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!