La vie française: An (Chinese) American in Paris

Actually, wherever I end up staying is a "Sexy Center". Heheh.

Ah, Paris. I stayed in the "gay" neighborhood of the Marais, which was really very lovely...and I suppose I can say that I really did stay in "gay Paris". Heheh. Bad joke, I know. Anyhoo, I did a bit of exploring around the neighborhood and ventured into an alley. It wasn't really dark, so I figured it was OK...plus, for better or worse, I have quite a penchant for dark allies and the "Sexy Center" sign (above), which was at the entrance of the alley, intrigued me. Ahem. Apparently, it was an alley of sex shops and XXX movie theaters. Ooookaaaay. Actually, the signs on the theaters indicated that movies were "XX", which leads me to believe that perhaps the porno rating system is not internationally standardized. Well, the French are more liberal, so that makes sense. "XX" it is. In any case, I found the alley pretty amusing, if not only for the shops and cinemas but for the numerous kebab stands found throughout. J'aime bien les kebabs! My sister informed me that many kebab stands (the French fast food!) are often found in dark alleys. True dat. Here it made sense with the local clientele probably getting tired after their...whatever. Double true.

Anyway, I had 1.5 days to cram in a whole lotta Parisian sightseeing! Here's some of the notable stuff I ended up seeing...



The Arc de Triomphe. I walked down the Champs Elysees just to see it. On the way, I counted numerous McDonalds ("MacDo", as the French say) and the biggest, dopest Virgin Megastore that I have ever seen!

Which leads me to this point: after my stay in France, I now solemnly pledge to visit every single Virgin Megastore as time and locale allow. It's become a bit like my former McDonalds promise ("Everytime I go abroad, I promise to eat at McDonalds!"), which I actually broke on my French trip. Eh, whatever. Somewhere, Richard Branson is smiling.



Of course, one must go to Notre Dame when one visits Paris - if not to seek out Quasimodo, then just to see a really beautiful church (I did see the bell in the tower that Quasi rang). Actually, I picked this photo not because it was the best one of the church, but because it captures another inevitable aspect of being a tourist in Paris: the Japanese tourist group! Herro! Observe carefully here: this is a tourist group of bored looking Japanese teenagers on holiday from school. Seriously, they were super bored. I was with another teenage group while I was actually in the Church (and yet another in the Louvre...and yet another in the Musée d'Orsay...), and they were just so bored that I felt almost sorry for them....if they weren't so loud, annoying, and insistent about using flash around precious relics. Ah, kids.

My host family and teachers in Bordeaux informed me that, for some reason, the Japanese are quite fascinated by France. They love everything about it (wine, food, Louis Vuitton, etc.). My friend Ho-Young mentioned that all of the Japanese friends she met in Bordeaux mentioned how cheap everything was in France and wasn't that wonderful! Okaaaay, only people with very high costs of living in their own country would consider France cheap. An interesting fact to have learned! Anyhoo, a good chunk of students in the foreign language schools are Japanese, including my school in Bordeaux. Pretty spiffy. I didn't meet many, though, except for my classmate, Takeshi. He's moving to France to be a French chef in a hotel! Neat.



Anyhooo....., back to Notre Dame. ND allowed me to continue my much beloved travel hobby of climbing up a (seemingly) endless flight of stairs up a church tower. Here they are! It's a bit claustrophobic, but the result was worth it (below...wait for it....). Also, I sadly confronted my dwindling days of youth and that I would no longer be able to continue my love of climbing church towers when a bunch of little French kids raced up and down (and up and down again!) the steep and slippery tower steps with such carefree ease. All this as I gripped the guardrail tightly, desperately hoping that I would not fall down the stairs and lay at the bottom of the tower in a crumpled, aged heap. Sigh, mortality, thou art a bitch.



Paris from the viewpoints of the gargolyes on top of Notre Dame. Here, Sad Gargoyle.


Aw, yeah, give me "fierce", Gargoyle!



My favorite: Pensive Gargoyle. It's probably what I would be doing...if I was a stone gargoyle that was stuck on the top of Notre Dame for eternity.



