Return to Paris

So, after returning to Paris, it appears my picture-taking got more sporadic, which is probably best for everyone. Anyway, here are pictures from our trip to the Musee Carnavalet, which is a museum dedicated to the Revolution; our night at the Opera Garnier to see Alcina; and our walking tour from the Place de la Concorde to the Opera Garnier, after which I and several friends headed out into Paris, ending up at the Tuilleries and then, briefly, at the Louvre. The photos are here and here. Video tour lies below:

Here are a couple from inside the Opera Garnier:





And moving from the Tuilleries to the Louvre:









And here is one final one inside the Louvre. This is the entryway to various galleries, and it's fucking awesome. An amazing room full of statues. I could stay here forever, I think, if I had people to fool around with.



All right, almost done. Just a couple more posts to go!

Biarritz (Part 2) - Wanderings and the Musee Asiatica

So, here is the rest of my wandering in Biarritz, which, you will find, eventually conducted me to the Musee Asiatica, whereat I took many, many pictures (a small fraction of which may be seen here and here).

And, in addition, here are some videos:

Here is a good deal of where I was walking in the previous tour, from the beach before the Casino to the Port des Pecheurs:



After taking that video, I turned around and walked into the Eglise St. Eugenie, a beautiful old church. Here is one of those annoying 360s to give you an idea of the environs:



And then here is a cool but shaky video of me walking up to the altar. It was fucking awesome because I was completely alone in this beautiful old church.



I believe it was later that day that I headed out to the beach. By that point, it was starting to get somewhat stormy, though it didn't rain. Nevertheless, the waves rolling in off the ocean were really awesome, especially from afar.



After that, I walked down to the beach in front of the casino and just stood there, watching the waves come in and running back when they leapt up to get me:



A day or more later, I headed to the Musee Asiatica. As you can see, I took a lot of pictures. I thought I also took a lot of videos here, but it turns out, I only took three, and of these, I only posted one, as they were pretty much all of things I took pictures of and were very long tours of their detail. Here is the briefest, of that awesome carved ivory tusk:



And that's it for now! I'll be finishing up Biarritz soon, and then, not long after, Paris. Let me know if anyone should feel he wants to see the rest of the Musee Asiatica videos.

Biarritz (Part 1) - Tour of the Beaches

Start your tour at the lower black dot. This is the direction of my hotel, though it is further south. Heading up the Rue Gambetta, you will eventually reach the first blue dot, which is where I had dinner my first night there. Continuing to the next blue dot, you will be at the location of this video of the beach and the properties along it:



At about 51 seconds in, you can see the Biarritz casino, and starting at 1:25 the fancy hotel that was a chateau or something.

At the third dot, you're at the main entrance to the beach, which is where many of the facebook photos were taken. Finally, at the forth dot, you will be exploring a little cove created by the space under a large rock formation. A view from within:



Obviously, it starts out pointing in the direction of the Porte des Pecheurs and then turns back toward the main beach. There is also a second video, from on top of the rocks, of the peaches and the neighboring port:



Moving along, you will eventually reach the fifth dot at the far side of the Porte des Pecheurs ("Port of [the] Fishermen"), a beautiful port where fishermen still dock and where some of them still reside in ramshackle hillside houses, some of which have, by now, been turned into restaurants and businesses, though. To give you a better idea, here is a video:



Further still, you will reach the sixth blue dot, which is atop a large hill or cliff-face over-looking the ocean. There are many observation platforms here, and it's absolutely gorgeous, and kind of feels like the end of the world. I could almost imagine sailors looking out from here and wondering if there was anything more out there, but perhaps that is revisionist of me. I even lay in a little patch of grass on a hillside here and just contemplated life (and wished my friends were here to see all this with me). Anyway, this is a video of me climbing to the top and then surveying the ocean:



All right, continue along to the seventh and final dot, which is a leveled rock at the end of a long pier called the Rocher de la Vierge ("Rock of the Virgin"). As thought the last thing weren't end-of-the-world-y enough, this goes even further, as the video will evidence. Also be sure to note the statue of the Virgin Mary that gives the outcropping its name.



