A Whole Lotta Random.

Holy crap it has been a while since I wrote anything... But here we go again. Be prepared...

NRJ Music Awards.
So where shall I begin? OK, first let's talk about this weekend. So, this is officially my last week of work here at NAKeD. Yey! I am completely ready to take a break and do a little exploring. But to wrap up the 3 months that I have been working with them, we are going to Cannes for the NRJ Music Awards. They are just like the MTV Awards but these are produced entirely in France. They will have about 10 performers ranging from Amy Winehouse to Rhianna to Mika... It should be a pretty cool show. But am not going down just to partake in the festivities. We actually produced all the graphics for the entire show. So we are heading down on Thursday to test the graphics on this huge screen and make any last minute changes that may need to occur. But our hard work will be well rewarded because not only do we get to attend the award show but my company is throwing an after party for the entire production with invites extending to all the hosts and performers. The producer (Jacques) just told me last week that they ordered 1200 bottles of champagne for the soirée! I think it will be an "OK" time... LOL...

Here is a video of one of the performers, MIKA:


Bonne Année!
OK, I suppose the time has come to discuss the New Year's Eve party here in Paris. For the most part the French like to party just as hard as anyone else on this night. But here are some details that stood out to me as a little different from my normal festivities.

OK, so what I ended up doing was heading to a house party with Danielle in the south of Paris. When we arrived there were about 10 people, half spoke English the other half spoke French. Usually, I end up drinking beer and shots on New Year's with a touch of champers for good measure. Apparently, in France, you drink wine and champers all night. Oh man, we are in for a long ride... As far as food is concerned, there was Fois Gras which is a paté made from duck liver. You eat it by smearing some on a small slice of toast. Very very good but somewhat unethically made... I will let you do your own research on that here.



Also, they had another dish which wasn't the most visually appealing but tasted like a bit of heaven. It was called Parmentier de Canard which is little pieces of duck pulled from the bone and mixed with puréed potatoes. Mmmmmmm! I can taste them now.



The music was interesting. It was a mixture of old French and American classics. Very cool because everyone that was French would bust out all the lyrics when their songs came on, and vise versa. Overall, it was a good mix and a fresh change.

Here is a sample of my friend's singing some French song on another night:



When that special hour finally came, there was a big difference than what we usually do in the States. Instead of every one having a "date" for the night and then making face with them at midnight, the French have a different way. When the hour struck, we all went around the room giving bisous (the kisses on both cheeks) to basically everyone and wished them a Bonne Année (Happy New Year). I actually liked this tradition very much. Seemed like a good way to meet everyone you didn't know very quickly. Lol... Also, at that moment is is normal to throw these little balls around the room. They are like the size of marbles and made of something a bit heavier than foam. But imagine hundreds of them coming from all directions. It was like an indoor snowball fight with miniature snowballs. (What a horrible analogy that was.) After it was all said and done, I had a great time at the party and really enjoyed my new way of celebrating the new year.

After the party, the Metro was supposed to be open all night, but for some reason it was closed. Me and Dee were lucky enough to catch a cab right away, but our friends were not so lucky. Check out this video of their adventure home on the Velib (the local bikes that cost 1 euro a ride):



The next day 8 of us met up to have on last night together before it was time to return to the States. It was nice. We had a chance to sit around and talk and learn a bit more about each other. Now if you remember from the last post, I introduced you to Peter (the Canadian Rocket Scientist from LA). Anyway, he told us about his brother and how he ended up where he is today. He is a Sommelier (highest level wine producer) who lives in Bordeaux since 4 years ago. Apparently, while living in Canada, he met a French woman, fell deeply in love and then was married. After that they moved to Bordeaux, France and bought a castle-like house. He furthered his interest in agriculture by getting into wine production. And after just 4 short years, he is almost at the top of the game. To me, that is a very impressive story. It says to me that no matter what you are doing right now, you can be in a completely different, better lifestyle in a very short time period. That idea makes me happy...

The night went on and we carried on story after story about our childhoods and drank delicious wine produced by Peter's brother. Then it happened... I brought my guitar to help liven up the party, but when Peter got control of it, things got a bit lively. Check out this vid of a song he sang about me, the Sexodrome and plenty of other good things:



I have a few more blogs written already but I am gonna wait to post them... Come back soon... :)

La Tour Eiffel

Well the holidays have come and gone. And so has Danielle Francis. Thanks for coming Dee, I had a blast. We have tons of photos to share and even more stories, but they will have to wait until next time...

