Paris - Christmas Week

I was tired when I posted about our first day and forgot a few things so I edited a bit the post. In the evening we ended up quite tired at Home with some nice and warm food waiting for us with two happy parents. The next day in the morning was the official ceremony for the "bapteme republicain" of the little monkey and turtle. So now I am officially their republican godfather, I can speak with my best low pitched Marlon Brando voice and say whatever I want trying to look serious. Anyways, after a couple glasses of champagne we went to visit fifille's museum (if you go there don't hesitate to ask for fifille as a private guide she even does tours in English !). The evening was time for a usual Nico party, he was back from Istanbul for a couple of days so took advantage of the opportunity to gather friends. The next day saw 2 birthday parties, the one after a Christmas dinner and the next one a Christmas-day lunch. Yes we just spent 3 days in a row eating good food, yummy.
After X-mas we established residence in temporarily deserted fifille's apartment in Chevreuse.

Chevreuse and it's castle on a sunny morning.

We spent the rest of our short time in Paris going around the city and its museums.

Main hall of "Le musee d'Orsay".


A view on the Louvre.


Champs Elysees, Blue White and Red !

More pictures on Zenfolio as usual. We then took our train for the Alps to go ski. This wasn't uneventful, first we weren't able to buy a suburban train ticket because there was no teller, and the automated machine would not accept foreign credit cards (the great thing about superior french technology, is that it obviously refuses to be compatible with the others, it would be too simple). So we took it with our heavy luggage without paying, and ended up stuck behind the barriers at the train station in Paris, hopefully a helpful SNCF employee just opened them for us without asking anything (he probably assumed we couldn't be cheating with that big bags ;).

We eat and head towards our night train, to realise that someone is occupying our compartment... After some discussion we realize that our ticket is for the next day... Yay, stupid me... We find some free beds in another wagon and depart with the train hoping the controller guy will be nice. Next morning, no one checked our tickets and we're in the freezing and snowy alps :).

Paris - First day

This year I only stayed one week in Paris for X-mas and was with someone that didn't know the place so it was a good occasion to go around the city (and take pictures obviously). The first day Izard was our guide (notice the right head tilt, character stat where the F. family tends to invest their XP. If you don't believe me I can provide more proofs). Here he is explaining the story behind the Garnier Opera, from the roof of the Galeries Lafayette where he took us. He also welcomed us early in the morning with some fresh croissants ! Welcome back home ;).



Classic view of La Madeleine and the Eiffel tower from the "Galleries Lafayette"'s roof

We then went around La Madeleine to buy chocolates in "La maison du chocolat", and after a lunch with Jyby we came back near Olivier's place on the piers of the Canal Saint Martin, waiting for the little monkey to get out of school and buying some chritmas presents at "Antoine et Lili". More pictures at the usual place, and more to come as I get through the backlog.


Ecluse Saint Martin

Akko Harbour

This afternoon I drove north to Akko to meet with Waffa and Octavio before Christmas and do some shopping. I also tested another toy, a Jupiter-8 lens (Zeiss 50mm Sonnar copy) from 1956 I bought on ebay for 25$. I already start to like it, there is some kind of mood in the pictures it captures, especially wide open. Anyway I stopped by the harbour and took some nets pictures and then went for a narguile with an arabic coffee. Nice slow day, but now I have to catch-up work tonight. The rest of the gallery is here.

Nets


Narguile Bar


Old Fount