title: nighttime in paris

we come at last to the end of our paris series!
i took a small break in between posts to go to belgium. no big deal.
the last day i spent in paris was a monday. at night the city was deserted (parisians have to sleep too), and alex and i walked around with a cheap bottle of wine and all the time in the world. an interesting fact about this night: it is the first time i have peed on (not in, mind you) a foreign country. don't worry, i managed to avoid peeing on myself. check this first photo out extra close: alex took this little baby at night without a tripod. he has the steady hands of a surgeon.
this last photo is my absolute favorite ever. alex's idea, my drunken execution.
coming up are photos from belgium, including bruges, ghent, and my birthday in brussels!

title: streets of paris 2: art and architecture

i didn't wind up taking too terribly many photos of buildings on my trip. i have a lot of shots from high places like the butte montmartre and the eiffel tower, but they are really very basic. i think i was just hyped up on caffeine and excited by how much i could see. check out this beautiful place!
i saw that poster being glued to the wall while i was having coffee with my mom and aunt. the man who put it up painted the wall over and over with glue, and took especial care to lay the poster flat. he even cut of the corner so he didn't paste over that red clown's speech bubble, which was an absolutely adorable act.
the next and final segment will be: paris by night!

title: streets of paris 1: the people

the general pleasantness of the parisians, especially when the weather is nice, came as something of a surprise to me. all we ever hear about the french in america is that they are grumpy and short-tempered. oh yeah, and that they hate us. well, i ran into the sort of americans that even americans hate (i.e. the kind who pronounce pigalle like "pig-alley", which i promise is something i actually heard), and that was the only time i felt self-conscious of my nationality. and at that point, my mom, aunt, and i were laughing at these people along with the rest of the metro car. here are some images of the people of paris, being cute and all-around french.
yup, that's a didgeridoo. the caliber of street performers in paris sets the bar very high for the rest of the world. take this guy for example:i don't know if you can tell, but he has a live goldfish in that jar on top of his head. and he was actually managing to juggle and dance in time with the music. he so deserved the money he was earning! i also gave some change to a guy playing "volare" on his guitar in the metro, and a guy who was playing the entire amelie soundtrack on his accordian in a metro station. i wasn't the only one with her camera at the ready! these people are all taking photos of a solid chocolate-and-swarovski-crystal representation of the paris opera. decadence, thy name is paris.
and what would a post about the people i saw in paris be without photos of my beloved mommy and auntie?
this was while having coffee on the first level of the eiffel tower. yum!
next up will be the sequel: the streets of paris sans people. (i just rhymed)

title: la nourriture

so, i have given up on doing things in any kind of realistic order. the pictures i took on a recent trip to nijmegen accidentally went back to the u.s. with my mom when she left paris this weekend, so instead i'll just skip right forward to paris. all that matters is that i'm updating! i have so many photos from paris that i have decided to split them into several smaller, themed posts. this one is all the photos i have of food. i spent the majority of my time there (4 of the 5 days) staying in an apartment with my mom and aunt on rue mariotte (of which there will be pictures later!). down the street from us was a regional farmers' market which set up every day of the week except monday. the vegetables there were so fresh and beautiful, i've never seen anything like them:
this woman sold roasted beets at her stand, which was such a wonderful idea. the last night's dinner was just 2 big fat beet and a huge hunk of crusty bread.
but with dinner must come dessert, and there is plenty of that in paris. my mom and aunt had heard about this "chocolate exposition" that was going on, so we went to that. you pretty much just pay the €12 admission price and walk around sampling the finest chocolates france (and other countries, like italy and even japan) has to offer. this was fun. i ate so much chocolate, and brought home so much more. as we speak, my dad, brother, cousins, and uncle are probably gorging themselves on the treats my aunt and mom brought back. i was also able to visit laduree bakery, which was one of the only places i had on my mind from the beginning of the trip. it was packed full of tourists, having made a name for itself not only because of its age but because its pastry chefs were responsible for the desserts featured in marie antoinette. the macarons and religeuse (violet flavored, no less!) i got were so out of this world. hooray for the french! coming up next in the paris series is the view from the streets! stay tuned!

... p.s., check this out:it was so good.