It's like that stride mystery flavour...you always think you know, and maybe you're right, about some of the parts at least, but your convictions are about as tenacious as the flavour in a piece of gum. You keep guessing and you always will but all you can ever say for sure is ‘sweet.’
And so sweet is what I’ll work with in attempting to describe the emotional, sensual and didactic flavours that dance, now fleetingly, on my palate. In fact it is as good a word as any for this impossible job, I could never claim that I could put into words what artists, poets and literary geniuses have grappled with for centuries. Paris always has and always will have a ‘je ne sais quoi’…
For those of you that I’ve preached to about the Law of Attraction, it has shown itself here in its brightest forms yet in my experience. To return to an old thought: I wished before coming here, referring to a Moliere quote, that my love of life would make me so weak as to force me into the French health care system. Sure enough, in a roundabout way it did. Next, to speak to my “3 losts,” it is without question that they’ve materialized. The photos I crossed off the list early, but the ‘losts’ in their most literal sense didn’t stop there.. and didn’t limit themselves to the Paris borders. As for the third lost.. lets just say facebook would say “ Its Complicated with Ola Mirzoeva and Paris <3” (what ever happened to that status option anyway? It was clearly the most accurate/hilarious).
In those four months I changed at a fundamental level – I was shaped by the love, support and joint self-destruction of a family like no other. I think that like with your first love, when you grow, discover, and experience that new level of happy, the people involved have a piece of you. And so I’ll lock myself into bittersweet for some time, always missing these people, but always knowing that I carry them with me.
I experienced so many new things here…every one of my senses has now been indulged to a point of what I can only hope is not total spoilage. There were really some days and moments in which I felt as though I could “die from an overdosis of satisfaction.”And you know, it doesn’t even bother me that I've packed a little extra foie gras for home!
What’s more important is that my world view has now expanded from pinhole to at least a thimble. In a special lecture that I attended at ESCP, L’eloge de l’optisme, a speaker discussed the amazing power of travel to build a strong optimistic view on life. I think that I may have had optimism going for me beforehand, but now its pretty much invincible. And I guess if you’re me it’s an adaptation to see the bright side while traveling…:)
Needless to say the last week in Paris was nothing short of heartbreaking. But hey, if you’re getting your heart broken, why not make it by the mothership of heartbreakers..
And so on my last night, in the best city in the world, in the city of love, sharing a bottle of Veuve Cliquot en face de la tour, and contemplating my ‘vie en rose’, I harvested a new quote from the wise and talented for a last attempt at capturing my own feelings: “A nous deux, Paris.” An ongoing challenge or a final toast? Only time will tell!
----
I wrote this over my last few days in Paris. Reading it back now I feel a little silly at how dramatic things got, but hey, gotta stay true to my feelings at the time! I've been truly lucky to have such a smooth transition back into Canadian life. (To be quite honest actually I spent a whole week moping in bed, but that was better than expected!). Today I'm happy to report that not only am I a fully mobile and functional human, but I've managed to retain that starry-eyed traveler outlook here in Kingston. I've discovered so many gems here that had passed me by the past two years...I feel more eager to connect with my surroundings, to appreciate the people and opportunities fate (or the law of attraction!) tosses my way. I mean, it was clearly so good to me in the past, I've no choice but to have faith!
Still, despite these positives I still can't help but feel the sting of missing my Parisian family. They are truly like no others. I plan to go back to beautiful P in May to see off Nina, who will be starting her term at INSEAD (lucky duck), to check in with alexandre, and of course for a glorious family reunion.
I think I might do that whole classic X-ing of a calendar... I've always wanted to, just for the fun of it, but have never really looked forward to something enough.
sweet.
amour toujours
Monday, February 14, 2011
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Around The World in Eight(y) Days
Around The World in Eight(y) Days
As I hopped from plane to train to bus to taxi to tram to metro to rickshaw this past week, one thing that kept coming to my mind was an epic novel of my childhood by Jules Verne. Although I lacked the hot air balloon, I don’t think I’ve ever flown higher in my life..
It was a surprise to me that this week of adventure was planned literally the night before (from my end at least). I’ve come to accept and even enjoy my last minute behaviour and so continue to live the unnecessarily suspenseful comic book life. My character has always come through just like any protagonist does and so I’ve come to like the CRASH! POW! WHAM!s that lead to the sunset on the last page.
The beginning of my adventures were not so sunny. I woke up at 5 am Friday morning after a 1 hour sleep to start the long drive to Poznan, Poland with the men of the family, Bolo, Andzrej and Tony. They were quite surprised that I expressed interest in coming with, but really excited to flaunt their hometown as I would later find! But first, an executive summary of the crashpowwhams of the road up..
1) Striking in Paris.. ‘PAS DE GAZOLE!’ (seriously, what civilized city runs out of gas ?)
2) Fuel mission complete, we hit a bunch of traffic in Paris, again in Belgium, again in Poland..
3) Germany was left out of that list, bless their efficient hearts. I had my first autobahn experience, Bolo went 200km/hour! Although I was impressed by the speedometer it felt so smooth and safe that I’m seriously considering petitioning for some higher speed limits in Canada…
4) When we hit the Polish border B pulls out a walky talky to eavesdrop on trucker chat.. the guys offer to sell me off to the trucker crowd via a pimp/mobster named Sasha that apparently has a temper. Little did I know that this joke would follow me for the next 4 hours of car ride and through the weekend (and if I’m not careful the rest of my life, I reckon)
5) Anyway, I didn’t mind that what was supposed to be a 12-14 hour road trip was 19 hours.. it was perfect fun. Classic oldies jam sessions, polish lessons and wiener schnitzel..what more could a girl want!
My impressions of Poznan were really good. I think the guys heavily downplayed the city and Poland in general so I was truly shocked! On Saturday I went out for a beautiful brunch at this really artistic café called Veranda, which was owned by the family of one of the friends I met. Afterwards we explored the market square, saw the famous clock goats battle at noon, saw Chopin’s piano at the museum of musical instruments, enjoyed the golden leaves at a huge park and even cheered on some racing rowers before heading home for a much needed preparty nap!
That evening Andzrej hosted a crew of posh Poles at his apartment for a predrink and then we headed to the mall (weird, I know!) to hit the clubs on our list for the evening. The first was having an opening party/magazine unveiling. quite glam! I was lucky to meet a lot of accomplished and trendy folks, all friends and even family of the guys.
Apres le apperatif, we hopped across the isle for our plat principale- Barbara Tucker, the legendary house diva, at a club called SQ. I really enjoyed this place- it was so well balanced – cool crowd, nice layout and décor, a really sweet ‘ chillout room’ which actually got quite rowdy later, and of course awesome music and company!
