Last day with K

Tuesday 3rd of February. We went to the Champs Elysees to check out the Adidas store. K was envious of my great Adidas shoes with the cute purple flowers. To think that anyone would be envious of my stuff! Yay. I can’t be completely oblivious stylewise ;-) No shoes found we hurried over to Virgin Megastore where K bought lots of gadget stuff and Yael Naims cd, which is sooo good. Then we proceeded to Publicis drugstore to grab a quick bite to eat on the go. Really odd to already be back in the drugstore so soon after I have stopped working just across the street from it. We then climbed the stairs to the top of the Arc de Triomph. The weather was exceptionally good. It was almost warm up there and oh so nice to soak up some rays of sun. And I just love the view from the top.

After that we walked all the way down the Champs Elysees and took great photos of each other at the fountain at the Place de la Concorde. Then it was onto the last stop for K’s Paris holiday: Angelina in the Rue de Rivoli for that famous chocolate. Angelina was very beautiful and we both decided to eat the chocolate cake instead of the chocolate drink which is famous all over the city. I have had chocolate con churros in Madrid and though it might not be the same I’m not that into fluid hot chocolate except if it is with lots of fruit – I am more of a hot cocoa person (and now only soy cocoa!). Lucky cause I can’t really eat chocolate. It is usually associated with very adverse reactions for me. However I decided to take the chance because how often do you get to eat such famous chocolatey-stuff?

The cake was absolutely delicious and even though it was quite small I had to leave some of it because the flavour was sooo intense and had I eaten anymore I would have ended up not enjoying it at all. It simply would have been overkill. The visit was great, only thing that detracted a bit was the fact that they put up a giant camera which was filming in our direction. However they then moved on and proceeded to film scenes in a corner towards the street so we could finally have our peace! After the lovely stop at Angelinas we walked back home, then uploaded the last photos and I put K on the train to the airport and already the holiday was over. It was great though and definetely worth repeating so we will have to do that again some day!

Montmartre and the islands

On Monday the 2nd of February it had become winter in Paris once more. It was slushy-icy-rainy and boring weather. K made up a good plan however and suggested we go for breakfast at Breakfast in America. That proved to be a very good plan indeed. Breakfast was sooo good and we both bought shoes in rue St. Antoine afterwards. What better way to start off the morning?

We dropped off the purchases at the appartment before venturing to Montmartre. They had actually closed the park where the very famous carrousel is placed beneath the Sacre Cour so we had to make our way up the straight stairs instead. Which actually just makes it easier to choose cause I always have a hard time making up my mind between the two possibilities. K being a climber was of course much faster up the stairs than me! Btw. I forgot to tell that she actually tried to climb the Eiffel Tower. I have photos to proove it ;-)

We took refuge in the Sacre Cour for a while. This is a church I just love. It is very beautiful. After that K was singing in the rain behind the church. And once she finished that performance we were on to try and find her a hat. Turned out she was just envious of mine – she ended up buying exactly the same as mine and in the same shop ;-) However to be fair hers is black whereas mine is green. We looked like such a cute pair when we sported the hats that night on our walk on Ile de la Cité and Ile St. Louis.
Our excursion to Montmartre included the obligatory visit to Antoine et Lili. I just love their clothes and accessories. And the store itself is so beautiful. Breaktime was spent at Amelie’s café les deux moulins which was fun to experience from the inside. And I honestly think we were the only tourists in there at that moment. I guess the Amelie hype has subsided a bit. Or it may just be the season. All the romantics think that Paris is only good in summertime. Though I could definetely have used a bit more warmth on that day I will say as the tough people from Scandinavia do, that it is not a question of bad weather but a question of dressing for the weather that happens to be.

We decided to go home and cook dinner at home. I made my famous veggie curry with rice. People who know me well know that this is what I pretty much always eat. I need to pull myself together and start experimenting again. Well in little more than a week I will be home and hopefully have a bit more time and energy to do exactly that!

After dinner we managed to drag each other out again to go and walk the islands as I mentioned above. We did some great photos in the dark. I am really happy that I got to spend four days with K here. Mainly for the nice company but definetely also for all the new ideas I got and new tricks I learned when it comes to photograpy.

Louvre & the Luxembourg garden

Sunday 1st of February. This was the day I was to guide K around the Louvre on my favorite tour for people who have never been. I have developed a three hour tour in which you see everything you have to see plus some miscellanious great stuff. However it took much longer than that because we did some great photo sessions in the museum. Especially in the Cour Marly which is my favorite place in the Louvre, maybe even in the entire city.

After the Louvre we went to St. Sulpice and did a short visit to the church on our way to the Luxembourg garden. When showing an almost luxemburger – hahaha ;-) – around Paris you have to go to the garden. Weather was very cold and windy but we still managed to have a great stroll through the park. After that we were desperately searching for a place to defrost and went to the Café de la Mairie which has a nice view of the St. Sulpice church. Tea was never this good! And I am not even a fan of tea if it’s not yogi tea!

We used the break time to make plans for the rest of the day. Realising it was just too cold to stay out for much longer we took the metro to St. Michel and walked to Ile de la Cité and visited Notre Dame. I love Notre Dame. It is a huge room though so they have tv-screens in the church where people who are sitting further back can still see the people doing the mass.

