Last day in Paris.

Well, this is it. No more of the citylife. No more wonderful food with horrific service! No more beggars, no more throngs of tourists. No more bahn mis and trips to versaille or hippodromes. Last nite we ate with CC's boss and her boyfriend. It was a wonderful way to end the trip- an invite into a real parisian's home with her attacking cat. She cooked a zucchini terrine and this stuffed veal thing that was really good, then a goatcheese tasting, and finished it off with her homemade jarred pears and apricot jam. They started it off with this walnut liqueur that was incredible, then we drank a sweet red, then a 1er cru burgundy during dinner, and then he invited me to taste almost all of his french liqueurs, a collection of about 100 bottles that he probably started over 20 years ago. We drank cherry pit brandy from 1903, chestnut liqueur, fig liqueur, well just about any liqueur from any thing you can think of. They treated us like royalty. It was great. Then they gave us a ride home and checked out our apartment and were amazed. It really is a great apartment for a city, I'm gonna miss it.

An inconvenient truth

A few days ago i went to see Obama arrive in Paris. I came upon the Elysees Palace and there were quite a few people there, but no where near as many as for Ingrid Betancourt. It was a pleasant day and i always like to see a good spectacle. I talked to this nice older LA couple who kept saying that "this beats going to any museum" and I just laughed and kept telling them how tough it must have been to be a fan of the Lakers (they were season ticket holders). The guy was really funny and kept the time passing. The crowds got a little bigger and right before my legs go numb from standing 2 buses pull up and one was the press following Obama and the other was Obama's team(without Obama). As Obama's team exit the bus there is this one tall black dude in his 40s that the people behind me start yelling at. "Thats Reggie! Reggie! Over here Reggie!" He hears and waves without even looking and I'm like who the hell is this dude? I guess he is a mastermind, some political know-it-all, the new Carville or Rove. The whole thing did have that kind of rockstar reception feel but i felt clueless. Anyway, after 15 minutes Obama is still not here and the rumor that he was gonna make this magical, triumphant walk from the US embassy to the palace seems less believable and I was thirsty so I left and went to get a drink around the block. Well he pulled in about 3 minutes after i left but i didnt care, i'm sure i didnt miss much. Anyway, a few days later I found out who Reggie is. Maybe most of yall know this but i didnt and it was a shock. The 40 year old tall dude is 26 yo Reggie Love! The dukie best known for being teabagged by freak's frat bros! And he's Obama's right hand man. The man has Obama's ear more than anyone. He literally loads Obama's Ipod. He plays basketball with Coach O everyday. I almost voted to put a Dukie into the White House. Thank god I found this out. Can you imagine what would happen if we put a Dukie in the White House. The president is a good teammate to have. Arkansas won with Clinton(Arkansas!), Texas football won for the first time in something like 50 years with Bush, it goes on and on. I mean Duke does not need anymore help. Only recently, because of years of fans uproar, have the refs and the media stopped being so completely embarrassingly pro-duke but both media and refs still have a long, long way to go. If Obama wins, it will reverse all of the work we have been putting in over the years. Can you imagine Duke stealing more titles like the one that was given them in 2001 with what was the worst reffed final 4 ever. Well my vote is settled, not that any presidential votes in NC ever matter anyway- it has been and will be a red state for a long time. Now that we know this, all of us UNC fans can stop wasting time on Coach O and focus on getting that other horrible Dukie Elizabeth Dole out of the senate.