After a big night, Sunday was quite slow. Tony and another friend of Andzrej’s slept over and we shared some morning drunk LOLs, just like at home! After doing some solo exploring of the city centre, the guys scooped me up for a traditional polish dinner.. half a duck!! The waiter was so pumped that I ordered it (and just pumped in general actually..he reminded me of the ‘why heellloooo, yes? Nooo, I’m had a stroooooke’ waiter from the Simpsons. Anyone?) The next part is funny… we went back to this super mall and went bowling! A couple of times I couldn’t help but chuckle to myself when I realized how random it was “Bowling in Poland”.. probably up there on the list of things I wouldn’t expect to have done in my lifetime. We went back to home base and chilled for a while before saying goodnight. Andzrej and I somehow ended up handling nearly a whole 26 of JD while watching kitesurfing vids (so cool, I really want to learn!) and looking at awk ward teen pics..
Monday morning I was passed off to Tony, and so begins the next comic book-esque escapade..Berlin in ein tag! To keep things quite short, the city was all one would expect from the German Capital – order, sleek design and optimal nature to urban ratio. Following the usual model, the outset of the trip was a little rocky, but totally negligible compared to what we’d been through in the first leg of the race.
We only had about 6 hours but it was a perfect sunny day and we had our explorer hats on… I got a good feel for the city. We walked through the city centre, saw some pieces of the Berlin wall, the Reichstag, (where we saw a moderately rowdy demonstration about atomic waste or something..), a plaque stating that the polish helped take down communism located ‘around zee corner, zen around zee corner’ of the Reischtag, a collection of huge rocks from around the world, the shooting of a movie scene, some beautiful parkground in which Grillen was Verboten..(surely a note to any polainskis in town) et plus..
Monday night was Amsterdam.. I had a really smooth flight over, which was a nice surprise given my history, so I was feeling ready to take on the world when I got into the city at nearly midnight! I was lucky to catch a few glimpses of the city sights in the evening lighting on my tram ride from central station to our hotel. Seduced and sedated by these beauties, I was “bouleversee” (seriously couldn’t think of the English word there..) by little Elaine running in zigzag to greet me. Her and a few Americans we were traveling with had already been there for 2 nights, and she has something to show for it… A tattoo! Such a wild one she is…
Anyway, it was one of the guys’ birthdays so we went out for a proper night on the town. The group before I arrived had already done some of the wilder activities the city had to offer, but I’ll spare you the details.
The next morning we went for ‘coffee’ and a canal cruise! I couldn’t help but nap on the boat given the circumstances, plus the bouncy dutch voice of the boat guide was so lulling. Not much more to say about Amsterdam, seeing as I was only there for 18hours! Next stop, Italia!!
I bet you can guess how I’ll introduce this one, so I’ll spare you the word bouquet and tell it straight: full sprint to the plane and pretty much had to knock on the plane door for them to let us in…
Anyhow, I started writing this entry a month ago so my tribute to Italy will be disproportionately short! Our first city was Milan. We had an authentic dinner at a cute place just around the corner from our hotel. Here is where we first learned of the mysterious ‘boss tax’ that would become a mission for us throughout the rest of the trip. Despite the boss tax which we were intrigued but not too happy about, we scored a free pizza for home and some good advice for some evening entertainment…
“You Club” definitely left and impression on me. We got bottle service and our table was right behind what we found out was a little stage… there was a gladiator dance show going on all night long right in front of us! The swords even had some sort of sparking technology…the Italians don’t play! Actually I guess they do play, and quite hard..as this night was one for the books! Elaine and I decided we would lead the fun as the rest of the group was feeling under the weather so we pulled our usual moves and strutted into the VIP section like we owned it.. we ended up doing a little table hopping (maybe even table dancing?) and befriending some gladiators.
The next day we slept in unintentionally but managed to get in all the necessary tourist items. There’s really not all that much to see in Milan, it’s quite commercial. We did go to a medieval castle a really stunning church, Duomo.. We climbed up to the top and caught the sunset..contemplating life and love of course. Next we hit a few shops and while in a random glove shop (I bought two pairs but have since lost 3/4 gloves..merde!!) I get a tap on the shoulder…turn around, and it’s one of my friends from ESCP! Such a small world, goodness me.
Juan linked up with us as he was travelling alone and we went for another great meal at a famous pizza/pasta place in town. After a failed attempt to snag some last minute opera tickets we decided to catnap and gear up for round two on the town. The gang was too exhausted to go out but Elaine and I decided to be warriors (must have been inspired by the previous nights’ company, haha). We went for a warm up drink at a cute little cocktail bar where we used gestures and made up Italian words to squeeze out some recommendations for our night out. After confirming with a gelato vendor (our next warm up stop) we landed on “Just Cavalli.”
This place is single-handedly the most glamorous club I’ve been to in Europe. Designed by Roberto Cavalli, it was beautiful inside and out, and full of models and mobsters. Despite the haute-gamme venue, the VIP section welcomed us but may have been a little too hospitable… the next part of the evening was quite hazy and involves a trip to another club, some wandering and poisonous garlic bread…
The next day I managed to drag my corpse around for a little more sightseeing and shopping before catching (aka almost not catching) our plane to my last stop… Roma!
Day seven, we are tired and still very much feeling Roberto Cavalli’s treats. But Rome was just too beautiful to give a shit. I’ll interrupt here with a short anecdote about a time in Paris a couple of months ago…I had a weird eye infection going on for about a week at one point and then one day I went to the Dali museum and loved it so much that when I came out my eyes were totally healed! Pure magic. In any case, Rome worked a little magic as well and totally juiced us up. First, a local friend of one of our travel companions took us for the best pizza in town. (such a lil greasy hole in the wall with so many characters working..but wow were these pizzas delicious!!) Then, when the rest of the crew headed to some bar, Elaine and I decided we would explore the city by night! We walked for about 4 hours, totally starry-eyed. It was just amazing. My favourite part was Fontana Trevi which was all lit up and had tons of couples and crews hanging out. There was also a movie scene being filmed there, look for me on the big screen!
Rome wasn’t built in a day but unfortunately in our case it had to be visited in one. Although we had avoided bus touring throughout the trip we decided that this was the only way… A classic hop-on-hop off gave us a few short and sweet rendez-vous with some of the city’s most loved sites. Colliseum, Vatican, Pantheon and lots more… All in all the city has a really strong impression on me. Somehow these amazing ruins and buildings felt right at home in the centre of modern life. It was so warm in every way and there was something special in the air. I’ve already decided that I have to go back there, its definitely made the list of places I’d like to live in at some point in my life!
Its only appropriate that I missed the bus I was supposed to take back to the airport…luckily I made it in time with the next one and got to enjoy the city for another precious hour! I ended up flying back by myself (the rest of the crew was going to Venice but I had to head back early for a proj..) so I had some time to digest the week’s adventures. Expecting an epic slideshow of ‘best ofs’ to play in my head I was surprised to find an involuntary change in the in-flight programming...all I could think about was Paris and how excited I was to be almost home.
And so on day eight as I crawled into my little Vivaldi bed, in my ‘packing-in-panic’-ravaged room, I felt version 2.0 of a feeling that I was starting to know quite well…comic-book sunset hot-air balloon adventuring bliss.
A la prochaine…
As I hopped from plane to train to bus to taxi to tram to metro to rickshaw this past week, one thing that kept coming to my mind was an epic novel of my childhood by Jules Verne. Although I lacked the hot air balloon, I don’t think I’ve ever flown higher in my life..
