From Bercy to Bastille

I was bored so I took a little walk around Paris. I first went to the Bibliotheque nationale de France, which is this enourmous, brand-new building. I saw the "L'enfer de la bibliothque" exhibit inside, which was essentially just porn from the 1600s. Well, it was more than that. I saw some Marquis de Sade manuscripts, Japanese erotica, a Dali etching that he apparently made while masturbating. Interesting stuff. The point of is was that all the books they were showing had been at one time banned and hidden, or something. To be honest I didn't really read the explainations because I'm lazy. Anyways, I don't have pictures of the dirty stuff, just the building:

Here's the cool pedestrial bridge infront of the BnF.
A view of the BnF from the other side of the Seine. Like I said, HUGE!
I saw some cool outdoor sculptures as I walked on.
Found a skating park.
Then I explored Bercy park, which is beautiful. Even though it's March and things are still pretty barren, it was a gorgeous, sunny day. There are flowers in bloom in Paris people! Sooo much nicer than the late-winter blizzards Canada is getting hammered with.



If I had money, I would buy one of these condos overlooking the park. Bercy is one of my favourite parts of town because it seems much more modern. It's also by my favourite giant movie complex.
Ducks!
Then I walked to Bastille to have a quick coffee with Phillip. Here's Place de la Bastille.
And the Opera.
And Phillip, in the Starbucks as usual. Drawing on his awesome tablet computer.
And here's a pic of me that I took in a reflective window. I think it looks cool! I like the jogger in the background.

The Philippe Auguste wall

These are the pictures that went missing the other day. I'm glad I recovered them because this was my favourite part of that little tour: the Philippe Auguste wall. This wall, which dates from the 12th century, used to encircle the entire city. We were on Cardinal Lemoine...Found this open door, and decided to trespass... And found this cute little courtyard, and the wall! How cool.
We walked around the block and found the other side of the wall.
And here the plaque that explains it.

Random thoughts:

• When I look at art, I like to get really close and see the brushstrokes.


• I prefer the beginnings of movies to the endings.


• But Dogville has perhaps one of the best movie endings ever.


• American's don't say "grade 8," only "8th grade"


• And they don't call washrooms washrooms. Silly Americans!


• I love photoshop.

Life marches on (get it? because it's March now)

The last few days have been really good! I finally went to see the Musee National Picasso, which was amazing! I know Picasso was apparently an egotistical a-hole, but I still adore his work. It was also edu-ma-cational because I'm taking a course on Cumism. Here are some of the things I saw:

Still-life with chair caning
Some sculptures and painting. Fuck me if I'm naming them all.

After my visit, I took a lovely walk through the Marais. It was a particularly warm and lovely Saturday afternoon, and the whole quartier felt especially Parisian to me.

Some other good things that happened lately:

- Things are still going well with Philip, the 36-year-old (meaning, gasp, 13 years older than me!) animator I met at a party about a month ago. He's American (I know, I'm supposed to be dating French boys, but what can you do). I'll try to get a picture of him up soon.

- I got a cheque for 139 euros from the conseil general of my area. It was a 50% refund for my Imagine-R metro pass. I knew living in a town run by communists would pay off eventually! (Seriously, the mayor of Gentilly is in the PCF, aka. the communist party. Awesomeness)

- I have no art history classes this week! I actually showed up for class this morning, because I was completely oblivious to this fact. But still, NO SCHOOL BITCHES! Ha ha ha.

Last Wednesday, as part of my History of Paris course, our teacher Mme. Comerre took the class on a little walking tour. I thought you might be interested, so...

La Mosquee de Paris, as seen in Paris, je t'aime.An example of Gothic architecture, apparently.
Les Arenes de Lutece, which is a gorgeous park/site in the 5th. I had never seen in before this tour, even though it's right by one of the schools I have class in. Here's the "arene". It's like a huge outdoor ampitheatre.
Once we left the arenes, we headed up these stairs.Here's the view from the top of the stairs. Typical Paris street, so beautiful.The staircase had a fountain. I think the people of Paris used to count on these fountains for drinking water, and they can be found all over the city. Our teacher said that you can still drink from them unless there's a sign saying you can't. This one seemed to not be running, however.This is the street at the top of the stairs. The sign says that I was in Place Benjamin Fondane. You can see the gutter in the middle of the street, good for rainwater (and sewage I suppose, once upon a time...)A picture of the History of Paris class. Look at how cute our teacher is, with her hat!! The beam at the top of this door is the original one!

The sign says that Renee Descartes used to live here. Damn

Elections are coming up, so every arondissement's mairie has this election boards up. One board for each party. This is were Ernest Hemingway used to live.

Place de la Contrescarpe

The Mayflower, one of the best pubs I've been in so far! They had Ontario and Quebec license plate on the walls! I miss home.

I lost a few pictures which makes me sad. They were of the old Philippe-Auguste wall built around 1200. It used to be the wall that contained Paris. We actually went into a private courtyard where we could see the wall. Well, you guys can just Google it if you're curious.