Greedy Crepes

This last week I went to Paris, where I saw this menu. It made me laugh--it's a bad translation of the word "gourmande", which refers to someone who appreciates food a lot. But I like the idea of greedy crepes that don't share their candy with you. Maybe I'll create a graphic novel.

Paris was fun. Probably too much fun because I still had to come back and teach classes on Friday and I wasn't in the mood to do lesson planning, and therefore didn't do it very well--mistake! Turns out having a good lesson plan and back up plans in case technology fails is essential. I had two of my worst class experiences so far. Oops. My bad. Looks like I'll be planning more seriously from now on...

Paris is a cool city. This is undeniable. Because I lived there for a year, I have seen most of the major sites, but going to the city is like visiting an old friend. There is always something new and exciting to see and wandering around and exploring is probably my favorite thing to do--and that never gets old. Anyhow, I didn't take the typical, 3-days-in-Paris tourist approach, but it was a nice change of pace and a fun trip nonetheless.

I stayed with a friend of mine named Gerry, who plays on the Paris ultimate team that I've been playing with--he had a little apartment in the 10th by Gare de L'Est that had a little inset wall bed (it was more of couch, because it was short, but I'm calling it a bed). It was a cozy little bed in a great location and he was a great host, so it worked out pretty well.

I don't want to write just a laundry list of what I did, so instead I think I'll just tell you the highlights of the trip and hopefully that will be interesting.

The first day, I arrived in Paris in the morning and made my way to Gerry's house to drop off my stuff. The 10th is a multiethnic district, and he happens to live near an Indian quarter. He mentioned this to me and I got very excited about having and Indian meal. I love French food, but it tends to severely lack vegetables and a spice, and Indian food has a lot of both. Anyhow, he took me to a local vegetarian Indian restaurant and I pigged out. It was amazing and it was a very good start to my visit, minus the fact that I got curry on the sleeve of my white shirt (this always happens when I am wearing white. Grrr)

I have a friend named Alan, who is one of the assistants from the Laval who also was in Paris at the same time, so I met up with him and we went for a walk around the Seine. We were by the Pompidou center, and the first thing we saw was one of those street performers that are always in public spaces. This guy probably had the greatest act I have ever seen. He was a dubious looking old man with a strange accent and crumpled clothing. And all he did was eat things. And by "things" I mean stuff that one should really not eat, such as razorblades, lit cigarettes, and lit matches. The entire time he was doing this, he was narrating the whole adventure in a crazy-old-man kind of way. It was probably the greatest thing I have ever seen.

After that, I remembered this great hot chocolate place that I used to go to when I lived there and I suggested that we get some hot chocolate, and we decided to go there and get a cup. The hot chocolate shop was in a district just north of the Tuileries, which is terribly fancy and chic. This means that you get to walk by all these incredibly expensive hotels and admire the interiors from the windows. We were walking by one such hotel and this group of people walked out--I didn't notice anything, but the Alan (who is Scottish), whispered to me "wait. That's Robbie Williams" (for those of you who don't know, because I only had a vague idea, Robbie Williams is a British pop singer who is incredibly popular in Britain and Europe and may have had a hit or two in the U.S., but is not as well known) and he yelled "Hey! Robbie!" to which Robbie turned around, and flashed us a dazzling smile before getting into a large black luxury vehicle. It's funny how chance encounters happen like that, although I think I would have been more excited about the whole thing if I had a better idea of who he was. If Alan hadn't been there, I wouldn't have recognized him. (This makes me believe that I have seen lots and lots of really famous people, and have failed to recognize them in my ignorance).

That evening, I went to ah Ah Ouh Puc mixed practice. European ultimate is different than US ultimate. And by "different" I mean "less organised and more cluster-fuck-y (yes, that is a word)", which is something I'm just going to have to get used to, but sometimes, I get frustrated and I want to just say to everyone "there is a place where only one person cuts at a time and no one cuts each other off, and the dump happens not at stall 9 and swings happen, and it is beautiful. This magical land is called the United States" (once again, sorry to you non-frisbee folk). Still, it is nice to be playing ultimate, and the knee is doing ok (still hurts a little occaisionally, but not in an alarming way). So that is nice.

The next day I went to the one big museum that I never managed to go to when I lived in Paris, the Musée Quai Branly. It is the non-Western art museum and it is pretty awesome. They had a special exhibit on Tenochticlan, which was really cool--it had frescoes from the site as well lots of sculptures and pottery and it was very well explained. My favorite thing was this chicken:It's just so stylish. Those Mixtecs (I think...) were pretty cool.

There is one very important very reason that I am glad that to be not actually living in Paris this time around and only just visiting it occasionally. It is phenomenally expensive, and there is constant temptation and too much to buy. Needless to say, I did go on a small shopping expedition, in which I managed to escape after only buying a skirt and shirt--this was incredibly hard, believe me.

When I was going back to Gerry's apartment that evening, he called to tell me that he wasn't in his apartment, but in that of a neighbor's because he is part of the equivalent of a CSA (community supported agriculture) in Paris, and he shares his share with a couple that lives on the first floor of his building. Anyhow, I went down to the couple's apartment to help with some translation (Gerry is somewhat new to French), and I got to see one of the coolest and most French apartments I have ever seen.
It was crammed full of newspapers and books and it was one of those apartments that is much bigger than it looks. It had a window that looked onto a lower rooftop and they had turned the rooftop into a glorious little garden. It was awesome. The guy who lived there (I didn't meet the woman), was pretty cool too. He was wonderfully warm and welcoming. We were chatting, and at one point he mentioned that he had a blog, and I asked him what it was about. It turns out that he does mail art, which is what it sounds like. It's a network of people who mail pieces of art (usually painted or collage postcards) to each other. The idea is that if you mail something to someone, they will mail you something back; it's an exchange. He showed cool stuff that he received and the stuff he sends and he gave us his address so that we could try and mail him something. Despite my lack of artistic skill, I think I'm going to try. If anyone is interested, here is his blog, and his address is:
Jacky Charmouan
7bis passage de la ferme Saint Lazare
75010 Paris
FRANCE
if you want to send him some art--it might be interesting (Sally, you should try)!

Besides these adventures, I spent my time walking around--I visited Monmartre, and the Rue St. Honoré, and various other districts. I also went to a women's practice on Wednesday--I had forgotten how much I like playing womens and it made me miss Scorch a little...

Paris is an awesome place. I will always love going there. For the moment though, I am happy to be in my little town in the middle of nowhere--I think I may be starting to make some French (!!) friends and as always, very much love my living situation. I will continue to miss peanut butter and burritos though (peanut butter burritos, not so much).

And to finish, here is an awesome shot of the Seine: