Dali, Sacre Coeur, food... always food.

Today I went to the Espace Dali in the Musee de Montmartre. The exhibit was a collection of works by Dali dedicated to his best bud/secretary Enrique Sabater. Pretty awesome exhibit. I think the best way to understand how awesome it was is to see it ... so... PICTURES!

I don't know if you can tell from the little photos of these but a LOT of his paintings and stuff in this exhibit were done on the back of something cardboard. The ink drawing it looks kinda like there is reflection in the glass or something, but thats the back of the cardboard with some embossment on it.

Flipped right out over both of these guys. The clock... well anyone who knows dali knows about the clocks so... but the sculpture is based off Alice in Wonderland. If you know me at all, you have probably heard me at least mention my obsession with Louis Carroll. So, to have two of my idols come together into one beautiful sculpture -- epic.

Clocks, crutches, drawers, the dali elephant -- so many Dali things! Gasps abound!

There were loads and loads and loads of dedications in books to Sabater. His signature took on all sorts of forms, sometimes he just drew something epic. Always more than just a signature. AMAZING!

Piano legs! Eggs, ants, clocks, severed ladies -- DALI THINGS! AH!

This giant thing was super cool. I don't quite remember the story behind it, but it was a reproduction of some sort of cathedral that got moved to this museum (which is a basement, by the way.) Watch the video!

Christ St. John of the Cross! STOKED! I did a reproduction of the famous painting of this symbol in an art class -- where I fell in love with Dali. The little contraption over here is honestly pretty hard to explain. There was a little blurb underneath it. It's a contraption to dunk a sugar cube into a shot glass but it's got all sort of other stuff going on. It's hilarious. 

More Alice! And this famous sculpture. The baguette was once-upon-a-time a real one, but people kept stealing it (when it was first created).

Snails and clocks and OF COURSE that moustache. Me and Dali are bff's.

The lips sofa that got him some serious media cred. The little card on it says not to sit on it Seriously... people sat of the couch that was on a meter high platform with no ledge for your feet? Common sense!

More cool sculptures. Giraffe neck + drawer + crutch. Juxtaposition too!

OMG AAAAAAH! Freaked right on out. Sexy lobster phone being all aphrodisiac-y by your mouth. 

One of my favorite things there. He made this really elaborate series' of models and drawings and stuff of the design ideas he had for the home he was going to make his friend. That whale is a toilet, the eyeball a sink, that AMAZING book case, the cutlery... there was also a design of a bidet which was a clam shell.

I wish this photo was better. This was one of my favorite parts of the exhibit. There were all these photos involving his moustache and then the interview questions along with them. This questions was one of my favorites. I hope you can make out the picture! Below is the question a little clearer. 

 

Ants all over the stairs leading out. Aw...

ICE CREAM! Tiramisu ice cream actually. I breathed in over it and choked on the cocoa, as I seem to do a lot with tiramisu-related desserts.

Coolest musician ever. I gave him 2 whole euro, which is a lot for a poor girl in Paris. Pus, everyone else was giving like... 20 cents.

The instrument is called a hang I think, that's what the musician told me at least (I think... conflicting languages have very confusing 'conversations') Listen below to what it sounded like!

I will never tire of panoramic views.

I don't know if this guy was a busker or not but he was juggling like a mad man on this little platform, and it looked super cool with the backdrop of the basilica. 

This guy most certainly WAS a busker. He was not good. He was very nervous, and this is moments before he burnt himself with his heavily tangled fire poi. I think maybe he was trying it out for the first time. 

Ahhhh views...

Ok, so we got some LEGIT New York cheese cake here. SEE? NO crust! Why can't any restaurants in Canada get this right? Wonderful. I meant to photograph my epic 15 euro hamburger as well, but I was too busy eating it. I tried to do it with a knife and fork like the Parisians.... tooooo much work. Especially when the burger is half a foot high. Notably, the ground beef was a lot better than a lot of burgers I've had. Which is ironic, cause I'm from Alberta. It was more the ground consistency of beef tartar, not soooo ground up it was basically mush like a lot of ground beef I've seen. Maybe that's because I would never have bought a 20 dollar hamburger in Canada... holy crap that hamburger was expensive! It came with fries!!!

The tower montparnasse from my window. I finally caught it doing it's rainbow-brite light show on film tonight! Why does this happen? People already hate this tower enough as it is, and they added a cheesy technicolor light show! Well... I like it! This balloon is my favorite thing ever. I will keep posting pictures of it. Notice how there is basically a BUS hanging from it? Can you see that? Take my word for it.

Paper memories of the day! Including my 'quittance', which is basically my receipt for paying rent. I forgot to ask for one before, so it's a good thing my landlord is a wonderful human being and gave me one now. I paid in cash... it would be hard to prove that payment happened without this little guy!

Fun little addition -- I bought these shoes. They were 6 euro at Tati -- super discount store with crappy stuff for really cheap. They were supposed to be like 20 euro I think but then she had to do a price check since mine didn't have a tag and they came back with that price. I did not argue. Even if I wanted to, I wouldn't know how to say it in French! WOO!

Well, that's my day in photographs! Tomorrow I think Kendra and I are heading to the George Pompidou centre -- excited! There is a Matisse exhibition there right now. I love that this stuff is EVERYWHERE in this city! Also, that it's super cheap for me because I'm young and live here. WEE!

Get lost, Eat, Shop, Repeat.

