Paris, je t'aime!

I think the Gargoyles are up here!
(c) PipPepPop

As Blair and Serena once agreed in Gossip Girl's season 4 trip to Paris, any great duo must divide and conquer the city to make the most of it.

From the Gossip Girl episode 4.1 into to the 'Belles du Jour' episode:

"Serena's locked down the left bank 
and become a muse to us all. 

Meanwhile, Blair rules the right bank, 
storming the shops and consuming the 

classics and sampling sugary snacks like 
a modern Marie Antoniette."

-- Gossip Girl

I recently returned from a whirlwind 4 days in Paris with two of my best girlfriends from college. While I have yet to pick my favorite bank to rule, we packed a great deal into our brief travels before we traveled to Italy. It was pre-fashion week, it was cold, and it was like walking onto the set of a movie. Bons baisers, I'm in love! Here are some photo highlights and lessons learned from Paris.

1. Everything looks like it's part of a movie scene

The beauty of European cities cannot be described. Every small and charming cobblestone street looks like it was meticulously put together for Matt Damon to be chased down. Some of these buildings are 300-400 years old. They've withstood countless plagues and wars and they're still standing. despite the VERY cold temperatures of about 20 degrees F, I was excited to walk all over and uncover each new arrondissement. 

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2. The people of Paris are warm and delightful
Over the years, I've heard my share of stories from friends that Paris is not the friendliest city for Americans. I was happily proven wrong. We met kind locals everywhere, from the shopgirl who spent three hours patiently helping my friend and I decide on dresses to museum guides, taxi drivers, waiters, and the hotel staff.

Breakfast. (c) PipPepPop

I have to thank the kind man with the Addidas gym bag who kindly guided us to the opposite metro platform and narrowly saved us from heading toward the soccer stadium instead of our hotel. I also misplaced my camera for a day, and fearing the worst, resigned myself to never seeing it again. At the end of the day, I discovered it in the hotel breakfast room, right where I had left it when I snapped a photo pf my breakfast.




3. The food is amazing! Try it all!

Macaroons & tea at Nescafe
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 As mentioned above, my breakfast was 100 times more exciting from the morning the plane landed in Paris. Gone were my usual oatmeal or cereal and milk combos. I welcomed fresh from the oven pain au chocolat, fruit, yogurt, fresh juice, and cafe au lait.

I had a variety of lunch and dinner dishes ranging from cheese plates (yes this was most of my dinner one night), beef burgundy, fresh salmon or shrimp sandwiches, croque monsieurs, chicken provencale, pate, salad with haircot verts, escargot.... and now I am starving. French food is amazing, as is all of the bread.  For dessert, there were chocolates, champagne, mousse, crepes, macaroons, and one night, we had a beautiful green absynthe cocktail.

4. The BEST view of the Eiffel Tower is from the Arc du triomphe!

The Champs
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With French Glamour
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This happened completely by accident, but we ended up at the arch roundabout at the end of the
Champs Elysees at about 5 in the afternoon. We thought "What's another 600 or so steps (total, not each way) when we already can't feel our toes?"

It came down to choosing between the Eiffel Tower and the Arc in terms of what we could handle physically after doing some serious hiking through churches and museums earlier in the day. The walk was perilous, but we trudged upstairs (inside thankfully) and emerged at the top of the arch as the sun was tucking into the Seine.

5. Visit a new cafe every day, but return to old favorites!
We did some touristy things, like visit the cafe from the charming movie Amelie. It was a lot of fun. We also found some great places in our neighborhood and became locals there ASAP. I tried all 3 of the roses offered at one restaurant (not in one sitting; one each time I visited).

  

LEFT: Caf Amelie from the movie. CENTER: The street is THIS big!  RIGHT: The Sacre Coeur- aka the Castle on the Hill. I went on my only paid public bathroom trip here. I'm happy to report I've seen many worse bathrooms than this. All Photos (c) PipPepPop

6. Talk to Everyone, Shop Local
The most amazing moments from the trip were chats we had with the locals. We stopped in every bookstore, boutique, shoe store, haberdasher, etc.. and even a department store.

PHOTO CAPTION: I fell in love with the vibe of this Gatsby-inspired cocktail 
bar and restaurant down the street from our hotel. (c) PipPepPop

7. Be Silly! Selfie it! Goof Around for Pictures!
Some of my favorite trip pictures were making silly faces at Notre Dame or posing in front of the Eiffel tower. If helps if you have a selfie stick, which I received as a present from a friend. It served us well on the trip because we never needed to ask a stranger to take out pictures!

