It’s two am, so this is going to be a drunken quick blog before I pass out crash. Today: We went to the Musee d’Orsay in the morning (after a quick bite at my new favorite brasserie). Then, when my friends visited Notre Dame and did some walking, I went home and slept worked on my revisions. Then, my friend’s brother was taking us out to a trendy Parisian restaurant, so we had to get a bit dressed up before we left. I wore a cute dress over black leggings. And, of course, my new shoes. Despite the fact that this particular outfit really emphasizes the fact that my broken leg is twice as wide as my not-so-broken leg, I still think it looked cute. Because my shoes are so orgasmic. I love them. Have I mentioned that?
Anyway.
Here we are, on the balcony of our hotel:
The brother picked us up and we zipped through Paris to the restaurant. The food was wonderful. I started with a seared tuna dish, followed by a pumpkin risotto that was to die for. Here it is!
Mmm, mmm, good! It was a very formal place, and much discussion was had regarding the wine selection. There is no such thing as Two Buck Chuck here, and I really can’t imagine what I’m going to do when i get back to the states. I’m just going to have to buy better wine, I guess. Life is hard.
Tomorrow Carrie and I are going to go wine bar hopping. We think it’s very important to form a cultural opinion on the old school wine bars versus the new ones that are popping up all over the city. I want to be an informed wino traveler, after all. And if that requires drinking a lot of wine in Paris, so be it. Life’s hard, but someone’s gotta do it.
This afternoon, we went to the Montmartre district. It’s midnight, so I’m doing another drive-by blog. But I will say it was a wonderful, vibrant neighborhood. They filmed one of my favorite movies, Amalie, there, and I loved walking up the steps to the height of the area.
Me and Carrie at the top of the steps:
Sometimes I forget how cool it is to walk around in a place and know people like Picasso, Dali, and Monet hung out and did their thing. Being an art geek, I thought it was neat. Even though it’s pretty touristy, we managed to find a local bar. I parked the broken leg at a cafe for awhile while the girls did the shopping thing. Then we walked down the stairs of Montmartre. I must say walking down stairs with my broken leg is a lot harder than going up, but here I am an I think I look quite cheery, considering.
Afterward, we met one of my friends from the blogesphere, Gabrielle Luthy. Gabrielle and I started checking out each other’s blog a couple of years ago, and I always found her insights as an Australian living in Paris very interesting. So it was awesome to hook up with her, and she took us to a wonderful, tiny Parisian restaurant. It sat about fifteen people, and we took up six of the seats. The chef was a hottie, and the meal was fantastic. And it was such a treat to talk with Gabrielle! I love meeting my internet friends in person. Here we are!
On the way home, we drove past back through the scandalous district of Paris, and I, of course, begged to be let out of the car because I saw a lot of signs like the the following one, but they would just not let me out of the car. Too bad. I was hoping to find a vibrator shaped like the Eiffel Tower.
After we arrived back at the hotel, Carrie and I were very excited because she had brought a picture of a chef for a Parisian restaurant that is supposed to be amazing. See how excited we are?
Oh, and the shoes. Oh, the shoes. Mmm. Shoes. These pictures just don’t do them justice. The patent leather is so shiny and…shiny. And the striped part? It’s like this soft suede that feels like butter. The heels are shiny and make me want to just step on parts of people. Is that wrong?
The Orgasmic Shoes.
Yeah, I really am on my back taking this picture of my foot. That’s how exited they make me. These shoes have me from standing to horizontal in sixty seconds.
Oh, and have I mentioned this hotel is full of erotic art? Give me your interpretation of this:
All right. That’s enough for tonight. Between the picture of that chef and my shoes, I’m spent.
So last night we went to the Moulin Rouge. I knew it would be touristy, but hey. I’ve been to the Mustang Ranch. Now I can add Moulin Rouge to my repertoire of scandalous places I’ve visited. Yeah!
So. Let me just say this whole Moulin Rouge thing is a money-making, well-oiled machine. First you line up outside (By the way, this is the “bad” neighborhood in Paris. I think they think this because of the sex shops nearby. Of course, that just makes me feel right at home. Anyway.) So we lined up with about 100 Japanese tourists. The bus just pulls up and drops them off and we all line up. We push inside. The interior lobby is very nice and very red. Very rouge. Get it? Moulin Rouge. We go down the stairs and they make us line up at the coat-check. And this is checking of coats and other personal items is very much enforced. They make you turn in your cameras and cell phones at the coat-check. And they make you pay for it! As I said: money-making machine.
Then they usher you inside the theater. It’s quite lovely, actually. I’d show you a picture, but I don’t have one on account of the fact that, although I did break the “law” and bring in my cell phone, I was so afraid of my iphone being confiscated, I left it in my purse. I protect my iphone as a lioness does her cubs.
We did the dinner and show thing. This meant we had to sit for over an hour eating overpriced food while a duo of singers performed. I’d like to say they were good but I’ve seen better singers in a Reno casino lounge. Finally, the show started. This consisted of a bunch of women dressed like Vegas showgirls dancing around on the stage. They had bare breasts. Scandalous! Oh, there were some male dancers, too. They were fully clothed. So yeah. Basically, that was the show. The Moulin Rouge. My overall opinion? Overpriced and a little disappointing. But that could just be me, being from Nevada and all. The most exciting part of the night? Running around the subway in my new Parisian shoes. I had to wear them, despite the fact that since I broke my leg playing roller derby, I’ve been forced to endure flat, boring, low-heeled, in no way CFM shoes. But these? I just had to take the risk because they are so freaking gorgeous. I need to take some good pictures of them because they are the cutest shoes ever created in the history of shoes. And they are made in Paris and it feels like they are made in Paris. It’s like wearing Paris on my feet. Can you tell they made me slightly orgasmic?
