Tuesday, August 30, 2011

8-30-2011



These traveling posts are going to be very long and very scattered. I'm sorry in advance. I took way too many pictures.

This is this view from the back of our hotel. Nicole kept looking back there for French alley cats, but she never saw one.

This is an art nouveau metro sign. I think its cool that such an iconic decorative style is still being used for utilitarian purposes. Old people just like to make out under them.

My preconception of Paris mostly comes from the movie Amelie (and Warner Brothers cartoons about skunks), so I was excited to find the apartment and market from the movie in real life. As you can tell, it was closed. It was ok though, since the movie was set in Montmartre, an area historically known as the home of many famous artist, writers and musicians, and we somehow ended up in an area specializing in fabrics. So I was content to wander around here anyway. One thing that was open however was the cafe that Amelie worked at. They serve cheese and coffee.

Montmartre is also the home of a French national treasure and major tourist attraction not to be missed. The A.P.C. Surplus store. The store wasn't open yet when we got there though, so went to go look at some old church on a hill to kill time while we waited. This guy lives on the cathedral. This guy has a sacred heart. They all hangout together outside. It's really fancy inside. It's nice to look at.

We wandered some more and found a park, the exact opposite of a cathedral, and another famous place (which has been forever ruined in my mind by Christia Aguilera).

This statue is at the Cimetiere de Montmartre. I really liked seeing these dates and imagining there was some old lady out there that refuses to die even though she's outlived her expected century. Keep going, old lady.

There's so much fancy stuff everywhere that I forgot where I saw this monument, but it was on the way to the Champs-Elysees. I'm pretty sure there's a law that every tourist with a camera is require to take this picture. Look at these fancy gates and long line of people waiting to enter the ornate door. It must be some sort of museum right? Nope, that's just the fanciest Abercrombie & Fitch store on the planet. I guess I can't complain much, because I went half way around the world and was really excited to visit the Nike store to look at running stuff. While we're on the topic of American establishments corrupting the world, I had it on good autority that the McDonalds on the Champs-Elysees was a necessary stop for the people watching. It is. Also interesting for people watching (and America ruining the world) were the street performers that confuse Paris with the Brox in the 70's. It's pretty much understood that tourists love seeing upside down street performers though. Here's something equally touristy, but decidely French. It's Laduree, the super fancy and world famous patisserie that people come from all over the place buy cookies at. Don't get me wrong, it's totally worth going there to buy cookies. They invented double-decker macaroons which are pretty much the things I'll miss most from Paris. That and the architecture. Totally unrelated, Nicole's fancy coffee robot is apprently super popular in Europe. They have entire stores all over the place there for people to buy their capsules (Nicole has to order hers from the internet). Speaking of Nicole, she was too much of a giant to fit through the Arc de Triopmhe. This is the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, and these soldiers were coming to make sure it was ok. This guy was not ok. I like taking people pictures when I go places because people are almost always more interesting to look at than places. Here are a few random people that I photographed. I like to take natural and unposed shots of people, but this guy looked unnatural and posed even though he wasnt. Places are intersting to look at too when they're as fancy as this or this.

This place was very high on my list of interesting things to see. They specialize in taxedermey and strange stuff and have been around forever, but they were closed since we got there around dinner time.

Since it was dinner time, we decided to have our one planned fancy dinner of the trip at a fancy place. This fancy place is famous because it's been around for ever and ever, and lots of writers and artists hung out there. It's so fancy that I didn't feel comfortable picturing all of our food, but I promise it was very pretty and delicious. This dessert was too pretty and delicious not to picture. Speaking of fancy, here's a picture of our rental car in front of the restaurant.