Paris discovery
I took advantage of being in Paris for a while to visit the city and appreciate Art and culture. Last week was particularly busy. On Monday, I've been to the theater Essaïon close to the Centre Pompidou in Châtelet-les-Halles, a small cosy vaulted cellar style theater. With a friend, we appreciated the concert of 'les Filles de Joie', 5 women coming from Toulouse, revisiting many famous french songs from Brassens, Brel... Their costume were kitchy, but their voices were warm and delightful to hear. We were amazed by their instruments: one of them had a big stick with 2 ropes attached, and the stick was put in a kind of barrel in plastic. The sound was surprisingly similar to a contrabass!! And another one had a small electronic keyboard with a plastic tube attached. The sound reminded an accordion.
Since they were 45 min late, the manager of the theater decided to offer to everybody an invitation for another show of our choice. So the day after, we went back to the theater to see a play, 'Je m'occupe du café'. This play got the price of 'Printemps du rire' in 2007. It was an humoristic play talking about a guy called Philippe, who gathered some friends for his 30s birthday. At the end of the party, only his wife, 2 good friends, his sister and his ex-girlfriend remain in the room, and debates are going to turn into carnage.
(N.B: Sorry for the pictures, it was more or less forbidden to take pictures during the shows)
Before going to see this play, we've been to the theater of Temple in République, to see a showcase of Delphine Mc Carty, new one woman show. It lasted only 30 min, because this performance permitted people to discover her humour and tried to make them want to come back for the real show. Some parts of her show were very funny, but I didn't like the part she says almost only curse words for 5 min...
On Thursday, I went to the theater Petit Montparnasse in the street la Gaîté, to see a one man show, Ged Marlon. This man had really good criticisms, so I wanted to spend a nice evening getting some abdominal muscles by laughing :). I was quite upset by the show, I think I expected too much from it, so I learned something, not to read too much about the show before going... At least the presentation was a success.
After the show, I've been to the birthday party of one of my good friends, under the Eiffel Tower.
On Friday, I got a phone call from my aunt from Taiwan at... 6.30 AM. When my dad opened the door of my room to wake me up, I was so deeply sleeping that I thought it was an earthquake. She called me that early to ask me if I was free on Friday and Saturday to do the tourist guide to the son of her colleague, who was in Paris for 2 days. And happily I was free on Friday during the day. Apparently, this guy got also this morning phone call because he had to call me to arrange an appointment. As I was waiting I went back to my bed to sleep. He told me he did the same afterwards, but had to call me anyway because of her mum threatening him on the phone. ^^
We made an appointment in the Champs Elysées... The worst place to meet ever. It is so big and so full of tourists that it's very difficult to see anybody. I asked him, well them, because they were 4 friends, to wait for me on the platform of the metro station Charles de Gaulle Etoile line 6. I was 10 min late because I missed my train... and saw nobody on the platform... OMG!! I started imagine how this morning would become a big disaster... I thought they misunderstood what I said by waiting for me at the exit, so I went out, went to the Arc de Triomphe, made the turn of it 4 times, didn't see them... Finally I waited at the only access to the Arc, for more than 40 min, hoping they would show up. It was particularly a challenge that it had been 10 years I hadn't seen this guy, and there were as you know so maaaany asian tourists in the area!!!! I don't know how, two of them managed to find me (maybe because I was scanning all chinese people around me with unsettled eyes...). So I started my job of guide for the day finally :).
Those guys, two girls and two boys, were coming from Moscow, where they spent 5 months learning Russian.. Yeah it exists, Chinese people learning Russian!! And I had 4 with me!! :D
We started this wonderful and sunny day by going up to the Arc de Triomphe, to see the nice view of Paris...
Avenue des Champs Elysées
La Tour Eiffel
Grande Arche, la Défense
Basilique Sacré Coeur, Montmartre
We walked down the avenue til la place de la Concorde, with the Obélisque in the middle of the place.
Then we walked along la Rue de Rivoli, and we ate lunch and walked at the same time... No break!
After half an hour of shopping buying nothing, we crossed the Seine to go to Saint Michel Notre Dame.
Buddys!
We went up the Boulevard Saint Michel to go and see le Jardin du Luxembourg, my high school :D and le Panthéon.
Finally we ended this 6 hours walk with la Rue Mouffetard and a nice ice cream with a flower shape.
On Sunday, I've been to the Japan Expo at the Parc des Expositions, in the North of Paris. A big event on 4 days, gathering some mangakas, many fans of mangas, with concerts from Japan groups, animation films, cosplay parades and show, video consoles, drawings, and so on. It was enormous!! Many times, we had to go through tons of barriers to reach the public, even though there was nobody, I think we've done 2 kms instead of 200 m...
Part of the exhibition full of video consoles and geeks
Allee of mangas
Catsuomatic Death concert
Some cosplay disguises, Tiplouf from Pokemon and... an angel...
I can't bear any more barriers...
Cosplay show
Weird people dancing oddly
oh, a mascot ^ ^
Chopper from One Piece