I Love Paris in the...

I had the good fortune to have a long weekend and travel to Paris to visit a friend studying abroad for the semester at the city university. A quick shout out to Megan: You're a great guide...Thanks for showing me around and being my translator! I'll return the favor any time!

Truly, Paris is a gorgeous city -- even the apartment buildings are works of art! Though it was raining virtually all weekend, I still managed to see a lot of new and different things.

Time is a-ticking, so here is a tour of my recent trip to Paris:

View from the Georges Pompidou Centre. It was so cloudy that the Eiffel Tower (center stage in the picture) was obscured by clouds. I would have a hard time choosing between this modern art museum and the Reina Sofia Museum here in Madrid, but I digress...

Title: Sister, 2005 - Artist: Subodh Gupta

One of my favorites from the Pompidou: it was a large table with a movie projected onto it of an Indian food market. Under the table were stacks and stacks of metal plates, bowls and cups. A statement about world hunger? about Indian society? I don't know, but I liked it!

And above, was another favorite: Jean-Michel Basquiat's Slave Auction (1982).

View from Place de la Concorde with an unobscured Eiffel Tower in the background. From here, we strolled up the Champs Elysee to the Arc du Triomphe, but not before we stopped for refreshments at the world-famous tea house, Ladurée.

I felt so refined eating my mango macaroon and Marie Antoinette tea, which is a "Délicieux thés noirs de Chine mêlés d’huiles essentielles au subtil arôme d’agrumes et de fleurs de rose et de jasmin, parsemés de morceaux de fruits séchés et agrémentés de miel"

Also known as:

"Delicious China teas mixed with essential oils of subtle citrus fruit, rose and jasmine flowers flavour, scattered with small pieces of dried fruits and honey".

Intrigued by talk of a nightclub underneath one of the major bridges on the Pont Alexandre III, we ended up at the techno/house music club, Showcase, much later that night. You could look outside the windows of the club onto the River Seine. One techno band, one DJ and one glass of absinthe later, we left. But what a location...and, WOW, do Europeans love techno!

The next day, I went to on a good, old-fashioned trip to ponder my mortality at the Catacombs of Paris, a former quarry site, WW II French resistance hiding place, and current resting place for hundreds of years worth of Parisian bones.

(Picture taken on my last trip in July, 2006)

Then, for the "pièce de résistance" we took a trip over to the Marais, the Jewish quarter of Paris, to one of my favorite places in all the world (so far ;-): L'As du Falafel for, what else, a falafel special sandwich. See that guy in the middle of the photo? He's the one who takes your order and money and gives you a ticket at which you will stare at the whole time in the impossibly long line, wishing for it to magically turn into the falafel sandwich that awaits you: a fresh, thick, soft pita stuffed to the gills with crisp, hot falafel balls, cabbage salad, cucumber, fried eggplant, hummus and hot sauce. Only when you get to the official order window is there relief from your longing. Instead, you are momentarily entranced by the expert staff staff furiously whipping together your sandwich. Ahhh...it is so worth the wait! And 5-Euros is a small price to pay.

My last stop of the trip before heading to the airport was to visit the cathedral Saint Chappelle. It was closed on my last trip, so I made it a point to visit this time. A happy coincidence is that it is right around the corner from the cathedral Notre Dame de Paris, so it is a eye-popping two-fer if you are in the area.

Saint Chappelle was once part of a large royal palace of Louis IX, but is now one of the only buildings left of the original palace. I learned about it way back when in an art history class and it has been on my must-see list ever since. It is said that there is more stained glass than than stone in this small, intense bite of High-Gothic architectural candy.

Here are some odds and ends from the trip:

Not-so-subtle street renaming in the 14th...

and, there were tons of posters for this movie, which I don't remember being released in The States. Movies with stars like Leonardo Di Caprio and Russel Crowe are usually a big deal. Vertict: it must have REALLY sucked. I'm starting to see the ads in Madrid, too. The title in English seems to be something like State Secrets or State Lies. Has anyone seen this cinematic jewel? Didn't think so.

Que Bonita Segovia!

I took a short trip to Segovia during my first weekend in Spain with two of my companeros de Simmons College. Intrigued by talk of an aqueduct, a castle that inspired Walt Disney and the city's famous conchinillo (roasted suckling pig), we took a one-hour bus ride north from Madrid's Principe Pio station to take a look (and taste) for ourselves.


After a 10 minute walk down a main street from the bus station, we were greeted with the dramatic sight of the city's Roman aqueduct, built at the end of the 1st century BC.



A little further up the winding, narrow, shop-lined street that also happens to accommodate cars (!) is the Segovia Cathedral. This Gothic cathedral was build in the mid 1500s.

A little further up the street was the stunning Alcazar, built toward the end of the 11th century. Although the name is a relic from the Moors who occupied Spain for almost 500 years, I haven't found definite information that they made it as far north as Segovia. Historians say that the Romans initially built on this site originally. It has been the home of Castillian Kings, and the influence for Cinderella's Castle at Disney World. Both the building and the view from the Alcazar are stunning!

Of course, by the time we walked from the aqueduct, to the cathedral, and to the Alcazar, we were quite hungry. Restaurants featuring menu del dia lined the path; most featuring the dish the city is known for; Conchinillo. It is served different ways in different places (i.e., whole versus pieces) and we expected the most dramatic entrance; snout, tail and all. Instead, at Restaurante La Catedral we got a chunk of the leg that featured fork-tender, full-flavored pork and a wafer-crisp, caramelized skin.




You can see the main sites of Segovia in a day, which makes it a perfect day-trip from Madrid. It's beauty is a true payoff!

No Bull

So, we have health insurance through a Spanish health care company called MAPFRE. One of the stipulations written into the contract, curiously, is that we cannot do anything with bulls. No running , no petting and I bet if they could, they would say no looking at a bull. I think it is unbelievable that they had such foresight on this detail that they wrote it into the health insurance policy. Yet at the same time, I understand it completely.

Fortunately, they didn't go that far because I'm trying to rally some troops to go to the bullfights in Madrid at Las Ventas in early October.

So, I found the mini-application (at the bottom of this page) where I can simulate running with the bulls if I ever get the urge. Try it...it's fun!