this is the voice of re:mote induction.Tuesday, July 11, 2006
friday 23rd june.
fridays i stop at 1pm. this week had been a bit difficult. most of the folk i work closely with were already off on holiday. so i was fielding calls and taking more responsibility than usual. and of course in the way of things, just as i thought i was going to make it to friday and have a quiet day, the tables turned again and i had a price that had to be out before i left.
it went out 12.58. and i went out at 1.00. straight down to the train station. got there for 1.20, train about 20 minutes later, airport for 2.15. checked in and ready, very ready to go. prestwick is one of those ryan air specials, its out of the way and with limited facilities, though certainly i've seen worse. so it was a case of grabbing a bite to eat and then settling down to read samuel r delany's dhalgren, my holiday read for the trip.
took off about 4pm, got into paris beauvais the back of 6. had to get a bus from there to paris itself. i had thought this would take about an hour or so. but it seemed to take a lot longer. we were hitting pretty bad traffic. not sure whether that was football related (france were playing togo in the world cup that night) or friday night related. it was after 8, heading towards 9 when we arrived in paris itself. dropped off at port maillot, which is a bit out the way, but being ryan air is of course near an irish pub - the james joyce in this case.
everyone else who had been on the bus seemed strangely content to be directed to the nearest taxi rank. for me arriving in a city with a metro system like paris that didn't make a lot of sense. so i was quite happy to just jump a train to get to my hotel. which of course, is easier said than done, since it took me a little bit of time to actually get my bearings and track down where the nearest metro was.
i found the station, worked out my route, sat down on the platform and took this picture, the streaks across the image is the arrival of the train going in the other direction.
port maillot on line 1, train to chaldes de gaule, switch to line 6 and down to pasteur - the station nearest where i was staying. coming out on boulevard dre pasteur was easy, finding my bearings from there so i knew which direction rue falguire was again was tricky. but with a little help i found it, walking past loads of folk spilling out on to the street outside cafe/bars, places erupting in my wake as france scored against togo.
arriving at the hotel atlantique, the night desk bloke was loathe to be drawn away from the football, and i almost had a sense that he just handed me the first key that came to hand! as i headed up to my room, i wondered what i had got myself into.
the corridor running along outside my room had had the carpet ripped up, leaving this plastic sheeting. which i just had to photograph - bleak hotel!
once inside the room, i found that i had been given a double room with shower instead of the single without shower that i had booked. given the heat i was quite glad to have the shower there instead of having to go down the corridor. with meetings planned for the next day i thought i better recharge my phone, and having listened to my mini disc all day i thought i better recharge it as well. however of the 3 power points, only one worked and another was hanging out the wall, cables and all. the air conditioning didn't work, and only two of the 3 lights would go on. there was also this:
sticking out above the door. god knows what it was, all duct tape and cables, the stumpy ghost of something or other past.
by this time it was after 10, so i just went for a pizza in the place right next to the hotel. a nice calzone pizza and a glass of lemonade. all the rest of the customers were women, i would have said they were avoiding the football - but one was wearing a football whistle round her neck, and there seemed to be regular text messages coming in to keep them up to date. after dinner, i went back to the hotel, read a little, and tried to get a good night's sleep. but between the heat and the sound of the traffic post football, i didn't particularly sleep well.
saturday 24th june
tried to lie in as late as possible, knowing that i would probably need to be rested for the weekend ahead. finally got up and out about 10. took a wander up the road, away from where i had got in the night before. found the postal museum round the corner, made a mental note in case i ran out of things to do. then wandered along to the montparnasse tower:
which was about 5 minutes from where i was staying. it was quite a big tower really.
to the right of this picture you can see the base of this tower, to the left the galleries lafayette, and in the middle girl with bright red hair!
from there i wandered back down to pasteur station where i had got in the night before:
my plan for the day was to head to the most obvious point - the eiffel tower - and have a wander round before meeting misty in the afternoon. so i got the metro from pasteur down to bir-hakeim. when you come out the station there is a steady stream of tourists, all heading along to the tower. there are also a group of cafes right on that corner, catching folk as they come out of the station - i was amused to over hear a group of half-a-dozen english girls trying to decide which one to go into.
instead of heading straight to the tower i took a wander along the road bir-hakeim is in. found this football park, full of guys having a kick about, chunky blocks of flats behind them, then of course the tower. at the end of football park, there was graphitti up the side of the buildings:
walked a little further along that street, came across a supermarket, decided to go in and buy some stuff for brunch, figured i could eat it sitting somewhere around the tower. heading back to the tower, there is a pretty decent sized park all round the area - pathways, benches, even a duck pond with ducks and large catfish. i sat on a bench had brunch, soaked up the atmosphere. felt spits of rain and feared the possibility of a downpour, i had left my jacket in the hotel, the heat was sufficient to make me think i wouldn't need it.
the rain never came to anything. so i wandered to the tower proper. the place was absolutely heaving with tourists, from all over, babble of voices, people standing in line to get up the tower, people eating ice-cream, little bosnian girls looking to present their sob stories to anyone who would stop and read their pre-prepared cards.
looking back uptowards the montparnasse tower from the eiffel tower. i sat in the park on this side of the tower for a bit, people watching and having the remains of my brunch. i took a moment to flick through the little pocket map/guide i bought in the airport, and realised that there was more to see on the other side of the tower.
looking in the other direction, across the seine and toward the musee de l'armee.
so i crossed the seine and headed up to see the various museums, statues and stuff on this side. coming across the river i saw this merry-go-round, which reminded me of the one in amelie, though i saw that one later. in the foreground you can see a couple with their suitcases, i can only assume they had checked out their hotel, and were killing time before their flight - they trailed through the whole area dragging those cases behind them. on the left of the merry-go-round you can see two teenage girls, they were passing a camera back and forth as they were going round, taking turns taking pictures of each other, giggling the whole time.
