At métro stop Passy, 16e arrondissement

"look at the sky..."

Strange Endorsements

Apparently, Hugh Laurie (aka, Dr. House) is the spokesmodel for the L'Oréal Men's Skincare Line in France.

He advises you to "Be yourself, but don't let yourself go!"

Go figure?

Parisian Anomaly

First time ever seeing a Parisian pick up after their dog.

Madame, I wish you good karma for all eternity, because I'm pretty sure you are the only person in this entire city who has ever done that.

The Land I Love: Ode to an Adoptive Homeland

For those of you keeping track at home...yes, I have made FOUR trips to Basse Normandie since arriving in France this year.

Not only is it where I spent my 2009 Princeton in France Summer Internship (working for L'Association Culture et Patrimoine du Pays d'Auge - the Culture and Heritage Association of the Pays d'Auge - for their summer music festival, Les Promenades Musicales), it is also where I fell in love: with the land, with the history, with agriculture, with strong cheese, with cidre and pommeau and Calvados, with spontaneity, with eliminating "non" from my vocabulary, and with bringing my camera everywhere I go (just in case!).

I may be living it up in Paris, but I feel très normande in my heart. Normandie is the only place in the world where I forget to carry my phone, don't feel the need to check my e-mail, and most of the time don't even know what time it is.

Every time I go back, I feel like I'm returning home.

Why?

The greenest of greens:

(Cambremer, 2009)

(Montviette, 2009)

(somewhere near St.-Loup-de-Fribois, 2009)

(Holly, or le houx, which we collected this year to make Christmas decorations!)

. . . AGRICULTURE,

(Mézidon-Canon, 2009)

(near St.-Loup-de-Fribois, 2009)

(near St.-Loup-de-Fribois, 2009)

... and especially,

COWS

(2009)

(2009)

*** It should be noted that the cows pictured are not vaches normandes (the iconic black and white, milk and meat producing cows native to the region), but rather blondes d'Aquitaine, which is the breed my friends raise.

(and chasing them down

in the rain when they try to escape!)

...and, consequently, lots of milk, cream, and CHEESE

...but also, bountiful, beautiful APPLES...

...long, winding roads...

...with history at every turn...

(the American cemetery)

(a bullet hole in a bunker at Point du Hoc)

(helmets and gear from WWII found on my friends' farm)

...and churches,

(Église de Ste-Marie-aux-Anglais)

...cathedrals...

...and basilicas to take

both believing and non-believing

breath away...

...and, finally,

always somewhere to warm up again

and dream of the next's day's adventures...

Post-grad fellowship application writing fuel

Chocolat fondant and petit canelle. A sinfully rich pudding-like cake and a cheerfully sweet, sticky, sponge-y morsel.

Only set me back 2,50€ and 0,60€, respectively. And the app was finished!

After all, as the pastry wrappers in France advise...

"Eat cake more often."

Studio Photography : Eric T., cellist

At the beginning of the month I asked cellist and fellow CUPA student Eric to come into the studio and model for me. Although we had only spoken a few times, I was hoping he wouldn't be too creeped out by my proposed exchange of his time, face, and instrument for free headshots. Lucky for both of us, he accepted my offer, and came to the studio dressed in black and ready to have some fun!

I really enjoy photographing musicians and their instruments, separately and together. Some of you may remember some of the shots from my final project in VIS 212 Introductory Photography (black and white film), which I took last semester. Many of those photos can be viewed online here.

Eric and I ended up doing mostly color digital that day, although I did take a few stunning film shots (which I'm still in the process of printing - stay tuned!). We tried to explore time and motion with long shutter speeds, unusual vantage points and strange poses with the instrument, and we weren't afraid to get a little kitschy!

Haven't had time to mess with any of these yet, so what you're looking at is straight from the camera - completely unedited! (Isn't studio lighting the best?!) *Although it seems uploading to Blogger does mess with photo quality...

First shot of the day, a candid snapped haphazardly as Eric was tuning; ended up being one of our favorites.

We even got a visit from Patouche, the studio cat, who wanted his share of the spotlight!

Yoga cello!

Unconventional.

Classic.

Dark and mysterious.

Want to hear Eric play? Check him out on YouTube! (And don't miss the awesome four-handed cello duet video!)

When the weather outside gets frightful...

...the natural response is to seek hot chocolate. Amiright? And if you have any lingering caloric fears, just go with J.K. Rowling's logic: "chocolate serves as a powerful and excellent antidote for the chilling, cold effect produced by Dementors, and other particularly nasty forms of dark magic."

There are several fine establishments that seek the title of meilleur chocolat chaud de Paris (best hot chocolate in Paris). But on one bone-chillingly cold and drizzly day, E. and I opted for Christian Constant, which was just a short walk from the CUPA office.

Stepping into Christian Constant, you can tell just that you're surrounded by some high-quality chocolate, even after the first whiff. Trying not to get distracted by the exquisite truffles tempting us from behind glass cases, we took a seat by the window and opened the menu.

Instead of sharing (which would have been the rational thing to do), E. and I decided to turn a blind eye to the 6€50 price tag for a single serving of chocolat chaud and to each opt for the "full experience." (Did I mention that it was really, really cold outside?)

