Weekend Activities

My last weekend in Paris (as I'll be in Florence this weekend) was divided among various means of truly enjoying the city, as if I were an actual Parisian. On Friday I supported Les Bleus as the opened the Rugby World Cup against Argentina. Unfortunately France didn't pull it out, but it was nevertheless a really fun experience. I have rarely seen that many young French people in one place, nor that excited about something. And despite my pretty pathetic knowledge of rugby, I was shouting "Allez!" and "Poussez!" with the best of them by the end and developed a much better appreciation for the sport. I don't know how people don't die or become paralyzed on a regular basis, but it is fun to watch!

Saturday I decided to visit the small museum on the other side of the monument to my apartment. It is a modern art museum devoted primarily to the work of Aristide Maillol (hence it is the Musee Maillol) who was a contemporary of Gauguin, Bonnard, and Matisse. I really liked his work, which focused primarily on the figure and ranged from massive sculptures to beautiful sketches, and I was once again impressed with my utter lack of knowledge! If I could be so unaware of an artist with such an impressive collection of work, what else am I completely ignorant of? Thankfully I think I have a few more years to keep learning!

After the museum, I decided to do a bit of window shopping as well as checking out a store recently written up in the New York Times as full of "classic pieces priced on the upper end of reasonable." Although they did have some very well cut items, I was overall pretty disappointed with how basic and somewhat bland the majority of the collection was. I got to explore my new surroundings a bit more though, so it certainly wasn't a waste of time. I picked up a bunch of groceries on the way home, as well as some more amazing cheese, and settled in for the evening to watch the France vs. Italy soccer match, a rematch of last year's World Cup final.

Sunday I woke up early to check out a new market nearby and was happy to find it rather well stocked. Although mo
re expensive than the one near the Bastille, it was far more convenient and more than adequate for my needs. After being disappointed with my last two peach purchases, I have finally given up on them as out of season, but was happy to see that the apples are now fresh and delicious! When I finished putting away my goodies at home, I decided to test whether rollerblading had the same instinctual memory as riding a bike. I put them in my backpack and walked the several blocks to the Seine, where I knew I would be able to find a safe, even surface, as the government shuts down the quai on Sundays. I was delighted to find that I was still proficient and was soon lamenting the societal prohibition on rollerblading in the States. For some reason, the trend that swept the States in the 90s never went out of fashion here, and whereas I think most people (my age at least) would laugh at someone rollerblading through the city, it is completely normal here! And it is so fun! Although the responsible mothering side of me was a bit concerned about my stupidity in wearing shorts (exposed knees) and not having wrist guards, I decided to forge ahead and hope for the best. Thankfully I didn't fall once! It was a really nice way to see the city and appreciate the water and buildings from a new perspective. I wish I had found a pair earlier in my visit - I'd be a pro by now! Click on the picture to see a little video!

I don't have much lined up for this week other than dinner with one of my language exchange friends and work, but I'll try to write another update when I get back from Florence!

Get Ready...

This is going to be quite a long post since I haven't written much in the past couple of weeks. I am currently writing from my wonderful little studio in the 7th. It's only around 150 sqft, but it has an adequate kitchen and nice bathroom - plus the bed slides down on rollers from the ceiling! As I mentioned in my last post, it's was about 100 euros more than I originally intended to spend, but I'm very happy with my decision to go for it. Not only was Hugo, the man from whom I'm renting, incredibly helpful and nice, he also has excellent taste in music, books, and fashion. His books are all classics and range from some of the French philosophers I recently studied in Literary Theory to art history books on Cartier-Bresson and Durer. He also has a bunch of great back issues of the official couture magazine for men and a huge selection of classical music. Besides the studio itself though, the area is everything I hoped and heard it would be. My exceedingly grand entrance (see photo above) is 20 feet from one of the best cheese stores in Paris and I pass innumerable boutiques on the way to the metro every morning - too bad I don't have much money to burn! I'm also really close to the Eiffel Tour, Invalides, and the Musee d'Orsay, as well as only about 15 minutes from the Louvre. I'm very happy to be able to experience another part of Paris as a semi-local for these last couple of weeks.



So now I guess I'll commence recounting my more interesting activities from the past two weekends, beginning with the weekend before last. As I think I mentioned earlier, I took advantage of the Louvre's free Friday evening and explored the Napoleon Chambers and Northern Masters section. On Saturday I decided to do a thorough walking tour of Montmartre since I hadn't really explored the area much. I walked all the way from my apartment to the Sacre Coeur and back, stopping whenever I wanted to window shop or enjoy the view. Generally I found it to be a district full of contrasts. The lower part, home to Moulin Rouge, has a seedy vibe and is considered Paris' "red light district." Although I went during the day, it was one of the few areas in Paris in which I felt a little uncomfortable, but as I climbed higher up the hill, I was surrounded by many nice bars and cafes, as well as interesting old houses and Paris' only remaining vineyard (about a city block). The Sacre Coeur was also still impressive, although the view over the city wasn't terribly beautiful thanks to low-hanging grey clouds.



On Sunday, I decided to put my status as an art student to good use by visiting the Rodin Museum, which is about 10 minutes from the Eiffel Tower. I once again decided to walk there, as I hadn't seen much of the Left Bank and it was finally a beautiful day. The museum was wonderful.It was filled with examples of some of Rodin's best work (unlike at the Picasso Museum, which seems to be comprised of the stuff he didn't sell!) including two of his most famous statues, the Thinker and Balzac. The grounds of the Museum are also gorgeous and there were numerous people who just came to enjoy the garden itself. After the museum closed at 6, I had about an hour before I was supposed to meet one of my conversation exchange friends, Frederic, for a picnic at the Eiffel Tower with some of his friends. I originally thought that the Eiffel Tower was essentially just a tourist destination, but in fact, the majority of those on the grass (les Champs de Mars) are groups of French people. Our group consisted of 6 people, all of whom were French except for me. It was a bit challenging to understand the conversation when they all began talking at once, but in general I was able to follow what was going on and have some nice conversations with people. Overall it was a really pleasant evening, and of course the sparkling Eiffel Tower never gets old. Apparently the Parisians actually had a vote as to whether to continue the sparkling show after the millenium celebration, and it was approved overwhelmingly. Thus they pay a small tax within the city to pay for the extra electricity and maintenance. One more example of the many and varied things the Parisian/French government does to improve the lives of its citizens in small ways.



