Blanche is a Bust

dear erik,

well, either everyone in paris knows something we don't (well, everyone in paris knows lots of things we don't, but you get my meaning) or nuit blanche was a bit of a non-happening.

we arrived back in paris at about 2:00 yesterday.  we were saddened to discover that there's not a metro stop that's readily accessible to our new hotel, but we could get fairly close, so we decided to just suck it up and walk.  we were even more deeply saddened to discover on alighting from said metro, that it was raining pretty hard, and that the walk was all uphill. 

still, we arrived safely if a bit sweaty and soaked through.  :o)  the hotel is right by the pantheon, which is an enormous mausoleum where lots of famous people were interred (although, looking on wikipedia - so we know it's true - it seems a large number of them have been UN-interred as well.  i guess that's the price of doing business if you're a politician.  especially around the times of the french revolution(s))

still - it's a very cool hotel.  apparently andre breton once lived here.  he's one of those people who i know their name and don't know why, but know it has something to do with art or politics.  i never cease to amaze myself.  anyway - he was a big ol' founder of surrealism (and i think was an anarchist?) 

the hotel feels like an old building with uneven stairs, narrow hallways and tiny rooms.  however it's been redone beautifully - lots of patterns and color and very elegant and a bit odd in an old-school way.  for instance, the pattern on the wallpaper in our room is vases of flowers alternating with a green dog/weasel-type-creature standing next to a palm tree barking at a bird, and the cameo over the beds appears to be two women poking a sleeping angel in the head with a stick.

very interesting.

anyway - we hit the town in the rain at about 9:00 and headed over towards the louvre.  turns out musee d'orsay, where we were also hoping to go, wasn't participating in nuit blanche, so we couldn't go there.  the streets were packed with people and cars, but we didn't see a whole lot of art happening.  there were lots of white tents set up in different places, but there was nothing in any of them.  fashion week just ended here, so we thought maybe they were remnants from that, rather than anything new.

the eiffel tower was lit up and looked really beautiful, and lots of the bridges were lit up.  there were some films running on the walls of buildings, but the two we saw were fairly uninteresting.  there was also a crane with some stuff (chair, table, metal barrier) hanging off it, which we assumed was art, but that was about it.  we thought maybe things didn't get started until later, so we went into a cafe and had a few drinks and some peanuts and chatted for a few hours while we watched the people go by in the rain.

at about 11:30 we headed over to the louvre, only to find it was closed.  there were lots of people milling around outside, but no one there to tell us what the story was (we thought maybe it didn't open until midnight and we just didn't get the memo).  at any rate, we decided that standing around in the rain for another 1/2 hour on the off chance they would open wasn't worth it, so we headed back towards our neighborhood.

there's a little square fairly close to the hotel that has lots of bars and restaurants in it, so we headed over there and just hung out.  there were a lot of people out, although happily there seemed to be very few drunk and disorderlies - just friendly people out for dinner or drinks or to see their friends or whatever.  we sat and had some absinthe in a cafe (yessiree bob.  'cos we're tourists in france and that's what tourists in france do) and had a nice, mellow rest of our evening. 

we ended up back at the hotel and in bed by 3am.  we were both kind of disappointed and feeling depressed about our un-wild-and-un-crazy-adventure of nuit blanche, but we both agreed that we had a lovely day.  waking up in strasbourg and then a few hours later being back in paris, having a cool little hotel, a good dinner, lots of good company and people-watching, just wandering through the city at night with a big crowd of folks out for a good time - it was a pretty great day, all things considered.

today has been super-quiet.  we were both feeling a little worn out by all the walking around in the rain yesterday, so we decided to just have a big hang-out day.  we've been sitting in the hotel reading, floating around online, looking out the window, napping, eating pizza, drinking juice, watching some episodes of the wire (i do love that series).  it's been fantastic!  tomorrow it's back to doing - we wake up at about 4:30/5 to catch our train to nice, which will take about 6 hours.  once we get to nice we'll buy our tickets from there to florence.  hopefully we'll have a little bit of time to check out the city, although i know it's not one of megan's favorites.  we're staying in a hotel by the train, then off to florence the next day.

it's definitely still a struggle to decide how much to head out and see things, and how much to just sort of sit and be here and breathe in the city.  it's tempting to make a plan for every day of the three things we're going to go see and just sort of rush from one to the next.  i feel like we still haven't found the balance yet; partially because one or the other of us has been under the weather most of the time we've been here, but i think we're getting better at it.  there is just too much to see, so as a matter of self-preservation i keep telling myself that i have the rest of my life to come back to these places if i want to.  they've been around for hundreds of years (or in the case of rome, thousands) so it's unlikely they'll vanish in the next 50. 

that being said, i feel like i'm seeing SO much and getting a real sense of these places, which is wonderful.  i'm glad to have finally seen a bit of paris and had a chance to wander around a bunch of different areas.  strasbourg was lovely and really friendly and a nice change of pace, and of course, london always feels wonderful.  it's really exciting for me to feel like these places are getting into my skin and bones a bit!

there has been a concert of some kind going on nearby for about 7 hours.  we can't really hear it clearly, but the echo of it bounces around the courtyard next to our window, and sometimes we can hear someone talking (it sounds kind of like an adult in a charlie brown cartoon, but quieter.)  we're hanging out for a bit longer, then heading out for dinner.  it is ridiculous, living like this.  amazing, but we both feel kind of overwhelmed by the fact that we're able to take this trip and have these experiences.  we want to be sure to soak up everything we can, since we both feel like it's a once in a lifetime kind of trip, for sure.

i hope things are wonderful there.  as i go to these different places, there are so many people here with me - family and friends...i think people would be amazed at how present so many of them are for me.  i can feel them with me, so strongly.  sending much much love!