Sastre arrives

The tour! Finally! Around 2 I went to the Arc and started my day there. It actually wasn't as crowded as I thought and I could have stayed with a decent view if i wanted to but i cant stay in one place for 15 minutes much less 3 hours. So I walked down the long gentle slope of Champs Elysees and checked out all of the Australian, Luxons (?), and Spaniards and any other fan. The australians were in full force, i think they are the most rabid sports fans in the world with the UK right after them (the french are the farthest thing from rabid), plus the australians drink more than any kind of people i know (maybe that has something to do with it). I finally made it to my destination which was right in front of the Louvre. My Parisian-American contact told me this was the best place to watch without obstructions. Once again she was right, I had a great view but again I couldnt sit still so I watched the first 2 out of the 7 laps from here and then walked across the Tuileries for another view. On Rue Rivoli, with a great view of Place Vendome I watched 2 more laps and then walked further up the park to watch the final laps. By the final lap I am right in front of the concorde. When they passed for the final time the sidewalks got so crowded we could barely move. I was like when are they going to open up the streets? Then I look to my left and the metro station is right there so i'm like why not? I run down and I'm on my train to the arc in less than 30 seconds, and its only 4 stops away! Im thinking its possible by a long shot that i can see the end of the race and even if i dont i can see all the podium stuff which is better than standing on the sidewalk. I get off and run up to the arc and run to the front where the champ elysees runs into it. Sweet! But not so. The race just ended and for some reason all the ceremony stuff is at the bottom of the hill. Oh well, not really disappointed I walked down and caught from the backside the presentation of the white roses or whatever flowers they give out. It still was awesome and now i know how to watch the race- from all over the tuileries, then when they pass for the last lap, get on the subway at concorde and pop up at Franklin D Roosevelt to catch the end, just make sure i get off at FDR and not 2 stops farther down at the Arc.

Sastre is the winner.

A little bit uneventful, i thought Evans would make him sweat it out. Oh well, will be there for the victory parade tomorrow. It was fun watching with a bunch of australians and english sense parisians are the worst sports fans of all.

Paris shutting down

The doors are closing everywhere with signs going up saying see you in September. My first taste of this was last week when I went to an oyster bar in the 2nd while the girls were at the Avedon show. I had read about it and it sounded cool with an old metal bar in the back of the restaurant were you go and stand and eat and drink like Felix's in New Orleans. I was excited but when I got there the bar was closed and so i sat in the dining area up front. I tried to order oysters but the waitress who didn't speak any english was trying to tell me something and we were at a standstill. Finally the nice guy who owns the place and was the oyster shucker came over and explained that it was the last nite and they were out of all but 2 kinds of oysters. He was a nice dude and sat me over by his shucking station in front and i ordered a fruits of the sea medley which he hooked up and told me the order that i was supposed to eat each bizarre sea creature. I jokingly asked him since he was closing could i take home a bunch of oysters for free and he said sure! I told him I couldn't really take them since i was meeting the girls at the Pompidou so he put a big plate of whelks in front of me for free. But it was sad thinking that I'll probably never go to this cool place again. And now walking around, places left and right are shutting it down, and my favorite restaurant L'Affriole is closing after tomorrow(we're going tonight). It's depressing but Sophie from La Rez is in town, we're meeting her tonite, that should be fun, while CC has 2 friends that just got here too. Oh yeah and they have converted the right bank to a beach with palms and bars and restaurants and stuff which is a lot of fun. And tomorrow is the Tour de France. Speaking of which I need to think about where I'm gonna watch it today since the entire race probably comes down to todays time trials(they say cadel could overtake sastre for the win). I never in my wildest dreams did i think i could stretch this trip this long to see the Tour in Paris. Which reminds me, I found some money and I will be coming back soon. I got a flight thru aere lingus the irish airline. It is the cheapest by far, but to make it really cheap I gotta get to Dublin and the cheapest date was Aug. 8, but we get to spend a day in Dublin which will be cool.

