La Belle Epoque

Bonjour!

Of course, I am in the last city on my trip. I am in beautiful, romantic Paris. The night train from Barcelona was good, and I slept well (considering my night before!!). I met a really cool lady in our room on the train and she was heading to Paris to translate "You don't mess with the Zohan" with Adam Sandler in it...into French. She was in Barcelona to translate it into Spanish, and she was in Berlin to translate it into German...and Rome to translate it into Italian...she is an incredible woman! She left for Europe in her junior year out of high school and never came back. Anyways, she said that in Japan, the hollywood movie scene is really big, and they do alot of dubbing and subtitling. When I told her I was going to study Asian languages, she said that I could work for Universal, Miramax, Paramount...any of those because there aren't many native English speakers who are in the business, and they are desperate for them (And pay them well!). It was just so interesting to talk to someone else that is so well versed in languages and the nuances of translating into another language, what works and what doesn't. Anyway, she gave me her contact details and encouraged me to contact her in a few years !! Eek! I made it to Paris and got on the extremely confusing metro to my hostel, St. Christopher's Inn. By the way, momma I still have my St. Christopher necklace and I haven't taken it off. Alot of people ask what it represents, and I feel like it has helped me find my guardian angels whenever I have been in a bad situation. The patron saint of pilgrimages is a huge symbol here at St. Christophers and they have these hostels all over Europe. Anyway, it is a fantastic hostel. It is brand new, but costs over 30 euros a night. My first morning in Paris I bought a croissant because I was so hungry....and MOTHER ALMIGHTY they are so TASTYLICIOUS here. When people said they were different here than other places I chose not to believe them...but Parisians love their Boulangeries, and it shows. Le Pain Du Chocolat has been a personal favorite. I tried to order two (deux) in one Boulangerie, but I accidentally asked for ten (dix) and the guy looked at me like I was mad. I went the most fantastic walking tour EVER and our guide was a mime and went to mime school for 2 years. It was 4 hours long, and we got to see Notre Dame, learn about French history, the Louvre, Le Jardin de Tuilleries, the spot of the execution of Marie Antoinette, the Hotel Criant ($50,000 a night), Arc de Triomphe, Eiffel Tower and lots of other interesting things. Napoleon was a really interesting character, poor little 5'2" feller. He put big "N"s on everything around the city because he wanted to feel important...I mean give the guy a break, he only wanted to conquer the world! It's fine, guys, really. He succeeded until he tried to take over Russia. tsk tsk, it's like a little dog that barks at a massive dog because he thinks he can take him. Anyway, it was great and after that, I watched the Euro Cup FINAL! Oh my goodness. I have actually been following the whole thing through Europe but I haven't been really blogging about that. It's soccer, but it's called "football" of course. It started right after I left Austria (Awesome, because all the games were in Austria and I wouldn't have had anywhere to stay!). I watched games all through Italy, Greece, Spain, and now here in France. Spain ended up winning the game against Russia while I was there and it was a ridiculous night of course in Spain, hearing chants of "ESPANIA! ESPANIA! ESPANIA!" all night. It's easy to get caught up in the buzz, like jumping on the bandwagon when the Flames do well. Anyways, last night the final was between Spain and Germany. They were both sort of underdogs and I stayed quite neutral the whole game, although the German team had better looking guys. All of Europe watched that game last night and it was fantastic. SPAIN WON THE EURO CUP! I went to bed pretty promptly after lots of respective WOOing. I got up this morning and went to the Centre de Pompidou, the modern art center here in Paris. It was FANTASTIC, and WAY better than the tate modern. I decided I am not going to the Louvre...I only have 2 days in Paris and spending them in line for 3 hours to be disappointed at the tiny size of the Mona Lisa is not my idea of a good time, especially after the stupid Sistine Chapel. I'd rather spend it in a Parisian garden, eating and drinking and living like the parisians do. So after the museum I went on a tour of Montmartre, the artist's district. When people think of old Paris, they usually think of the mustached painters relaxing at terrace cafes, drunken can-can dancers and absinthe drinkers spilling out onto quaint balconies, tiny cobblestone streets filled with seductive women carrying croissants. Hahaha well that would be Montmartre. It was a place where poor farmers used to live, but when the artists started to flourish in Paris...they lived in this area because it was so cheap to live in. It became this incredible area when the "Belle Epoque" started and there was so much art, philosophy, music, theatre, drinking, living with NO money and it was an amazing time to be in Paris. It was SO great to tour all around this area, it is so romantic to me to imagine all the artists that lived here. During the Belle Epoque, this area saw artists like Vincent Van Gogh, Toulouse Lautrec, and Claude Monet. Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dali eventually came around and it was the time of the famous venues like the Moulin Rouge and le Chat Noir. I want to live there so badly... We walked to the Moulin Rouge, various spots in the movie Amelie and Moulin Rouge, Van Gogh's house, Picasso's studio (that womanizer!!!), paris' red light district, Montmatre Vineyard, The Artist's square, and Sacre Coeur basilica. After the tour ended I went with a girl named Eve to buy some baguettes, cheese and wine. We walked over to the Eiffel Tower to wait for the light show. This is the show that they have had since the Millenium. After 2000 was over, there was such an uprising over keeping the light show that now they do it every night in the summer! At dark, it goes every hour for around 10 minutes. I have a video and I wish I could upload it but I am home tomorrow hahahahaha so I will show somebody my repressed excitement then. It was beautiful and romantic and it glowed blue at the end. It is blue for Bastille day on July 14. I learned something cool about the French flag! The color of the royalty was traditionally white, and the colors of the Revolution in France was Red and Blue. It's funny because the French flag is Red and Blue, with white in the middle (The Revolution overthrowing the government!). It was really interesting to learn more about the revolution too, the French were an EXTREMELY brutal and bloody group of folks. Tomorrow (well today)I am not going to Versailles like I planned but rather I am going to the Paris Catacombs, out to see the graves of Jim Morrison and Oscar Wilde, and to do a little shopping and some more hanging out in Montmartre. This was a really long winded post and I apologize, but the guy at the front desk here gave me an unlimited internet pass because I guess either he's a moron or he thinks I'm cute. Whatever! I am BACK IN CANADA TOMORROW! EEEEK! I caaaaaaaaannnnooooot wait, I am a sleepy girl and travelling for 68 days makes me more sleepy.

ONE LOVE


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montmartre