au revoir madame de brioche et tes enfants...

so, more sad goodbyes last week... my dear natasha had to go back to greece and julian left for germany and everyone else from school left too, except a select few. we had going-away celebrations on the pont des arts which is the pedestrian bridge that crosses the seine from the left bank to the louvre. it was actually quite a party! 

i had no idea so many people hung out on this bridge on a friday night! lol

then we walked to a bar near the sorbonne and what do we see in the little plaza area? all these awesome balloons! they spelled out names of songs (we don't know why they were there... maybe some sort of orientation fun). there was "rock me amadeus" and some others too that i can't remember now... i had the german stand in front of "99 luftballons" lol...

way to be a good sport, julian! :) 

then we went to this bar called the mead maker, which had a sea-faring pirate-ish type theme.

it was cool, but we were all kinda tired and so it was a pretty early night.

this is a super-cute pic of natasha and julian and my cheek. :)

last saturday, i was baby-sitting ella and we went to the garde républicaine for their open house. it was pretty neat, actually. most of our time was spent looking at different horsies, ella's favorite. i didn't mind standing here for fifteen minutes bc the gendarme was really cute. hehe. the uniform was really working for me.

we walked alllllll around, saw more horsies, looked at the little museum of uniforms and stuff, ran around with some other kids and then we went to see the motorcyclists do their tricks and listen to the band play. all in all, a very interesting and busy day!

but it wasn't over yet... we walked a little while in my efforts to get ella to fall asleep in her stroller, but then we heard music playing, so we went to investigate! there was an anti-landmine rally being held by handicap international and they had music and exhibits and everything. it was very cool. this bad was pretty good too. so we sat and listened for a few songs and then explored some more.

we heard drums a little ways away and went to check it out. it was this awesome drum group called mulê ketu bringing attention to the rally. i really wanna be one of those drummers! it looked like a lot of fun. very energetic. ella finally started falling asleep in the middle of the drum performance (HOW??? idk... it was LOUD!).

on friday night, leoni (a friend that i met in the bois, see previous post) and i went to this event at le 66 showroom on the champs elysées. it was a party that wove through some stores in what can best be described as a high-class mall. there were "cointreau-politans", a dj, hair and make-up stations, photographers, all sorts of stuff. leoni and i decided to get a little make-over. haha, here are our results below, photo by one of the event photographers. i had a little "faux-hawk", very punk rock, with black cat-eyes and bright pink lips. leoni had the glamazon look going on with the jessica rabbit hair and smokey eyes. it was a fun little girls outing. i was sad that i wasn't feeling 100% and didn't have anywhere more exciting to go to than my bed... oh well.

these last pics are from yesterday at luxembourg garden. it was a chilly october day, but it was sunny with bright blue skies and fluffy clouds, just how i like it.

this is a little statue and mirror pool by the entrance we usually use that somehow i never noticed. it's so pretty and feels like it should be hidden somewhere in a secret garden (like the movie), but it's only 10 steps back from the sidewalk! so very charming.

i did not feel like taking my hair down friday night (sooooo much hairspray!) plus i thought ella might get a kick out of my crazy 'do, so i just slept on it. still looked crazy the 2nd day too! lol.

i kinda liked it actually, with the headband and the shades. very interesting, that's for sure!!!

these are just some extra flowers that nicole (ella's maman) had and gave to me. they are sooo pretty and cheerful! i love flowers, but i am toooo broke to buy any! haha.

so that is all for now. i am a little sniffly and i was worried it was getting worse last night, but i think i will be ok. this is kinda normal for october... eeeeverybody has the sniffles!

au revoir andré.

so, this week was happy and sad...

on sunday, andre took me to this lebanese restaurant in the 15th call Al Wady. it was so good!

here is a little sampling of our mini-feast. started with olives, almonds and those pink things are pickled turnips dyed with beet sauce! we had mézzé, which had a bunch of stuff like hummus, an eggplant dip, a parsley and tomato salad, falafel and labné, which is kind of a cheese-yogurt hybrid...