Yesterday Mad Arrived

Day before that the Glenns arrived. A couple days before I was cooking dinner for Van and Phoebe here and about a week ago Rosena and I were eating at the few vegetarian restaurants in Paris. Well it seems like a week anyway it all has gone so fast. Yesterday was a blah day, the girls laid on our roof and then Mad and I walked downtown to find an australian bar but they were closed so we settled on the ole reliable- Highlander(my scottish bar) . I watched The Open and Mad read english tabloids and Saveur while we chatted with the funny, energetic Yvonne our little scottish bartender and sipped Budvars. In the middle of the golf we left, despite protests from our bored Yvonne but we promised we would come back, and searched for food. In this part of the latin district every store front is a restaurant from some part of the world. Blocks of french, italian, greek, chinese, indian, japanese, middle eastern, portugese, latin american, irish, whatever you want it is in these blocks somewhere. Its full of tourists and some of the restaurants are cheesy but i love it. In all the restaurant guide books there are no restaurants recommended here. If you look at a map there are dots all around paris representing good restaurants and a huge hole of plain streets for this part of town. if you didnt know paris and looked at this map you would think that the latin district was some kind of government district or industrial wasteland. not so. every other storefront has suckling pigs roasting on a spit or an over the top display of oysters, clams, langoustines, and some of the biggest crabs ive ever seen or a huge, disgusting looking chicken gyro thing that the sandwich makers have to step on a stool and use what looks like a stihl saw to cut or people on the streets cooking their own meat in fondues. a vegetarians nightmare neighborhood, and any foodie or wannabe would never ever admit to eating here. but i like all the options and the spectacle and the prices. so we found a chinese counter that wasnt busy and made our own 4 course meal with the first course being curry chicken soup, then an assortment of dumplings, then some kinda beef and veggies, then dessert was some of the dumplings that we liked the best. then we went back to the Highlander and they were on the 16th and ole sharkie had inevitably sank and Padraig cruised. the bbc announcer is the best in the bigs, nice- the anti-johnny miller, and made every moment dramatic even though it was some of the worst golf i have ever, ever seen. well except for my own of course.

Goin to Scottish bar to watch golf and tour de france

Rest day for me: Sunday Day 4 of the British Open Shark ahead by 2! Sink or swim sharkie!

The belly of paris?

As we were trying to make it to this Spanish ham place in the 7th arr. we got on the 12 train but the wrong way. As we got on the train I spotted a french sports newspaper and was quickly engrossed into deciphering what was going on in the sports world, and of course Mad was clueless to where we were supposed to be going. I kinda noticed the train emptying out but didnt pay attention. Finally the sub stopped and Mad is like "wow where is everyone? I've never seen it so empty!" Well i look up and around and i say weird neither have i. then we realize that the last stop was Porte La Chappelle. The last stop on the rail! We are now in no mans land! The catacombs! Ive always wondered what happens after the trains reach their last stop. One time we saw a very old man asleep miss our last stop and we assumed he did it on purpose to venture into the underworld and say goodbye to daylite forever. The subways are already very hot and humid when they are moving, you can't imagine what it was like when we are trapped in a car around other empty cars and have no idea what is gonna happen. I tried to make light of the situation, but as Madeline tells me now she was "terrified. I didnt know what was happening," while we were waiting I got her to pose at the end of the empty car we were in, and maybe you can see that all the other cars were empty behind her too. So after about 10 minutes or so the door opens, scares the piss out of us! An older guy asks us where we are going, i say Madeleine(believe it or not we were going there to get some half off bootsy collins tickets that ended up being sold out) and he says stay here. He was the driver walking from what was the front of the metro to the new front(old back). After a few minutes the metro starts again and crosses tracks and opens up the doors at Porte La Chappelle to start his trip back downtown. No underground homeless villages, no round abouts, no alligators, no skulls lining the wall, just a 10 minute wait and then we were back on track. Disappointing but still was exciting.

Sorry, the bloggernaut has been busy.

Haven't been good at keeping this thing going, but i posted some pics. We have been busy, running around Paris and Versailles. Bastille eve and day were fun. Hung out with the Glenns, the nicest people in the world and they took us to some nice places. Chez R and L was better than the last time. We sat next to the fire where they cook all the meats and Mad and I split the prime rib for 2. It was huge but I managed to finish it off. Aux Lyonnaise was nice, but a small menu, very loud I couldnt hear a thing, and one of Mad's pieces of veal was tough and overdone. But mine was great and the company very nice. Mad and I went to a fondue place for the first time. Cheesy! We loved it. We were gonna watch the fireworks from the top of the Glenn's hotel but they shut down the place. So the Glenns went off on their own and us 3 went to the streets where people put off mortars right next to people and shoot roman candles into crowds. 30 year old men were doing this right next to us and laughing while people ducked and screamed. Versailles was great as usual. I didnt go in this time, just the saw the gardens which are free! The best deal in or near Paris. And the train is only 2.90 euro to get out there.