I guess I must be a pseudo American cause when dinner time arrived we made our way to one of my favorite places Le diable des Lombards which is very American. After dinner we walked home through the Marais and then we watched the first part of Anne of Green Gables, while uploading our photos to my laptop. Of course I’m talking about the Sullivan films starring Megan Follows as Anne. Any other version is just plain blasphemy! Another great and sunny day ended in Paris and I was very happy with all the great photos. K – thank you for making me look so good!

And finally Special K made it to Paris

K arrived around noon on the 31st of January and we went straight for the skies due to the perfectly sunny weather. That is the Eiffel Tower. But first we had to do a photo session in the Champ des Mars of course and the photos turned out lovely. K is a great photographer and one of my missions for the weekend was to be inspired by her! The hike up to the second floor was amazing as always and even more amazing: there was practically no line for the tickets. At the first floor there was actually still Christmas decorations made out of ice which prooved to be good as props in our photos. K actually made me eat a Christmas tree. Or almost eat it. It looks as if I am about to eat it in the picture. What one doesn’t do to get pictures!

One thing that is a bit odd about Paris is that they bring out the Christmas decorations quite late. Some shops don’t even decorate until 10 or more days into December. However once it’s there it stays there! It is not completely uncommon to still come across Christmas decorations now in February. I am totally against decorating in October but I find it worse to have to look at it after Christmas. And well into the new year!

We rode the elevator up to the third floor because you sort of should once you’re there, but we agreed that the second is much nicer. I find the view is better on the second floor and the space is a lot less cramped.

After the Eiffel tower we walked along the Quai Branly and the Quai D’Orsay to Place de la Concorde and on to Champs Elysees where we picked out a nice pink café for our break. I got the “Soy Delight” which was indeed delicious, bananas, strawberries, honey and of course soy milk. Yum indeed. Nice that someone thinks of the people who cannot tolerate dairy products!

After a bit of shopping/browsing we wanted to go and eat at the Comptoir de l’Arc in Avenue Marceau (right next to the Embassy and hence very nostalgic). I had just been there with the other interns before going to a very strange experimental concert at the Maison du Danemark at the Champs Elysees on Thursday night. Food at the Comptoir was great, Penne with tomato and basil, simple but oh so well made. The concert – which was more of a poetry recital in four languages – was mainly interesting as an intellectual concept not really that entertaining. But I was still happy that I was there and experienced it. Btw. the name of the performing group was Polyfonias.

Back to Saturday night: The Comptoir was sooo closed. How can a restaurant be closed on Saturday night? K was smart – she instantly scanned the area and saw a place 200 meters away in sidestreet and said: that looks nice. And she was right! In fact they had only one table left and it was sort of a crappy table but then they just did some magic and produced a table out of nowhere by moving some of their dessert display. Really nice! The name of the restaurant is Le Marfil, and it is located in rue Auguste Vacquerie. K chose a vegetarian omelet which had fries on the side. Why does everything in France have fries on the side? Even in the OECD headquarters I have seen people get lasagna with fries on the side. How odd is that? I know they’re called french fries, but isn’t that sort of just a name?

I had a Norwegian salad – everything in France which is called Norwegian has salmon in it – so I sort of compromised on the veggie thing. Again. This is something that happens to me all the time here in France. It is soooo difficult to be a vegetarian in France and even more so being a vegan so I have sort of put the 100 % on standby till I go home. For dessert K had the cheesecake and I had lemon sorbet with vodka which is one of my old faves. There was live music in the restaurant and it was all together really nice.

Goodbye Danish Delegation, MFA, OECD, DAC, DCD, INCAF, ExCom and Council!

Friday the 30th of January was my last day working at the Danish Delegation to the OECD. It was a really strange day. I had a lot to do in order to finish a report to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and when four interns stop at the same day it tends to be kind of an unproductive day. Everyone is just too chatty and of course that is really nice!

I now have to replace my entire mental dictionary! From acronyms such as DAC (Development Assistance Committee), DCD (Development Cooperation Directorate) WP-EEF (Working Party on Aid Effectivenees) and INCAF (International Network on Conflict and Fragility) to real, normal language when I return to Denmark to finish my thesis.

Actually the latter acronym was a fusion of two groups: FSG and CPDC, respectively Fragile States Group and Network on Peace, Conflict and Development Cooperation. I worked a lot with those. Very interesting themes and I was lucky enough to get some ideas for my thesis from this work.

However getting adjusted to “normal” academic language might only be for a short while. I am already scouting the opportunities for employment after the thesis. Which I have to give in on the 24th of April. Then I might be faced with another insider culture with yet another vocabulary of strange acronyms.

For now I’m still in an OECD mode languagewise. Other words that I have heard so often that I dream of them at night are: ODA (Official Development Assistance), OOF’s (other official flows). And that’s just the work on the development side of things. Then there was work in the ExCom (Executive Committee) as well as the Council, which is OECD’s governing body. Here phrases like renewal of mandate, evaluation of committee for this and that as well as ministerial council meeting (MCM) are some of the most common.

But of course there is more to the OECD than just pure language. Even though there are two official ones (that can become a problem for some people when the translators leave at 18 o’clock sharp regardless of whether or not the meeting itself continues!).

