JUNE 16, 2007/Paris
***************************************
I've been in Paris for a couple of hours. The Blvd Magenta (which my hotel sits on) is a pretty busy intersection. I hope the traffic noise dies down later. It's too stuffy in the room to keep the french doors (I have my own little balcony) shut. This hotel is cheap and it shows! The room is ugly. The quilt is nappy and a scratchy beige. It has some cigarette burn holes on it. There is 1 picture on the wall (the walls are an almost institutional mint green) and the carpet is dark blue. For some reason there is also an empty frame hanging on the wall. Someone's idea of a joke or an ARTISTIC statement? Ha Ha. The staff is very nice, though. I am intimidated by Paris, of course. The people on scooters zig zag in and out of traffic and run red lights constantly. I guess I will discover the "magic" once I've been here for a few days. I walked around a few blocks. I'm surrounded mostly by Italian restaurants, it seems. I ate in one and the food was forgettable. I need to figure out the metro system and figure out where I want to go, become fluent in French (yea, right!), etc. Need to figure out which cemetery Jim Morrison and Oscar Wilde are buried in. The most important things first though are finding an ATM/bankomat and an internet cafe!
******
June 17, 07/PARIS
****
Time to start a new book. Martin Amis "London Fields". I do want to read more Tim Cockey books. Hitchcock Sewell is a great character. I usually don't read mysteries (or a series) but I like Tim Cockey.
It is raining now. It started to just pour as I finally made my way back to the hotel. It took me awhile but with the map I was able to find my way back from the Moulin Rouge (which was underwhelming and looked really lame during the day)...
This morning I went downstairs and asked if I'd already missed breakfast (it was about 9:15am) and the guy at the counter was really snotty. He informed me in a very condescending tone that breakfast was from 7:30-9 am. WHATEVER.
I found an ATM at Gare Du Nord (a major train station that is a block away from my hotel) and I found a patisserie (bakery) across the street from my hotel . For just a couple of Euro I got two delicious apricot croissants and a can of apple juice. I walked down Blvd Magenta and ended up going to the Sacre Couer with a Swedish couple named Manos (?) and Helena. I met them at an intersection (we were all lost) and they spoke English and I tagged along with them. Very nice people. The Sacre-Coeur is pretty from the outside but is amazing on the inside. A procession of us tourists filed through (very quietly) as mass was going on. The sheer beauty of the decor, the nuns singing, the incense burning and all the candlelight brought me to tears. I lit a novena candle for family and friends and towards the back of the church I sat on a tiny chair. I can't remember whose altar I was seated in front of but I found myself praying and then sort of weeping as quietly as I could. I just had to cry and it felt good. Then I walked down from the hill that the Sacre-Coeur is on and was struck by some pretty coral (very cherry red) jewelry. I ended up buying a necklace and earring set. The owner of the shop was a very nice man and told me that the jewelry looked beautiful on me. Good salesmen. All the French men I have run across (except for the morning hotel clerk) have been exceedingly charming to me.
Paris has inspired me to wear make up again for some reason. I bought some nice burgundy lipstick in Brugge. It is fun to feel pretty.
Parisians (that I have met) are all really polite and nice. I don't know why they have such a bad reputation. I try to be cheery and also speak the few phrases of French that I do know and that goes a long way. I cancelled my wrong reservations for Nantes and made new ones and I am still waiting on a confirmation email from that hotel. I decided I only will stay in Nantes for 4 nights. I've booked 3 nights in Gent/Ghent because I really love that place! I am going to be staying in an old monastery/nunnery which should be amazing!
Larry is actually going up to Tracy and Hans' on the same day as me. He wants me to meet him in Amsterdam at the train station.
When I got back to the hotel, the previously rude front desk guy was suddenly extremely friendly to me? He told me I should take a boat ride from the Eiffel Tower along the Seine, which sounds very nice. He kept seeming not to understand why I didn't feel like taking a boat ride tonight. Then, as I was walking up the stairs to my room he called out "You will go take a drink tonight?" I said "I'm not sure yet" and he said "Ok, no problem!"...I realized, I think, that he was trying to ask me to go out with HIM for a drink. He was being cryptic, though. I have no desire to go get a drink with him. It WOULD be nice to have a personal guide for Paris but I'd rather pay a professional than confuse some guy into thinking I have a romantic interest in him. Maybe the guy was just trying being nosey and curious about what I do in my spare time? Strange. I hope he is gone when I feel like leaving to go eat dinner! I feel lame for sitting in my hotel room but I've only been here 24 hours and I walked around all day and now its raining. Besides, I still have 3 more full days, so what is the rush? I want to go to:
-The Louvre
-Pere Lachaise (the famous cemetery with Jim Morrison, Oscar Wilde, Edith Piaf, etc.)