This past weekend my friend Eric visited me as part of his summer trip to Europe. After living with so many people (my roommates plus countless friends of ours) for two months and really enjoying the activity of our apartment, it was very nice to have some company for my first weekend without them. It was also nice to have an impetus to do some of the more touristy things that I've been meaning to do for months. On Friday we ate at the little Japanese place kitty corner to my previous apartment, as I had neglected to eat there the entire time! I could see it from my window and it had a line out the door almost every time I looked, so I figured it had to be good. It wasn't the most traditional introduction to Paris for Eric, but it was a tasty meal and satisfied my curiosity. Saturday I moved into my studio with Eric's much appreciated help, and then we went to Southern Paris to see the infamous Catacombs. Although my understanding of the history of their creation is a bit sketchy, the jist seems to be that many of the cemeteries in Paris began to get overcrowded and were becoming risks to public health by the end of the 18th century, so the city began to exume and rebury hundreds of thousands in what were old limestone quarries beneath the city. Apparently almost 7 million people lie burried in the various catacombs under Paris, although the official Tour is but a small taste. It was both fascinating and creepy, as the bones had been stacked and arranged in all sorts of decorative configurations. They went on for as far as one could see in some places. It was hard to get my mind around the fact that each set of thigh bones, piled one on top of the other, represented an actual person!



After the catacombs, we patronized the delightful cheese store next to my studio and bought three excellent cheeses. It was a bit stressful since there is barely enough room for two people to stand side by side, but that just means there is tons of room for cheese! Lots of free samples too, which were very helpful. For a late dinner, we went to a Paris institution called Chartier, which has been open for over 100 years. They still have a bunch of small boxes on the wall where their regular customers used to store their napkins. It has a reputation as efficient and affordable, as its originally purpose was to provide workers with a good, reasonably-priced meal, but it turned out to be pretty mediocre. I think that the quality of the menu ranges broadly though, because the two men next to us had great looking food - I guess being a regular really would help!






On Sunday we set out for the Louvre, as it was free museum day and although I've been three times now, I could go back 15 more and still not see everything. We did a pretty thorough tour though, seeing the most famous paintings like the "Mona Lisa" and "Liberty Leading the People" and then going underground to see the remains of the medieval Louvre (complete with moat) as well as the temporary exhibit of Spanish drawings, the Apollo Room housing some amazing gems, the Islamic Wing, the Egyptian Wing, and Greek Statues. Admittedly we didn't exactly study every single piece, but I still feel like we were able to appreciate a lot of what we saw. Little is as tiring as musuem going though, so we had any easy afternoon afterwards and then went out to a wonderful meal at a restaurant recommended by my new little Pudlo guide (thanks Jim!). We knew we were in for a treat as soon as we tasted the amazing butter provided with our bread. I don't know what the differences are in manufacturing techniques or resources between French butter and American butter, but goddamn, you can certainly taste it! My appetizer consisted of enough food for a normal meal: two eggs poached in red wine sauce with bacon, onions, and mushrooms. The sauce was absolutely packed with flavor and like nothing I'd ever had before. My main course (as I'd decided to be adventurous) was some sort of crawfish souflee - apparently a French specialty. Very good, but once again unlike anything I'd had before. And just to top things off, my entree came with more of the delicious butter, but this time disguised as mashed potatoes. It was definitely someplace I'd visit again!


And now I am (and have been for the week) all alone in my studio, enjoying my independence and the new area. J is absolutely thrilled with what I did last week in her absence (an elaborate wire, crystal, and chiffon three dimensional flower, two life size flatt crystal roses with stems, and 5 Dior D skin jewelry pieces), so that is a major relief - especially since her business partner and boyfriend had gone off on an unexpected little diatribe last week about how the chiffon rose wasn't delicate enough! Thankfully I had done pretty much exactly as J had directed prior to leaving, so all worked out perfectly and she's going to see the designers tomorrow or Monday. Louise and I also continue to get along very well, so going to work is generally pretty fun. In fact, we're going to go out to an Irish bar tomorrow evening to watch the opening game of the Rugby World Cup (France vs. Argentina) as France is hosting it this year and it should be pretty crazy.



Alright, that should give you a sufficient, if not excessively detailed, idea of what I've been up to recently. I've got one more week left working and then will head off to Florence next weekend to visit a family for whom I babysat in highschool. Then I'll have two more days in Paris before finally coming home. I have loved Paris and have lucked out amazingly with my job, but I am certainly ready to see some familiar faces at this point!

Quick Update

I don't have too much time to write at the moment, but I thought I'd give you all a bit of an update. I did manage to find an apartment last weekend, and I'm very pleased with it overall! It's a studio in the 7th arrondissement on the Left Bank, about 4 blocks from the Musee d'Orsay. It's a bit more expensive than I originally hoped to spend, but after all the hassle of searching on roommate websites, I was happy to put out a bit more to have something settled. Plus, the neighboorhood is beautiful and the owner from whom I'm subletting is very pleasant and helpful! I'm moving in tomorrow morning and will be there until September 20th.

Other than that, I've had a nice week working on the projects while J is in Brazil doing a fashion show. The weather has improved slightly (as in low 70s) and we've had a couple nice visitors to the apartment, providing a bit of amusement in the evenings. Although I moved out of a youth hostel at the beginning of my visit, I eventually ended up living in one anyway! We've actually had up to 5 visitors at one time in the apartment but it's been really nice having all the company. I bought a little TV off of craigslist.org though to keep me company for the next couple weeks.

I also have a friend visiting this weekend from Dartmouth, so as the Harvard girls leave tomorrow, I'll have a bit of company to ease me back into a my more solitary existence!

I'll write more next week. I think we're going to be visiting some interesting sights like the catacombs, so I should have some fun things to recount.

Excitement and Annoyance

I guess I'll start by recounting a few of the more exciting activities of late, although they really aren't too exciting. Primarily I'm really enjoying my internship, even despite the fact that we recently spent about 5 days making crystal stars! At a top rate of 1 star every 10 minutes and a goal of 420, you can understand how it took as a while. Nevertheless, that is done with (J even bought Louise and me each a bottle of champagne as a little thank you) and we are moving on to bigger and better things. For the past two days, I've been working on the final design of two projects for the big fashion houses I mentioned earlier. It can be a bit tedious at times as well, but it's fun to be creating something brand new and to know that it will be viewed by some of the most important people in fashion. Plus, the most potentially exciting aspect of the projects is that either one may lead to a collaboration down the line (namely fashion shows) which might require me returning to Paris at some point in the next couple months to help out, maybe even funded by the design houses themselves! By no means is the collaboration or my trip certain, but it's definitely incentive for me to continue to work especially hard on the current projects.