La Tour Eiffel.
Bonjour Madames et Monsieurs, Je m'appelle Christophe et je vais été votre guide, aujourd'hui. Let me share with you the beauty that is the Eiffel Tower. The funny part is that when first erected (lol) in 1885, it was despised by Parisians. They thought it was an eye sore to the skyline of their beautiful city. Which may or may not have been true, but it has attracted nearly 7 million visitors since it's creation. It is also the most well known monument throughout Europe. It has attained all this in just 118 years. Not bad...

Here are a few other stats that I found to be quite interesting. It takes approx. 1 1/2 years to paint the entire structure and they paint it every 7 years, using 60 tons of paint. The city is going to start on the 19th coat next winter. Also, it does sway with the wind, but it only moves a mere 7 cm. Also, the tower was only to be left standing for 20 years to celebrate the French Revolution, but as it gained popularity through the years they decided to keep it standing.

OK, OK, enough of the stats... Let's see some pictures and video already! On y va! (Let's get going!)

Here is your chance to ride the tower from the ground to the third floor in about a minute. Enjoy!



And here are some day pics:






I have no idea why there were all these people on stilts:


This is one of the legs. You can actually ascend any of the legs except one. It is reserved for people who want to walk the stairs. Yeah, it is assumed that they are crazy!


And here are some night pics:


View to the North:


View to the South:


Along La Seine:


Is everyone keeping up with their New Year's Resolutions?

Joyeux Noël

Man, it has been a while since my last post! Almost 4 weeks have gone by. Have you missed me? I knew it...

I have so much new info to talk about that I need to break it up into a few posts, so please bear with me. I will get it all up though over the next week or so.

I hope everyone is having a great holiday so far. I don't know about you, but I only got to take off 3 days for Christmas (Noel) and New Year's. But I have a friend in town (Danielle Francis) and we should be partying it up, Paris style, in no time. I have no doubt in my mind that the French will be excited wish her a Bon Voyage after the next week. No offense D...

Joyeux Noël.
First off, I am not sure whether the normal Parisian gets the eve of Christmas off, but this American did not. I worked until about 6pm with only my Creative Director. Everyone else was, in my mind's eye, eating lots of food and partying. Mon patron (my boss) took off at about 5:30 and asked what I had planned for the evening. I wished that I had something amazing to reply with, but, "luckily" for me, I had come down with what I would consider to be flu-like symptoms the day before. So my night was full of laying in bed and reading a book about someone Else's turbulent travels in Paris. He understood, went to the fridge and grabbed a bottle of champagne. He told me, "Sometimes, this is the best medicine..." I agree and wished him a Joyeux Noel.

On a side note, I have not noticed a single hospital in Paris yet, so when I became sick I decided to do a little research on how to get treatment. I came to the conclusion that France is far ahead of the US in this arena without a doubt. There are some major differences that I found a bit strange. For instance, doctors work out of their apt. So you may be living next door to a pediatrician, optometrist, gyno, etc... Seems a bit weird and unsanitary, but very convenient I suppose. Also, the doctors have a system of home visits that is quite amazing and reasonably priced. You can call a phone line (something like you might call an ambulance in the US but not as serious) and a doctor will be at your doorstep shortly after. He will treat you for what you have and be on his way. I have even saw this in action with my boss. He had some serious illness and called a doctor to come to our office. The doctor showed up very quickly, diagnosed him, and gave him a shot, all within the office. They give you your shot in the ass here too. LOL. Weird, right? Yep my boss dropped his trousers and laid face first on the office couch to receive his buttocks injection. Also, the only place to but anything with any type of medication is a pharmacy. Now these are located about every 20 feet and nearly impossible to miss because they all bear a neon cross that hangs just above the store front on the sidewalk. This is the spot you must go to if you need anything from contact solution to penicillin to a medicated shoe pad.

The sign above every single pharmacy in Paris:


Ok, let's get back on track here. So I spent my Christmas Eve "medicated" reading a good book called A Year in the Merde (merde means shit and it is refering to Paris). But then on Christmas day the fun began. I decided that even though I was a bit under the weather, I still wanted to do something memorable. "What is a better way to spend Christmas than in a cemetery?", you are probably asking yourself. I couldn't agree more, so in light of this I decided to go visit Père Lachaise Cemetery which is one of the most beautiful and historic cemetaries in the world. Before you get all creeped out by my trip to the land of the dead, you must understand that this is a very popular tourist destination as well. In fact, it is supposed to be the most visited cemetary in the entire world. It is not just a trip to a cemetery. It is a trip into the past.

