Right Brain Feed

Paris has done it again. As if 293 Metro stations weren't enough. Paris has started a bicycle rental system called Velib. For a Euro or two, you can rent a nice shiny new bike and toodle around for a bit. There are 20,000 bikes scattered around the city, and 750 check out stations like the one in the picture. They are *everywhere*. For a yearly subscription of 29 euros, you can grab a bike whenever you want, the first 30 minutes are free. It has noticeably increased the amount of bicycle traffic on the street. They have trucks that run around and re-distribute bicycles, so that you should always be able to find a bicycle (or an empty slot to check one in). Score one more for Paris in the "We mock you with all our public transportation" catagory. Living in Paris main page

I realized that I had forgotten to blog my Bastille Day flyover pic. These guys with the blue-white-red exhaust came over first, followed by group after group of every type of plane the French army has. It thunders right over our apartment, this pic was taken from the quai right by Pont Sully. Living in Paris main page

I'm not a big sports fan. But I decided that with the French Open happening in my own back yard, I should go see it. Some Austin friends were in town visiting, so the four of us spent the day at Roland Garros. Sarah can give you the long story about the painful long wait to get tickets a few weeks ago. I can't portray her suffering adequately. We arrived to an unruly mob outside the gates, but it moved quickly. We had great seats on court 1. Court 1 is smaller than the two big courts, but still has assigned seating. I've never seen a live tennis match, and I usually have trouble staying interested in matches on TV, so I wasn't sure what to expect. It was a blast. You really get a sense of the two players going after each other when you are there live, and it's much easier to get into the game. We watched one game that was especially good, Monfils vs Rochus. Monfils just had a blistering serve. One of his serves was 215kph (135mph). I also had a lot of fun watchin...

A few weeks ago I did the dirty deed and photographed the Sunday Bastille Market. We shop there every week.  I say "dirty deed" because the market is becoming quite the tourist attraction. While tourists tend to increase the crowd and add to the frustration of people buying food (us!), the tourists don't buy much. The crowds of the market can be a bit overwhelming as is, people with 30 years experience are pretty good at throwing an elbow when needed. There are several hundred booths, and it is a foodies delight. I'll let the pictures do the talking.... Bastille Sunday Market Album Living in Paris main page

Spring has sprung in Paris! This weekend Spring made its first appearance in Paris this year. There really is something special about springtime here. Everybody packs the streets, and enjoys the good weather. The picture at the bottom is the quai on Sunday, it is closed to motorized traffic every Sunday. Today it was packed. Sarah and I sat on the edge of the river for a while, soaking up sunshine and springtime happiness. Both Saturday and Sunday we had lunch guests, but we did manage to get out both days for a nice walk. Saturday's walk came with an added bonus, Suzy snagged a boules set for playing petanque. It's a game popular with older men in Europe in the park. I snapped a pic in this bakery window, they really are "workin" the patissiere artistry. The bakery (Miss Manon) isn't one that I shop at, it's all flash and no substance. But I have to admit, they have a dang good window display. Sarah and I are continuing our Wednesday night trips to th...

Last weekend we went to the new aquarium that opened in Paris last spring. I'm a big aquarium fan, and try to visit them when we travel (especially now that I don't have my own tank set up at home). We put this one off for a while, mainly because of the price. It's *outrageous*, even by Paris standards. 19.50 euros *each*!! We finally broke down and paid the inflated entry, and really enjoyed it. My new spy camera has an "aquarium" mode, which worked pretty well. I had fun taking fishy pics. While I've been to a better aquarium (Lisbon's aquarium just kicks butt), this one had it's own interesting flair. One room had a music stage in front of the 20 foot x 20 foot glass (or probably acrylic) panel with fishies swimming behind it. They arrange live music on Sunday afternoons, and had a decent band playing Cuban music. We settled into lounge chairs, grabbed some beers from the bar, and listened to music while watching fishies swim. It was quite ni...