It was a surprise to me that this week of adventure was planned literally the night before (from my end at least). I’ve come to accept and even enjoy my last minute behaviour and so continue to live the unnecessarily suspenseful comic book life. My character has always come through just like any protagonist does and so I’ve come to like the CRASH! POW! WHAM!s that lead to the sunset on the last page.
The beginning of my adventures were not so sunny. I woke up at 5 am Friday morning after a 1 hour sleep to start the long drive to Poznan, Poland with the men of the family, Bolo, Andzrej and Tony. They were quite surprised that I expressed interest in coming with, but really excited to flaunt their hometown as I would later find! But first, an executive summary of the crashpowwhams of the road up..
1) Striking in Paris.. ‘PAS DE GAZOLE!’ (seriously, what civilized city runs out of gas ?)
2) Fuel mission complete, we hit a bunch of traffic in Paris, again in Belgium, again in Poland..
3) Germany was left out of that list, bless their efficient hearts. I had my first autobahn experience, Bolo went 200km/hour! Although I was impressed by the speedometer it felt so smooth and safe that I’m seriously considering petitioning for some higher speed limits in Canada…
4) When we hit the Polish border B pulls out a walky talky to eavesdrop on trucker chat.. the guys offer to sell me off to the trucker crowd via a pimp/mobster named Sasha that apparently has a temper. Little did I know that this joke would follow me for the next 4 hours of car ride and through the weekend (and if I’m not careful the rest of my life, I reckon)
5) Anyway, I didn’t mind that what was supposed to be a 12-14 hour road trip was 19 hours.. it was perfect fun. Classic oldies jam sessions, polish lessons and wiener schnitzel..what more could a girl want!
My impressions of Poznan were really good. I think the guys heavily downplayed the city and Poland in general so I was truly shocked! On Saturday I went out for a beautiful brunch at this really artistic café called Veranda, which was owned by the family of one of the friends I met. Afterwards we explored the market square, saw the famous clock goats battle at noon, saw Chopin’s piano at the museum of musical instruments, enjoyed the golden leaves at a huge park and even cheered on some racing rowers before heading home for a much needed preparty nap!
That evening Andzrej hosted a crew of posh Poles at his apartment for a predrink and then we headed to the mall (weird, I know!) to hit the clubs on our list for the evening. The first was having an opening party/magazine unveiling. quite glam! I was lucky to meet a lot of accomplished and trendy folks, all friends and even family of the guys.
Apres le apperatif, we hopped across the isle for our plat principale- Barbara Tucker, the legendary house diva, at a club called SQ. I really enjoyed this place- it was so well balanced – cool crowd, nice layout and décor, a really sweet ‘ chillout room’ which actually got quite rowdy later, and of course awesome music and company!
After a big night, Sunday was quite slow. Tony and another friend of Andzrej’s slept over and we shared some morning drunk LOLs, just like at home! After doing some solo exploring of the city centre, the guys scooped me up for a traditional polish dinner.. half a duck!! The waiter was so pumped that I ordered it (and just pumped in general actually..he reminded me of the ‘why heellloooo, yes? Nooo, I’m had a stroooooke’ waiter from the Simpsons. Anyone?) The next part is funny… we went back to this super mall and went bowling! A couple of times I couldn’t help but chuckle to myself when I realized how random it was “Bowling in Poland”.. probably up there on the list of things I wouldn’t expect to have done in my lifetime. We went back to home base and chilled for a while before saying goodnight. Andzrej and I somehow ended up handling nearly a whole 26 of JD while watching kitesurfing vids (so cool, I really want to learn!) and looking at awk ward teen pics..
Monday morning I was passed off to Tony, and so begins the next comic book-esque escapade..Berlin in ein tag! To keep things quite short, the city was all one would expect from the German Capital – order, sleek design and optimal nature to urban ratio. Following the usual model, the outset of the trip was a little rocky, but totally negligible compared to what we’d been through in the first leg of the race.
We only had about 6 hours but it was a perfect sunny day and we had our explorer hats on… I got a good feel for the city. We walked through the city centre, saw some pieces of the Berlin wall, the Reichstag, (where we saw a moderately rowdy demonstration about atomic waste or something..), a plaque stating that the polish helped take down communism located ‘around zee corner, zen around zee corner’ of the Reischtag, a collection of huge rocks from around the world, the shooting of a movie scene, some beautiful parkground in which Grillen was Verboten..(surely a note to any polainskis in town) et plus..
Monday night was Amsterdam.. I had a really smooth flight over, which was a nice surprise given my history, so I was feeling ready to take on the world when I got into the city at nearly midnight! I was lucky to catch a few glimpses of the city sights in the evening lighting on my tram ride from central station to our hotel. Seduced and sedated by these beauties, I was “bouleversee” (seriously couldn’t think of the English word there..) by little Elaine running in zigzag to greet me. Her and a few Americans we were traveling with had already been there for 2 nights, and she has something to show for it… A tattoo! Such a wild one she is…
Anyway, it was one of the guys’ birthdays so we went out for a proper night on the town. The group before I arrived had already done some of the wilder activities the city had to offer, but I’ll spare you the details.
The next morning we went for ‘coffee’ and a canal cruise! I couldn’t help but nap on the boat given the circumstances, plus the bouncy dutch voice of the boat guide was so lulling. Not much more to say about Amsterdam, seeing as I was only there for 18hours! Next stop, Italia!!
I bet you can guess how I’ll introduce this one, so I’ll spare you the word bouquet and tell it straight: full sprint to the plane and pretty much had to knock on the plane door for them to let us in…
Anyhow, I started writing this entry a month ago so my tribute to Italy will be disproportionately short! Our first city was Milan. We had an authentic dinner at a cute place just around the corner from our hotel. Here is where we first learned of the mysterious ‘boss tax’ that would become a mission for us throughout the rest of the trip. Despite the boss tax which we were intrigued but not too happy about, we scored a free pizza for home and some good advice for some evening entertainment…
“You Club” definitely left and impression on me. We got bottle service and our table was right behind what we found out was a little stage… there was a gladiator dance show going on all night long right in front of us! The swords even had some sort of sparking technology…the Italians don’t play! Actually I guess they do play, and quite hard..as this night was one for the books! Elaine and I decided we would lead the fun as the rest of the group was feeling under the weather so we pulled our usual moves and strutted into the VIP section like we owned it.. we ended up doing a little table hopping (maybe even table dancing?) and befriending some gladiators.
The next day we slept in unintentionally but managed to get in all the necessary tourist items. There’s really not all that much to see in Milan, it’s quite commercial. We did go to a medieval castle a really stunning church, Duomo.. We climbed up to the top and caught the sunset..contemplating life and love of course. Next we hit a few shops and while in a random glove shop (I bought two pairs but have since lost 3/4 gloves..merde!!) I get a tap on the shoulder…turn around, and it’s one of my friends from ESCP! Such a small world, goodness me.
