Paris 2

Favorite cafes and the mass of people you see on Pont des ArtsThe Pantheon...where they keep famous dead frenchmen...and one woman (Madame Curie)From the umbrellas of Cafe Richelieu in the Louvre...looking down.

PAINTING - This hottie was painting in the Rubens room of the Louvre. I wanted to tell him that I wasn't like all the other tourists that were taking his photo - I wanted to tell him that he was really bringing the painting to life for me - the smell of the paint, his motions as he moved in for a brushstroke, his pensive decisions for mixing colors, his intensity when studying the subject. I wanted to tell him all that, but instead, I just snapped the photo - like all the other tourists.STATUES IN THE LOUVRE - I love "Victoire de Samotrace", but it was always surrounded by people swooping in to take one photo of their wife standing in front of it and then fleeing up the stairs to shoot the next masterpiece (the Mona Lisa); I tried to take a pic that showed that motion.

All the statues in one room were wrapped up in anticipation of moving "in case of a flood".

Best butt.PERE LACHAISE - A collection of the doors on sepulchres from another place where they store dead french people (I played treasure hunt and found Edith Piaf, Delacroix, Victor Hugo, Chopin, Oscar Wilde but missed many more in the jumble of tombs and tiny cross streets. Why can't the french have the decency to die in alphabetical order?)

---RANDOM STUFF---

MOVIE REVIEW - "Jesus Camp" was described as being about evangelical christians, "like George Bush".

POP CULTURE - Watching Shrek on VO w/ Larry: they totally missed the queen, voiced by Julie Andrews, getting hit on the head and singing a few lines of "These are a few of my favorite things..." They didn't really know who the actress was or that she had something to do with "Sound of Music".

AC - The heat can be terrible, especially in the metro; everyone complains about it. But, at the same time, everyone also still thinks that A/C is bad for you (sudden changes in temperature). I could only get B to admit that a little "climatisation" would be good in the metro, if only to bring the temperature down to the same level as above ground "with a light breeze". Larry tells me that it's the law that some buildings can only be 5 deg C cooler than the outside temperature (9 deg F).

ID - Bruno thinks it is insupportable that Americans MUST carry ID at all times (i.e. to get a cocktail and prove your age). Of course, on the train, we all had to get up and show our metro tickets with photo IDs attached for the surprise inspection.

PURITANS - One of my biggest problems is not being able to be funny** - with sarcasm or in reference to American pop culture. I was with a group of Bruno's friends and one of the women showed us her new denim jacket with the pocket cover on the chest that you could flip up and show the different fabric on the backside. I immediately thought "Janet Jackson". Of course, no one knew what I was talking about at all. 1) They would never watch the superbowl and 2) if they did, and saw Janet's "malfunction", they would think nothing of seeing a woman's breast.

I've gotten very good at saying - in french - "No, really, I can be very funny, but only in english. I prefer to listen and learn french."

WASHING CLOTHES - You load the machines and pay at one central kisk connected to all the machines - by the kilo as measured by the washer. More weight = more water = more money.

FETE DE LA MUSIQUE - On the longest day of the year, everyone goes out in the street to make music. I saw official concerts in the courtyard of the Senate building (children's choir) and in the Tuileries (the band of the Prefecture de Police de Paris), but in the Beaubourg and St. Germain areas, there was literally a band on every corner. As you moved through the neighborhoods, your soundtrack changed from rock to heavy metal to Tijuana to folk. One street was blocked off with a rave. Another had folks handing out music for a traditional french sing-a-long. Loved it.

DISNEY - I know, I know, what am I doing going to Disneyland Paris while in the middle of all this art and culture? Well, it's only 35 minutes away by RER and I'm here for 3 weeks and I'm not going to take a week of vacation to down to Florida anytime soon to the Disneyworld and I like Disney. It was cute - smaller and multilingual with kids yelling out to the characters in their native languages (like spanish kids screaming out "Alicia" and french girls swooning over "Cendrillon").

B and I went on the Buzz Lightyear ride where you are pulled through a shooting arcade, wracking up points with your "laser pistol". B bought our photo taken 1/2-way through the ride - it shows the two of us, me with the 2-handed, arcade-goober deathgrip on the pistol and B looking like frickin Han Solo. The worst part is the photo shows our scores - 4,000 for me and 34,000 for him. He couldn't resist talking about it with the guy in the photo booth who remarked something like "imagine; an American who can't shoot a gun."

**Some would assert that that is my problem in any language...I'll address that later.