Last Day

Well, this is my last day in Paris, and I have mixed feelings about it. I've had fun here, but I'm also ready to go home, sleep in my own bed, eat my favorite pizza, and get back to work.

Yesterday for class, we had a field trip that involved going to a market and asking the vendors questions. While talking to real French people is a great idea, I did NOT enjoy bothering people while they were trying to work. A lot of vendors gave me dirty looks when they realized I did not intend to buy anything. It was a pretty cool way to shop, though -- there were separate stands and shops for meat, cheese, fruits and veggies, and even flowers.



There was also a flea-market-like area where people were selling clothing and various knickknacks. I found a shirt that sent a truly empowering message. I, too, want to be right, even if I attract the glaures.



The metro stations are currently peppered with ads for Sacha Baron Cohen's new movie, Bruno. It looks like an excruciating watch, but I am excited all the same -- especially when the new poster manages to be goofy, innocent, and filthy at the same time. I laugh every time I see his face. Are they displaying this ad in the US?



And, just to counteract the Bruno effect, I will leave you with my final ad of Paris, which will make you feel extra manly.



As Natalie pointed out, even the thing this guy is holding looks kind of like a rock. He is rugged, tough, and wearing pretty smells made especially FOR A MAN!

This afternoon I am hitting up my favorite papeterie for the last time, savoring one of my beloved banana-nutella crepes, and eating moules-frites (mussels and fries) for dinner. Mmmm.

Versailles

Yesterday, Natalie and I went to Versailles, which is only about a forty minute train ride from Paris. It was pretty darned fancy.



I cannot even imagine living in a place like that. It is enormous! And now, of course, it is packed with tourists. People who show up sans ticket have to wait in line for a ticket, then wait in line again at the entrance. You can bypass the first line by purchasing a ticket in Paris at any FNAC. (FNAC is a chain of stores along the lines of Best Buy.) Once we were in, we were treated to room after room that looked like... money. I do not even want to know how much effort it takes to build something like Versailles. This painting is a bit shiny, but there's definitely enough to prove Mel Brooks right when he said, "It's good to be the king!"



I, too, got to practice my statesmanship, beginning with the forbidding gesture.



I also learned some very important lessons in home decorating. Fancy wall paper, elaborate ceiling art, and gold detail really tie a room together, don't you think?



The Hall of Mirrors is still pretty impressive. It would have been fun to party in there.



And to top it off, there is a VERY fancy garden out back. The French do seem to love gardens, and I have to agree that they are awesome.



I must say I enjoyed the irony of celebrating Bastille Day on one day, then visiting Versailles the next. There was, in fact, a fireworks show at Versailles on Bastille Day. I'm sure a few historical figures roll in their graves every year!

Fireworks

This post was meant for yesterday, but I've been having epic internet problems. Now, however, I am taking advantage of some valuable time online! Before the fireworks, I met up with a friend by the Arc de Triomphe, which was pretty as usual.



It was threatening to rain, but fortunately that didn't happen. All over the city I saw soldiers still decked out from the parade, and a bunch of guys from the Indian army went marching by! The scammers were out in full force, unfortunately -- there are young women who walk around asking people if they speak English, and then they show a sign for you to read, asking for money, etc. Sometimes the sign is total gibberish and meant to distract and confuse. They usually have a partner who sneaks up behind you and tries to swipe your wallet while you are reading. I also ran into another ring scammer at the Quai Branly -- basically someone will pretend to have found a gold ring on the ground and they act very excited. They then claim they can't make it to the pawn shop to sell it. Would you, perhaps, be interested in buying it from them for a very low price so you can sell it yourself? The ring is, of course, worth practically nothing.

Anyway, Ruben and I wandered over to the Champ de Mars, but it was so packed with people that we couldn't bear to stay. A French singer named Johnny Hallyday was giving a concert that had people pretty worked up -- he appears to be a French icon on the level of Elvis, based on the warmup music and the fact that I saw people dressed like the King. Unless, of course, Elvis is still alive and well and happens to celebrate Bastille Day.



The fireworks didn't get going until 10:45, so I ended up chilling out in a cafe for a while. Then we headed over to a side street with a good view of the Eiffel Tower, so we wouldn't have to assert our space in a swarm of people. The tower was lit up as it usually is at night, and then, much like the start of a Rolling Stones concert, everything went dark. You could hear loud exploding noises, but couldn't see anything. Spotlights flitted quickly over the tower, but there was no action until, suddenly, the torches started up.



Then we were treated to about half an hour of fireworks, known as feu d'artifice in French. It was pretty great. My favorites are the ones that explode into lots of little flames that hang in the air like spilled glitter. At one point, the tower looked like a sparkly volcano!



All in all Bastille day was a pretty great time. My legs are still killing me from standing all day!

Bastille Day

Today, July 14th, is Bastille Day and France's Fête Nationale. There was no class today because of the holiday, so in the morning I went to check out the traditional military parade down Champs-Élysées, which was absolutely PACKED with people. Everyone just stood for a while, waiting, staring at the motionless soldiers lined up in the street. And suddenly planes were roaring overhead.



