Back from the Dead

Surprise! Yes, it's me ... in response to the messages I have received, I have not dropped off the face of this earth and given up on my blog ... just super busy, on the brightside, I have been living the good life in Paris! :) I'm currently on les vacances de Noël and cannot remember the last time I was so giddy to be on vacation. A few of us at school were counting the days till vacation. I felt like I was 13 again! And I definitely think that les vacances de Noël should be incorporated into my work life going forward, however, I do know that it’s an unrealistic dream but for now I’m fully taking advantage of the time off. Did I mention I love being a student again!

Back in September when I was a fully dedicated blogger … Per the recommendation of Dan (one of my most supportive and biggest fans … he he he, I love you too Tara!) I visited le cimetière du Père-Lachaise. For a little French history lesson, le cimetière du Père-Lachaise is the biggest cemetery in Paris located in the 20^th arrondissement and one of the most famous cemeteries in the world. They say it is the most visited cemetery in the world. Personally, I love cemeteries but if you are not a fan this is definitely one you should not miss, it’s absolutely gorgeous!

I went to le cimetière du Père-Lachaise with two Poles, a Spaniard, a Hongkongese and an American, with the common language being French but that does not mean everybody in the group knew French - it was an interesting day. Of course, without a map we decided to conquer the massive cemetery. I was obsessed with seeing the tomb of Modigliani; other obsessions were Oscar Wilde, Chopin, Edith Piaf and Jim Morrison.

Asking for directions we met a charming 94-year-old Frenchmen named Guy (who just so happens to live a block away from me) who walks to the cemetery 3 times a week to take care of the tomb of his mother. By the way, from my house it is a 10km walk - one way. No wonder the French are thin and live long, at 94 this man is walking 20km (12.4 miles) 3 times a week… I have to say I was feeling a little lazy as I took the metro!

It seems that everyone I know who has visited le cimetière du Père-Lachaise has an experience with a crazy drugged out Jim Morrison wannabe and I was lucky enough to have the same experience. I’m starting to wonder if it’s the same guy each time … I may just have visit Mr. Morrison again.

If your planning on visiting any cemeteries in France, November 2^nd is La Commémoration des fidèles défunts (All Souls’ Day), which is the day after La Toussaint (All Saint’s Day) un jour férié (a paid holiday). Tradition is that on November 1^st (since it’s the day off) everyone goes to the cemeteries and brings flowers to their loved ones. So the best time to visit the cemeteries is the first couple weeks of November. My pictures below are from September but hope you enjoy.

Speaking of the days of the Dead, Halloween is not really celebrated in France. It is looked at as an American commercial holiday but you can find a few costume stores for all the foreigners roaming the City. I also added a photo of me with the pink wig I was sporting for the Halloween Pub Crawl event that I attended :)

and me on Halloween!

Les Journées Patrimoine

In 1984, the Ministry of Culture started a tradition known as Les Journées Patrimoine (Heritage Days). Every third weekend in September, is Les Journées Patrimoine (yes, I know very behind on the blogging ... I do apologize), which is a weekend full of opportunities to visit buildings, monuments and sites, which are normally not accessible to the public.

Of course, I thought this was a brilliant idea to wake up at 6:00AM on a Saturday to visit the Palais de l'Elysée (Nicolas & Carla Sarkozy home - basically the equivalent to the White House). I was to meet a group of strangers at 7:00AM to wait in line. As what often happens to newcomers (or at least to me) I got a little lost ... so I arrived a little late ... oops! Regardless, I was welcomed with lots of smiles and got to cut in line. :)

An opportunity to visit places normally inaccessible to the public only translates to one thing. Translation - very very very long lines. It's September, at least the weather is nice ... wrong! It was freezing! We were so cold that some of us were starting to turn purple.

After a little over 5 hours, I got to see the Palais de l'Elysée and made some new friends, so all in all a great day! Though, I did not make it to any other significant buildings, monuments, or sites, and opted for lunch and macaroons instead.

Here are some super exclusive pictures of the Palais de l'Elysée.