we had a lentil soup, which you can tell was good, bc the bowl is empty! and also a plate of grilled meats. i was sooooo full!!!

andré and me. the restaurant man was very sweet and took not one, but three pictures of us.

so cute.

tuesday night, we had a little going-away party for andré. this is adorable madona.

action shot. a toast to andré's travels. it was such a nice night, so many people came!

the next day, i went with andré to the airport. this is quite possibly the saddest picture i have ever taken!!! i was not happy to see him go! these are the cool moving-walkway tubes that are at charles de gaulle. 

today was the last day of my french class at the sorbonne. it was a good class, but i still don't feel super-confident about speaking french, which is annoying... i must practice more!

ok, so that's about it for now...

oh! a congrats moo on your awesome thesis!!! i told you that you'd be great!!!

yessssssssss!!! :)

i don't know what to title this post...

hi! i haven't been very exciting lately... sorry.

i've been continuing with my french class at the sorbonne, which is going well. i am actually learning some good stuff, so hopefully i am improving...

other than that, i've just been hanging out, 

which doesn't really make for an interesting blog post...

this is pic is of moo and andre seen from the apt.

i just liked how they glowed in the bright sunlight, with moo's blonde hair and andre's bright white shirt.

i saw this cool old-fashioned rail car yesterday! i was totally jealous that it was going the other way! i wanted to ride it!!! :) apparently they use these when they are performing maintenance on the regular cars. and it's just cool.

i am baby-sitting now! fun! this is my little cutie-patootie ella!

yesterday, we went to luxembourg garden and had tons of fun. 

ella rode the horsies and then we went to the playground.

andre played with us too! ella loved it when i sat behind her on one side of the see-saw and andre was on the other side. she kept saying "faster! faster!" we got some air on that thing! :)

then we tried every slide available. i got on one too, which of course is comical bc i am 5'10" and those toys aren't exactly made for someone that size... but i had fun anyways. 

ella has such a fun laugh.

after we'd exhausted every game at the playground, we got in the poussette (stroller- i learned a new word!) and walked back out through the garden.

it was a really beautiful day: the flowers were in bloom, the sun was shining, a nice mild temperature. perfect park day.

we stopped to watch the boats for a little bit. ella wanted to do that too, but it was time to go.

so we walked home and she was fast asleep before we were half way there.

i met moo and madona for a juice since we hadn't hung out in a while. then just watched a movie and passed out. i was WORN OUT! haha, guess i played to hard at the park too...

american diner and bois de boulogne

hi all! i started my french class at the sorbonne last week. it was a HUGE hassle registering and taking multiple placement exams and whatnot. i also had to change courses, once bc they cancelled without letting me know and the second time bc the class that they put me in totally sucked. :) so now i am in a new class which will hopefully be just what i need!

so, as i was out and about i found this ridiculously cute kitty!!! she was just bounding around, chasing leaves, being a wild jungle animal. if i weren't allergic to most cats, i might have taken her home!!! i hope she has an owner... so cute!

in other animal news, i saw the most adorable woman and her dog on the metro. i tried to take a pic of her, but i was trying to be sly, so this one is the best i could do. tons of make-up and jewelry, big chiffon flower on her crocheted sweater, a big pink knitted headband. 

she was amazing. i kinda wanna be just like her when i am old.

and naturally, she carries her chien around in a basket, like dorothy from wizard of oz.

amazing...

so, as i was searching the fusac magazine for an apartment, what do i see but an ad for an american diner!!! and it is RIGHT down the street! it's called breakfast in america and it was started by a guy who used to work in hollywood, so a lot of the decor is movie memorabilia. 

it's very cute and very american. 

here is my hot chocolate with real whipped cream, straight from the can.

andre and i may have ordered too much, but it was amazing. blueberry pancakes, french toast and a cheddar omelet with home-style potatoes!

yessss!!!

andre about to experience his first american diner blueberry pancakes...

oh the anticipation... lol.

i am soooooo stoked! :)

we went back for dinner too (not on the same day... that would be excessive!) and it was also amazing. a real chocolate milkshake, grilled chicken sandwich, cheeseburger, and french fries... mmm... i am getting hungry just remembering it! i'd nearly forgotten what bbq sauce and ranch dressing taste like... heaven.