Juan linked up with us as he was travelling alone and we went for another great meal at a famous pizza/pasta place in town. After a failed attempt to snag some last minute opera tickets we decided to catnap and gear up for round two on the town. The gang was too exhausted to go out but Elaine and I decided to be warriors (must have been inspired by the previous nights’ company, haha). We went for a warm up drink at a cute little cocktail bar where we used gestures and made up Italian words to squeeze out some recommendations for our night out. After confirming with a gelato vendor (our next warm up stop) we landed on “Just Cavalli.”
This place is single-handedly the most glamorous club I’ve been to in Europe. Designed by Roberto Cavalli, it was beautiful inside and out, and full of models and mobsters. Despite the haute-gamme venue, the VIP section welcomed us but may have been a little too hospitable… the next part of the evening was quite hazy and involves a trip to another club, some wandering and poisonous garlic bread…
The next day I managed to drag my corpse around for a little more sightseeing and shopping before catching (aka almost not catching) our plane to my last stop… Roma!
Day seven, we are tired and still very much feeling Roberto Cavalli’s treats. But Rome was just too beautiful to give a shit. I’ll interrupt here with a short anecdote about a time in Paris a couple of months ago…I had a weird eye infection going on for about a week at one point and then one day I went to the Dali museum and loved it so much that when I came out my eyes were totally healed! Pure magic. In any case, Rome worked a little magic as well and totally juiced us up. First, a local friend of one of our travel companions took us for the best pizza in town. (such a lil greasy hole in the wall with so many characters working..but wow were these pizzas delicious!!) Then, when the rest of the crew headed to some bar, Elaine and I decided we would explore the city by night! We walked for about 4 hours, totally starry-eyed. It was just amazing. My favourite part was Fontana Trevi which was all lit up and had tons of couples and crews hanging out. There was also a movie scene being filmed there, look for me on the big screen!
Rome wasn’t built in a day but unfortunately in our case it had to be visited in one. Although we had avoided bus touring throughout the trip we decided that this was the only way… A classic hop-on-hop off gave us a few short and sweet rendez-vous with some of the city’s most loved sites. Colliseum, Vatican, Pantheon and lots more… All in all the city has a really strong impression on me. Somehow these amazing ruins and buildings felt right at home in the centre of modern life. It was so warm in every way and there was something special in the air. I’ve already decided that I have to go back there, its definitely made the list of places I’d like to live in at some point in my life!
Its only appropriate that I missed the bus I was supposed to take back to the airport…luckily I made it in time with the next one and got to enjoy the city for another precious hour! I ended up flying back by myself (the rest of the crew was going to Venice but I had to head back early for a proj..) so I had some time to digest the week’s adventures. Expecting an epic slideshow of ‘best ofs’ to play in my head I was surprised to find an involuntary change in the in-flight programming...all I could think about was Paris and how excited I was to be almost home.
And so on day eight as I crawled into my little Vivaldi bed, in my ‘packing-in-panic’-ravaged room, I felt version 2.0 of a feeling that I was starting to know quite well…comic-book sunset hot-air balloon adventuring bliss.
A la prochaine…
Saturday, October 30, 2010
Last In, First Out -- First Out, Last In
To honor the fact that I’m still (very much sort of) in business school, I’d like to frame this post as in the now very obsolete and pretty silly to start with “LIFO” inventory model. That is, Last In, First Out.
This is one of the few situations where I think this model is more fitting than the old FIFO model, because if I tried to go that route you would be hearing/reading a lot of euuhhh..zee wine, zee beautiful sings, zee wine..euuhhh
So lets ‘Navi’go’! Right now I am on the train on the way home what I can only call a decadent weekend in the land of chocolate, waffles and chaotic politics..La Belgique!
Truth be told I actually barely made it there.. Which is probably no surprise for most, come to think of it. Booked my ticket through SNCB not SNCF so when I got to the train station in Paris (at 7 am after 20 minutes of sleep the previous night) they told me that I had to pick up my ticket in Belgium…
“umm I’m going there…?” After running a couple of panicked laps back and forth between train officials one of the men huffed and agreed to take Elaine and I on board. (I think there may have been some waterworks crowning…) We ended up in first class as we figured out later, but were 100% too zonked to really appreciate it.
When we got in we decided that we would spend the day in Bruges, on the advice of a Belgian friend from school. The town was indisputably the definition of quaint. We started the day with a bus tour. You know there’s not too much to see when the audio guide talks about lace factories and windmills. I really loved the main square though, ( it looked almost identical to the one in Prague to my surprise! There was even a Dali museum) We rocked it of course..what a delight. His work was also paired with Sarkozy’s Dad’s, which was totally unexpected but cool. Apparently he used to do advertising for Dior and a couple others and now he’s into modern art. I encourage you to check it out. For dinner we paired the local specialty (mussels and beer) with some unintentionally philosophical conversation.. (we still hadn’t slept since the day before)
Finally, after a nap in a park, a few chocolate stops and some serious confusion at the train station we made it to Brussels! We conquered the metro right away, which was a small but pleasant victory given how tired and disoriented we’d been since we began our travels.. After a little wander we found the sweetest little Italian restaurant (I think they had just opened) and had a really simple but delicious margarita pizza before heading home and sleeping like logs..
The next morning I woke up to some chanting outside the window…the army boys were running the Brussels marathon! Eager to start the day, we ventured out to a breakfast spot recommended by aforementioned Belgian friend (he actually told us exactly what to order so we didn’t even take a menu). Breakfast was delicious, a mysterious waffle,crepe,naan hybrid called a morrocan crepe. Outside on the patio the sun was shining and we enjoyed a personal concert from the most charming accordion player. He must have been well into his 70s but was still so charismatic and energetic. (Carolyn, you would have just adored him!)
After touring the city for a bit we checked into our not-so-glam hostel and then went to meet Olivia and Lauren, who were studying just outside the city. Together we had a ceremonial waffle (from the yellow truck, another great tip from said Belgian!! wow, eggos are a crime.) After that more city wandering…saw the palace and gardens, the market square, some churches, mannequin piss, Brussels museum (which housed mannequin piss ensembles from around the world.. the Canadian one was Native gear, clearly!) and more..
Our next stop was Delirium—a famous beer café with 2002 types of beer and home of ‘the best beer in the world’, Delirium Tremens. We tried it of course, and I decided to go the extra mile and drink out of a boot! This was mostly a joke for my polish friends back in Paris who make fun of me when I say ‘about’ and ‘house’..and maybe it was me being a little bit sad about missing the 200th Oktoberfest..alas! Can’t win em all. Anyhow, so after sharing our drinks and some stories with some friendly Australians we said goodbye to Olivia and Lauren and went in search of our next ‘best’ on the list – steak tartar! We went to Au Vieux St. Martin, another recommendation, and had what I think was the best meal I’ve had in Europe so far! If you’re ever in town it would be a crime not to eat there..
So by now it is Sunday night, and our neopet statuses have moved from starving/dying to satisfied/one too many boots. We migrated to home base (tried to use the local bike system but couldn’t manage). I got a call from the Australians.. “Is this some sort of joke?” turns out the bar we sent them to meet us at was actually a gay bar (sarreee). Anyhow, after hearing the discouraging news that there is nowhere nongay to party on a Sunday night, we headed back to Delirium, which had treated us quite well previously! Instead we landed across the way.. to Café Floris, an absinthe bar.. our spirits (pun intended) were lifted quite quickly to say the least!