I know nothing about the French military, but some servicemen are definitely more popular than others. Everyone was cheering like crazy for a group of guys I have termed the "shiny hat brigade."



Traditionally France invites soldiers from a foreign nation to come march with their own military each year, and this year the guests of honor were from India. I know Sarkozy was involved with the parade, too, but I didn't wait to see him -- it was too hot, too packed, and I'd had a few too many children's butts shoved into my face as they squirmed on their parents' shoulders. But it was really cool to be part of another country's big celebration. It felt like half of Paris was there! (The other half, I soon discovered, was on the metro.)

Tonight's plan: Fireworks show at the Eiffel Tower!

Quai Branly

Yesterday I headed out to the Quai Branly museum, which prides itself on its exhibits of art from around the world but especially from Africa and Oceania. When you enter the museum, you have to walk through a mock rainforest, complete with recorded birdsong. The Eiffel Tower in the distance does remind you where you are, though...



Most of the art itself is totally awesome. You can look at everything from masks to bark paintings to human skulls. The one with the chainsaw-like shape protruding from it is, according to the guidebook, the skull of an enemy kept as a trophy. The one with the red nose is the skull of an ancestor, kept for protection.



My favorite part of the museum was, surprise surprise, the section where they had some Christian art from Ethiopia! It was awesome, especially because I could recognize certain elements from other Christian art I've seen. There were equestrian saints and Jesus making his usual hand gesture that you can find in Coptic and in some medieval icons. It basically means, "Blessings, yo."



The museum's stated mission is to shine the spotlight on other cultures (i.e. non-Western cultures) as a show of solidarity and appreciation. There is art from multiple time periods, from China, Japan, Africa, and South America. The museum also displays Native American artifacts from North America. I'm not sure how I felt about the categorization and display, though -- there wasn't any historical context, really, and really ancient stuff (such as Ethiopic art) was placed directly across from objects from a totally different place and time period. Some of the videos of rituals in Africa were modern (people were wearing dated clothing from the 70s) and there was very little idea of ritual development over time. There was also a special exhibit on Tarzan going on, which I did not check out, but... the implied idea that we are looking at primitive objects when we look at art from other cultures made me uncomfortable. The stuff itself is great.

Musée de la Chasse

Le Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature is about nature -- and how much people like to chase and kill it! Jenny (a friend from college) and I met up to tackle it together yesterday and had a blast. The museum is devoted to hunting and hunting culture from times past. The most unsurprising part of the exhibit was the trophy room crammed with animals you are not allowed to hunt anymore.



But the real charm is in the collected art and antique weaponry. You can check out the spears, crossbows, and fancy engraved guns noblemen used to cart around, as well as the portraits of their hunting dogs they commissioned. There were also paintings of dead animals artfully arranged on kitchen tables, next to hunting equipment, or just high enough to be safe from hungry dogs depicted below. I keep imagining some hunting buff coming home to his wife with a framed painting of a disemboweled boar, saying, "Honey, wait until our friends see this at the next party! Let's put it in the foyer!" Also interesting was the fact that not all hunting dogs fit our mental image of "working dog." Some of them looked like the fluffy little lap dogs people spoil today.

There were also some truly bizarre displays such as ceilings coated with skulls or, in one case, with owl heads. Even creepier is that the eyes in the owl heads don't look like owl eyes, so it feels like people wearing owl costumes are peeking down at you.



There was even a dark room dedicated to unicorns, where you could occasionally hear single, melancholy piano notes. In addition to the more artistic items, there were little chests of drawers providing details about various hunting game, such as deer or wolves. Each featured a representative animal skull, imprints of its tracks, and a sample of its poop for tracking purposes. Trophy animals were interspersed throughout, and were occasionally put in surprising places!



This museum was hilarious and I highly recommend it. It was truly fascinating to get a peek into hunting as a historical European subculture. If you get a chance, go!

P.S. Watch out for the talking boar head. I'm not kidding.

Jardin du Luxembourg

I meant to post this yesterday but my computer battery died! I had a very pleasant afternoon on Friday. A couple of people from class and I went to the supermarket, bought camembert, crackers, and some cheap wine, and went to loaf around in the Jardin du Luxembourg. We found some chairs by a very lovely fountain, read books, and watched ducklings paddle around in the water. We also enjoyed watching pigeons scavenge for food -- my friend Georgina dropped a piece of cheese and they fought for it like you wouldn't believe! We speculated about whether you could get a pigeon drunk by soaking crackers in alcohol and then dropping them, but didn't actually try it...



Eating meals this way makes for a lovely time, but it is also MUCH less expensive than eating in restaurants in Paris, which will bleed you dry. While we were sitting around, a middle aged couple walked by and declared that our idea was brilliant because they couldn't afford to sit in restaurants, either!



By the way: One of Paris's more civilized qualities is that alcohol is permitted in public spaces, so we were not doing anything illegal. The drinking age here is 16.