Montmartre: Trick or Treat?

   So, Montmartre has gotten a bad rap for being the place of prostitutes, muggings, thieving, assertive sales people who trap your wrist in those dang bracelet things and try to make your buy them, and basically the biggest tourist trap ever.

   While this isn't necessarily untrue, I'd like to say that it also is a really fun place...if you've got a bit of "street-saviness"...and you don't go there late at night.

 Street-saviness= Don't act like a unintelligent tourist. Instead act like a smart tourist.

Smart tourist:

1. Don't let your personal belongings out of your sight/ off of your person--EVER.

2. Always be aware of your surroundings and belongings.

3. Look at what the locals do (this will help you lots on the metro, crossing the street, etc.)

4. Yes, you are a tourist, so it's impossible to not act like a tourist. However, if you just soften your voice a teeny bit and try not to attract attention you will immediately reduce the chance of being a target for 1. pickpockets 2. weirdos  and 3. tourist haters. 

tip: if any of the above approach you A. secure your belongings B. ignore them--don't make eye contact and look grumpy/indifferent. If they continue to try to interact with you be a bit rude and say "no thanks", ignore them, and get out of Dodge (3:10). 

I feel like all of those should be fairly obvious, but it never fails to surprise me when I see someone not being very clever about being in a strange land. 

   Anyway, now you remember how to be all street-savy-- go to Montmartre and enjoy the view! 

  There are always people busking! It's super to sit on the steps to Sacre Coeur, look at the view and be serenaded while the sun is setting.

They also have cobble stones and:

Art nouveau!

   Many artists frequented/lived by the Montmartre area, so if you look around you may stumble upon one of their old haunts.

Remember all of the paintings of this?

Also, there's lots of street art!

This isn't street art. It's a banana on some stairs.

This is a fantastic movie (erm, somewhat edited...):

A herding of narwhales!

This will be me one day.

Yo! E=mc^2.

Also, there's a carousel...several actually.

So, there's proof that Montmartre can be fun! Also, it's got some pretty great discount shops as well as the pay-400$-for-custom-shoelaces shops, along with the usual tourist tat. So if you're in a hurry to pick up some souvenirs for Aunt Bertha, this is the place.

And of course for you Moulin Rouge fans:

  I had vowed to never go by this place ever because I don't think the stuff that happens along this street is cool, nope, not one bit. However, I did like the movie (as far as chick-flicks go)...and was hoping that *Ewan McGregor had remembered that he was in love with me and was hanging around...he wasn't. So I did walk down to the Moulin Rouge, quickly glanced at the obviously naughty bit of Montmartre-- and upon finding no Ewan, went back to watch the sunset at Sacre Coeur.

  I like how bohemian this little hill (butte) is, even all of the touristy things don't completely take away the charm of the old city. 

*(if you watch this clip, ignore the first bit with Satine-- she has issues.) 

What I do in October

Chausson aux pommes

Eat yummy things (oh...wait I did that in September too).

French homework in the park (ok, I've only done that once).

Eat crocodile gummies!

Look at double rainbows (all the way across the sky).

I love Paris!

Some Museums: the less-known type

So I went to some museums I'd never heard of before:

The Musee des arts et metiers (arts and trades)

   This museum had a massive exhibition on mechanics and the development of technology.

Mechanical doll collection= very cool, slightly unnerving.

Thank goodness computers evolved. 

This was used in filming stuff...anyone up for a photo-shoot? (bahahah)

Oh, then I explored the moon. It was pretty exciting I guess. 

Bikes! I would love one of these old-fashioned bicycles even more than a beach-cruiser!

   So there's one of these in the Eyring Science Center (a building on my university campus) but here's the catch, this is the original from Mr. Leon Foucault himself...or so the sign said, the Wikipedia article said it was in the Pantheon?

  This bit was in a chapel. There was something very appealing about having old airplanes in a church, I loved the stained glass shining on the wings!

Next museum: Musee Cernuschi
   If you haven't heard of this museum, it's because it has nothing to do with French culture...traditionally, anyway. It is, in fact, a Chinese museum. There are lots of Chinese people in France, so if you're around for a long time I'd recommend seeing it. However, if you're trying to look at French art, this isn't French, although after going through I'm thinking Chinese art influenced European art a lot more than one would think.

And we thought garden gnomes were European!

Chagall anyone?

When in doubt whether it's a friendly dragon or not, put your finger into it's mouth.  

So I guess this is actually a pretty common museum, but I don't remember ever visiting it before: 

Victor Hugo's apartment by Place des Vosges!

     As far as museums go it's pretty tiny, so I would only recommend it for the sheer pleasure of standing in the office that Victor Hugo once wrote things in (and it's free). 

Up next: Musee Carnavalet! 

   I loved this museum a lot, it has a little bit of everything French, so if you're in a pinch and only want to see one French museum I would recommend this one (plus it's free). It gives a good briefing of French history, art, and architecture.

Here are some of my favorite paintings:

"Apres l'office a l'eglise de la Sainte-Trinite"
Jean Beraud

"La rue Auber sous la pluie"
Gustave Dennery

And of course there was a delicious art nouveau display!