Happy Bastille Day!

We're gonna go to the river, eat, the girls wanna see the Avedon show, tool around, and watch the Eiffel Tower explode with fireworks from the rooftop of the Glenn's cool hotel.

Mad's here!

We walked around and i tried to take her to the worlds largest flea market which is right around the corner but it opens tomorrow. Now she's taking a nap so i uploaded some photos. I went to Spring yesterday, it was good, but not great. It's a tiny joint that holds 16. Supposedly they are booked till October but i guess not for the 2 days they do lunch, i was able to get a reso a week before. It is a one sitting and everyone gets the same courses. I read somewhere that Daniel who is the owner/chef figured a small place with this kind of sitting was the only way he could have absolute control over every little thing. I like that. He cooks right in the little open kitchen so you can see everything. The quality of the ingredients were incredible, but the portions were small. When i got there i was worried about eating too much bread while i waited. If i hadn't had eaten the bread i would have left hungry. Also all of the little shrimp on the sea bass need to be the kind with shells on for that extra snap and flavor. Without the shells the shrimp are pretty pointless. The wines he recommended were good crisp whites, excellent for when you only woke up an hour before. All in all it was good, and i'm sure it's out of this world on some days depending on what he uses that day. If you come alone, they sit you with other solos and i sat with 2 nice ladies that were from the U.S. who had been living in paris for quite some time. I usually like to eat alone but these ladies were nice and smart and knew a lot about good restaurants around and i shared mine with them. By the end we had our pens and notebooks out and were writing down restaurants and drawing maps. Later that nite CC and I had dinner at this neighborhood place we went to last year, M Comme Martine on rue Cardinet. Incredible and about half the price as Spring. It is an italian-french place that serves bowls of cheesy risotto that CC cant get enough of. I got the sea bass carpaccio and then veal liver. Both were out of this world. The veal liver is like in between chicken liver and duck liver, not as grainy as chicken liver but not as smooth as duck. Fairly mild too, at least for a liver. First time for me and i was really impressed. For dessert i had this extremely bitter chocolate pie that i liked a lot, but was way too bitter for CC. I googled the place later and could not find much on it. I was surprised. I think it is as good and good a deal as my other favorite restaurant L'Affriole. Tonite CC wants to take her parents to the Bourdain place, Chez Robert et Louisse.

Seeing Ingrid

Well it probably has died down now that the tour de france is going on but the last 2 weeks newswise were all about Ingrid Betancourt. Back in the states the name probably isnt even recognizable but here she was probably the closest thing to the iran hostages that reagan got "released" in the 80s. She was the covergirl of every paper for 2 weeks and i really think they might tear down the joan of arc statues everywhere and put hers up. Anyway i was kinda keeping up with the news cuz it is an impressive story, but i had no idea when she was coming home. So last week i was walking near champ elesses or whatever it is called/pronounced on my way to an irish bar to watch wimbledon i walk up to all these police and as i looked down the street there are hundreds waiting for some kinda arrival. i have nothing better to do than check it out. when i make it there thinking madonna or someone is gonna pull up i realize over french chatter that it is ingrid. the weather was really nice and so i thought it would be a good 20 minute break to see some history. plus i worked my way to the front row right in the middle. many fancy cars came up and famous french people got out and everyone ooohed and took pics (including me, even tho i didnt recognize a single person). after a half hour the sidewalk for the entire street was completely full and getting fuller. i really got bored and wanted to leave but i had the best view and i was afraid i might miss something and i knew getting out would be impossible. so i stayed. finally after close to an hour these 3 vans come up full of i guess columbians going crazy with banners and stuff and then a black mercedes pulls around and it is her. everyone freaks out. my heart rate races and i have real goose bumps and i dont even know why, i guess i just got caught up into the whole thing. the benz pulls into the palace and the gates close. you can kind of see her doing interviews but not really and after waiting 5 minutes or so everyone filters out to go on to whatever they were supposed to be doing in the first place. for me it's going to an irish bar to watch tennis and read crappy good english tabloids(my only source of readable news outside of the internet).