I've also really enjoyed my roommates of late now that we've all kind of settled down into a nice routine - too bad they'll all be leaving by next week! It's amazing how fast August has passed and it's strange to imagine them all gone while I'm still here. I am currently searching for an apartment for September, but once again it is proving to be an enormous hassle. As you all may remember, my initial apartment hunt in June was a bit stressful and unfortunately this one hasn't been too much easier. Thankfully I'm not executing the search from a hostel this time, but the French seem to be incredibly flakey. I've emailed about 15 people thus far and have only received responses from about 5, and I'm not alone! Louise is also looking for an apartment and has been for about a month, but with no greater success than myself. I'm confident something will work out, but it doesn't seem like it should be this difficult.

Other than my job and apartment hunting, I've did a bit more sightseeing last weekend. On Friday I went to the Louvre for my first time during this trip and was once again overwhelmed by the sheer size and beauty. The works of art are obviously fantastic, but I think people forget how gorgeous that actual building itself is. The attention to detail is truly astonishing when you stop and appreciate the staircases, hallways, windows, etc. This visit, I decided to check out the Napoleon rooms, the French sculpture gallery, and the Northern Painters (mainly German and Dutch). The Napoleon rooms were absolutely stunning and immensely more imposing than anything I saw at Versailles. Aside from stylistic differences between the two periods, the Napoleon rooms just seemed much better preserved and thus conveyed the sense of wealth and luxury far better. Most of the rooms at versailles have a couple beautiful tables, maybe a bed, and a few other objects where as these were filled from floor to ceiling with period objects. Clearly I was impressed. The French Sculpture gallery didn't stand out much although once again, the space was fantastic. Thankfully, I ended on a high note with the Northern painters and was once again flabergasted by the Rubens series of Catherine de Medici, as well as some tiny Vermeers and numerous other great depictions of canals and cows and fields.

This weekend will involve further apartment searching, some evenings out with the roomies, a French picnic, and possibly a day trip to Giverny to see Monet's house. The weather is supposed to be decent for a couple days as well - FINALLY!

Press for J

A bit of nice press for J came out today as one of the front page stories on vogue.co.uk. It's called "A Return of Glamour" and is a bit of proof of J's iminent comeback! Plus, you can learn a new vocabulary word: noughties (n.) - the British term for the current decade. I quite like it and plan to bring it to the States!

The Toothman Siblings do the French Riviera

So after some confusion and indecision, Jared and I finally settled on the French Riviera for our mini-vacation destination, as Jared had a friend who would also be in the region and potentially a connection for some yacht time. Unfortunately, this procrastination allowed us very little time to plan, which thus resulted in a bit of chaos at the beginning of our trip. After failing to find ANY lodging (within a reasonable price) in Saint Tropez, we expanded our search to Nice and Cannes as well and finally found a good option listed as available(literally one of about 80 hotels). However, when we called to confirm the reservation Friday, the day of our trip (as we had only reserved the room the night before), we were told that there had been a mistake and that they hadn't actually had space for us when we booked online. After calling the booking agency, we were told that the hotel was obligated to find us some sort of lodging, and thus assured, Jared and I decided to buy the tickets to Nice (as we were buying tickets the same day!) and hope for the best.

Fortunately, we were extremely lucky. When we arrived at the hotel that afternoon, we were given a four person apartment overlooking the sea instead of the 2 person studio we had originally reserved - and paid for. Thus we had wonderful lodgings for the weekend, complete with balcony, kitchen, bedroom and sea view. See accompanying pictures of living room and view.

Having arrived around 3 in the afternoon, we decided to just put on our suits and walk across the street to the beach. The weather was gorgeous - bright sun, clear skys, but not too hot and a nice sea breeze. However, the beach was not exactly ideal - ideal being comfortable for laying and walking on - as the entire sea coast of Nice is comprised of fairly large rocks, all the way into the sea. Eventually Jared and I managed to get into the water, although with much limping and stumbling, and were pleased to discover that the Mediterranean is a very swimable temperature. We stayed out for several hours, enjoying the sun and surf and then returned to our luxury accomodations to shower and prepare to explore the city. Little did we know what that would entail...

Although we realized from our walk from the train station to the hotel that we weren't perfectly situated (in relation to the main part of the city), we assumed we would be able to rent bikes or use public transportation to cut down on the walking time. However, we were sorely disappointed. After searching and asking several people during our walk toward the old city, we finally found one of two bike renters in the city but were horrified to learn that bikes were 22 euros a day - almost as much as one year pass to use the new bike system in Paris! Immediately ruling out that option as absurd, especially as we planned to take several day trips, we turned to public transportation. Thinking we would eventually come upon a bus to a large retail complex a bit to the north of "Old Nice" Jared and I ended up walking all the way there instead. After buying some necessities for our nice little kitchen, we again thought that there MUST be a bus back toward our hotel, or at the very least the beach. Once again though, we were disappointed - apparently buses in Nice generally stop running around 10 pm, even during the peak of their tourist season. We left the store at 9:55. So what happened? You guessed it - we had to walk our butts all the way back to our hotel, with our groceries, a journey of at least 5 miles. Needless to say we were a bit hungry when we got back.

After our enjoyable, although bumpy, afternoon on the beach in Nice, we decided to seek out a sandy beach for Saturday. A wonderfully helpful young woman in the tourist information office told us that Antibes was our best bet, and we were very pleased with her suggestion. Only about a 15 minute train ride, Antibes had a great beach and a very pretty little town, the older part of which was surrounded by a tall, thick, stone wall. We lounged and swam for most of the afternoon before hopping on another train and spending the evening in Cannes.