A lot of the things you learn by working in such a place is to small talk and you discover how political alliances are forged. An intercultural dialogue is necessary and lets just say I have discovered a lot of new things about the people from other countries! For instance that it is not the French or Italians who have the sexiest accent in English. Rather it is the Czechs. Maybe that has something to do with the fact that one Czech delegate bears a very strong resemblance to the lovely Russel Crowe. Also I have learned that the IMF must be a very boring organisation to work for as one IMF delegate always fell asleep in the meetings. These are all examples of very important intercultural lessons I bring back home with me ;-)

Pink & Purple in Paris

Get it? Two times Paris ;-) Funny. She is not my favorite person though, however I have one great memory with this song so I chose it anyway. Btw. the music selection is not that vast so that's another excuse :-)

January in Paris

Though the blog has been hibernating in January I haven’t. I have been at work to complete my tasks at the Danish Delegation to the OECD while also doing some other things such as wandering around unfamiliar neighbourhoods in Paris, which on one day lead my to find no less than four really nice churches that I took great pictures of. I also got a little insight into the anger of the Palestinians when I was out for a walk and met the demo at the Boulevard Beaumarchais on the 17th. There was police officers everywhere. When I got back from my walk the entire Place Bastille was occupied by people demonstrating. I guess I was lucky that I could even get to my appartment!

I have also been to Shakespeare and Co to buy a couple of more books which are going to be difficult to bring home with me! I hope I have room for everything. One thing I am very proud of is that I have completely avoided the January sales. I haven’t bought a single thing. Ok, well the books in Shakespeare and Co but they weren’t on sale and besides the soul needs nourishment! On the 24th I went to the Louvre and visited the entire section on French paintings from the 17th to the 19th century. I found some paintings I liked, I mostly do, but apart from them this section wasn’t my favorite one, but I still appreciated visiting it because you can also learn a lot from what you don’t like.

My mom and dad’s visit to Paris

My mom and dad came to Paris on the 12th of December and I took two days off during the following week before flying back to Denmark with them on the 21st. So we had a fair amount of time to go sightseeing together which was great!

On Saturday 13th we took the train out to Versailles and managed to see a bit of the garden before the weather got really bad. I bought a nice print of a painting of Marie Antoinette and another print which depicts three nice dresses from that time. The experience in the restaurant was really bad though – they forgot to bring us our drinks and even though reminded (twice!) didn’t bring them until my dad had finished his meal. Very bad service. The visit to the castle was very nice however and much less crowded than in October when I visited with my boyfriend. Except for the entrance to Marie Antoinettes bedroom where it is always crowded and we had to wait in line to get to the room. It was a very cold day as most of the days my parents were here so on the way back to the train station we escaped into a couple of the souvenir shops and those souvenir shops are actually really great.

On Sunday we spent the morning at the Louvre which was a great experience. I have now found the format for the perfect tour: the famous highlights of the Louvre – Mona Lisa (cause you sort of have to), Venus de Milo (same thing!) and the Cheveaux Marly (which I absolutely love) – and then all my personal favorites within a three hour visit. My dad got to spend his 60th birthday among some of the greatest art of all time, which I think is very privileged. Before completing the visit entirely we went to the Café Richelieu to eat lunch and then proceeded to visit Napoleon’s appartment. This is actually a good strategy because you need a break sometime in order to appreciate everything and Napoleon’s appartment is in my opinion one of the highlights of a visit to the Louvre.

We walked through the Tuilleries and to the Place de la Concorde and then on to the Christmas market in the lower end of the Champs Elysees. This was far too crowded but it was my first French Christmas market ever so it was pretty interesting. We found great French macaroons which we enjoyed in the evening along with sorbet ice cream and a champagne birthday toast. Then it was shopping time and more precisely time to visit the Nike empire on the Champs. I loooove Nike. I am more or less raised to love sports gear and Nike is just my favorite brand ever. Though Adidas became more appealing to me than before when I lived in Berlin because they have so much more stuff to choose from than in Denmark. But Nike and I are forever friends.


On Monday I had the day off so we ventured to Galleries Lafayette to look at the Christmas decorations, especially the windows are great. They were decorated with an Alice in Wonderland theme. And I just love Alice in Wonderland. We bought a lot of nice Christmas decorations and went on to the Christmas market at the Esplanade de la Défense, which is the largest one in the city. I am amazed by the fact that there isn’t really much Christmas stuff at the markets. There was one big indoor area with Christmas decorations, where we bought some ornaments, but the rest of the market is mostly typical market stuff that doesn’t have anything to do with Christmas, and off course lots of food. There was one shop there with a really impressive display of dried fruit and then there were lots of home and décor stuff but not Christmas-themed.

Wednesday was Disney day and oh my had we selected a bad day. The weather was horrible to say the least. Very cold as well as rainy for the first couple of hours. However we had bought advance tickets so we had to go on that particular day. Buying advance ticket at a FNAC store is a great deal; you get the ticket for 29 euros instead of 50. But you have to buy the tickets three days in advance so you will not know if the weather is great or not.

