Keep 'Em Coming!

I've got some more adorable pictures of Gavin. You know you wanna see these!

From Pregnant sist...

The bib says: Nothing's wrong. I'm just testing you. How cute!


Looks like someone's angry!

Musée de Picasso

Weekend before last, I took a trip to the Picasso Museum. It was the first Sunday of the month, which means something very special: free museums! And Picasso is a little pricey because of the prestige, so I decided to take advantage of the free day. But then again, so did a whole lot of other people. Regardless, it was a nice place.

The museum was organized chronologically, I guess you could say. The exhibit was about the evolution of cubism, so they showed some preliminary works, followed by pieces influenced by African art, then dissections of drawings that led to cubist pieces. And there were lots of guitars: painted, sculpted, collaged. I think he found the guitar a clear example of how an object could be broken down into its parts and represented in the abstract.

The major problem with the Picasso Museum was the building's layout. I really found it difficult to find the last part of the exhibit. For the most part, I just followed the rest of the people, and occasionally an arrow pointing in the "sens de la visite". But at one point, I found myself going down 2 or 3 flights of stairs all at once, and then into a room full of sculptures that didn't seem to have anything to do with the exhibit. There were some interesting sculptures there, so I'm glad I stumbled upon it, of course. And that that feels how I found it- by accident.



Then I walked back upstairs and out to the front trying to find more. I was convinced that I couldn't have seen everything. I wandered around feeling foolish, until I found a sign that pointed toward the garden and café. So, on my way to the garden, I saw a room with more pieces in it. It led to a few more rooms, not a lot, but enough to make me feel as though I had possibly finally seen everything. Since I seemed to be done inside, I went out to the garden. It was kind of chilly, so I didn't stay long, even though it was completely charming in its simplicity.

From Paris, Fall 2007

There was another exhibit called Towards Guernica or something similar. That exhibit incorporated Picasso's works and a photographer's around the theme of war and violence. There was a photo exhibit on the Rwandan genocide. There was a comic that Picasso worked on attacking Franco around the same time as the bombing at Guernica. Unfortunately, the Picasso museum doesn't have the Guernica painting. It should be in the Guggenheim in Bilbao since that is in Basque country, but I'm not sure where it is at the moment. There was a large painting that Picasso did based on the atrocities in Korea. I never knew about that painting. It was quite touching. I shouldn't really be surprised that he would be active in protesting the Korean war. I mean, I do love the Picasso peace dove painting.

They sure do try

Well, it looks like the French tried to copy Central Park at some point, but they couldn't find a central location, nor a place as big as we have in New York. What they did succeed in doing was to make an absolutely adorable gem of a park that is also a very good place to job. The paths are wide, it's challenging with sloping hills and the occasional stairway, and there is even the option of running on the gravel pathways that border the wide concrete paths. I am glad I stumbled upon it.



I guess the major difference between this park and the parks in New York is the sculptures. I know that they have them in Central Park, but they are more likely to be something huge, and possibly with some sort of gimmick- like the Alice in Wonderland sculpture. Here they just threw in some works of art that look good in the park and can handle the weather. Of course, they could have chosen them very carefully for all I know, but here's an example.


The park looks nice in the fall weather. The combination of water and leaves is quite nice and soothing. I like to sit and look around a bit after my jog. There seem to always be a lot birds: ducks, seagulls, pigeons of course. Watching the birds is good for me. I seem to have a slight fear of birds, especially when they are flying at my head. I think I had too many pet birds bite me when I was younger, or even when I was in college and my mom at a couple of cockatiels.




I'm not sure what it is, but for jogging, I prefer this park over the Luxembourg Gardens. Maybe I'm just used to the style of park where they try to make the area seem more natural and wild, as opposed to the French style where everything is obviously planned out with symmetry and lots of flowers. Maybe it's less crowded with tourists and more populated with joggers like me. Whatever it is, I think I will take the little extra effort it takes to get there from now on.

In other news... I'm an aunt!