Last weekend we went to the French National Ceramique Museum in Sevres on the outskirts of Paris. It was on the grounds of the famous Sevres Ceramique Manufactoring plant, which was founded by Louis XV to make fancy smancy pottery for the French Aristocracy. They were having an exhibit of contemporary Japanese pottery, and it included some really wild stuff. It was a good exhibit. We also went thru their pottery from 1800's, some of the Napolean III era stuff that I've recently taken a liking to. They also had a bunch of Art Nouveau vases that just swept me away. This brings me to our weekend plans for tomorrow.... After looking at Art Nouveau pottery that was Fancy Smancy, we decided to travel to Nancy. Nancy is a big Art Nouveau center, so we're going to check it out. Living in Paris main page

France is having its own immigration issues, and a lot of the immigrants are Muslim. There is a private organization in Nice that isn't happy about the immigrants, and they seem to be focused on the Muslim immigrants. They have an interesting way of fighting the immigration of Muslims into France.  The anti-Muslim group serves free soup to the homeless in Nice. The kicker is that they only serve pork based soup (Muslims can't eat pork). A pro-Muslim soup kitchen group started distributing non-Pork based soup across the street. Lots of soup on the streets of Nice. The French government cracked down on the Pork soup scheme, calling it discrimination against Muslims on public property. So the anti-Muslim group is looking for private property to serve their Pork based soup from, and they are protesting the French government crackdown. (Everyone loves a good protest in France) While I don't agree with their issue of being against immigrants, I found the battle of the soup ...

This weekend we went to the monster Paris Flea Market. A little different than the vision that springs into my head when I hear the words "Flea Market". The place was overflowing with really nice antiques, and an aweful lot of it was *way* out of our price range. We asked about an Art Deco tea set, it was only 1400 euros, and didn't include cups and saucers. The candlesticks we liked were 425 euros. Ouch. They had a lot of Art Deco and Art Nouveau pieces, which we really like. So I imagine we'll be going back to look again sometime. Different stored specialized in different things, one place specialized in Art Deco ceiling lights, another in Art Nouveau fireplace surrounds. We did manage to buy one thing, a candelabra. It holds 5 candles, and has a slightly curvy Art Nouveau look to it. The silver plating isn't in perfect condition, but we dined by candlelight tonight, and really liked it. Living in Paris main page

Sarah and I are trying to start a new routine for Wednesday nights. I thought that if I posted it in my blog, there would be a slightly better chance that we'd stick with it. We got a year pass for the Louvre, and so we are going to try to go every Wednesday night to do a small bit of it. The Louvre has over 35,000 objects in its collections, and I hope this way we can see more of it without getting overwhelmed. Louvre map: Last night we did 4 rooms of the Levant collection, mainly from Syria and Cyprus. They were from 2000 to 1000 B.C. Definitely built to last. Living in Paris main page

Two of our closest Paris friends (Beth and Vivianne) left to move back to Sydney yesterday. We will miss them dearly. They were wildly entertaining, and we could always count on having a great time when they were involved. I caught a massive cold (probably on the flight back from Texas), so I had to miss our goodbye dinner with them. So au revoir, Beth and Vivianne. We will miss our endless bottles of Champagne, death creatures, blogging novel titles, Paris mexican food, pears and roquefort, screaming at World cup finals, The Green Fairy, Jardin des plantes, Vivianne's mexican cuisine, hangovers, the Festival of Vivianne, and long stories about Australia. The expat experience can be like this. You can meet other really interesting expats, and you easily bond over your shared experience of temporarily living in a foreign land. And then you part and go your separate ways. Living in Paris main page

Today Sarah and I made it over to the two big department stores that do incredible displays for Christmas in their windows. They were both amazing. I think Printemps gets style points, they had a theme of Morroco for all their displays, and some very stylish windows. Galleries Lafayette was the winner though, their displays really appealed to the child inside me. They seemed to appeal to all the kids as well. Each display has a raised platform in front of it on the sidewalk. The platform is for small kids only, so they can get up close and get a good view. Most things in the displays are animated: teapots walk around offering cake, dogs stage a small "bullfight", pigs scuba dive, and bears grill skish-kabobs or jackhammer huge chocolate bars. The attention to detail is amazing, everywhere you look something is going on. And you are surrounded by 5 year old kids who are bouncing around looking at everything. In between the kids displays are some rather odd non-animated displ...

