Nutella for Dinner

Time in Paris has gone by so quickly. I feel that it is the light here. It is almost 22:00 right now and it looks like a 5 p.m. Arizona dusk. It's not that the mornings are not bright, either; in fact, they are. Always light, always light. You can be out at 3 a.m. and it feels like it's 23:00 (11 in the evening). Then again, we have really lucked out with the weather here.

From Montmartre Walk (Thursday):

Cafe where they shot the movie Amelie!

I enjoyed how the tour guide incorporated visual examples of the artists’ work into her oral description of the places we visited. It made the area come to life and jogged my imagination of how life was for the artists living in that exact space.

Actual model area on top of small hill in Montmartre for one of many of Van Gogh's "Windmill" paintings.

Sculpture dedicated to Montmartre myth of Marcel Ayme's "Le Passe-Muraille" ("The Man Who Could Walk Through Walls").

I also have come to the personally surprising realization of how much of an Arizonian I really am since I've been craving crappy Mexican food for the past week. Filiberto's ftw!

Tomorrow we visit the Chateau Chantilly.

Gingerbread Crush

Ubu Roi

Just witnessed a spectacular international-inspired performance of Jarry's play, Ubu Roi starring Mikey, Jason, Peter and Kevin. Tres, tres magnifique, and thanks for doing my homework : )

I also have a problem with not getting to bed before three.

Hemingway Walk

After robotically walking back to our room yesterday after class, plopping into bed and going through a continuous cycle of passing out then lying awake in delirious fever-inertia, then soon to pass out again until 9:45 a.m. this morning, I felt normal again! That is about 16 hours of sleep. I convinced myself throughout the night that it would be only a 24 hr bug and could not spare to miss the next day's (today's) scheduled activity: the Hemingway Walk, which I have been anticipating since I first saw it marked on the syllabus.

Two things before I get to the actual walk:

1. Around 4 in the morning I woke up with a splitting headache and figured it had to do with whatever I was sick with and went back to sleep. When I finally woke up for the day, I still had it and remembered that I had not had any caffeine the day prior and thought, "Oh, this would be so silly if this is a 'caffeine headache,' but a sure quick-fix." Alas, it was. Went to grab some take-away coffee at Les Artistes on the corner before we had to leave and it solved the trick of a 6 hour headache. Voila.

2. Since I had not eaten in 36 hours, I realized when we were waiting at our destination at the Cardinal Lemoine metro station that I was, indeed, hungry. Looking around, I saw a patisserie across the ways and made a beeline for it, coming out with an eclair. Coming back to my senses post-eclair annihilation, I realized how ridiculous coffee and eclairs are to me.

But it doesn't matter because it was one of the best eclairs I have had here (trust me, I've consumed like one per day here, on average).

^ Dangerous.

Hemingway's first Parisian apartment (topmost floor, shuddered windows)! In the Sun Also Rises, he refers to this first apartment and dance hall which is now a librairie on the bottom floor.

Book from the librairie beneath Hemingway's first apartment (Women Who Read Are Dangerous, heheh).

We saw another, later residency of Hemingway's close by the same area. Back when he and the other expatriates resided in Paris, it was generally quite cheap to have a comfortable living. The parts where Hemingway resided were considered to be less expensive outside the city walls. Now, however, it is a more exclusive area, though still occupied by students as it is located in the Latin Quarter.

And for all those who do not appreciate or more so do not understand Hemingway, must recognize that he was quite innovative for his time, for writers amongst and before him only wrote in the flowery, Victorian style. His own is simple, straightforward and true.

So, purely, "write the truest sentence you know." (A Moveable Feast)

Also, Honore de Balzac died from caffeine? He would have 25-30 espressos / day on average.

Tonight was bittersweet as it was our last picnic all together. As expected, Dalton and Susser brought along French food delicacies which consisted of pig snout, pig face, rabbit, more foie gras (force-fed goose), select cheeses and calf heart as a prized possession. As a vegetarian it really doesn't bother me to see the "weird" food in front of me or to see others around me eat it (ok, except for the calf heart). All I really wanted to do was eat fruit, smoke cigarettes and drink bottles of water. I can't believe the day has come, but I am sick of bread products.

Also, maybe we're completely ignorant over here of anything domestic-related, but did you know that lettuce can leak purple?

Sweet-Adventurous!

My first time going to a patisserie and not coming out with an eclair.

Moi avec un moelleux au chocolait.

Jen avec cake glace.

Have I mentioned how much more I love France purely for their love of eggs? They put eggs on everything, including pizza (fried egg in middle). And also, Grey Poupon mustard on bread. I'm going to have some interesting eating habits when I get home.

