sick.

no, i'm not wearing invisible white sandals. those are the worst tan lines ever.


the culprit

Yesterday I went to Les Deux Magots and had a cafe glace for 5,90. Worth it? (YES. I'll be back tomorrow after my Romanticism test. Devin and I plan on sitting there for hours while quietly judging everyone that walks by)

Went with Ally to the Fragonard Perfume Museum today, then to the nicest Starbucks near the Opera. Complete with ceiling frescoes and chandeliers.

Then Le Marche au Puces (flea market) at Metro Porte de Clignancourt and bargained with a man for some knock-off aviator Ray Bans...talked him down from 20 to 10 euros :) also bought some gaudy statement rings.

Then I got my falafel and now I'm gonna start packing to see if I have room for anything else before I go buying it...

before i leave these shores

-get rubbing of jim morrison's grave (at miles' request...i think i might expand the project to include balzac, proust, sartre, beauvoir...)
-get overpriced coffee or perrier at les deux magots
-pierre herme macaroons?
-buy you fools souvenirs (you're all getting the same shot glass)
-eat falafel one last time from Lenny Kravitz's fave spot: l'As du Falafel

...to be continued

what i've been doing lately.

Last Sunday Devin and I tried out La Villette Sonique, a FREE music festival that's in the north east corner of Paris. We saw Monotonix, (band from Israel that was kicked out of the country because of their rowdy shows) Deerhoof (mostly unremarkable), and Dan Deacon...which made me happy and sore from jumping/dancing/being stepped on/kicked etc. for the next few days. Here's a photo of Devin and I courtesy of Miles...no idea how he found it:


(I'm to the right of the dude in the shades and striped polo, Devin is the curly haired dude with the hipster glasses)

Then last night some amis et moi went to the Champ de Mars and had the usual bread/cheese/wine/chocolate binge and then watched Home, a film by Yann Arthus-Bertrand that was planet earth-esque and amazing to watch on a huge screen right in front of the Eiffel Tower. The field was completely packed with Parisians...possibly a thousand? It was phenomenal. The film was also screened in Central Park, and was airing live on France 2 last night. You can learn about it here

Leaving Paris in 13 days...still need to find a way to the airport (don't want to pay for a cab) and am grasping desperately for things I need to do before I leave. I feel pretty well accomplished if I do say so myself :)

Only 19 days left (!)

Getting wifi in Parc Monceau, it's lovely.

LENNA ETA: 8:58 AM

a few days ago i was taking a nap and was woken up by this:

(students from the sorbonne demonstrating...they've been on strike all semester)

oh, france.

european vaction part 4: lucerne

Warning: what you are about to read makes little to no sense.

Way overdue, and hardly worth it...

Last stop was Lucerne, Switzerland. From Rome it took about 14 hours and maybe 4 train changes? (One in Milan, Bellezona...ok so 2?) The train ride was super scenic. Likely one of the prettiest countries in the world, I heard somewhere that Lucerne is in the top 10 most pitturesque cities...The town is tiny, so spending more than a day might have been overkill. Lucerne is right on a lake and nestled between the mountains. There are covered bridges and swans everywhere. Along with watches, chocolate, knives, cow merch and sigg h2o bottles (i bought one...)

Overall, Eurotrip '09 was a success--4 countries in under 14 days; not too shabby...

'net

due to my current lack of internet connection, i gotta to get creative. currently sitting outside of the pompidou (would be inside, but the line is atrocious, (would be somewhere less disgusting, but its raining...no one likes a wet laptop))

oh come on

really now? lets put a little more effort into making copies, professor peigné.

european vacation pt. 3: ROMA

It's been a week since break...and I don't know why I didn't write about all of it when it was still fresh in my mind. So apologies for the imminent lack of detail of the next two entries.

To get to Rome we took another (but final) overnight train from Vienna to Roma Termini. Once in Rome we figured out our third metro system and took Linea B direction Rebibbia to Bologne, where we got off and struggled to find our hostel, which we found hidden in an alley...

Got rid of our luggage, then hit up the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, ate some gelato and pizza...

(losers at the forum)

Alright lazy lapse, you get bullets.

