Musées et bien plus encore

(Museuming and so much more)

Breakfast of Champions ... French Champions

Thursday we finally got to the Rodin Museum, the museum was nice but what was really cool is the garden that has all the large and well known pieces.  You can buy a pass to the garden for a euro so I will try to remember that.

 

I sketched one of the statues outside while Daniel watching the kids throw themselves into the hedges, so easy to entertain.

Daniel also noticing a striking resemblance of some of the statues to "Single Ladies" choreography.

For an added bonus we watched the tail end of the French Communist Party March.  What they were marching about I do not know, but who doesn't love a parade.

Since one museum is just not enough, I went to the Louvre Friday afternoon to sketch.  This was my very first alone outing. I handled it pretty well considering I got my tickets from an machine, you know baby steps.  

I always enjoy sketching in museums and it was nice not worrying if Daniel was getting bored.  After a few false starts I found a nice spot on the floor and camped out with this pretty lady. 

It is amusing sketching in a museum some people try to nonchalantly peek at your pad while others blatantly just stare.  I had one guy sit down next to me and try to start a conversation, in french...I think.  I turned to him and politely said "I am sorry, I speak a little French" looked at him and when he didn't launch into English I gave a little shrug and when back to my drawing.  In hind sight I should have said "I speak no French".  I felt a little bad this is the second time someone has tried to start a conversation with me while I was sketching.  

Daniel and I had dinner and then he joined me back at the Louvre for the late night hours.  This is best time to go the crowds are thinned out we are trying to see the whole museum before the end of the summer.  I will let you know how it works out.  When we came out at the end of the night the carnival in the Tulleries was lite up including the Farris Wheel which we decided would be fun despite the exorbitant charge.

View from the Top.

Sacré Coeur over the city.

And Us

We toured through the carnival before we headed out for the night.  Not a bad little fair : cotton candy, flume ride, oh and shoot your prize down game.  That is right there is a Ipad hanging from a string and you shoot at it with an air rifle, love it.

Paris cinq ans plus tard

(Paris 5 years later)

Durring a computer switch somewhere down the line Daniel and I lost most of our honeymoon pictures, the ones on Facebook were just about the only ones left.  We thought it would be a fun anniversary activity to go back and retake our remaining pictures.  Our anniversry was a rainy day so yesterday we did it anyway.

Honeymoon pictures and 5 years (and a couple days later) Pictures!

Pyramid at the Louvre

 Arc de Triomphe!

Musée d'Orsay

Fountains at the Tuileries

Bachalpsee Lake in Grindwald, Switzerland

Some of the pictures we brought the originals along as a guide, some we did from memory, and we didn't get overly picky when we asked a stranger to shoot the pictures.  It seems no one ask anyone to take group shoots anymore, families take pictures in shifts, sad.  We had a lot of fun playing when the camera died we just switched over to the camera phone.  Once again we were hot, tired, and overly jostled by the time we walked down the Champs-Élysées so the look is authentic in the Arc picture. 

This one is my favorite

Kissing in the Tuileries 

Nous Sommes Devenus Amis!

(We Made Friends!) ... sorta

Daniel is part of an online community called Reddit which I consider to largely be a black hole of time and energy, though he reassures me it has redemaning qualities by finding information on just about any subject you could imagine.  In brief, how the website works is it is made up of lots of small groups with specific interests such as motorcycles, sports groups, funny comics, and paris community.  He joined the Paris Community which has helped answer a few cultural questions we have had, as well as let us know about things happening in Paris.  Reddit Paris occasional host "Meet Ups" one of which we decided to attend on Sunday, the theme of which was largely to celebrate June Birthdays at one of the few beer bars in Paris. The Parisians seem to be much up on the wine collection and less on an extensive quality beer selection.

We showed up to Brewberries (which seems to have a collection topping over 100 selections of beer) on a rainy Sunday afternoon to meet up with the people of the internet.

That is right Left Hand Milk Stout in Paris.

Fair or not I had set idea of Redditors being guys living in their parents basement, spending hours flaunting their internet superiority, some of these things were correct most of them were unfair portails.  We spent a wonderful four hours drinking beer and chatting with Ben from England, Tommy from Australia, and Shaun from Amsterdam, by way of Aruba.  It was a small gathering and I was the only girl, some internet stereotypes do hold water, but we enjoyed conversation discussing differences in all our english speaking cultures and discussing beer when there were lulls in the conversation.

Daniel and I tried not to be the crass/ loud Americans and I imagine we succeed sometimes and failed in others.  Surprisingly we got into several high caliber topics as religion, politics and gun culture (which I am sure we seemed like gun nuts, by the fact I grew up shooting and Daniel has picked up the sport and discussion and we gave a fairly liberal american showing.

We were still having a good time after four hours in the bar so four of us (Tommy needed to catch a metro back) headed out for a quick dinner and then the England / Italy game (soccer).  I did my best to remember to say football and not soccer.  We swung into the french version of a Chipotle and I ordered my whole burrito in french, which is not a small feat.  I find a little bit of alcohol seems to make my french more fluid, I won't swear I'm better I am just less worried about it.

Ben selected from three different "English" pubs before selecting one to watch the match from, I guess was he was trying not to overwhelm us with avid nationalist fans, as one pub we passed was spilling out onto the sidewalk with football fans.  We settled into an appropriate hole in the wall bar and watched through two halves, a 30 minute over time and penalty kicks (a game ending on penalties kicks is not very satisfying by the way).  Sadly England lost but the whole night was not a lost as I drank one beer too many and Daniel discovered Picon Beer, it is a liqueur you add to beer, very tasty.  We may even have tentative plans for meeting up with Shaun again later in week.

