Off_She_Goes

Best of Brussels, part 1

*NOTE: Liz was super nice to let me use her computer for a while tonight to work on this blog entry about my time in Belgium. However, it takes quite a while to write, so I am not done yet - the best parts of my trip (the top three of Belgium) are not yet posted! But I thought I would put the reset up for you to enjoy now. Please check back for more about Belgium soon!

Hooray! Today I finally arrived in London after an  exhausting series of train rides, and will finish out my last part of my adventure in London. I wasn't able to post much at all in Belgium, so I will do a recap in the form of a top ten list, i think. Check back later, the computer I am currently using doesn't support images and now my time is almost up online...oy.

10. This guys moustache

Just kidding, I suppose that really isn't one of the top ten best things about Belgium...but on the other hand, you do have to admit, it is pretty fancy, it is not?

9. Belgium Chocolate!

On my first night in Brussels I wandered around all of the main city center streets trying to decide which brand of belgium chocolates to buy from where (yeah yeah, life is hard, i know). In the end I settled on Neuhaus, where I bought some delicious Iced gingerbread squares, marzipan cubes filled with coffee flavored cream, and dark chocolates sprinkled with sugared rose petals...and maybe a few more.

8. De Zimmertoren (Leir)

On my last day in Belgium, I journeyed from Antwerp by train to the much smaller town of Leir, which is 20 minutes away by train. I decided to make a day adventure here to see DE ZIMMERTTOREN, an ancient astrological clock. Well, as I found out, the tower is ancient, the clock was built in 1935 For the Brussels world fair. In addition to the astrological clock on the outside, the inside of the tower boasts 72 "wunder clocks" which sounded intriguing at the very least. However, I never got to see the inside, as the tower was closed, as is most of Leir from 12 - 2 (I arrived at 11:59) Unable to access the tower, I wandered around town, bumbled into no less than 3 churches (see an interesting picture below...the statues that should be in their little nooks are missing! Perhaps they are being restored? Perhaps theived? hmm...)and then finally stumbled upon the...

7.Museum de Kleine Wereld (Leir)

 

(tiny dolls looking through a tiny swatch sample book so the tiny doll draper can make a tiny dress on her tiny dress form using this tiny measuring tape!)

This absolutely magical doll museum was housed in a plain white building - i was just lucky enough to walk by it. Crazy as it sounds, I feel like it was fate - how else to explain my finding the most wonderful tiny magical doll museum in a town that does not even make it into tourist books? For those of you who know me well, you know that I also am inexplicably drawn to tiny miniatures of pretty much anything...and this was a museum filled with tiny minatures of everything! The two women who run this museum have been collecting dolls and dollhouses for 30 years now, and have assembled quite a collection. The most wonderful part is that everything in their collection is from a very specific and short period of time - 1850s to the early part of the 20th century. I took tons of pictures of the tiny schoolrooms,tiny doll shops,tiny dollhouses,tiny tea sets, tiny tea services, doll accessories, etc etc. Here is one of my favorites, the tiny butcher shoppe, I think I will have to do a separate post for the rest of these pictures later on!

6. The Royal Toone Theatre (Brussels)

I was lucky to catch a performance at the Toone Theatre my very first night in Brussels. This is a very famous Belgium puppet theatre - all of the marionette puppets are lovingly handmade and costumed, and used for the variety of shows performed there. The theatre is hidden down an alleyway off of the very crowded restaurant street Rue De Bouchers. I wandered down this way and bought a for their Christmas season show, which was a performance telling the story of the nativity and the birth of Christ. The play was all in French, so it was a little hard for me to follow, but it is enjoyable to watch the puppeteers and the puppets in any language.The theatre itself is a nice space - hundred of marionettes hang from the ceiling beams around you as you sit to watch the show! You can read more about the puppet theatre and the passing down of the Toone title at their really noce website, http://www.toone.be/. (yes, it has english!)

Another reason I loved the Toone Theatre so much was their great bar downstairs from the theatre. It was quiet and cozy, and didn't seem touristy at all (even if it is). They had long wooden tables and a good beer selection, and different puppets were hanging from the ceiling, so you had plenty to look at while enjoying a beer or two pre or post show.