I also saw:

-The Spanish Steps
-The Trevi Fountain
-The Vatican
-Castel San Angelo
-Domus Aurea
-Piazza del Popolo
-Piazza Navona
-The Pantheon

I think I literally ate pizza for and gelato for every meal, and it was wonderful. Rome was definitely on par with Berlin, but I couldn't tell you which I prefer. Rome did however leave me with a bittersweet taste because it was extremely touristy (to be expected, I know) but I just felt like I was constantly being hustled by every person I bought something from...and the catcalling and aggressive nature of the many street vendors was really unpleasant, and got really old. But creepers aside, it was a really fun city with a lot to do and eat and see.

Wow that was pretty generic, but the best I can do.
(one of many aerial views of rome)


(the vatican)

european vacation part 2: vienna (or mostly mozart)

After a lovely ride in our OWN compartment on the night train to Vienna, we arrived at Wien West at 6:30 am. Took the Underground to our hostel which was about as far away as possible (last stop on U4). Next we were confronted with the hills of Austria. After putting our bags in an unlocked luggage room, we were unsure of what to do next (by this point it was like 7 am). So we trained it back to the center of the city and looked for the Opera house, and ended up walking the wrong way. We eventually found it along with a place to get coffee. AMERICAN STYLE (and it wasn't at Starbucks, although this is ALWAYS an option in Europe). No more of this espresso crap.



Vienna was mostly pretty boring. And I say mostly mozart due to the vast amount of gift shops with this title, as well as the numerous men dressed in period costume trying to invite you to a symphony or something. As someone who doesn't appreciate classical music, I didn't really have much appreciation for Vienna.

The coolest things we saw were all in museums. They have this area called Museumsquartier where they have a bunch of art museums. We hit up the Museum Moderner Kunst (Modern Art Museum) one day...they had a sweet exhibition on this Austrian artist named Maria Lassnig. Shes currently like 90 years old and still painting massive pieces.



Also in the Museumsquartier is the Kunsthalle...which is an exhibition hall for really contemporary art, or as they describe themselves, "cool and disturbing art". The current show was called Sex and Crime. The Sex part was titled "The Porn Identity" and had stuff by Marcel DuChamp...then had pornos, movies about porn, one of the statues from the bar in "A Clockwork Orange":



The Crime portion was pretty cool and hard to define. It was really dark and had a room where you could listen to Miles Davis, a room where you could listen to readings of "The Halloween Tree" by Ray Bradbury stuff by Poe...etc. Then there was an installation by some sort of pretentious artist named Banks Violette who's works were about the glamorization of violence in America. My favorite part of the show was a section on Weegee, a street photographer in the 20s-40s who was known for his photos of murders/criminals/dead bodies...



Also saw the Hapsburg's imperial palace at Schönbrunn. Kind of put Versailles to shame.




Also went to the Belvedere another palace that has been converted into a massive art museum. This place houses Gustave Klimt's "The Kiss":




They had a special show on Alfonse Mucha...one of my favorites. He's a Czech artist who did a lot of posters...but also did everything from paintings to engravings to jewelry design and also designed the Slavic Pavillion for the Paris World's Fair in 1900.




We took the tram to Grinzing, a really cute little town where we were supposed to be able to see all of Vienna...turns out you had to hike like 3 miles uphill to achieve this. We did it, then we ate Käsestreusel and Apfelstreusel with a cup of Viennese coffee (called a melange, I guess).



I guess looking back Vienna wasn't as lame as it felt at the time...but I don't think its one of my favorites.

european vacation part 1: berlin

I really don't know how to begin writing about the past two weeks...so I'm going to do it in the most organized fashion-by country. I'd rather just bullet a few things but I'm sure that won't satisfy your voracious curiosities.

So after an overnight train from Paris Gare-Est to Berlin HBF Tricia and I hopped on the S-Bahn to our hostel...weirdest place ever. Called Generator hostel. Theme colors blue, lime green, silver. Eurotrash. But it was a surprisingly nice hostel with free breakfast and terrible watered down Tang.



Berlin was one of my favorite cities because of the history-90% of the city was destroyed in WWII so almost everything there is new, which is so different from the rest of Europe. Berliners sort of have a 'tude that matches their history (meaning what? I don't know. but I liked it.)

I enjoyed my fair share of bratwurst, currywurst, and various other wursts there...as well as Berliner (?) the local brew. Basically PBR.

