Orchid revival

When we bought this orchid during a sale at the flower shop in late January, it had three blooms on it. About a week after we got it home, all the blooms dropped, and two of its leaves went belly up as well. Yikes. We chopped the bloom spike back, and consulted with an orchid expert (Suzy's dad). We think (hope?) we have nursed it back to health.

This week we had another bloom open, hopefully this one won't give up the ghost so fast. 

Les Invalides

We visited Les Invalides, which houses an interesting armory exhibit, a WWII exhibit, and Napolean's tomb. Napolean's tomb was OK, and the WWII exhibit was closed for renovation, so we hung out at the armory and weapons exhibit. It reminded me that mankind has always been a bunch of bloodthirsty "I'm gonna kick your rear" species. They had armor from several different French kings, some of the metalworking on it was quite artistic. One set was decorated in hundreds of tiny fleur de lis. They had room after room of intricately decorated swords, pistols, and musket/rifle thingies.

This weekend we celebrated our first picnic of the season. We had a champagne picnic on Place des Vosges, complete with French strawberries which have a slightly different taste than ours. We sat near the classical strings players that were playing. The sun was out, the trees are leafing out, and the fountains were going. Tres bien! Sarah and I are looking forward to many more picnics. We'll have to modify our gig a little, we got busted by the Parc police for drinking champagne in the park. Perhaps the champagne flutes will be replaced by less obvious plastic tumblers next time.

Spring Flowers in Suresnes

So while we live in downtown Paris, I actually commute out to Suresnes, right outside Paris on the western side. Last week Suresnes suddenly exploded with flowers. The town of Suresnes must spend a fortune on flowers.

The bottom two pics here are in a Park (Parc du Chateau) that I can walk through on the way to work. Whoever the gardener is here, he/she has a serious bulb fetish. Narcissus, Daffodils, and Tulips for as far as the eye can see. The baby ducklings are just too cute, there are 3 of them, all fuzzy.

I really enjoy the flowers, yes, my tax dollars hard at work, and it's worth every penny. 

The Dog thing

So, I've spent the last 6 months wondering which the French like more: their children, or their dogs. Don't get me wrong, the French adore their children, from what I see, being a child in Paris is a nice gig if you can get it.

But the French seem to have a very unusual relationship with their dogs. They constantly walk them and have exquisite little coats that Fido wears for his walk. And Fido can poop wherever he wants on the sidewalk, and no one seems to mind. There are some fussy damn little dogs in this town as well (Chupa, that's you!). Countless numbers of Pomeranians with their hair teased out so they look like a furry basketball. Stores everywhere that specialize in dog paraphernalia.

There is one dog in the neighborhood that is ugly as all get-out. He looks like a chihuahua, only with random sprigs of wiry white fur sticking out. His dad owns an art gallery on rue St. Paul. So we always see this scrappy little dog watching the world go by fromt he front door of the gallery. We both think he's kind of cute in his own way. We've even seen his dad riding a bike with the dog in the front basket.

So at the beginning of April, we noticed that they were displaying several pieces of art in the window that look exactly like the scrappy dog. We went by for a closer look one night, and the owner came out while we were looking. He explained that the display was his version of an April Fools Joke. His dog is named 'Pique' (not sure I spelled it right, pronounced like 'peek'). He's painted several paintings of the dog, and done a little sculpture of his ugly head. Most of the paintings had a play on words involved. He explained them to us, which was a little hard for me with my broken french. But one that I did understand was very cute. It was a cubist style painting of the dog sitting down. He calles it "Pique assis", which is pronounced 'peek-ah-see'. Translated it means 'Pique sitting'. He said "Pique assis, not Picasso".

Tonight the Pique shrine was gone, just like all the cute doggie coats are being put away now that Spring is here.

Marathon de Paris

This morning I woke to a sound that I hadn't heard since leaving Austin. I heard helicopters flying near by. It took me a while to realize that it must be helicopters following the Paris Marathon. So I grabbed the pocket camera and headed outside. I saw the runners zipping by on rue St. Antione at the end of our street. I went down and watched for a while. The streets were fairly quiet (it was 8:30 am on Sunday), but I listened to the thundering of thousands of tennis shoes on pavement as this mass of humanity went by. I took this photo right at the end of the street.

I stumbled into the bakery and got some pain chocos for Sarah and I, watched the thundering mass for a while longer, and then went home. We found it being broadcast live on French tv. As we watched the coverage, we got the Paris map, and figured out their approximate route. About an hour later, I started to recognize things on tv, and then heard helicopters again. I realized they were headed back into Bastille, down Henri IV, and past the other end of our street. So I headed back out for more pictures. I have to say the first time was more impressive, when so many of them were packed so tightly together, pounding away on the pavement. Truc, next year I want to see you here.

Kind of odd, our house in Austin also happens to be on a popular marathon route. I seem to sip coffee and watch marathons outside my front door no matter where I am.

This weekend we also made a run on Chinatown here for Japanese cooking supplies, and some good Vietnamese food. It was beautiful weather, so we walked there, which was a decent walk. 

Springtime in the police state

Spring has sprung! Warm weather, blue skies and sunshine have hit Paris. The trees are leafing out, sidewalk cafes are bustling..... and Paris is locked in demonstrations and riots over the CPE law. Students are going bonkers over a law intended to encourage employers to hire young workers because the law also makes it easy to fire the workers.

We spent the weekend walking the streets, enjoying the sunshine. We ended up closer to the Sorbonne than I had thought we were, and saw the street that's barricaded off by police, and kept noticing the large number of policemen on the streets. Police headquarters across from Notre Dame looked ready to launch large riot patrol with vans lining the streets. Tuesday is another mass transit strike.

This afternoon we discovered that the opera singer has returned to Place des Vosges. The square was packed with people, but no one was on the grass yet, since it's off limits until April 15. On the way back from Place des Vosges, we ran into a counter demonstration, people who are demonstrating against the people demonstrating. They feel the demonstrations have gone too far, and want the schools opened back up. I ran out and grabbed one of their stickers "Stop la Greve" (Stop the Strike). There were hundreds and hundreds of people, we didn't hang around to see just how many. Suzy is pretty whimpy, since she keeps getting emails from the US Embassy warning us about the demonstrations, and telling us to stay away from large groups of people.

We're estatic about the spring weather. I think living most of my life in Texas, I didn't gain a proper appreciation of just how wonderful it can be when the cold grey clouds finally break up, and you finally need a pair of sunglasses. 

London photos are up

I've put together a few pics from our London trip. I didn't take many, since most of our time was spent in museums. Odd, the museums are all free in London (but ask for a donation), and Westminster Abbey costs 10 pounds (roughly 17 USD) to get into. Hmmmm.... does God know that they are charging that much to get into a church?

Pics also include a shot or two of Elgin marbles in the British Museum, and the Chihuly glass piece hanging in the central foyer of the Victoria and Albert museum.

http://suzyinparis.free.fr