Is your Coq Sportif?

Today was an ADVENTURE for sure.  And not necessarily due to the strike.  However, the Parisians seemed to kind of fail at their sport.  This one was not overtly followed so I had to wait longer than normal for the metros (they had anywhere from 1/4 to 1/2 of them running depending on the line) but it was not too painful. Because of the strike my language class was postponed until tomorrow so I just had to head to the center for a short rendez-vous with the head of housing for a little check-in meeting.  No biggie.  That took about 5 minutes and then I had to go to St. Michel to pick up a grammar book that I need for class tomorrow.  However, as we are in the tunnel on the way to one of the stations the train shuts down and stops for a good 15 minutes.  Finally it is announced that we have stopped due to a serious injury of a traveler ahead.  The women next to me said that means a suicide.  That shook me up a bit.  Gave me the shivers for a second. 

I get to the "librairie" (bookstore) Gilbert Jean, which is the largest in all of France.  However when I get out of the metro, I soon discover that the bookstore is so huge it has about 8 locations all around the area divided by subject.  So I find the one that sells grammar books, and make my purchase.  St. Michel is really pictoresque so I thought I would walk a little bit before going home or something.  I walk less than a minute and out pops Notre Dame de Paris.  I swear!  I was walking and literally turned, and bam.  Notre Dame is looming in the distance.  However, it is not actually that far away.  With that image in my mind, I am pumped and ready to explore.  It was just too crazy to see such a monumental building in MY city.  So I walked... I crossed the Seine river (I saw the Tour Eiffel peaking out way far away) and meandered by Palais de la Justice.  I saw some of the most prominent apartments in Paris.  I browsed in some of the stores.  Right now les soldes (sales) are on in all of France.  The French government controls the sale periods.  Thus, there are only two times throughout the whole year that all the stores can have any sort of sale.  Thus, every store can only have sales during a specific time period in the middle of January to mid February, and again in June/July. Yay for Socialism.  There were some stores I did not hit up, mainly the American stores that seemed to have leaked into France. Foot Locker, Gap, The Body Shop, and so on.  So I walk...and then WHACK!  The Louvre smacked me in the forehead.  I wandered around it, then in the courtyard areas, and around the Glass Pyramids.  Don't worry I took many photos of  my voyage, so look for them at a later date because Brittany has the memory card reader.   

With all this excitement, I head to the Metro, but I decide that I want to hit up some other cool place.  I just wanted to hop on the train and head somewhere.  Monmartre!  I had never been there, and I had always wanted to experience this Bohemian splendor.  After about 25 minutes, and a ton of stairs I was there!  However, I really had to go to the restroom so I found the closest café, ordered an espresso and rushed to the facilities.  I took my lovely coffee out to the front walk where I sat (it was a beautiful day today, brisk but sunny!) and sipped as Monmartre meandered by me.  Things were slower here, different.  Everything seemed a bit sleepy.  It was a perfect place for me to sit and collect myself as I had already been walking for a long time.  It was getting late, so I decided to keep going for a bit and find the first metro stop and head home.  Then another lap of my journey hit me.  Neon and cheap deco replaced the sleepy artists' locale.  Sex Sex Sex.  That's what I saw all around me.  Sex Shop this and Sex shop that. EVERYWHERE.  It was wonderfully amusing (I have plenty of pictures).  One of my favorites was called Sexodrome. A huge sign said that you could have private viewing, and/or check out their toy shop... I saw a few people scurry out of it.  It was a fantastic area.  I continued down the street because I saw a familiar glowing windmill in the distance.  On the way, I passed a tall woman wearing all black leather, combat boots, cheap makeup, a blonde wig.  I didn't have to get too close to see that this Queen did not have the same anatomy as I.   5:30 PM and she was getting ready to roll!  I snapped a number of shots of the red windmill, which is the Moulin Rouge in case you did not catch on.  Luckily I was prepared for the neon and cheap mechanical windmill on top.  As some of you may not know, the original Moulin Rouge burned down many years ago.  The current establishment still holds crazy shows; however, I doubt the girls are dressed how Nicole Kidman was in the film.  

Back on the metro!  I was soooo tired.  I realized that I had left my house at 1 and it was almost 6:45.  It was time to go home, for sure.  It took awhile to get home due the the mix of a rush hour mess and of course, the strike. Clearly I made it home, and I am pooped.  I didn't want to miss anything so I had to write everything down right away!  

bisous,

J