Seeing the sleeping beauty castle was great. It was really lovely. We fled the rain and went sailing on a river boat in Frontierland. Then we went on to the phantom manor and the graveyards of some unlucky minors who were too greedy. Next stop was Pirates of the Carribean where we made a reservation to return for lunch at the Blue Lagoon an hour later. My mom insisted than she wanted to eat there and it prooved to be a really good choice. We were seated right next to water where the boats come sailing through the restaurant. At 16 we saw the parade in front of the Castle and then walked to Fantasyland where I got a photo of me and the rabbit from Alice in Wonderland. I like that rabbit. Afterwards we went back to the castle to buy Disney Christmas decorations in the Castle (very hard to choose, because there is so much cute stuff!). Finally we walked back through Main Street and browsed through the shops there as well. Outside the park there was a small Christmas market which we visited as well and then a short trip to the huge Disney store in Disney Village. This was mainly toys though so didn’t buy anything. However when I went to the Disney store at the Champs Elysees later that week to look for a photoframe I found a Winnie the Pooh Christmas toy, where Pooh rides a sleigh, which rocks and plays music at the same time. I placed it on the floor in front of Pingo, my parents youngest dog, and it was soooo scared of it. That was really funny. Should have videotaped that. I might do that next year. I am sure she will still be scared of it. That dog is kind of weird!

Then on Saturday we went to Montmartre and walked the stairs up to Sacre Cour which we visited. I finally selected a rosary so now I have one. Due to my dad’s bad knee we didn’t climb the stairs to the dome, however it is really nice, but the stairs are very steep and narrow. We then walked through the streets to the left of the church and bought some really good drawings of Paris and proceeded to Place du Tertre where the cold weather had scared many of the artists and onlookers away.

Then we walked down the stairs to the maison du thé in Rue Tardieau for crêpes. After that we went shopping in Antoine et Lili. I had thought of a great blouse/top for my mom and it turned out I was right, it was absolutely perfect for her. Finally we walked past Amelies café and then quickly popped back to the Rue Dunkerque where my mom bought a ton of scarves!

On the 21st we flew back to Denmark – and despite some trouble we managed to land in Copenhagen only about 30 minutes late. I wont even go into that story, but let’s just say that it involved a bomb alarm and an evacuation of the airport! All in all however very nice to have my parents visit me here and I enjoyed having time with them to go sightseeing.

Yael Naim concert

Already before I left for Paris I had decided that I wanted to go to see one of Yael Naims concerts when she was to come in November and so I did on 15th. It was at Folies Bergere where Edith Piaf, among many others, used to perform. And I so regretted that I had not brought my camera. The hall of the theater is exceptionally beautiful. But on the positive side I now have a great excuse to go some other time. Yael Naim is an absolutely amazing artist. Very sweet voice, lovely poetic feel to the music and lyrics. And she has a presence on stage like no artist I have ever seen. She looks so genuinely happy that I’m convinced she is. She has fun entertaining the audience and dancing in crazy shoes and getting all of the audience up from their seats and singing along. It was definetely one of the best concerts I have ever been to. So charming and sweet. She has not left my ipod since the concert.

Weekend in Denmark

After our lovely holiday it was very nice to only be back at work for one week and then have a long weekend. It was a national holiday on the 11th of November so that was two days off! On Friday the 7th of November I went to the airport in the afternoon and got on a plane to Denmark. I didn’t arrive in Odense until half past ten in the evening, so I was very tired, but I arrived to a nice milkfree batter for pancakes prepared by my wonderful boyfriend and that’s always good for lifting your spirit!

On Saturday we picked up some photos from the photo store from our holiday because I wanted to get them back with me to Paris. We had ordered one enlargement and I think maybe 15 normal size photos and that’s what we paid for, however when we saw the photos on Sunday all of them were enlargements so we had made a great bargain! In the early afternoon we went to the Zoo to say hello to all the animals who have been missing me for these last couple of months, or at least I have been missing them!

Late in the afternoon we drove along with Jacobs parents to the birthday party venue (his moms 70th), which was really lovely. The food was alright – not usually so when I haven’t cooked myself. Eating has turned very complicated for me having discovered that I am lactose intolerant and can only ocassionally eat very small amounts of dairy products. This spring I ate 100 % vegan and now I have returned to eating a bit of egg and chicken. But I suspect it will only be a matter of time until I become 100 % vegan (for specific health reasons). The birthday party was lovely, however I’m just not that much into the formal-dinner-party-followed-by-dancing. On Sunday we had afternoon coffe at Jacobs parents’ place (her real birthday) and when his dad said that he hoped I had realised I wanted my future wedding celebration to be like that I thought to myself: there is no way I’m doing that. Ever! I want to go to Vegas! However, boyfriend is not buying into that plan!

On Monday I took the train to visit my parents and we had a late celebration of my moms 50th with a nice lunch and lots of gifts imported straight from Paris. Also nice to go for a walk in the forrest with the dogs. Tuesday I flew back to Paris and then had to go to work on Wednesday.

African Footprint

On the 5th of November I was going to the Casino de Paris to watch African Footprint. The metro wasn’t running as it should, so I was the one who ended up (almost) running in order to catch the show. And in heels I might add! The intro to the show was a bit boring, however once the real show began it became anything but boring. In contrast to the show at the Moulin Rouge some of these guys did not have that much clothing on and that really revealed their impressive muscles. Lovely! I really recommend that you and see this show if you get the chance somewhere. It’s awesome!

The Casino is a lovely venue for a show like this. I’ve actually been to the Casino once before and eaten a nice lunch in their restaurant and I think doing a before-show or after-show dinner there would be lovely. They have a very beautiful mosaic window in the restaurant which really adds something special to the room.