"So Happy I Could Die"

This has got to be the longest weekend ever, in a totally good way. I think mainly because I have literally gotten next to no sleep (6:00-6:00, underestimated). Something that will stay with me forever is seeing the sunrise over Paris, and how busy the city continues to be at all hours. Highlight: glowing car lights along the Champs-Élysées, the opposing streets converging to the lit Arc de Triomphe in the distance.

Today Jen and I were on a mission for specialized French stores, limited to:

1. Maje - In Bayeaux, I relished upon and tore out an ad of this brand from a magazine in our hotel. The power of advertising has never charmed greater as we battled continuous Metro stops until we reached the textured shop of lacea minimalist-designed shop of twisted design, texture and a soft palette.

2. Calligrane - paper chase with gift-minded intent. The entirety of the tiny street nuzzled next to the Notre Dame was lined with paper-related stores. This shop has three adjoining stores carrying calligraphy and all kinds of paper products. One shop only specializes in Fabriano, an Italian paper once used by Goya and Michelangelo; the second sells up-market office essentials; the third stocks textured paper from India, Brazil, Japan, China and Mexico.

Purchases from Calligrane. If you look carefully enough at the white paper (click on photo and zoom in creepily close, thanks to my camera) you can see a graceful flowered design with an elegant sheen.

For some reason our avidly detailed day plans never work out. Still not giving up, though, tomorrow's agenda is to get up early for the open-air market, make a good meal with the freshly-bought market things and go to a cafe and work all day.

La Lecture in Français

I realized two things yesterday:

1. Am starting to recognize French words I did not consciously know I was aware of before.

2. I should really be utilizing my French dictionary and make more of an actual, this time, conscious, effort to learn more of the language while I'm here.

As a result, I just finished reading through two pages of Garance Dore's updates through the French language option on her site. Although the bulk of it was aesthetically eccentric photos, the small, given text still counts!

Versailles Day Trip. "I'm happy as a clam."

Gilded view from afar. This isn't even in the general courtyard entrance yet. Needless to say, I was just impressed with the parking lot itself.

Hall of Mirrors. If I could choose all places to swoon in, it would be here (remove all blemishes that are people and just picture it for its original aesthetic worth). Not only because of its beauty, but its history. A variety of court functions (balls, feted births and marraiges) and The Treaty of Versailles, ending World War I, was also ironically signed here (just for my old AP Euro-goers)

Inside the Hall of Mirrors.

Les jardins!

Overlooking the gardens.

Photo cred: Miss Mary

In the gardens!

Marie Antoinette had this replica of a then, present-day village especially built just so she could play peasant (seriously).

From dear Mireille, author of French Women Don't Get Fat, we found ourselves concocting and eating her infamous leek soup, in the quest of some detox. With some added tomato, prosciutto, fig and cheese bruschetta with hummus and a baguette. It's all about recasting, guys.

I'm also proud to say that I avoided all combinations of sweets today. Since I've been here, I realized the other day that after all meals (including breakfast, when I have the time) I automatically expect something sweet after. Back home, I would be horrified of dessert for all physical and monetarily-unnecessary reasons; which is true, in all honesty, but I love my eclairs and you can only get the best here :)

Louvre

Today we nixed class for the Louvre. Some of my favorites:

The Seated Scribe, Ancient Egypt. For realistic depiction (generally known for) and blue inlaid eyes (personal liking).

Nike of Samothrace. I was on an ardent hunt for this piece while there - not the Mona Lisa - and ended up randomly stumbling upon it, which proved to be the most breathtaking. I decided that I'd prefer the Nike to be headless; makes things more interesting and questioning to the eye and mind.

And of course, the Mona Lisa. This was not one of my favorites, though I feel it necessary to post the "I've seen this" painting. That attitude right there upsets me now and greatly did before in other viewers earlier today at the museum. I can only describe it as hundreds of paparazzi around the painting which is smaller than most people would expect it to be. It upset me to observe all the people gathered around it literally pushing and shoving each other out of the way not to admire it broadly or in detail, but just to grab a frontal picture. I, personally, was intrigued by the muted, murky coloring that seems to look so different in person apart from just pictures.

I have been thinking about these everyday since the first time I saw them last week; something which rarely happens and proves it's true. Super well-made, classic and good for sundresses :) Laces up and around the ankle.

Good ones from today:

- Context: Goth girl in front of painting at Louvre when trying to take picture. Christina and Jen consecutively: "God, goth girl, move." Goth girl turns around.

- Context: When waiting for Peter in dressing room, other guy coming out to show clothes to family. Christina (quiet): "That looks terrible." Jen (loud): "Yeah, that looks horrible." Family looks.

Lesson learned: Though it is France and they do speak a language other than English, that still does not mean that people cannot understand you.

Listening: Go-between Porqoui, Canoodle and Plastic Beach Ft. Mick Jones & Paul Simon, Gorillaz.