Amsterdam!

When Ben and I knew we would be moving to Europe for sure, we made a list of all the cities we wanted to visit. The list was impossibly long, especially since traveling costs money that neither of us has. But, Amsterdam was high on the list, so when we saw there was a sale on train tickets between Paris and Amsterdam this summer, we jumped at the opportunity. We arrived early on July 31st and left late on August 2nd, so we had three full days in the city. I hope you enjoy hearing about our adventures!

We arrived at the magnificent Centraal Station only to find that it was rainy and very cold. 

Centraal Station, Amsterdam

We had prepared for the rain, but not for the cold (in the 50s in late July!), unfortunately. After buying a three-day transportation pass, we took the bus to the apartment we had rented for the three days we would be in town (through www.airbnb.com - great site!). In addition to buses and trams that run throughout the city, Amsterdam also has water taxis and something called a “Snelboot” - we never found out what that was.

When we got off the bus, we discovered that we hadn’t printed out a very good map and didn’t know how to find our street. I had heard that the Dutch are very friendly, so Ben asked a woman walking her dog where to find the street we were looking for. She didn’t know, but did her best to advise us. Further down the street, she came up to us again and said that she had been mistaken and ducked into a butcher next door to confirm and to borrow a map. While she was inside, another man came up and offered to help us. This first encounter with Amsterdamers proved to be the theme of our trip: everyone we met was incredibly friendly and helpful and always happy to talk to us. And even though everyone, of course, speaks Dutch, everyone we met spoke English perfectly and weren’t at all annoyed that we didn’t speak any Dutch.

When we finally found our apartment, our host, Max talked to us for about 30 minutes about all of his favorite things to do and places to go in Amsterdam, giving us an impromptu multimedia slideshow, complete with maps and pictures, on his iPad. He would be a great commercial for Apple! After compiling Max’s suggestions with the places we had planned to see, we made a plan for the day and left for lunch. Max had suggested walking down Haarlemmerstraat because of all the interesting little shops and cafes. Since it was so cold out, we decided this would be a good first excursion after lunch so we could find some warmer clothes to buy. Two of the restaurants we had read about online were close to Haarlemmerstraat, so we set off for our first Dutch meal. Unfortunately, neither restaurant was open for lunch.

Hungry and cold, we wandered around in the Red Light District, which is right next to the Centraal Station and near Haarlemmerstraat, trying to find a place to eat. As a big fan of John Irving, I’ve always been curious to visit the Red Light District because it is the setting for so many of his novels, at least in part. I was surprised that it was in such a central location in the city and that, much like Pigalle in Paris, there are many normal businesses and restaurants in this area. Most of the curtains were drawn, but there were a few girls standing in their windows, many talking on their cell phones or holding conversations with someone else inside.

We finally happened upon a restaurant in an old medieval castle (built in 1488!). Having no idea if it would be any good, we decided that at least, we would get to eat in a castle!

The Cafe in de Waag - the Castle where we had lunch

Inside looked just as ancient as the outside, with huge iron circles supporting dozens of candles hanging from the ceilings. And then a flat screen TV playing the Olympics. Our meal was amazing – I highly recommend Café in de Waag if you’re ever in Amsterdam. It was simple food, but very well prepared. Ben had a soup and salad (Vichyssoise and ham with beet greens, goat cheese, and mustard) and I had a salad with the thickest and most delicious smoked salmon and two poached eggs that were the creamiest and best-cooked eggs I’ve ever eaten. I don’t love salads, but this salad was incredible. Plus, it was very reasonably priced, as ended up being the case for everything in Amsterdam.

On to Haarlemmerstraat to find a sweater or a scarf or something! As Max promised, this street was full of little shops of all sorts, including many stores with unique and interesting clothing. One had a bunch of painted cows:

For six weeks at the end of June and all of July, all stores in Europe have huge sales. So every store we passed was having a sale, but unfortunately, since it was July 31st, nobody was selling sweaters or scarves. However, we did find an absolutely incredibly ice cream place (ice cream – exactly the right thing to warm you up on a cold, rainy day!). There was a woman happily eating an ice cream cone on the bench outside the front door and since the shopkeeper inside was helping a family, we asked her if the ice cream was good. “Oh yes,” she said. “I think this is the best ice cream in town.” She proceeded to tell us about all her favorite flavors and also which of the chocolates she liked best.

Tomato balsamic chocolates!

Chocolates with rosemary sea salt!

Best ice cream in Amsterdam!

We ended up talking with her and the shopkeeper about the different flavors, what we were doing in Amsterdam, and what we should see while we were there. The Dutch are hands down the friendliest people I’ve met so far in my life. Literally everyone we met was so friendly and interested in talking to us. And at restaurants, the wait staff is happy to give you their own personal recommendation. Asking for a recommendation in Switzerland or especially France seems to baffle the servers, but not in Amsterdam. Anyway, I ended up getting a scoop of strawberry and pink peppercorn sorbet and a scoop of lemon and basil sorbet. The lemon and basil sorbet was absolutely fantastic. Ben and I decided on the spot to come back each day (unfortunately, we never made it back). But you should go if you're in Amsterdam. It's called Unlimited Delicious, which is a funny name, but true! :)

Despite the rain and cold, we ended up spending most of that first day just walking around the central part of the city, admiring all the canals and houseboats, and marveling at how crooked many of the buildings were. Ben took about a million pictures of the canals and buildings along side (how could he not?), so here are some of our favorites:

We also made our way to Dam Square, the central square of Amsterdam. We saw some interesting street performers:

Batman in Amsterdam

Fish man, or something...