from the merry go round up there was a series of stepped water works, fountains, and statues.
from the first stage upwards, layered cannon, the water works, eiffel tower, and behind that the montparnasse tower. an alternate view - a little bit of vandalism, a girl in an orange t-shirt, and those two towers:
between the stages of this side of the seine, i spotted the reflection of the tower, and thought i could take a picture of me reflected with the tower. but i don't think you can really see me very well. but hey. its a bit bleak.
up at the top level there are a couple of museums, loads of tourists, skate kids and gold statues. with this picture i was trying to get a contrast between the woman in the gold and the statues, but she was moving too fast. so i've got skater checks i-pod instead.
where you can see the back end of a bus in that picture there was a stall sending stuff to tourists. as i approached there was an outburt of applause, a shaven headed japanese man trying on a red beret to the delight of the rest of the group. there were quite a few japanese tourists, from the t-shirt and shorts type, to the suits with translator/guide types.
by this time it was about 2pm. i was meeting misty at 3pm. across from the square with the statues was the trocadero metro station. so i figured i would just head out to anvers to meet misty, make sure i wasn't late. on the way to the platform i spotted this poster:
which i don't think the arkans had spotted till we were out on the sunday. on the platform itself, this girl appeared, houndstooth skirt, brown blouse, her i-pod clenched in one hand, those white headphones up to her ear. she was grinning. and dancing. and doing little spinning turns. don't know what she was listening to, but she was enjoying it a lot!
of course i got to anvers sooner than i needed to. but better safe than sorry. so took this picture of this crumbling building across from the station:
could have done with more of the figure and less of the blue covering, but hey. then i took this picture:
the view from the main road beside anvers station up towards the sacre couer area. then i found somewhere to sit with my book and wait for misty. luckily she was early as well, so i didn't have long to wait before i spotted her striding along towards the station. we headed up the road in that picture and found a bench and sat on that, and just talked for ages. then we started to feel like we were getting burnt by the sun, so we moved on the grass and the shade and talked for another age, till the sun started to creep up on us once more. so we decided to go in search of a cafe, heading down the back steps we passed a bride and groom getting their pictures taken:
the bride's dress was gorgeous, of course the fact that it was orange helps as well. taking that picture i turned round and spotted this place, again great colours, so had to take a picture:
this is where we ended up going for caffiene. misty had a coffee and apple tart, while i had earl grey tea with a lemon tart on plum base. yum. they had this weird statue hanging from their doorway - i liked it:
and here of course is our dear misty in a traditional WGB shooting each other shot:
after having a second cuppa in the cafe, we wandered back down to the main road, and headed along to the supermarket across from misty's apartment. picked up some bits and bobs, before heading over to the apartment. there i met misty's partner and daughter for the first time, we drank coffee, posted on the board, and then headed out for dinner. misty's daughter is particularly partial to spaghetti bolognese, so we went to a little italian place we had scouted out beside the cafe we had been at earlier. we got there heading towards 8pm, with arrangements to meet the arkans at gare du nord about 9pm.
so after we had some pasta, misty and i left her partner and daughter - demands for ice cream lingering in our ears as we wandered steadily in the direction of gare du nord. turning a corner approaching the station we stumbled on this optical illusion, pretty much brough us to a stand still, it was well impressively done:
as we walked along the street, you could pick out the parts that had been coloured red, with what looked to be vinyl tape, breaking up the illusion into components:
once into the station, misty and i waited at the end of platform for the euro star. the arkans spotted us first, and confirmed our identity with the old ring the mobile phone and see if they answer gambit. from there we headed out to the arkan's flat, where they dropped off their stuff, before heading out for more food. it was on that walk we spotted the bleak toilet, and i went above and beyond the call of WGB duty by posing! having already had some pasta, i opted for salad this time - a rather refreshing italian salad - melon, watermelon, ham, and all. after eating and chatting and hanging we called it a night and all headed "home" for the evening.
it was probably heading towards 1am by the time i got back and was ready for bed. again it was hot and difficult to sleep. having dozed off their was an enormous bang. a long, rumbling, sustained blast that woke me up. i looked out the window but couldn't see anything. waited for sirens or something, sure that it had been some kind of explosion. it started to rain. it must have been one single blast of thunder. that cooled that atmosphere, and sleeping was easier after that.
sunday 25th june
sunday i got up. got ready, texted the arkans, and made arrangements to meet them at denfert rochereau at 11. i got there early. cause thats how it goes when your in a city you don't know - either pretty early or pretty late. as i arrived though i got a text to say that they were going to be late. so i figured i would go for a wander - find a supermarket for a bottle of water if nothing else.
from that thunder the night before it had been raining non-stop, and pretty much did so all day. it felt like being in scotland. so it didn't entirely stop me. i had spotted two girls running across the road in those plastic sheet types things that tourists carry about - one was bright pink, the other bright yellow - unfortunately in that picture you can only see the yellow.
as you come up the stairs to the road this large lion statue is in the middle of the junction.
behind the station entrance there was this little park, benches scattered round the sides, and this statue.
didn't this happen in a simpson's episode? the cow was on the roof of a butcher shop. the street was pretty bustling. spaced along this pedestrian section were flower girls, miserable in the rain as they tried to sell bunches to passers by.
between the rain and the fact i was still waiting for the arkans, i headed back to the station, stood undercover and got back to reading dhalgren. while i waited various characters went passed - groups of tourists; a guy on crutches who went through the ashtrays for fag ends, strangely followed by another guy on crutches who didn't. an old guy came up to me, carrying two pretty hefty looking bags and he started talking to me in french. i pointed out that i couldn't speak french. he looked sad, and kind of shrugged, said malade, at which point i got that he was ill and was looking for a hand with his bags up the steps. so i went, ah, and bent to pick up his bags, but not before he said operation, and gestured at his genitals. um. yeah. so i got his bags to the top of stairs.