I sense that my retirement date crept out a bit last week. This was do to the large leak that my wallet seems to have sprung. I mentioned in my last post that I was considering a new lens for my camera. Well, after much careful research and wringing of hands, I ended up getting ....*two* lenses. Ouch. I got a Sigma 10-20 mm for nice wide angle shots, and a Canon 28-135 mm zoom with image stabilization. They should be waiting for me when we arrive back in Texas for the holidays. I'm also a tad worried about Sarah's new friend. She met the "really really nice guy who owns the cool wine shop around the corner". Translation: expect a steady stream of expensive bottles of wine into the apartment. Last weekend was our last before heading to the US. We did some Xmas shopping, and I finally got to take Sarah to the good Japonaise place that makes its own Soba noodles. Sunday we had large salads with Sarah's cousin Elizabeth for lunch, and then demolished all the salad g...

Sunday I spent some time out with the camera. I spent some time with the telephoto lens catching gargoyles on Notre Dame. They really are amazing. I was disappointed with my lens performance, which might be unfortunate for my 401k if I decide to replace the lens when we return to the US for the holidays. I then wound my way down the island to the tip, where a lone ginko tree was screaming "Jaune!!!" (yellow) at the top of its lungs. Ginko trees are one of my favorites, and they are really spectacular here in Fall. I finished up by going inside Notre Dame on the way back. I took some photos of the rose windows, cranking the ISO up and opening the f-stop wide open. I really need to go back and do it properly with a tripod when it is less crowded.  Living in Paris main page

We had some great food this weekend. Saturday we went to a nearby seafood place for lunch. Sarah started with a creme of pumkin soup with shrimp that was amazing. Seriously, it was one of the best soups I've ever had. The French *really* know how to do pureed soups. I had shrimp ravioli in a very flavorful sauce. For our main courses we both had grilled fish, with a tasty butter sauce. The fish was very fresh, and the sauce went very well with it. Yum. November is "Photography Month" in Paris, there are exhibits all over the city. We went to the Museum of European Photography, where they were having an exhibit on Vu magazine. Vu was a weekly french magazine from the late 1920s to 1939. It had stunning photography. Saturday night we found a new drug dealer. Just kidding. One of the things we miss about Texas is mexican food. Sometimes I just really need a fix of mexican food. Saturday night we found a place that is run by people from Mexico, and has things on the men...

I'm counting down to the big 180 million euro "EuroMillions" drawing in an hour (ok, we bought a ticket for fun). I thought I'd mention a few French translations that you might not have heard. Instead of saying "When pigs fly", the French say "When chickens have teeth". Instead of "Don't count your chickens before they hatch", the French say "Don't sell your bearskin before you kill the bear" It doesn't rain cats and dogs here, it rains ropes. And while the cat is away, the mice here dance instead of play. Living in Paris main page

No, don't worry. "Racket" doesn't refer to noisy neighbors. It refers to the rip off of the standard apartement lease in Paris. Let me explain. At the beginning of October, our water heater in the kitchen went out. I phoned the company is assigned to 'help' us with things like this. I am informed that the standard lease for an apartement in Paris dictates that *we* have to pay for fixing the 8 year old water heater that came with the apartment. Exsqueeze me? But wait, it gets better. We can't choose an honest plumber, we are required to have the plumber who works for the company owning the building fix it. He comes by for less than 10 minutes, waggles a screwdriver for a minute under it, and tells us if it doesn't work in two days he'll have to replace it. It breaks in 3 days. So basically we had to pay for the plumber of their choice dictate that we have to fork over more $$ for a new heater. It finally arrived yesterday, and we now have h...