All right, from here, go back inland and explore at your leisure. I headed to the Musee de la Mer ("Sea Museum," or, basically, an aquarium), though it was unfortunately closed (starting that very day!), so I didn't get to go in. That's where I ended the tour with the red dot, though feel free to explore the city at your leisure. The streets down here are a little less touristy and more old-city, and there are plenty of delicious restaurants and nice little shops. Myself, I got a crepe and struck up a conversation with the nice crepe lady, but you are free to do as you wish. Enjoy!

Biarritz (Part 1) - Tour of the Town

In conjuncture with my Biarritz pictures (part 1) here, here, and here, here is a video tour of the town (a tour of the beaches will soon follow).

Anyway, first, you have to get to Biarritz from Paris. You will do this by taking the TGV (Train de Grande Vitesse, or Train of Big Fastness). Here is a view out the window. You will see it travels at a very big fastness indeed:



Anyway, once you get there, you will see the city. This is a view of the park near the center of the city.



And this is just a view of what the streets look like:



That's it for now; when I get the rest of the beach videos uploaded (yes, there are many, many beach videos), I shall compose a recreation of my beach tour for you.

Horrors of the Art Museum (Part 1)

Pictures.

And videos:

Some hideous installation:



And this awesome installation called "Winter Garden." This is just a view from the door. If you want a too-dark pan around the room, I can post it, too; just ask. The door:

The Sacre Coeur

To compliment the video tour, here is the rest of the pictorial tour:

Voila!

Your Video Tour of Montmartre!

Start your tour by getting off at Metro stop Blanche, above. You'll find yourself in a large square that houses the Moulin Rouge, which is fairly awesome though quite touristy. You won't be able to see a show unless you have a lot of money to blow (most every option is above 100 euro; I believe there might have been some show-and-X-amount-of-drinks option that was like 70), but they have a nice little display out front about their history for the gawkers. Next to this is, amusingly, one of the cheapest things you can find in Paris, a Quick fast food restaurant. I've never had the pleasure of dining in one, unfortunately, but its giant Coca-Cola sign definitely accentuates the Moulin Rouge windmill well. Turning to the right, you will see the boulevard heading off West. This is also filled with sex shops, at least up to Place de Clichy, but I unfortunately didn't get to see this part. Continuing, you will see a sex shop with video cabins, a Buffalo Grill, which was amusing to me in that the first time I was in Paris this girl and I got lost, and all we could remember was that a Buffalo Grill was near our hotel, so we wandered around asking strangers "Ou est le Buffalo Grill." We...weren't too successful. Further on, you will see the Boulevard heading east, which you will become more intimately acquainted with, followed by a big ad for American Gangster (our stupid culture is everywhere). Then you will see a street, the name of which I have unfortunately blued over in the picture, which leads to the Cafe des Deux Moulins, where interiors for Amelie were filmed. Finally, you will see a nice little crepe stand with a yellow awning next to the Quick. I got a delicious hot dog here to start off my adventure.



Following this, head up that street I mentioned next to the yellow-awning place and stop by the Cafe des Deux Moulins. I had a cup of hot chocolate and read Sartre, myself. It was fun. If you have the patience, you can wait to use the Orgasm Bathroom. Personally, I didn't, since it looked really cramped anyway and didn't seem worth it, though in retrospect, I kind of wish I had.

Anyway, from there, return back to the place Blanche and head east down the Boulevard de Clichy. You will be assaulted by assholes tugging at your arm and trying to get you to go in their strip clubs or hire their hookers, so keep up a tough front (it would help to have a friend with you, too). Just shrug them off and say "No merci" as forcefully and repeatedly as necessary to get them to bugger off. Do stop in some of the sex shops, though; they're good times.

Not too far from here, you will eventually arrive at the Museum of Eroticism, which is most definitely worth whatever admission they're charging. Seven floors of dirty, dirty art. It's amazing! Here is a video of one of the sculptures within:



And here is a tour of the 7th floor, which was housing an exhibition by a really fantastic artist. Like a dumbass, I didn't record his name anywhere, but it was really good work - sexy drawings about youthful sexuality at its most playful. Ask me to see the pictures, or maybe I will do the work to find a site where I can actually post them, along with the photos of everything else in the Erotic Museum...



After spending hours upon hours in the Erotic Museum, you may again emerge blinking into the daylight (or into the cool of the night, if you actually really spend hours there) and continue heading east on the Boulevard de Clichy. Eventually, you will reach the Pigalle stop, which is the next one on line 2 of the Metro. From here, head north. The Sacre Coeur should be making itself readily apparent.

