Alright! Time for post 2. I'm a bit done up and this is giving me some time to write... but more on that later (suspeeeeense!!!).
I'm not going to speak at too much length about any of the "usual" sights, nor provide photos (as I haven't been taking them). If I want a photo of Notre Dame (we visited), I can get plenty from the Internet far superior to my own... and so I shall speak to, photograph, and share some of the less-traveled bits or the parts that one cannot see elsewhere.
We did parouse around the Seine, from the Islands (incl. Notre Dame) all the way to the monuments and park west of the Louvre, where we visited the Musee' l'Orangerie and fell in love with Monet's "Water Lilies" (look them up but only seeing them in person can do them any justice--I nearly wept). While that may be the highlight of the trip, the second was the delightful old man that brilliantly sold Heather (all in French) "The Red and the Black" for her to translate. She was translating for me, and the shopkeep said he found my tastes "tres eclectique" as I was most interested in Seneca and a book on old Japanese erotica. In my defense, very few of the other texts made much sense to me so I picked up anything that looked familiar.
The golden sparkles you can see on the panorama of the bridge are actually padlocks. Apparently people buy them, put their names on them, lock them on the bridge, and toss the key in the water. The Seine does seem to have that affect on people, but Heather and I weren't particularly interested. The biggest cause may have been the number of locks that had an "X" scribbled over the names. This... seemed to erode some of the magic.
Another few interesting sights in our travels have been signs of political turmoil (in the French sense, not the Middle Eastern sense... perhaps it is more political "simmering"). You can see below a photo of graffiti on the sidewalk (with my shadow). It _was_ a tag standing against gay marriage, and it was scribbled over and then a heart (and then others) placed underneath in favor of gay marraige.
We saw this on a day in which a left-wing activist was beaten to death by Neo-Nazis--in Paris--for being gay. Obviously still a very, very hot issue, and one of the things we should reflect on as Americans... I think we tend to think of the Continentals as this incredibly progressive, enlightened people, that sit around smoking and spending their days laughing about how backwards Americans are. 2 things I'm learning:
1) This assumption is highly self-centered/narcissistic. They don't think about us all that often and nobody is harbouring such rage/frustration at my country that they've let me know yet.
2) The Continent, even France (perhaps the standard-bearer of Progressivism) has a huge anti-progressive movement (polls as of June 8 put a proto-Fascist party at 21% support, which was a dead-tie with the centre-right party and the Socialist party, which is terrifying).
But that aside, it makes one consider whether the two-party system in the US forces extremists to be moderate or whether the "tail wags the dog" and a few extremists have disproportionate influence. Would love to hear thoughts in the comments.
Anyway: we also saw a marching protest for we're-not-sure-what, but the marchers were quite excited to illicit our support. We smiled and said "bounjour" a few times and moved on. our destination? L'Atelier, a Michelin 3-star restaurant that was rated #24 in the world (interestingly, France's best restaurant [and a vegetarian one!!] landed only 16th, so we did pretty well). We did lunch there, which was a heckuva lot cheaper than dinner, and mostly dazzled. The sommolier was superb, and it really stood out for its service and atmosphere overall... rather than being indimidating, the atmosphere was highly casual (in fact sometimes too much so, playing Cake's "Perhaps" as music) and the waitstaff was consultative and a bit humorous. Some photos of food below, including the opening tuna salad and the closing desserts. Presentation was, as expected, spectacular. The big disappointments were the pigeon (which was tough and not very yummy), and the fact that the glass housing the coffee dessert broke and nobody was quite sure for a while whether Erik ate some glass or not. Otherwise excellent and lots of fun.
We're staying in Kremlin-Bictere, a neighborhood that is technically not in Paris but is only a few more minutes travel to any particular Parisian neighborhood than any other. We're happy for the discount, the great hostess (Daniele is quite amazing), the mindblowing boulangerie (think fresh, warm baguettes) nearby, and the big apartment, particularly with a lift for the moment (suspeeeeeeeeeeeeense!!!!). Speaking of baguettes: I am usually skeptical about the idea that one country can make a food better than another without some sort of geographical advantage (like the grape-growing valleys in Bordeaux or Napa, etc), but there are multiple breads (particularly the "tradicione" baguette) I've had that are out-and-out better than _any_ bread I've ever had in the US. One would figure the demand and smarts both exist in the US to do it and I'm wondering if anyone's able to prove me wrong here.
Other great stuff has been seeing the tombs of Voltaire and Rousseau in the crypts below the Pantheon (the Pantheon is pictured below). They are juxtaposed across each other, highlighting the tension between Voltaire's thrust toward liberty and Rousseau's humanity/egality (in fact, the two were friends until Voltaire became disgusted with Rousseau's philosophy and began attacking him in writing). Very touching and we took no photos because it was the closest I'd ever come to a place that I'd consider sacred and so we chose to leave the two great men at peace.
More to come later in Pt II, ending the suspense (promise).
Bonus: children launching small sailboats at Parc du Luxembourg. Pretty neat, great reading location.