about 10 years ago i saw this guided tour of the catacombs of paris. ever since i'd been kind of interested in seeing them. so when the arkans asked me what i wanted to see in paris i of course said the catacombs! when we met it turned out they were right across the road from the station. at the entrance they had the above notice - so its suggested that you don't try and take bones with you. eric, i was wrong, you need more of a cardboard box than an envelope - please watch your post box for a package, but i'll deny all knowledge.
so you pay your money, and you go down the stairs, 130 down according to the sign. then you are underground, and you have long tunnels to wander through, barely lit, and occasionally dripping. after a bit, you get to some stairs up, you follow them.
occasional hints of other tunnels off the path that is open to the public, only a tiny, tidy section of what is down here is available to visitors.
then you enter a tunnel and there they are. bones. stacked. bone upon bone. interspersed and punctuated with skulls.
there are something like 1.7km of corridor. weaving. on both sides you are just walled in by the dead. its a little overwhelming. a little hard to take in. i wasn't really sure what to make of the whole thing. though it is definitely relentless.
at various points along the way you would come across plaques, quotes, notices of memorial, or crosses.
eventually we emerge at the other end. and i have to admit, i was a little surprised that you just arrive in the street. its pretty non-commercial, though you do pay to get in. the only souvenier type thing is a skull design euro/medallion that comes out of a machine as you go in.
after all that walking and all those bones the arkans suggested lunch. so we went to this canadian place, specifically so that i could try poutain, which of course i've read about here, but never had before.
it was quite a cool place. the waitress was amusingly loud, you could hear her shouting and swearing at the other end of the place. when we went in we were pretty much the only folk there, though before we left there were another couple of groups arrived. while the arkans had had a big breakfast, i had pretty much only had a couple of apples, so they went for something smaller, while i had a heaped bowl of quebecois poutain - fries, cheese, peppers, onion, bacon and bolognese sauce. damn that was hearty!
after lunch we discussed what we were going to do next and decided on the pompidou, paris' modern art museum. we got there and found there was an animation series on, and we had pretty much arrived just in time for a film starting. after enquiries we were assured it was in english, so i would have no problems. however once we got into the showing of renaisance, it was quickly clear that it was entirely in french. they did ask if i wanted to stay or go, i was happy to stay - the animation is pretty cool, and i could follow most of what was going on.
the previous night arkan had suggested going to see pixar's cars, which had opened in paris, but opens in the UK in a couple weeks time. we had run the idea past misty, figuring that her daughter might enjoy it. so we were meeting misty and family at the cinema about 5 for cars, which pretty much meant a dash from the pompidou to the UGC. it was pretty mad, it was a special cinema day, so the place was heaving, people everywhere. but we got sorted, misty's daughter getting french pop corn and everything and settled down for the film. by strange coincidence, arkan's sister turned up for the same showing - how mad is that?
after the film, we went for dinner, the area round the cinema was filled with little restaurants and bars. since we had misty's daughter with us, we had to find somewhere that did spaghetti bolognese. which we found, and i had a bolognese pizza that was quite nice.
again we left misty's daughter eating ice cream, while the arkans, misty and i went to kong for really expensive cocktails. i had a mixed fruit juice called "tango",
mr.arkan had a long island tea,
and misty had sex on the beach, inspired by mrs.arkan's suggestion. after that it was getting pretty late again, so we all made our way home for the night.
monday 26th june.
(this is the game shop just across from pasteur, where i was staying, that i mentioned to arkan - they had loads of lord of the rings/star wars figures)
arkan took the day off work so that we could hang out - go round comic shops and the like. first stop was a european comic shop - stacked full of cool stuff, mostly stuff that doesn't get translated into english, so i only get to see at all when i go on holiday. they had loads of stuff - comics, postcards, mounted bilal prints. i could have spent loads. foolishly. but i stuck with the new bilal book, the third part of the dormant beast series.
then we went to an american comic shop. mostly imports, and i guess translated american stuff. pretty much the kind of stuff i could get in glasgow. heavily marvel/dc orientated. arkan got the latest fables book, and then we left. went on to a place that specialised in japanese stuff. again they had some pretty cool stuff - manga, prints, art books. again i could have spent a load of cash. but didn't. we then went in search of the missing comic shop, but it was still lost. so we didn't find it.
i've only had sushi twice in my life. the first was in london with sentinel and mirrorgirl. the second with arkan in paris. we started with miso soup, and a vinegary cabage salad thing. then mixed sushi platter, which was pretty cool. followed by skewered meat selection. i haven't a lot of practice with chop sticks, so to make me feel better arkan managed to send one of his skewers flying - what a man!
after sushi, we went for ice cream. from the first picture i had the green tea with jasmine, from the second i had mango and cherry flavours. this was the best ice cream place in paris according to arkan. they scultped the ice cream into a kind of rose shape at the top of a cone - the cherry in the centre, ringed by the green tea, and then the mango. the green tea and mango together was really nice tasting. the cherry looked really good, but i found it a bit tasteless, on the other hand by the time i worked my way to the cherry i was losing feeling in my tongue, so that might explain it!
after ice cream we decided to head back to the pompidou. having been in to see a film we really hadn't seen any of the actual art the day before. while we drank tea in a starbuks round the corner, we got a call from mrs.arkan, who was sneaking out of work early. so we killed some time watching this group of mongolian musicians outside the pompodou. the sign selling CDs said mongolian chanting - but they were making this absolutely incredible droning sound with their throats, harmonising and layering between the bunch of them, mixed with the strings they were playing. they were pretty cool. though they had managed to grab the only bit of shade around.
