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.

8-29-2011

We made it and we're alive. We even managed to make it though customs, and I stumbled though enough broken-highschool-level-French to get us through the train station to our hotel (this is a much bigger deal than I care to explain). More importantly, our hotel is above a boulangerie which bakes croissants and pain au chocolat. I would be totally fine with spending all my moneys on pasteries.

After carbing up, we were generously tour guided around by Nicole's relatives. I though it would be mostly rude to shove a camera in their faces though, so I shoved my camera in stranger's and local dog's faces instead. Walking along the Seine is supposed to be romantical. That's not New York in the background. Paris has a smaller Statue of Liberty replica (or Statue of Anarchy) like the one in New York. Paris also has a larger replica of the Eiffel Tower like the one in Las Vegas. I was interested to see that these people live in tents along the river. I was also interested to see this woman at all.

Beyond showing us where not to get robbed, Nicole's family also was nice enough to cook us a real French meal for dinner. This is Raclette. It's named after a type of cheese and is delicious. You can read about it on Wikipedia. This is wine. That's on Wikipedia too.

8-28-2011

Nicole and I like French things. Like French toast and French fries. It's only logical then that we should wait around in an airport for airplanes, so we can get on one and fly to France. Actually, it took more than just one plane and a very very long time. It took all day and all night and past bedtime.

8-27-2011

Sienna says that we can't go anywhere without our bags.

8-26-2011

8-25-2011

Panic! Chaos!! Call the S.W.A.T. team!!! It's been four years and Nicole hasn't gotten rid of me yet. To celebrate, Nicole got me a new car, and I got her fancy drinks and a ton of food. No, seriously...so much food. Enough food that they made their own secret society. This is the fanciest, most expensive corndog ever. We didn't like it nearly as much as this crème brûlée. Happy bananaversary, Nicole!

8-24-2011

This is exactly what it looks like, and I don't care and I'm not sorry. It was amazing. I'm not sorry for taking this picture of this guy either because he looks amazing.

8-23-2011

It's exciting to me that these still exist in the world. I'll be even more excited to see what comes back.

8-22-2011

So a while ago, Nicole and I got a hummingbird feeder. I've tried a few times, but never had any luck getting pictures of the quick little guys. I must have been extra bored, because I actually sat and waited there long enough to get some pictures of their dinner time tonight.

Speaking of dinner time, I'm making funny faces in my kitchen again. Honestly, that can mean any number of things, but in this case it means I'm being stupid and eating my peppers raw again. After all the time and work I went though to grow fresh ones, I feel like it's important to try them like this to really experience the experience. Nicole has no desire to do this, so I "cooked" again too. These are not carrots. This is what I made for dinner.

8-21-2011

With all my focus on cameras this weekend, I figured it would only be right to break out one of my favorites and shoot some real film. Hopefully I'll update this post when I get things developed. Until then, you can look at this and think about all the tacos I've been eating every meal for the past three days

So I got my film back and I'm really excited about it. I don't normally do this, but I'm going to post all of the shots (including me making dumb faces) because 1) I like how they came out, and 2) they were expensive to develop.

Kodak Ektachrome 100, over exposed at ~50 and cross processed:
Train
I have no idea what this end to end said
Confetti
Taco Time
People
Yo, girl
Legal wallz
Poser graffiti
Leica
Graffiti girlfriend chairs
R.I.P.
Polaroid

Kodak Ektachrome 200, over exposed at ~100 and cross processed:
Model face
Shadow
More shadow
Yo, girl
Coloring wall
Who tied me here?
Watching you watching people
It's true
Yo, girl
Model face
Urban Oufitters model face
Big homie, painting on a tiny train

8-20-2011

It's pretty obvious that I'm really into taking pictures and cameras. I'm so into cameras that I draw giant cameras as big as buildings. Great big fancy cameras.

8-19-2011

It's the time of year again when I hangout in strange places to eat lots of Mexican food and color on things. I fashioned myself an art spear to protect myself from heartburn.

8-18-2011

I know I post about my peppers too much. I don't care. This is very exciting for me.

8-17-2011

I've hardly been drinking at all recently, but when I do drink I'm definitely not stirring my olives all bummed out and depressed about it. Tonight, I got to see two people named Mark(c) that I used to see every single day but hardly get to see anymore. This is Mark and this is The Devil of Fun. Ol' Glazey Eyes was there too.