We arrived in Cannes about an hour and half before sunset and Jared, true to form, insisted that we climb to the top of the biggest hill in Cannes to see the city at sunset. I obliged, although not exactly enthousiastically, and we scaled the stairs up to a small castle and church overlooking the harbor. As Jared took pictures, I scanned a list of all the restaurants in Cannes that we had picked up from the Tourist Office. Amazingly, I came upon a Pizza Restaurant that was listed as having received two Michelin stars - an extremely high honor as there are probably less that 100 to 200 restaurants worldwide with such a rating. Although I suspected it was some sort of bizarre typo, the possibility of two star Michelin pizza seemed to good to pass up, so Jared and I once again traversed the city (thankfully only about a mile and half), only to find a little sign on the door saying "Ferme Exceptionnel - A demain!" or "Abnormal Closing - See you tomorrow!" Somewhat disappointed, we attributed it to karma balancing out the windfall of our nice apartment. We thus went to a back up restaurant along the harbor and had a very nice meal. I had an amazing salad of mixed greens, foie gras, duck meat, and tomatoes followed by a strange but good regional and restaurant specialty that was some sort of baked fish and potato puree. After dinner, we walked along the waterfront so that Jared could ridicule the teenage Eurotrash lined up outside a massive club and reassure himself of the New York night life's superiority. The name of the club appeared to be "F*** Me, I'm Famous" as seen in the picture, and there must have been over 300 people waiting outside at two entrance points. Adjusting the age scale, I would have been the late 20 something woman bitterly critiquing the younger girls, while Jared would have been the creepy old guy hanging out in the shadows, sipping a whiskey. Okay, maybe not exactly, but we definitely were on the upper end of the age spectrum, as many of these kids couldn't have been more than 17, despite excessive make-up and hair gel.

Sunday, we made another day trip - this time to Monaco, the tiny independent nation/tax haven for the extremely wealthy/James Bond movie locale. It was a very interesting city to see, as there were buildings crammed into every nook and crany the rocky hillsides allowed, as well as a practical luxury car show - except that people actually owned them! However, most of the buildings were really quite ugly, as if the engineering feat of building them on such inhospitable terrain had precluded the need for any aesthetic considerations. The views were spectacular though and one could feel the wealth emanating from the various hotels and casinos. The cars were really absurd and amazing as well. Ferraris were old hat by the end, and we were only truly impressed when we came upon a car (next to an Aston Martin and something else) that not even Jared, my resident male and moderate car enthousiast, could identify. It's the car to the far right in the picture...

On Monday we checked out and headed for the train station, both somewhat tired and ready to go home. However, it worked out that we couldn't get a decent train back until 5:30 that evening, so we stored our bags at a nearby hotel. At this point, we were also a bit tired of each other and the annoyance of not getting a train only exacerbated the tension, so we mutually decided to explore the city on our own and meet up at 5:00. This turned out to be a very wise choice as we both got to do what we wanted - me doing a bit of shopping and pastry sampling - and reconvened in better moods. I bought a lovely (and somewhat professional, Mom) sweater dress from a local boutique, adhering to my goal of only purchasing things I can't buy in the States, as well as two bars of soap (a Riviera specialty) and a really handy little plate specially designed for grating garlic (a staple in my diet).

The train ride went well for the first 3 hours or so, but we soon ran into some sort of electrical problem which eventually caused us to be delayed by about an hour and forty-five minutes getting into Paris - the first major delay I've ever experience on the generally excellent French rail network. This meant that instead of arriving at 11:45, when the metro still runs, we arrived at about 1:15, after the metro has closed. We did receive vouchers for future train trips, but getting home was big pain as almost everyone on the train was attempting to get a taxi. We finally made it home around 2 and I quickly got into bed, as I had work the next day.

Soooo, that should give you a pretty good idea of what we were up to this weekend. Overall it was a very nice mini-vacation, as I got to swim and sunbathe 3/4 days, and was none to disappointed when we didn't end up going on Jared's acquaintance's yacht as I have a tendency to get rather seasick. We definitely got sick of each other at various points (Partially, perhaps, because Jared had to rely on me for certain things because he can't speak any French and thus he wasn't in total control? At least that's one of my theories...) but in general, we did quite well for ourselves. I'll be working every day (barring any unforseen events) from now until the end of my stay, but I plan to try to get in some day trips on the weekends, and possibly an excursion to Florence, as a family for whom I babysat throughout high school has just relcoated there.

Apologies for the rambling wordiness of this post and any typos, but I'm too tired to read through it for now!

Recent Action

The last week or so has been fairly eventful, thanks to the delightful presence of two visitors: Jared (blah) and my friend, Lauren, from Dartmouth, as well as a very enjoyable dinner and ballet with a Harvard friend. Obviously the ballet could not really compare to Swan Lake on a lake, but it was performed by the Cuban National Ballet in the spectacular setting of the Grand Palais, so it was still a good show. Anyway, Lauren arrived last Wednesday evening and stayed through Monday afternoon after having travelled through Egypt with a tour group (see her blog at lost-sidewalk.blogspot.com). Unfortunately I wasn't able to take any time off from working last week, due to the fact that I'll be taking this coming Friday and Monday off to travel a bit with Jared, so Lauren was on her own during the day. As you may be aware, there is plenty to do in Paris and she managed to see all of the major museums while I was at work, as well as enjoying the plentiful potable water and fresh vegetables. Thursday evening, I invited some people over for dinner to meet Lauren and of course, to once again demonstrate the superiority of Dartmouth students, both socially and intellectually. We then went to one of the many outdoor movies shown in Paris during the summer, but given that it was only about 60 degrees and the film was bilingually foreign (Spanish with French subtitles), we only stayed for about an hour. It was a lovely venue though and with a more engaging film and better weather, it would be wonderful.

Jared arrived Friday morning and we had all had a nice dinner for my roommate Courtney's birthday in the evening (Lauren and I made lasagna). Jared also insisted that we go out afterwards, but unfortunately the center of the city was disconcertingly and surprisingly deserted - apparently more people than I realized have left for vacation! Saturday, after a day of buying train tickets, enjoying the wonderful municipal extravagance of Paris Plage, and the new bike systems, (Jared's American Express card worked in the machines thanks to its micro chip) we had a pleasant dinner near the Centre Pompidou and managed to find a bit more night life in the Latin Quarter. However, Jared was rather shocked by the French cafe culture's inherently inhibitory circumstances for meeting people, as the French generally go out in small groups and sit at tables - far more difficult to approach than the standing room only bar setting of the States. I don't know what he was exactly hoping to accomplish, but I guess a charm has its limits.