Then when things were already going better than we’d expected we met some more friends! A girl, Neomie, who was in circus school, and then two guys, Alex and Hadrien. Neomie, who was really into speaking English told us about circus life and her crazy travels.. The guys were pretty quiet at first and struggled with English. One told me that he could never hear the difference between ‘hungry’ and ‘angry’ haha. After a while Neomie had to head out but Elaine and I stuck around with the guys. We chatted and laughed like we’d known each other forever. It was really sad to say goodbye, but they often come to Paris for business and visits so perhaps we haven’t seen the last of them!
The next morning we wandered into a different part of town, the ‘champs elysees’ of Belgium, rue Louise. There were a lot of posh shops and restaurants, and we stopped for a really cute brunch. Then we found a great last season designer shop and unfortunately/fortunately parted with more euros… (they really feel like monopoly money, quite dangerous!)
Our next stop was described as ‘the Eiffel tower of belgium’.. for a city of people who openly dislike parisians they made quite a few references to them. The Atomium was really sweet, it is a construction of gigantic metal balls that look like (you guessed it!) an atom
After our saunter in the area we went back to the Place Sablon for the grand finale of our eating concierto..a huuuuge seafood platter- another local specialty!
We must have been feeling a little too pleased with ourselves because the big bad travel monster decided to pay us a visit…We ended up missing our train home to Paris by 3 minutes and having to catch the next one, which brings my inventory count full circle.
After a what I couldn’t believe was just a weekend of travel, and quite a few learning experiences I felt energized for the next trip and for more adventuring in my home city, Paris! To be honest, although Belgium was a nice vacation especially in terms of food, Paris still takes the cake, (the pain au chocolat, the mousse, the macaron..)
Sticking to the LIFO model, lets keep moving back… This is where it gets tricky because I haven’t been taking notes of my activities, and you know what a stellar memory I have. I guess I will be short! The weeks and weekends before my trip were quite full…I was lucky to make it to a lot of the Paris Fashion Week after parties and mingle with some really cool folks. One of my favourites was a Vogue/GQ/Glamour photographer, Sacha, from Germany. We met him at VIP room (its a really swell bar, especially when its filled with people wearing borderline costumes. Its also the one Carrie goes to at the end of one of the seasons of Sex and the City, which was fun to know!) He was a real peter-pan and very humble too given his line of work. We went for a drink with him in St. Germain later in the week and he showed us a bunch of his photos from the week on his iphone. He also took our picture, which was a real treat!
Other highlights of my life and times in Paris:
-Dexter’s Visit: This weekend was quite telling of times in Paris. Friday night I had a party in my room in anticipation of Dexter’s arrival… We had a communication malfunction but somehow ended up at the same club to see the DJ Calvin Harris. I again (somehow) found Dexter in the sweaty crowd and we jammed the night away until closing! Saturday night le Bureau Des Eleves (BDE) threw a crazy party at the school for ‘Nuit Blanche’ (A celebration in paris where nobody is supposed to sleep!)… I think there were something like 2000 outsiders that travelled to come to this event so it was pretty wild.. hard to see school in the same light the next Monday to say the least..
Sunday was a recovery day as per usual…did some cultural touring of the city, napped then went to see the premiere of Social Network. (Dexter saw JT but I just missed him, darn!)
-Ran’s Visit: This was a weekend of some great discoveries in and around Paris. After stocking up with an upgraded version of the classics- baguettes, confit de canard, rose petal jam, brie, strawberries and champagne we journeyed to Palais de Versailles. Wow, Louis was a lucky bastard. This place is really just jaw-dropping. The sheer size is astonishing, not to mention the impressive detail in every room and façade and the perfectly groomed grounds complete with fountains, man made lake(…haha my mouth just started watering..) One thing that was a real surprise about our tour of the chateau was that there was a Takashi Murakami exhibition on… such a wild contrast with the style and décor of the palace backdrop. We saw some really cool pieces though so it was a real treat! We also tested the waters and rented a rowboat for part of the afternoon. It was admittedly tough breaking out of our loungy picnic but this ended up making the day for me. Especially when we jammed to Au Champs Elysees and accidentally t-boned a French boat and sent someone pieds au-dessus de la tete..hehe
- Our first family vacation: The family and I went to Sacre Coeur and the Espace Dali in Montmartre, I think it was after a night of heavy partying… Again, this seems to be the routine we’ve worked into in search of some spiritual balance, lets call it. After a really big night out its assumed that everyone should be up and ready in their museum wear by 3..
- Mon 20ieme! : This was just a perfect day! I did some solo wandering in my neighbourhood and found a beautiful independent boutique owned by an ex-model, Cendrine. Somehow we became GFs instantly, she helped me pick out some great accessories to go with the dress I got as a gift from the girls of the fam. I did some more wandering and then went for a street-facing quiche, wine, and start on the Alchemist, which I’d picked up on Ashlee’s advice before leaving. Somehow inside was wedged the letter Ross sent me for my birthday last year..i think I welled up a little when I found it. Someone up there has really got my back. I realize I say ‘somehow’ quite a bit but I think its illustrative of the magic of the city… so that evening, SOMEHOW what was supposed to be maybe 15 people having cocktails and snacks in my room before heading out turned out to be more like 50… we pretty much took over the whole floor since nobody could really move in my room, it was wild! Little to say we were late heading to the bar, which was a cool outdoor club on its last hurrah before closing up for fall/winter! It was on the outskirts of the city so I think only 7 people or so made it, haha. The concept was pretty cool though, it was on a little island and we had to take a ferry to get there! You get 10 drink tickets with the cover, which people treat as a challenge.. When we got home the family reunited in my room for an afterparty… some jamming, photoshooting and seductive lightsaber dancing. We saw the sunrise and made it all the way to the morning baguettes!
As I struggle with this post that I started 3 weeks ago (and even made a couple of notes for) I’ve come to another realization (and am in the process of convincing my body to follow suit).. that sleep is only good for one thing: remembering what you’ve been doing! Other than that there is simply too much mystery, beauty and adventure to be missed so I think I can do without…
First Out, Last In
This is one of the few situations where I think this model is more fitting than the old FIFO model, because if I tried to go that route you would be hearing/reading a lot of euuhhh..zee wine, zee beautiful sings, zee wine..euuhhh
So lets ‘Navi’go’! Right now I am on the train on the way home what I can only call a decadent weekend in the land of chocolate, waffles and chaotic politics..La Belgique!
Truth be told I actually barely made it there.. Which is probably no surprise for most, come to think of it. Booked my ticket through SNCB not SNCF so when I got to the train station in Paris (at 7 am after 20 minutes of sleep the previous night) they told me that I had to pick up my ticket in Belgium…
“umm I’m going there…?” After running a couple of panicked laps back and forth between train officials one of the men huffed and agreed to take Elaine and I on board. (I think there may have been some waterworks crowning…) We ended up in first class as we figured out later, but were 100% too zonked to really appreciate it.