Oh, did I mention ... that I met Nicolas and Carla too ;)

The Never Ending Bike Ride

My new favorite thing is the Velib (the Paris Bike Share program). It comes in handy when you miss the last metro and need a way home, during the greves (strikes), or just for fun. I first used the Velibs when Julie and Brianne were in town. I had so much fun riding around with Julie that I decided to take Brianne to the Bois de Boulogne and the Parc de Bagatelle.

The Parc de Bagatelle is situated in the Bois de Boulogne and is known to have one of the oldest gardens in France. Every year it holds a very competitive rose competition and the flowers cannot be seen or sold anywhere until next year. Besides just roses, the park has waterfalls, peacocks and a squirrel (the only one squirrel I have seen in Paris so far!).

Brianne and I got our Velibs and headed to the Bois de Boulogne and Parc de Bagatelle by direction of my handy not so reliable iPhone map application. Maybe not the best decision on my part ... oops, sorry Brianne! For a point of reference, the Bois de Boulogne is 2.5 times bigger than Central Park. The Parc de Bagatelle was not easy to find to say the least. After about an hour biking, I thought I found my way, instead I found the spot where the hookers hangout... he he he. We rode past vans with their doors wide open to reveal cheetah/leopard/zebra print blankets and women waiting in the front seat. We even saw dirty old men get in the vehicles. At this moment, Brianne was screaming my name ... oops! Now, I had heard that you do not want to go to the Bois de Boulogne at night but it was around noon. My lovely response was "Don't worry they're not going to come after us just keep riding" yeah, I'm a wonderful friend. If you think about it, I gave Brianne a very cultural experience and now she knows what it means when she sees a parked car with a lady the age of her grandmother sitting on the side of street with the passenger side door open, and she knows about the beautiful Brazilian ladies - I'm not going to spoil that surprise, you will have to come to Paris and check it out yourself. :)

Three hours later, we finally found the Parc de Bagatelle and it was a beautiful park and worth the adventure. We even got to have a fancy lunch on the property. The Bois de Boulogne and the Parc de Bagatelle are definitely worth seeing just make sure you have a good map and stay away from certain streets.

Here are some pictures, hope you enjoy!

Promenade Plantee

When Brianne arrived, I kind of dragged her on some not so typical touristy events. The first was a Promenade Plantee with my photography club (the 2nd and probably more exciting adventure was in the Bois de Boulogne - my next post I promise). The promenade plantee is a 1.5km walkway known as the Viaduc des Arts. Back in 1859, this walkway was part of the Paris Strasbourg Railway Company and was an elevated railroad track from the Place de la Bastille to the eastern outskirts of Paris. In the 1980s the City started to question what to do with the old railroad tracks ... and in 1994 it was turned into a promenade plantee. I took a ridiculous amount of photos - hence photography club, but I tried to pick out my favorites ... mostly flowers :) Hope you enjoy!

I Don't Think We're in Paris Anymore ...

During Julie's visit we went to La Mosquee de Paris, it was a very interesting and different experience to say the least ... it was kind of like we traveled to Morocco for a couple hours. As we entered into the hamman, we were transported into the 1920s era of hammans (steam baths). In addition to the entrance of the hamman, we chose a package that included a gommage, massage, and mint tea. It was a lot of manhandling and nudity for my prudish self - I think I have seen enough boobies to last a lifetime! Although, it is definitely an experience I recommend, however, next time I will send my visitors to the hamman solo. Afterwards, all greased up and relaxed we indulged ourselves with a delicious Moroccan meal. Here are some pictures of the outside of the Mosquee and the restaurant area (obviously, you are not allowed to take pictures of the hamman).

How to Become Parisian in One Hour

On my birthday Julie, JB and I, went to a one man comedy show by Olivier Giraud called How to Become Parisian in One Hour. If you are ever in Paris, I definitely recommend that you check out the show. Currently, the show is every Tuesday & Wednesday at 20:30, at the Theater de la main d'or. Until then, here are some pointers from the show.

