Terrasse

The Glamourous Discarded

The other day I passed this bit of detritus on the street.

Champagne and cigarettes.  It is Paris, after all.

And Back! (only to leave again soon. . .)

blaaaah - I’ve been such a bad blogger!!  After month and months I’m back to begin writing, thinking, rambling on this blog (which i’m sure only my friends and family ever check - it is for them afterall!).  Cause for my hiatus? Illness (a lazy vegetarian in Paris = anemia), absence (two lovely - busy - months home in California), and lastly apathy.  I’m happily back in Paris now and settling in comfortably - only to leave again in a week!  But, the reason for what will be a quick quick (10-day) trip to Cali is the wedding of one of my oldest and dearest friends (also co-conspirator in all my greatest adolescent hi-jinks!), so the brevity and exhaustion will be well worth it.

Well, it’s late Sunday evening, and I’m only taking a short break from hanging with my honey to share with you my most recent inspiration:

Eclectic collections of things - like on old cabinet of curiosities or the cave of the elven scientist in The Neverending Story - full of bugs and glass jars and bird feathers and bones and ashes and wax and planets and maps . . .  relics of earth and life and mortality and knowing.  I want my flat to be full of them (and books and books).  And there’s two stores in the Marais that cater to this particular (non?) aesthetic:  one is called mille feuilles (if i remember correctly) and is on rue rambuteau in the 4th.  The other - whose window display is in the above picture - is on rue due roi de sicile also in the 4th, though I forget its name.  These shops are, sadly, grossly overpriced - so I think one of these days I’ll go up to the flea markets instead, to amass what will surely be a grand collection of bits and bobs.

Note the trench coat reflected in the shop’s mirror - I swear that guy deliberately maneuvered to be in my photo!

It was All Hallow’s Eve . . .

France isn’t big on Halloween (it really is a holiday of american invention) so it was up to Mister Cooper and I to make our own celebration.  As my American comrades were partying away back in my homeland, and while there were a few available parisian halloween parties to choose from, Mister Cooper and I settled in for a more private celebration of this beloved American holiday.  We opted to cuddle up, eat loads of popcorn and sugar-based snacks and watch movies that i’m usually too much of a wimp to handle.  Films that got top billing: A Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th, It’s a Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown, and Rosemary’s Baby.

Freddy Krugar’s really scary.

But I wasn’t too scared because I had these guys to watch out for me:

note their jaunty mustaches and killer berets. (the one on the left is a bit crooked, i know)

Also note the gummy smurfs in the foreground.  you can get gummy smurfs everywhere here.  I think they’re my new favorite vice.  And I discovered that the flavor builds on itself so that the more you eat consecutively, the yummier they are.

To ensure that we stuffed ourselves as much as Hanzel and Gretel in the Witches cabin, I made popcorn the old fashioned way - on the stove.  It was super easy and waaay yummier than that microwave crap.

I made three kinds: regular butter and sea salt (and i threw in m&m’s for good measure), gomasio and furikake, and butter and herbamare.  yum!  Also note our green “potions” (really just a minty french drink called a “diabolo menthe” - mint syrup and mineral water).  Mister Cooper’s back there noshing on some corn and setting up the films (we watch movies on the xbox)

This was my mom’s favorite movie concoction: popcorn and m&m’s.  In honor of her loving memory (and to satisfy my own love of the sweet with the salty).  Seriously, try it.

It was the perfect halloween for us.  cozy inside, me jumping at every sound and dustin giggling at my horror-film induced nervousness.

Pieces and Bits

This week has been a series of small occurrences that link together in a delightful chain that by Friday had me smiling like a crazy person.

First up: Corgi in a gym bag.  I got on the metro monday morning, on my way to meet clients for a tour at mister louvre only to sit across from a lady who had a Welsh corgi stuffed inside a gym bag.  The corgi didn’t seem too alarmed that his 30 lb bulk had been squished inside something that would normally carry two tennis rackets and a pair of smelly shoes.  Not at all.  Instead, he was smiling at me all the way to work.  I was giggling to myself ceaselessly, probably convincing all my fellow metro-commuters that they were sitting next to a young woman in the midst of a mental break, but I didn’t care.  And I didn’t care that my constant corgi-directed gaze was probably alarming mister corgi’s owner.

I didn’t have my camera with me, so I’ve instead tried to recreate the effect here (please excuse my drawing):

It’s not great, but you get the idea.  It’s a corgi in a gym bag.  Then you have to imagine a tiny French woman attempting to lug this chubby pup through a busy metro couloir.  No easy feat.  And fairly amusing.

