Mon dernièr jour à Paris

Man. Did two weeks in Paris ever fly by. I can't believe I'll be in Berlin this time tomorrow.

I started the morning off with a stroll through Montmartre while I did laundry. It took a while, given that I'm dead scared of ruining my whites again and refuse to wash them with anything else. I probably spent 20€ on detergent and machine use. When I get home I'm gonna do laundry every day just because I can.

Exhibit at Hotel de Ville

When I finally finished that up, I caught the metro to Hôtel de Ville and went to the free exhibit there on "Paris vu par Hollywood"- Paris as seen through the eyes of America, essentially. Since admission was free, I splurged on the English audio guide, which was a good thing since all the captions were in French only. It was a neat exhibit! Small, but succinct because of that. They made use of lots of video clips (obviously), and also props and sketches and things from different movies set in Paris. I especially enjoyed the Audrey Hepburn section. She is so cool.

After the exhibit I popped over to Angelina, the famous "salon de thé" frequented by Coco and Audrey back in the day. I went all out. Set me back 32€, but last day in Paris, right? I had the "Angelina Omelette" for lunch. Then I went full on classic. Had the "l'Africain" chocolat chaud and the "mont blanc", their signature sweet. Oh. My. God. So decadent. So rich.

Mont Blanc and Chocolat Chaud

The Mont Blanc was a meringue topped with Chantilly whipped cream and a chestnut chocolate icing. Man alive. The hot chocolate was actually hot, melted chocolate- maybe that chile chocolate kind- it had bite. And it was served with a little pot of whipped cream, so you could mix it how you liked it. Just. Ah. So good. I can't even describe it. So good.

It did take me like, 25 minutes to flag down my waiter and get the bill, which meant I was late meeting Kevin and Walter at Champs des Mars. Not to mention I thought we were meeting at the station and they thought we were meeting in the park. It all worked out though, because luckily for us, the park had a "buddy bear" display on. Think spirit bears/orcas in Van. Painted bear statues. There were bears from all the UN nations and the boys figured- correctly- that if they hung out by the Canada bear long enough, I'd roll by. The Canada bear was unexpectedly lacking in red and white, so it actually took a while to find, but we were eventually reunited. We met a few other Canadian travelers by hanging near our bear. Man. I love Canada.

le tour Eiffel

After getting a good sentimental gaze in at the Eiffel Tower we went back to the apartment to regroup before our celebratory last night together. We had some sweet 3 part harmony jams and decided to go for dinner at a pub in Montparnasse that was allegedly holding an open mic night. Turns out that wasn't true, so we by chance tried a restaurant/bar du vin on the opposite street corner. By chance there was live jazz that night. By chance, a table became available right in front of the band.

Choosing that restaurant was the best coincidental decision we could have made. We shared a nice rosé, the boys had some French fare while I munched on a humungo salad. "Les deux Guy's" (both guitarists are named Guy. Its such a clever name in both english and french!) played a few tunes while we ate and then took a break. At that point it was just a trio- two guitarists and a stand up bass player.

During our meal I'd been naming the charts they were playing and saying how much fun it'd be to get up and sing. Purely musing, but the boys leaped on the idea and Walter actually asked one of the guitarists if I could sing with them. He was so nice and open to the idea! Asked me what I wanted to sing, and when I asked if they knew "All of Me" he replied "Bien Sûr!" and started humming it. He walked away, I think to chat with his fellow band members, the came back and said "All of Me, et puis!?" They wanted me to sing more than one! I was flipping out. My cheeks were so red.

Walter suggested "Autumn Leaves" (a favourite among Parisians, I've gathered), and then one of the Guy's suggested Satin Doll. So that was that! For their second set the band was joined by a younger tenor sax player. They did a couple songs and then invited me up. The restaurant patrons were so gracious when I was introduced.

We did "All of Me" first. I sang the head, the sax and guitar took solos, and then I think I may have thrown them a bit when I started scatting. Holy man though, was it ever fun!! The next two charts went fine as well. I love that music is an international language and that we could figure out the setup of the song, the intros and endings, despite the fact that my French and their English were both somewhat limited.

After the third song I sang, the audience was calling for an encore, which made me blush like nobody's business. I really didn't know what else to sing, but the band had a binder of standards to flip through. In the meantime, we were discovering that (again by chance!) the 15 of Novembre is a fête of types in Paris, where they celebrate this certain label of red wine, le Beaujolais. The band had written a cute little song about it to the tube of "just a gigilo" and had the whole restaurant sing along. It was hilarious. By now, the boys and I were getting free wine poured for us by both the band members, and their friends there watching. Pretty epic.

