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.

No More Bull For Me, Thanks

This past Sunday, a small group of us went to the bullfights at Las Ventas in Madrid. In preparation for this event, I was supposed to read Death in the Afternoon, Ernest Hemingway's non-fiction book about Spanish bullfighting, or, at the very least, do some sort of research before entering the building so I had a clue about what was going on. In very un-like me fashion, neither of these things happened.

My friend, Steve, has a Spanish friend who knows a thing or two about bullfighting and helped him decipher some of the more obscure facets of the bullfight. He's posted some of those on his blog (scroll halfway down the page).

Like many of those whom I asked before going to the bullfights, I have to say that I'm glad I went, but I won't go again. I'm not a PETA member by any stretch of the imagination, but it is a disturbing thing to see an animal killed right before your eyes with such pomp and bravado. This feeling stands despite the fact that they use bull for food or other goods. And, yes, there were, indeed, six of these animals killed during the bullfight -- that's the norm.

Bullfighting seems to be a dying cultural event in Spain, if the sparse attendance at Las Ventas is any indication. Perhaps further evidence lies in a conversation I had with one of the teachers I work with at school the next day who commented, "a beautiful painting, music or a play is culture. Bullfighting and cruelty is not. I'm glad it {bullfighting} is dying out".

**This blog post dedicated to bulls number 15, 48, 29, 7, 61 and 13**

Holy Toledo

Although Segovia was the first city (outside of Madrid) I visited in Spain, I have to say that I enjoyed the city of Toledo just a hair more. This dusty city rises from the floor of the sparse Castilla-La Mancha countryside and comes complete with mysterious passageways off of medieval, cobbled streets that are lined with the most unusual selection of stores (mazapan and knight's armor, anyone?). Toledo reminded me a bit of Venice, Italy -- minus the canals, of course.

Toledo is known for two main things: having a 16th century Alcazar that was almost demolished in a seige during the Spanish Civil War and for being a place historically noted for its tolerance among its Christian, Moorish and Jewish populations. You can still see traces of each of these cultural influences in the food and architecture in the city. Two main food items they are noted for are mazapan and partridge (more on those later).

I first became aware of Toledo because it is the sister city of Toledo, Ohio in the United States! Just kidding. Sort of. I had heard of the city because the famous Spanish writer Cervantes wrote about it in "Don Quixote". I was also reminded of Toledo when I went to an exhibit earlier this year at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston exhibit featuring Spanish painters. One of the painters, El Greco, was based in Toledo in the later part of his career, and used the city as the subject of many of his paintings. Here is El Greco's famous painting, "View of Toledo":

The city has filled in a bit more since the above was painted in approximately 1600 a.d.:

It took only about 45- minutes to get to Toledo by bus, and then a pretty long walk to the city gates.

And then we finally spotted the Cathedral.

The Cathedral of Toledo is absolutely cavernous and beautiful. It contains works of art by many famous painters including the aforementioned El Greco, and Rafael, Titian, Goya, Rubens, Ribera and Caravaggio, among many others. It also contains a piece of rock said to be from the place where the Virgin Mary appeared in 667 A.D. to the archbishop of Toledo at the time, Archbishop Ildephonsus.

We couldn't quite figure out how to get around the cathedral as the roads around it are a bit confusing, nor could we take photography inside. I humbly offer this view of the Cathedral's "Door of the Clock".

While wandering the streets, we sampled some of the local specialty, mazapan, a local Toledan sweet featuring almond paste. Next time, though, I will take a picture before I devour them and also wait until I get to the Nuns of San Clemente's store to buy the delicious candies. This is a picture from the plaza in front of their store:

We also visited the Sephardic Museum, which was quite captivating.

I came away from Toledo thinking, "I've got to come back". I didn't, after all, get a chance to try their partridge.

Just an average night in Madrid

During the first week or so I was in Madrid, I had the pleasure of attending a Flamenco show at Las Carboneras that was tucked off a passageway just off of Calle Mayor. I was captivated by the whole hour-or-so-long show. Three female flamenco dancers and one male took turns dancing solo, feet frantically tapping and slamming into the wooden stage below them. Shouts of ¡vale! (OK), ¡venga! (come on) ¡hola! (hello) ¡ole! (bravo) and ¡levante! (rise up) peppered the rhythm of the music and footfall. Two singers cried out as the dancers clapped in time. Flamenco guitars strummed slowly, then fast, then slow again and all of a sudden...just stopped.

Such an emotional whirlwind for such a passionate, emotional dance performance. It kept me on the edge of my seat and left me breathless.



Brief Flamenco History -- Although some say that the name "Flamenco" comes from the historic name for Belgians and Belgium (Flemish and Flanders, respectively), but its root also means 'gypsy' in Spanish. The latter makes more sense from a historical perspective. This dance form originated in Andalusia, but is known around the world as being from Spain, in general.

Oh! And I also had some great tapas before the show at a lovely little place called Taberna Miranda that is conveniently next door to Las Carboneras. There were pimientos del padron and setas con ajo do die for. I will return!

The New Me!

The first lesson I am developing for my English classes is a getting-to-know-you worksheet and exercise. I have to complete a worksheet for myself to model what I want them to do. Among other things, there is a section in this worksheet where students can draw whatever they want, like a self-portrait or original design. On my worksheet, I created self-portrait by creating a Yahoo! avatar.

What do you think?