Europe Trip Posts
(As I have allergies today I thought I'll try and knock a few of these Paris posts out :) )
So we came up with a few rules/games which makes traveling a lot more fun and helps you not being an ass in a foreign country.
Flash back to Japan; In Japan we used to keep score with Bunka points, (Bunka mean culture), so every time we did something very Japanese we gained Bunka points. Eating pickled mountain vegetables in a Buddhists monetary? Heaps of bunka points. J-Walking or doing things which goes against the grain of the local culture - bunka points lost!
In Paris we didn't have as long as in Japan so we shortened the competitions down to a 1 vs 1 outing. So we needed to hit up the boulangerie and the grocer, Kasey would take one and I would take the other. The person who got away using the least amount of english and used french instead wins! Simple. Its easy to pair things like this up, motivates everyone to try and be more sensitive and accepted. It works like a champ trust me.
So the break down of the rules/games for Paris.
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So we came up with a few rules/games which makes traveling a lot more fun and helps you not being an ass in a foreign country.
Flash back to Japan; In Japan we used to keep score with Bunka points, (Bunka mean culture), so every time we did something very Japanese we gained Bunka points. Eating pickled mountain vegetables in a Buddhists monetary? Heaps of bunka points. J-Walking or doing things which goes against the grain of the local culture - bunka points lost!
In Paris we didn't have as long as in Japan so we shortened the competitions down to a 1 vs 1 outing. So we needed to hit up the boulangerie and the grocer, Kasey would take one and I would take the other. The person who got away using the least amount of english and used french instead wins! Simple. Its easy to pair things like this up, motivates everyone to try and be more sensitive and accepted. It works like a champ trust me.
So the break down of the rules/games for Paris.
- Win against each other by using French and not English in dealings with people
- Never eat at the same place twice; this keeps you from going to the same western hole over and over. You McDonald's people should be ashamed.
- Always try something new on the menu, the more extreme the better! Go for it.
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We woke up on our first full day of Paris,France fun. What to do first? Go out and get some breakfast of course. So down our little street we went to the first boulangerie, where we stocked up on bread, croissants; then a quick cut across the road to the tinny grocery store for wine, coffee, tomatoes, etc. I won this round the outings, using more French then Kasey :D Go me! Its okay this victory is short lived.
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Simple but tasty! And yes, wine with every meal :P (If you look hard you can see the glass.
And a little lay down to let everything settle
And a little lay down to let everything settle
Once we were fed and rested it was time to head out and into the wide world of Paris. Our first stop was to look at the huge line of people waiting to get into Notre Dam which we saw everyday as we left the islands.
Passing the crowds we headed to the city's IVe arrondissement (The whole city is broken up into arrondissements)
See the little islands in the river in the middle? We are on the bottom right one heading to the IV Arrondissement.
There we checked out the Hôtel de Ville, and took some fun pics :)
Weeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!
(Statue representing Art)
Passing the crowds we headed to the city's IVe arrondissement (The whole city is broken up into arrondissements)
There we checked out the Hôtel de Ville, and took some fun pics :)
Weeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!
(Statue representing Art)
(Statue representing Science)
After a fun few shots we headed in a random direction and came upon the most hiddious building I have ever seen Centre national d'Art et de Culture Georges Pompidou
Terrible! But I know a lot of people find it fascinating. Ohh and the question I asked was "Is it finished", I received a punch in the shoulder saying "Be nice" which means it is finished! Imagine that.....
So we hurried away before getting some sort of urge to go inside and down a random street (No this is not an alleyway) where we found a Japanese Calligraphy shop! (Japan and France are very close and trade a lot of culture/food). The shop had everything I could have wanted to do some shodo but I was worried none of it would survive the trip back. They had some really nice paper in there.... I'll have to go back and pick some up ;-)
Leaving the paper shop Kasey being a magnet for disaster found some Paris graphite which is a special kind of paint they fling at things. In a most Hermione voice she started to tell me about this paint and the culture behind it as she steps in it and then promptly touches her shoes and smears it all over the shoes and her hands. Being oil based (As she was telling me) its very hard to get it off!
Then of course it starts to poor :) Rushing back the way we came we headed to a large department store which sold paint thinner in the art section; As all new up coming artists come to Paris there is loads of expensive and nasty painting supplies. I wouldn't paint some of my miniatures with the stuff they were selling at top prices! Anyhow, we bought a bottle of thinner and headed back to the apartment. Kasey kept the shoes past this trip as a memento; DURP!
For lunch we decided to duck into the cheese and cured meat shop along our street. Enter the shop was an assault on the senses, since the cheeses and meats are allowed to age and mature in the open air even in the shop. The jolly fellow who ran the shop was a lot of fun, as far as we could tell he didn't speak any English or refused to but he was a kind fellow and helped us through naming each of the cheeses and meats until we left with a booty of salami, two goat cheeses (Fresh), and some wine. Rushing back like kids with a new toy we set up the table for lunch
If you can not tell, the foodie stuff alone is worth it for us on this trip.
With full bellies we resolved to resting and planning our future trips and what we wanted to do.
That evening we went and had pizza with a sangiovese which was OK by every day standards but wasn't the pinnacle of foodie enjoyment.
We had an early night because we needed to be up and out of the apartment at 5am the next morning to make the first mas at Notre Dam, as it was Easter. Thats some freak'n culture points there.
