Things we won't & will miss about Paris...

We are almost ready to leave, so we decided to make a list of will and won't miss.

WE WON'T MISS: 

Josh: dog poop, crowded metro, my apartment, the accent on french words, pickpockets, the rain, rats, the homeless, homeworks, the teachers...

Isa: the waiters in the restaurant, the teachers, the bank, the drunks and the homeless all over the city, the dirt, the rain, the dry-cleaning close to home, the security doors in the metro, the stairs to our front door, the smell in the metro, the weirdos all over town, the hairsalons, our noisy neighbors, the dust on the furnitures, carrying luggages in the metro without elevators, the clercks in public offices, Orange telephone customer service...

WE WILL MISS: 

Josh: crepes, baguettes, pain au chocolat, the view from the Eiffel Tower, the museums, my friends,
casual conversations with people you just met, going to buy groceries across the street all by myself, staying at home while mom and dad are having dinner in a close by restaurant, macaroons...

Isa: the musicians in the metro, the fromagerie and the boulangerie at the corner of the street, picnic in the public parks with cheese and wine, the old buildings, the cabblestone, the health system, my friends, the moules frites, the escargots, the courtyard of our apartment, free museums for the kids, the ads , my colleagues, the monokini, the farmer market every other day, the English bookstore close to the school, my Monday morning coffe-breaks with the other moms, walking around the city at night without fear, not using a car, the poems, french books, the chocolate store, crepes, les baguettes aux cereals, my Navigo card, rock salt, my son talking in French, smoking in a bistro, concerts in churches...

14 Juillet ...it's time for celebrations in Paris

I've been dreaming of a pic-nic "en plein air" in a park, at sunset since the last couple of months...unfortunately the weather has been awful. So I almost gave up but then, on the 14 of July, this opportunity came up again and I was able to fulfill this little dream of mine.

Together with another couple of American friends, we packed some cheese, baguettes, delicatessen and of course wine and we went in the most unusual spot in Paris where too have pic-nic: south of Montparnasse , along the avenue Pasteur, there is a small green area, almost big as a tablecloth, on a steep slope on one side of the curb.

At first sight, you wouldn't think of this spot as a desirable place where to sit and eat on the grass while chatting....but, as usual, we were wrong. After a few minutes from our arrival, the place was packed with people waiting, as we were, to admire the fireworks.  The amount of spectators was close to a thousand, on the grass, on the curb but mostly in the middle of the street, which had been closed to traffic by 9:30 pm. When we arrived there, we understood why this place was so popular: the avenue Pasteur is in straight line pointing to the direction of the Tour Eiffel and this particular area is elevated with respect to the rest of the nearby buildings so that you can enjoy a perfect view of the Eiffel Tower !

The fireworks celebrating the "Prise de la Bastille" were spectacular and lasted more than half an hour , for Josh's greatest enjoyment.

 What a night!

LACMA in L.A. or Bourdelle in Paris?

Hard to tell...last week I decided to visit a small museum close by....actually smaller than the Louvre but quite huge! It's the Musée Bourdelle, in the 15th. As soon as I walked in, I saw this statue ...

and I had the feeling I've already seen it somewhere....then I realized I saw the same statue back in L.A., at the LACMA:

The museum is interesting, very secluded and quiet: the sculptures, both in the gardens and in the halls,  are impressive for the dimensions.

An unexpected discover in the middle of the city. When you have completed all the major museums in this city...

From Altadena to Paris...

When my friend Etta called me last week to get details on what kind of sandals to bring to Paris, I replied: "Never mind the sandals, just get rubber boots, an umbrella and a raincoat." She freaked out  and began to search desperately these items around Pasadena and Altadena, without success. Etta, don't you know that you find them in any subway station? They are the number two souvenirs for the tourist, aside from the Tour Eiffel snow-dome. 

But I must admit that I was somewhat pessimistic: in fact, during her six days of vacation here in Paris, she could enjoy the sun even for two days in a row. A windfall!
I must say that her choice of staying in Versailles seemed crazy to me, but then I realized that she could enjoy a magnificent hotel and rest in the train after the long rides around this town. We walked around for kilometers, we ate foie gras (last chance before moving back to California) and escargots, we had excellent wine (yes, the kids tasted it and they asked for Coca Cola after that!!!), we laughed, we made ​​long lines together with the other thousand of tourists, we told each other the latest news, our children had a good time and everything went well . 

