Birthday Flowers

Alright, I will admit it, I love flowers. I don't care who buys them or even if I buy them for myself, it always brightens my day knowing I have a bouquet at home. I know they are impractical and short-lived, but I adore them. I always have and more than likely always will. My dear friend, Marion, brought me flowers for my birthday and they are beautiful. Thanks Marion. I have them on my computer desk, which is just big enough for my computer, but I want to look at them while I work.

Happy New Year!

I wanted to post on New Year's day and tell everyone "Happy Year of the Golden Pig," but blogger was not working for me and this is the first chance I have had since then to sit down and write a post.

Since I already mentioned the Chinese New Year and have never really told a story backwards, I will start with Sunday and work my way back. I live in the Asian area of the gay/Jewish quarter. This means I have quick access to fantastic places to eat, nice clothes and loads of jewelry shops. It also means that my little area of Paris exploded with life Sunday. There were parades, confetti, a ton of fair food and balloons. I had seen lots of Chinese decorations for about a week, but failed to make the connection. Silly me! I just wish I had my camera battery charged. It was all very cool and exciting.

Saturday I went out with my friends for dinner at a nice Turkish place. We became captives of the owner of this restaurant and had to listen to all his tales of being Turkish/Kurdish and how he had given up drinking (all said over a very large quantity of alcohol). Before dinner we had a little "hair of the dog" hour and ended up with a bar tab of 60 something euros because we decided it would be a good idea to drink at Gare du Nord, one of the major train stations.

Friday (and the reason for the "hair of the dog" on Saturday) my friends had a party. While it was to celebrate a promotion, it was also a surprise, early birthday party for me (fantastic friends! They did the same thing last year). Anyway, I mixed my alcohol and ended up feeling very much like a college student on a Friday night.

There you have it; my weekend in review.

Happy Valentine's Day

I know I just posted this in the last entry, but here is the alabaster Kiss in the Rodin Museum. Call me romantic.

l'Orangerie

Well, here it is, my visit to l'Orangerie. First of all, take a look at the line. It was a super long wait, about 45 minutes, and I went without my coat. I hate checking my coat, so I thought, I would leave it at home. Bad idea. I froze and was more than a little anxious about catching a cold.

After the wait, I had to fight with the woman at the ticket office for my reduced fair because I do not have a card saying I am a teacher (teachers get in at a reduced rate to some museums, others are free). She was rather mad I only had an attestation from the university and not a professional card. Because I was feeling rather feisty, I told her I was upset about it too, but everything takes ages in France. I know, not the best approach when you want someone to do you a favor, in this case, letting me in for free, but I couldn't help it because I was cold and a little irritated from the windy, wet wait.

But all the hassle was worth it to see this. Monet's finest in a wonderful setting. I wish I could take everyone to this museum because just seeing pictures of how these panels are displayed is not enough. There are eight, huge wall length paintings of Monet's water lilies in beautiful white oval rooms with great light, even on a overcast day.

There was no way I could take any pictures that would do the rooms or the paintings justice. Apparently, Monet painted these in order that they be displayed in exactly the way they are displayed. The paintings are curved along with the wall. It was just fantastic museum experience. Honestly, I felt like I was surrounded by art and nature.

I have to also give a big thumbs up to the audio guide. I usually don't like using them because I find myself just listening to the words and not really looking at the paintings, but this is the one exception which I was glad I rented one because it told of how the museum was built and how it was redesigned to accommodate Monet's masterpieces.

I am definitely planning on going back to this museum if for no other reason than to just enjoy the Monet rooms. However, the permanent collection has a lot of nice paintings of Renior, Matisse, Cezanne, Picasso, Utrillo as well as another artist I know nothing about but who I found very appealing, Laurencin.
And just to end this post on a romantic note because Valentine's day is around the corner, The Kiss by Rodin which is in front of the entrance of the museum.

Rescheduled

Cultural Wednesday has been rescheduled this week due to the author's early morning procrastination and the ungodly amount of time spent at the gym. However, tomorrow I am going here Musée de l'Orangerie which will be great fun because I have wanted to go ever since I arrived in Paris. It was closed for 3 years (I think) for renovations, so I am sure it is going to be busy any day I choose to go. Funny, when I moved to Paris, I didn't know that much about art and now I know all sorts of stuff about the Impressionists. Hopefully, I will get to take pictures tomorrow.

Thanks

Monday ended and its nastiness did not leak into Tuesday. Seriously, Monday was a mean day. Thanks for all the well wishes and suggestions!

Will Today Ever End?

Ever notice how when you are having a bad day things just start to go down hill very quickly? It is like the powers that be hone in on the one person who needs a break and say, "Nope, let's mess with her; let's push all of her buttons and see if we can't make her go psycho today." Generally, one bad thing happens and I shrug it off; two bad things happen, I get a headache, three bad things happen, I start to curse, four bad things happen, I go back to bed, if I can. Today was just a mess! I hope it is not an upcoming attraction for the week ahead! I am hoping I can work some of my frustrations out at the gym. Oh, if only they had a punching bag!