Tour Eiffel

On Sunday (2nd of November) we headed for the Catacombs once more and once more we gave up! The lines were exceptionally long and since there can only be 200 people inside at any given time and there were already 175 in there at that point, we estimated that it would take at least a couple of hours of waiting – something we did not desire at all.

We decided to go to the Eiffel tower instead and walked up to the second floor from where you have to take the elevator to the third, which of course we did. However, I like the second floor more than the third because the third always seems so crowded due to its small size. Of course it’s fascinating being so high up and all, but I like to have some space around me!

We ended up going home already in the middle of the afternoon because I wanted to get a little downtime to get some energy for going back to work the next day. We watched the last episodes of the first season of Dirt on dvd and cooked at home. So the last day of our wonderful holiday was spent very leisurely.

Sartre & Le Train Bleu

On Saturday (1st of November) we wanted to go and visit the Catacombs however they were closed (I had suspected this since it was a national holiday) but we decided to give it a shot anyway. It rained pretty much cats and dogs, however we decided to go to Cemetiere Montparnasse, which is very close. So we sort of got our sightseeing in the land of the dead anyway. How is that for weird? Well actually I don’t think that’s weird at all. At home we often cross the cemetery when we are out walking and in my mind I think it must be nice for the people buried there to hear actual living people speaking. I know it’s sort of stupid, but from an emotional point of view I find it comforting. From a realistic point of view I find it very comforting that when you’re dead you’re not the one who is sorry about it. You’re just gone and that’s it.

We found Sartres grave which was our goal, even though none of us are great fans of Sarte. To me he was one of these pretend-to-be-philosophers. Or maybe I’m just not smart enough to understand him. You decide what you think ;-) But I’ll prefer Descartes or Rousseau anytime when speaking of French philosophers.

We got take away food from a great eco bakery at the end of Rue Mouffetard and then headed over to the Museum of Natural History because we wanted to see the Musee d’Homme which has Descartes brain on display. However when we got there there was a huge line, since it was autumn holiday in France during that week, and a warning posted outside that there could be lines after the ticket office to get into the exhibition as well so we gave up on it and we’ll go another time. Actually we didn’t really do anymore during the day as it was raining so heavily, we just walked through the Jardin des Plantes and took the metro back and relaxed for a couple of hours before dressing up for dinner.

And dinner was just awesome. We had reservations for 8 o’clock at Le Train Bleu which is just the most beautiful restaurant I’ve ever dined in and the most expensive I think! But well worth it. Le Train Bleu is a historical monument. It opened in 1901 and was renamed Le Train Bleu in 1963 after the legendary train service that brought the Parisian upper class to the Riviera in summer. It has had guests such as Coco Chanel, Jean Cocteau, Dali, Brigitte Bardot and last but not least the lovely Jean Gabin (whom I just adore in La Grande Illusion from 1937). We ordered a great salad for entré, Jacob ordered the beef fillet and I ordered the grilled vegetables, both dishes were outstanding. For dessert I tried the rhum baba, which was very “rhummy” meaning that I think I would have gotten drunk had I eaten all of it (it was huge and they poored a lot of rum on it). Jacob got the profiteroles, which I think are a bit wrong when served with ice cream in them but apart from that I love profiteroles very much! All in all one more very lovely evening ending, with the short walk back in the crisp cold Parisian November night.

Montmartre & Moulin Rouge

PICTURE: The "I Love You-Wall" just behind Place des Abesses. A great place for kissing! Notice the Danish: Jeg elsker dig just above the German: Ich liebe Dich.

On Friday (31st of October) we headed for Montmartre and started out scouting the souvenir shops on the street going towards the hill from the Anvers metro station. Lots of kitsch yes, but I did find a couple of items I liked. Just didn’t want to buy them right there and then and have to drag them along all day. That’s the good thing about living here – I can return when it’s more convenient.

We took nice pictures of the carrousel beneath the stairs up to Sacre Cæur and lots more on our way up. We went inside the church, which is really one of the most beautiful churches ever. Afterwards we walked a bit in the area near the church were I found my new green hat in a nice little shop. It’s a bit big but at ten euros and in freezing weather I decided it would be a good deal anyway.

After that we did the obligatory stroll through the Place du Tertre, which looses some of its charm in the cold, but the advantage is that there is more space to actually look at the paintings and the artists who are drawing pictures of people. We then went down to the Rue Lepic and saw the Café les Deux Moulins were Amelie works in the Fabolous Life of Amelie Poulain. If you haven’t seen it yet, this is a movie you absolutely have to see. It’s a very intelligent and beautiful love story, modern but still with some of the adventure and beauty which is otherwise only seen in old movies.

The adventure we had next on our list was to go to Antoine et Lili in Rue des Martyrs to find a very special dress for an important birthday party. Browsing through the clothing racks in this store will improve your mood no matter what. Their clothing is very special and a lot of it comes in very intense colours. I think I gathered five different pieces and as soon as I had tried the first one on the sales assistant said that it wouldn’t work. Which I complely agreed with. It made me look like a hippopotamus. There was actually something really reassuring about his behaviour – I’m absolutely sure that he wouldn’t have let my buy a dress which didn’t look great on me. The second dress I tried on was great, but not fancy enough for the birthday party. I might go back another day to buy it but before I even entered the store I had said to myself that I would only be allowed to buy one item and one item only as their clothes are quite pricey.