When we got in we decided that we would spend the day in Bruges, on the advice of a Belgian friend from school. The town was indisputably the definition of quaint. We started the day with a bus tour. You know there’s not too much to see when the audio guide talks about lace factories and windmills. I really loved the main square though, ( it looked almost identical to the one in Prague to my surprise! There was even a Dali museum) We rocked it of course..what a delight. His work was also paired with Sarkozy’s Dad’s, which was totally unexpected but cool. Apparently he used to do advertising for Dior and a couple others and now he’s into modern art. I encourage you to check it out. For dinner we paired the local specialty (mussels and beer) with some unintentionally philosophical conversation.. (we still hadn’t slept since the day before)
Finally, after a nap in a park, a few chocolate stops and some serious confusion at the train station we made it to Brussels! We conquered the metro right away, which was a small but pleasant victory given how tired and disoriented we’d been since we began our travels.. After a little wander we found the sweetest little Italian restaurant (I think they had just opened) and had a really simple but delicious margarita pizza before heading home and sleeping like logs..
The next morning I woke up to some chanting outside the window…the army boys were running the Brussels marathon! Eager to start the day, we ventured out to a breakfast spot recommended by aforementioned Belgian friend (he actually told us exactly what to order so we didn’t even take a menu). Breakfast was delicious, a mysterious waffle,crepe,naan hybrid called a morrocan crepe. Outside on the patio the sun was shining and we enjoyed a personal concert from the most charming accordion player. He must have been well into his 70s but was still so charismatic and energetic. (Carolyn, you would have just adored him!)
After touring the city for a bit we checked into our not-so-glam hostel and then went to meet Olivia and Lauren, who were studying just outside the city. Together we had a ceremonial waffle (from the yellow truck, another great tip from said Belgian!! wow, eggos are a crime.) After that more city wandering…saw the palace and gardens, the market square, some churches, mannequin piss, Brussels museum (which housed mannequin piss ensembles from around the world.. the Canadian one was Native gear, clearly!) and more..
Our next stop was Delirium—a famous beer café with 2002 types of beer and home of ‘the best beer in the world’, Delirium Tremens. We tried it of course, and I decided to go the extra mile and drink out of a boot! This was mostly a joke for my polish friends back in Paris who make fun of me when I say ‘about’ and ‘house’..and maybe it was me being a little bit sad about missing the 200th Oktoberfest..alas! Can’t win em all. Anyhow, so after sharing our drinks and some stories with some friendly Australians we said goodbye to Olivia and Lauren and went in search of our next ‘best’ on the list – steak tartar! We went to Au Vieux St. Martin, another recommendation, and had what I think was the best meal I’ve had in Europe so far! If you’re ever in town it would be a crime not to eat there..
So by now it is Sunday night, and our neopet statuses have moved from starving/dying to satisfied/one too many boots. We migrated to home base (tried to use the local bike system but couldn’t manage). I got a call from the Australians.. “Is this some sort of joke?” turns out the bar we sent them to meet us at was actually a gay bar (sarreee). Anyhow, after hearing the discouraging news that there is nowhere nongay to party on a Sunday night, we headed back to Delirium, which had treated us quite well previously! Instead we landed across the way.. to Café Floris, an absinthe bar.. our spirits (pun intended) were lifted quite quickly to say the least!
Then when things were already going better than we’d expected we met some more friends! A girl, Neomie, who was in circus school, and then two guys, Alex and Hadrien. Neomie, who was really into speaking English told us about circus life and her crazy travels.. The guys were pretty quiet at first and struggled with English. One told me that he could never hear the difference between ‘hungry’ and ‘angry’ haha. After a while Neomie had to head out but Elaine and I stuck around with the guys. We chatted and laughed like we’d known each other forever. It was really sad to say goodbye, but they often come to Paris for business and visits so perhaps we haven’t seen the last of them!
The next morning we wandered into a different part of town, the ‘champs elysees’ of Belgium, rue Louise. There were a lot of posh shops and restaurants, and we stopped for a really cute brunch. Then we found a great last season designer shop and unfortunately/fortunately parted with more euros… (they really feel like monopoly money, quite dangerous!)
Our next stop was described as ‘the Eiffel tower of belgium’.. for a city of people who openly dislike parisians they made quite a few references to them. The Atomium was really sweet, it is a construction of gigantic metal balls that look like (you guessed it!) an atom
After our saunter in the area we went back to the Place Sablon for the grand finale of our eating concierto..a huuuuge seafood platter- another local specialty!
We must have been feeling a little too pleased with ourselves because the big bad travel monster decided to pay us a visit…We ended up missing our train home to Paris by 3 minutes and having to catch the next one, which brings my inventory count full circle.
After a what I couldn’t believe was just a weekend of travel, and quite a few learning experiences I felt energized for the next trip and for more adventuring in my home city, Paris! To be honest, although Belgium was a nice vacation especially in terms of food, Paris still takes the cake, (the pain au chocolat, the mousse, the macaron..)
Sticking to the LIFO model, lets keep moving back… This is where it gets tricky because I haven’t been taking notes of my activities, and you know what a stellar memory I have. I guess I will be short! The weeks and weekends before my trip were quite full…I was lucky to make it to a lot of the Paris Fashion Week after parties and mingle with some really cool folks. One of my favourites was a Vogue/GQ/Glamour photographer, Sacha, from Germany. We met him at VIP room (its a really swell bar, especially when its filled with people wearing borderline costumes. Its also the one Carrie goes to at the end of one of the seasons of Sex and the City, which was fun to know!) He was a real peter-pan and very humble too given his line of work. We went for a drink with him in St. Germain later in the week and he showed us a bunch of his photos from the week on his iphone. He also took our picture, which was a real treat!
Other highlights of my life and times in Paris:
-Dexter’s Visit: This weekend was quite telling of times in Paris. Friday night I had a party in my room in anticipation of Dexter’s arrival… We had a communication malfunction but somehow ended up at the same club to see the DJ Calvin Harris. I again (somehow) found Dexter in the sweaty crowd and we jammed the night away until closing! Saturday night le Bureau Des Eleves (BDE) threw a crazy party at the school for ‘Nuit Blanche’ (A celebration in paris where nobody is supposed to sleep!)… I think there were something like 2000 outsiders that travelled to come to this event so it was pretty wild.. hard to see school in the same light the next Monday to say the least..
Sunday was a recovery day as per usual…did some cultural touring of the city, napped then went to see the premiere of Social Network. (Dexter saw JT but I just missed him, darn!)