on saturday, i met up with natasha and her friends from school and we went to bois de boulogne. it's just a big, wooded park for those of you who don't know what a "bois" is (and why would you really?). it was a gorgeous day, so we trekked about to find a nice spot for our picnic!

this is natasha and me eating "porridge" as she says they call that flower in russia. they eat clovers too... weird. but not too bad. i mean, if i HAD to eat it...

julian was hiding from the tiniest raindrops you've ever seen. but it was cute and funny so we took a pic. :)

natasha communing with nature. she says she is always trying to find the source of waterfalls (note our waterfall in the pic) but she never finds it and always ends up back where she started. we think freud would have something to say about this... lol.

so yeah, it was a really great day and we had tons of laughs and if i tried to explain it to you, you'd think we were all certifiable... ;-p

another gorgeous sunset.

y'all know how i love clouds and pretty colors... 

yeah, so that is all for today. i hafta pack my stuff and also study!!!!!

also, remember september 11th and say a special prayer today.

xoxo

i've been remiss!!!!! sorry!!!

ok, so i have been slacking... BIG TIME! sorry to all my faithful fans. ;-) so this is kind of a long blog to make up for lost time. i have been going to every museum in this city, and taking hundreds of photos, so this is just a smattering of my faves from each place.

so, let's start with the louvre, which is the first i went to.

i started in the hall of the italian masters. it was a very crowded day, which is to be expected, but it was still fantastic nevertheless. i didn't note the artists names...

i liked this one bc of the clarity of the picture. it is very clean and precise. also, it is a profile of a woman, which is kinda different, bc you are supposed to capture women at a more flattering angle, three-quarter view, for instance.

i loved the colors in this one. so bold! also the figures are beautifully posed and painted. but mostly i liked the colors. actually, i may have just been distracted by the colors... it's nearly garish, all of them together, actually. hmmm... deep blogging thoughts...

after the italians, and doing a quick run past mona, i decided to stick to the egyptian wing, which is HUGE! you know how much i love ancient egyptian everything, so i was pretty excited. (pretty sure i was egyptian in a past life)

here is a cool gold statue. i liked the poses of the statues too bc they looked like they were walking down the runway... haha. sashay, sashay *snaps fingers with attitude*. 

sorry, i know i am the only person who would think these ridiculous thoughts... 

i think i may do an egyptian collection again...

this is some cool modern art the had in the nooks around the staircase. the artist's name is anselm kiefer and he is a german artist living in france. it is one of three pieces from the artist and they are the most recent pieces commissioned by the louvre from a living artist, so that's pretty cool. they were very interesting and definitely caught my eye.

this is a mummified ibis. isn't that cooool??? he even had his own little bird-shaped sarcophagus. crazy egyptians... lol.

this is a regiment of funerary statues. there were all different kinds, but these were the prettiest... :) i like the colors.

this is the wicked-cool mummy! check out those wrappings. fantastic! i even learned some stuff about mummies: the body is dried using natron, a substance similar to salt. it is then prepared with aromatics (cuz ya wanna smell nice when ur dead...) and unguents which darkened over time. this darkening was mistaken for the effects of bitumen. this is where the term mummy came from, which is derived from a persian and arab word meaning wax, bitumen, and embalming products. just one of erin's lessons of the day.

the louvre, as seen from under one of the glass pyramids.

la defense. it's so BIG! did we see this when we were last here? i don't remember... it is pretty cool because of its size but also bc it lines up on the "historical axis" with the arc de triomphe and the louvre. i was pretty close, so you can't see all of it, but you get a pretty good idea of the size of it all. massive.

palais garnier, the opera house. it still gets to me how all these huge, amazing buildings are stuck in the middle of a bustling city. the subway stop is directly in front of the building, so you come up the stairs and turn around and WHOA! ha, it's intense.

i went to the musee des arts et metiers, like a science and industry museum. it was pretty cool, very big. it starts with you know, the usual stuff, counting instruments, astronomical stuff, laboratory equipment, etc. the original machines that measured the speed of light and measured sound waves and whatnot. all very interesting. and then what do i stumble upon, but the cray-2 supercomputer. this is for you, mom and dad! hehe.