This weekend we went to the newly opened Musée des Arts Décoratifs . It's been closed for remodeling since we've been here. Sarah and I enjoy decorative arts exhibits, and for us this museum is really fun. They had some really good Art Nouveau and Art Deco pieces, they would do entire rooms of different periods. It was easy to imagine the rooms were right out of a swanky Paris apartment building. The museum is wedged into one of the wings of the Louvre, so the layout of it was a bit confusing. Sunday we walked over to Jardin du Luxembourg. We had a nice stroll around the park. There are tiny ponies there that kids can ride that are really cute. We also enjoyed watching hotly contested boules games (you know they are serious when they break out the tape measure). And of course they rent out little sail boats that the kids sail in the large fountain. The only big disappointment was that the roasted chestnut stand was mobbed by a tour group, so Sarah had to do without her fix.  ...

One thing I'm discovering about living here, it seems like the cold viruses that go around in the winter are slightly different than the ones that my body is trained to defeat. I have caught one of the Super Frenchie bugs that is making the rounds in Paris right now. We're having the last few beautiful crisp clear Fall days before the temperature nosedives, and I'm spending them with my nose pressed up against the glass, coughing into the endless stream of tissues. ......sigh...... We're finished with travel and visitors for a while, and the tourist crowds are definitely dropping off. That means we can sneak into the Louvre or even (gasp!) go to Musee d'Orsay. Paris is really nice at this time of year. You can enjoy some clear (but cooler) weather, and enjoy some sights sans tourist mobs. But first I've got to get rid of this cough. Living in Paris main page

Paris has a yearly Nuit Blanche ("Sleepless night"), a free city wide Modern art festival put on by the gay mayor. All over the city there are really bizarre art installations. We went to a few. Sarah was fighting a cold, so we didn't stay out all night. The French seem to be much more willing to accept and promote bizarre modern art, and it it kind of interesting to try to be more open to it myself. The picture here is an interactive exhibit. Hundreds of thousands of hard candies are wrapped in extremely reflective foil and spilled on the floor, and bright bright lights are overhead. My picture is showing about half the floor area. The "interactive" part is that viewers can take a piece of candy and thus the 'art' changes as it disappears. I just think it makes a mess for the street cleaners. We also saw gargantuan mobiles of huge (12 feet diameter) balls rotating in the courtyard of City Hall, and Place de Concorde lit up in cool blue. FYI, I'll...

We enjoyed a bottle of Chateau Dassault this weekend with our friend Chris. She stopped by on her way to a conference, and we had a very nice weekend. Weather to die for, light breezy 75-80 F, and crisp blue skies. Yuuuummy. Lot's of Suzy's favorite Paris treat..... walking the streets. We caught up with Chris on what's shakin in the U.S. (what kind of circus are you people running over there?), and decided that some reds (like this one) really are enhanced when drunk with food. We pondered the wonders of the universe, and the history of the internet. We had dinner at an old favorite over by the Louvre, and slurped up some nice crepes in front of the Stravinsky fountain. This made for a heavy few days of eating, since Sarah and I went out the night before Chris arrived for my birthday dinner. We did a long drawn out French meal (10 courses if you count the cleansing sorbet between the firsh course and the meat course). My head is still spinning from the weekend a bit, ...

At the end of our street, there has always been a grungy crusty dirty building that is currently a school. There is a law in Paris that you have to clean the outsides of buildings every 10 years, and this building has been in flagrant violation. The word in the neighborhood is that the school has wanted to build an underground parking structure, and the neighboring buildings had protested vigorously, and had been able to block or at least stall the parking. The school, in protest, has been not getting its regular (and much needed) cleaning. A few months ago scaffolding went up on part of the building, and it was cleaned and restored. Last week the scaffolding came down, and the picture above shows clean vs. dirty. Quite a transformation. The building looks incredible. I hope this doesn't mean the parking facility was approved.  Living in Paris main page