Last Sunday I did something I didn’t exactly expect to find in Paris, go to a gigantic horse track to watch some races. I even placed a couple bets and walked away with a grand profit of a whopping 2 euros, not too shabby. I forgot to bring my camera, but suffice it to say it was a cool visual experience. The stands hold 40,000 people. The only problem was the weather, which was cold and windy. Standing outside to watch the race was exciting but physically numbing at the same time. The horse that won for me was Sans Histoire, which just means “Without History.” I bet solely on the name that time. The next time I was foolish enough to look at the horse’s past record and learned that it’s best to just bet by the coolest name. Others took pictures so hopefully I can get some and post them.

As a literary side note I have been traveling back to the South by way of Cormac McCarthy’s Suttree, a winding portrayal of Knoxville with no discernible plot about someone who has decided to become a fisherman on the river. The book features all varieties of low-lifes and delinquents with hilarious dialog and signature McCarthy style writing. McCarthy also wrote The Road, which made Oprah’s vaunted book club and was recently made into a movie I have not seen, but I did read the book. It was a stark and excellent piece of writing, but Suttree has an entirely different (non?)purpose and pleases on many other levels. As a fair warning, the language and actions are exactly what you would imagine for a bunch of beer and whiskey drinking guys hanging out at bars doing relatively little in life by the river.

Sometime soon I may post some pros and cons of living in Paris compared to living in Atlanta, and also on the things that a native Atlantan might come to wish for in this city across the pond.

I’m going to post some pictures to the Google web album program Picasso as well as on the site. This link should take you there.

Park and Play

This week we have our winter break, and it’s been nice to relax and also get some work done for school. I finally beat the French bureaucracy and got my ATM card. I also visited the cemetery where Oscar Wilde, Jim Morrison, and what seems like millions of other people are buried. It’s crowded in there.

Don’t want anyone to think I’m not getting enough to eat. Yes, that’s all for me.

The group taking pictures

Oscar Wilde

This wasn’t even the half of it

Well this morning it is both my birthday and quite nasty outside. In order to bring better weather I’ll post a shot from the hallway I took yesterday.

It rained/stormed on and off today, but in a period of calm Taylor and I decided to wander to a supposed nearby green area in search of rejuvenation. I’m happy to say that there is what could loosely be called a park very close by. The sun was behind the clouds and the scene was certainly not picturesque, but there is a river that winds past and a bunch of trees. It was a nice change of pace from the urban landscape.

Park

This scene should be familiar to Atlantans

Some things remain the same.

Went to the Carnival here in Paris on Sunday. It was essentially a parade with lots of drums and dancers and made for a pretty fun time. Before that I went with Florian to a spot overlooking Paris and got a pretty cool picture.

It’s been a pretty busy week for me. Paris has gotten significantly colder as well. I don’t have much to add, but I thought I’d post yet another picture looking out my window. Could be a series.

The last few days have been pretty exciting. Ended the first week of classes without too much pain and was able to see some live music and eat some good Italian food over the weekend. This morning I hosted a few others for brunch, which consisted mainly of omelets. Our kitchenette has been replaced with a shiny new one of the same model, so that should make cooking easier going forward.

After brunch Florian and I wanted to study somewhere out, but there are not too many places for that in the city. All of the cafes are mainly for talking and not studying. The only real place one can sit down and study for an extended period is, you guessed it, Starbucks. Go globalization.

It started violently snowing recently, but then stopped quite quickly.

The view from my window

This part is not really related to Paris.

Each time I have worn my black boots for an extended period of time I have started to feel mysterious pain near the back of my right heel. Today I finally solved that mystery. After investigating the shoe I discovered a small area protruding above the rest in the heel area. When I looked closer I realized it must be the head to a nail. Sure enough, when I got the needle-nose pliers and yanked it out, it was a nail. Granted it was not the sharp end in my heel and it was only slightly raised, but still could be quite annoying and I’m happy to have the mystery solved. Now I know why DSW puts certain shoes on the sales rack.

The Nail