Here Comes the Sun

As a direct contrast to my previous post - the sun is out in Paris again.  And I think The Beatles said it best:

Little darling, it's been a long cold lonely winter

Little darling, it feels like years since it's been here

Here comes the sun, here comes the sun

and I say, it's all right

Little darling, the smiles returning to the faces

Little darling, it seems like years since it's been here

Here comes the sun, here comes the sun

and I say, it's all right

So the Parisians are smiling again, and it's wonderful - I thought they'd be frowny and mopey forever.  And since I did get sick after my last post, and the next day was my birthday - we decided to MOVE my birthday to this Friday.  So - I'll let you know how 23rd Birthday: Take 2 goes.

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Cold. Wet. & Rainy.

I gave 2 tours today.  Both were great.  But I have been cold and wet for the past 3 hours.  Most of the time, this is the time of day where I walk home - enjoy the scenery - get a baguette - ponder the great questions of life; but today, I hopped on the RER and made it home in 15 minutes so I could get out of my cold wet shoes, and my cold wet jeans.  It started hailing on my tour!!  What happened to spring?! 

So... bitter and cold, I am writing this post.  Huh... my dashboard widget says that its 44 and sunny/cloudy.  LIES.  I hope I don't get sick.

But I think now is a great time to write about my current adventures.  

#1: Cool Tourists

I've met quite a few cool tourists lately.  Its been really great to actually get to know people who I think I'll keep in contact with even after the tour ends.  I even went out to dinner with this one girl who was traveling by herself.  We went to a Fat Tire favorite restaurant - Chez Gladine.  Its a very "hole in the wall" type place - only locals go there, and the waiters love us and give us free drinks.  (I'm saying this because it directly relates to later in the story.)  

So after dinner, we meet up with an acquaintance of her friend's.  He is French.  His name is Edward.  Now, my experience with French people has been wonderful.  I love my roommate Fayçal - he is fun, and chill, and would never be caught dead in a chain restaurant or store.  Not to mention - he HATES the Champs-Elysées.  And who doesn't for that matter?!  Its terrible - touristy and expensive and crowded.  Gross.  So automatically I know something is up when this guy tells us to meet him at the Charles de Gaulle Etoile on the Champs-Elysées.  

He takes us to a cafe ON the Champs-Elysées.  One of those places that just SCREAMS "POMPOUS 'JERKS' ONLY" - one of those places with purple, velvet upholstered chairs.  I am not impressed.  So we walk in and NO ONE is there.  I start to look at the menu, and its like 5.50 euro for a coffee.  The waiter comes over to take our order dressed in all white with a black tie, and out of politeness I order a coffee.  He mumbles something in French - even our French friend doesn't understand him.  He says it again slowly.  They're not serving hot drinks anymore.  The cheapest alcoholic drink is like 8 euro.  No thanks.  So I pass.  The French guy and the girl from Philly order champagne.  My tour friend from Vermont also passes.  

Suddenly the waiter shakes his head.  Non.  Zere are four of uz.  Three of uz muzt order someting or we muzt leave.  (Remember how I said the place was empty?) So by this point in time I'm rather annoyed.  First of all - what self-respecting Parisian would EVER even ENTER a place like this?  This place is for stupid tourists who think Paris is all glitz and glamour and purple, velvet upholstered chairs.  To make things worse, Edward seemed like he was a regular there!!! This is also where the stereotype of rude, Parisian waiters comes from.  I have NEVER had a bad experience with a waiter.  They are nice people, as long as you are nice to them.  We end up ordering 3 glasses of 13 euro a glass champagne.  I leave - disgusted.

When I got home, I recounted my adventure to Fayçal.  Maybe my original opinion of Parisians was wrong?  Maybe they're not all cool, and sophisticated, and original?!  Nevertheless, I felt quite disillusioned and sad.  So - I think I'm just going to stick to hanging out with the cool Parisians that I know, and I refuse to go back to the Champs-Elysées for another 7 years.

#2  Dinner Parties

Bottom line.  Its the end of the month.  None of us has gotten a paycheck yet (silly French system - only getting paid once a month.)  So we are getting low on cash.  Most of us are living off our tips alone.  So eating out is not really an option.  Therefore, we have started throwing massive dinner parties.  So much fun!  I would say almost every night, about 5 or 6 of us at least get together and make dinner.  