The story of the cemetery is that it was established by Napoleon in 1804, but noone was having their funeral and getting buried there. In order to increase it's popularity, he began to bury famous people here. This eventually worked and it became the powerhouse of a cemetery that it is today. The first 2 famous folks to be laid to rest in this historic place were La Fontaine and Molière. Both were transfered here from other cemeteries. Even back then they had to "sell" people on the idea and apparently celebrities have always been a good selling point. In case you are not up on your 18th century hipsters, La Fontaine was a super famous French poet and Moliere was "the" top playwright/actor of his time(comedy was his thing, think Ben Stiller). Anyway, a couple other people of note were Georges Méliès, filmmaker, who created A Trip to the Moon, Jean de Brunhoff who created Babar the Elephant (loved that as a kid) and, my reason for the visit, Jim Morrison, singer of the Doors. One grave I think is worth mentioning is that of Victor Noir. It isn't that he is super important as a person, but his grave certainly provokes interest. In fact I may model mine after his design. As you can see in the photo below, he appears to be at least partially sexually aroused, his penis pushing his part-unbuttoned fly open. This site has been a symbol of fertility since it arrived and women have been seen kissing his face and rubbing his "area". So much, in fact, that in 2005, they put a fence around the site due to deterioration. What better way to "rest in peace"?



Here are some more photos of the cemetery:




I am not entirely sure what is going on here, but it doesn't look good:


This guy had the right idea, "Never Give Up":






As far as Jim Morrison's site is concerned, it is nothing to write home about (even though I am). He died at age 27 of an unconfirmed drug overdose. The French doctor was kind enough to declare heart failure as the cause of death, so no autopsy was ever required. Anyway, he was laid to rest in a modest grave. Nothing too exciting, just thought I should at least pay some respect to one of the greatest poets of our time. Take a look for yourself:





After bidding Pere Lachaise adieu, I wanted to spend the second half of my afternoon with more dead people at the Catacombs. I had not previously heard of the Catacombs until I watched the film, 2 Days in Paris by Julie Delpy. Excellent film, by the way. I could really relate to what the American in the film is going through. Here is the preview:



Anyway, in the film, the main character, who grew up in Paris, describes the Catacombs as her favorite place to go in Paris. Now even though this movie is fiction, I still believe there to be some truth in her conviction about the Catacombs. This is the reason I added it to my itinerary for Christmas. So I took the short Metro ride over there only to discover that they are closed for renovations until Feb 6th. What kind of renovations happen to a tunnel of death? Someone please elaborate... For anyone who is unfamiliar with what the Catacombs are exactly, please read the following... Apparently the Catacombs came into existence originally as a series of mines or quarries. Then in the 1700's cemeteries within the city limits of Paris were being overfilled and causing health concerns for those people who lived nearby. So the solution was the turn the mines into underground cemeteries. This sounds to me like it would have come from the mind of the times most prominent horror author, but no this idea was from the city. Anyway, all the cemeteries were moved to these underground tunnels and cemeteries were outlawed within the city until 1804 when Pere Lachaise opened. Today, the Catacombs are open to public self-guided tours(unless your name is Chris Abbey, in which case they will be closed during your stay). Take an online tour here or check out these photos I found online...









That was about the extent of my excitement on Christmas day. There was some drunkeness and Hard Rock Cafe dinner involved, but it wasn't worth talking about. So to conclude my reentry into blog world, I would like to introduce you to my new friends here in Paris, Mag and Clem. Mag moved to the US when she was 16 and then went to college in San Fran, but she is originally from Paris and just recently moved back and Clem Is also from Paris. He moved to the US for a couple years and just moved back with Mag. Here are some random party pics:







Oh yeah... And this is Peter. Peter is a Canadian Rocket Scientist who works for NASA and lives in Los Angeles. What are the chances we would meet in Paris?


Well, I hope that was enough to keep everyone satisfied for a few days. I have a post about my trip to the Eiffel Tower almost ready to go. There is even a trip to the top in 60 seconds so get ready... Talk soon...Bonsoir...

La Nova Radio.

Birthday.
I feel very productive right now (at this moment in time and in life). Today, I worked 8 hours, then had a 1 hour french lesson, then I went to the gym for an hour, then I went grocery shopping, I am now writing this post and afterwards I am gonna play guitar for a bit. That is a freaking full day.
For those of you who don't know, I am 27 years old now. (Je suis vingt-sept ans.) I spent my birthday weekend in Amsterdam. It was one wild weekend including the weather. The rain was relentless! Regardless, I managed to survive the weekend and have one pretty damn good time as well. Anyway, I will have a post about the whole experience very soon, but for now...