-Ran’s Visit: This was a weekend of some great discoveries in and around Paris. After stocking up with an upgraded version of the classics- baguettes, confit de canard, rose petal jam, brie, strawberries and champagne we journeyed to Palais de Versailles. Wow, Louis was a lucky bastard. This place is really just jaw-dropping. The sheer size is astonishing, not to mention the impressive detail in every room and façade and the perfectly groomed grounds complete with fountains, man made lake(…haha my mouth just started watering..) One thing that was a real surprise about our tour of the chateau was that there was a Takashi Murakami exhibition on… such a wild contrast with the style and décor of the palace backdrop. We saw some really cool pieces though so it was a real treat! We also tested the waters and rented a rowboat for part of the afternoon. It was admittedly tough breaking out of our loungy picnic but this ended up making the day for me. Especially when we jammed to Au Champs Elysees and accidentally t-boned a French boat and sent someone pieds au-dessus de la tete..hehe
- Our first family vacation: The family and I went to Sacre Coeur and the Espace Dali in Montmartre, I think it was after a night of heavy partying… Again, this seems to be the routine we’ve worked into in search of some spiritual balance, lets call it. After a really big night out its assumed that everyone should be up and ready in their museum wear by 3..
- Mon 20ieme! : This was just a perfect day! I did some solo wandering in my neighbourhood and found a beautiful independent boutique owned by an ex-model, Cendrine. Somehow we became GFs instantly, she helped me pick out some great accessories to go with the dress I got as a gift from the girls of the fam. I did some more wandering and then went for a street-facing quiche, wine, and start on the Alchemist, which I’d picked up on Ashlee’s advice before leaving. Somehow inside was wedged the letter Ross sent me for my birthday last year..i think I welled up a little when I found it. Someone up there has really got my back. I realize I say ‘somehow’ quite a bit but I think its illustrative of the magic of the city… so that evening, SOMEHOW what was supposed to be maybe 15 people having cocktails and snacks in my room before heading out turned out to be more like 50… we pretty much took over the whole floor since nobody could really move in my room, it was wild! Little to say we were late heading to the bar, which was a cool outdoor club on its last hurrah before closing up for fall/winter! It was on the outskirts of the city so I think only 7 people or so made it, haha. The concept was pretty cool though, it was on a little island and we had to take a ferry to get there! You get 10 drink tickets with the cover, which people treat as a challenge.. When we got home the family reunited in my room for an afterparty… some jamming, photoshooting and seductive lightsaber dancing. We saw the sunrise and made it all the way to the morning baguettes!
As I struggle with this post that I started 3 weeks ago (and even made a couple of notes for) I’ve come to another realization (and am in the process of convincing my body to follow suit).. that sleep is only good for one thing: remembering what you’ve been doing! Other than that there is simply too much mystery, beauty and adventure to be missed so I think I can do without…
First Out, Last In
Saturday, September 11, 2010
1,2,3..Lost in Paris!
In my first 2 weeks (going on 3!) I’ve been lost in paris in more ways than one…
For my friends that are in on the classic photoshoot option ‘1 2 3 Lost in Paris!’ how cool is it that it actually happened? I actually didn’t even realize until Michelle brought it to my attention when we were in front of La Tour..
But in all seriousness there were actually quite a few genuine Lost in Paris moments. Obviously with my poor-at-best sense of direction, navigating the metro and identical streets was no tartelette a la framboise…but I’m learning!
En tous cas, I’d like to write about the other lost in paris—the one that gives me butterflies in my stomach when I look out my window every morning and realize where I am: the most beautiful city in the world.
I am in love with every detail of this city - the impatient baguette munching, the flower vendor at the corner brasseries, the smells of the market...oh yeah and I guess the architecture, gardens and history is aiight too
The French themselves (or at least my impression to date) has been totally off the hotter-and-cooler-than-thou stereotype. Everyone I have encountered (with a couple of tiny exceptions .i.e. the bank rrrr) has been a pure delight to be with - helpful, genuine and charming (but of course!).
Many people went out of their way to help us, showing us around the city, getting us VIP entrance into the best clubs, googling directions and calling friends for outside help…
As someone who thrives on a good stranger interaction the people here have really been indulging me… I wish I could write about them all here but I won’t bore you.. Instead I’ll write a short list for my own memory (and for the girls that came up to visit!! Please let me know if I’ve forgotten anyone big!!)
Lucie&Cecile – Mine and Carolyn’s instant GFs, took us for an amazing first night on the town and have been a wonderful help ever since.
Alex&Friend – Sickest dancing duo I’ve met to date!
Galeries Lafayette Man – Went above and beyond pointing us in the direction of the mall..He took us straight there whilst talking about his love of Canadians and the Quebecois accent (what a surprise!) and adding in tidbits about the history and architecture of Paris as we walked along.
Le “Faux Juif” (&crew)– The owner of a theatre in Paris who ended up beside Carolyn and I at an impromptu café outing. He loved Russian culture and was trying to get Carolyn and I to perform at what I think was the equivalent of an open mic he was holding at his theatre…Hope I didn’t miss my big break! He bought us each a flower from the brasserie vendor (which was the first of many I hope!)
Waiter at a restaurant across from the tuileries: A big bear of a man, but so animated and charming! Referred to our table as “The Spice Girls” and kept tickling Kath behind the ear, haha!
Saviola: This stranger has to be my favourite so far-- I think he really captures the spirit of the city.
After tearing up the club (Le 67 in Les Champs Elysees– tres chic!) with our aforementioned dancing friends, Carolyn and I were totally zonkers.. We went for a little sit down (on a bench where we previously had some drama-but I wont go there!) to contemplate our next move. It was about 4:40 I think, so we were thinking of saving on a cab and rocking the morning metro, which we guessed might start at 5am.. Because we were unsure Carolyn gave me a little nudge to ask a passer by (which happened quite frequently during the trip, haha). He had a guitar and was humming/singing so I asked him in a singsong voice, ‘a quelle heure commence le metro?’ He didn’t hear at first and asked us if we were crazy or ‘bourrer’ (which is le mot argot for ‘hammered’). After remarking that we were neither crazy nor hammered, just foreign (haha), he asked to join us on our bench. It wasn’t after much casual chat that he asked us if he could play and sign us a song on his guitar..(UM, YES.)
So there we were in one of the most unexpected (but WONDERFUL) places one could hope to be… On a bench in the Champs Elysees of Paris at 5 am with a friendly and beautiful stranger singing ‘Cry me a River.’ After the first couple of numbers we began to draw in a crowd… about 8 other people linked up with us for a jam session, right there in the middle of the Champs Elysees. We sang a wide repertoire - Radiohead, Enrique, Oasis, Muse, Lady Antebellum (the latter of which was our duo!). I wish I had taken down the set list… The Parisian crew that joined up with us even started dancing under a nearby streetlight. Everyone was just soaring- it was total perfection.
Once we felt like our knees had regained strength, we said a reluctant
bonsoir to our friends and caught the morning metro home, still totally euphoric despite disapproving glances from the rush of morning Parisians headed to work.
As if the poets artists and romantics weren’t enough the cityscape is bursting with beautiful things everywhere you look…
Some of my favourites so far have been Sacre Coeur, the cobblestone streets of Montmartre, the old luxury neighbourhood Le Marais, Chateau de Vincennes, l’Opera, les Tuileries, the list goes on! I think a lot about lucky I was to share these treasures with such great friends.. I know that’s a huge part of why I’ve gotten off to such a good start here.