Blakely with pre-dinner snacks... and drinks.

Playing the "adjective game" with Laura and Amanda - the word was "French mustache"

"Be a pirate!"

Dana - one of our fearless cooks.

The other thing about Fat Tire is never make a statement you're not prepared to back up - Dana said she made the best Sloppy-Joes EVER.  Simon disagreed.  Thus the epic battle of the sloppy-joe was born.  What a night!  I feel like there needs to be a play by play in pictures.  So here it goes:

Dana - our first competitor.  Secret ingredient? Lots of hot sauce.

Simon - our second competitor.  Secret ingredient? Lamb.  And JD.

John-Paul and Julie: an action shot of two of the sloppy-joe taste testers.  

Sadie, Dana, and Simon anxiously awaiting the deciding vote from the runner up in the Freebirds burrito eating contest of 2001, and Fat Tire's personal restaurant critic...

THE Michael J. Franz.

Winner = Simon.  (But as a side note - the next day, Franz regretted this decision.)  Sloppy-Joe Off = Success. 

Not to mention Simon and Lauren have an incredible sunglasses collection.

And the metro ride back home was quite exciting as well.

So that's my life at the moment.  Rain.  Silly Frenchies.  and Food.  Life is good.

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Des Grèves

Vive la Révolution!

Needless to say, strikes, protests, riots and revolutions are a part of the culture.  It worked once in 1789, again in 1830, and again in 1848 - and after 3 times, that makes it a habit.  Although a very bad one in the opinion of this American.

On any given day, I see someone protesting something - war, nuclear weapons, the economic crisis, animal cruelty, Iran, Tibet, Fibromialgia (this one I'm still confused about).  It gets a little old.

My roommate had a friend over a few weeks ago - he's going to school in Lyon and the professors have been striking for almost 6 weeks now.  He can't go to class, or even graduate, if this continues.  Because of one group of unsatisfied people, many other groups end up suffering.  He is having to put his life on hold for them.

Change is difficult in France.  They protested the Eiffel Tower when it went up.  When they decided to make the tower sparkle for a the year 2000, they were excited.  But when it stopped sparkling in 2001, they protested as well.  In this very socialist society, there is always more that the government can do for you.  Yet at the same time, the fact that many industries are very closely controlled by the government has kept their economy from suffering in the same way that America and ESPECIALLY Britain is suffering now.  (Sarko likes to point this out.)

I (personally) am less interested in the politics of it all, and more interested in the fact that French policemen are scary.  I saw a woman the other day asking directions from a policeman in a SERIOUS bulletproof vest and full body armor.  I can barely look them in the eye (and they hang out by my house all the time... this is what I get for living right next to the National Assembly - aka French House of Representatives).

So... all the pictures above were taken today walking back to my house from the shop.  Don't worry Mom, I'm ok.  I can hear The Marsailles playing in the background as I write this.  How patriotic.  I guess every nation has their traditions.  Right?

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Sadie's Band Gig & Other Thoughts

I have this friend Sadie.  Or Sadra if you prefer.  She worked for Fat Tire this past fall, and now she is working part time for FTBT and also living with a French family as an au pair.  To top it all off, she also is the lead singer in her French parents' rock band.  

So... Sadie's friend and I were allowed to "crash" the party.  Good times to come.  We (and by "we" I mean "I") knew that I would never see this over 40 French crowd again (or if I did it would be a while), so I turned into the crazy dancing blonde American in the corner.  Doing Tina Turner moves.  And maybe some Texas 2-step.  Are you surprised?  Probably not.  I can't wait to crash another party.  

But... enough about me, Sadie was fabulous!!  (I would upload a video, but she'd probably hurt me.)

In other news, the president of Lebanon is in town.  Which means when Sarko went to go meet him at the airport, good ol' Nick had to take his cavalry and French military band with him just to show off.  Which effectively means that the silly French had to shut down the entire city.  Which means that because I was doing my laundry on one side of the Esplanade (in front of Les Invalides), I had to walk 45 mins out of my way just to cross over to the OTHER side of the Esplanade.  And then yesterday the entire city was gridlocked because Sarko was going from point A to point B throughout the day.  Bah.  