Later on in the week, I spotted this little gem in the window of a local shop:

This is the funniest “ass plate” yet.  Mister Cooper and I had a good giggle over this.  You may recognize the shop from an earlier post.

Of course, then there’s been the amazing fall weather.  Autumn and Paris are the best-matched couple I’ve ever met.  I hope they stay in love and live a long, harmonious life together.

Dustin and took a walk in the Bois de Boulogne to check out Paris and Autumn’s love child (a sunny sunday):

Mister Cooper walks in the woods.  Note fall coat.

I’m not sure what this man’s hoping to catch in that stinky pond, but he sure looks relaxed.

Everyone was basking in the warm, orange sun.

I love watching the ladies gossip and elderly couples out for a sunday stroll.

Last night I wanted to take a picture of this really beautiful, old-fashioned storefront in the 9th, but this guy wasn’t having it:

I kind of wish he was more in focus so I could really center on his disapproving gaze.  (it kind of cracks me up).

At any rate - these are just a few pieces from my life of late.  It’s been beautiful and happy and I’ve been feeling more contented and warm than I have for a good while.  Paris is its own theater, and it seems I’ve been endlessly entertained this week.

The Doodles of My Dreams

Today, while I was on a Christmas shopping reconnaissance mission at the Louvre’s kid gift shop, I picked up this amazing coloring book.  Initially I thought I’d give it to one of our many nieces and nephews back home in california, but I’ve decided instead to keep it for myself.  Selfish, I know, but I can’t bring myself to part with this find.

The book is huge, maybe 11 x 14″, and features the playful artwork of Lili Scratchy, a French designer living in the eastern suburbs of Paris.  Her work is hilarious and cute, with a bit of a punk rock, outsider-y edge to it, featuring labyrinthine moustaches and spaghetti full of lost jewels.  The illustrations are funny enough to make even mushrooms laugh.  See?

Below is my favorite illustration, and the first I’ll color with the included watercolor pencils.

And all the pictures are one-sided and perforated, so when you’re done coloring they’ll make excellent and sophisticated decor of your own making (almost).

If you’re not going to be in Paris any time soon, you can also order these books online from that timeless purveyor of cool, colette.

So, I’ll be spending the rest of my Sunday with singing vegetables and the world’s smallest elephant, thanks to lili scratchy.

Sexy Cheese

Mr. K and I were remarking last night that only in France are the cheese commercials so unavoidably sexy.

In France cheese is sexy.  No joke.

Cheese is a revelation

And one from the 80s proving that sexy cheese is a long-standing tradition

Amazing Site-specific Project

Check out this amazing project by a design studio in the Czech Republic, where a group of artists have cached sound-producing sculptural works in the forests surrounding Brno.  Their works are fantastic and industrial at the same time, playing off both natural (wind) and industrial (train tracks) phenomena.  The website itself is beautiful and imaginative, make sure to turn your volume up.

There are more interesting works than the one pictured above: podvedomim

Tricothé! (a parisian version of stitch n’ bitch?)

I finally found a Parisian knitting group - held once a week on wednesdays at 7pm at a lovely tea house called L’Oisive Thé, which is located in the 13th.

I have yet to insert myself into this little group (let alone choose a new project) but I’m excited to try it out.  And now this little tea house is selling yarn to boot!  What’s more, the location (butte aux cailles, the former home of my favorite former parisians) is one of my faves in Paris, and I’ve walked past the tea house many many times without even knowing it housed the Parisian incarnation of a stitch n’ bitch.

Regardless of the salon de thé’s appeal to this specific craft nerd’s woolly yearnings, it offers the non-crafty seemingly delicious treats for the tummy in a cozy setting.

Check it out here

Imagining what was Missed

A new favorite blog - I love this artist’s illustrations and the idea itself.  What a great source of inspiration, to build a visual story from these little narrative snippets - lovely and playful and funny (read the one about flatulence).

http://missedconnectionsny.blogspot.com/

An Estival Farewell

Summer is officially gone.  The trees are brown, the sun is orange gold and I wear sweatshirts to bed at night.  In homage to one of my most insane and busy summers ever I present to you the cream of my collection of Parisian sunbathers.  Toward the end of the summer - late july, early august - I began to see more and more sunbathers around town.  They were everywhere in various states of undress - park benches, stairs, chairs by the fountains, sidewalks, and grassy knolls.  And I became a shameless voyeur, recording their whereabouts gratefully undetected. I hope you enjoy the fruits of my voyeuristic labors.