It was a little scary seeing the girls off, although somewhat anticlimactic seeing as our faithful Roissybus took about 15 minutes to load on the rest of the passengers after we’d already said our proper goodbye. Sure enough, walking back to the metro station alone I got lost (briefly, but still!).. but even though I was alone it wasn’t that ‘holy-shit-mom-forgot-me-at-the-grocery-store’ lost you feel as kid..more of a happy blend of the 3 ‘losts’ that I’d experienced in those first 2 weeks..
I’ve made some really great friends here already, I feel like fate is chest passing them to me! I’m seriously thinking of tossing my new mapbook..etre perdu a Paris c’est la belle vie..
Bisoux a tous!
For my friends that are in on the classic photoshoot option ‘1 2 3 Lost in Paris!’ how cool is it that it actually happened? I actually didn’t even realize until Michelle brought it to my attention when we were in front of La Tour..
But in all seriousness there were actually quite a few genuine Lost in Paris moments. Obviously with my poor-at-best sense of direction, navigating the metro and identical streets was no tartelette a la framboise…but I’m learning!
En tous cas, I’d like to write about the other lost in paris—the one that gives me butterflies in my stomach when I look out my window every morning and realize where I am: the most beautiful city in the world.
I am in love with every detail of this city - the impatient baguette munching, the flower vendor at the corner brasseries, the smells of the market...oh yeah and I guess the architecture, gardens and history is aiight too
The French themselves (or at least my impression to date) has been totally off the hotter-and-cooler-than-thou stereotype. Everyone I have encountered (with a couple of tiny exceptions .i.e. the bank rrrr) has been a pure delight to be with - helpful, genuine and charming (but of course!).
Many people went out of their way to help us, showing us around the city, getting us VIP entrance into the best clubs, googling directions and calling friends for outside help…
As someone who thrives on a good stranger interaction the people here have really been indulging me… I wish I could write about them all here but I won’t bore you.. Instead I’ll write a short list for my own memory (and for the girls that came up to visit!! Please let me know if I’ve forgotten anyone big!!)
Lucie&Cecile – Mine and Carolyn’s instant GFs, took us for an amazing first night on the town and have been a wonderful help ever since.
Alex&Friend – Sickest dancing duo I’ve met to date!
Galeries Lafayette Man – Went above and beyond pointing us in the direction of the mall..He took us straight there whilst talking about his love of Canadians and the Quebecois accent (what a surprise!) and adding in tidbits about the history and architecture of Paris as we walked along.
Le “Faux Juif” (&crew)– The owner of a theatre in Paris who ended up beside Carolyn and I at an impromptu café outing. He loved Russian culture and was trying to get Carolyn and I to perform at what I think was the equivalent of an open mic he was holding at his theatre…Hope I didn’t miss my big break! He bought us each a flower from the brasserie vendor (which was the first of many I hope!)
Waiter at a restaurant across from the tuileries: A big bear of a man, but so animated and charming! Referred to our table as “The Spice Girls” and kept tickling Kath behind the ear, haha!
Saviola: This stranger has to be my favourite so far-- I think he really captures the spirit of the city.
After tearing up the club (Le 67 in Les Champs Elysees– tres chic!) with our aforementioned dancing friends, Carolyn and I were totally zonkers.. We went for a little sit down (on a bench where we previously had some drama-but I wont go there!) to contemplate our next move. It was about 4:40 I think, so we were thinking of saving on a cab and rocking the morning metro, which we guessed might start at 5am.. Because we were unsure Carolyn gave me a little nudge to ask a passer by (which happened quite frequently during the trip, haha). He had a guitar and was humming/singing so I asked him in a singsong voice, ‘a quelle heure commence le metro?’ He didn’t hear at first and asked us if we were crazy or ‘bourrer’ (which is le mot argot for ‘hammered’). After remarking that we were neither crazy nor hammered, just foreign (haha), he asked to join us on our bench. It wasn’t after much casual chat that he asked us if he could play and sign us a song on his guitar..(UM, YES.)
So there we were in one of the most unexpected (but WONDERFUL) places one could hope to be… On a bench in the Champs Elysees of Paris at 5 am with a friendly and beautiful stranger singing ‘Cry me a River.’ After the first couple of numbers we began to draw in a crowd… about 8 other people linked up with us for a jam session, right there in the middle of the Champs Elysees. We sang a wide repertoire - Radiohead, Enrique, Oasis, Muse, Lady Antebellum (the latter of which was our duo!). I wish I had taken down the set list… The Parisian crew that joined up with us even started dancing under a nearby streetlight. Everyone was just soaring- it was total perfection.
Once we felt like our knees had regained strength, we said a reluctant
bonsoir to our friends and caught the morning metro home, still totally euphoric despite disapproving glances from the rush of morning Parisians headed to work.
As if the poets artists and romantics weren’t enough the cityscape is bursting with beautiful things everywhere you look…
Some of my favourites so far have been Sacre Coeur, the cobblestone streets of Montmartre, the old luxury neighbourhood Le Marais, Chateau de Vincennes, l’Opera, les Tuileries, the list goes on! I think a lot about lucky I was to share these treasures with such great friends.. I know that’s a huge part of why I’ve gotten off to such a good start here.
It was a little scary seeing the girls off, although somewhat anticlimactic seeing as our faithful Roissybus took about 15 minutes to load on the rest of the passengers after we’d already said our proper goodbye. Sure enough, walking back to the metro station alone I got lost (briefly, but still!).. but even though I was alone it wasn’t that ‘holy-shit-mom-forgot-me-at-the-grocery-store’ lost you feel as kid..more of a happy blend of the 3 ‘losts’ that I’d experienced in those first 2 weeks..
I’ve made some really great friends here already, I feel like fate is chest passing them to me! I’m seriously thinking of tossing my new mapbook..etre perdu a Paris c’est la belle vie..
Bisoux a tous!
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
On y Va!
My boy Moliere (whose bod I'll pretty much be neighbours with when I'm on campus at Ecole Superieure de Commerce de Paris) said
"La plus grand faible des hommes, c'est l'amour qu'ils ont de la vie."
"La plus grand faible des hommes, c'est l'amour qu'ils ont de la vie."
[Man's greatest weakness is his love of life.]
This is the inspiration for my blog (with a little kick from the oh-so-wise Lteed to get it going)
I hope to be so weakened by my love of life for the next 4 months that I will get to stay just a little longer and test out that quality French healthcare...
Until then, I'm armed and ready with a single suitcase that is have-to-bounce-up-and-down-on-it-to-get-it-closed packed with vitamins, memory box favourites and my best attempt at Parisian attire.
Despite my usually vivid imagination I'm still struggling, with just hours to departure, to believe that this is actually happening! I think its because I'm in for something so wonderful it's outside the sphere of my current scenario-making abilities. We shall soon see!
P.S. If you were wondering about the title 'Window to Paris' , its the translated name of my family's favourite Russian comedy, which I've seen so many times I can quote the French parts, Russian parts and English subtitles! So I guess if I ever get jittery with my french I can just toss out some lines to save the day/ thoroughly confuse whoever I'm talking to..
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