5. The Christmas Markets of Brussels

I decided to begin my trip in Brussels in order to catch the last two days of the Brussels Christmas market, which I had heard much about from my friends Lizzy and Trevor. It is a truly magical experience. Unlike Paris, where the christmas market was a crowded clusterfuck (excuse my french) up and down the Champs d'lysees, this market was split up into mini section or villages in several places around the city center, making it much easier to walk around and enjoy. I strolled through the market and tried a variety of foods, includind some warm and filling savory crepes, and oily bowlen (I have NO CLUE how to spell that) or at least, that is what I think they were called, but it is the delicious hybrid child of a beignet and a dougnut hole, served piping hot in a cone and covered with powdered sugar. (is this right trevor? Please tell me the name of what I ate if you know).

However, my favorite part of the market was not its myriad of tasty edible treats. It was the amazing carousels they had. Each had a unique theme - my two favorites were the "tiny child adventurer" carousel and the "steampunk zoo" carousel. On the steampunk carousel, you could choose to ride on a mechanical ostrich, a pegasus with wings that would flap if you pulled a lever, or a pufferfish with pedals. If you rode on the tiny adventurers carousel, you could climb into a tin spaceship, a hot air ballon basket, or ride atop a sea monster. Unfortunately, i was too old to ride either carousel, so I had to settle for taking pictures from the side, while parents wondered why i wanted a picture of their child stuck in a submarine or atop a mechanical ostrich. Oh well. 

 

 

4. The MIM (Museum of Musican Instruments, Brussels)

The MIM is truly a one of a kind museum, definitely worth a visit if you are traveling to Brussels anytime soon. Before you even begin to enjoy the inside of the museum, you are entertained and amazed by the amazing outside of the museum, which is a beautiful art nouveu building that was formerly a fabric warehouse.

 

When you enter the museum, you are given a pair of headphones. Then as you tour the various galleries in the museum, you will be able to hear the sounds made by the instruments you are looking at through your headphones. Thanks so some sort of schmancy infared technology, you dont even have to enter a numer, or turn a dial, you just have to stand in front of an instrument to hear music. It is AMAZING! It was quite fun to walk through the various rooms and hear bagpipes, flutes, pianos, sitars, and even samples of a Chinese opera and a full Indonesian gamelan! My most favorite floor was located at teh bottom of the museum in what was called the "sound lab". This section featured many different types of mechanical music instruments, ranging from small scale music boxes to really huge player pianos and organs. This was my favorite: 

Here are a few other unique and interesting instruments found on display in the museum:

 

 

This final picture is of a replica violinist shop that they had set up inside the museum. You could peer into the shop to see all of the materials and tools that a Violin maker would use in order to create the perfect violin for their customer!

Tea Time with Liz and Ste

The past two days of my trip have been the most fun yet! I was so thrilled to leave my hostel and meet up with my cousin Liz and her boyfriend Ste - two of the sweetest, most warm and friendly people I have ever met. I felt instantly at home in their company, and after a week of traveling solo, it was so nice to see familiar (and english speaking) faces.

After sliding home in the slippery ice, Ste made me my first proper British tea, with PG tips and milk and sugar - very tasty! (although I still yearn for a giant mug o' drip coffee every now and then)

After getting oriented, we headed out for a delicious night of food and drink, starting with tasty curry at Wagamama, a popular british chain. Quite good! I got a very tasty curry with squash and peppers...yum.

We then went to a really awesome bar, Cafe 1001, which was full of interesting people. It was also situated in a really interesting neighborhood, full of vintage and craft shops. Around the corner was Brick Lane, which is lined with Indian curry houses and sweet shops, and smelled AMAZING as you walked by. Also, across the street from the cafe is a record store, Rough Trade, they label who at one point represented the Smiths etc.

After my first British hard cider (quite good) we headed to Passing Clouds, an awesome hole in the wall type club near Islington. The vibe hear was really cool, very funky and laid back. There was a great reggae band playing, and everyone was dancing and smiling. They also had a delicious homemade ginger beer, which was the BEST ginger beer I have ever had - it had just the right amount of ginger in it - not too strong, but not too sweet either. It was good enough to put even the grouciest person in a good mood! I tried to take a whole bunch of pictures here, but because it was so dark none of them really came out :(

The next day we headed out of an even more exciting series of adventures - I am just going to do a brief recap of the following...