"second in a memorable line of supercomputers, the cray-2 was developed to process huge quantities of data, and therefore required considerable calculating power. of the series of 30 cray-2s delivered throughout the world from 1985, fourteen machines were still in service ten years later." (from the museum placard)

i, of course, loved all the glassworks. i mean, all the scientific instruments were cool and all, but this is just so pretty!!! it's all about aesthetics... 

it was a perfect day for a museum, nasty weather out... rainy, rainy, rainy. would NOT STOP!!!

annoying.

after i left arts et metiers, i went to chapelle expiatoire, which is a national monument built on the site of the cemetery where louis XVI and marie-antoinette were buried after being guillotined. it is a small little temple, very plain but pretty. there are two statues on either side (one depicted below) and an altar in between. there are twin curving staircases (the building is circular) going down to the crypt, i guess you'd call it. 

the tomb above is the only thing down there...

and theeeeennnnnn, i went to the gustave moreau museum. i had a very full day! that was much cooler than i had expected it to be! well, i didn't really know what to expect, exactly, but it was very nice. the first level is the actual apartment that he lived in which hasn't changed in over a century! there are works of his all over every wall space, as well as his own possessions and furniture, etc.  

a close-up sample of his work:

the 2nd floor holds most of his large works and 1000s of drawings. moreau himself had the museum established and designed so that his works could be gathered and displayed the way he wanted. it was built at his expense on the very spot he lived and worked his whole life. he died two years after its completion.

one of the upper levels:

ok! a new day, another adventure... (this is the longest stinkin' blog ever...)

versailles!!! i'd been before, but i'd forgotten how AMAZING it is! it is so big and ornate and excessive and and and... haha. i don't even know what to say. around every corner turned there was another fantastic thing to see! it's just too much!

this is me in the hall of mirrors, which is still really freaking cool. i think if i went back a thousand times, it would still amaze me.

i was in pattern HEAVEN!!! i want my whole life to look like versailles! lol. well, maybe not evvvverything... it's all so rich and decadent and dense. it should be too much, but i love it. people just don't utilize patterns like this anymore! minimalism-shminimalism. 

it's all about the prints people...

and sick chandeliers too.

LOUIS!!!!!!!!

the best tchotchke ever!

on the steps of the gardens of versailles ruling his domain.

then there were the amazing fountains in the gardens. as you can see, it was a puuur-fect day out. after seeing the fountains, i got an ice cream, which i dribbled alllll over myself (it melted so quickly!) and then i had a walk. i just kept going, barefoot along the canal and ended up walking all the way to the grand trianon. it's just ridiculous how disgustingly beautiful everything is there. and huge too! even trying to think of how much it all must have cost is out of my spectrum of thought!

after touring the grand trianon, i got lost somewhere in the gardens... not sure how exactly, but i was the ONLY person in viewing and hearing range. idk how i managed that. just really, really talented at getting lost i guess... haha. so i backtracked some and then took an alternate and eventually ended up at the petit trianon, which is where i was aiming for in the first place...

obviously, it was very beautiful here too since it was m-a's personal sanctuary and we all know she was the original queen of excess. (am i jealous? hmmm... well, she got her head chopped off, so i guess not.) this is the temple of love on the grounds. there is also the hamlet that was built for the queen and her children to enjoy some "quiet, simple country life". it is like a mini-disneyland... this chick had no grip on reality!!! haha... ahh, she was young though.

anywho, it all makes for a spectacular spectacle. so over-the-top. loves it.

i was exxxhausted after all that. i am surprised i made it home!

hey! another museum! awesome! hehe.

decided to check out the musee d'orsay again. it is still awesome. the building is beautiful and they had some great exhibitions going on. the first was a watercolor exhibition, which i actually enjoyed even though "aquarelle" (as they say) is not my fave medium. this was one of my fave pics from that exhibit. not a great pic though. but the technique was really beautiful.