-Notre Dame
-Champs-Elysees
-Left Bank, Latin Quarter, etc.
*********************
June 18, 2007/Paris,
I'm hot. The metro tunnels and the metro cars themselves feel like the heat is on and it is horrible but I've figured out how to get around on it now and even bought a multi-day metro pass.
This morning started out really shitty. The shower here is retarded. Just a flimsy shower curtain , a tiny drain in the floor, and some crappy tiles. It is in its own separate little room (there is a sink and mirror in there too)...when I was taking a shower somehow the water gout outside the bathroom (though I had closed the door) and soaked the carpeting in front of the door..oops! I told the maid and she got all pissed off (in French)-Whatever. Accidents happen. The carpet is still damp. Maybe they will replaced the shit because it is FILTHY! I found that out when I went to soak up the water with a white towel!) Anyways, it is over with now. Went to the Louvre and walked around for several hours. Great museum, but obviously you need 2 days to see it all. I didn't bother to stand in the hour long line to get up close to the Mona Lisa. I walked into the back of the room and I could see her from there and that was enough for me. She is overrated, anyway. Then I took a boat ride down the Seine and took some cool pictures. I got off the boat at the Notre Dame stop and took some good pics of Notre Dame. Afterwards, I sat in a park and watched cute little kids play while I listened to 16 Horsepower. I am going to sleep very soundly tonight. Parisians all over still very friendly!
******
June 20, 2007/Paris
***
Rush hour traffic outside my balcony..taxi's are honking, so goddamn impatient that it is comical. Every so often I hear the little zinging ringers of people sounding their bicycle bells-now that, I find cute! I took the metro to Notre Dame again and walked around. I did a very touristy thing and spent far too many Euro to have my portrait drawn by an artist. The artist was a young Japanese art student. He did a wonderful job, actually. The portrait looks A LOT like me! Bought a couple of books at Shakespeare and Sons (How many ARE there of these same bookstores in Europe? Must be a chain!) and then I sat in a park and read. Martin Amis is amazing. I bought Douglas Coupland "Microserfs" and Neal Cassady "Collected Letters, 1944-1967" Then I needed lunch. It is so hot here and I didn't bring a bottle of water with me. I started to feel really faint but found a reasonably priced Japanese restaurant, "Zen" and had gyoza and curried beef with rice and a huge bottle of EVIAN (I just realized that EVIAN is NAIVE spelled backwards!) I felt much stronger after eating and I walked to the Jardin de Tuleries which is nice. Fountain, classical statues, tons of trees and grass and plenty of chairs. Then I was walking back to the Metro station when I saw a man walking next to me. I couldn't hear what he was saying because I had on my headphones. I took them off to hear him rapid-firing French at me. He was a semi-handsome and clean cut looking young business guy. He was trying to strike up a conversation with me about my "shakespeare and sons" bag. He had a big smile on his face which almost made me laugh and finally I stopped and did the "Parlez vous Anglais?" thing and he switched to English. He continued to walk next to me through the Louvre courtyards and told me that I looked very European and that he liked my "style"...He kept repeating that. I was flattered but knew where this was going. I talked a little about my travels and I asked him where the metro stop was. He told me and then asked about my plans for this evening (of course!!)..I said I wasn't sure because I was very tired. He asked if I wanted to meet later for a drink. I HATE saying "no" to nice people. I am so goofy that way. So instead, I was very vague. He gave me his phone# and email address "just in case I felt like meeting up later"..Obviously I don't feel like calling him but the attention was nice, though. EARLIER I had seen an older man (in his 60s?) and we inadvertently walked up the steps together and through my headphones I could hear him asking in French if I wanted company? I ignored him completely and quickened my pace. 10 minutes later I stopped to look at some old black-n-white postcards for sale and suddenly the same older guy was right at my elbow..he had followed me. I let him know that I couldn't really speak French. He asked again if I wanted company. I smiled but declined and walked away, leaving him standing there. French men are almost as bold as Italian men but I find them more charming (and more attractive for some reason)...speaking