After a couple more tunes I got up and sang "Sunny Side of the Street". The band members were a little tipsy, which made for some fun. On the second head the lead guitarist stood up and kinda sang with me. It was great and really gave me the confidence to just have some fun up there. After that set finished the band came and sat with us and we spent maybe 40 minutes just chatting about nothing in particular and having some real laughs. The bassist is also a cartoonist and drew a caricature of me singing. Gonna treasure that forever. The band did a couple more songs at the end of the night- some really fun Dixieland sounding numbers. You could hear the wine. Haha. So many bottles of that beaujo going around.

Me and my gracious Parisian hosts

At the end of the night we exchanged emails and took photos. When I paid the bill, the waiter gave me a pear liqueur on the house for "my beautiful voice". So nice! And actually the liqueur is supposed to be good for your throat, and it did indeed warm it up quite nicely!!!

We left the restaurant around midnight and made it home half an hour later after some ridiculous antics on the metro. Truly an unforgettable night. I can't think of a better way to have spent my last hours in Paris. I owe Kevin and Walter such enormous thanks for making my time here so wonderful. I don't want to leave! But Berlin beckons. On to the next adventure!!

Paris, Je t'aime

Voyager au South of France!

Tuesday/Wednesday this week Kevin and I embarked on part two of our train journey across France. After ticking the north off our list on the weekend, we embarked Tuesday afternoon for Marseilles, one of the Southern most tips of France.

We caught a train out of Paris at 12:30pm, and arrived in Marseilles at 4pm. Our train for Avignon left at 5:46pm. Blitz adventure time!!!! We took a metro to the "old port" and then walked (quite a ways. The tourism website lied to me. 10 mins. Yeah right) to the "Plage des Catalans". It was quite lovely to see the sea. It was a sandy beach, and the sun was just beginning to set. Kevin, crazy boy that he is, went swimming.

                                   

Me and Kev in Marseilles

We had to rush back to the train station, this time taking a bus and then metro, and only JUST made the train. I was freaking the hell out. It all worked out in the end though.

Our slightly creepy YMCA room

We took a bus to central Avignon and had about 40 mins to kill, so we took a wander and grabbed some street food for dinner. I had a yummy ham and cheese omelette and Kevin had a massive kebab that was just exploding with meat. We made it to YMCA hostel at about 8:30. It was pretty abandoned and creepy!!!! But it had beds, which was really all we needed.

We watched a couple episodes of Fringe (oh man!!!!) and went to bed at midnight.

Palais des Popes

The next morning we checked out at 9:30 and took the bus into the heart of Avignon. We took a wander through the nice old timey streets and made it to the "Palais des Popes". We were there for about an hour. It had a lot of big beautiful rooms, some of which worked for singing- this time Kev and I tried Ave Maris Stella.

After the Pope's place we went to the PONT d'AVIGNON!!! AND DANCED ON IT!!!!!! Seriously. So much fun. It was also quite a pretty view when walking across the bridge.

Sur le Pont d'Avignon!!!

We had crêpes for lunch (I'm dumb), took a nice walk back to our bus stop, and then back to the train station. It took an hour to get from Avignon to Lyon. When we got there, we took a metro to "Vieux Lyon", and then a funicular up the hill to Notre Dame de Funière. It was Kevin's favourite church of his trip so far. It was very Romanesque looking. Not only was there a gorgeous sanctuary on the ground level, there was another one beneath that seemed like it was dedicated to Mary. The staircases down had "Ave Maria" written out in a bunch of different languages on the walls. We also stumbled across a random English church service- at 3pm on a Wednesday in Lyon. Who knew?

Notre Dame de Funiere

Europe's oldest church

After coming back down the funicular we took a wander down Rue St. Jean- such an adorable street. Kevin discovered the joys of "vin chaud" and now has a favourite new drink. Eventually we visited the cathedral St. Jean- so many churches this trip! Behind the building there were ruins of one of the first churches of Christianity, dating back to 700AD or something ridiculous like that.

We had dinner at a cute little French place that had a 30% off deal for early diners (score!). Kevin, always the adventurer, tried the typical Lyonneise dish of tripe, which is understand is some part of some animals gut. Ew. At Kevin's recommendation I tried "blanquette", which is veal and vegetables in a really yummy white sauce. After dinner we popped in to a different café for hot drinks, and then metro'ed to the mall beside the train station. I found a journal I liked and bought it, because I think the one I brought with me is going to fill up before the end of my trip.

We caught the train home to Paris and then metro'ed to St. Michel to meet some of Kevin's friends at a pub called "The Highlander". There was an open mic event, but Kev and I got there too late to sign up. It was cool to hear some local Parisian artists!

Can't believe I only have one day left in France!