1) started out walking to Camden Passage, where there is a cozy little market and some really lovely vintage stores, selling wonderful pices of lace and millinery trim, as well as really well preserved blouses dating as far back as 1880. We wandered through this neighborhood for a while and also passed my new favorite british clothing store, All Saints, which sells old bags that can be worn as clothes. (Just kidding - they are designed that way - I really like their baggy drapey tunic style tops) But what I love more than the clothes is the design of their larger store on Portobello road, where all of the walls are lined with black and gold sewing machines

 

I wonder where they get them all?

Then it got quite cold and started to snow, so we stopped into a pub called the green man to catch the second half of a football (soccer) game between Ste's favorite team, Everton, and the popular London team, Arsenal. It was quite an intense game, and here I also learned that a pint of beer in London is a bit larger than a pint of beer in Austin.

After the snow died down, we headed into central London to the Neal's Yard area, where we stopped into several really awesome shops and poked around. My favorite was Tabio, an excellent sock and tight store that had tights in every color and denier imagineable! Leave it to me to find the 50 pound legwarmers made out of magic angola or whatnot...I settled for a pair of really cool dusty pink fishnets - they look cooler than they sound, trust me.

The real highlight of the eating was the food that came next - first we stopped at Neals Yard to sample all of their tasty cheeses - this is a really exceptional shop! It smells delicious (if you like the smell of cheese) and all of the cheese is presented in huge slabs or wheels. All you have to do is ask for a taste of any cheese and the really informed servers will cut you a slice, and tell you what type of cheese it is, where it comes from, and who made it.  

  After cheese Liz recommended we try Rock and Sole Plaice for some traditional fish and chips - here you can pick the type of fish you want, and they will serve you a huge platter of fish and chips with all the tasty condiments! An interesting fact about this restaurant is that during world war II all of the fish suppliers would meet here in the morning to figure out which neighborhoods had been bombed or hit hardest in the night, and then they would distribute the fish, giving a larger share to those who needed the food.

For dessert we went to Scoop, which serves amazing gelato place - I tried the recommended extra dark chocolate, mixed with some lovely berry gelato on top - delicious!

Full of deliciousness, we then explored Foyles, London's largest bookshop. It had a really impressive selection of design books, including really nice books about typography, costumes, fashion, product design, architecture...you name it, and they had it. They also have a tank of pirahnas which you can watch in the children's section. 

Final stop of the night - Freud's (spelled FREVD) a super packed, super hip cocktail bar that is home to Liz's favorite London Bloody Mary. Their recipe is very unique - it doesn't include olives, but instead adds sherry and red wine - I have never tried a Bloody Mary like this, and was really surprised by how tasty and flavorful it was. I am going to have to try this recipe out when I get back home.

After a long day of walking and exploring, we headed back home to play a game of scrabble and eat our delicious cheese on tasty oat crackers (I forgot already what they were called). It was so nice to get to spend more time with my cousin, who  I havn't seen in ten years, even though we are only born two days apart!

 

(Liz + Ste, cheese + scrabble)

I have had such a lovely time the past few days...so i have decided never to leave London. Sorry suckers - enjoy the Texas humidity, and I will send you a postcard.

London Day 2

After a lovely nights stay at Palmer's Lodge Hostel in the Swiss Cottage Area of London  ( I would highly recommend this hostel if you are travelling to London, it was a great deal for the price, about 40.00 a night with free breakfast, hot shower, internet, and friendly people) I headed out again to explore more of London. I started the day with a walk through Portobello Road, famous for the portobello market, and the various antiques and odds and ends you can get there. Unfortunately, because the dollar is so weak it is nearly impossible to get a good deal or score any awesome finds, but I did spend a good while admiring a vintage silk lined deerstalker cap with a vintage ribbon...it wouldnt find on my head, sadly. Too much hair.
Among the various bead, antique, and clothing stands I did find this awesome booth that sold antique phones! A useful place for any propmaster or set dresser.

