Little (HUGE) Town its a (not so) Quiet Village, and No, It’s Not EPCOT

Obvs. I am not going to post my address, but you can get a good idea of where I live. I do miss being in the 8th near 567898765 metro lines because now I only have one line to use. It was also a lot closer to things ” because it takes like an extra ten minutes to get everywhere which slightly annoys me. But, at least I am not in Saint Denis, Aubervilliers or Antony!

Sometimes when the sun is shining like today I just want to start singing “Bonjour! BONJOUR! Bonjour! BONJOUR!” like a certain animated Disney Princess. I then realize that is not possible because French people do not sing, smile, or yell BONJOUR to strangers in the rue.

Hipster Belle made me snort up my diet coke in Mcdo. Classy.

I love this couture version of them, so cute! I saw this on a blog, and it did not link to the original artist, so just know that.

Actually, the evil ones are a lot cooler. I prefer this set.

ALWAYS ALWAYS loved these series of adds for the park. I thought they were quite clever.

 

I love the recent resurgence of Disney Princess popularity.  I always loved Ariel, but she pretty much gives up everything for a dude who didn’t even choose her at first. Considering she even dies in the real version of the story is also a little disheartening. I also loved Pocahontas because it was a real (if not embellished) story.  She also died young. There is so much stuff on them all over the place from hipster Disney princess to fashion archetypes as seen above. Tangent ended, moving on.

I really have not had the chance to walk around my new area. I had stayed here for a couple of weeks a few years back, but I never really explored Neuilly. It is so quiet and residential, but I really like it because its like a small village. I cannot believe I said two weeks ago that I wanted to live here and that it would never happen because its too cher, but here I am! There is a great market two blocks from my house and mall like thing pretty close by too (Palais de Congres). I really would never have to “venture” into Paris (of course venturing means literally crossing the block because I live right on the dotted line). However, that would be silly and would never happen.

The ‘mall’ has like two stores in it. and a Starbucks. I doubt I will ever use it, but it is convenient if I ever need something from the Gap. I find myself going to La Defense more often because they really do have a hugggeeee mall like America. There is even a pretzel shop; it’s a little creepy. This thing even glitters in tune with the Eiffel Tower every hour.

near ma house

See mom! Malls do exist in Francia!

La Defense, the locale of the mall abouve and the scary arche like structure in the midst of the towers.

OK, I have to end this post with one of the funniest things I have seen in a while. It is a little old because its makes fun of Disney Princesses and Springbreakerssss. Do not watch if you find fratty humour offensive. (Link does not want to embed directly into my page, but check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fuAISk6uzk  

 

UPDATE In which I find my place in Paris

After two months of searching, I finally found my place! It is so tiny and on the 6th floor sans elevator (7th for you N. Americans) but, it is all my own!!!! It is super cheap and in a FABULOUS location. I really could not ask for a better place. I am now Neuilly-Sur-Seine’s latest resident! I am so happy, you have no idea! I feel like a giant weight has been lifted off me. AHHHHH I just can’t believe it happened so fast! I really gave up looking the past week because I was tired of hearing “non!”

I saw this too-good-to-be-true add on leboncoin.fr and poof! I get a response to see it this evening. My rapport with the propriataire (IDK the word in English) was really good. I just cannot believe it!!! AHHHHHHH

I would post pictures but the add has been taken down. I will post them ASAP though!

UPDATE

OK so quite a bit has happened since I signed on the dotted line for my own little shoebox! I didn’t think I would be too squished…. and I am not, but all my crap has yet to find a home. I bought a clothes rack and it keeps breaking down. I have had to secure it with colorful tape in the meantime. I was also afraid I would get water everywhere with my shower, but actually that is not the case. Cooking has also been quite easy. The real surprise to me was sleeping as it is not as quaint as I remember. The bed seems smaller than I remember… and because of the slanted roof my pillows push me too far forward, and my toes dangle over the edge if I am not careful. Ha! However, I have learned how to re-position myself so that I sleep comfortable and soundly.

I have been running all over Paris going to all these different stores buying stuff for my shoebox. Tati is this one place in the gghhheetttooo of Paris, but its like Walmart on European steroids. I bought many of my household things there. They have really cheap discounts on beauty products. I got this lip stain from Maybeline that I have has my eye on for a while for 4 euro when the same one is 12 euro at Monoprix. However, do not go here unless you are willing to deal with a gritty crowd at the metro who blow down your neck as you pass. Gross.

