Morbid moments in Montparnasse

In desperate need of a study break, I took a stroll in the nearby Montparnasse cemetery. Although not quite as epic and scenic as Père Lachaise, Montparnasse was, as all French public spaces, nicely manicured, full of polite, elderly and well-educated upper-middle class French people (one man, seeing I was looking for a specific tomb, asked if he could help--apparently he had the layout of notable graves memorized, even down to a picture drawing science!) and unnecessarily difficult to navigate (it only had maps posted at select entrances, and the numbered sections of the yard spiraled out in a snail-like way, not unlike the Parisian arrondissements). Despite being rather lost most of the time, I still managed to snag a few good pictures.

Here is the little garden in the center of the spiral:
I found this Gargoyle watching over tombs on the Eastern side of the graveyard:
Some tombs incorporated works of art. This Venetian sculptor chose to have a bust of the Mona Lisa placed on his tomb, in honor of his fellow Venetian artist, Da Vinci :
Another grave had a copy of Canova's "Psyche revived by Cupid's Kiss", one of my favorite Louvre pieces:
Sculptor Cesar's tomb had one of his own bizarre pieces:
I don't know if it's appropriate to "aww" a grave, but..."awww!" A sleepy kitty:
I always love the overgrown ones the most:
Oddly spacey cross--looks like something out of Star Trek:
Cool close-up on the detail of a shiny, mobile-style modern art tomb:
A pretty tacky tribute to a fellow Kiwi:
The grave of much adored French crooner Serge Gainsbourg was stacked with fan tributes:
Close-up of some of the shrine-like offerings:
The madonna, watching over the Tour Montparnasse in the background:
The winner of 'creepiest grave' (yes, those are giant hands):
and the award for best grave. Simple yet elegant:

All work and no play...

Having spent all of the month of August so far reading and reviewing for my Master's exam, I decided it was high time for a break. And what better occasion than a friend's last weekend in Paris to really hit the town?

We started with an all-you-can-eat Chinese dumpling bar in the 15th that a friend of mine had recommended a while ago and that I only finally got around to trying. It was in a deserted, rather dead area, but the food and service was great. And cheap! 10 euros per person for an endless array of flavors of dumplings--boiled, steamed or fried--and 2.50 for the world's largest Tsingtao beer bottles. I thought this bridge on the walk home was pretty cool:
Then we headed to The Moose: the favorite (Canadian) bar of our (Canadian) guest of honor, Jason.
At The Moose they were showing--what else? American baseball! Go Sox!
Once Jason had drank his fill of farewell shots (compliments of his favorite bartenders, who were as sad as us to see one of their most loyal customers leave) we hit up a latenight 80s themed club, called Romeo. (I know the 80s seem to be coming back into style in the States, but here in France, they never went OUT of style.) The 10 euro cover included a pretty decent mojito, and if you were born in the 80s you got a complimentary glass of champagne. Jason had picked up a turquoise straw hat at the Moose, and it made the rounds on the dance floor. Here's Tom busting a move:
And, unarguably the best shot of the night:

(Even more) mobile moments

That's right, folks! It's time for even more shots captured by your favorite Parisian-on-the-go. First off, the view through the twisty iron bars of our building's window frames:
Artfully-executed, colorful park graffiti on boulevard de Choisy (you can't quite tell, but that blob in the middle is a yellow furry anthropomorphic DJ):
The store window of a theatre shop, with some cool plague-style doctor's masques:
Cute little outdoor café in the Odéon area:
Super creepy huge face (it takes up the whole front door of a company in Chinatown), with a well-placed peephole. If Big Brother were Asian and of Ambigiuous Gender, (s)he would look like this:
Keeping with the Asian theme, here's a delicious "pho-to" of homemade chicken and prawn pho (Vietnamese noodle soup) complete with basil and mint from our window box. The key ingredient, we learned, is a fragrant herb known as culantro, or Thai parsley).
A pretty sweet wine bar, with a few of my friends outside. You can borrow their glass bottles to buy wine to "emporter" (take away) for as little as 3.50 a litre:
Oddly sexual Adrian Brody graffiti. Any idea what the explanation is behind this? I'm stumped.
How to take away the sketchy factor of a white, window-less van: paint it with the world. When this van leaves the city, you can't even see it anymore:
Cool graffiti on rue de la Glacière, not far from where I live. It reminded me of Avatar:
A super-cute rhino cheese knife that I got scolded for taking a photo of in BHV (France's high-end department store...somewhat between Macy's and Lord and Taylor):
In French, "tampon" can refer to a stamp, and ink pad, a scouring pad or, of course, the feminine hygiene product dearest to our hearts--or somewhere. "Faux-amis" and homonyms aside--it still makes me cringe to see the word next to steel wool:
Transgender street graffiti left over from the Pride walk a month ago (and some multi-gendered feet):
Joan of Arc (Jeanne d'Arc) statue near Tuileries:
The buses have their own traffic lights here:
America has Walmart and France has Tati--the super cheap, buy-everything crap store. However, Tati has something that even Walmart doesn't dare to touch: a wedding section.
Super creepy Evian ad for their "live young" campaign:
A pretty fountain, just outside the free summer outdoor cinema at Parc de la Villette:
After our own difficulties moving our own limited amount of belongings down and up five flights of stairs when we moved, I wondered how real Parisians with larger apartments, furniture, the works managed to do it. The answer: they hire moving companies with cherry picker platforms to hoist everything right up to a top-floor window. Nifty:
Too funny--Noddy, the kid's show, apparently translates to "Oui-Oui" in French:
Magritte-inspired street graffiti:
And to finish her off, ladies and gentleman, I give you the most difficult French word for foreigners to pronounce--"Serr-ur-er-ie" (Locksmith):

