It’s almost 10 pm, the taxi comes at 7 am, I’m still not packed. But we had a nice last day, which in addition to hours of packing, included a last lunch at the little restaurant on the side street next to our apartment (Le Daudet), a wonderful visit at the apartment of one of our instructors from the Alliance (coffee, tea, chocolates, and conversation), topped off by a trip […]
On the next-to-the-last day today, here are some things we did: 1. We came across our first flat-out crazy person. He was a guy with a scruffy beard and old shoes without any laces sitting by himself in one of the “booths” on the Metro. About a minute after we’d boarded, he suddenly, violently, and for no apparent reason kicked the seat opposite him, letting out a kind of low […]
I’ve been wanting to write a post that would summarize our time in Paris, succinctly and perfectly, but after several aborted attempts I’ve come to the conclusion that it will perhaps have to wait until after the return. We’re both still sitting around saying, “how are we going to go back?”, and I know that no one wants to hear that, the only proper response to it being, “Oh, mes […]
This is really silly, an annotated video I shot of myself a few weeks ago (not great camera work, I know, especially the big hand coming at the lens at the very end; I was trying to be inconspicuous). So upon my return to the States, when I am raving about such-and-such a wonderful thing in Paris, you can simply say, “Chatelet, Chatelet.” But, of course, Chatelet is also pictured […]
Maybe I wouldn’t say that the Musée des Arts et Métiers is my favorite museum in Paris. Suzie and I visited the Picasso Museum today, and afterwards I was thinking, of all the museums and exhibits I’ve been to in the last six months, which did I enjoy the most? The answer sort of surprised me — the most enjoyable experience, perhaps because I wasn’t expecting anything from it, was […]
I took the bus today to my favorite museum in Paris, the wonderful and interesting Musee des Arts and Metiers in the Marais. The fact that it’s my favorite museum probably proves that deep down (or maybe not so deep down) I’m a real nerd, as the museum is completely dedicated to the history of science and technology. The museum contains the collection of the Conservatoire National des Arts et […]
Here, one of my favorites, Jay Farrar of Son Volt … “highways and dreams together forever/in the minds of the free and the innocent” … And here, an excerpt from a concert I attended in Petaluma a couple of springs ago … we’ll know when we get there, if we’ll find mercy…
Time is winding down here, but we still find things to love about Paris. This weekend they were having a small Christmas market on the two blocks of Rue de Alésia east of our apartment, which consisted of stalls of vendors selling mostly delicious things to eat. We went to the market on Sunday, and by the time we traversed the two blocks, we were no longer hungry, having tasted […]
So I returned, after my horrible first experience at the Phonetics Lab, for a second session, because I’d paid for it (mostly) but also because I thought maybe the second time would be more useful and not quite so discouraging. Wrong. If anything, it was even worse. I was greeted this time by a friendly, vivacious, middle-aged woman whom I’ll call “D”, who asked me for the results of my […]
Chalk it up to the grey and the cold, the shortness of the days, the impending end to our time in Paris, a nagging cold, or a combination of the foregoing, but I haven’t felt much like writing lately. This is our last week at the Alliance Française; I’m acutely aware that the next few days may be the last we ever spend there, that the times I see my […]