Parislog 30
July 17, 2006

In French books the table of contents is in the back. I can’t decide if that is better or worse or of no difference at all. I am thinking that it matters most just that you know where it is.

I made my first foray into the other huge garden/woods called “Bois de Vincennes”. The Parisians refer to the two, including “Bois de Boulogne”, as the lungs of the city. They are immense and they are, in fact, for the most part forested. They were at one time for the exclusive use of the royals for hunting and are in total 5,000 acres. Not to shabby.

A* and I went to The Floral Park in the Bois de Vincennes for a picnic while listening to jazz played on the stage nearby. It was absolutely gorgeous sitting on a blanket on the lawn underneath towering oak trees. A couple of ants came to the picnic and so did a bee but they left without a word. We were far enough away from the concert that it was pleasant for ambiance. Before the concert began, a small jazz band came by on foot playing some tunes. One of the players was carrying a tuba. That has got to get heavy. We had tasty little morsels of deli meats and a lovely bow-tie salad that A* made. There was a baguette and wine too, of course.

We decided to explore the park a bit after the meal. There were some gorgeous flowerbeds to stop and take pictures of. We found a small photography exhibition that led us to an abandoned part of the woods. It had been the site of a colonial exhibition in 1907 called the “Garden of Tropical Agronomics”. I had to go look up agronomics as it wasn’t familiar to me and found that it is the science land management and distribution. So there. It had buildings devoted to each of the different colonial countries of France at the time. All were just in a terrible state of ruin but there is a possibility that they may rejuvenate the place. Personally, I like it the way it is because it is like a secret place where you are almost totally by yourself wandering amongst the ruins. We even caught a glimpse of a duck or quail mummy with her little chickies trailing behind her but they were too fast for me to get a picture before they disappeared into the underbrush.

While taking a random walk downtown, I found a bunch of trick bikers working out in a courtyard. They were amazing to watch. They even could ride their bikes upside down. I sat down for a while to watch and see if I could catch some photos. I was fascinated by how they could get the bikes spinning in a tight circle and keep it going by using their foot on the tire to add speed, just like someone in a wheelchair with their hand on the wheel.

After I left I caught a glimpse of an incredibly tall Ferris wheel while looking down in between buildings. It appears that there was some sort of a fair in the Tuileries but I never got there to find out for what. But the picture was too cool. I stood there for quite some time to wait for the clouds to arrange themselves in a better formation. You know. You gotta get the shot.

The center of the jewelry world is all around Place Vendome. The names on the buildings were spectacular but I didn’t get to see nary a twinkle because it was Sunday and abandoned. I most definitely will be going back. Must. See. Sparkle.

H* loaned me her portable hard drive so that I could download all the last season’s Project Runway” (fashion reality show). I have been in hog heaven watching my trashy American TV show. I just can’t even tell you. For the most part the French TV just doesn’t grab my attention. It is either these question and answer type game shows or long discussions of some topic with no conclusion found. They have some American shows with voice over but mostly things that never were my favorites. I must say that for the pure idiotic entertainment, I would rather have American or British TV any day.

I found a nice cheap theatre in which I could go and watch Marie-Antoinette. Well, there was a reason it was cheap. First reason is that there was no A.C. and it has been in the 90’s here. The second thing was that the rake of the floor was backwards. If you sat in the theatre and put the screen behind you and then turned all the seats around, you would have this theatre. It was like looking up a hill to see the movie. If there had been people in front of me, their heads would have been blocking some of my view. All the theatres are not like that. This is a weird little anomaly.

A* and a friend invited me to an event that was on one of the boat nightclubs. We sat on the top deck out in the fresh air catching a cool breeze. We could see down the river to the beautiful buildings. I had a Cosmopolitan. I thought that was fitting. You could feel the water rocking the boat gently. After the sun had gone down it actually felt a little chilly and about midnight A* and I left. We were told that the Virgin record store on the Champs-Elysees was open everyday until 2 in the morning and I wanted a Mozart CD to play for the fireworks. That is what was going to be playing at the Eiffel Tour. We scrounged for parking. Found it. We walked there and the lights were almost off and the door was closing. It was lit when we drove past and now it was closing. But it was only midnight. It turns out we got bad info and it closes every night at 12.

I had a little party for Bastille Day. French do not call it this at all and are rather confused when one uses the term. They just simply refer to it as July 14th.

I spent the day before doing all my preparations for the party. I made a veggie tray, fruit tray, cheeses, and cheese lace, salmon and cream cheese on crackers, and devilled eggs. The shopping for the party took me a long time because it seemed like no one store had everything that I needed. I went to three grocery stores and 4 stores that just have stuff. The hardest was to find a cookie sheet. I never did. I ended up buying a pizza pan to use for baking my cheese lace.

I had 6 guests come and we ate, drank and chatted. Then it finally came to be time for the fireworks. I thought I had it all sussed out. I have a view of the top of the Eiffel Tour and that was the location of the fireworks. Well, I had it made it the shade. Didn’t I? Nope. It turns out that the greater part of the fireworks was let off at a very low level and was below the roofline. We saw a few come out above the rooftops but that was it. Oh well. Can’t win them all. The party was fun anyway.