Beck and the search for Absinthe

CC got us 3 tickets to Beck. I dont know how she keeps doin it but she does. So Van, CC, and I saw Beck last nite at the Olympia. It was really a really cool, straight forward show in a cool old famous venue. He started around 9:30 and played for only about an hour and a half. There was no bells or whistles, no dancing, he just came out in long hair in a grungy baggy outfit with an odd, too small vest on that would flap around when he jumped. I guess he's in his Neil Young stage. The show was mostly his new stuff which was really good, and then he played his more popular stuff during the encore. He didnt seem too enthused about his old famous stuff, and there was definately no cool, funny, white boy dancing which sucked cause Beck is one of the best, funniest dancers in the world. The show was sweet and short. As we were leaving Van spotted the cute guitarist chick out front and he talked to her and we got our pics with her (my camera was dead so i have no pics). After the show we walked to Pigalle and Moulin Rouge and stuff and searched for this absinthe bar that Van had been to years before. We couldn't find it or we found it and it was closed or something. Who knows? The point is there are no stories of tripping on the green fairy in the lights of pigalle with the crossdressers and hustlers. Oh well, it was good, clean fun and this morning i woke up with a tiny wispy headache instead of a big green monster one.

Normandy

Saturday morning CC and i took the train to the airport to pick up our rental car to take out to the land of Normandy. the kia was manual which meant i had to drive, which i was not looking forward to driving the whole time, but actually it turned out to be a lot of fun to change gears on the streets of paris and normandy. and the ability to manually change gears comes in real handy when you gotta kick it around slower cars or cheesetrucks. plus the kia itself was extremely easy and fun to drive, i like those cars now. after getting thru nasty vacation traffic we made it to the beaches of dday, Omaha and Utah. If anyone has any tiny interest in WWII then i suggest these beaches are an absolute must. it was awesome climbing and playing and exploring the german bunkers that have holes in the walls from bullets and black walls from flame throwers. plus it's on the beach with beautiful cliffs. we drove more and tried to go to the american cemetary but it was closed so we drove thru all these little villages and went to a dday museum, then to our beautiful hotel in Bayeaux. Bayeaux is this ancient town with a big cathedral and the longest tapestry and it was putting on their medieval festival that was a lot of fun. people in this area take it very seriously and party as well. lots of sausage stands, meats cooking on spits, cassoulet tents, beer and cider. it went on all saturday and sunday into the nite. the parade was a lot of fun. we watched it right out side this patisserie where cc's grandmother "died and gone to heaven" in her words (she likes sweets a lot!) then we left after cc's uncle and i had had enough sausage dogs and after we saw the tapistry which for fabric is pretty cool its a long story about a war. At the lobby of the tapistry i saw a picture of Mont St. Michel and i asked cc if it was near and she said it was and that Van mentioned he wanted to go too. I said sweet lets go so we changed plans and didn't tell Phoebe or Van (ccs idea to surprise them). We just got in the car and started driving. Just outside the castle on the hill, Van figured it out and kept saying "CC I'm gonna hug your neck" must be a Charleston thing, but he was really excited. It was really cool. A castle on a big hill that pops out of nowhere. When the tide is in it is an island, when it's not there are miles and miles of sand that you can walk forever on as long as you dont die in the quicksand. At the bottom there are a mess of restaurants and tacky souvenier shops that curve around the hill. i actually liked them. Then we drove to Chartres to see the famous Cathedral. That was cool- there was a Russian quintet singing in the very dark cathedral and it made up for it not having the holy veil of Mary on display. Then we made it home to paris and after dropping the "kids" off at their hotel cc and i went to our local mc donalds for takeout.