A lion:

A really cool looking, old building that turned out just to be a shopping mall:

Fancy shopping mall

And a huge wooden shoe!

Although we had come to Amsterdam with a list of restaurants we wanted to try, Max had recommended we eat at Jamie Oliver’s restaurant. As fans of his shows, especially Food Revolution, we were really excited to learn that one of his restaurants was in Amsterdam, so we decided to go there that first night. It didn’t disappoint. The atmosphere inside was very laid back (not surprisingly) and the décor had a gritty, warehouse feel to it. The walls were made of corrugated metal, spray-painted with different images having to do with food and cooking.

Dinner at Fifteen Amsterdam, Jamie Oliver's restaurant

The concept of this restaurant, Fifteen Amsterdam, is the same as his restaurant in London: he chose 15 at-risk young adults and taught them to cook and work in a commercial kitchen, while providing counseling, life skills, etc. (although they told us that this year, there are 32 at the restaurant in Amsterdam). The food was fantastic (and extremely reasonably priced). I had some kind of white fish (I don’t remember what it was called) with tomatoes, capers, and fennel in a butter sauce and Ben had ravioli with egg yoke, duck, and black truffle. We also got sides of fresh vegetables, grown on site. For dessert, Ben got a sort of trifle with all sorts of fruit on the bottom and a delicious lemon cream on top. Amazing food!

Day Two

We were exhausted when we went to bed at the end of our first day (we had also had to get up at 5pm to catch our 6:30am train out of Paris!), but we awoke to a beautiful sunny day without a cloud in the sky the next morning. The weather forecast also said it would get up to 80 degrees! First stop: the Concertgebouw, home of the world-famous Concertgebouw Orchestra, one of the best in the world.

Since it’s summer, they weren’t doing any concerts, but we were able to take a tour of the hall. Our tour guide was excellent: knowledgeable, funny, engaging. I highly recommend the Concertgebouw tour if you’re ever in Amsterdam. Here’s the view of the famous hall from onstage:

View from the stage at the Concertgebouw

And the organ close up:

We saw Mariss Jansons' (the principal conductor) private dressing room (just the door, not inside):

Mariss Jansons' door, with a huge doorbell in the middle

And the vast room on top of the stage where all the lights and pullies and other mechanical things live:

After the tour, we got a quick bite to eat and then set off to another tour: one of the famous canal boat tours! But first, we had to stop to take my picture on one of the cool mosaic benches the runs along the street outside the Concertgebouw:

The canal boat tour took us all over Amsterdam. We passed the Cinema Museum (called the Eye):

The new, modern concert hall:

The Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ, the new concert hall in Amsterdam

And Nemo, the science museum (which has a cool, slopping roof deck!):

We also passed a replica of the ships used by the Dutch East India Trading Company, back when the Dutch ruled the high seas. This ship (well, not this one, but the original one) would sail back and forth to Asia, returning loaded with spices, fabric, and other good to sell and trade:

Ahoy, matey!

After the tour, we decided to see if we could make it to the Anne Frank House before it closed. We had heard it was less crowded late in the day, so we hoped that we could get in relatively easily. We had a nice walk over through the canals and getting more adept at not getting run over by the ubiquitous bicyclers. When we got there, the line was long and we were hungry, but it said that in July and August, it stays open until 10pm. So, dinner first, then the Anne Frank House.

Our dinner tonight was at one of the place we had tried to go to lunch the first day: Het Melkmeisje ("The Milkmaid" in English). It was very old-fashioned Dutch inside, with fishing-inspired décor. I had salmon and vegetables, but Ben had a delicious ostrich steak with red wine sauce and purple cabbage that tasted like cloves. Who knew the Dutch ate ostrich!

When we got back to the Anne Frank House, there was no line and hardly anyone inside. Perfect! If you’re ever in Amsterdam in the summer, definitely go here at night. I had read her diary, of course, many years ago, but it was amazing to see the actual Annexe where they lived. You can’t take pictures inside, unfortunately, so we only got a picture of the outside:

Anne Frank House

The stairs up to the Annexe are almost vertical and the original bookcase that hid the door is still there. Anne’s room is very narrow and the pictures she pasted to the wallpaper to cheer up the room are still mostly intact. On one wall in her parent’s room (I think) are marks on the wall like any family makes to show how tall the children are at different ages. Anne grew a lot while she was up there. It was amazing to think about how quiet they had to be and that they couldn’t run the water or flush the toilet during the day for two years (the toilet is very fancy, incidentally, porcelain with the traditional Dutch painting in blue ink). Once you leave the house and Annexe, there are several display rooms, one of which has her actual diaries on display, in addition to the book of short stories she started, the book of quotes she started, and the individual sheets on which she made a copy of her diary. It really brings her to life as a real person to see how her handwriting changed from the uneven printing of a little girl in the first diary to the elegant cursive of a mature young woman in the later writings. It was also interesting to see where she made mistakes or changed things, crossing out words and replacing them with others. Now that I’ve visited, I want to read the book again (as I’m sure many people do: not surprisingly, the bookstore stays open until 10pm as well in the summer).