Jared left Sunday morning after I packed him a delicious lunch filled with products from the farmer's market and Lauren and I decided to head to the Musee des Art Decoratifs in the afternoon, thinking they would adhere to the free first Sunday of the month policy. Unfortunately, that was not the case, but the museum turned out to be more than worth the 6.50 euros. It was filled with furniture, pottery, glassware, entire rooms from various chateaus and mansions, jewelry, and more from the middle ages to the present. Thinking that it was a smallish museum, I had only alotted about 2.5 hours - a terrible oversight. I only managed to see through the art deco period and will have to go back for the modern era as well as the jewelry floor and current Jean Paul Gautier exhibition. Thankfully it's about 3 minutes from chez moi!

After the museum, we returned to the apartment to pack a picnic, and along with two of my roommates, headed out to the Tuileries, the large park in front of the Louvre about 5 minutes from our apartment. The weather was goregeous (for once!) and unlike the majority of French parks where the grass is reserved strictly for looking, there are small patches in the Tuileries where one can actually sit down! (Amazingly, our small picnic didn't seem to have cause any permanent harm to the grass when we got up.) We capped the evening off by making lemon bars - an example of my expanding palette! For some reason, my tastes seem to have changed in subtle ways during the last couple months, as I regularly eat things here which I would rarely have sought out previously. These include - surprising perhaps only to those that regularly witness my cooking/eating habits - raw tomatoes, plain green beans, lemon pastries, and small pickles (cornichons). I literally ate a 300g jar of cornichons in under a week. They are amazing with any form of terrine or pate - especially duck! I still despise hazelnuts and melons though, both of which are frequently forced upon me in teh form of Nutella and pushy farmer's market vendors.

Yesterday was the last day of the other intern from the States, so J took all of us out to dinner, which was quite nice. As I may have mentioned, we moved into a spectacular HOUSE in the 20th arrondissement last week and are really enjoying the new space. The garden is very nice for lunch (when it's not pouring buckets like today) and generally it's just a beautiful house. The atelier portion is a bit rough at the moment, but has good potential and it's been nice to have a more distinct space apart from their living area which comprises the top three floors!

Today I bought dinner with a friend from Harvard whom I met through the roommates and ate our haul of various dim sum and potstickers in a lovely park overlooking the city. He lives about 2 stops from my work in a very international area, so the food was actually very good and I plan to go back to try one of the various Peking Duck establishments. It's amazing how delicious a dead duck hanging in the window can look - the crisp skin dripping with fat - yum!

After dinner, I met up with a new language exchange partner - a 24 year old French man named Niko. We met at a cafe near my apartment and had a lovely hour and half conversation ranging from literature to politics to the differences between French and American modes of friendship (as in platonic male/female friendships seem far more rare here). We were at similar levels with our respective language abilities, so it was quite useful. He was also very impressed with my vocabulary as I've mastered the ability to guess when English words are also French words, and thus if pronounced with a French accent, they work! I may still get confused with such pelbian concerns like numbers and days of the week, but my combined English and Latin vocabulary occasionally makes up for it :)

Tomorrow I'm meeting another language exchange partner before Jared returns from his four day whirlwind tour of Germany. We are planning on going to Saint Tropez, but given that we only started looking for accomodations (guess who's fault that was?) yesterday, we may be sleeping on the streets. I'll be happy so long as I don't have to wear a wool sweater though! It doesn't seem like we've had more than three days of sun in a row the entire time I've been here!

Back with a Vengeance

Well let me begin by apologizing for my terrible lack of posts recently, but hopefully this monster will make up for it. As I mentioned in my last posting (July 19th, I know, I know) I had come down with a bit of a stomach flu two weeks ago. While the worst of it passed within the week, I was still feeling farily lethargic as of last weekend, and the double threat/treat of the Harry Potter movie and the final Harry Potter book did little to induce much physical activity. So, on Friday I went to my first movie here in France, careful to select the Version Originale, as I had little desire to test my French comprehension on such an important movie. After very much enjoying the movie, my persistent longing to join the wizarding community (who really can prove it doesn't exist, right?) was rekindled and I was immensely glad to have the book to provide some degree of immediate satisfaction. Therefore, on Saturday afternoon, I peddaled my way over to the English bookstore, as we had finally figured out how to get the new bike centers to work, where I had reserved my copy over a month ago. After getting yelled at (sternly warned at least) by an off-duty and rather grumpy gendarme (police man) for riding my bike instead of walking it while crossing the street at a pedestrian walkway, I arrived giddy with anticipation and quickly got my precious copy of the book, shoved it in my bag, and headed back to the apartment. Emerging only for food and a trip to the market (where I procured delicious, ruby red strawberries), I finished it Monday morning around 3am, very content, despite the sadness of knowing that I had completed the series. I apologize for the unnecessarily detailed description of getting and reading a book, but I'm trying to make up for my lack of recent content :)

Anyway, work continues to be interesting as I'm working on some fun projects at the moment. I made several skin jewelry butterflies (see practice pieces in picture and then imagine them with crystals as well as glitter) for a pop star on Monday and Tuesday and more recently began to work on another project that is quite exciting. Unfortunately, I believe it is proprietary so I don't think I should discuss much in depth, but essentially I've been designing and creating ideas for various press pieces for a HUGE French fashion house and there is a good chance that something I design and/or make will be presented to the designer himself! We also moved to a new location this past weekend which is much bigger, so I'm excited to see it and enjoy the extra room. Additionally, getting settled proved to require a bit more than just a weekend, so I had an unexpected day off today which I spent lounging, discovering absolutely wonderful new pastries, and doing some of my own sketching. It was especially nice to have a free day since my weekend was fairly packed with activity, all of which will be described below.

Friday evening I went to a nice dinner in the 14th arrondissement with Katerina and a group of new acquaintances whom I met through a rather bizarre series of events. Apparently an expat living in Vienna named Chris decided to create a blog with the purpose of finding the best steak tartare in Paris, and as I had mentioned my encounter with the French specialty of ground up raw meat and seasonings in one of my early entries, he asked me to review the restaurant and the dish on his blog. After a few emails exchanged, he invited me and my roommate, a steak tartare virgin, to come to dinner with him and his wife and their two friends living in Paris. As I hadn't really gone out to a nice meal yet in Paris and had managed to save a little of my pay while I was sick, I decided to splurge a bit and enjoyed a very nice meal at a little restaurant called Le Severo. The only downside to the meal, which was admittedly a rather large downside, was that the restaurant was out of steak tartare when we arrived. The owner/chef, like many Parisians, takes the month of August off and therefore he didn't have his full selection of stock on Friday since he was leaving on vacation the next day. I still enjoyed a hearty steak and frites though, along with some excellent red wine and very pleasant company.