once mrs.arkan arrived we went into the museum and had a good wander round. there was quite a lot of cool stuff:
then we went for tea in the bar at the top of the pompidou, which is designed by the same guy that did kong:
which had some pretty good views of paris:
from there we went for dinner, a japanese place. where i had beef gyudon? bowl of rice and beef with a fried egg on top. then back to the arkan's to play soul caliber III, which mr.arkan bought while we were on our shopping trip. before heading out for the fabled pub quiz!
this is arkan's camera taking a group picture of the 4 of us:
quick picture of misty as we were both waiting for our trains
tuesday 27th june.
tuesday was my last day in paris. it was also misty's. she had suggested giving her a phone and seeing what she was up to, maybe catch up one last time before we headed home. before i had left work on friday i did a quick search of things to do while in paris, i came across a list of non-obvious things to do. the most obvious of which was the passe-muraille, a statue of marcel ayme based on his character "passer through walls". it was in the same area as misty, so i figured i would head to anvers, give misty a phone, make arrangements, find the statue then meet her.
i had brunch sitting by abbesses station, which i misread as abbsess station for some reason, then i spoke to misty and arranged to meet at 12.45. giving me about a half hour to find the passer. beside the station there was a park, with this mural:
above that there was this contrasting figure (translation?)
i wondered in the general direction i though i had to go, but was struggling, the map i had didn't show the streets i was looking for. i saw a sign for some kind of animation centre, so i looked for that, i couldn't find it, but spotted this instead:
eventually i had to ask directions, which got me a little nearer. i was about to give up, looking at a bus stop map for clues. cursing i turned round and spotted the sign, i had found place marcel-ayme, even though i couldn't see either allee des brouillards or rue norvins that i had been looking for. it was quite a non-descript square, and i guess most folk would miss it:
but the statue of a man walking through the wall is pretty effective and cool:
content at having succeeded in my quest to find this random statue, i started to wander back towards sacre coeur, heading to the cafe that misty and i had had tea and cake in on saturday. all along the road there was a stencilled slogan at intervals:
saw a few of these kind of things during my visit, the other one i can remember clearly was "black mamba" with a snake curling round the letters. continuing on my way i came level with the lift which ran up the side of the hill to the sacre coeur:
having taken that picture, i turned round and took this one:
so i had the choice of having to go up or down to get round. i went up, which was further than i'd gone the other day. coming up to the sacre coeur itself, where there were of course loads of tourists about:
looking down the way, to where misty and i had sat on the grass on saturday afternoon:
tried to work my way down to the cafe to meet misty. managed to get down too far and had to work my way back up again. got to the cafe five minutes late, but was still first to arrive. sat down, ordered tea, eavesdropped poorly on a couple of giggling american girls. tried to phone misty, to find she had left the phone in apartment. she ended up having gone too far, buying souveniers, and arriving 20 minutes later. her partner and daughter arrived about 2 minutes after that. they all had drinks and i had more tea. despite being warned to watch her chocolate milk shake, misty jr managed to splash her euro disney t-shirt - but insisted that those chocolate marks would represent another memory of paris - kids ;)
after tea, we headed out to madeliene station, via this bleak:
the church outside madeliene station:
from the front of the church, looking down rue royale:
heading towards the champs elysees, the grande palais:
we stopped in the park here and had toasted paninnis for lunch, while misty jr fed bits of hers to the birds - which were too small to show up on film! incredible!
wandering along the champs elysees we finally reached the arc de triomphe:
-misty takes a picture of her partner and daughter in front of the arc.
- you know, i just love how cheerful the guy in the suit looks, damn thats a smile!
- i was taking this one to show how you could see the eiffel tower from here, but managed to get misty jr as well, she had a habit of doing that.
after the arc, we went to the tech street that arkan recommended so that misty could get misty jr a webcam, this building was across the street:
while i waited for them to buy the webcam i stood in the street, watching pallet loads of gear being rolled up, a fast talking chinese girl with red streaks through her razor cut her babbling on her mobile phone, boxes stamped along the side - made in china. hard core cyber punk, paris style!
after cars misty had explained how her daughter was always finding stuff, walking about during the afternoon misty jr found a pair of sunglasses. for some reason on the way back to misty's apartment she felt the need to do this. no, i can't explain it either.
having worked out that abcess station was close to misty's apartment and on the line we were on, we went there. but it was a bit bleak, they were obviously refurbishing the place, the ceiling and walls were all raw. misty jr tried to jump into my picture, misty tried to stop her.
from the platform up to ground level there was a mural right up the walls, though it had been vandalised. don't know how folk normally get out of this station - probably escalators - but with the refurbishment it was down to the steps. there were a lot of them. back at misty's apartment we had coffee, chocolate and posted on the board. arkan had finished work back of 4, but then had his appraisal. after that he called me at misty's and i left misty for the last time - her partner planning dinner for their last night in paris.
from misty's i headed down to anvers station - the train pulled in filled with brazilian fans, their game having just won in victory and they were making a lot of noise about it. fighting my way through that i made it through and i met arkan and we went for couscous. his appraisal went well. i was on holiday. we both went the whole hog and had the couscous royale, which was pretty hard core, and cooked to perfection. while we ate the spain vs france game was on the tv. everytime the french scored the place erupted - the young guy running around with an air horn, the french flag round his shoulders, then the english. mrs.arkan joined us, she had dessert while we sat bloated from dinner, then the three of us sat and drank excellent peppermint tea till the game was finished and it was time to head home. standing on the platform, waiting for the train, i took one last picture of my visit to paris:
thanks to mr and mrs arkan who were great, and took a lot of time to make us feel welcome. it was great to meet misty in edinburgh, it was brilliant to catch up with her again in paris where we could explore and natter for hours. i had a great time.