If you can't tell from the picture, this hot chocolate was toeing the line between liquid and pudding. It was as filling as a slice of cake, but dark, bitter, and complex in addition to just being simply sweet. It certainly didn't quench any thirst (we were extremely grateful for the carafe d'eau our waiter brought us), but it satisfied the soul in a way that I think Harry, Ron, and Hermione would understand.

Chilled and Bubbly

Two weekends ago small group from CUPA decided to organize their own day trip to Reims, the main city in the region of Champagne. Less than two hours away by train from Paris, it seemed like a good deal to me! Although I narrowly escaped missing the 8h57 train, my sprint through the Gare de l'Est turned out to be well worth the effort!

Fun Fact: the name of the city of Reims comes from Remus, the somewhat less celebrated half of the brother duo Romulus and Remus.

Despite the fact that I had scarfed down a demi-baguette de tradition bio and an apple in the métro, I was just as excited as everyone else by breakfast at Pain & Cie. in Reims. Alright, so wasn't the most French atmosphere - more American minimalist rustic chic, but who can resist that? Drop pendant lighting over big wooden farm tables stocked with sea salt grinders, olive oil in spritz bottles, and tubes of balsamic vinegar glaze. One of our group made the smart move to order one of their breakfast formules, which entitled her to a cup of coffee, a basket of bread slices, and a tray of assorted pâtes à tartiner (breakfast spread; Nutella belongs to this group) in hefty jars. She wasn't supposed to share, but that certainly didn't stop us! We lingered for as long as we could, hoping it would warm up outside.

Next we walked briskly through the still-freezing morning air to the Notre-Dame de Reims cathedral.

At the risk of sounding like a total snob, I've seen a lot of Gothic cathedrals in my time: here in Paris, across Basse Normandie, Chartres, Strasbourg, various American university neo-Gothic constructions, etc. So it takes something really special to make one stand apart from the rest.

But Notre-Dame de Reims won me over. Why? For starters, as you can see from the picture above, it's in the process of being restored. I love seeing cathedrals in the middle of restoration, when certain parts are sparkling beige and others remain a dark smoky brown. I remember the first time I saw such a cathedral, in Caen during my 2009 internship, and realized that the dark stone I was so used to was not in fact the color the building was meant to be. It always reminds me of the end of Disney's "Beauty and the Beast," when the castle and its residents are all transformed (see 6:50).

Another reason I loved Reims' cathedral: whimsical gargoyles. A rhinoceros is a totally unexpected touch in Northern Europe:

But what really sets Notre-Dame de Reims apart is its eclectic collection of vitraux (stained glass windows). Stained glass windows can be spectacularly ornate, and flaunt a rainbow of colors, but what really caught my eye at Reims were the minimalist, modern stained glass windows like the one below:

Despite the purely Gothic construction of the building, windows like these didn't feel out of place to me.

But Reims' cathedral's real claim to fame is the stained glass windows designed by Marc Chagall, dreamy and watercolor-like.

The addition of these windows in 1974 (bearing in mind that Chagall was Jewish), along with the even more modern ones designed by a female German artist that flank Chagall's work on either side, is a powerful statement for reconciliation in Europe:

Enough of that! you're probably thinking. Get to the booze already!

Alright, alright.

Next two other girls and I took the bus up to the Taittinger caves.

Because of timing, we had to sign up for an English tour (otherwise we would have opted for French!). We paid our student-discount rate (10€ for tour and tasting?! Yes, please!), and waited for a bit in the chic foyer, where sleek bottles were displayed like works of art or fine jewelry.

The tour ran like a well-oiled machine: first, we all watched a documentary in a little theater with dangerously comfortable seats; then, we were led down a spiral staircase by our anglophone French guide to the famed caves of Taittinger.

These caves were carves out by medieval monks (an even older section of the tunnels was carved out by the Romans, who were mining for chalk), and have the unique property of maintaining a perfect temperature of 10˚C - ideal for the production of fine champagne. Taittinger keeps about 8 million bottles down there, while an additional 19 million are stored at another site.

Yep, there are 99,710 bottles in that particular stack!

Finally, the best part: tasting!

I'm no fine beverage conoisseur, but I found it light and lovely!

Next we met the rest of our group for our reserved tour at the Vranken Pommery caves.

We could not have picked two more different champagne houses. While Taittinger was sleek and chic, Pommery was big and over-the-top, starting with the neo-Tudor architecture that made you feel like you had wandered into EuroDisney. There was a giant wooden barrel of champagne in the oversize waiting/tasting area:

And some interesting modern art...

The Pommery caves were also carved out by Romans and monks, and also maintain a perfect 10˚C. But unlike at Taittinger, our tour guide's English was laughably bad (yes, unfortunately we had to take yet another English language tour because of timing) and the caves were filled with some truly tacky excuses for modern art. I appreciate what they were going for, but the end result felt awkward and forced. If you ever visit Reims, I'd recommend Taittinger over Pommery in a heartbeat - Pommery didn't have a student discount, either!