Eiffel Tower
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Group selfie outside Shakespeare and Company. (c) PipPepPop

8. Sleep when you're home! Make every minute count

Me and the Mona Lisa
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'Single Ladies' dance.
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While I am the first to admit jet lag can hit me hard, I trudged through my first day in Paris to fall asleep for a reasonable 6 to 7 hours. The next morning, we hit the Louvre hard, and it was worth the early rise. We climbed out of a cab at 8 am and got in line outside the glass dome to wait like it was a red carpet premiere or Disney World. We headed right for the big ticket exhibits, the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo statue. After, we perused paintings from various centuries and took in one of the best things, the royals jewels dating back to King Louis!

Photo captions below: (LEFT) The Louvre before opening. (RIGHT) Gems from Napoleon's family. 

 

Sometimes You Must Shake It Off: The Taylor Swift Experience

Lyrics for Welcome to New York
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Swift's guitar and MTV award
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     Last November, I learned that a Taylor Swift-themed exhibit was Welcome to New York, and I freaked out like a tween. The Taylor Swift Experience came to Fulton Street and it was good, campy fun! I went with my 'squad' a few weeks ago to check out the multimedia travelling show, which began at The Grammy Museum in Los Angeles. After the New York turn, the exhibit is on the way to the Mississippi Grammy Museum. The price tag couldn't be beat, for 11 dollars we got more entertainment than a typical exhibit.

Red dress
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     The first floor had a gift shop full of Swift swag and the singer's memorabilia. There were more recent stage costumes (see the RED dress below) and the very cute and sparkly ringmaster suit from the Red Tour. There were lyrics (see left) for the song Welcome to New York. Swift penned other tracks for the Red album with Ryan Tedder. Read more about Tedder's collaboration in my past post. Swift's famous glitter guitar was included in the exhibit. I have been coveting this beautiful 6-string since I saw it at the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2013. Swift has contributed a beautiful educational wing to the CMHOF. Childhood items were also on display for the singer.  There was a saddle from Swift's early horseback riding days, report cards, and a baby baby blanket. There were media pieces in the display area including early home movies from the Swift family.  The walls of the area were covered with listings of each tour and venue locations, with total number of fans attended.

Promo card (c) PipPepPop

   The second floor of the exhibit was interactive and our favorite part. The feature attraction was a multi-colored tile dance floor. The tiles changed color in time to the pulsing music. As swift hits played on the screen, the lit-up dance floor changed as you stepped on each tile. We waited each time times until  Shake it Off cycled through, then busted out our best moves while singing along. It was very therapeutic and it may become part of my new stress-reduction routine. The media floor also had a recording studio where we recorded We Are Never Getting Back Together and played it back with the music video. Outside the studio, there were screens with headphones that let you playback Swift's country-tinged Mean, with individual voice and audio tracks that you could control. The Grammy winner has taken a 21st century take on a museum, making the most of audio and video to engage fans. The second floor auditorium was playing past Swift's past performances performances and concerts. I recommend this to anyone who is a dreamer or who is looking to inspire the next generation of dreamers!

Shake it Off on the video dance floor
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A Note: NoEvil News July 25-August 8th

7. Gene Simmons Finally Proposes to Shannon!
It only took two grown kids, a house in the Hollywood Hills, his and hers facelifts, and a few seasons of reality TV cameras to bring this to fruition.

6. Ted Danson on CSI
The guy was great on Damages. But putting Danson on CSI is like when Mr. Big got put on Law and Order, only more desperate.

5. Shannen Doherty Gets Reality Wedding Show
Not that I don't enjoy celebrity weddings, but do we need to see every moment leading up to it? And of all the formerly A-listers of the 90s, I might prefer to see someone's first wedding, not their third. What's next, a spot behind Tori and Dean?

4. TNT renews Franklin and Bash
Can I get a light saber battle in the courtroom in celebration of season 2? Yes I can!

3. Kat Von D and Jesse James End Engagement
It's probably for the best, all those tattoos under one roof might have been toxic.

2. James Franco comes back to General Hospital
I don't care if he's a mysterious artist/murderer, I still love the guy.

1. Charlie Sheen's Character Having Funeral on "Two and a Half Men"
Is anyone surprised? Still weird that Ashton is gonna be their landlord.

A Note About Billy Joel, King of 80's Pop Culture

I grew up trying to suss out half of what Billy Joel says during "We Didn't Start the Fire." I know this song. I love it. I sometimes hear it in my dreams. So imagine my delight when I saw this new video, a stand up comic and his young kids making an updated 2010's version, "We Still Didn't Start the Fire."

Enjoy...