fridays i stop at 1pm. this week had been a bit difficult. most of the folk i work closely with were already off on holiday. so i was fielding calls and taking more responsibility than usual. and of course in the way of things, just as i thought i was going to make it to friday and have a quiet day, the tables turned again and i had a price that had to be out before i left.
it went out 12.58. and i went out at 1.00. straight down to the train station. got there for 1.20, train about 20 minutes later, airport for 2.15. checked in and ready, very ready to go. prestwick is one of those ryan air specials, its out of the way and with limited facilities, though certainly i've seen worse. so it was a case of grabbing a bite to eat and then settling down to read samuel r delany's dhalgren, my holiday read for the trip.
took off about 4pm, got into paris beauvais the back of 6. had to get a bus from there to paris itself. i had thought this would take about an hour or so. but it seemed to take a lot longer. we were hitting pretty bad traffic. not sure whether that was football related (france were playing togo in the world cup that night) or friday night related. it was after 8, heading towards 9 when we arrived in paris itself. dropped off at port maillot, which is a bit out the way, but being ryan air is of course near an irish pub - the james joyce in this case.
everyone else who had been on the bus seemed strangely content to be directed to the nearest taxi rank. for me arriving in a city with a metro system like paris that didn't make a lot of sense. so i was quite happy to just jump a train to get to my hotel. which of course, is easier said than done, since it took me a little bit of time to actually get my bearings and track down where the nearest metro was.
i found the station, worked out my route, sat down on the platform and took this picture, the streaks across the image is the arrival of the train going in the other direction.
port maillot on line 1, train to chaldes de gaule, switch to line 6 and down to pasteur - the station nearest where i was staying. coming out on boulevard dre pasteur was easy, finding my bearings from there so i knew which direction rue falguire was again was tricky. but with a little help i found it, walking past loads of folk spilling out on to the street outside cafe/bars, places erupting in my wake as france scored against togo.
arriving at the hotel atlantique, the night desk bloke was loathe to be drawn away from the football, and i almost had a sense that he just handed me the first key that came to hand! as i headed up to my room, i wondered what i had got myself into.
the corridor running along outside my room had had the carpet ripped up, leaving this plastic sheeting. which i just had to photograph - bleak hotel!
once inside the room, i found that i had been given a double room with shower instead of the single without shower that i had booked. given the heat i was quite glad to have the shower there instead of having to go down the corridor. with meetings planned for the next day i thought i better recharge my phone, and having listened to my mini disc all day i thought i better recharge it as well. however of the 3 power points, only one worked and another was hanging out the wall, cables and all. the air conditioning didn't work, and only two of the 3 lights would go on. there was also this:
sticking out above the door. god knows what it was, all duct tape and cables, the stumpy ghost of something or other past.
by this time it was after 10, so i just went for a pizza in the place right next to the hotel. a nice calzone pizza and a glass of lemonade. all the rest of the customers were women, i would have said they were avoiding the football - but one was wearing a football whistle round her neck, and there seemed to be regular text messages coming in to keep them up to date. after dinner, i went back to the hotel, read a little, and tried to get a good night's sleep. but between the heat and the sound of the traffic post football, i didn't particularly sleep well.
saturday 24th june
tried to lie in as late as possible, knowing that i would probably need to be rested for the weekend ahead. finally got up and out about 10. took a wander up the road, away from where i had got in the night before. found the postal museum round the corner, made a mental note in case i ran out of things to do. then wandered along to the montparnasse tower:
which was about 5 minutes from where i was staying. it was quite a big tower really.
to the right of this picture you can see the base of this tower, to the left the galleries lafayette, and in the middle girl with bright red hair!
from there i wandered back down to pasteur station where i had got in the night before:
my plan for the day was to head to the most obvious point - the eiffel tower - and have a wander round before meeting misty in the afternoon. so i got the metro from pasteur down to bir-hakeim. when you come out the station there is a steady stream of tourists, all heading along to the tower. there are also a group of cafes right on that corner, catching folk as they come out of the station - i was amused to over hear a group of half-a-dozen english girls trying to decide which one to go into.
instead of heading straight to the tower i took a wander along the road bir-hakeim is in. found this football park, full of guys having a kick about, chunky blocks of flats behind them, then of course the tower. at the end of football park, there was graphitti up the side of the buildings:
walked a little further along that street, came across a supermarket, decided to go in and buy some stuff for brunch, figured i could eat it sitting somewhere around the tower. heading back to the tower, there is a pretty decent sized park all round the area - pathways, benches, even a duck pond with ducks and large catfish. i sat on a bench had brunch, soaked up the atmosphere. felt spits of rain and feared the possibility of a downpour, i had left my jacket in the hotel, the heat was sufficient to make me think i wouldn't need it.
the rain never came to anything. so i wandered to the tower proper. the place was absolutely heaving with tourists, from all over, babble of voices, people standing in line to get up the tower, people eating ice-cream, little bosnian girls looking to present their sob stories to anyone who would stop and read their pre-prepared cards.
looking back uptowards the montparnasse tower from the eiffel tower. i sat in the park on this side of the tower for a bit, people watching and having the remains of my brunch. i took a moment to flick through the little pocket map/guide i bought in the airport, and realised that there was more to see on the other side of the tower.
looking in the other direction, across the seine and toward the musee de l'armee.
so i crossed the seine and headed up to see the various museums, statues and stuff on this side. coming across the river i saw this merry-go-round, which reminded me of the one in amelie, though i saw that one later. in the foreground you can see a couple with their suitcases, i can only assume they had checked out their hotel, and were killing time before their flight - they trailed through the whole area dragging those cases behind them. on the left of the merry-go-round you can see two teenage girls, they were passing a camera back and forth as they were going round, taking turns taking pictures of each other, giggling the whole time.