Oh man I can't believe I missed it

Oh well I wouldn't trade this weekend trip for anything, even the best Wimbledon final ever. I was really hoping that it would be rained out, so i could watch on monday. When we got in i passed an empty bar were i could see they were showing the entire replay of the match. at home i told CC to look up who won the 1st set and then tell me if it went to more than 3 sets. That way i know it's worth my time to go to the bar and watch the last 3+ sets without knowing anything. So instead she says she's gonna read me the article, just not mention names. Before i could stop her she goes " So and so broke an unbelievable streak" it was over. Argh that sucks! i still dont believe it's a passing of the torch. RFs still got game. We'll see in NY.

Not off to a good start!

I dont know what it is with CCs relatives but they seem to be cursed on the way over here. Rosena had delays and lost luggage, CC had a terrible time with the venice airport, CCs parents took a flight to Genoa thru Rome and their luggage made it but they were stuck in Rome, and now Uncle Van and Granma Phoebe had an overnighter but had to make a quick landing in NYC because something was flapping off the plane. THEN Van gets his wallet picked on the subway from Charles de Gaulle to here! He sure was mad. Hopefully all the bad luck has run out and now we are ready for some serious fun.

The attack of the americans

CC's uncle and grandma just arrived, then it will be nonstop as Mad and CCs parents come next. Should be lots of fun though. CC has rented a car for Friday and we all are gonna go over to Normandy and see the DDay stuff and check out Brittany. Leg 2 of the Tour de France is in that area too on Sunday so hopefully we will check that out.

Whoa

My "sources" just told me about a UNC-UCLA all time greats game in 1987. It aired on abc with Keith Jackson and Dukie V announcing it. Dean vs. Wooden. Reggie v. Jordan. An overweight Phil bringing the ball down the court with Kenny Smith. Rosenbluth hitting a long hook shot. McAdoo and Charlie Scott?! How, after all my years debating(not really) the ultimate best team from a college did this never come up? Some dude has it on beta and says the heels were really treating the game seriously and the halftime combo medley of mj and michael jackson is awesome.

Oh man

I woke up today with a splitting headache. No it's not from the cheap wine we drank last nite, it's from me walking in to the corner of a concrete wall. Yesterday, after I watched Monfils for a while I went into the tunnel that leads from the court to the tunnels and stuff under the stadium. There after snooping around i found the restaurant that also leads outside. The restaurant was open and families from the tourneys outside were there. Well i really needed to go to the bathroom and the bathroom was to the right at the beginning of entering the restaurant. So while I'm walking I'm bouncing a tennis ball and my bladder, body, tennis ball are all taking a right to go to the bathroom, but as i'm turning i catch a TV to the left and snap my head to see who was playing. well it was a commercial or something so i turn my head to the right and all of sudden the lights go out and i hear, feel a snap around my eye. my bladder kept telling my body to go the bathroom(it obviously isnt a tennis fan). i snapped the side of my face right into the corner of the wall. After getting about 50% of my vision back i look at this kid who sees me and was probably laughing, i realize i gotta get to the bathroom quick before this becomes a gusher. I hurried to the bathroom, leaving my tennis ball i stole that monfils was playing with(i think i might have kicked it in my anger, i cant remember). i look in the mirror and it hadnt broke the skin but it was pretty painful and i felt around and there werent any loose bones so i dont think i broke anything either. the pain started to go away and i really didnt worry about it much for the rest of the day, it was just kinda sore. today i woke up and it is swollen and i got one of those black eyes where my top eyelid is puffy and purple not the bottom part. its getting in the way of my vision right now. i should have iced it last nite but i didnt think it was that bad. oh yeah and to top it off after leaving the bathroom and totally playing it off i walk thru the restaurant and that little kid was there staring at me wondering what my problem was. while bouncing MY tennis ball! of course i didn't demand for my ball back, i got out of there as quick as i could. little french brat.