The next day was the real highlight of the weekend though, if not my time in France thus far. After seeing several posters on the subway for spectacles at Versailles, including the English National Ballet perfoming Swan Lake, I decided I should check out the website. Upon discovering that Swan Lake would actually be performed outside in the gardens on a stage IN the Basin of Neptune, I decided I had to see it, and my roommates should also. Therefore, I bought four tickets online, each about $40, and hoped that they would be as excited as I was. Fortunately two of the other roommates did want to go, as well as a friend of the other, so I didn't take any financial hit on the impulse. We decided to make a day of the outing as well by going to see the actual palace and grounds during the day. After some stealthy online research, I found out that students of art in any form (art history, architecture, industrial design, studio art) get into Versailles for free. Now normally I don't mind paying to get into museums that much, but Versailles lacked a normal student discount and also cost 15 Euros! Therefore, I decided to email the Versailles information desk to find out if I qualified for the discount, and if so, how I should prove it. I was informed that I did qualify, but apparently French student cards list the student's concentration, which my Dartmouth card does not, and nor does the Harvard card. Therefore, I decided to fix up a little supplementary ID page with the help of Photoshop and some Dartmouth websites. As the Harvard kids are all on a budget as well, despite not being art majors, they also made some supplementary ID pages which we then printed out at an internet cafe. To our luck, the IDs worked perfectly, allowing us to both bypass the long line and enter for free! As I am a legitimate art student, I feel no remorse, but the Harvard kids better all take an art class before they graduate.

Although I'd visited Versailles last time I was in Paris, it's a much more impressive sight when in full bloom. As with last time, I wasn't immensely impressed by the interior exhibition portion, although it's clear that it would have been absolutely stunning in its day. Perhaps its the mobs of slow moving people, but much of the interior isn't furnished other than beautiful tables and numerous paintings. The newly restored Hall of Mirrors was gorgeous though and must have been spectacular when populated by ornately dressed members of the royal court. The grounds were gorgeous though, and I think the most impressive and awesome part of Versailles is the sheer size of it. Viewed from a distance with the rows of neatly manicured hedges, grass, and flowers, the effect is truly stunning. Having packed picnics, we all decided to enjoy the effect by lounging at the side of the grand canal and watching the people struggling to effectively row the rented boats.

About an hour before the perfomance, we packed up our picnic, did a quick tour of the bit of city around the chateau, used the bathroom, and then returned to the gardens for Swan Lake. Upon viewing the stage in the large fountain, I knew I would not be disappointed. The stage was literally in the fountain, with the statue of Neptune rising from the water behind the stage, and the enormous Chateau provided a lovely background, joined later by a full moon. Additionally, a row of fountains went up the path behind the fountain toward the Chateau and could be heard cascading down whenever there was quiter part in the music. The performance itself was absolutely wonderful as well - lavish, absurd, and utterly beautiful - just as ballet should be in my opinion. There was no pretension or striving to be anything deeper than a lovely fairy tale performed by some very talented leads. The only moderate complaint was that the music was recorded (I guess you can't fit an orchestra and a stage in the fountain), but even that dissipated. As Michael pointed out, the emphasis was really on the spectacle of the stage and the dancers and the performance. It was simply delightful.

Sunday consisted of the weekly trip to the market, followed by a relatively brief viewing of the final stage of the Tour de France. Since we don't have a TV, nor a legitimate American contender, my normally close attention to the Tour waned significantly this year and I can't say I really cared about who won. There was so much scandal and drama this year, that the win seems somehow tainted. I still wanted to see it in some form though, and was glad that it passed very close to our appartment. Therefore, we all went down to the Rue de Rivoli, waited for about an hour, and then saw each group of bicyclists pass within about 5 minutes. It was fun to see, but I wish good old Lance had been leading the pack and thus made the experience a bit more memorable. After the Tour, I went to Northern Paris to meet my French friend Sonia and her boyfriend at the Bassin de la Villette where the Paris Plage organization had set up various water/sand based activities along the sides of the Canal. Unfortunately the weather wasn't particularly good, but it was still fun to see and a definite possibility for future sunny days. We had a nice time chatting over coffee and dinner though, and then saw The Simpsons Movie since the outdoor movie we had hoped to see was cancelled due to the weather.

Sooooo, that's pretty much it for now. I'm obviously feeling much better and am looking forward to seeing some visitors from home this week in the form of Jared and my Dartmouth friend, Lauren. I'm also seeing another ballet by the Cuban National Ballet tomorrow at the Grand Palais, to which I've never been, so that ought to be enjoyable, although my standard have been set quite high.

La Fete Nationale

The past weekend was Bastille Day, effectively the beginning of the French Revolution. Just like American Independence Day, the French celebrate with parades, although there's are a bit more military in nature, and fireworks. As I mentioned in my last post however, their celebration also includes huge free dance parties put on my local fire houses - one of the best ideas the French have ever had. After a bizarre evening during which four kids from Yale showed up, despite my roommate only having invited one, Katerina and I decided to see what these Firefighters' Balls were all about. Upon arrival at supposedly the "most reputable" of the 8 or so Firefighters' Balls (near the church Saint Sulpice and the Jardin de Luxembourg) we were immediately greeted by a line three to four people wide that snaked along for about two blocks . Figuring this could only be a good sign (along with the thumping music and uniform clad firefighters on crowd control), we decided to wait, and as chance would have it, I ran into the new intern from work, an Irish girl, about mid-way through the line, saving us at least a half an hour of wait time. After about 45 minutes in line, we were finally allowed through the entrance into a large courtyard packed with people, four bars, and a stage. Although the music was surprisingly good (not ALL euro-techno-trash)- it was the staggeringly attractive people - particularly the men - who really made the evening fun: the dancing was great, the people weren't seedy, and everything was run very smoothly and safely (thanks pompiers). Katerina and I were absolutely stunned by the quality of the crowd but upon reflection on our 20 minute walk home at 4 am later that "evening", we decided there was a very reasonable explanation for the handsome crowd. The smart men realize that tons of women (such as Katerina and myself) will likely show up at a dance put on by a firestation with the hopes of running into a few firefighters. However, there will obviously be more women than firefighters, and thus the remaining women will be open to other options. We also each only spend 2.50 euros the entire night, so it was incredibly cheap as well!