Ninety-degree nostalgia

Things that I miss about summertime in America:

• barbecues (the food itself as well as the communal dynamic and outdoor eating)
• lightning bugs
• iced tea and coffee (that nasty peach iced tea that comes in cans has caught on since I was last in France, but you still can't order a normal iced tea at a restaurant)
  
• crab feats
• ribs (for some reason, Europeans don't seem to eat this part of the animal)
• corn on the cob
• being in/on/around the Chesapeake Bay
• Slurpees and Rita's Italian Ice
  
• minigolf (don't judge)
  
• ...and then, the obvious: air conditioning

Summertime delights in France:

• free outdoor cinema (which is also a fun way to discover new corners of the city. So far we've been to the Parc St. Cloud on the western side of the city for "Liaisons Dangereuses", and to Parc de la Villette in the North for "Auberge Espangole". A new series of outdoor movies, starting this week, will bring one to each neighborhood park in the city on a different night, so we're eagerly awaiting the chance to haul our blanket and a bottle of wine to our favorite parks near us.)
  
• plentiful gelatto
  
• Paris Plage (a program that turns the banks of the Seine into a "beach" with sand, umbrellas and lounge chairs for communal use, bars, kids activities, boats/kayaks to take out, concerts, dance lessons, and petanque sets/table tennis gear/foosball/badminton)
  
• cheap public pools (3 euros a visit, including the pool literally on a boat on the Seine. However, the French are oddly anal-retentive about "hygiene" in their pools--everyone is required to wear a swim cap, all boys/men must wear tight Speedos (sorry fellas, no swim trunks allowed) and everyone is expected to shower *before* getting in the pool.)
• Happy Hour cocktails on a café's street-side "terasse"
• free public activities (Jazz festival in Parc Floral, Chopin Sunday concert series in Luxembourg gardens)
  
• a really long vacation

Found on the stoop outside our building...

I think the poor guy hit a window. Tragic, really, but oddly beautiful.

Bois de Bologne

This Sunday, we headed to the West edge of Paris to explore the Bois de Bologne, a forest that once inspired many of France's impressionist painters and now gives Parisians a place to bring their children/bikes/dogs/significant others to explore.
We wandered through woods, across bridges and small streams to a grassy island. Every now and again we'd happen across surprises: a campsite, a playground, a horse track and polo field, a tennis club...
...or some mushrooms...
...or some berries. It seemed as if the forest had been intentionally planted with edible fruits (plums, elderberries, etc). We picked some just-starting-to-ripen blackberries to eat as we walked. During the picking process I was rudely introduced to stinging nettles--ouch!
On the opposite edge of the woods we hit Neuilly, the posh suburb of Paris where Nicolas Sarkozy grew up.
Tom was our self-appointed navigator. I still maintain that I have a better sense of direction, though.
Eventually, thanks to either his navigation skills or plain luck, we managed to find the woods' central ponds.

We rented out a row boat. Paddling was much less work than I expected.
Contrary to appearances, Tom actually did most of the work.
It was fun to see who else was out on the water: Grandparents with their grandchildren, old and young couples, tourists chattering in various languages and snapping loads of pictures, fathers in suits rowing their entire family, all adorned in the Sunday best, etc. There was also a little riverboat (that red thing in the background) to shuttle people who weren't cool enough to get a row boat back and forth to the central island (and its cafés and restaurants).
The pond was pretty shallow, but there was a lot of fish and plant life in it, not to mention whole flocks of ducks and the world's largest population of water striders.
When we tired of rowing, we pulled our boat up on the grassy shore of the deserted side and sat in the shadow of this sculpture for a fruit picnic.