The third dress was the dress! A lovely green Asian-inspired creation made of dark green heavy silk. There was no doubt about it. This was going to be my dress for the party. I just loved the way the sales assistant spoke to me as if I were actually a trendy person, I who usually just throw something on and then that’s just it! He sure knew how to make the customer feel good and make her return, which I absolutely will. They have so many great items there. And I loved that he gave suggestions for various ways to style the dress without trying to sell me more stuff. After buying the dress I was so happy that I made Jacob take some snapshots of me being genuinely happy! After that we visited a shop in the Rue des Trois Freres were I have bought a nice day dress on another occasion but this time there was absolutely nothing interesting. Which I guess was lucky for my wallet!

Now it was time to go to the lovely maison de thé in Rue des Abesses, where I have gotten nice crêpes earlier. This time I decided to have crêpes with honey and lemon. This was a great combination. The room is so lovely decorated and it’s just so nice to make a stop there. Before the visit we were actually panicking a bit about what to buy Jacobs mom, for whom the grand birthday party was to be. And things turned out to be as they always are. Once we had given up for the day and retired to the tea house we found a lovely shop just next door and went in just to look, not actually thinking about the present at all and then I found a nice red leather bag which would just be perfect for her. She has a really cool style, effortlesly stylish and trendy despite her age and even though this is a “young” shop I just knew she would like it. We then decided to also buy her the Moulin Rouge perfume and returned to their shop, which we had visited earlier in the day, and tested it. It’s great. I want it for myself as well!

Then it was time to go back home and change into fancier clothing. We returned to Montmartre for our 20 o’clock reservations at Chez Svetlana, which I just love and finished our meal just in time to go for a walk in the area before the grand event of the evening: the Moulin Rouge show. Walking in the Boulevard Clichy on a Friday night really is a bit different from walking on most streets. Every 25 meters someone offers you to go inside to see a live show. And you hear all over “ladies free, ladies free.” Well not this time for us anyway! Also there are a lot of sex shop with many items on display in their windows.

At 22.30 we went to stand in line outside the theater as the show began at 23.00. Standing in line I noticed this American couple of whom I thought “she’s only with him because he has a lot of money,” and “he is only with her because she is young and has had breast implants” and so forth. As it happened we were placed at the same table as them and got to talk with them before the show and I just loved the fact that they disproved all my prejudices about them. They were so lovely people both of them and really interesting to talk to. I just love it when that happens because the next time your thoughts about another person is based on prejudice you’ll say to yourself, it might not really be the way things seem.

The show was awesome and I even liked the champagne which came along with it – and I only like it when it’s very sweet. The girls were very sexy. All the guys were of course gays and I can say that with some certainty as I’m actually one of these people who realise that not all dancers are gay. My brother used to be a dancer and he is very straight! One of the male dancers however was a bit hot but the problem is that the guys wear too much clothing. That isn’t fair! ;-) Apart from the dance acts there were also acrobats, who were absolutely amazing, and a magician and lots of other acts. The show didn’t end until 1.30 and we hurried to the metro station as the metro ends at 2 o’clock. We returned home very happy about this day and we’re happy that we were lucky enough to get to see the show, as my mom and dad had given us the tickets as an early Christmas present as they’re so expensive. But they’re so worth it!

Château Versailles

On Thursday (30th of October) we went to the Château Versailles. It’s a little less than an hours trainride from Paris to Versailles, however we had to change trains because the traffic was irregular (as always!). When you arrive to Versailles it takes less than ten minutes to walk to the castle. I was actually a bit surprised that it is so near the rest of the city. We waited in line for more than an hour to buy tickets and it was freezing, so I would certainly recommend buying tickets in advance. For instance at the FNAC.

We did however finally make it to the front of the line and decided to have the castle tickets sans Marie Antoinettes estate, which proved to be the right decision because the weather was really against us in the afternoon! The castle is very impressive, but we had both thought that there would be a lot more to see. Maybe I will go back another time to do the 1½ hour guided tour that takes you into rooms that are otherwise not open to the public. It was really interesting to walk around these old rooms and imagine the lives of the people who lived here. I’ve been thinking a lot about a certain concept lately. Actually I think it’s something my brother said that started this line of thinking. He had read Homer’s Odyssey and he was surprised that the story – despite its age – was so sophisticated and portrayed reality with just as much accuracy and insight that we write today. That has made me think about the real people, who only live on in our minds as historical characters in books. They were real people too and had real emotions that were probably not so different from what the rest of us feel, if any different at all. Of course they were surrounded by different circumstances, but I don’t think that the fear Marie Antoinette must have felt is any different than the fear people would experience today if their lives and existence were threathened. It makes for a more intense exploration of the castle, when you keep that in mind. Especially visiting the beedroom from where she fled was a very special experience.

My interest in Marie Antoinette, which has always been there in some way, was sparked further by the book I got from my cousin Michael for Christmas a couple of years ago (Marie Antoinette by Antonia Fraser). It is very insightful, well written and it’s supposed to be well researched as well. I spend a good part of the end of June 2007 reading this book at my lovely terrace after exams were finally over and I can tell you it was a real treat! Also the film directed by Sophia Coppola is lovely, even more because the role of Marie Antoinette is played by Kirsten Dunst whom I just love.