Umm... I've already had to throw my body in front of fast moving Parisian traffic several times to save someone on a Segway tour.  

And its finally SPRINGTIME!!  Since we only have summer and Christmas in Houston, this whole spring thing is quite novel to me.  So... here's a good picture of what SPRING means!

The old men playing "Boules" - or lawn bowling.

A cute little boy playing with the wooden boats in the Tuileries.

AND... Leah is coming to Paris.  AND my birthday is coming up.  AND I'm getting sunburnt. 

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Mood Swings

This week has been kinda hard on me.  I have gone from sad, lonely and homesick, to ridiculously happy, to frustrated, to... neutral - all in a matter of 4 or 5 days.  Its been rough.  

I know some of ya'll are thinking, "How could you possibly be sad... in PARIS?!"  Sorry guys... but Paris is not a magical fairy land all the time.  Not to mention that if you're reading this, it probably means that YOU are not HERE - thus the sadness and homesickness.

I think another part of the problem is that I've been living too much in the future.  Thinking about the time when I'm NOT going to be here.  Worry about getting a real job, where I'm going to live - all that stuff that the planner in me just wants settled.  Like now.  I read a good quote the other day - 

The happy man does not look back.  He doesn't look ahead.  He lives in the present.

Now I'm not sure if I COMPLETELY agree with that - but in my present mood and mental state, I think that's good advice.  So I'm trying to be completely here.  

But while I was trying to figure that out, I spent a lot of time in Shakespeare & Co. and St. Etienne du Mont trying to digest this problem and some of my doubts.  

The happy part of my week has been spent with Sadie and Dana - drinking overpriced hot chocolate (that was TOTALLY worth it) and really cheap wine (also TOTALLY worth it).  And just laughing with them.  

And then the frustrated part was spent pounding the sidewalk in my new heels and taking this picture (my feet hurt... but I feel better now.)

It was a time for a reflection - so I played with reflection in my pictures.  This one looks a lot better on my computer than on blogger.  Oh well.

So I'm hoping that things will even out - at least stick to neutral.  But I love hearing from all of you... thank you so much for all the messages and emails.  I love you!

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Back in the Saddle

Hahaha... I love using really classic "Texan" phrases on tour - and since I don't have the classic southern accent, it makes it just that much more fun.  Especially with people from other countries who have only heard of Texas through John Wayne films.  Its great.

Sorry... random tangent.

That being said, I'm officially back to giving tours.  Yes, I almost got lost in the Cemetery of Montmartre.  And yes, I have already almost fallen hiking up the hill.  But all in all things are going well.  My only rant is about the Da Vinci Code tour.

So... there are a LOT of people who have read the Da Vinci Code or seen the movie.  And even though I thought Angels and Demons was MUCH better, I would still say that the Da Vinci Code was very good if not excellent FICTION.  Because that's exactly what it is... FICTION.  On the tour, we basically go around to all the places in Paris that are mentioned in the book.  Its a different way to see the city, especially if you really enjoyed the book.  I would honestly say that if they had an Angels and Demons tour in Rome, I probably would have taken it.  Its fun to be able to visualize the places that you read about.  Now... on the down side, there are 2 different types of people who take this tour... the first is like me... just interested in the places I've read about.  The second (and my personal favorite) thinks that the Da Vinci Code  (and Dan Brown for that matter) is gospel.  Now, this is a HUGE fallacy.  Because on this tour, yes, I show people around the sites... but I also point out all the mistakes Dan Brown makes, and all the things that are absolutely false in his book.  So if he gets the little things wrong, how could you possibly take his word on the big things?!  Silly.

Other than that... things in Paris are wonderful.  Its raining today (ugh), but a lot more of the tour guides and office staff are getting into town.  Its great to have them back, and there are a lot of girls this year (or at least it feels like it) - so its nice to be able to represent in the boys club that is Fat Tire.  

And since I'm getting off work around 5 every day (as opposed to 1am), I get to go eat and play all I want :-D.  I have to enjoy the good Parisian food while I can.  

Anyway, I love and miss all of you!  

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