from the merry go round up there was a series of stepped water works, fountains, and statues.
from the first stage upwards, layered cannon, the water works, eiffel tower, and behind that the montparnasse tower. an alternate view - a little bit of vandalism, a girl in an orange t-shirt, and those two towers:
between the stages of this side of the seine, i spotted the reflection of the tower, and thought i could take a picture of me reflected with the tower. but i don't think you can really see me very well. but hey. its a bit bleak.
up at the top level there are a couple of museums, loads of tourists, skate kids and gold statues. with this picture i was trying to get a contrast between the woman in the gold and the statues, but she was moving too fast. so i've got skater checks i-pod instead.
where you can see the back end of a bus in that picture there was a stall sending stuff to tourists. as i approached there was an outburt of applause, a shaven headed japanese man trying on a red beret to the delight of the rest of the group. there were quite a few japanese tourists, from the t-shirt and shorts type, to the suits with translator/guide types.
by this time it was about 2pm. i was meeting misty at 3pm. across from the square with the statues was the trocadero metro station. so i figured i would just head out to anvers to meet misty, make sure i wasn't late. on the way to the platform i spotted this poster:
which i don't think the arkans had spotted till we were out on the sunday. on the platform itself, this girl appeared, houndstooth skirt, brown blouse, her i-pod clenched in one hand, those white headphones up to her ear. she was grinning. and dancing. and doing little spinning turns. don't know what she was listening to, but she was enjoying it a lot!
of course i got to anvers sooner than i needed to. but better safe than sorry. so took this picture of this crumbling building across from the station:
could have done with more of the figure and less of the blue covering, but hey. then i took this picture:
the view from the main road beside anvers station up towards the sacre couer area. then i found somewhere to sit with my book and wait for misty. luckily she was early as well, so i didn't have long to wait before i spotted her striding along towards the station. we headed up the road in that picture and found a bench and sat on that, and just talked for ages. then we started to feel like we were getting burnt by the sun, so we moved on the grass and the shade and talked for another age, till the sun started to creep up on us once more. so we decided to go in search of a cafe, heading down the back steps we passed a bride and groom getting their pictures taken:
the bride's dress was gorgeous, of course the fact that it was orange helps as well. taking that picture i turned round and spotted this place, again great colours, so had to take a picture:
this is where we ended up going for caffiene. misty had a coffee and apple tart, while i had earl grey tea with a lemon tart on plum base. yum. they had this weird statue hanging from their doorway - i liked it:
and here of course is our dear misty in a traditional WGB shooting each other shot:
after having a second cuppa in the cafe, we wandered back down to the main road, and headed along to the supermarket across from misty's apartment. picked up some bits and bobs, before heading over to the apartment. there i met misty's partner and daughter for the first time, we drank coffee, posted on the board, and then headed out for dinner. misty's daughter is particularly partial to spaghetti bolognese, so we went to a little italian place we had scouted out beside the cafe we had been at earlier. we got there heading towards 8pm, with arrangements to meet the arkans at gare du nord about 9pm.
so after we had some pasta, misty and i left her partner and daughter - demands for ice cream lingering in our ears as we wandered steadily in the direction of gare du nord. turning a corner approaching the station we stumbled on this optical illusion, pretty much brough us to a stand still, it was well impressively done:
as we walked along the street, you could pick out the parts that had been coloured red, with what looked to be vinyl tape, breaking up the illusion into components:
once into the station, misty and i waited at the end of platform for the euro star. the arkans spotted us first, and confirmed our identity with the old ring the mobile phone and see if they answer gambit. from there we headed out to the arkan's flat, where they dropped off their stuff, before heading out for more food. it was on that walk we spotted the bleak toilet, and i went above and beyond the call of WGB duty by posing! having already had some pasta, i opted for salad this time - a rather refreshing italian salad - melon, watermelon, ham, and all. after eating and chatting and hanging we called it a night and all headed "home" for the evening.
it was probably heading towards 1am by the time i got back and was ready for bed. again it was hot and difficult to sleep. having dozed off their was an enormous bang. a long, rumbling, sustained blast that woke me up. i looked out the window but couldn't see anything. waited for sirens or something, sure that it had been some kind of explosion. it started to rain. it must have been one single blast of thunder. that cooled that atmosphere, and sleeping was easier after that.
sunday 25th june
sunday i got up. got ready, texted the arkans, and made arrangements to meet them at denfert rochereau at 11. i got there early. cause thats how it goes when your in a city you don't know - either pretty early or pretty late. as i arrived though i got a text to say that they were going to be late. so i figured i would go for a wander - find a supermarket for a bottle of water if nothing else.
from that thunder the night before it had been raining non-stop, and pretty much did so all day. it felt like being in scotland. so it didn't entirely stop me. i had spotted two girls running across the road in those plastic sheet types things that tourists carry about - one was bright pink, the other bright yellow - unfortunately in that picture you can only see the yellow.
as you come up the stairs to the road this large lion statue is in the middle of the junction.
behind the station entrance there was this little park, benches scattered round the sides, and this statue.
didn't this happen in a simpson's episode? the cow was on the roof of a butcher shop. the street was pretty bustling. spaced along this pedestrian section were flower girls, miserable in the rain as they tried to sell bunches to passers by.
between the rain and the fact i was still waiting for the arkans, i headed back to the station, stood undercover and got back to reading dhalgren. while i waited various characters went passed - groups of tourists; a guy on crutches who went through the ashtrays for fag ends, strangely followed by another guy on crutches who didn't. an old guy came up to me, carrying two pretty hefty looking bags and he started talking to me in french. i pointed out that i couldn't speak french. he looked sad, and kind of shrugged, said malade, at which point i got that he was ill and was looking for a hand with his bags up the steps. so i went, ah, and bent to pick up his bags, but not before he said operation, and gestured at his genitals. um. yeah. so i got his bags to the top of stairs.