my favorite watercolor was a very minimal and delicate painting of tree trunks in the woods by manet, but that is hard to appreciate from a photo...

there was an excellent photography exhibit titled: l'image revelee: premiere photographies sur papier en grand-bretagne (1840-1860). it was a really excellent collection of works. i don't know if it was the cameras of the time, or the developing methods, or what, but the photos all seemed very moody to me.  There were also quite a few negative prints, which i loved. this on is by john murray called "suttee ghat, campore".

next was the impressionists. love them. 

here's one of my faves from the one and only vinny van-g.

what's so fantastic about all these paintings are the brilliant brushstrokes. i won't bore you with all the close-up shots i took of the brush marks, but trust me, it is really quite striking.

the technique is something i'd like to work on. it adds such dimension to the paintings, both literally and figuratively. i was pretty stoked about all the works in this section.

this one is "l'eglise d'anvers". it is cool in this picture, but it doesn't capture the awesomeness well enough... the sky in this one is gorgeous!!!

this is edgar degas' "femme assise dans une baignoire". this is another beautiful example of brushwork, as well as a beautiful figure. degas really knew what he was doing with his women... so lovely. 

i liked this one, even though it's a lot different from the others that i prefer. i like the composition, the floral wallpaper and also the detail of the flowers and vase. 

i am probably boring all of you with all this talk... 

the pictures really don't do these paintings justice.

you must come to paris and see them in person. they are truly stunning works of art.

ugh! am i done yet? lol...

this is the pantheon, which is interesting because its use has changed back and forth from a religious place dedicated to saint genevieve to a civic temple of the nation. it's also really big and has cool architecture. the paintings are painted on large canvases and then adhered to the stone walls. foucault's pendulum swings in the transept crossing.

really cute little boy focused on his photography. lining up his shot, and then checking his work.

statue "la convention nationale" by sicard.

after the pantheon, the sorbonne sent me on a wild goose chase around paris... and i STILL didn't get to sign up for my french class! oy.

so after wasting a LOT of time, i went to sainte-chapelle. it looks so plain and unremarkable from the outside, and i didn't really remember it from before and then BAM! whoooaaaa...

it's so gorgeous. why don't they make churches like this anymore??? it seems sooo...

idk. i can't find the right word. you just feel more. does that make sense?

there are 1,113 scenes depicted in 15 windows. it's so ridiculous.

then of course, there is the rose window.

ok ppl!!! only one more museum!!! :)

les arts decoratifs!!!

a very cool museum indeed. they had a huge valentino exhibit which was AHH-MAY-ZIING!!!

i took some prohibited photos... 

his work is beyond beautiful. i don't even know what to say. he's brilliant. and the exhibition was really well curated and very thorough. soooooo pretty!!! and the detail and the technique...

i was in fashion shangri-la...

there are also two great jewelry rooms. gah! to die for, i tell ya. they had old stuff and new stuff and avant-garde stuff and everything!!! i want one of each. seriously. this pic came out particularly well. it is so beautiful and sculptural. needless to say, i spent a lot of time in that room and a lot of memory space on my camera...

this is just one example of the amazing furniture that was at the museum. we could be here for three days straight if i showed you every picture that i love... 

this one is yummy and over-the-top and too much and i love it.

do you see a pattern here?

i think m-a and i could have been bff. like, omg... (lol)

ahhh contemporary art... most of the time even i do not understand it... this is from the exhibit "jeux d'eau (water games)" by gerard deschamps. "gerard deschamps often resorted to toys, humor and childhood iconography in his compositions. he transformed these vividly colored and florescent plastic objects with childlike motif into figurative and abstract works, playfully criticizing our consumer society." (from the exhibit brochure)

so, do you get it?

ahhhhhhhh, the end. just thought i'd end this ridiculously long blog with the prettiest sunset i've seen here. it's from a few weeks ago, but i've yet to see another so pretty.

will promise to keep on track better, so as to not exhaust you with severely long blogs from now on. promise.

love ya. bye.