Entering the square, you will see a Merry-Go-Round and a lot of guys who will welcome you and try to tie string bracelets around your wrists. Continually refuse their faux-kindness, unless you want to pay whatever exorbitant price they will end up asking you for the bracelet. Bastards.

Continue upward. You will eventually be afforded both a beautiful view of the city and of the basilica:



Explore the basilica. It is pretty. Then, afterward, explore your surroundings:



After you feel you have sufficiently experienced everything, slowly make your way back down the hillside and hop onto the Metro again, where you may head home (or out somewhere else, if you so choose). You've had a long and fulfilling day.

Your Video Tour of the Champs Elysees!

Come follow me on my route of exploration down the Champs Elysees, which it appears I never got around to describing. So, we'll go through it together.

We'll be starting our tour at the world-famous Arc de Triomphe after getting off the Metro at the Charles de Gaulle Etoile stop (Metro line 1). Here is an underview of the Arc:



Along with that, you should take a look at the nightmarish roundabout that surrounds the Arc. While pretty much every street I see makes me glad I don't have to drive in France, this thing really seals the deal:



All right, with that out of the way, we can now move over to the Champs Elysees and begin our tour. Anyway, since you're me, you won't find the thing all that impressive. I mean, it's a nice street and all, but not being particularly impressed by high fashion, you'll find it really doesn't have all that much to offer you. Weeks later, our tourguide, Steve Sawyer, would draw a comparison between the Champs Elysees and Michigan Ave. that would remind me of my original feelings that the two really aren't that different. Anyway, again, being me, you'll stop in a French Virgin Megastore and that's about it. Here's a peek at the street, just a little before you go into the Virgin, right by the George V (line 1) stop, which is also right by Queen, which Matt calls "the straightest gay bar in the world" and the theater where I saw the HD reissue of Suspiria with grossly amped colors one fine Sunday morn. The street:



After all the time you waste in the Virgin (stupid fool!), it will be nighttime by the time you leave. You'll conclude the tour by walking the rest of the way down the Champs Elysees, where you will end at the Place de la Concorde, which was a sight of a lot of revolutionary beheadings but is now mostly a ton of monuments (and a Ferris Wheel) all crammed together into a big square. Here it is at night (there will be other pictures and perhaps videos from the day later):



All right, you've been walking and looking for hours now, and you're fucking tired. Hop on the Concorde Metro stop (line 1--have you figured out it runs down the Champs Elysees yet?) and take that to Chatlet, where you'll transfer to the 11 and be conducted happily home.

Louvre Videos

Here is me exploring the original foundations of the Louvre, of which are also a picture or two in the photo album below. Anyway, they managed to preserve parts of this excavation within the museum itself now, which proved pretty cool.



This is a view of the courtyard taken from one of the windows.



And here is my climbing the main spiral staircase in the lobby thing. It proves pretty impressive.



More to come!

Eiffel Tower

The Musee d'Orsay

This is a video of my favorite room in d'Orsay. Beyond its selection of lovely paintings, I really think the architecture is cool, with the peeks afforded into adjoining rooms and whatnot. Quite awesome. Big paintings, too...

Photos - Louvre, Arc de Triomphe, Place de la Concorde, Moulin Rouge, Erotic Museum

Go.

D'Orsay Photos

d'Orsay.

The Rest of the Versailles Photos

And the rest of the photos may be viewed here.

Versailles Videos 2

Well, since Matt said he liked these stupid videos, I will put all of them up from now on. Lord help us all. Here is the rest of Versailles:

My Room

I've been a terrible blogger. Anyway, it's 4:30 in the morning, so I'm not going to try to catch you up at the moment, but I will throw this up for your benefit and amusement, because I realized I never really gave you a tour of my surroundings. God, looking back, I wish I'd video-blogged like this since the beginning. It feels so much more expressive. Now I just need to get some editing equipment, and I could really rock people's socks off. Anyway, the last-day tour of my room:

Comme C'est Brutal

Well, Thursday evening's delightful wine and writing got, typically, out of hand, leading to the single-handed consumption of the entire bottle of Beaujolais and lengthy and ridiculous gchat discourses before a healthy bedtime of 5 am.