about 10 years ago i saw this guided tour of the catacombs of paris. ever since i'd been kind of interested in seeing them. so when the arkans asked me what i wanted to see in paris i of course said the catacombs! when we met it turned out they were right across the road from the station. at the entrance they had the above notice - so its suggested that you don't try and take bones with you. eric, i was wrong, you need more of a cardboard box than an envelope - please watch your post box for a package, but i'll deny all knowledge.
so you pay your money, and you go down the stairs, 130 down according to the sign. then you are underground, and you have long tunnels to wander through, barely lit, and occasionally dripping. after a bit, you get to some stairs up, you follow them.
occasional hints of other tunnels off the path that is open to the public, only a tiny, tidy section of what is down here is available to visitors.
then you enter a tunnel and there they are. bones. stacked. bone upon bone. interspersed and punctuated with skulls.
there are something like 1.7km of corridor. weaving. on both sides you are just walled in by the dead. its a little overwhelming. a little hard to take in. i wasn't really sure what to make of the whole thing. though it is definitely relentless.
at various points along the way you would come across plaques, quotes, notices of memorial, or crosses.
eventually we emerge at the other end. and i have to admit, i was a little surprised that you just arrive in the street. its pretty non-commercial, though you do pay to get in. the only souvenier type thing is a skull design euro/medallion that comes out of a machine as you go in.
after all that walking and all those bones the arkans suggested lunch. so we went to this canadian place, specifically so that i could try poutain, which of course i've read about here, but never had before.
it was quite a cool place. the waitress was amusingly loud, you could hear her shouting and swearing at the other end of the place. when we went in we were pretty much the only folk there, though before we left there were another couple of groups arrived. while the arkans had had a big breakfast, i had pretty much only had a couple of apples, so they went for something smaller, while i had a heaped bowl of quebecois poutain - fries, cheese, peppers, onion, bacon and bolognese sauce. damn that was hearty!
after lunch we discussed what we were going to do next and decided on the pompidou, paris' modern art museum. we got there and found there was an animation series on, and we had pretty much arrived just in time for a film starting. after enquiries we were assured it was in english, so i would have no problems. however once we got into the showing of renaisance, it was quickly clear that it was entirely in french. they did ask if i wanted to stay or go, i was happy to stay - the animation is pretty cool, and i could follow most of what was going on.
the previous night arkan had suggested going to see pixar's cars, which had opened in paris, but opens in the UK in a couple weeks time. we had run the idea past misty, figuring that her daughter might enjoy it. so we were meeting misty and family at the cinema about 5 for cars, which pretty much meant a dash from the pompidou to the UGC. it was pretty mad, it was a special cinema day, so the place was heaving, people everywhere. but we got sorted, misty's daughter getting french pop corn and everything and settled down for the film. by strange coincidence, arkan's sister turned up for the same showing - how mad is that?
after the film, we went for dinner, the area round the cinema was filled with little restaurants and bars. since we had misty's daughter with us, we had to find somewhere that did spaghetti bolognese. which we found, and i had a bolognese pizza that was quite nice.
again we left misty's daughter eating ice cream, while the arkans, misty and i went to kong for really expensive cocktails. i had a mixed fruit juice called "tango",
mr.arkan had a long island tea,
and misty had sex on the beach, inspired by mrs.arkan's suggestion. after that it was getting pretty late again, so we all made our way home for the night.
monday 26th june.
(this is the game shop just across from pasteur, where i was staying, that i mentioned to arkan - they had loads of lord of the rings/star wars figures)
arkan took the day off work so that we could hang out - go round comic shops and the like. first stop was a european comic shop - stacked full of cool stuff, mostly stuff that doesn't get translated into english, so i only get to see at all when i go on holiday. they had loads of stuff - comics, postcards, mounted bilal prints. i could have spent loads. foolishly. but i stuck with the new bilal book, the third part of the dormant beast series.
then we went to an american comic shop. mostly imports, and i guess translated american stuff. pretty much the kind of stuff i could get in glasgow. heavily marvel/dc orientated. arkan got the latest fables book, and then we left. went on to a place that specialised in japanese stuff. again they had some pretty cool stuff - manga, prints, art books. again i could have spent a load of cash. but didn't. we then went in search of the missing comic shop, but it was still lost. so we didn't find it.
i've only had sushi twice in my life. the first was in london with sentinel and mirrorgirl. the second with arkan in paris. we started with miso soup, and a vinegary cabage salad thing. then mixed sushi platter, which was pretty cool. followed by skewered meat selection. i haven't a lot of practice with chop sticks, so to make me feel better arkan managed to send one of his skewers flying - what a man!
after sushi, we went for ice cream. from the first picture i had the green tea with jasmine, from the second i had mango and cherry flavours. this was the best ice cream place in paris according to arkan. they scultped the ice cream into a kind of rose shape at the top of a cone - the cherry in the centre, ringed by the green tea, and then the mango. the green tea and mango together was really nice tasting. the cherry looked really good, but i found it a bit tasteless, on the other hand by the time i worked my way to the cherry i was losing feeling in my tongue, so that might explain it!
after ice cream we decided to head back to the pompidou. having been in to see a film we really hadn't seen any of the actual art the day before. while we drank tea in a starbuks round the corner, we got a call from mrs.arkan, who was sneaking out of work early. so we killed some time watching this group of mongolian musicians outside the pompodou. the sign selling CDs said mongolian chanting - but they were making this absolutely incredible droning sound with their throats, harmonising and layering between the bunch of them, mixed with the strings they were playing. they were pretty cool. though they had managed to grab the only bit of shade around.
