Aah. Nothing like a three-day weekend the week before we go on vacation. Monday was a holiday in France. We didn't do too much, mostly laundry and cooking and me lying out on the terrace pretending I was at the beach. But it's chilly here, today probably didn't get above 72 -- how odd for August, don't you think? But I like it far better than sweltering. I'm curious to see how the weather will be in Switzerland and Venice.
The coolest part of the weekend was Saturday night, when we went to our friend Johnny's house. We met Johnny in San Francisco at Caleb and Tricia's house a few years ago. He is in Paris working on a documentary of 60's french Pop music. (See more about him and his project at http://www.bardotagogo.com.
Well, Johnny loves movies, and he took us out to see the Festival de Cinéma en Plein Air à la Villette. It's like a drive in, but instead of a car, you just bring your food, pay 6 euros for a chair and a blanket, and park yourself on the grass. We brought along a bevy of tasty snacks: cheese, sausage, bread, nuts, rasperries, strawberries, and wine, and enjoyed them before the movie. They played a double-feature of "Plan 9 from Outer Space" which is commonly known as the worst movie ever filmed, followed by "Ed Wood" which is a documentary about the filmmaker. Here's a photo of the venue:
Our British friend Becky from French class came along too. I had a *fantastic* time, and in fact, I'm a little bummed since it ends in August, and we'll be gone for the rest of the month! Of course, if you talk to any of my pals, you'll learn that I slept almost the whole time, but it was awesome fun anyway. Sleeping under the stars with a big red blanket and a belly full of french tasties is hard to beat.
The night ended a little earlier than planned (though plenty late) when it started raining on us at 1am. We packed up our stuff and returned our chairs and dashed to the Metro station only to find that the Metro was closed for the night, so we were looking for our taxi along with 300 other wet moviegoers. After a bit of walking in the intermittent rain, we were able to secure two taxis -- one for our pals, and one for us.
They're playing Clash of the Titans tomorrow, and I'm REALLY tempted to go after French class, but we're usually exhausted by then. So, next year, you'll find me at the movies!
My birthday was fun, as usual. Dennis does a good job of making it more like a birthday week than just one day, so I had a great time even though we had work and French class that day. We ate Chinese food the night before (thankfully finally spicy -- they know us well enough to trust that we know what we want) and we went to a nice lunch together on the actual day. I bought myself a birthday present that I've been wearing since the beginning of the month, too.
Wednesday is D's birthday! Hopefully I can do as good a job of making him feel special. I bought him a new messenger bag to replace his old Critical Path one. (He long ago took a black magic marker to the logo to try to avoid negative CP comments.)
So, Saturday we take the train to Lausanne, stay for five days, and on the 25th we take the train to Venice to see Peter and Jung. We'll have an internet connection in Lausanne, but probably not in Venice, so I'll probably post pictures for the first half of the trip while we're there. Home on the 30th. Yay vacation!
--Aimée
The coolest part of the weekend was Saturday night, when we went to our friend Johnny's house. We met Johnny in San Francisco at Caleb and Tricia's house a few years ago. He is in Paris working on a documentary of 60's french Pop music. (See more about him and his project at http://www.bardotagogo.com.
Well, Johnny loves movies, and he took us out to see the Festival de Cinéma en Plein Air à la Villette. It's like a drive in, but instead of a car, you just bring your food, pay 6 euros for a chair and a blanket, and park yourself on the grass. We brought along a bevy of tasty snacks: cheese, sausage, bread, nuts, rasperries, strawberries, and wine, and enjoyed them before the movie. They played a double-feature of "Plan 9 from Outer Space" which is commonly known as the worst movie ever filmed, followed by "Ed Wood" which is a documentary about the filmmaker. Here's a photo of the venue:
Our British friend Becky from French class came along too. I had a *fantastic* time, and in fact, I'm a little bummed since it ends in August, and we'll be gone for the rest of the month! Of course, if you talk to any of my pals, you'll learn that I slept almost the whole time, but it was awesome fun anyway. Sleeping under the stars with a big red blanket and a belly full of french tasties is hard to beat.
The night ended a little earlier than planned (though plenty late) when it started raining on us at 1am. We packed up our stuff and returned our chairs and dashed to the Metro station only to find that the Metro was closed for the night, so we were looking for our taxi along with 300 other wet moviegoers. After a bit of walking in the intermittent rain, we were able to secure two taxis -- one for our pals, and one for us.
They're playing Clash of the Titans tomorrow, and I'm REALLY tempted to go after French class, but we're usually exhausted by then. So, next year, you'll find me at the movies!
My birthday was fun, as usual. Dennis does a good job of making it more like a birthday week than just one day, so I had a great time even though we had work and French class that day. We ate Chinese food the night before (thankfully finally spicy -- they know us well enough to trust that we know what we want) and we went to a nice lunch together on the actual day. I bought myself a birthday present that I've been wearing since the beginning of the month, too.
Wednesday is D's birthday! Hopefully I can do as good a job of making him feel special. I bought him a new messenger bag to replace his old Critical Path one. (He long ago took a black magic marker to the logo to try to avoid negative CP comments.)
So, Saturday we take the train to Lausanne, stay for five days, and on the 25th we take the train to Venice to see Peter and Jung. We'll have an internet connection in Lausanne, but probably not in Venice, so I'll probably post pictures for the first half of the trip while we're there. Home on the 30th. Yay vacation!
--Aimée
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About me
- I'm off2paris
- From Paris, France
- off2paris at wonky point org
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