Hello world! Ok, so last entry's format worked for me. So, overview, photos, story time. 

Last couple days consisted of... essentially the title of this post. I did laundry, ate my first eclaire, went to Trocadero to be artsy, ate a lot of bread. I wandered around the Louvre/Les Halles area, into also the St. Germain Des Pres area. I didn't really have an intention, had some plan when I started but it really felt like a wandering day (+23, what?). I had an amazing lunch at a random cafe, bought some Zara flats, wandered around Galeries Lafayette feeling poor, giggled with my boulanger, had an epic dinner. Today, I got up super early (8 am...) with the intentioned of getting some deals at some flea markets. I couldn't find the advertised flea markets so I headed to montmartre for some Sympa shopping therapy. Got a crazy deal on some legit french lingerie and hosiery, headed to Les Halles, got bored cause stuff was normal prices, headed home, cooked an epic dinner! PICTURES!

This is my kitchen slash laundry room. That is my leopard print catsuit drying. Along with some unmentionables.

At the Trocadero gardens I managed to attract some silly boy attention. A guy saw me attempting some gesture drawing so he asked (in... french) for me to draw him. I did my best, he feigned being impressed and ... wanting to continue the conversation, asked if he could draw me. I think he thought I would decline and then we would flirt. But I said sure, and handed him my sketch pad. He then got stuck trying to draw me for a good fifteen, twenty, minutes. His mob of gangsta friends crowded around laughing and making run of him, but he kept at it. He let me keep the drawing after, but I'm pretty sure the memory of him saying, "tres compliqué!" every couple minutes or so is my favorite part. 

Place de la Concorde!

Jardin des Tuileries! OMG GREEN! FLOWERS! 

Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel!

Louvre Pyramids plus a very cool looking me =)

A wall of daffodils by the metro. Some sort of fundraiser?

Canada!!!! And random running guy. He was hoofing it.

La Seine! From another bridge with lovey-dovey locks on it. What a beautiful day!

Giant baguette sandwich (Cheesy!) and giant cafe creme. I still can't quite figure out how to elegantly eat half a baguette.

Moelleux Chocolat. Or as the waitress tried to describe it to me as, 'wet cake'. Butterscotch syrup-y deliciousness and a hazelnut (or something) gelato. Inside the cake was still steamy. 

Inside Galeries Lafayette -- a DEPARTMENT STORE!! Ridiculously gorgeous. But the clothes and stuff were crazy expensive. Think, Holt Renfrew.

Stumbled upon this church/playground? I tried to figure out where this was but I can't spend that much time on Google street view.

Prune Flan? I think? delicious pastry goodness from my favorite boulanger! 

Creamy cheesy onion soup with lots of bread mmm...

 

You're probably thinking... what the heck is that? WELL! I went to Sympa in Montmartre (super discounts on sample sale stuff, kind of? Inexpensive stuff, fun to sift through piles of clothes... anyways! This is the packaging for the tights I got there. Each little box denotes the color of the pair of tights, and it's designed in this way that it's pretty much a puzzle game just to get the tights out. It was such a fun little surprise when I opened the big box that all the little boxes came in. Plus, this plethora of hosiery was only 8 euro. For eight pairs of tights that are usually... 10 euro each!

Rainbow of tights!

Cooking exploration. I bought a crappy piece of meat (beef shank) and tried to make something delicious out of it with other ingredients I impulse bought. It was a combo of oso buco (ish), cabbage stew and... something Moroccan. The soup it ended up making was delicious. The meat? Still terrible. 

I didn't have anything big enough to put everything in so I spread it out over a bunch of cooking methods... I combined everything in the little pot in the toaster oven for a little portion of everything with the piece of meat and the rest ended up becoming a soup.

Last night I ended up going out for drinks with some of the people I met at the apero/casting for St. Patrick's Day. We walked right by the Pantheon when leaving the bars -- crazy! I am very, very, sleepy today so this blog isn't very inspired. Pictures are the most exciting part anyways, right? BUT I must tell you about my boulanger. So, I got really self conscious at the boulangerie across the street from me because I made a fool of myself trying to speak french there earlier in my trip. Plus, everyone in my building was saying it wasn't as good as other ones. I went down a couple more blocks to another boulangerie the other day to check it out. The girl who is always there is younger than a lot of boulangers I've seen. The first time she was explaining prices she said them in french and english. She now says them in french, waits till I figure it out and hand her the money, counts it, and congratulates me on getting it right. It's practically a high five, and I am always very proud. I tried an eclaire there the other day and she wrapped it up for me all pretty-like, then, seeing my expression of excitement, grabbed me a bag and stuffed it with napkins. I laughed and said, "Oui!" in a way that actually communicated, "Yes, I am going to need those." She giggled and raised her eyebrows at me as she handed the bag over. I made an excited noise, there was more giggling, we said our au revoir's and a bientot's and now we are buddies. I love her. I went to the closer boulanger yesterday because her place was closed, and it felt like cheating. Those guys were nicer than the first couple times I'd been there, and the man congratulated me on my much-improved french. People who bake bread are so nice! Celiacs miss out on cute people. Anyways, I made some rice pudding and now I'm going to spend this rainy sunday curled up in my bed with a coffee, some pudding, and Sex and the City in my cozy pj's. 

Bisous!

Ps. I gave a thousand million bisous last night. I felt so authentic. 

Pps. It is actually raining Calgary-style over here right now. It's a little scary.