 

 Casa is more enjoyable, and I have only found one in Paris. It is kind of like a Pier 1 (which also exists here, but is more expensive…. I think…. Now that I think about it I have not checked it out and probably should).

Next is Castorma which is exactly like Home Depot only which more furniture. It is pretty inexpensive as well. I have not done an Ikea run as I have been able to find things off LeBonsCoins for cheap-o furniture. The little table you see in my pictures was 5 euro! Not bad for a solid piece of furniture.

However, my favorite indulgence by far is Zara home. This store is unbelievable with their selection of fabrics, pillows, accessories and even clothes. It is just color and paisley (my favorite pattern) overload!

Now, I am just playing the organization game with all my little bits and pieces. Living in a shoebox will be definitely interesting, but I think it is a growing trend. I recently read an article in the NYT on it that I cannot find ATM, but will post later when I do! Anyway, this blog will take a new turn as I begin documenting my experience living there!

This is my bed! and the little table. The bed turns into a chair thing, and I love these sheets I bought from Zara home.

So, as you can see it is a shoebox, but it is all mine!

The table pops up like a murphy bed

The “kitchen area”

ALLORA , that is it for now and stay tuned for more updates!

No Monagasque Prince for Me at the Musee d’Orsay

Dante and Virgil watch Paulo and Francesca hurled by in a tempest.

I was bored so I went to the Musee d’Orsay. I love saying that: I was bored so I (insert some cool Parisian thing here). Anyway, sometimes they give me a stink because I am not EU when I flash my ID, but HEY, under 26 and resident, I still am.

There was a special exhibit about death, mysticism, satan etc in art. It was pretty Gothic and dark, but interesting. It pulled reference from vampires, Milton, Dante and others. I got to see one of my favorite pieces as seen above. It depicts a pair of lovers Paulo and Francesco who were adulterers I believe. It is just so riveting, and I stared at it for a good while.

I love Dante’s Inferno section of the Divine Comedy. It is probably one of my favorite things to read. I think the whole idea of death, destruction, and circles of hell was just brilliant, and I often stalked Dante things in Florence. Some of the gory allusions and classical references are just nuts and really haunting. Not that I would ever kill myself, but the fact that in the Inferno suicides become weeping trees with broken bloody branches is enough for me to be all NO THANKS I DON’T WANT TO BE A TREE FOR ETERNITY.

From the Inferno, Canto ….. 13 or 7, I forget and it’s not like this is a term paper:

When we had put ourselves within a wood,
That was not marked by any path whatever.
Not foliage green, but of a dusky colour,
Not branches smooth, but gnarled and intertangled,
Not apple-trees were there, but thorns with poison.

Such tangled thickets have not, nor so dense,
 So many voices issued through those trunks
  Then stretched I forth my hand a little forward,
And plucked a branchlet off from a great thorn;
And the trunk cried, “Why dost thou mangle me?”
After it had become embrowned with blood,

It recommenced its cry: “Why dost thou rend me?
Hast thou no spirit of pity whatsoever?
Men once we were, and now are changed to trees;
Indeed, thy hand should be more pitiful,
Even if the souls of serpents we had been.”

As out of a green brand, that is on fire
At one of the ends, and from the other drips
And hisses with the wind that is escaping;
So from that splinter issued forth together

Both words and blood; whereat I let the tip
Fall, and stood like a man who is afraid.
“Had he been able sooner to believe,”

Um, no thanks.

Other than the trees I find Dante pretty alluring. How more romantic can you be than Dante looking for his one true love then by descending into hell? Plus the fact that Dante based it on meeting a women whom he loved even after only meeting her once in real life! I love things like that. I have yet to read Paradisio and only snippets of Purgatoria, but perhaps soon.

I don’t like talking publicly about religion as I think it is just really personal and none of your damned business, but there is one quote from the Divine Comedy that pretty much sums up my ideas on the whole idea:

L’amor che move il sole e l’altre stelle

The love that moves the sun and the other stars .

It is just so poetic, and eloquent that I would and could not describe God in any other way.

 

All right, then so the rest of the exhibit was just a bunch of gnarled nasty faces. I wandered onto the giant clock and the impressionists. I tried to find a Louis like Blair did, but I didn’t get so lucky.

I do miss this stupid show. The best episodes were, of course, in Paris.

I must say the Orsay has never been my favorite as I always preferred the Louvre. However, I think I under appreciated it as the sculptures and Impressionist collections are quite extensive. I will give it another chance.