La Nova Radio.
Oh man! This is a very important topic. La Nova happens to be the radio station that I listen to at work (against my will) all day. Let me pass on this info: they only play about 15 songs on loop all day, which they cal: Le Grand Mix. It is ridiculous! And just so you can experience the same misery that I go through every single day, I have included the names of some of the songs that are played regularly.

Just go to this website: DEEZER This site is actually very cool. It is considered online radio. And because of that, you can access any song you can think of at anytime. You can't download the songs but you can listen to them whenever you want. Anyway, just go to this site and type in a few of these songs so that you can feel the pain I go through on a daily basis. If you are limited for time, at least listen to the first one. Believe me, it will be well worth the effort... LOL...

The Songs.
Worst:
Ska Cubano - Soy Campesino
Hocus Pocus - Recycle

Better:
Little Dragon - No Love
Jack Penate - Learning Lines
Radio City - The Hop

On the upside, on Friday nights, they seem to expand on the basic 15 songs with some remixes and stuff. 2 weeks ago I heard a very cool mash-up of Radiohead and Busta Rhymes. Very interesting!

Keep an eye out for my next post that will cover my trip to London from 2 weeks ago...

Work. (again)

OK here is a super quicky. Just some footage of my walk to work and a couple photos.

Have a look:


The sky can be so beautiful here:



Everyone here rides a Moto of some sort:

Unchained Melody.

Although this post has nothing to do with Paris, it has the world to do with me being in Paris. This goes to the girl that fills my thoughts all of of the time. You deserve the world...



Je t'aime!

Interpol.

Ok, so we are back a little earlier than expected. I am am gonna jump ahead a bit and show you what I did this evening because it is fresh in my mind and worthy of an immediate post.

21 Novembre
Tonight, I went to an Interpol concert. It was more than amazing! They are a great band and even better live. The concert was help at a place called the Le Zenith. This place was a proper venue. The people here were really into them. I was shocked that so many Parisians loved American music. I will say this though, the majority of the kids at this concert were very clean cut. No one out here has tattoos, at least from what I can see. I haven't seen any tattoos the whole time living here. I stand out like a sore thumb...

Look how packed Le Metro (subway) was on the way home. It took like 20 minutes to catch a freakin' train:



Here is Le Billet:



Anyway, I am gonna keep this post short. Here are some videos to lay your eyes on. The first is of Interpol playing "Evil" live (hosted on Youtube):



The second is the trek back home from Le Metro:



Well, there you have it, more video content. Voila!

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone in the U.S. I miss you all! Save me some stuffing...

Monoprix.

Bonjour once again! Welcome back and thanks for taking the time to keep up with my travels. I appreciate it very much. Sorry it took me so long to write this one, but this is a bigger process than I expected...

Grocery shopping.
Where shall I begin? Ah yes... Monoprix:



Inside (notice the electronic price displays):



So I went grocery shopping or "faire des courses" on Sunday for the first time. Let's say that it was an experience! First of all, at this point I knew zero french. This means that unless I could visually identify a particular item, I was just taking an educated guess as to what it was. I would say that about 50% of what I bought that day was a guess. LoL... Here is what I purchased. Take a look:



Le Fromage.
So here are some things that I noticed when shopping on this premiere occasion. First of all, Parisians love cheese. There are way too many kinds of cheese in this country. They have Chevre (goat, "chevre" actually means goat), Gour Noir (goat, very tastey), Compte (cow, has been made for centuries), Brie (cow, goes well with Champagne) and the list goes on forever... I ended up only picking up about 3 different kinds to begin to figure out which I liked the best... Gour Noir was my favorite! I really didn't like Chevre. It just tasted gross (kinda moldy)... Oh well, no problem. I have about 250 more kinds to try...

Le Jambon.
Next, there seemed to be a lot of "le jambon" or ham. So I asked one of my friends why? They told me that pork (le porc) is a favorite meat in France. In the lunch meat aisle, there was ham everywhere, but only a couple selections of Chicken (le poulet) or Turkey (le dinde). I guess I better learn to like ham.

Here are some other interesting facts. Everything is in the metric system, which in and of itself is fine. But it changes the way everything looks as far as packaging is concerned. For instance, milk does not come in 1 Gallon containers. It comes in 1 Litre containers. All the nutrition information is also worded a bit differently due to the metric system. So instead of it listing a serving size and then the calories, fat, protein, etc. per serving, it lists how many grams the product weighs. Then, it lists it like this:

Poids net: 120g (total weight of the product)

Pour 100g (per 100g)

106 kcal (Calories)
447kJ (Joules = high school chemistry? what the...?)