once mrs.arkan arrived we went into the museum and had a good wander round. there was quite a lot of cool stuff:
then we went for tea in the bar at the top of the pompidou, which is designed by the same guy that did kong:
which had some pretty good views of paris:
from there we went for dinner, a japanese place. where i had beef gyudon? bowl of rice and beef with a fried egg on top. then back to the arkan's to play soul caliber III, which mr.arkan bought while we were on our shopping trip. before heading out for the fabled pub quiz!
this is arkan's camera taking a group picture of the 4 of us:
quick picture of misty as we were both waiting for our trains
tuesday 27th june.
tuesday was my last day in paris. it was also misty's. she had suggested giving her a phone and seeing what she was up to, maybe catch up one last time before we headed home. before i had left work on friday i did a quick search of things to do while in paris, i came across a list of non-obvious things to do. the most obvious of which was the passe-muraille, a statue of marcel ayme based on his character "passer through walls". it was in the same area as misty, so i figured i would head to anvers, give misty a phone, make arrangements, find the statue then meet her.
i had brunch sitting by abbesses station, which i misread as abbsess station for some reason, then i spoke to misty and arranged to meet at 12.45. giving me about a half hour to find the passer. beside the station there was a park, with this mural:
above that there was this contrasting figure (translation?)
i wondered in the general direction i though i had to go, but was struggling, the map i had didn't show the streets i was looking for. i saw a sign for some kind of animation centre, so i looked for that, i couldn't find it, but spotted this instead:
eventually i had to ask directions, which got me a little nearer. i was about to give up, looking at a bus stop map for clues. cursing i turned round and spotted the sign, i had found place marcel-ayme, even though i couldn't see either allee des brouillards or rue norvins that i had been looking for. it was quite a non-descript square, and i guess most folk would miss it:
but the statue of a man walking through the wall is pretty effective and cool:
content at having succeeded in my quest to find this random statue, i started to wander back towards sacre coeur, heading to the cafe that misty and i had had tea and cake in on saturday. all along the road there was a stencilled slogan at intervals:
saw a few of these kind of things during my visit, the other one i can remember clearly was "black mamba" with a snake curling round the letters. continuing on my way i came level with the lift which ran up the side of the hill to the sacre coeur:
having taken that picture, i turned round and took this one:
so i had the choice of having to go up or down to get round. i went up, which was further than i'd gone the other day. coming up to the sacre coeur itself, where there were of course loads of tourists about:
looking down the way, to where misty and i had sat on the grass on saturday afternoon:
tried to work my way down to the cafe to meet misty. managed to get down too far and had to work my way back up again. got to the cafe five minutes late, but was still first to arrive. sat down, ordered tea, eavesdropped poorly on a couple of giggling american girls. tried to phone misty, to find she had left the phone in apartment. she ended up having gone too far, buying souveniers, and arriving 20 minutes later. her partner and daughter arrived about 2 minutes after that. they all had drinks and i had more tea. despite being warned to watch her chocolate milk shake, misty jr managed to splash her euro disney t-shirt - but insisted that those chocolate marks would represent another memory of paris - kids ;)
after tea, we headed out to madeliene station, via this bleak:
the church outside madeliene station:
from the front of the church, looking down rue royale:
heading towards the champs elysees, the grande palais:
we stopped in the park here and had toasted paninnis for lunch, while misty jr fed bits of hers to the birds - which were too small to show up on film! incredible!
wandering along the champs elysees we finally reached the arc de triomphe:
-misty takes a picture of her partner and daughter in front of the arc.
- you know, i just love how cheerful the guy in the suit looks, damn thats a smile!
- i was taking this one to show how you could see the eiffel tower from here, but managed to get misty jr as well, she had a habit of doing that.
after the arc, we went to the tech street that arkan recommended so that misty could get misty jr a webcam, this building was across the street:
while i waited for them to buy the webcam i stood in the street, watching pallet loads of gear being rolled up, a fast talking chinese girl with red streaks through her razor cut her babbling on her mobile phone, boxes stamped along the side - made in china. hard core cyber punk, paris style!
after cars misty had explained how her daughter was always finding stuff, walking about during the afternoon misty jr found a pair of sunglasses. for some reason on the way back to misty's apartment she felt the need to do this. no, i can't explain it either.
having worked out that abcess station was close to misty's apartment and on the line we were on, we went there. but it was a bit bleak, they were obviously refurbishing the place, the ceiling and walls were all raw. misty jr tried to jump into my picture, misty tried to stop her.
from the platform up to ground level there was a mural right up the walls, though it had been vandalised. don't know how folk normally get out of this station - probably escalators - but with the refurbishment it was down to the steps. there were a lot of them. back at misty's apartment we had coffee, chocolate and posted on the board. arkan had finished work back of 4, but then had his appraisal. after that he called me at misty's and i left misty for the last time - her partner planning dinner for their last night in paris.
from misty's i headed down to anvers station - the train pulled in filled with brazilian fans, their game having just won in victory and they were making a lot of noise about it. fighting my way through that i made it through and i met arkan and we went for couscous. his appraisal went well. i was on holiday. we both went the whole hog and had the couscous royale, which was pretty hard core, and cooked to perfection. while we ate the spain vs france game was on the tv. everytime the french scored the place erupted - the young guy running around with an air horn, the french flag round his shoulders, then the english. mrs.arkan joined us, she had dessert while we sat bloated from dinner, then the three of us sat and drank excellent peppermint tea till the game was finished and it was time to head home. standing on the platform, waiting for the train, i took one last picture of my visit to paris:
thanks to mr and mrs arkan who were great, and took a lot of time to make us feel welcome. it was great to meet misty in edinburgh, it was brilliant to catch up with her again in paris where we could explore and natter for hours. i had a great time.
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