Notre Dame's often overlooked neighbor on the Île de la Cité is Sainte-Chapelle Church, which is really awesome, actually. It's much smaller, but absolutely stunning, for lack of a better descriptive. Sainte-Chapelle famous for it's stained glass windows (seen here), which depicts the story of the Old Testament (I think?) in pretty amazing detail, especially given that it was built in the 13th century by Louis IX (St. Louis!). This is a photo of the upper chapel, with stained glass windows so big that you think, "Uh, where are the walls in this place?"



This is the lower chapel of Sainte-Chapelle, where lowly commoners worshipped back in the day. Still, not bad!



I love the Musée d'Orsay. I blame that report that I did on Paul Gauguin back in high school. In any case, it is a really great museum - interesting and completely navigable. On the way to the museum, I saw a girl in a University of Chicago shirt! I resisted the urge to say, "Dude! I went there, too!"

Speaking of Chicago, there was a mini-model of the Robie House at the Orsay. And a few pieces of Frank Lloyd Wright's furniture. Ah, I'd recognize that Prairie style anywhere! Thanks, Chicago!



I'm probably going to get a lot of shit for saying this, but here goes: I did not think that the Louvre was that cool. Pas du tout. Not because the art wasn't amazing or the building was really spiffy (hello! I.M. Pei, Chinese American, designed the Pyramid! Of course it's cool in that way!). But mostly because it is so incredibly big, really difficult to navigate ("SHIT! Where are the Rembrandts? I want to see some Dutchies!") and everyone is just there to see the Mona Lisa anyway. It's incredibly tiring, but I think I would enjoy it more if I broke up the visit over a couple days...or years, which is really how long it could take to really navigate the place. Too bad it costs over 8 Euro per visit.

One of the two notable events that was nifty about my visit to the Louvre was that, once I was outside, I was just kinda hanging around (taking this picture, figuring out where I was going, etc.) and a grandpa-like Frenchman approached me and struck up a conversation. Always suspicous (I'm American! Sue me for thinking that everyone is a potential sicko), I played along before determining that he was indeed an OK guy. Plus, I remembered my sister and a couple of my friends in Bordeaux mentioning that old French peeps really like chatting with strangers on the street. Crisis and potential kidnapping averted. In any case, he (Pascal) was really nice. We chatted about learning French ("Tu parles bien!" says he. Don't patronize me, old man! J/K...J/K!), how French kids are bums today, Franco-American relations, religion, lots of cool stuff. I was thrilled that I actually understood him, but I think that was a result of him speaking slowly (whew!). He showed me to the Metro (subway) stop, too, and said it was too bad that I wasn't staying longer, since I could come have tea with him and his wife if I was. I said "Peut-être dans nos vies prochaines!" (Maybe in our next lifetimes!)

For my other notable event at the Louvre, see below...



I took this photo mostly because I had succumbed to public pressures and read The Da Vinci Code, knowing full well that photos and video were strictly interdit (forbidden!) in the Louvre. This is the Grand Gallery of Italian Renaissance art, where you'll find your Da Vincis and various Italian masters. It's also where the old guy from the The Da Vinci Code (Sophie's grandfather) drags his bloody, naked body (after being bludgeoned by the albino Opus Dei monk) before croaking. Ah, contemporary "literature".

Sure enough, a museum guard saw me taking the picture and publicly scolded me. "No photos!" she barked. "Je sais," I sighed and meekly put my camera away. But I got a picture of the Grand Gallery, bitches, and I bet you'll see it in the upcoming Hollywood movie. YEAH! (Note: Gosh, I don't know why, but I do so enjoy using the term "bitches"...I'm sorry)






Dude, the Iron Lady! Self-explanatory! One funny thing to note, though: to take these photos, I thought it best to reset my camera on the "Night Shot" setting. All the settings on my camera are denoted by a little graphic icon. Amusingly (erm, I think that is a word), the "Night Shot" graphic was a little moon shining over the Eiffel Tower!! Ha! So funny and ironic! Okay, maybe just to me. I even remember giggling as I took these pictures. Okay, I'm pathetic.