See you soon, in Turin, and thank you for everything!

Puck and other "encounters" at the Bois de Boulogne

Today, for some inexplicable reason, it wasn't raining...such a surprise! After spending one week in planning how many raincoats and umbrellas and boots I should have packed to go to the Bois de Boulogne, all of a sudden I realized that a simple t-shirt would just do it. I've never been to this park, even thought it's just around the corner where I work. So I thought that the regular planning with my interactive metro-line application would be enough. Soooo wrong. As soon as we were out of the metro, I looked at the directions on my smart-phone...and I realized that this stuff is not smart at all. How on earth can a GPS application give me directions when it can't locate me without less than 4 km approximation? That's the entire Bois de Boulogne. As a matter of fact, we got lost. We went all the way north just to realize that we were heading toward the wrong direction...the blue arrow still immobile on my screen. Stupid app! Finally I got in touch with a friend of mine who was already at the Jardins de Shakespeare and she gave me some advice. So we walked...approximately half an hour. 

It was 2 pm and there were thousands of families in the park, playing, sunbathing, reading or just having their picnic. Kind of an awkward setting for prostitution, right? In fact when Josh asked me what was that "lady" doing, with her short skirt, sitting right in the middle of the curb...I didn't even have the time to come up with some ridiculous and totally false explanation...I just splatted the truth right in front of him: nothing, honey, she's just selling sex for money! Yeap! Like that....Just the time for him to turn around and give her another quick interrogative look, that the "lady" was carried away by a client in his car. No more comments from my son. I know I can't hide him forever from the ugliness of this world, but I wish I was less direct.

We finally joined the group of parents from the school, had a quick lunch then we entered the open-air theater where the "Midsummer Night's Dream" was played. Four girls from Josh's class were acting in the play and they were absolutely wonderful.  The setting was incredible: the Théâtre de Verdure is considered, for good reasons, one of the most beautiful open-air theatres in the world.

The audience sits on a large lawn around which are planted the flowers, trees and plants, so that the stage is completely natural and perfect for the play: the actors came on stage from different entrances and exits, and there are all sorts of narrow paths and steps for the cast to gamble around. The Théâtre de Verdure is worth a visit even if no performance is scheduled. Of course, you'll have to work hard to find it, first! 

The picture above? There is an explanation: the weather, this crazy Parisian weather, as usual played a trick on us: this time it wasn't the rain, quite the opposite. We spent 2 hours and 15 minutes burning and sweating under the torrid sun. Some of us literally collapsed!
Can't we just have a regular day? Can't there be something in between a thunderstorm and a Saharan sun? I'm puzzled...

At Musee Pasteur....where time is an option!

The Museum itself is interesting but, boy!, is it hard to get in. Keep in mind that none of the following information is posted on their website. We arrived around 15:30 and as soon as we started to walk through the gate, we were stopped by an armed guard. They made us stop at the check in, where a non-smiling lady took our identity card (California D.L. works fine but passport is better...), signed our names into the visitor data base, and handed us some badges. Then we waited about 15 minutes before we were allowed into the Museum. 

There, at the second floor, again we waited other 20 minutes for the guide to walk us in... Finally the guide walked us inside the laboratory, and after handing us written information about the exhibition, she closed the door behind us....and left! After a while a cracking noise came out from the speakers around the room, noise that we recognized as a French recorded guided tour. Aside from these pitfalls, the laboratory room was interesting, with all the custom-made glass beakers and microscopes displayed on the shelves. 

After the laboratory we visited the apartment where Louis Pasteur spent the last seven years of his life: bedrooms, sitting rooms, a bathroom, stairway, etc. Every room was furnished in Victorian style, unfortunately covered with dust from the Victorian age!!!!

The most interesting part of the visit was the crypt: just by walking in it you understand why Pasteur's family refused to have him buried in the Pantheon...

This place is amazing: the walls are completely covered with mosaics describing his discoveries (fermentation, immunization to anthrax, study on chicken cholera, vaccine of rabies, etc). Now this is worth a visit! 

Just walking around....

It doesn't happen every day, with all the rain we had so far, to see it from this point of view....

 

nor from this other point of view.....