After dancing till the wee hours of the morning Friday, we (two roommates and some other Harvard aquaintences) decided to recover on Saturday by having a lovely pic nic at the Place des Voges in Le Marais. We spent about five hours lounging in the shade and feeling truly Parisian as we sipped our cheap red wine, ate tons of chesse and baguettes, and shared fresh fruit from the market. I can't imagine a more pleasant afternoon. In fact, it was so enjoyable that Katerina, Matt and myself (the last of the pic-nicers) lost track of time and didn't get back to the apartment until around 9:30. Then, after eating dinner, we almost completely forgot about the fireworks and only made it out in time to see the finale. Although it would have been nice to see them, I was comforted to learn that even people who made a legtimate effort and went out to the various bridges had a very difficult time seeing them as they were very low.

Despite another late evening chatting with Harvard kids at the apartment, we decided to get up early and go to the market again - now a weekly ritual. Upon returning with our bounty, we realized that the new free city bike system was debuting that day and thus decided to take a bike tour in the afternoon. After spending lunch plotting our potential route and generally getting very excited about the prospect of biking through Paris on a gorgeous summer day, we were extremely disappointed to find out that our U.S. credit cards are not yet accepted at the little stations, so that we were unable to fulfill our grand plan. Not to be deterred however, Katerina and I decided to assuage our disappointment by walking to the Ile Saint Louis and buying ice cream. I had recalled that the Ile was particularly famous for ice cream, and as we walked around, the name Berthillon rang a bell (and the 20 person line concurred). After waiting in line for about 15 minutes and deliberating over flavor options from wild strawberry to salted butter caramel, we were finally allowed to choose our flavors. In true American fashion however, when asked whether we wanted one scoop or two, we both responded "Un quadruple s'il vous plait." Now these weren't exactly Baskin and Robbin's size scoops, so don't get too concerned, but definitely a good amount and allowed us to make fewer difficult flavor choices. The ice cream was absolutely divine and could only have been improved by the absence of the topless, thong-wearing 60 year old woman sun bathing near our bench. After finishing, we proceeded to walk about 8 miles through Paris with stops at a pet market (and a serious consideration of the plausibility of buying and housing a bunny for the summer), Notre Dame, les Jardin des Plantes, and the Pantheon.

Monday through today have not been quite as exciting as the weekend, as my body seems to have decided that I needed to rest, and thus I've been stricken with some sort of mild stomach flu. While the worst of it was Monday evening and Tuesday afternoon, I've still felt weak and achey for the past several days, and thankfully J has been very understanding, allowing me to go home early Tuesday and Wednesday and insisting that I take today off. After sleeping for about 12 hours yesterday, I'm definitely feeling better. Other than the aches and an occasional stomach cramp, my appetite has returned and I have more energy, and I plan to return to work tomorrow, so don't y'all worry about me! I plan a fairly relaxing weekend as well, including time at Paris Plage and possibly attending a midnight Harry Potter party at an English Language bookshop where I've already reserved my copy. Sunday will be spent reading Harry Potter with as little human interaction as possible.

More Social Life = Less Blogging

As you all may have noticed (since you check this blog religiously, I assume) I haven't posted much lately, but fortunately that's not for lack of activity over here. Instead, I've recently had quite a lively little social life going for myself, especially on account of the roommates, so that (unfortunately) blogging has taken a bit of a back seat.

Last weekend I went out with one of my roommates and several of her friends on Friday night, only to be overwhelmed by the variety and quantity of bars in the area near the Bastille. We realized we need some guidance, so Katerina and I intend to solicit recommendations for future endeavors from our various French acquaintances. It was still an enjoyable evening though, and it made us appreciate our location in central Paris even more, as the metro stops running around 1am and our other friends faced a looooonng walk home.

However, I had a wonderfully successful Saturday in many ways. I began by visiting Pierre Herme, supposedly the home of one of the best croissants, if not THE best, in Paris. Although it was a wonderful croissant - crispy through the top layers, but light and flaky below with a good allotment of dark chocolate - I have sampled at least 15 different bakeries' croissants by now and I can not say that theirs was truly head and shoulders above several of the others, and especially not for the extra 40 centimes! Conveniently however, Pierre Herme was on the way to the Musee de Luxembourg, my legitimate destination for the afternoon. On the recommendation of my boss, I went to the museum to see an exhibit on the late 19th, early 20th century jewlery and glass designer Rene Lalique. How I had never heard of him prior to this is amazing, because his work was absolutely breathtaking. The variety, craftsmanship, and ingenuity of each of the pieces was stunning, and the accompanying sketches were also very interesting to see as a small time designer myself. I left the exhibit completely overwhelmed but also full of ideas for future projects. I also bought two books from the exhibit (a bit of a splurge) as design references. Oh! And one other cool conincidence is that Lalique's first shop/atelier was located about a block away from my current apartment on Rue Therese!

After Lalique, I wandered around the wonderful area of St. Germain de Pres and enjoyed a rare bit of Parisian sun (see photo). The weatehr has been pretty terrible thus far, hovering in the mid 60s with sprinkles to showers almost every day I've been here. Supposedly it's going to be in the 80s this weekend, and hopefully will remain that way for a while. In the evening, I went out to Indian food with my two French buddies, Laurent and Farid. The Indian food was pretty good, and once again I had a nice chance to practice my French with two patient friends.

Sunday, I brought two of the roommates to my favorite market near the Bastille to pick up some cheap produce and cheese for the following week. They were very impressed and we all came away with quite a haul. After that, Katerina and I decided to flex our culture muscles and hit up two free classical music concerts. The first one was a Romanian celloist who played pieces by Chopin and Grieg, and the second was an organ concert featuring Bach. Although I know virtually nothing about classical music, they were both very enjoyable and seemed to be generally solid performances - and even more so for being completely free and in Paris.