Daniel and Ben, who is not happy about the current state of the game.

A good time and enjoyable to talk to someone other than each other in Paris.

Le Racines

(The Roots)
The best, legendary, hard working, revolutionary, sure shot from Philadelphia P.A. The Roots Crew.


After Daniel and I got in from the train from Switzerland we took enough time to drop our bags and change out of my travel clothes and headed back out to go to a Roots concert, that is right a hip hop concert... in Paris.


 I was more than tired heading out on the metro and once we had arrived in the concert venue I was really questioning this perticular choice.  I could not decide in which way I was going to feel more out of place: in my pale conplextion or my lack of french. Well it seems the hip hop crowd in Paris is just as pale as me and I soon learned I could make out french rap as well as english rap... Bein! 

The first thing we made note of being at a french concert was the baguette stand down in the pit.  You can see the light up top on the right.  They also sold beer and they were baguette sandwiches but still... a baguette cart at a hip hop concert.

The first of the opening acts was a white rapper who was not quite bring it in stage presents.  We got a great chuckle out of a string of french rap and then an occasional "shit" or "MF" apparently if you are going to curse in rap you are always going to curse in English... oh and "bang" "bang" also seems to translate pretty easily.

Daniel questioning authenticity of the rapper's gangster creed.

The second opening act was fantastic, and really enjoyable to watch despite again having no idea what we were singing about.  We did learn such helpful french phases as " Levez Vos Mains" "Raise your hands" and " Comme ca, frappe le "beat" come ca" "Like this, beat the beat like this."  It is always easier to translate when the speaker adds visuals.  Another thing that seemed to translate pretty easily is when a crowd member is singled out for not participating,  shame.

Oh and they had a drop down screen to play movie trailers and tv commercials in-between the opening act and the Roots, what are you going to do not look?  That would be a clip from "Brave" or "Braver" as the trailer indicated.

THE ROOTS!

We forgot the camera so Daniel's camera phone only did  close up so well.  

What a great show! They were so energetic, there was HS Band kick line choreography for the guitar player, bass, and tuba player.  That is right Tuba Player, whose's best moment was when the top of his tuba fell off into the pit.  They started the show with a cover of "Paul Revere" by the Beastie Boys and proceded to do such great covers as "Sweet Child of Mine" "Jungle Boogie" and I think Journey but Daniel says I am wrong, I say he is wrong.

Sadly no Jimmy Fallon, but who had time to miss him with the constant stream of music fly at you.  I was so glad we went and was completely still into by the end of the show when everything had become fairly muffled.

Our view of  not only the stage but of the huge clouds of smoke coming off the pit crowd.

What a great time... super exhausted afterwards... but worth it.

Grindelwald, Switzerland

Daniel’s parent’s came in for a visit spending about two days with us in Paris before the four of us headed out to Grindelwald, Switzerland.  I realize I have fallen behind in some of the things we have been up to but I figured it was a good idea to post our most reason days and do the catch up posts if I can get around to it. 

Switzerland!!!

Daniel and I went to Grindelwald for the second part of our honeymoon and Bonnie and David are very much in love with this little tourist snow town so we were happy to join them there for four days. I was happy for a chance to speak English to everyone for a few days, despite the local language being German everyone speaks English.

Grindelwald is a beautiful town in the Swiss Alps and we had amazing view of the mountains from our hotel balcony.

While the town isn’t covered in snow there seem to be endless hiking trails, which is largely what we filled our time with.  The first day we went to the Jungfrau, billed as the top of Europe.  And has plenty of snow year round.

We hiked for about 45 minutes on top of the glacier to a lunch hut in the middle of no where.  It started to snow on the way back and I got my first experience with a white out.  Hiking in the clouds sounds a little neater than it actually is (clouds are very cold) but a neat experience still. 

Hello from the Top of Europe! 

(I know realize I look like a frog in this picture)

 Day 2

The next day we decided to not in a winder wonderland but in grass.

Though the mountains are the background to every hike.

Bonnie and David decided to twin it up for the day, much to Daniel and I’s delight. Aren’t they adorable.

We experienced a little Swiss wildlife on our hike up to lunch, Sheep!

This guy was not particularly impressed with us.  

We got caught in a pretty sizeable storm on the way down from our lunch hut so not much in the way of pictures from the way down.  I did get some good use of my rain jacket David got me for Christmas.

Day 3

This day had a very “Sound of Music” feeling to it as we hiked from one field of wildflowers to another.

Day 4

More Snow!

We were told the hike we were going to take was closed due to snow, but that didn’t stop us.  Well it did when we figured out we had missed our turn and had taken a different trail. Daniel and David still aren’t a hundred percent sure where we ended up going.

Still had a beautiful view for our picnic lunch.

Here is my Swiss candy bar in front of a Swiss waterfall.  This is super tasty and will be seeing if I can get it in Paris ... or the states 

I even made friends with a cow, who seemed to be there just to entertain the tourist hiking.  When I was being too timid a friendly Russian insisted if I just stuck my hand out the cow would lick it, which she did.  Imagine a gigantic cat’s tongue that is what a cow’s tongue feels like.  

Everyone wants to pet a cow.

The euro cup (soccer) has been going on for the past few weeks and last night we enjoyed the cultural event of watching Germany beat Greece in the hotel bar filled with guest and workers cheering for Germany.  After the game we chatted with a fellow from Belgium.

We are already headed/ back to Paris by this point well rested slash a little tired from our hiking trip.

At the end of our finally hike I decided it was a good time to make sure I got a frolic through the wildflowers. Daniel has a whole series of this “frolic” which is probably more accurately described as a stumbled wading.  

Lebewohl!