Happy Noel!

Christmas in gay Pareeeee! The lights are up everywhere and Paris is looky mighty fine these days. We recieved our first snowfall which I have to say was breathtaking although nothing like the blizzard we've been watching our East Coast friends get buried in. They tell me the snow doesn't stick in Paris because of the heat generated by the extensive metro system underground and I sort of believe this (am I gullible idiot?) but I couldn't find any confirmation online which makes me suspect. Everything true should have at least one wikipedia entry, no?

Our exciting news is that our torrent of holiday visitors has started. My sister, Hennessy arrived last week, and Jessica's brother Gene along with my best friend Buddah and his wife Molly come in on Christmas eve. I feel like we're recreating one of those spring break How-many-people-can-you-fit-in-a-Volkswagon-Beetle contests. We have exactly 323 square feet of space in our apartment and that includes the shower and the stovetop, so I'm not quite sure where we going to put everyone. But I'm sort giggling in anticipation of the summercamp bunkhousesque quality our house is going to have for the next week.

We're also currently in the midst of the apartment hunting blitz as we have to leave our current apt at the end of January. My poor sister has been getting dragged along on a number of visits with us which is probably not how she planned on spending her Paris vacation (surprise!). But if anyone has some incredible Paris apartment connection they want to hook us up with, that would be the best Christmas present ever! Otherwise Happy Noel everyone!

Back in the U.S.A.!!!

... Well not exactly back in the U.S.A. But we did land on U.S. soil... technically. We went to Normandy in the north of France over the weekend and visited the American memorial overlooking Omaha beach where the Allies charged the beach on D-Day. We tried our best version of the run up the beachhead. The American military cemetery is actually owned by the U.S. so for a small time we were back in U.S. territory. It is really hard to imagine this idyllic little corner of France being overrun by tanks and artillery shells with Allied forces attacking from every angle. But it has a really nice solemn tranquility.

The real purpose of the trip though was to visit Le Mont Saint Michel. I included the stock photo since it's better then the night photo I had. Jessica, myself, and our friends Tal, Tomer and Sara (So two Israelis, a Spaniard and two Americans take a trip...) rented a car and had a ball roving around the French countryside.


But the highlight was undoubtedly Le Mont Saint Michel. What a cool crazy-ass castle on a mountain on an island. You've gotta give it to the monks for building something this impressive. Saint Michel is actually the patron saint of most things war-related and Le Mont Saint Michel apparently earned its name when it successfully resisted multiple British onslaughts during the 100 years war. We spent the better part of a day just walking the alleyways of the walled city at the base of the island and wandering the old church topping the mountain. Oh and it was also used a prison for a while and my French teacher refered to it as "the Alcatraz of France" but I think it was a tad nicer than Alcatraz. We stayed in a neighboring town Pontorson and I threw in some photos from the town at the end.

Lastly, apologies for the slow posting. Ironically, the more that is going on in our lives the less we seem to be able to get around to posting about it. So take it from our slow pace that we've been busy over here.

Metro Music

I will confess, I have never felt great about giving homeless people money for reasons not entirely clear to me. As a result though I've just never done really much done it. I've always felt like a Scrooge for this. So to make up for it, I like to give money to the musicians and the street performers. In Paris, this is super easy because a musician comes complimentary with nearly every train! They'll hop on, play a few tunes, and then hop off a couple of stops later. And you get a sampling of everything, from your traditional accordian players to aspiring rappers. Le Parisiens hardly seem to notice, even when the guy is blaring a trumpet right into their ear on a crowded train. But, for me it's another one of those little Paris things I absolutely dig, and now I try to make sure I have some coins on me whenever I ride the Metro.

Note: I've never waited more than three minutes for a Metro train here. It's incredible. Jessica, who plans her entire life on the assumption that all travel time will be executed perfectly and without delay, is actually showing up on time for things now. Somebody from the T in Boston should come visit this place. Dare I say... I like the Metro in Paris even more than the S.F. BART system, and that is saying a lot.

The Point of No-Turning-Back

In one or two of the past posts I mentioned that our neighborhood is heavily ethnic and heavily Muslim. To get to the metro in fact we walk right by the local mosque where there are usually 10-20 men in traditional garb milling about. This past Friday morning though, when I set out for work, there were a few THOUSAND milling about. About 10 meters from our front door I made the turn off our little sidestreet onto the larger rue and was presented with 2000 men praying in the middle of the street and chanting "Allah akbar!"

WHOA!!!!!!!

Being the idiot that I am, I sort of just kept wandering towards it, both impressed and a little in shock. After I was about 100 meters further into the throng, I suddenly realized the mob kept going and going and going on down the street, but by this point it was too late... I had passed the point of no return. It was easier to push on through then to turn back. To be clear, there was still some sidewalk available so I wasn't stomping their prayer mats or anything, but the "Damn infidel!" looks I was getting were a little disconcerting. On the upside, while I doubt I could tell you which way is North while standing at my front door, I can certainly now tell you in which direction Mecca is. But I think next time the Eid al-Adha festival rolls around, I'll take a different route to the metro.