Saturday, June 5, 2010

Crawdads never knew it was coming

Crawdad killer still on the loose; leaves trail of devastation.

Thursday, June 3, 2010

Paris 1: Tuileries & Louvre

J’ai finis mon tour du 1ere arrondissement où j’avais dû le commencer: aux Tuileries et au Louvre. Là, j’ai trouvé un arbre libre à grandir comme il veut (un événement rare en France) et un jardin fait comme il faut. J’ai admiré l‘imagination de I.M. Pei en mettant sa pyramide en verre à côté du Louvre. Et le changement du Café Etienne-Marcel en “Café Sex and the City” m’a fait rire…
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I ended my tour of the 1ere arrondissement right where it should have began: the Tuileries and the Louvre. There I found a tree allowed to grow as it liked (a rare occurrence in France) and a garden set up in traditional French fashion. I appreciated I.M. Pei's vision in setting up his glass pyramid to reflect the Louvre. And Cafe Etienne-Marcel's changeover to "Cafe Sex and the City" made me laugh... ~A

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Les Halles


Les Halles… on a l’impression que les Français veulent cacher une chose si grossier comme un mall au coeur de Paris. Premièrement, on le camoufle avec un joli jardin derrière une vieille église. Puis, on détourne l’attention avec des grands panneaus. Finalement, on appelle les couloirs “les rues” et les escaliers roulants “les ponts”. Mall? Quel mall?!?!
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Les Halles... one may think that the French are looking to hide away a mall so insolent as to be located at the heart of Paris. Hide it behind an old church, camouflage the entrance with some pretty gardens, rename the corridors "streets" and the escalators "bridges"... Mall? What mall?!?! ~A

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Lonely

When the world turns its back on you, and you have nowhere else to go.  

Monday, May 31, 2010

Belleville: Portes Ouvertes

Un quartier extrêmement diverse, Belleville est un petit morceau de Paris qui ne semble pas très parisien. Plein de graffiti et des artistes, c’est plutôt modern. Je m’amusait bien en regardant les petits ateliers d’artistes et en trouvant des ensembles sauf Heron peut aimer.
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Belleville is a neighborhood of immigrants and artistes, a bit of Paris which is quite un-Parisian. An imaginative place which appreciates graffiti and creative dressing, I amused myself during yesterday's "Open Doors" festival by peeking into artist workshops and furtively snapping pics of outfits only a Heron could love. ~A

Un Jour dans la Vie

Un jour dans la vie... Je me lève à Palaiseau et prend le train RER à Paris, où je le change pour le metro. Me baladant dans les vieilles rues, je regarde des grands batîments (Square Samuel Rousseau et Notre Dame) et peut-être fait un peu de shopping. Après que la nuit tombe, je vois le Tour Eiffel étincelant. C’est pas mal comme vie, non?
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A day in the life... Waking in Palaiseau, I take the RER train to the Parisian metro. I wander the streets, gazing up at the ornate buildings or perhaps stopping to shop a bit. After night falls, I linger near the river to catch a glimpse of the sparkling Eiffel Tower. Not a bad life, huh? ~A

Sunday, May 30, 2010

Musings from Paris

Things to take away from the trip; from one island city to another.

1.  Paris is gorgeous, but a lot like new York: amidst all the glamor and hype it can get a little dirty.

2.  With that said, people here also don't pick up after their dogs. Along the same vein, they must own massive dogs.

3.  Onto real thoughts, Paris is gorgeous, on a scale that borders on grand.  if you took downtown new York (city hall and all that area) and then made an entire city out of it, that would be Paris.  I'm a huge fan.

4.  I love how it's a truly walkable city. Well. At least the ile de la cite. I suspect that if I lived there the hype might subside but I spent an entire day walking and I loved it.

5.  Worse comes to worse, if the feet get tired the metro is quite a good system. Although they really need to get away from the billet system.   It's a bit annoying to have to remember the damned thing on the way out.

6.  There is something to be said of French fashion and style. Everybody and their mother is impeccably dressed. I haven't seen anybody out of sorts with regards to going to work, going to the marche, going to the brasserie.  That's not to say that everyone is dressed great. A lot of the young ones look like they are transplants from the lower east side. I'm sure it changes as I go from neighborhood to neighborhood but invariably everyone is well put together. With that said, I'm buying a pair of French shoes.

7.  you know there always seems to he a pervasive stereotype of the French but really they're no different than your typical new yorker. They party like everybody else, get drunk like everyone else, are aloof when they don't know someone , are just as helpful when they try...  plus they always say good day. Always. Way cool.  In fact super cool.

8.  Yes in fact they do say things like "super cool" ... said "soop-pair kewl" 

9.  Food:  you really can't go wrong.  although quite expensive, eating out in France is pretty awesome. Had an unbelievable hamburger patty, steak tartare, crepes and ridiculous amounts of baguettes and cheese. Need to find cheap eats though.

Sidebar:  Pilot had to go further north to avoid the Iceland volcano ,and with perfect visibility we came across the mountains and glaciers of Greenland. It was really cool!  Like something out of the Planet Earth series. Huge mountains covered with snow jutting out of the earth, with perfectly flat snow plains surrounding it. Sadly was not able to snap a picture of it as the announcement came after it had passed my window. But still incredible, makes me want to watch that segment on the dvd.

~H