Another favorite part of Berlin was Oranienburger Straße where we found this old building that had been converted into a bunch of artist's studios. Behind the building were a couple of makeshift bars, big sculptures and lots of sand. Old box trucks converted into studios and hang-outs. Quite possibly the coolest/weirdest thing I've ever seen. The building itself was filled with trash and the walls were covered in years worth of graffiti. There were strange characters in corners of the building, including a man in a Jordan jersey (Wizards, not Bulls...?) who mumbled incoherently at us. Artists working in their studios, and confused tourists like us also populated the space.






Other notable sites:

the Berlin Wall...kind of anticlimactic, and encased in fencing.

the Reichstag-Parliament meets here, and the building was burned down (allegedly by a communist...this instigated the banning of the Communist Party in Berlin) and rebuilt in 1999. There's a cool dome on top that was added so the people could "see democracy" and so that there were no walls between the government and the people...very poetic.



book burning memorial-located at the place where Hitler ordered the burning of around 20,000 books. The memorial is a set of bookshelves below ground that supposedly can hold these 20,000 books. Now as a reparation Humboldt University (the University located there...Einstein "thought" here...Karl Marx too) and the Gov't holds a book sale at this spot daily.

Overall, Berlin was a nice break from Paris...the people aren't well-dressed or pretentious, the weather was awesome, and it was nice to be in a "modern" city.

la phonetique

One test, one paper between me and eurotrip '09. I am currently sitting in my room reading things like this aloud to myself:

eau-eux
dos-deux
seau-ceux
beau-boeufs
faux-feu
veau-veut

"Belle marquise, vos beaux yeux me font mourir d'amour."
"D'amour mourir me font, belle marquise, vos beaux yeux."
"Vos yeux beaux d'amour me font belle marquise, mourir."
"Mourir vos beaux yeux, belle marquise, d'amour me font."
"Me font vos beaux yeux mourir, belle marquise, d'amour."

How Molière has a way with syntax.

(This is in preperation for my phonetics test in 2.5 hours)

And as my insane teacher says: "if your face doesn't hurt you're not doing it right".

My face doesn't hurt.

avril, deja?!

So it's already April, and spring break is in 8 days! Meaning I get on a train headed to Berlin, then Vienna, then Rome, then Bern. This trip is destined for disaster. But I am excited.

Last week Miles visited and we took the train to Nantes (about 2 hours west of Paris) and saw Animal Collective (his birthday present). I was incredibly impressed with his ability to stay mostly awake for the entire day and stick it out til 1 am. I went to sleep at about 8pm the first night I was in Paris.

I'm too lazy to go into detail about the whole week, because it was mostly more of the same site-seeing stuff I've already told you all about. I will however list the things that were new for both of us...

• Musee d'Orsay-mostly 18th-19th century European art...very pretty, too much impressionism, however.
• Eiffel Tower-we went up it! And it was freezing cold and mostly unpleasant, but something you have to do!
• Musee d'Erotisme-we went at like 1 am (this museum boasts itself as the ONLY museum in Paris open til 2 am) so it was mostly empty and full of primitive looking erotic art that was really from the 20th century.
• the Sexodrome-stay away from the creepy private rooms on the second floor, unless you're in the market for that sort of thing.

We also did a lot of eating and drinking. We bought and consumed a fair amount of cheap wine and champagne. Champagne mixed with Orangina to be exact. Delicious. We also ate a lot of crepes and panini...gelato, tapas, flammenkueche, algerian couscous...

Miles got burned by hot chocolate, then received free beer and was offered to have his H&M eurotrash shirt dry cleaned by the restaurant, we declined this offer but took the free beer and dessert. Yum.



This week I went to the Fleche d'Or again and saw Ben Lee and some other french acts...I don't remember what they were called but one group was like hip-hop/jazz/folk if thats possible, then the next act was a really awesome chick who sang...Tricia says she was kind of like Bjork.

Here she is:


Also went to a bunch of open mics to see Tricia and Devin play...Its really interesting to hear the song choices of a lot of these Parisian musicians. Among the odder selections were Creep (on two separate occasions), Umbrella, and Like a Prayer. All acoustic.

The rockstars themselves:


This weekend we're going to Rouen/Giverny...More churches! And Monet's home-hopefully the weather stays awesome for that!

xopeace

S

its SUNday

This weekend I went to a pub and saw this kind of strange band from Bretagne (Brittany...in the north) who played like celtic/middle eastern fusion with lyrics in Breton. It was pretty cool but started to all sound the same after awhile. I had some authentic cider, but still would take Woodchuck any day.

