Sink the Seine

Paris is a special city... One of Europe's largest and most populated. I had been there on my last worldwide jaunt, for 3 days and never really felt like i got to know it and what it was all about. Fortunately for me ive got my girlfriend with me who has an affinity for all things wonderful, delicious and expensive... Which in Paris, goes a long way.

We found lodging a stones throw from the louvre and immediately after checking in, made our way through the louvre courtyard and into the tuileries... Right away i was loving the sights without dropping a dime. We took up a chair by a fountain and watched the ducks and gulls lobby for supremacy... I was relaxed and ready to walk and soak this place in. We hoofed it up Champs Elyssés and over to the upscale 8th arrondisement (paris is broken up into 17 arrondisements which are essentially districts. The first is near our spot by the louvre and they spiral outward like a nautilus shell). By the time we arrived in the 8th, the sun had long since set and nightime had settled in. We got our first glimpse of the Seine and the lit up Eiffel tower hovered above us. We chose to postpone our Eiffel tower trip to the next day in favor of a nice dinner somewhere in the 8th. We wandered off the main strips and found Chéz Andre, across from the Franklin Roosevelt hotel. I was drawn by the shellfish station on the sideqalk and we quickly put in for a table and had one of the best meals of my life. The French have nailed the cold shellfish platter (Café Luck in Santa Barbara does a nice job with them btw) and i indulged in a half dozen assorted oysters and shrimp as an appetizer, with a glass of a white wine. I ordered the hangar steak which came with heavily buttered scalloped potatoes. The flavor of the meat was rich and full, with no spices to steal the show. I sipped my 2nd glass of bordeaux and knew that this was a true French meal... No frills and it was done proper....

We rose late on our first full day and after a trip to the cafe and patisserie, mosied over to my favorite museum on the entire planet: Museé de Orsay. I was looking forward to spending hours in there and quickly lobbied Bianca for a guided tour (i heard the tour guides explaining the art work at the Prado in Madrid and became extremely jealous, hence, i figured listening to a lecturer talk about my favorite painters was in the works). The tour was great and the museum did not disappoint. The tour got pretty interactive at times and you know i didnt hesitate to debate with the French lecturer and some other English guy over the finer points of Impressionism vs post-impressionsim.

We strolled to the eiffel tower from orsay just before sunset. We drank Bordeaux and had a great conversation with an Australian couple long past sunset and into nightfall. After a while, we realized that more than 2 hours had passed. We mustve gotten caught up in the Parisian sunset and countless walks around the view deck. We made our way down the steps and stared at the beautifully lit up city.

Once back to Earth, we got some crepes (the guy with a doo rag by the tower males one hell of a crepe amd its fun to watch) and hit up a boat tour of the river Seine (which runs through Paris). As we passed through and saw many of the major sites along the river, what we couldnt help noticing was how many young folks were drinking and being merry on the ledges of the Seine and knew that we had to do that too...

So we did... After a day in the 4th and 5th, namely Marais, we bought a nice bottle of cotes du rhone, bread, and 2 different cheeses and posted up on a ledge looking across to ile st louis and waxed philosophical while watching the boats pass by with notre dame in the back drop. THIS was what Paris was all about. I thought about how many generations before us would sit on these ledges and drink wine as the nights passed. The buildings around us and the ones we looked upon were hundreds of years old and we celebrated their existence with this delectable rhone by E.Guigal ( check it out... Fantastic!). We got a different bottle, a crozes this time, and did the same thing the next night, then rolled into the Latin quarter for some cocktails.

What a proper fucking city Paris is. Its huge, the metro goes everywhere, its older than ur great grandfathers great grandfather, its super cosmopolitan and has so many beautiful places to just sit back and relax. The food and wine are great, they put butter in everything (even the rice) and i know theres still so much more to see. Paris would be the coolest place to study abroad in for a year. Youd pick up the language in no time and would really get a feel for the European culture and way of life. I really got to know Paris sooo much better my second time around and look forward to hitting it up again when i have more money to throw around!

In the meantime, we're off to Italy to visit the Spinellis residing in the north.

Au revoir!

Adrian Spinelli "International Man of Mystery" (accompanied by Bianca Raker "international girlfriend of mystery")


Musical selections:

Saint Germain - In Laye Cafe
Yeah, yeah, yeahs - Show your bones
Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
Of montreal... - Hissing Fauna, are you The Destroyer?
Non-prophets - Hope
Flying Lotus - 1983

Book:
David Cross "I Drink For A Reason"
-- Posted from my iPhone