First and foremost, to be Parisian you must look super depressed and on the verge of suicide ... Life in Paris with miserable Parisians is just completely unbearable! (I think I'm a little oblivious to this overall depressive attitude around me as I'm still in awe of living in one of the most beautiful cities in the world. French people have a perception of Americans as always being HAPPY and SMILING, and I think I definitely satisfy that stereotype ... anyways, I rather be known as always happy over miserable and depressed.)

When at a restaurant it is important to understand that all waiters are miserable and pissed off because they have been waiting tables for their entire lives. Do not expect them to do much ... if you want to know the special of the day - read the board! Taxi drivers are just miserable old waiters; so don't expect any friendly conversation. To be a true Parisian, when taking a taxicab in Paris, if the bill is 9.90 hand the taxi driver 10 euros and wait for the change.

When shopping, don't say hello when you enter into a store, nobody cares about your presence and the same applies when leaving - no need to say goodbye. If you want everyone to know you are not a Parisian (or that you are an American tourist) than make sure to smile and say hello/goodbye. At the same time, do not ask the sales person for any help, they are not interested in being of any assistance. If you try something on, leave everything in a pile on the floor, it's the sales person job to clean up and put everything away.

Most importantly, to be a Parisian on the subway, again, you must look depressed and suicidal. Once you enter into the subway, find a seat, pick a point on the floor and stare at it for your entire journey all while maintaining your depressed expression. No matter what, do not give up your seat, not even for a pregnant lady - "you play you pay".

A Case of American Gluttony

Julie's arrival was celebrated with le plateau de fromage. As the server prepared our table for the cheese plate, he remarked that the plate was big. "Big" was a complete understatement! When the cheese plate arrived, Julie and I burst into laughter because we had enough cheese to feed a tiny army. Seriously, I have never seen such a humongous cheese plate in my life. They say French portions are small; I guess not when it comes to cheese.

My first thought was shit, what did we order ... I may not be able to afford this MASSIVE cheese plate, but, then the gourmandise set in and we started to enjoy. Once we realized that we weren't even going to make a dent in this cheese plate, we started wondering how we could bring all this cheese home with us, as we had enough cheese to last the week. A little embarrassed that the French may snub their nose at our request for a doggy bag, we debated different ways we could take all of this cheese home... umm, napkin & Julie's handbag?

As we were debating requesting more bread, the owner came and asked us if we were done with the cheese plate as others are waiting for it. WHAT!?! Oops!!!! :) Completely embarrassed, we burst out into laughter for a good ten minutes. I think we almost peed in our pants. The best part is that since we believed that this cheese was all ours, we didn't necessarily treat the cheese appropriately - oops. Part of us questioned whether the cheese was taken away from us because the owner thought we were eating too much ... he he he. I'm sure a not so friendly American comment was made behind our backs. Oh well, I will obviously not be returning to Les Deux Stations bistro populaire anytime soon.

Moral of the story, when you order le plateau de fromage in France, you serve yourself a portion of the cheese and then return the platter to the server. Only if we had remembered that gluttony is a sinful American trait maybe we would have saved ourselves from embarrassment.

For your viewing pleasure and a good laugh at Julie's and my expense, here is a photo of le plateau de fromage.

Fete de Ganesh

I have a mini obsession with all things Indian. I have bribed a few friends for Indian recipes and own ever spice needed to cook a classic Indian meal. Most of all, I secretly want a Hindu wedding. So when I heard about the Fete de Ganesh I knew it was something I could not miss! Three subway lines and 37 minutes later, I entered a section of Paris that was transformed into a mini India, for at least the next couple of hours.

Ganesh, one of the most widely celebrated Hindu deities, is the Remover of Obstacles and the Lord of Beginnings. Every year the Indian and Sri Lanka Tamil community celebrate Ganesh in the streets of Paris. Lucky Me! The event was three hours long and included coconut smashing, mini fires, and plenty of dancing. I took about 300 photos!

Ortel is a mobile company, so this is just advertising but I liked the costume.