I took the following pictures on my walk after the museum closed.

love the cute book sellers

 

 

 

I had never been to this pass- not bad for an old train station!

There werent these many locks 4 years ago… hmmmm

how cute are they? they were then knocked off by a boatr

 

 

 

Wandering the Opera and Riding in the Bois de Vincennes

OK PEOPLE onto my weekly update held on Sunday evenings/afternoons depending on your locale. I had hoped this would be a more than a once a week sort of thing, but right now it just is not. I feel kind of like head of state addressing my public on the current issues and affairs dominating my life every week. Anyway.

Let’s see. I got a mini job last week tutoring English, I saw the Opera Garnier fo’ free for some special event this weekend, I flash my ID constantly as it gets me in free to places like Musee d’Orsay today, and still no apartment! I was coming off a rough week, and this week was just normal and hectic as ever scrambling to find a place.

I adore Chagall, and I had never seen the concert hall either!

There was a club in here the last time I visited for the Ball de l’X put on by the Ecole Militaire. It was super cool because me and a bunch of girls from JYF went to this crazy ornate ball where they danced the quadrille and everything. I wore my homecoming dress, and it was so much fun!

I have been wandering today around this city, as usual. I took a lot of pictures of my favorite bridge by the Tuilleries, as usual.

ACTUALLY, I went riding on Tuesday, and it took me days to recover from happiness and sore muscles. I had not been riding consistently in the past two years. I have had a lesson here and there, but am starting back up again at a barn in the Bois de Vincennes. There are actually a few in the area, and I may shop around. The one I went to was really nice and it had a HUGE arena, but the schedule is weird, they are full until July, and the barn people where kinda clique-y. Also, it is a bit of a hike even with public transportation and if I ride at night like I did on Tuesday, the park is not some place you want to be walking. I did not get off the horse till 11 p.m. and I flagged down a random girl who had been in my class.

You can kind of see how big it is from this picture + they have 80 horses and trails, and a cross country course!

So, yeah, that was fun and much needed. I just wish it was not so crazy with its schedule otherwise I would ride a couple of times a week. Also, I really despise the transition period where you have to wait for the barn to get to know you and understand how you ride before they really trust you with the horses. The instructor was pretty impressed with my seat/ position despite not being in a saddle for a long time. It is interesting here though how they ride more behind the motion of the horse. It was pretty Dressage based, and as a hunter rider I was confused at being told to sit so far back! At least they do  not post on the inside diagonal like the Germans!

 

Just one of the barns of the UCPA

 

Creepy road to the barn

There is even a bar/ club house, how cute!

 

Was going to blog about the rest of my day, but it will end up being too long, so I split! ciao raggaziii

W(h)ine Part Deux and Blogging Blah Blah Blah

Oh, where to begin? Nothing special lately. Still no apartment, but I did go to Angouleme which I hope was for the last time. I wrote this while I was there, but never posted it:

vintage Angouleme

Blogging live from Angouleme!!! I have a whole day here, and I am already bored after one hour. Hence, my blogging.  I took covoiturage at 6 am from Paris, and we made it in record time. I closed my eyes for half a second, and the next thing I know we had arrived! Obvs. I slept the whole way as I had not slept the night before.

I went to drop off my valise and the Foyer people were like OMG FINALLY YOU ARE HERE 4 MONTHS LATER! I did not stay long as I was meeting my friend and colleague from days as an assistant here. She was always realllyy really nice to me as she was always taking me out to lunch or dinner. Then for Christmas she got me all this Agnes B. makeup.  I felt like a terrible person because I was not able to get her something as I had maybe 50 centimes to my name. So, this time I brought her a little  present from Parrisss.

We went to one of my fav. places in Angouleme, the Pistou and then a little salon de the afterwards. Now… I wait and blog in the libary because I do not want to deal with my leftovers from Angouleme. ca me nerve.

more vintage Angouleme

Actually, I made it back just fine. I stayed super close to the train station, and I managed to drag my stuff across the country thanks to help from random people who loaded me on off the bus and train. The only pit fall was an evil French man who worked for the train station who refused to let me cross the tracks even though I had done it before.

I MISS ALL OF THESE PREPPY THINGS!!!

At the moment, I am having a hard time justifying this crazy plan of mine. I feel like I am missing out on Kentucky Derby parties, being wild in America, family, preppy clothing, and a real job. I don’t want to give up as I have been here like two months, but at the same time its reaalllllyyy hard. Like a lot harder than I thought it would be. I know I am sure it seems like all I do is whine or complain, but right now its all I have to give. Almost nothing is working out as far as Paris goes at the moment. Le sigh.