Walking back to the tram afterwards, Ben took some beautiful pictures of the canal at night:

Day Three

Our last day. :(  There had been a terrific thunderstorm during the night and it was still raining when we woke up. Perfect time to spend in a museum, so we headed over to the Van Gogh Museum. This is a wonderfully curated museum. All of the writings on the walls and captions accompanying some of the paintings were very informative and interesting (unlike many museums in which the written material is either boring, uninformative, or both). I also liked how the permanent collection is organized in chronological order so you can really see the development of Van Gogh’s style. The most striking juxtaposition of paintings was two still-lifes he did of apples. One was very Dutch: very dark with muted colors. Next door was one that was very French Impressionist: bright colors with large dabs of paint. I also found his Japanese inspired paintings very interesting. I had never seen these before and they were simultaneously very unlike Van Gogh and very characteristic of his style. Here is a painting called "The Courtesan":

In addition to the works by Van Gogh, they also have a large collection of prints (including the famous Chat Noir print by Steinlen) and other impressionistic paintings from the same era by Monet, Manet, and other contemporaries.

After the Van Gogh museum was the culinary highlight of our trip and maybe our lives so far: Visaanderschade, a seafood restaurant we had read about online. For lunch, they serve a 3 course menu for 35€ per person, which by Paris and Zurich prices is very reasonable (although for Amsterdam, it seems to be the high end). Each course was a piece of art on a plate. I wish I had pictures, but it was such a fancy restaurant (and we were the only tourists and by far the youngest and poorest people there), so we felt funny taking pictures of our food. Here's a picture taken from their website, which shows how artistic the presentation of each course was:

Each course was designed to encourage the eater to play with combining different flavors so that each bite tasted different. Even when everything was eaten, the "mess" left on the plate looked beautiful!

Before the first course, they brought us an amuse bouche that had a sweet corn cream on the bottom, a piece of crayfish in the middle, and a lemon buttermilk cream on top, finished with a piece of popcorn. This little shot glass of flavor was absolutely delicious – I could’ve easily eaten a dozen of them and not gotten tired of the amazing flavors! Then the first course arrived and blew us away. It was all about the cucumber (which was too bad for Ben because he hates cucumbers. Apparently some people have a genetic difference that causes cucumbers to taste unbearably bitter). There was a perfectly cooked piece of fish surrounded by a beautifully arranged assortment of pickled cucumber rolled up in tight coils, some sort of vegetable that looked like the back of a green beetle, a quenelle of cucumber ice cream (which was amazing), a quenelle of lemon-infused yogurt (one of the best parts of the whole meal), toasted quinoa, and several other delicate components. The second course was more varied. In the center of the plate was another perfectly cooked piece of fish plus a curl of squid that had the most amazing dense but soft-as-butter texture. On the side was a deconstructed ratatouille: a coil of zucchini, a coil of summer squash, a roasted tomato, and a piece of artichoke heart. Below the fish was a quenelle of squid-ink dyed rice with bits of shellfish in it, which had been roasted on the barbeque. All over the plate were little dots of both eggplant mousse and red pepper mousse and finally, a little fish, which looked like it was smoked salmon, but was actually made of the red pepper mousse. Another stunning and delicious course (after each course, I asked Ben, jokingly, if it would be uncivilized to lick my plate). Finally came dessert: a long thin, rectangle of chocolate walnut brownie, a quenelle of chocolate mousse on a bed of crumbled chocolate, a quenelle of elderberry sorbet on a bed of crumbled gold chocolate (in honor of the Olympics), a scoop of some interesting fruit ice cream (I’m not sure what), a long tube of cherry jelly (which looked like licorice), cherry halves, and a thin chocolate cookie. On top of the ice cream was a small sprig of mint, whereas the top of the sorbet had a small sprig of something that tasted like licorice. Unfortunately, I couldn’t eat most of this dessert because of the gluten, but the parts I ate, especially the elderberry sorbet, were incredible. Ben got double dessert (since he got to eat most of mine) and he looked like he was in heaven the whole time.  I would go back to Amsterdam just to go to this restaurant again. If you’re anywhere even close to Amsterdam, make sure you go to this restaurant. You won’t be disappointed. We were lucky to get in without reservations perhaps because we were very early for lunch, but make sure you call ahead if you go. You don’t want to miss this place.

After lunch, we decided to head up to the famous Flower Market. There was an enormous variety of flowers, especially tulip bulbs, including many varieties of carnivorous plants at one stall. We didn’t buy anything, but it was nice to see all the beautiful colors and types of flowers.

Carnivorous plants - "No finger in the plants"

Next, we went to a little toy store that sells handmade traditional Dutch wooden shoes in the basement. Unfortunately, the basement was closed to patrons and nobody was working shoes when we were there, which was very disappointing, but we were able to see the workshop and the shoes:

When we left, it was time to head home to pick up our bags before our train. On the way, we passed a shop with lots of funny t-shirts. Ben got this one:

Our last meal in Amsterdam was Indian food (which was nothing special) and then we boarded our train to head back to Paris. We had a wonderful time, saw and ate many amazing things, and hope to come back someday to see all the things we didn’t have time for. Next week: Barcelona!

English bookstores of Paris

I love books. I love bookstores. It's nearly impossible for me to go into one without buying something. Fortunately (or unfortunately), I don't have that problem in France because all of the books are in French! There are, however, a handful of English-language bookstores in Paris, so I decided to take an afternoon to visit them all. So here it is, my guide to the English-language bookstores of Paris! (The order, by the way, is the order in which I walked between them, it's not a ranking.)