Here's the bad-ass bartender who never changed his facial expression:



I saw Les Plages d'Agnes, an autobiographical documentary by/about Agnes Varda, a director during the French New Wave, wife of Jacques Demy (another New Wave director) and coincidentally one of the two directors I'm studying in my cinema class. It was pretty cute.

Today I found the most fantastic park that provided a much needed break from the entirely concrete city.

Bois de Vincennes:

Georges Pompidou is my favorite French President

French leaders like to outlive their presidencies/terms of office/reigns etc. Case-in-point: Louis XIV (in the form of Versailles).

I however much prefer the legacy of this man:


(Georges Pompidou: President from '69-'74)

He constructed a modern art museum, the Centre Beauboug (later named Centre Pompidou after his death).

I've been to this museum twice and am really anxious to go back. Today I went to la Bibliotheque Publique d'Information which is attached to the Centre Pompidou. It is the largest library I have personally ever been to, and it has everything my nerdy heart could ever desire. I was there researching Girodet's le Sommeil d'Endymion:



as well as a painting called le Portrait Presume de Gabrielle d'Estrees et une de ses Soeurs which is attributed to someone in the Fountainebleau School during the 16th century:



I found a good amount of information, and was really gratified that I was able to find anything in such a huge place...and was able to type on a French keyboard (I was really shocked when I went to type an "a" and a "q" showed up...).

Here are some pictures inside the libary:







Check out the queue...to get into a library!



Apologies, this post was really self-indulgent. Hope you enjoyed it anyways!

les concerts a emporter

This post is inspired by Mary, who resurrected my enjoyment of blogotheque.net.

I've already been to this area of Montmartre where Andrew Bird did this video

I actually took a picture of the cafe he starts out in front of:




So to add on to the lists of things to do I'm going to hunt down the locations of my favorite shows...

And really, REALLY hope I can see one in progress...the musicians in the Metro really don't cut it.

EDIT

Cocoon=Cutest french duo

Voyez vous-meme:

CLIQUEZ ICI

LIKE OMIGAH KANYE!

So most of you probably already know this, but I stood no further than 4 meters from Mr. Kanye West today. I went to the 13th on a whim to check out Viktor & Rolf and find out what this fashion week business was all about...and just sort of hung around for awhile and people watched. I guess there were some French celebrities who showed up, because the photographers would jump all over people every so often...but I didn't recognize them and was not compelled to take their pictures. So after about 30 minutes of creeping around, and having my picture taken by some nice paparazzi lady (I think she liked my clothes??), I spotted a man in a gold hoodie. I was really distracted, and thought he might be some rapper. Then along came Kanye. Greatest moment of my life. No one seemed to care except for me, however. The photographers were all a lot more interested in his female companion-I have no clue who she was but I think I have a picture of her...

...She's the bald chick in the pink tights:


Extremely flamboyant drag queen from New York named something Bunny:

.

And Kyeong with the sign for the show :)



Tomorrow morning is Chanel. I'll be praying for a Mary-Kate and Ashley sighting...

nice legs

Saw a rugby match this weekend between Paris and Bourgoin (a team from Southern France). We left at halftime because the weather was typically Parisian. I'm not sure exactly what the mascot for Paris is, but their colors were the most flamboyant of pinks and a nice baby blue. Really tough. There were also pink lilies or something on all the team merch...

They throw each other into the air to catch throw-ins (not the correct term)

And this is a melee; where the 8 biggest guys from each team pounce on the ball...sort of like a jump ball?


Tricia and I went to see this band called Psapp from the UK play at this cool venue in the 20th called La Fleche d'Or...for those of you who go to U of I it was a lot like Canopy.


...they play children's toys-- that thing in the corner was some sort of dr. seussical horn made from like k'nex and a rubber lobster

unofficial, unofficial

I have never celebrated unofficial, so it is only fitting that I choose to celebrate it in a foreign country where drinking at 9am on any given day is not unusual.


(devin, emma, tiffany, kristen)

We won a free "jug" of beer from this man:

...by playing a catch-phrase style word game


(look, its me!)


absolutely delicious.