saint sylvestre

So against the advice of Parisiennes and my own experience of underwelming "iconic" things to do (yes New Year's eve in Time Square I am looking at you), I celebrated New Years at the Eiffel Tower. But first there was dinner.

Thinking ourselves clever we tried to book a restaurant next to the Eiffel tower only to be asked for a 300 Euro deposit for dinner. Per person.

Searching for something a little more budget friendly I exhausted my Lonely Planet for choices and scoured the internet. I finally found a resteraunt for 60 euros a plate and in a decent range of the Eiffel festivities.

The upside was the restaurant turned out to have a less expensive set menu for 35 euros that was not the 7 course New Year's eve special. We opted for this because 1. We wanted to finish dinner early to head to the Eiffel and 2. We (and our stomaches) still had vague memories of the other 7 course meal we had recently (Xmas).

The downside was that get what you pay for and I ended up getting two oysters as an appetizer (90 percent of the dish consisted of the uneditable shell, unediable salt pebbles, inediable seaweed, and oyster ice shreds which I didn't eat - on the right):



For my main course I ordered Gambas but it turned out to be just one big shrimp (I'm convinced the beady eye thing is laughing at me in the picture):



The chocolate cake for dessert and the live entertainment (the owners of the restaurant are also a paino/singer duo) weren't half bad this could be due to the fact that I was already drunk by this point (hey, I did have two oysters and a big shrimp for dinner, k?).

At 11 we headed to the Trocadero. Unforch so was everyone else so by the time we actually got close enough to the train to board it we were denied by the law of physics in which a body of mass can not occupy the same area as another 500 bodies of mass squeezed into a metro car. We got lucky by the 4th train when some unfortunate souls squeezed their way off the train.

Five arm-pitt filled "why the hell are you trying to hold on to the bar therefore pressing your arm against my face, falling is a luxury for those with space TO fall" metro stops later, we ended up at Trocadero only to get into the queue to get out of the metro.

At 11:50 we stepped out of the metro and into the mud and fog to view the Eiffel tower never before lights "spectacle" (read: the Eiffel tower turned different colors):



Then it kind of did this thing were the lights incrementally decreased from the top down and I guess the this was the countdown because then the Eiffel tower went into a blaze of white light:



Afterwards you heard scattered cries of "Happy New Year!" and popped champagne bottles (gotta love the absence of open liquor laws) throughout the crowd after everyone checked their watches (or cell phones) and figured that it was, in fact, new years (thank you confusing and unorganized France).

Then everyone kind of waited around for the Eiffel Tower to do something else. When it didn't the crowd started to thin out.

Cold, and ankle deep in mud we decided to walk to a further smaller metro while swigging champagne and dodging drunk people on the streets. It took us a total of 2 and half hours of metro transit time to get back to the hotel.

So yeah that was my New Years. Two and a half hours to consume 2 oysters and 1 shrimp, 15 minutes to watch the Eiffel tower change colors , and a total of almost 4 hours trying to get to the metro, on the metro, riding the metro, and finally off the metro.

90 percent crap kinda like my appetizer. C'est la vie.

Happy New Year.

paris neige

[Jordain]



[Jardin du Luxemburg]

Noel

So I know the holidays are suppose to be a time to stuff your face silly but the French take the cake for this (pun intended). Here is what I consumed in the order in which I consumed them:

[Apero - Sorry no picture I was too busy eating but imagine snacks available for the duration of a superbowl. Include overtime.]



[Raw Oysters - I consumed 1/3 of this since 3/10 of people there ate this dish]



[Foie gras with kiwi and banana jam. Heavenly but heavy]



[Turkey]



[Sides]


[Salad]



[Assorted cheeses]



[Rasberry Tarimisu with Macaroons]



[Christmas Log - I actually ate this the next day because everyone veto-ed the 2 other desserts after the tarimisu - there was another cake as well that I never saw thank god]

Add to all this white wine, red wine, rose wine, fruit rum champagne cocktail, and regular champagne and you have the totality of it all.

When I commented this was a bit ridiculous I was told that it was nothing compared to last year's "traditional" french xmas dinner involving 13 small desserts. No that's not a typo. Thirteen.

On the plus side I'm pretty sure this meal put more junk in my trunk. Nice.

most unorginal movie, ever

So could somebody tell me when did James Cameron start take director tips from Mr. Burns?

I saw Avatar and it's a film made up of snips of other films (mainly this, this and this).

Not to mention the main characters were obviously ripped off.

It's even got Sigourney Weaver in it only last time I saw the movie she was either picking nits or was the one wearing this.

I haven't been this upset since I watched the end of The Mummy Returns and realized they stole the ending from Duck Tales (cntrl f: "ducktales").

noel a paris

Jourdain (where I live)

Levallois (where I work)

Champs Elysees (where I tried to go xmas shopping but was too crowded so I drank vin chaud instead)

paris by night

my soul mate

So I am a cold person. And no I do not mean I'm cold emotionally (in this case at least). I mean I get cold very very easily and I usually still shiver underneath a heavy coat on a cold winter's day.

Then about 2 years ago I happened upon a coat that changed all this. Unfortunately the very same coat elicited the initial reaction of "I bet it's really comfortable!" from people which is like the apparel equivalent of people saying of a single guy people want to set you up with as "he's really nice!". Doesn't speak much of the aesthetic appeal.

I remember when I bought this coat as well. I happened upon it at Banana Republic on the sale rack and noticed it had been marked down from 300 dollars to 40.

So what if it was a size medium and I was a was a size extra small? Who cared that it was a long puffy giant black coat that even fashion victims like myself know shouldn't be warn baggy?

As I eagerly tried it on, I felt like I had found a diamond in the rough. Unfortunately when I turned to gage the reaction of friend he looked at me like I resembled a giant piece of coal.

I bought it anyways (the Asian in me couldn't let the good deal go by). When I finally wore it to work a friend confided in me that I looked like I was wearing a sleeping bag.

She was right, but at this point I didn't care. For the first time in my life I could step outside in 5 degree wind chill factor and still feel toasty. It covered almost all of me had a giant hood which made it possible for me to walk long distances in the rain without an umbrella. Looking like the grim reaper late for an appointment when I did was just a bonus.

You know that feeling you have in a cold winter's day when you're under your thick comforter and you don't know why you have to get up from under that warm cozy goodness? Wearing the coat was like wearing a giant comforter. But with arms.

Alas after two years my shield against the elements started to literally break apart. Battered and warn I packed it away when I moved to Paris.

Recently during my walks from the metro to the office, I started to feel the cold crisp air of winter through my wool winter coat and started to think about my sleeping bag coat and considered the possibility of investing the money into get it repaired and dry cleaned. Then this past weekend I was browsing one of my favorite second hand stores in Paris when I saw it.

Almost the exact twin of my sleeping bag coat except it was from the Gap and had a duller fabric than the shiney synthetic of it's sister store BR. Otherwise it was the same. From the zipper to the buttons, same style, same color. Size medium. 30 euros.

Call me crazy but it's like my coat had died and reincarnated itself to find me again in that second hand store just when I started to really miss it. Second hand store, second chances. The message was clear.

It's a happy ending.