1. Librarie Galignani
224 rue de Rivoli, near metro Tuileries

This boasts to be the first English-language bookstore on the continent (as you can see by the plaque next to the door). They have French books, too, but a very large selection of English books. It's very fancy, with parquet floors, and lots of expensive-looking books. It seemed kind of stuffy to me, though. Everyone working there looked pretty snooty and like they would be offended if I asked a question. Not my favorite.


2. W.H. Smith
248 rue de Rivoli, near metro Concorde

This one is right down the street from Librarie Galignani, but it has a very different feel. Where Librarie Galignani feels like an old-world library that turns up their noses at children, W.H. Smith feels like a Barnes and Noble or any chain bookstore from the US. It is really huge (2 floors) and maze-like, if rather generic. They have a whole section with British and American food (read: processed, artificial crap), games, and movies. They also have a whole room of educational books, from learning foreign languages to preparing for the SAT. Any in-print book I was looking for, I probably could've found here.

3. Tea and Tattered Pages
24 rue Mayet, near metro Falguiere

Unfortunately, this one had a sign on the door that said it was closed until further notice due to the owner being ill (but assured patrons that the cat would be well cared for). The sign had been posted 5 days before I got there. :( But it looked really cute!
 
4. Village Voice
6 rue Princesse, near metro Mabillon

I've been to this shop a few times in the past. It's on a teeny tiny little street. The shop itself is also pretty small (although it has two floors) in the European-bookstore style of not having much room to move around, but lots of books! I heard the owner say, though, that they're closing forever in July due to rising rent prices and people buying their books off the internet. That's sad - I really like this shop. Well-organized, neat, lots of interesting books displayed on the tables, nice people working there.

5. San Francisco Book Company
17 rue Monsieur le Prince, near metro Odeon

This store only has used books and it was pretty crazy and crammed (although it was positively roomy compared to the Abbey Bookshop, down below). It was really small, just one rectangular room, with old books piled sideways on the shelves (not up and down like normal). If you were trying to find something specific, I'm not sure if you would ever find it in there! But if you just wanted to spend some time looking through the books to see what you could find, I'm sure you could come up with some really interesting reads. Reviews of the shop online say they have great prices here, so if you're in town for awhile and need some books to read, this seems to be the place! It seemed rather dark and dusty to me, though, so I was glad to get back outside.

6. Berkeley Books of Paris
8 rue Casimir Delavigne, near metro Odeon

When I got to this shop, just around the corner from the SF Book Co. the door was closed with a shade pulled halfway down, but the lights were on inside. There was a note on the door in French with such messy handwriting that I couldn't read a single word! So, I tried the door. It was locked. Oh well...I started to walk away, but just then someone came and opened the door. I asked if they were open. "Yes, I was just changing a lightbulb," the owner said. This place was also pretty small, but felt much roomier than the San Francisco Book Co. They also had used books, but everything seemed much more organized here!

7. Abbey Bookshop
29 rue Parcheminerie, near metro Cluny-La Sorbonne

This place is quite an experience! If you're ever in Paris, you should go just to marvel at the sheer quantity of books in this place. As you can see from the picture of the outside, it's a Canadian-run bookstore that is literally overrun with books. There are piles and piles of books everywhere, from floor to ceiling, tucked into cracks and corners, balancing in precarious piles. There is barely room to walk through the store with mountains of books towering on every side. I'm amazed I didn't accidentally bump into anything and send tons of books crashing to the floor. This place has a medieval basement that is equally filled with books. The walls are made of stone, giving it the feeling of a book-infested crypt or something. I didn't take pictures inside of any of the other ones (I don't like to look too much like a tourist!), but I had to take some pictures in the basement of this one:

8. Shakespeare and Company
37 rue de la Bucherie, near RER St. Michel-Notre Dame, metro Notre Dame

This place is a real Paris institution. I've already described the vibe at this shop here, but this is definitely another one to stop by if you're in Paris. Here is a wonderful video about the shop:

9. The Red Wheelbarrow
22 rue St. Paul, near metro St. Paul

This is a tiny American bookshop in the Marais, named after the poem by the same name by William Carlos Williams. It's the probably the smallest of all of them, by it's not as seemingly disorganized as some of the others, so it feels much bigger. The walls are lined with shelves of books and the middle of the room has tables with books on display. It was very cute and the people working there were very nice, but didn't have the same kind of charm as the more jumbled and claustrophobic shops I visited.

10. Thanksgiving
20 rue St. Paul, near metro St. Paul

Bonus! Not a bookshop, but two doors down from The Red Wheelbarrow. This is an American food store and inside it smelled like sugar and chemicals. I really don't understand why someone living in Paris would crave and go out of their way to buy Kraft Mac n' Cheese, Coco Puffs, and M&Ms. One of the best parts of being in Europe is getting away from the garbage that passes as food in the US!

It took me four hours to go to all of these shops in one day. I took the metro from W.H. Smith to Tea and Tattered Pages, but all the rest are easy walking distance from each other. It was a very nice walk, through some of the most picturesque areas of Paris. A great way to spend the afternoon!

What can you do with only one day in Paris?