Thus far this week, we've had people over three of the four nights, including a large dinner party for the birthday of one of Katerina's friends from Harvard. Maintaining my role as official Dartmouth ambassador, I prepared most of the meal (pasta, salad, cheese tray and brownies) and had quite an enjoyable time with all the Harvard kids - about 7 in total. The one big difference I've discerned thus far between Harvard kids and Dartmouth kids is that about 80% of the Harvard kids smoke! Given that it's very rare and socially disdained (in general) at Dartmouth, I was a bit surprised.

This weekend is Bastille Day (or wannabe Independence Day) and I'm hoping to see the Fireworks on Saturday and generally enjoy the first truly hot day of the summer! Apparently all of the fire houses have parties in the evening as well, so Katerina and I are definitely considering checking that out, as the average attractiveness level of French firefighters is far greater than those of the U.S. Many are of ambiguous sexual orientation, but we figure it's worth a look at least, haha.

One final note, if anyone needs to or wants to contact me, my address through August 31st is:

Alix Toothman

15 Rue Therese

75001 Paris, France

Creative property?

Apparently I arrived in Paris at a rather hectic part of the creative cycle and thus spent my first two weeks at work making detailed crystal motifs (prototypes, essentially) that we recently sent off to a factory in Hong Kong for mass production. Although not the most difficult work in the world, it was incredibly tedious and I was quite happy when we finished the motifs and began actual design work! At first it sounded like I would be working primarily on two projects more related to product design (at least in J's mind): a commission for Vidal Sassoon's fashion week hair show (but for clothing) and another involving designing a compact for a British cosmetics company. However, J. discovered that I "am quite a good drawer" (her words) and thus I have instead spent the last two and half days drawing detailed designs for her next women's collection. Overall it's been pretty enjoyable and she's been very happy with what I've produced, but after two days of drawing in the same general style, I'll be happy to do something else soon! Below are some pictures of what I drew and which will be sent to India on Friday to be translated into beads and sequins. On the one hand it's pretty cool to think that something I drew will be fabricated and sold, but on the other hand it's a little weird that I won't get any credit for it! I guess it's the way fashion works in general (Ralph Lauren, Versace, Galliano - none do it alone) but it's kind of bizarre for me since generally I make things that I wear or give to people - so it's always accredited to me. Oh well.

The first picture is of a large piece that will run up the front of a dress (right) and the other will become either (or both) a piece of skin jewelry or an embellishment around a neck line. The second is a close up of the skin jewelry necklace, and the third is a close up of the large dress piece. I've also sketched some smaller designs that we will use as patches, as well as a design for a purse.

Flea Markets in Paris aren't so Flea-ey

Last Sunday I went to the Marche de Puce on the recommendation of my boss and some guidebooks, expecting an enormous flea market full of amazing treasures just waiting for someone willing to dig a little. Unfortunately, I found instead a giant flea market filled with thousand euro antique furniture, 150 euro bunt pans, and 80 euros dresses! The market was in fact about 12 smaller markets (both in and outdoors) spread over a huge area in northern Paris and contained tons of beautiful pieces, although I was disappointed that I didn't find more clothing vendors. The majority of the markets consisted of beautiful antique furniture or cheap modern goods a la Canal St. in NYC, so although it was definitely a worthwhile outing, it wasn't exactly what I was hoping for. Perhaps I'll return when I'm looking to furnish my chateau in the French countryside.


I did find one great deal though: a crepe filled with cheese, egg, mustard, and a sausage - all for 4.50 euros. Very delicious and very fulfilling after hours of walking.

Who says the French are rude?

As I've alluded to in some previous posts, I've had some success in meeting a few French people, despite living and working with Anglophones. My first point of contact was the little picnic under the Eiffel Tour with the group Pour Vous Paris, and through that meeting I arranged a language buddy named Laurent, and possibly another named Alice. Laurent is a very amiable, Vietnamese French man in his late 20s, and very patient with my attempts at explaining myself in French. We had a lovely dinner at a Japanese Restaurant on the Left Bank and then met up with one of his friends at a cafe - also very funny and pleasant. It was not the most exciting evening, but it was very French, and very enjoyable - just shooting the shit with two nice French guys. AND to top off our first meeting, Laurent demonstrated his extreme good manners by offering to help me move into my new apartment the next day, thus saving me about 20 euros for a taxi!

We are planning to do something again this weekend (possibly free salsa dancing on one of the bridges over the Seine) and one of my new roommates might join us as she's also hoping to practice her French. I'm also meeting the young woman I met through the 3 Colorado boys tomorrow for coffee/drink after work, so hopefully that will go well and I'll have another friend!

Shopping and Gay Pride?

Aside from moving into my new apartment, I had a very enjoyable and active weekend. On Saturday I decided to walk around the area known as Le Marais and filled with some of my favorite boutiques (that I've discovered so far). Although I'm a fan of window shopping in general, "Les Soldes" are on right now, so there was a chance I might actually buy something. Les Soldes happen twice a year throughout France and appear to be organized by either the government or some businness group, for literally every single shop in Paris (and in Lyon last winter) puts a good deal of their stock on sale. Generally, the discounts are significant - from 30-60% and often it includes stuff from the current season.

However, despite my excitement at the concept of a city wide clothing sale in arguably the fashion capital of the world, I quickly tired of the chaos. Nearly every store I walked into was filled with people and looking through the racks resembled a shoving match. In addition, the dollar is currently being stomped on by the euro, so I soon realized that an item discounted by 35% in Euros, was essentially full price in dollars - rather disheartening. I still plan to keep my eyes out, for Les Soldes continue through August, but the first week required a bit too much physicality for my shopping enjoyment.

Thankfully, however, I stumbled upon an enormous gay pride rally right as I was beginning to feel particularly tired of shopping. There is nothing like emerging from a quiet, residential street onto a large avenue filled with thumping European techno music, flares, rainbow flags, and scantily clad men (although sadly, the majority of attendees seemed to be hipster French youth) to pick up one's spirits! Although confused and a little scared at first due to police sirens and the flares, I realized I had no choice but to walk past the crowd, as they had gathered at the Place de la Bastille, right near my former apartment. I didn't particularly feel like gyrating to the music, but it was certainly a site to behold and a nice topper to my long day of "lecher les vitrines" (the French equivalent of window shopping, literally meaning "to lick the windows").