The only downside to visiting the castle (except for the lines if you haven’t bought a ticket in advance) is that it’s very crowded, so its hard to take great photos inside. But at least you’re actually allowed to do photos and that’s just great! Another thing which is worth paying attention to is that if you exit the castle and the courtyard you cannot re-enter. We exited after visiting the castle to go and have lunch at the café and then we couldn’t re-enter to visit the souvenir shop. We managed however to get into the bookshop from where a friendly member of the staff led is into the castle again. The souvenir shop wasn’t that impressive however, and I’d say that you get more out of spending money in the bookshop, which was really nice and had Antonia Frasers book in stock as well!

Then it was time to visit the grand garden, however as I mentioned earlier the weather turned on us. From being simply very cold to being very cold and very rainy. So our visit to the garden was limited to a short 45 minute walk and the pictures we took there (including the one above) were taken while we alternated holding the umbrella over each others head!

Coming back to Paris we went back to the appartment and went online to search for an interesting place to have dinner. We found the Curieux Spaghetti Bar but once we found it we decided against it because the music was too loud. I’m sure we will go another time because the menu and the interior design is quite interesting, however after freezing most of the day and ending up being quite tired it was just not the evening for a “we’re-eating-in-a-trendy-disco” dinner. Another time. We ended up heading back to our new favorite Le Diable des Lombards and I ate exactly the same wonderful club sandwich once again.

Louvre, Tuilleries, Concorde & Champs Elysees

On this day (Wednesday 29th October) it was very cold in the morning and we did some misty shots of us in front of the Pyramid at the Louvre and, not least, in front of the Chevaux Marly which along with Napoleons appartment (in the picture above) is my favorite places in the Louvre. Besides the Marly horses and Napoleons appartment we also visited the section on Mesopotamic art, a bit of the section on Egypt and large format french paintings and of course Mona Lisa.

I have never experienced the Louvre as crowded at it was this day, but of course it makes a difference that this week was also a school holiday here in France. After the visit we strolled through the Tuilleries and bought sandwiches which we could actually sit outside eating because as the day went by the sun did it’s best to warm up Paris. After that we walked to the Place de Concorde and up the Champs Elysees where we browsed through the Adidas and Nike shops.

Then we went home to change into nicer clothes and left again headed for Champs Elysees for the opening of an exhibition in the Maison du Danemark called Marinus et Marianne. It was satirical pictures made by the arist Marinus for the Magazine Marianne until spring 1940. He manipulated photographies and showed Hitler in very compromising situations, for instance as a ballet dancer. He also made Hitler sit down with Roosevelt to play cards.

After that we went to the area around Les Halles and found Le Diable des Lombards which has the best hot club sandwich I’ve ever had. Okay, maybe second best, I don’t know, there is tough competition from the one at Froggys in Odense, Denmark, but the two are worlds apart and sans comparaison. I recommend them both! Le Diable was decorated for Haloween – it is an American inspired restaurant after all!

Forum des Halles, Printemps, Galleries Lafayette & a funny Cartoon Shop

This day (Tuesday 28th October) was all about shopping, or at least “lêche vitrine” as Printemps and Galleries Lafayette mainly carry extremely expensive items such as Valentino dresses that cost about 4000 Euro and upwards. The day however started with browsing the Les Halles district and watching the odd Pompidou center from the outside. I’ve been inside before and for me the main attraction was the outside escalators. At least on that day but they have lots of temporary exhibitions that changes all the time. So I might give it a try another day again, but I guess a lot of it is just too modern and modern in a way I don’t really like.

Jacob insisted on visiting Forum des Halles which I find a bit boring but of course we went to see it anyway. I think some of the architectural ideas are good but in my opinion they end up not being so well executed as they should have been. Despite their great efforts at getting natural light several floors down it still seems dull and dark inside. The contrast to Printemps and Galleries Lafayette which we visited afterwards is very stark. The two department stores are very grand indeed and it is interesting to browse the clothes there and get some new great ideas for styling. However at some point I got enough of looking at high fashion that I cannot afford to buy anyway and I just wanted to get out!

On the way back we passed by the Opera Garnier which is a very beatiful building and then we took the metro to one of our favorite crêpe makers near Place St. Michel. We walked back home and found a funny store on the way which sold cartoon figures, especially lots of Tintin stuff which Jacob was very excited about!

Rousseau, Foucaults Pendulum and Shakespeare & Co.

On Monday (27th of October) we went to see the Saint-Sulpice where Silas murders the nun in the Da Vinci Code. The Catholic Church however denied Ron Howard permission to shoot inside the church so they recreated the church as a computer-generated virtual set from pictures taken inside the church. I like this church very much. Some people find it to dark and depressing but I like the sweet melancholy of its darkness. Afterwards we went to the Jardin du Luxembourg where d’Artagnan duelled in Alexandre Dumas novel The Three Musketeers. On the picture above is the beautiful Fontaine de Médicis.

From the garden we walked to the Pantheon and this time visited the inside and saw Foucaults pendulum. It was Léon Foucault who made the pendulum in 1851 as an experiment to show that the Earth rotates. It consists of a 28 kilo ball suspended on a 67 meter wire from the ceiling of the Pantheon. At that time it was already well known that the Earth rotates, however Foucaults pendulum was the first dynamic experiment to show it to the skeptics! After admiring the pendulum we climbed the stairs to visit the dome which reveals an incredible view of the city. Upon descending the many stairs we paid our respects at Rousseaus tomb and at other famous people’s tombs: Voltaires, Alexandre Dumas and Victor Hugos in the Crypt.