I can tell you that even living in Paris for an extended period of time, it's hard to see everything this city has to offer. So how much could you possibly see in one day? A friend of mine from Rice, SoJin, emailed me out of the blue right before Easter saying she was coming to Paris for the weekend. Could she stay with me? She lives in Luzern, Switzerland and had never been here before. Oh, and she was arriving late Friday night and leaving early Sunday morning. How could I possibly show her all the amazing things in this city in just one day? It turns out, if you're willing to walk for nearly 13 hours straight, you can see a lot! So, here it is, my guide to how to see as much as possible in Paris in one day.

We got up early on Saturday morning and made Sacre Coeur our first stop since it's just at the top of my street. I had never been inside before, even though I walk by it everyday. Inside is an amazing mosiac, said to be the largest in the world (475 square meters). They won't let you take pictures inside, but I found this picture on the internet so you can see it:

Wow! Look at that mosiac!

We took in the view from up there, which is the highest natural point in Paris. Then we went down into the street of Montmartre and stopped at the boulangerie (bakery) that was voted to have the best baguette in Paris in 2010. Every year, one boulangerie in Paris is awarded this prize (the 2011 winner is just around the corner from the 2010 winner) and it's apparently a big deal. SoJin got a croissant which, from her reaction, was probably the best croissant she's every had. In the picture below (taken around Christmas), there is a line out the front of the boulangerie and down the street!

Le Grenier a Pain - the best baguette in Paris 2010

The cafe from the movie Amelie

As she ate her croissant (and continued to remark about how good it was), we walked through the streets of Montmartre, stopping in many of the cute little shops along the way. We passed the cafe from the movie Amelie (sorry, I didn't take the picture of it) and continued down the street to the famous Moulin Rouge.

The Moulin Rouge

Next stop: the Arc de Triomphe! We hopped on the metro at the Moulin Rouge and when we got out, we were facing the Arc de Triomphe at the end of the Champs Elysees. I've seen the Arc de Triomphe many times at this point, but it never fails to be impressive. The picture below is one that Ben took when we visited Paris for the first time last year. He's a good photographer, huh?

Arc de Triomphe

On the right side of the Arc is a pretty intense-looking guy with a sword whose expression I've always thought was pretty awesome. This time, though, I realized, it's not a guy with a sword, it's a woman! That makes it even more awesome. Here she is:

Next up was a walk down the famous Champs Elysees. Halfway down the street, we stopped in Laduree, the famous Parisian pastisserie. I highly recommend clicking on the link to their website (click on "Laduree" above) because it's almost as over-the-top as the actual store (of which there are several in Paris). SoJin got some unidentified pastry (some little bun with sugar crystals that looked like salt on the stop) and some of their famous macarons. After these treats and the croissant from earlier, she had decided that the food in Paris was pretty incredible! A few doors down, we stopped in the 3-story Haagen Dazs to use their restrooms. If you're ever on the Champs Elysees and need a restroom, the Haagen Dazs is a great place to stop (ice cream and bathrooms, what could be better than that when you're tired?).

After Haagen Dazs, we walked by this ridiculous gate (not my picture):

It looks like the entrance to a palace, right? Wrong. It's the entrance to Abercrombie and Fitch! Blow up the picture and look at the plaque to the right of the gate if you don't believe me. In this picture that I found somewhere on the internet, there are no people around. Usually when I walk by, there is a HUGE line to get in. Crazy...

Anyway, after Abercrombie, we turned down Rue Franklin Roosevelt and walked over to Invalides. Les Invalides has a long history, but it is most famous now (I think) for being the place where Napoleon is buried. You can read more about it and its history in the Wikipedia link I provided. Anyway, Invalides (pronounced ahn-va-LEED, or you could say in-VAL-ee-dace if you're an American who doesn't speak French like me the first time I came to Paris last year!) is pretty impressive. Here's the building itself (pic stolen from the internet again):

Les Invalides

The whole front is lined with cannons! It faces the Seine and the bridge that leads from Invalides to the other side of the Seine, Pont Alexandre III, is widely regarded as the "most ornate, extravagant bridge" in Paris (according to Wikipedia anyway). Indeed. Ben took the picture below last May. You can see Invalides in the background. All those columns with the gold statues on top line the sides of the bridge. It's incredibly impressive. The first thing I noticed when I came to Paris for the first time last year is that all the historical stuff is really, really BIG. We'll get to the Eiffel Tower in a minute...

Pont Alexandre III

There's a great view of the Eiffel Tower from this side of the bridge as well as some interesting statues:

View of the Eiffel Tower from Pont Alexandre III

Getting attacked on Pont Alexandre III

From here, we walked to the Eiffel Tower. You can periodically see it through the buildings as you walk, like some beast lurking in the bushes (picture below). Anyway, I was saying that things in Paris are really big. The Eiffel Tower is bigger than you'd ever think. I have never seen a picture that really captures how enormous it is. I mean, you know it's really huge, but when you see it in person, it's SO much bigger than it looks in pictures.

The Eiffel Tower, lurking amongst the apartment blocks 

Around now, we were getting hungry for lunch. I mean, we had seen Sacre Coeur, Montmartre, the Amelie cafe, the Moulin Rouge, the Arc de Triomphe, the Champs Elysees, Invalides, and the Eiffel Tower, all before lunch! Phew! That's enough for one whole day! We decided to head over to the Louvre area and have lunch at Cafe Marly next to the Louvre. This is one of my favorite places to eat in Paris. The food is amazing and the outside terraces look out to the Pyramids. Ben took the picture below last May when we ate here for the first time. If you ever go there, have the mashed potatoes and the hot chocolate (just not together). Best you'll ever have.