Yes, one week ago today, after 32 hours of pain and struggle, my heroic sister pushed out her little 7lb 4oz bundle of joy - Gavin Cannavaro Ortega. He is adorable, and I have the photos to prove it.





I am personally of the opinion that he looks just like my sister as a baby, at least in the lips and nose. He definitely has his mommy's nose. And I can't wait to see him at Christmas. He's gonna be so big by the time I get to see him!

Videos are now available!

Well, thanks to Google Video I was finally able to get that video tour of Basilique St Rémi online. Unfortunately, it was too big for YouTube; and even though Google owns YouTube, or something like that, I had to go to Google Video to be able to upload the file. So, here it is. Go with me on a virtual tour of the basilica. Be charmed by the light and the choir practicing in the background. And please don't be too annoyed by the blurring and jarring; I was walking hurriedly around without really looking where I was going, and I was using a camera, not a video camera, so the quality isn't the best. But I think you can enjoy it all the same.




I also have a couple videos of the interior of the Notre Dame cathedral in Reims. They are a little dark and crude, but you can at least see the color from the windows.





And finally, I have a very short video of the view from the top of Mont-St-Michel, in case the pictures just weren't enough for you.

Halloween

Well, Halloween wasn't a total bust in this foreign place where the day after is actually more important. Although I did go to a club with two of my friends, we (like about 70% of the people waiting in line) didn't get in. But, we took a nice stroll down the very crowded Champs-Elysée in the middle of the night.

But before feeling dissed and dismissed by some middle-aged Frenchy in a glam beret, I had a lovely time meeting some French students who were going to be a part of the MICEFA exchange in the Spring semester, and some other students who were studying English and were looking for some conversation. After having a couple of drinks in a cozy café, a friend Aleksandra and I did a little bar hopping with a small group of the French students. I drank a shot called Monkey brains (which eerily enough looked a little like brains, but then, hey! it was Halloween!) and lost a scarf. But we found a nice place in the Latin Quarter that I might even be able to find again, since it is next to a little "passage" that I remember from my trip here in January. We chatted in that oh so international fashion where everyone speaks a foreign language so that one person asks a question in less-than-perfect French and gets a response in less-than-perfect English. This game is especially fun when drinking.

From Paris, Fall 2007

The Mont-St-Michel

Hello, from the top of the Mont-St-Michel!

So, I finally sat down and got these pictures on Picasa. So now, I can write about it.

Mont-St-Michel is a wonder- natural, architectural, historical. It is simply put, beautiful. It is a small island off the north coast of France in the English Channel. It has been around for about 1000 years, when it started out with just a church at the top, then the town sprang up around it, building down the hill. There are signs at the entrance showing the times for high and low tide. So, I learned a new vocabulary word (which suddenly appeared to me to be everywhere) and found out that, at least at this time of year, it is safe to park a car or bus in the parking lot without fear of it being swept away in the tide. I remember hearing at some point that people could only visit during certain hours, but maybe they have added some ground to the surrounding area, along with the permanent road they built leading straight to the entrance.


A view from the bus as we drove up to the island.

When you enter, it's like a bustling medieval street, tight and winding, full of shops and people.


A lovely little street near the entrance.

The abbey had a prison where prisoners were occasionally used as hamsters to turn a giant wheel that would pull cargo up the side of the Mont by pully.


And there were also small chapels, dining halls and a scribes' room (which had lots of windows so the scribes could take advantage of the light). There was also another church on this small island, I suppose to accommodate all the people that eventually lived here. Now, all the houses have been turned into shops, restaurants and museums. But that little church is still there, and still functions (as does the abbey).


Joan of Arc at the door of the church.

There are some great views from the top of the Abbey, too. It's really a beautiful location.



We had a lovely tour of the inside of the Abbey, and then went to a restaurant with a view out onto the water for lunch. That was a lovely day. We're going back to the coast in a couple of weeks for a trip to the Normandy beaches.

From Mont St Michel