    Then there was a huge portion of the museum devoted to telling about the many revolutions of France.

  To top it off there was also a display of old shop/tavern signs from the ancient days of yore.

  So those are a few delightful places I'd never heard of before. Paris is indeed a city of museums! I would venture to say that in the heart of Paris you have a museum 5 minutes away from you in every direction--even if it's just a little piddly one. That, my friends, is a lot of museums. I'm going to try to go to as many catch my interest, so I will probably be super museum-ed out by the end of this!

Yours truly, 

Museum Addict

Parcs Villette et Buttes Chaumont

  For a school assignment (homework--what?) we had to do something super difficult and scholarly...now I don't want to shock anyone or make you feel bad for me...but, it's what happens when you have a schedule like mine, so here it goes: I had to go visit two parks. Rough, eh?

  The first park I visited was called Parc de la Villette and the reason I was visiting it was because of an essay we were reading concerning it. It's an interesting park because it's built where the slaughter-houses of Paris used to be located. It adds a certain morbidity when you watch all of the fun and games that have replaced a place of blood and death. gross. 

  On a happier note, at the entrance of the park there was a music museum! It had a super awesome collection of instruments from all different times and places. I wish I was a bit more musically educated because I think I would have appreciated the museum a lot more, but it was still super interesting.  

Funky!

I would like a snake trombone-thing...

This resembles a pancake I once made. 

   There was also a Paul Klee exhibit. To be quite honest I'd never actually heard of Paul Klee before this. I probably should have. He's kind of a big deal. I mean, if I could sell one of my paintings for $7.5 million I'd consider myself a big deal. Here's an inspiring, artsy quote from him: "Art does not reproduce the visible; rather, it makes visible." Yes.

Here's a bit of the park:

   It started raining and guess who forgot their umbrella? About 10 homeless people and me. We were all running around trying to find cover and I wish our retreat had been caught on film, it was a pretty interesting social commentary...actually we just all looked really goofy...it was art though, really. This meant that I didn't really see very much of the park, but from what I could see it looks like it was built in the 80's--oh wait it was! The idea of the park is for nothing to make sense and to make you feel free, good ol' post-modernism. There are plenty of little rides and such for childrens and all of the school groups that came through stopped for churros and chocolate, so it may be famous for that too?

  I got onto the metro and went to the next parc: Buttes Chaumont!

It was so pretty--I am so glad our professor assigned us this parc! Because it's in the 19e arrondissement I would have never found it on my own...because there's really no reason for me to ever come out to the 19e arrondissement. But, if you're looking for a real park, one where you can sit on the grass and run around (*cough* not the Tuileries), this is the place. Luckily, the rain had just stopped, so I got to fully enjoy this park and walked around. I really enjoyed the little "escape from the city", and seeing all of the mums walk their children and/or dogs. 

  The park was super massive and I had to be home in time for dinner, so I didn't get to go through all of it, but I must say it's much more traditional and relaxing than the Parc de la Villette. There were still activities for children, ie: pony rides, rubber-duck fishing, etc., but it felt much less...80's...I know some people lived during that time but the post-modernist ugly, weird, bleh just doesn't do it for me. I like my parks more traditional.  It might have also helped that the sun was shining and birds were chirping as nice little water drops fell from the trees. That bit was very nice.

   What would Paris be without parks?

A French-feeling day

  A big group of the SAG went along with our professor to the Puces de Vanves (the fleas of vanves= flea mearket), which specializes in antique dealing. 

  It was so fun to wander up an down looking at all of the precious things that used to belong to other people. How do you judge the price of something someone once loved? It was fun to barter a bit and see the customer-dealer interaction in French. That's one thing I'm really missing, verbal sparring, the occasional complexities of my conversations in English. It's just not the same when you only have the vocabulary of a kindergartener...if that.

  After the market I went for a nice stroll with some of the girls. Policemen were swarming the square in front of the Hotel de Ville, it looked like there was a strike that was about to start? We didn't stick around long enough to figure it out.

We ended up at the Conciergerie, which was where Marie Antoinette was imprisoned before her execution (well, other people were imprisoned there too, but I don't feel like giving a history lesson).

    Puis (then), we went to the Tuileries and sat on the wall overlooking Place de la Concorde. It's weird to overlook a place that was so beautiful and dreamy-looking and think that it was also a place where over 1,000 people were slaughtered. It's odd how most monuments are built over places that were formerly places where humanity demonstrated just how in-humane it could be.

  Someone had heard of a lovely fondu place in the Marais and I got to be among the lucky few who tried it out!

  I had never had a proper fondu and was super excited to try it out. The ambiance of the restaurant was so cool--our table was in the basement and the room looked like an old wine cave! The service was amazing, by far the speediest I've come across. The fondu was yummy--so much cheese! We got one mild one and another one with a bit of Roquefort, and we proceeded to eat. and eat. and eat. It was a bit pricier than I was expecting, but very much worth it. I would definitely recommend this restaurant.

Care for some cheese?

  And that was my French-feeling day: market, walk, strike, prison, fondu. Loved it!

P.S.

  Oh this little guy? It's just something I picked up at the market. He now lives on the lapel of my winter coat.