View of the Louvre Pyramids from Cafe Marly

We met up at the cafe with a friend of SoJin's (Carlos) who was also in Paris for the first time, also just for one day. He's Spanish (and he'd never been to Paris? I know...), but he lives in New York. Within the first 10 minutes of our lunch, we discovered that his roommate in NYC is someone I grew up playing with in orchestra at the Hartt School. Small world! After lunch, he took the requisite touch-the-top-of-the-pyramid picture of me and SoJin. The funniest part of taking these kind of pictures is that there are more of these little pedestals, evenly spaced across this whole area of the plaza. At any given time, there are people on each pedestal, taking pictures just like this one, as well as a line of people waiting for their turn on the pedestal!

The plan after this was to go to the Musee d'Orsay, the museum with all the impressionist art. But, we had had a late lunch and had stayed there for awhile, so by the time we got to the Orsay, it was only open for another hour or so. We decided to nix the museum and walk around the Marais, one of the best places in Paris to just walk around. We passed a bunch of shops with displays for Easter in the window. This was my favorite:

Our ultimate destination in the Marais was my favorite crepe place (actually, it's the only crepe place I've been in Paris, but it's consistently voted to be one of the best). I bring everyone here and I'm always looking for any excuse to go. It's called the Breizh Cafe and if you're ever in Paris you should go (or in Tokyo - they have one there, too). They have savory crepes and dessert crepes and they are outstanding. Here are pictures of me and Ben last year with our crepes:

I can't say enough good stuff about this place. They use really high quality ingredients, all from Brittany, which apparently is the place to get really traditional crepes. I've been there so often now, the people that work there recognize me!

While we were having our crepes, it started POURING outside. Good timing! We leisurely enjoyed our crepes, chatting with the Italian/French couple at the table next to us. When we left, the rain had let up, so we decided to walk around some more. We passed a really bizarre store selling old airplane parts as decor (?) as well as Notre Dame, but didn't go inside because it was the Saturday before Easter and the line was enormous. Carlos took the photos of us below, one in front of a cute restaurant on a little street next to Notre Dame, the other in front of the famous cathedral.

On a little street near Notre Dame

In front of Notre Dame

We had a dinner reservation at 9pm (I know, very Parisian to eat so late) and SoJin wanted to get a book to read on the train back to Switzerland, so we walked over to Shakespeare and Co. This place is probably the most famous English-language bookstore in Paris and is known for being a hangout for aspiring writers. The downstairs is all new books, organized in a somewhat baffling way (but ask anyone who works there to find something for you and they find it right away, kind of like Ollivander and his wands...). Upstairs are used books, an overrun board for people to post ads looking for work or for someone to practice their English with, an out-of-tune upright piano (that someone has been playing every time I've been there), and lots of nooks and crannies to just sit and read or write. The original owner (who died in December) would famously give people room and board above the shop in exchange for them working there. Most of the staff are extremely knowledgeable hippie-types. A nice American tourist took this picture of the three of us outside with Notre Dame in the background:

Outside Shakespeare and Co., with Notre Dame in the background

From here, we walked to our dinner destination, La Bastide Odeon, another one of my favorite places to eat in Paris. They have phenomenal food at a very reasonable price (3 courses off the fixed-price menu for only 36 euros!). After we had placed our orders, we were looking at these small, silver plate-like things on the table. They were about as big around as the bottom of a coffee mug. We wondered what they were for, but then they brought us a basket of fresh bread, so we realized they must be to pour the olive oil on that was at our table. Carlos picked up the olive oil and we debated whether you could pour it through the cork or whether you had to take the cork out. It seemed like taking out the cork wasn't necessary, but when he turned it upside down, nothing came out. He shook it a few times and then just as he was about to put it upright and take out the cork, olive oil came streaming out all over the little dish as the cork fell out onto the table. We all started laughing at what had happened as Carlos hastened to right the olive oil and put the cork back in before we made a mess. Just then, the waiter came back with a carafe of wine that Carlos and SoJin had ordered put it down on the little silver dish before we realized what he was doing. Olive oil oozed over the edges and the carafe swam around in the middle. "Oh my God," the waiter said in disbelief, quickly picking up the carafe and the dish and whisking them away. The three of us were absolutely hysterical, laughing so hard we couldn't talk. "They're going to throw us out for being stupid Americans," I finally said (actually, I was the only stupid American - SoJin is Korean/Canadian and Carlos is Spanish). The waiter seemed good-natured about it when he came back, though. He even took this picture for us:

SoJin had said she wanted to see the Eiffel Tower lit up at night, so after dinner (it was after 11pm), we headed back that way. Carlos and SoJin wanted to walk, even though it was on the other side of Paris from the restaurant. We tried to take a Velib bike (the bike sharing program in Paris), but we couldn't find any bikes anywhere. About halfway there, we got tired, so we decided to take the metro. Unfortunately, the closest metro stop wasn't on a line that took us to the Eiffel Tower, so we had to take three different lines one stop each, basically in a circle, to get to a line that would take us where we were going. When we got to that metro, it was so late, it was closed! We were all exhausted, so we decided to call it a day and go home. So, 13 hours after we started, we got home tired and sore from walking, but full of delicious food and great memories.