of KOOKY men: Raphael. I went to Pere Lachaise yesterday to look at famous fraves. After I'd been there a half hour or so I was nearing Morrison's grave (I'd gotten the map and this place is HUGE!) when a man ( very Italian looking) with longish curly hair and a Jim Morrison t-shirt came up and spoke to me in French. I switched to English and he led me to the Morrison grave which was not as interesting as I thought it would look, probably because people keep stealing the busts of his head. The government pays for all the graves/burial/upkeep of famous people in this cemetery. I told Raphael that I had a list of other famous people I wanted to see in the graveyard and he just happened (so he says) to be one of the two paid guides for the cemetery. He speaks English and is the Jim expert. He said the other guy only speaks French and is into Edith Piaf. Anyways, he had me follow him and told me he knew all the shortcuts, so I gave him my list of celebrity graves and off we took (man, he walked FAST!)...He literally saved me hours of searching alone and he was extremely entertaining and goofy. I thought to myself, "Wow" he really must think I am nice to give me my own tour for free...ha ha..I found out what a naive tourist I can be sometimes. He shoed me "Mr. Fertility"-I'd never heard of this grave. It is very famous, I guess. It is of a journalist (Victor Noir) that was assassinated by Napoleon's cousin. Raphael told me that 2 days after Noir was killed his relatives found that he had a giant erection (I suppose this IS medically possible)..The tomb is a bronze cast of his entire person (head to toe) including a LARGE bulge in his pants. His privates are tarnished from so many people rubbing them for "fertility powers, etc." Raphael said it gives people some mystical sexual power and crazy orgasms (I had to turn around to hide my laughter from him) but the affects only last for 4 hours at a time. I LOVE this Mr. Fertility story! Mr. Fertility's boots are also tarnished. He supposedly brings children to couples. You rub his right boot for 1 child and his left for twins. I rubbed his right boot. We will see if Mr. Fertility really IS magical. At one point Raphael said in passing (while we looked at Mr. Fertility) that he himself had an erection right then (how cheesy!) I totally ignored his confession about that. He tried to hold my hand a few times and he also kept putting his arm around me. I felt uncomfortable and like laughing hysterically at the same time. I think it was just his French/Italian friendliness, though. Oscar Wilde's grave way crazy. You can barely make out his name. Part of the stone is some sort of flying Egyptian God. Someone over the years (I heard it was a caretaker from 1907) had taken off the genitals of the statue?? Tradition is to leave a lipstick print somewhere on Oscar's grave and it is just COVERED (like bruises) with pink, red and purple lipstick kisses. It looks pretty cool, actually. I decided to leave a lipstick print, too (on the back of the grave where I didn't have to kiss over someone elses lips!) After the tour, Raphael took me down the street to the "Renaissance" Hotel/Restaurant and Bar. From what I gathered this was the bar with the windows from the cover of the Doors "Morrison Hotel" and that Jim MOrrison stayed there, in Room#5. Being a Morrison fanatic, Raphael told me that HE now lives in Room#5. He asked if I wanted a tour of the room. HA HA HA. I declined, naturally! Anyways, he finally let it be known that my tour was NOT for free yet he wouldn't name a price for me to pay him. I offered 10 euro and he seemed insulted. He said most people that he gave individual tours (he usually only gives group tours) pay around 40 euro. I told him I would give him 25 euro and he accepted. He had me take a picture of him holding open his Jim Morrison photo album and gave me his address to send him a postcard from Oregon. Hilarious (and strange) guy!
On my last night in Paris I ended up walking around my neighborhood with a couple of nice guys from the Congo. They didn't speak very good English so communication was difficult. They seemed to know EVERYONE we ran into and at one point there was about 6 of us walking around. They took me to an African restaurant and manipulated me into giving them some money for food and beers for all of us. I am too nice. They kept having me try the food...very good chicken with the spiciest chili sauce on the side. I ended up talking to them about racial profiling in Paris and their families back in the Congo.
I didn't get to nearly as many places in Paris as I would have liked but I really loved being there!
*****************