Proteines 22g
Glucides 1g
Lipides 1,5g
Fibres <1g

Notice that instead of a period as a decimal point, they use a comma. It seems to be in all number related items. No clue...

Le Pain.
Also, bread doesn't come packaged as it would in the States. Here it is fresh and on shelves. You simply choose the one you like and wrap it up yourself. Weird, but it tastes delicious!

Finally, here are a couple comments to wrap up the whole grocery store debacle. THERE WAS NO PEANUT BUTTER! What?! They had almond butter, caramel butter, chocolate butter, but no peanut butter... That was a disappointment since it is like my favorite snack. Also, there are zero medical related items in a grocery store or any store in France for that matter. Even for contact solution, you need to visit "une pharmacie". These are small, cozy store fronts where you can get anything from hydrogen peroxide to penicillin.

So there is my shopping experience in Paris. Hope you enjoyed:) Check back soon for updates on my night out at Le Cab (one of the hottest night clubs in Paris). As well, as a full detailed story about my trip to London to see The Arcade Fire.

A Bientot.

Le Louvre.

9 Novembre

Bonjour! Well, here it is, my second post. Yey! Everything is still terrific. So let me begin where I left off...

Friday morning I woke up with a bit of a headache and hangover from the evening before. :( But it was ok since I had such a great time. Work went smoothly and I had to finally go to le dejeuner (lunch) alone and make my first purchase while not intoxicated. It went well. When entering a business here in Paris, it is respectful and common to greet the owner when entering with: Bonjour Madame, Monsieur. So I did. So far, so good. I went to the same Bagel shop once again since it was familiar and less intimidating. "Deux Grand Central, s'il vous plait", I said. I ordered 2 so that I also had some dinner waiting for me for later:) Mister prepared! After work I locked up and headed home with a couple red beers from Belgium. I just sat at home played some guitar and drank. Very relaxing and enjoyable:)

Here are some bikes for rent in the city. It is a cool concept:





10 Novembre

I awoke at about 8:30 and made some coffee and began to plan out the day a bit. I picked up my copy of the Lonely Planet's Guide to Paris and began reading. I settled on Le Louvre for the days activities. Walking seemed like a good way to learn a bit about the city, so I did just that. I did in fact learn something, Paris seems to have a lack of street signs. LOL. After a little exploring and map searching, I was able to come across the street that I needed and proceeded on my way.

Along the road to Le Louvre, I came across many interesting sights. For instance, I came across this example of how NOT to lock up a bike, or maybe where to not lock one up?



Look, they also have Midas!



I also wondered through this staple of Paris called the Place de L'Hotel de Ville. It was beautiful. Take a look:











All of the architecture here is very detailed and refined. I have not seen one building that didn't make me look twice. Which means that I have a lot to see:)

After snapping a few photos at L'Hotel de Ville I stayed on track towards Le Louvre. The road to Le Louvre from my flat is along La Seine (the river that flows through Paris). This made for a beautiful walk during a fridged autumn day. All along the riverbank were small booths selling different second-hand merchandise such as books, small furniture and artwork. It is almost like sensory overload for a foreigner like myself. So much to see, hear and smell all at once.

Which brings me to the next fun fact, chestnuts. Haha, what, you ask... Yes! Chestnuts or at least what I believe to be chestnuts. Upon crossing the road to Le Louvre, I spot this guy standing next to a shopping cart. From my previous experience, I regard him as just a homeless guy asking for change, but as I get closer I realize he is selling, what appear to be, chestnuts. Yes, he has his cart setup with a tray sitting on the top and he is offering roasted chestnuts for sale. Very interesting. Since this first encounter, I have run across numerous other "Chestnut" vendors throughout the city. Gotta love new things:)

Here is what they look like:



So I enter Le Louvre's exterior wall and here is what I see:







It is massive. It is said that it would take 9 months to glance at every piece of artwork within these walls. That is just crazy. Good thing I got an early start:) Once inside the museum, everything was pretty much par for the course as far as museums are concerned. Don't get me wrong though, this place used to be used as a Palace before being repurposed as a museum in 1793. So the building itself is as much a work of art as the pieces held within.

The security here was no joke either.



I must admit that the Roman religious artwork was, to me, the most moving. I have, for some time now, had an interest in this type of artwork. It is very beautiful and was usually created by the master's of the time. The church always had the money to pay for the best...

Anyway, instead of me going on and on about art, I will just show some of my favorite pieces and some of the most popular. Take a look for yourself:































Venus de Milo:



The Mona Lisa was quite popular:





Some Egyptian works:







OK that is enough for now! More to come this post:)

PS: Here is a random walkthrough of the city:



Au revoir