I spent my last couple of days in Paris cramming in as much as I could... I met another musician near Nation and interviewed him for my podcast, I ran around buying last-minute things and snapping photos, and I had to clean the apartment and do the laundry before I left.
I met Pascale for dinner and we ended up around Canal St. Martin, first having coffee at l'Atmosphere, then dinner at a place that we didn't know...it had nouvelle cuisine, but with a surprisingly bland taste.
Here are a few parting snapshots from this séjour:
Here are a few things that I can buy in a supermarket in Paris very cheaply that are done so much better than at home: packaged soup that's actually quite good, milk (which can often sit on the shelf for months before you open it), ham, mustard. I'll miss these when I go home.
Yesterday I met Pearl, Patsy, and Carol at the Pompidou Centre and we saw the Nancy Spero exhibit, then hopped on the metro to see the André Kertész exhibit at Jeu de Paum. Following that, we had tea with some of their friends (artists who live in Paris) at one of their ateliers, which was a very cool, funky, spacious spot-- a former storefront --tucked into the middle of an urban neighborhood. It was the perfect thing to do on a cold and rainy day.
Today I went to the 13eme with Pascale to satisfy my craving for Vietnamese food. We went to Lao Lane Xang on rue Ivry. It really hit the spot. I took some photos of the soup, the green papaya salad, and the rice pancakes.
Then we went on to Tang Freres to look at the food. Of course a lot of what's for sale at Tang Freres, I can probably get in San Francisco, but I like looking at it in this environment, anyway. And of course I snapped a few pictures.
Then we went on to the Institut du Monde Arab, and then back to the Gibert Jeune bookstore. It was raining, and we had wet umbrellas, so maybe a bookstore wasn't the smartest idea, but...
Then on to the Bastille, where we had salads and drinks at Cafe des Anges. Now it's almost 2:30 a.m., and the street is filled with the sound of shouting, drunken young males -- the same thing I seem to hear on Saturday night in any European city, for some reason. This will be my last Saturday night here for awhile...
Today I walked around in the 3eme again...mostly to buy this amazing ras al hanout blend at a spice shop that requires you to ring a bell to get in (Le Goumyande, I think it's called).
Then I walked around, ate some Lebanese food at the Marché des Enfants Rouges, and in general spent another leisurely day as if leisurely days were normal. Ran some errands in the evening, bought some INSANELY GREAT cheese that was....I don't know what it was, but maybe it's good that I can't get it all the time.
Then I decided to go to the Apple Store near l'Opera before it closed tonight. I wonder what it's like during the day? iPads everywhere, and could just walk right up and try them out...and look at all the stuff that people downloaded to them during the day, I guess. Or is that dancing wedding video of the American couple always on the iPad display units?
Then, finally, I looked at the windows of the Galleries Lafayette. The Christmas stuff is already out....but the displays are ... well, they have Barbie dolls and stuffed animals and puppets...I'm not sure what they're selling, but it's amusing.
Today I went to the Basquiat exhibit at the Musée d'Art Moderne. I really loved it and it made me want to go home and dig into my own creative projects again. And that's about the best thing that could happen to me... it was like turning on a light switch.
When I left the museum, I was heading for the metro when I turned my head and caught a glimpse of the Eiffel Tower between a couple of buildings. It took me by surprise, and I'm not an Eiffel Tower kind of visitor here, but I had to take a snapshot. Like the Golden Gate Bridge in SF, a lot of people pay a lot of money to come here and see this structure, and I almost walked right past it, just like I drive over the GG Bridge without a second thought.
I also took this snapshot of a random building that looks like it was once a firehouse, but possibly isn't anymore. Then I took the number 6 metro past the Eiffel Tower again, did some random shopping, walked through the Bastille, and came home and made dinner. A pretty quiet day, overall, and perhaps I should have done something more intense, since I'm only here for 6 more days, but then again when I'm here it's like being at home. And these dilapidated stairs lead to the flat that's been my home away from home for many months in the past few years.
And here is a little YouTube video about Jean-Michel Basquiat for your viewing pleasure:
I tried to capture some of the busy vibe in the metro today...and was only able to capture some of the moments when people were hurtling at me from every direction. But this short amount of video illustrates the general feeling. Sorry about the audio on these rudimentary videos. I only have an old copy of iMovie with me for video editing...and not much RAM.
Today I spent a bit of time taking photos in Pere Lachaise. I started a project awhile ago about the forgotten graves there...I found them fascinating and sad. And as I photographed them, I found them to each be beautiful in their own way.
Many tourists come to Pere Lachaise looking for the famous and they walk around with maps so they can find their graves. I collect images about the ones that no one else looks for and in many cases, stopped remembering them 100 years ago.
Here are a few of the snapshots that I took today. I have hundreds more.
On Monday I stood on line at the Voltaire metro station to add another week's fare to my Navigo card. The line was long and slow and it took forever. Why? Because there were two gypsy kids standing over the fare machines and hovering over the customers while they inserted their Navigo passes and their credit cards into the machine. Most of these patrons were loading up their Navigo cards with fare for the month (November).
I've never seen Romany kids in my neighborhood before. I've also noticed more homeless people than the last time I was here, too. No one wanted to do their transaction with these kids hovering over them, but no one was able to get rid of them. The woman who worked in the fare window told them to go away and they just laughed at her. Then a male worker yelled at them, and again, they didn't leave.
Nothing short of the police could have gotten rid of them, but the police -- ironically -- were busy standing inside the corridors making sure that everyone's Navigo passes were current and trying to catch fare jumpers. Meanwhile, the passengers were being intimidated by these kids who were trying to grab their money while they updated their Navigo cards. Nice.
Today we turned our clocks back an hour -- no more daylight savings time!
Pascale joined me and we walked from Les Halles over to Canal St. Martin...had lunch at L'Atmosphere and looked in the shops...then walked over to Oberkampf and had drinks at Cafe Charbon. There was a little bit of Halloween energy in Oberkampf as the night began, but nothing like what you see in San Francisco, and maybe more to do with the Day of the Dead tomorrow.
Sorry for the ongoing food porn, but part of my day was spent shopping at Marché d'Aligres and Monoprix, eating, and then trying to walk enough to burn off all the calories.
Then I went to Gibert Jeune booksellers, one of the rare times I go to the rive gauche (the Fisherman's Wharf of Paris). I make this exception because there's so many fabulous books in that building, mostly at great prices, that I want to take the bookstore with me. I settled on only a few purchases, most notably, "Fahrenheit 451" in bandes dessinnées. Then, to avoid the crush in the awful St. Michel metro station, I walked to République before hopping back on the metro again.
...at how much cheaper it is to buy food in Paris than it is in San Francisco. These groceries cost €27, and it includes a week's supply of coffee, 8 containers of yogurt, a package of smoked ham, veggies and tomatoes for a salad, several rolls of toilet paper, some Dijon mustard, some breakfast grains, a container of "gourmet" olives, milk, mineral water, and a bar of dark chocolate. This would probably cost $40-$45 in the USA, and might not be as good.
This video was allegedly filmed a week or so before the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. The filmmakers mounted a camera on a San Francisco streetcar and went all the way down Market Street to the Ferry Building. Aside from the obviously amazing things in this footage, I was also struck by how frequently the streetcars ran. They're almost bumper to bumper! Anyone who's ever stood i the wind on Market Street waiting for the F car knows that things have changed a lot since then....
Many organizations are coming forward with requests to help the victims of the Haitian earthquake. This is my preferred charity...please donate if you can.