I just want to go back to Sweet Bush. and play with ponies, and go to college parties, and have a car, fratty things annnnndd be in Virginia. I know now I would never move back to Louisiana, but I would go back to VA/ D.C. in a heart beat. I just cannot give up on Paris yet, not until I have literally exhausted all options.

I am hoping this current state of affairs passes quickly because it puts me in a rather foul mood.

I recently came across a superb copy of this for 50 cents at a thrift store. I bought it obvi.

 

The New Mojito and the Ant

The other day I asked for a Monaco at a bar/ cafe. This is not a complicated drink i.e. grenadine and beer. However, it took the waiter a while to come back. Eventually he sits a giant cocktail in front of me with all these things in it. Turns out he thought I said Mojito. What-evs, I drank it anyway.

NOT a mojito.

Also, this week I found real live BBQ in Paris. Who knew its been around for 3 years? I do not even eat BBQ or pork at home, but it was the student deal, and so I got it.  It was, like, amazing. But, the weird thing was the guy was like “are you ready for your cheesecake?” when I got to go pay, and I was like uh…. I don’t even really like cheesecake, and the go noticed my face and was like “oh, you can take it to go if you want!” and I was like sure, Ill share it w/ my host family. Well, the total ended up being like 9.5 euro and I was like uuhhhh. So, due to some misunderstanding the dude just gave me the cheesecake and my friend and I split it later at a cafe.

interesting find. http://www.bluesbarbq.fr/

 

So, today is a bank holiday in France, and it is one of like 5 million this month. I am pretty sure I was on my way to London this time last year. Le sigh, I just want to freaking travel. HOWEVER I AM SELF BANISHED UNTIL I FIND AN APARTMENT. It has been even slower this week. There has been nothing posted and/ or people do not respond $%#$@.

A friend and I went to the Fourmi, a cute cafe near the Cigale which I have a weird history with, yesterday and had like super intellectual conversations. I was going to discuss, but I don’t feel like it. I JUST WANT AN APARTMENT. My mind is only focused on one thing at the moment, if you have not guessed. Anyway, we also discussed going to Turkey and Morocco in September. I have not been to Morocco since my junior year abroad. I think I am ready for round two. But, gosh, a trip to Corfu would be nice too. Plus, I want to go to Firenze and the south of France. SO MANY PLACES.

I feel like showing off my many travels. I may later.

Inside the Fourmi

Right next to the Cigale, metro Pigalle. Can’t miss it.

 

I have to wake up at the crack of dawn tomorrow to go to Angouleme to get my stuff. YAY.

HOW TO DRESS LIKE A REAL FRENCH PERSON

I found this on a blog. Idk if they wrote it or not, but I liked it.

So, today was weird fashion day in the capital of global mode domination. I saw a slew of girls with no pants on. I mean, they were wearing leggings. But, those do not pants make. Then, I saw a really tall woman in a pink beach kaftan wearing stripper heels in the middle of the city. Also, I saw a man wearing a revolting sweatshirt with FRENCH FRIES printed on it. What is this new hipster thing/ obsession with actually wearing food? Its really weird. They all need to go back to Shoreditch. In case you do not know what I am talking about, watch this little gem:  (pardon the err… French in the video, but it is quite accurate!)

New age fun with a vintage feel!

Basically, I am a part time blogger with my own jewelry line. It is a mix of religious iconography with a Saved by the Bell feel.

 

Moving on. I decided to make a guide on how to dress like a real Parisian! This will be the ultimate guide on how to look like an actual French person I saw today!

THIS IS the actual sweatshirt I saw today. SO COOL!!!

Buy them here (http://eu.fab.com/) for only 35 euro!!

WHY EAT YOUR FOOD WHEN YOU CAN WEAR IT? Have you ever heard the phrase “you are what you eat”? Well, in France, they really take that seriously.

Don’t feel like wearing pants? Well, you are in luck! The French do not like to wear them either! Luckily, you can pull on some see through spandex like these that will really show off your curves!

If they are not hurting, then they are not working!

Of course, no outfit is complete without some lovely plastic platform heels! These babies will look great with your fry shirt and leggings!

Ok, enough fun for the day. Still apartment searching. I went to Casa today and mentally bought everything I will need and want for my future studio.

Fin.

  

French Fried (HOW TO DRESS LIKE A FRENCH PERSON) and a Melange of Other Appetizing Things