What can you do with only one day in Paris? Here's my list:

Sacre Coeur
Walk around Montmartre
Amelie cafe
Moulin Rouge
Arc de Triomphe
Champs Elysees
Fancy pastries
Les Invalides
Eiffel Tower
Cafe Marly and the Louvre Pyramids
Walk around the Marais
Get crepes at the Breizh Cafe
Notre Dame
Shakespeare and Co.
La Bastide Odeon (and make a fool of yourself)
Eiffel Tower at night (if you take the metro the whole way)

Phew! Pretty good, I'd say!

A belated thank you...

I apologize for not posting anything for such a long time! I have been very busy with a variety of things, but I hope to have several new posts up very soon.

I wanted to take this opportunity to thank all the members of the P.E.O. for their beautiful Easter cards! I got SO many cards in the mail and it was very exciting to get mail nearly everyday for two weeks - I hardly ever get mail! It made me very happy to know that you all are thinking of me and following my progress over here. Living in Paris has been a life-changing experience, but there's no way I could've done it financially without the P.E.O. Getting all of your wonderful cards was such a touching reminder of all the support (financial and otherwise!) that you have given me. I hope you all had wonderful Easters with your families!

Einstein on the Beach

Einstein on the Beach cast, crew, and musicians

Two weeks ago, Ben and I took a trip down to Montpellier, France to see Philip Glass' famous opera, Einstein on the Beach. This opera is unlike any other. For starters, it's nearly 5 hours long. Yes, Wagner wrote insanely long operas. But Einstein has no breaks - there is no intermission or anything. It's in 4 acts, but in between acts there is music, and some of it is the most exciting in the opera. So you don't want to miss it. The audience is encouraged to come and go as they please. Ben and I both left briefly once, but other than that, we sat in our seats the entire time, riveted.

Second, there's no story and the text is made up entirely of numbers, solfege syllables (do re me, etc.), and sort of disembodied snatches of poetry. There is no plot, just a series of scenes. You can read more about the construction of the opera here.

This opera was premiered in 1976 and hasn't been performed in 20 years. The tour of the opera being done right now is tremendously exciting not just because it's the first time anyone's seen it live in 20 years, but also because Philip Glass himself and Robert Wilson, the director of the premiere, are both involved in this one as well. Here's a trailer they put together for the 2012 revival and tour:

In the 10 weeks leading up to the revival premiere (the night before the performance we saw in Montpellier), they rehearsed the work at the University of Michigan. Here's a longer video about the opera that the U of M made:

Seeing this opera was one of the most impressive displays of concentration, focus, memorization, control, energy, and precision I've ever seen. Like all of Philip Glass' music, it's minimalist, so it's extremely repetitive. All the the singers in the chorus do the entire opera by memory. Imagine singing 12341234123412341234123412341234 as fast as you can ad infinitum. And then changing to something else at precisely the right time, without losing track of where you are. For 5 hours straight. The dancers had to perform highly controlled, extremely repetitive movements many, many times in a row. A friend of Ben's from Rice (who is also the wife of one of my friends from Boston), was actually a member of the chorus. She wrote a fantastic blog about the experience of auditioning and being in the production here and here. We sat out in the main square of Montpellier after the performance and talked about the experience. She said the dancers would literally have to crawl out of bed the morning after because their legs were so sore from the movements they had to do. Professional dancers, sore!

My favorite scene was the one called "Spaceship" towards the end. It's one of the iconic scenes from the opera and you can see the set in the first picture of this blog that Ben took during the curtain calls. The set is a bunch of boxes with circular and linear lights. The chorus and musicians are in the boxes and the dancers are flying around the stage and doing other cool things. The music in this section is some of the most exciting and, I would assume, most challenging. How anyone could concentrate to perform their parts with the lights constantly blinking and changing is beyond me. It was absolutely amazing.

I would highly, highly, highly recommend this opera to anyone. It's unlike anything you've ever experienced. And it really doesn't feel 5 hours long, strangely. If you live in or near London, Toronto, New York City, Berkeley, California, Mexico City, Amsterdam, or Hong Kong, go see this production! You won't regret it. A listing of all the performance dates is available here.

The rest of our trip...

We didn't get to see much of Montpellier, but we weren't too impressed by what we saw, unfortunately. It seems like an old, not-well-taken-care-of city to us. We couldn't find anywhere good to eat dinner, so we ended up going to the grocery store on the main square and making a dinner ouf of the odds and ends we could find. We were eating pre-cooked (and not very good) chicken wrapped in crepes (yup, they sell pre-made crepes at all the grocery stores here!) and shelling peas while sitting outside of McDonalds. Needless to say, we got some funny looks! We did see this street performer, though, who was interesting.

We were in Montpellier for less than 24 hours. Ben had to be in Geneva two days later for rehearsals of Mahler 9, so the day after the opera, we took the train to Geneva. We were supposed to get there by early afternoon and would have the day to explore the city. Unfortunately, our train was delayed nearly 2 hours and then, at the final stop before Geneva, we had to get off the train and wait for another one outside in the cold rain for 30 minutes! We had no idea why (and still don't know). Fortunately, other people on the train realized that we didn't understand the announcements they were making in French and so told us that if we were going to Geneva, we had to get off and change trains. It was definitely a long weekend of traveling! Ben snapped this wonderfully flattering picture of me on the train:

When we got there, it was rainy and cold and we were pretty tired. On the recommendation of a friend who lived in Geneva for a year, we had an excellent and cheap dinner at Chez Ma Cousine. We decided that the business model of this place is excellent: they serve only three things (half a rotisserie chicken, homemade french fries, and salad) for 15 CHF (Swiss francs). A huge bargain, good food and lots of it! Exactly what we were looking for. If you're ever in Geneva on a budget, check this place out!