 

After that I wandered over to the Natural History Museum, which is an amazing museum for anyone interested in science related things...They have a very impressive dinosaur exhibit, complete with a roaring animatronic T - Rex, and not one but two! gemstone exhits featuring diamonds, rubies, sapphires, the worlds finest nuggets of gold, and other awesome natural gems and minerals.  I wanted to photograph all of it, but pictures cant do the sparkling gems justice, so I quickly abandoned that pursuit, and wandered through the bird and primate exhibit, both which were full of taxidermied specimins. It may be weird, but I really like taxidermied animals. I know it is pretty cruel, but I do find them very interesting to look at. Some of my favorites were a very odd looking stuffed slow loris and a case filled with over 200 stuffed hummingbirds - that piece was part of a victorian collectors "Cabinet of Curiosities"

One of the most amazing things about the museum is the actual building itself - it is quite beautiful. Here is a picture from the top floor:

 

That blurry white statue on the landing is actually a pretty impressive statue of Darwin...too bad iphoen cameras dont have a zoom (or a flash, for that matter).

After this museum trip it was time to repack my things and head on to my next adventure, post coming soon...

until then

goodnight and good luck

Heather

London, Day One - Ice, Snow, More Samosas, and a constant search for the restroom.

Today was my first full day in London, and despite the less pleasant attributes listed above, I LOVE IT.

 

for more about my adventures with these fierce and formidable toy pirates, read on!

I spent the whole day today sort of wandering around aimlessly and seeing what kind of fun I could find. For any of you travelling to large cities, I highly recommend the city walks card series. Each deck of heavyweight cardstock card comes in an easy to carry box (which I shoved int eh bottom of my backpack) and it provides you with lots of interesting walks around all parts of the city.

Today I walked mostly in the Bond - Baker Street area, up and down Marleybourne and Regency streets> I poked in and out of many a fancy boutique, as well as some of the more well known stores, like H&M and Topshop. I also went to Libetry and Co, a really famous department store housed in a lovely old building with wooden floors and wood beam ceilings. At one point they were very famous for the fabric they manufactured, you may recognize the term "Liberty Print".

Two other really interesting boutiques I stopped in were "The Lomography Gallery Store" an awesome camera boutique that sold all sorts of interesting analog/lomography cameras and camera attachments that you can use for all sorts of interesting effects with your photography. All of their walls were lined with photos, which looked awesome - you can also check out the most popular customer lomo photos at their website www.lomography.com - scroll down to the bottom of the page for the most popular photos. Also, check out this AWESOME 8 frames/shot camera, and then buy it for me. thanks. 

http://uk.shop.lomography.com/cameras/lomographic-cameras/oktomat

Oh oktomat, how I love thee.

A bit further down the street was a fabulous clothing boutique,Beyond the Valley, which was full of indie designer clothes that were really amazing - there were great pieces with alot of detailed or unique construction, as well as alot of really nice, one of kind fabric used. My favorite was either the necklaces made of yards of gathered chiffon

http://www.beyondthevalleystore.com/item10025998.aspx  (this is a similar one)

or the silk smoking blazer with smoking cigarettes embroidered on it. 

http://www.beyondthevalleystore.com/item10008419.aspx (it also comes in magenta, and it is totally the type of thing I will wear later in life when I powerwalk around the neighborhood, grumbling under my breath)

The final shop stop of the day, and definately the best is last, was my visit to Hamleys, the world famous 5 or 6 story (I lost track after a while) toy store. Here are just a few of the amazing things the shop has to offer:

- a hair and nail salon on the all pink girls floor

-a full fledged candy shop with jelly beans, fudge, and every type of gummi you can think of

-an ice cream parlour

- an Ollivanders wand shop with beautiful boxes of wands (each unique) stacked on shelves - SO COOL! (please lizzy, can we have one? pretty please!)

- a full paid staff of floor pirated gooning around outside the store. Seriously. they are toy piratesm they are wearing pirate clothes, and talking in pirate speech and they were playing cherades until I asked them for a picture...which the photographer pirate said was "mighty fine, and worthy to be postin' on ye old facebook" I will add the picture later, this internet wont download pics from my camera. boo.

and...

- ZERO working toilets. of course, they did have 10 broken ones, but that doesnt do me much good after 3 cups of coffee and cocoa, now does it?

and then...

Throughly worn out from so much shoping i retreated back to my hostel, only to remember that the national portrait gallery is open late tonight, so off i went again out into the maddening crowd. Totally worth it though, the national portrait gallery is awesome. you can literally walk through 6 centuries of history as view portraits of Britains most loved and famous figures. I love just walking down the halls and watching time pass through the changes in clothing and in painting styles. So wonderful. I could have spent the whole day there - they have tons of really interesting information about all of the portrait subjects, so you can learn alot as you wander around. My favorite was a self portrait designed by the artist Julian Opie, (who created the blur album cover in a similar syle of illustration, also on display) his portrait was a video/lcd screen of his animated portrait played on a loop, so when you pass by it looks like you are just looking at a cartoony self portrait but then the portrait blinks, or shrugs his shoulders, and totally freaks you out, and it is the coolest thing ever.

