The Other Paris

It's the last day of March and I figure if I don't get some kind of run-down of the month's events and travels, I never will.

So Julie and Katherine's visit led us back to the Paris that isn't in the tabloids, where Katherine works as a dancer at the Lido. I had the brilliant idea to drive because I just had to see how far away it was by car. I'd taken a train, a plane, a ferry, a bus, and a pogo stick, but hadn't had the automotive experience and it went relatively smooth. But now I can say, just take the train. I parked the car at Charles de Gaulle airport and 1) it practically takes an hour to drive around that place and 2) once you park the car, you have to catch the bus that takes you to the terminal for the regional train (RER) which will take you to the métro you'll need to get to wherever you're going in Paris. At least a train from Rome or wherever will take you directly into the city. Believe it or not it's worth having to sit next to some weirdos.

Anyway I feel lucky enough to say that this was my nth time in Paris. The first time was in high school when we saw public masturbation for the first time, my friend, Mara, got pooped on by a pigeon, and another girl had left a tampon inside her for 13 days yet managed to be TSS-free. Oh and we saw some monuments. Other memories include a lonesome Christmas with "Ave Maria" on repeat, watching a guy illegally scale La Grande Arche de la Défense with my mom, seeing Wilco in Montmartre and many many more.

(click to enlarge--Kath is the flower behind the green glitter flower)

And the cool part is no many how many times you go, Paris is always a new experience and there's always one more thing you have not yet done. This time around it was seeing "Le Bonheur" at the Lido with the added bonus of Katherine being in it. Kath hooked us up with some tickets (admittedly 120 euros for dinner and a show had been a deterrent) and it was good to see something considered soOo Paris despite the fact that finding an actual French person there is your old needle in a haystack example. And it's certainly not a sex show, people. Being topless seems to be more of a consequence of your costume, which happens to lack fabric in the breast area, rather than dancers who are looking for audience members who'd like a good bruuuuumski. Anyway in my humble opinion Katherine Schwing was the highlight of the show. That's K-A-T-H-E-R-I-N-E S-C-H-W-I-N-G (and no, she's never in her entire life heard any references to Wayne's World) She's a star--look out for her in The Producers DVD. It's the bank scene, right Kath or Juls?

Juls at Musée d'Orsay

And while it was a short visit, Juls and I managed to get in a lot of walking to see the major monuments (Louvre, Tuilleries, Notre Dame, Eiffel Tower, etc.) and hit Musée d'Orsay for some of the finest 19th century fine art...and there's plenty of it...and people too. It was there it struck me that, oh yeah, Juls was in Art History AP with me in high school, where the appreciation all started. Where a group of us spent hours upon hours in her basement trading packets we had made concerning the main points and examples of any given art period. And the "main points" were a mere 100 pages for each of us. I think I got stuck with Etruscan art or something else equally boring and pottery-ish. Luckily all of us passed, me barely. The rest were in all the Honors classes, APs, Super APs, and Xtreme APs and pulling down 20.0 GPAs so I think they were used to the rigor.

After Musée d'Orsay Julie promptly got me hooked on Grey's Anatomy and closed the day down with some red wine. Thanks for the visit and memories Juls and Kath!

More pictures of Paris here.