Geneva was beautiful, I just wish I had had more time to see the city! Ben was there for a week rehearsing Mahler 9 and took this picture of the famous Jet d'Eau in Lake Geneva:

Hopefully I'll get to go back and spend more time there!

Christmas and New Years in Paris!

Happy New Year to everyone! I apologize for being so late in writing this - it's been a very busy month for me.

This was the first year I haven't been with my family for Christmas. Every year since high school, my entire extended family goes down to Florida to be with my grandma. It's our once-a-year family reunion and spending Christmas in Florida has become such a tradition that walking on the beach on Christmas Eve doesn't seem strange anymore!

This year, I stayed in Paris and my boyfriend (Ben) came from Zurich to visit me for two weeks. We had a wonderful time! Unlike the US, where stores start the Christmas season the minute Thanksgiving is over and often times much sooner (I've seen Christmas decorations in some stores before Halloween), Europe doesn't seem to hit you over the head with the commercial aspect of Christmas. I was in Zurich in early December, so I got to see Christmas in both Switzerland and Paris this year. Starting December 1st, Christmas lights went up all over both cities. Zurich is especially beautiful at Christmastime, I think.

Bahnhofstrasse in Zürich

A Human Christmas Tree in Zürich!

             

Champs-Elysee in Paris

The cities also had Christmas markets set up where you could buy handmade gifts, although they had more commercial items than I had expected. The Christmas markets also had vendors selling hot wine, hot chocolate, and hot roasted chestnuts (which are sold on the streets her throughout the winter) to put you in the Christmas spirit and warm your hands while you shop.

     Christmas Market in the Zürich Main Train Station

Outdoor Christmas Market in Paris on the Champs-Elysee

                                

Notre Dame on Christmas Eve

On Christmas Eve, Ben and I went to Notre Dame for an 11pm concert. It was completely packed inside, so we had to stand at the back of the cathedral. There was a choir singing Christmas carols and an organist who both accompanied them and played solo works. The organist was the best part of the concert - he sounded absolutely amazing and played fantastic pieces. Unfortunately, the programs we were given didn't say anything about the music, so I have no idea what he played. Whatever it was sounded awesome!

Inside Notre Dame on Christmas Eve

On Christmas Day, Ben and I exchanged gifts. This is a picture of our little tree with homemade ornaments (plus a little mouse ornament my mom sent me).

In the evening, we cooked dinner with a friend who was house-sitting for a wealthy American businessman and this apartment was ridiculous. It was HUGE - way bigger than any house I've ever been in. It had about a million rooms and all sorts of interesting artwork and sculptures and other things he and his wife had collected from their travels, many from Africa. We made duck breasts and ratatouille - a thoroughly French Christmas dinner! Oh, and Ben and I were introduced to Simon's Cat:

Check out the cartoonist's YouTube channel if you don't already know about these wonderful shorts!

 We also got to spend New Year's Eve in Paris, which was quite an experience! We don't usually do anything on New Year's Eve (we couldn't remember what we did last year, but we're pretty sure we fell asleep before midnight), but we decided since we were in Paris, we had to go to the Eiffel Tower at midnight. First, however, we went to a party for a little bit at the apartment of a friend of a friend. The theme of the party was to wear something sparkly, so since we didn't have any clothes that fit the bill, we made our own!

We had a great time and met a bunch of other Americans (and musicians) living in Paris. Since the party was on the opposite side of Paris from the Eiffel Tower, we decided to leave the party at 10:30pm to give us ample time to get across the city.

It was absolutely crazy trying to get to the Eiffel Tower on the metro that night at that hour. When we got to the station where we had to change trains, it was completely packed with people. It seemed a train hadn't come in awhile (they typically come every 2-3 minutes) because when one did arrive, everyone on the platform started cheering, as did the conductors in the front of the train! It was so completely packed with people, though, there was no way we could get on. Some people managed to push their way on, but we decided to wait for the next one. We ended up letting 5 more trains go by before we realized that if we wanted to get to the Eiffel Tower, we were going to have to be packed like sardines into a train. Trains stuffed to the brim with people isn't unusual in Paris, especially during rush hour, and I've ridden on trains like this many times. But this was outrageous!

It took at least 3 times as long to get to the Eiffel Tower as it should've because at every stop, more people tried to push onto the train, even though there wasn't room. When we got on, we were right inside the doors. By the time we got to the stop at the Eiffel Tower, we had been pushed nearly halfway across the car, even though hardly anyone had gotten off. Once we got to the stop, everyone started cheering and pouring out of the train. I've never seen so many people in my life. Going through the metro station and up the stairs was an enormous sea of people. Everyone was very well behaved, but the crowd really pushed you along. Good think I didn't trip and fall!

We got up to ground level literally 5 minutes before midnight. We didn't have long to wait until the Eiffel Tower lit up with sparking lights and people started setting off fireworks over the Seine.

Trying to get home was just as much of an adventure as getting there. We decided to walk a ways away from the Eiffel Tower in the hopes that it would be less busy. Eventually, we got tired of walking and just went to the closest metro stop to where we were, which was still packed with people. It took us over two hours to get home (which is normally a 20 minute trip). There were people doing handstands and other acrobatics in my street when we got back and a party going on upstairs. It was definitely a holiday season to remember!