Then it was time for walking in the rain towards one of the main attractions in Paris: Shakespeare and Company, the lovely bookshop owned by George Whitman. I had saved this one for Jacobs visit and of course when you’re booklovers it’s quite romantic to visit a very special bookshop in the rainy afternoon. This visit left me feeling that I could be perfectly happy owning a bookshop like this and doing my own writing on the side. After the bookshopping we walked to Notre Dame which is so incredibly beautiful.

One more word about the bookstore: George Whitman opened the bookstore in 1951 and since then it is said that more than 50.000 people have slept there, as George invites writers to stay with him. All you have to do is work a couple of hours every day in the bookstore and read one book a day. I even read he makes crêpes with homemade syrup for his guests on Sundays. Sounds like an exciting way to spend some time in Paris!

The original Shakespeare and Co. which was situated near the Odeon Theatre was owned by Sylvia Beach who edited and published James Joyce’s Ulysses in 1922. It was frequented by the “lost generation” which counted Ernest Hemmingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald among others. It was closed in 1941 because Beach denied selling her last copy of Ulysses’ Finnegans Wake to a Nazi officer.

Tigers, acrobats, horses and clowns!

Yes, we went to the circus on Sunday in the opening weekend of the Cirque d’Hiver, but before that we took the metro to La Muette and went for a nice Sunday promenade around Lac Inferiuer and in the Jardin Pre-Catalan in the Bois de Bologne. The circus however was the highlight of the day. It was simply magnificent.

They opened with their tiger act: two normal-coloured tigers and one giant white male tiger. The show was amazing and the tigers were extremely beautiful and it just made me cry because I get what it is about - working with animals – it’s about trust, respecting the animal and still being the one in power and it’s a beatiful thing. Even though I have only worked with horses and they are not dangerous per se, such as a tiger, it’s still pretty much the same thing really. And it made me cry because it’s such a terrible thing when your life evolves around one thing, such as working with horses, and you have to give it up to accomplish something else. I gave up my horses to travel abroad and even though I hate not having a horse now going to Switzerland was the best thing I have ever done in my life. Thank you very much to the lovely Schuler family who made it such an incredible experience. I wouldn’t want to change a single thing about our year together.

Back to the circus. Of course there were horses at the circus as well. A very beautiful white horse that was a bit stubborn. I don’t know if the rest of the audience noticed it that much but it did not want to do what she wanted it to. There were also six lovely ones in the same very rare colour and they did great however. Aside from the animal acts there were of course clowns and they were very good. I think it’s good for the soul to be able to have a child-like enthusiasm for clowns. Another thing very different from any circus I have ever seen was a group of rollerscate people, they were really good and their act was extremely nervewracking.

After the circus we walked back to the Place de Bastille and ate at Café Indiana, whose Chicken Curry has become one of my favorites.

Litterary Loop in the Latin Quarter

On Saturday we let ourselves be inspired by Lonely Planets walking tour suggestion in the Latin Quarter, with lots of detours of course. I have always had a biased relationship with guide books. On the one hand I totally love them because I love to dream about other places and on the other hand I loathe them because they remind me of tourism. Just the other day I read an article on souvenir-shopping which argued that there a two ways of shopping for items in another country. One is to buy the obvious tourist crap and the other way is not to. I pride myself with mainly buying items that are “Paris” or “Berlin” or “Barcelona” or whereever to me but don’t scream souvenirs. I don’t want to be a tourist because that’s not the way you really experience anything true or authentic. I guess that’s why I tend to stay longer abroad instead. I am more curious and I am not truly satisfied by the tourist experience. I want to be a traveller, not a tourist.

As you can see I have a biased relationsship to tourism and guide books, however I have improved my relation to the suggested walking trips in some of them and hence we set of to the Latin Quarter inspired by Lonely Planet. What I like about using the guide books this way is that you actually get some useful information on the places you pass by on your walk.

Now I know for example where Hemmingway lived from January 1922 to August 1923 with his wife, where he wrote “Farewell to Arms” and where he hung out. I also know where Sylvia Beach edited and published James Joyce’s Ulysses and later denied selling a copy to a Nazi officer in the original Shakespeare and Co bookstore which was then closed. We missed out on the hotel where Oscar Wilde died of meningitis but we will find that next time. After many hours and half of the walk in the book and a lot of detours we went window licking in Rue Mouffetard (window shopping in French is called leche vitrine and litterally means window licking, cute isn’t it?). Lots of lovely food and clothes shops and nice looking restaurants. Afterwards we went towards Place St. Michel and bought great crêpes on the way and walked home over Ile de la Cité and Ile St. Louis.

In the evening we went walking in the Marais and ate a great Italian Restaurant called Jardin du Marais. Afterwards we went to the Hôtel de Ville and recreated our own version of Robert Doisneau’s famous photograph “The Kiss” and I must say we succeeded pretty well but this blog is only a censured account of life in Paris so I’ll leave it out ;-) Afterwards we walked home along the other bank of the Seine and did some more censured pictures!