Parislog 19
April 28, 2006

Last week I finally decided to try out the McDonald’s in Paris to see if it was different or not and much to my surprise, I couldn’t tell that I wasn’t in USA. I bought the fries and the basic cheeseburger. It all smelled just like home and tasted just like the original. I can’t even remember the last time that I ate McDonald’s but you just don’t forget these things.

I found another free exhibition, this one at the Mona Bismarck Foundation over on rue de New York, just across the river from the Eiffel Tour. It was showing some 1960’s clothes from the designer Balenciaga. Think Jackie Kennedy, very linear and precise.

My French friend A* took me out into the countryside to Chateau sur Champs. It was a positive riot because neither of us realized that it was the weekend where all the people who had been on spring break were returning. The traffic crawled and so we took exits trying to navigate around it. I got quite a view of the countryside. It was also quite funny when she told me that this was the big highway because it was 2 lanes and my perspective from LA is in terms of 4-7 lanes each way. I had to explain this to her because she hadn’t any comprehension of roads that size.

The furniture in the chateau was all out of place when we got there because it was being used for a film. It was also a little surrealistic because some of the film props were there. One item was a fake tapestry hanging on the wall with a shell shape detail attached to the top and a 3D nest of branches attached to the bottom with a naked baby doll inside. Oh and in the centre an upside down u-shape of yellow neon tubing. It was just wrong. The garden was stunning, very French and very manicured.

After she took me to her friend’s barbeque and we had a lovely evening with about 10 other people. I did a lot of listening because I was having a little trouble catching enough of the information to really add to the conversation. I need the practice hearing French so it was all good.

I had gone to the library to get my new set of comic books and saw the new Stephen King novel “The Cell” on the shelf. I was so excited but didn’t think that I could read that much in French and get it back on time. I thought the new books were only 1 week so I went and asked the librarian. Lucky me. It was good for three weeks. I still didn’t know if I could do it but I would try. I opened it and it was in English. I was done in three days.

I went to another brocante (street market) and was really annoyed at the prices. Let me give you a couple of examples. There was a set of those horrible 80’s chairs with the black lacquer wood rails and cloth seats that were being sold for 200 euros ($250). They were the same ones that you see in the trash all the time. I also saw some of those glass ball paperweights with the bubble of colored glass inside that go for around $25 in the US but they were priced at 50 euros ($60). The best moment was the dog sleeping in the chair.

For all of us who love (not) the droopy drawer look, I thought this one was just plain suicide. Picture a guy with the really low crotch but on roller blades.

We have been having some spring storms that have been quite awesome. Yellow skies turning black. Lightning flashes followed very closely by big thunderclaps. Hail beating against the windows. It was fun.

I met up with another new person this week but I don’t feel that this one will be a good match. Not everyone will work out. In fact, I think that I have been rather lucky so far to have met a couple of awesome people right at the beginning.

I decided to get an audio book to try to help me hear better what people are saying. It was rather a challenge because I didn’t know what to call them. I went to the library and explained the concept. They are called “livres-sonores” (books-sounds) but they didn’t have any. She sent me to another library and off I went. I found the area of the address but couldn’t find the actual address or the library. I went back and forth three times and in and out of the mall and no luck. It was a hole in the ground. Literally. It was a courtyard that had stairs going into the ground in the center.

Thursday was a comedy of errors day. It should have simply been cancelled. For breakfast I spilled my slices of oranges all over the floor. Later I spilled a chocolate pudding down my front. I tried to do a load of laundry but it didn’t spin out all the water and I tried three times to run the spin cycle and they just got wetter. I hung the dripping clothes out to dry. I tried to go to an entrepreneur meeting and when I got to the address there was no way in. I needed a digicode (code to open the public door of the building) and instructions about where inside the apartment was. I waited a little to see if anyone else from the meeting might come to the door. No luck. I waited until the street was empty and yelled up once, feeling very embarrassed. I then went to a phone booth to try my telecarte. The phone booths don’t take money. You have to have a telecarte that you have bought. I had one from my trip 4 years ago when the money was francs and that was the one I tried. It was no good, either too old or the currency. So I went home. While I was gone an e-mail arrived with all the info. It was a good day to go to bed.

Yesterday, the 29th, while I was sitting reading, I heard a lot of sirens, which is unusual here. I went to the window to look and saw smoke down the street and fire trucks. One was under my window trying to get through the traffic. That was an interesting process. There were firemen on the road running ahead of the trucks getting the traffic to turn onto side streets and just get out of the way. There is no way for cars to pull over because a one-lane street here is exactly that. I grabbed my coat and camera and headed down the street. By the time I got there it was out. I was surprised to see the firemen cleaning up. I mean really cleaning up. They were throwing the burnt stuff out of the windows into trashcans and carrying the big stuff out onto the street. They were even sweeping up the pieces that missed the trashcans. Pretty awesome.

The escalator in the picture is all wood except for the metal treads. I found it in a metro cross over. I have no idea how old it is.