Gargoyles, a Ginko, and some Glass

Sunday I spent some time out with the camera. I spent some time with the telephoto lens catching gargoyles on Notre Dame. They really are amazing. I was disappointed with my lens performance, which might be unfortunate for my 401k if I decide to replace the lens when we return to the US for the holidays.

I then wound my way down the island to the tip, where a lone ginko tree was screaming "Jaune!!!" (yellow) at the top of its lungs. Ginko trees are one of my favorites, and they are really spectacular here in Fall.

I finished up by going inside Notre Dame on the way back. I took some photos of the rose windows, cranking the ISO up and opening the f-stop wide open. I really need to go back and do it properly with a tripod when it is less crowded.

Weekend of Food and Photos

We had some great food this weekend.

Saturday we went to a nearby seafood place for lunch. Sarah started with a creme of pumkin soup with shrimp that was amazing. Seriously, it was one of the best soups I've ever had. The French *really* know how to do pureed soups. I had shrimp ravioli in a very flavorful sauce. For our main courses we both had grilled fish, with a tasty butter sauce. The fish was very fresh, and the sauce went very well with it. Yum.

November is "Photography Month" in Paris, there are exhibits all over the city. We went to the Museum of European Photography, where they were having an exhibit on Vu magazine. Vu was a weekly french magazine from the late 1920s to 1939. It had stunning photography.

Saturday night we found a new drug dealer. Just kidding. One of the things we miss about Texas is mexican food. Sometimes I just really need a fix of mexican food. Saturday night we found a place that is run by people from Mexico, and has things on the menu that look and taste like mexican food in Texas. We have tried another place in Paris claiming to serve mexican food, and it was *aweful*. This place is really good, and requires reservations several days in advance for Saturday night. The trouble is the price. Mexican food and margaritas for 4 people just shouldn't cost over $200. But it does in Paris, and we'll be going back to this place again. Because it's still a lot cheaper than flying to Austin for dinner.

Sunday we went to a huge photography expo. Dozens of photography galleries from around the globe descend on Paris for a very trendy photography expo. A large portion of it was totally bizarre, some of it was people who get a little too carried away with Photoshop. It was all very expensive. I saw an Ansel Adams print for sale for 44,500 euros, and some Brassai prints up in the 40-50k price range as well. A boring picture of ugly office furniture (fits very nicely in the "bizarre" catagory) was 1,800 euros. One gallery specialized in photos from the 1800s, it was very interesting. People attending the event ranged from people in the photography industry to some college art students and some gaggles of self important jet setting trendy type.

After the expo we went to the new enclave of Japanese restaurants we discovered, and had lovely noodle soup and gyoza.

I also made my first tarte on Sunday afternoon. Since our neighborhood is packed with bakeries, there isn't much of an incentive to bake. But I wanted to see how hard it was. We made a poire-chocolate tarte, and it is really good. Damn, the dark chocolate here is just so good, it's hard to screw up any recipe that has dark chocolate in it.

A Few Extraneous Translations

I'm counting down to the big 180 million euro "EuroMillions" drawing in an hour (ok, we bought a ticket for fun). I thought I'd mention a few French translations that you might not have heard.

Instead of saying "When pigs fly", the French say "When chickens have teeth".

Instead of "Don't count your chickens before they hatch", the French say "Don't sell your bearskin before you kill the bear"

It doesn't rain cats and dogs here, it rains ropes.

And while the cat is away, the mice here dance instead of play.

Apartement Racket in Paris

No, don't worry. "Racket" doesn't refer to noisy neighbors. It refers to the rip off of the standard apartement lease in Paris. Let me explain.

At the beginning of October, our water heater in the kitchen went out. I phoned the company is assigned to 'help' us with things like this. I am informed that the standard lease for an apartement in Paris dictates that *we* have to pay for fixing the 8 year old water heater that came with the apartment. Exsqueeze me?

But wait, it gets better. We can't choose an honest plumber, we are required to have the plumber who works for the company owning the building fix it. He comes by for less than 10 minutes, waggles a screwdriver for a minute under it, and tells us if it doesn't work in two days he'll have to replace it. It breaks in 3 days. So basically we had to pay for the plumber of their choice dictate that we have to fork over more $$ for a new heater. It finally arrived yesterday, and we now have hot water.

The really special thing is that they will wire without our authorization as much $$ out of our bank account as they please for the heater, plus the 5 hours of labor it took to install it.

What a racket. It doesn't seem right to have the people renting the apartment pay for replacement of appliances that came with the apartement.

Oh, I wanted to adjust the thermostat on the new heater. The knob in the picture is the only visible control I can get to without unscrewing a large plate off the bottom of the heater. It looked vaguely like it might be a thermostat. Luckily I looked up Vidange.... It means Drain in English. So I'm glad I didn't turn that knob. 

Musée des Arts Décoratifs

This weekend we went to the newly opened Musée des Arts Décoratifs . It's been closed for remodeling since we've been here. Sarah and I enjoy decorative arts exhibits, and for us this museum is really fun. They had some really good Art Nouveau and Art Deco pieces, they would do entire rooms of different periods. It was easy to imagine the rooms were right out of a swanky Paris apartment building.

The museum is wedged into one of the wings of the Louvre, so the layout of it was a bit confusing.

Sunday we walked over to Jardin du Luxembourg. We had a nice stroll around the park. There are tiny ponies there that kids can ride that are really cute. We also enjoyed watching hotly contested boules games (you know they are serious when they break out the tape measure). And of course they rent out little sail boats that the kids sail in the large fountain. The only big disappointment was that the roasted chestnut stand was mobbed by a tour group, so Sarah had to do without her fix.