Anyway, unfortunately my plan of then rising at 8:30 the next morning did not go so well. I woke up at 11:45, with my usual morning-after start of horror, generally accompanied by a clawing for the alarm clock to see how fucking late I slept in this time. Anyway, relatively, 11:45 isn't all that bad, though, of course, since I had a corrector session at 10:45, it was quite late enough. I quickly sprung from my bed and to the computer, where I sent an apologetic email to my correctrice, accompanied by a copy of my plan. Since people have sent in entire papers many days late, I figured the chances were probably pretty good of her being able to manage looking over one spacey page of text and writing a few lines of reaction. Then I returned to the warm-ish confines of my too-thin bedspread and slept until 1.

I awakened again and took a shower and whatnot, then checked my email. Indeed, she had responded with a very quick thumbs-up, which was fucking good enough for me. Nothing from Sawyer, though, still.

There was also a cordially stern email from the receptionist, telling me I should send my plan to the girl and reminding me that corrector sessions are important and not to miss the next one. I wrote back with, basically, a polite version of "Whoops; I overslept. No shit they're important. I already send her the goddamn outline." The receptionist nicely emailed back and said that Steve Sawyer had also received my outline, and would be emailing me shortly. This comforted me.

Anyway, I dove into the paper (actually, I didn't really start it till around five, as I did some eBaying, a lot of forum browsing, and basically anything else I could think of to delay the starting of the paper) and got a surprising amount (maybe a quarter to a third) done by 7, when I had to leave to go to the movies. (I HAD to!)

Taking in an 80s American horror double feature at the Cinematheque Francaise was indeed quite relaxing, and, in its way, just what I needed, kind of like that delightful weekend first quarter of first year when Steve and I stopped crying over our math homework in the library and went to Doc to see The 40 Year Old Virgin). I was also surprised how much of the films I understood, their being dubbed in French. All in all, it was quite delightful, and I hope to eventually address it over at the other, neglected blog, soon.

Returning home, I stayed up till 5, but managed to get the fucking paper done. It bears noting that I was surprised how easily the ideas flowed once I managed the Herculean task of cobbling them together in my brain. Structures I didn't even know I knew came flying back to me, and everything expressed itself with a great deal more eloquence, on the whole, then I am accustomed to. Perhaps this program is indeed getting me at least a little better in French.

Anyway, exhausted, I retired, and woke up at 1:00 this morning, after my recoup. After my shower, I produced an omelet that I was fairly proud of, in addition to some fried potatoes that, while better than many batches that had come before, were still lacking something. Also, I think I put too much pepper on them, because my stomach became angry. Anyone out there want to teach me how to make those roasted breakfast potatoes?

Rereading the paper I was either very satisfied or very apathetic, because I didn't do too much to it. Not that I had all that much time before the deadline at 6. Following that, I did some brief shopping, then met up with my friends Brian and Rosemary to go out for seafood. We went to a nice little oyster bar by the Opera Garnier and Pyramides, where we each got the Plat Atlantique, which came with a lot of shellfish that I didn't know what they were. I had my first oysters, which were quite pleasant, though interesting. We also wanted to try sea urchin, but they were out. Poop. Nevertheless, it was a good - if expensive - meal, though I have to say, I generally prefer meals where I am full afterward to ones where I eat like seven shellfish. Nevertheless, it was a fun experience, and the seafood was quite fresh. You could tell because it squirmed if you put Tabasco on it.

After that, we went to a jazz club by St. Michel, in the Quartier Latin. It was crowded, but pretty cool. The band was good, and the lady liked to scream really loud as she was singing. I had been expecting more of that Humanities-style stuff (I guess that's what I think of when I think of jazz), which, while I guess is fine, is not really something I'm all that into. This was much more engaging for me, though, since it was full of screaming, so I enjoyed it a fair bit. Nevertheless, that typically annoying thing happened where the singer was trying to engage with the audience and get us to stand up and dance and stuff. I'm sorry, I do not go to musical events (actually, I generally don't go to them at all, but when I do) to be guilted. I go to sit and listen to you perform. Perhaps this is unique of me.

Nevertheless, they were a good band, and it was an enjoyable time, though my ears are still ringing, I have a headache, and am incredibly tired. I'm drinking diet Coke now, so there should be no danger of a repeat of two nights ago, and I should be going to bed right after I finish this. I'd like to try to catch the new HD reissue of Suspiria tomorrow, but it's only playing at 11. Crap.