Anyway, here we are:
At the moment I’m sitting in local cafe. I’m inside, and as it’s lunchtime, the place is buzzing. It’s hard for me to concentrate because there are people speaking English next to me and I can’t help but eavesdrop. I haven’t heard any English in this neighborhood until now. We are in the 16th district, and it’s quite a lovely little area.
Oh, this has nothing to do with Paris, but I have to gush over a book I finished as I was drinking my cafe. It’s called Choke, and it’s by Chuck Palahniuk. This was my first novel by Palahniuk (he also wrote Fight Club) and I was totally blown away by how much I loved this book. It’s a brilliantly sick novel about a sex addict. You know he had me at sex addict. There are many things about this book that make it amazing, but as an erotica author, I was especially impressed with the real way he wrote about sex. Palahnuik truly gets how sex can be anything but pretty, how it can be a manifestation of things that have nothing to do with love or even attraction. And this book is funny. Sickly funny. And I love that, too. I can’t remember the last time I’ve read Literary Fiction and realized I was reading something artistic, something cultural. The subject, the characters, the voice of the book. It reminds me of when I first read Salinger. The word “wow” comes to mind.
Anyway, I’m going to sign off now and go work on my revisions. Revisions are not so bad in Paris.
First off, this will be a fast blog because I only have a few minutes, but now that I have an internet connection, I thought I’d do a drive-by blog.
So, we are in Paris. We spent the first five nights of our trip in a town in the Loire Valley, Angers, at my friend’s parent’s house. It was fabulous. They treated us like royalty. They have an amazing old house–complete with its own chapel–in the center of town. We spent the days sightseeing castles and chateaus (including my favorite castle, Chenonceau) and each night my friend’s mother cooked us an amazing, traditional french meal. For example, each night went something like this:
Champagne and snacks
Mussels with cream sauce
Moroccan lamb with couscous
Selection of cheese
Dessert
(all with the appropriate wines, of course)
Needless to say, I gained five pounds at least. But it was worth it. Also? I learned how to say: The wine goes into the blood, and the blood goes into the leg. A very handy phrase.
Anyway, we really felt like we were part of a traditional, countryside French family, and I think they liked us too (despite the fact that we kept putting our bread on our plates instead of the table. Who knew?) The parents escorted us to the train station, made sure we were settled and waved goodbye from the platform. Amazing people, really. I was sad to leave them.
But now we are in Paris. We took the high-speed train here yesterday, arrived at our hotel and then spent a few hours with my friend’s brother, who lives just a few blocks away. Then we went on a night cruise on the Seine River, which was beautiful despite the chill. Today we shopped and I found a pair of truly fabulous shoes which I will post pictures of tomorrow.
And tonight? The Moulin Rouge. What? I couldn’t come to Paris and not go there. Should be fun. I’m wearing my new shoes.
Oh, and of course Darth is along for the ride.
Airplane food sucks:
But the Eiffel Tower is cool!
And the wine isn’t so awful on this part of the planet.
The house in Angers where we stayed:
The town of Angers:
In front of the castle:
At the top of the castle (yes, I hiked up, broken leg and all.)
The gardens at the castle in Angers:
Well, that’s all for now. Tonight we are going to the Moulin Rouge. Oh la la!
Piercing the Veil By R.G. Alexander Book 2 in the Temptation Unveiled series.
Twins Hawk and Val are Fianna warriors under the vengeful curse of a scorned goddess. Following the prophecy in the Book of Veils, they search for the one who can help them retrieve the Claíomh Solais before their enemies get the chance. Their quest leads them to Linnea. One touch and there can be no doubt that they have found their match. But will she accept them once she knows the truth?
Linnea is no one special. So why is she on the run from evil faeries and her egotistical ex? Why is she suddenly spending time in the company of dragons, druids and one kinky Viking with a split personality? All she knows is she has to keep her family safe, and her heart safe from another betrayal.
I leave for Paris tomorrow! Wheeee! But, I have so much to get done today because you know I put everything off until the last minute. I still need to finish packing, get to Target, get a pedicure, pick up stuff for the flight from Trader Joe’s, pack up my kid since he’s going to visit his grandparents…what else? Oh, hopefully fit in a few hours to work on my revisions. Speaking of which, I need to get to the copy store and make a copy of my ms so I can take it with me. Yup, I am actually hauling 400 pages of manuscript with me to Paris. Who knows? Maybe I’ll actually finish them!
Sometimes I get all political and shit. So I’ve taken inspiration from Mel and posted my favorite, hard-hitting news program for your viewing pleasure. Here ya go. (P.S. You get a special prize if you name this show.)
Kid fell down at school and has a huge bruise on his forehead. Also, I think he has a black eye. Yet he seems fine, teachers think he’s fine. Kids are darn resilient.
I wrote about 20 new pages today for my revisions. Did I mention the new title for my Grand Central Publishing book is called Bound To Pleasure? Gotta say I like it. Very much. I’ll like it even better when I’m done with the revisions.
We watched (okay, technically, I’m supposed to be watching right now) the last Spiderman movie. It’s lame. What a disappointment.
What else? Oh, seeing my surgeon tomorrow. I have no doubt he’ll tell me I don’t need my walking cast anymore, which is a good thing seeing how I stopped wearing it a couple of weeks ago. I’m crazy like that.
Found the perfect dress for my Rocky Horror costume for RT 2009. What? It is never too early to start planning a costume.