Runner up (and not for those who are squemish) is one artist, Marc Quinn's self portrait that is a bust of his head made completely out of his own frozen blood (gross, but interesting, becasue he creates a new one every five years to track his own body changes and ageing) This creeped me out at first, but after reading about his body of work as an artist, which focuses alot of people and their bodies and abnormalities in bodies, it seemed pretty interesting. I just told myself it was cherry jello. you can read more about the bust, titled "self" via this link:

http://www.npg.org.uk/about/press/marc-quinn-press.php

and on that bizarre note,
goodnight!

HK

Just arrived in London, staying for the night in the lovely Swiss Cottage area and enjoying a warm veggie samosa!
Cheers!

Happy New Years!

well - it has been a few days since my last post ( couldnt find an internet cafe in brussels, too busy eating chocolates) so now i am in antwerp and will pick up where I left off.

For New Years we went to the Eiffel Tower to retake a family photograph that we took 15 years ago ( The last time my family was together in France). It was quite a bit colder than last time when we were here in July! Here I am all bundled up at the Eiffel Tower:

What did all of you dear friends do for New Years? Please send me wonderful stories!

After the Eiffel Tower we journeyed to Montmarte to see the Sacre Couer and Moulin Rouge area. The sacre couer was hectic and crowded on the outside, but it was so so beautiful. When we entered there was a service in progress; and there was a chorus of nuns singing - it was so lovely: I loved the Byzantine style of the church, and in the top dome there was the most beautiful mosaic I have ever seen. I am still searching for a photo to do it justice (photographs were not allowed inside so I didnt take any). The history of the church itself is quite interesting - it was not copleted until 1919 although it looks much older, and the church is atop many gypsum mines, this gypsum is what gives the church its white color (also used to make plaster of paris)

I will have to write more about all of the interesting details on the mosaic later. Can you see Joan of Arc to the right at the feet of Jesus in this picture?

Next we walked around the Montmarte area, and I found another statue of my favorite headless Saint, St. Denis, in a neighborhood park. It was such a lovely area, even in the middle of winter.

 

 

The last stop on our New Years Day walk was Café des Deux Moulins, 15 rue Lepic at rue Cauchois. This will be a vry special place for any of you who are Amelie fans - this is the cafe where she works in the movie - it is a real place! Very warm and crowded. They pay homage to Amelie with a picture of here on the back wall and also these cue snow silhouettes of her on the doors:

 

So cute and wintery cheery! It was the perfect walk to end my time in Paris, which I already miss. Now I am alone in Antwerp and quite lonely - I cant wait to get to London and see some familiar faces!

Until then (and more about Belgium coming soon) sweetest New Years Wishes!

TTFN,

Heather

A day of secrets and discoveries

Whew! it has been a busy few days and i have to had time to write at all! Lets pick up on Dec. 31 - I started the day out with a visit to the Pompidou Museum, France's biggest modern art museum. The outside of the building is enough to enjoy without even going inside! All of the stairs and escaloators of the building are located on the outside in crazy tunnel tubes, and you take the tubes up to the top (6th) floor and work your way down. Here is a picture of the outsid, but it doesnt really do the experience justice.

(this and more good images at http://www.neurosoftware.ro/programming-blog)

They had an awesome exhibition up that took up two floors, titled elles@centrepompidou. this was a sort of retrospective through their collection of various works done by women in the past century, and there works were grouped into many different themes. There was an interesting mix of sculpture, film, photography, painting, installation art, and some pieces so avant garde I am not even sure how to define them here. I took pictures of some of my favorite works, and will post them later. this computer is too slow.

Also very interesting was a short exhibtion of work done by the American artist Jim Hodges, who uses alot of interesting media in his work, including gold leaf, silver jewelry chain ( to make elaborate spiderwebs) and fake flowers.

Speaking of fake flowers, later that day I found the most magical sewing/craft supply store called La Droguerie located at 11 rue du jour. I waled into the store because I saw skiens (sp?) after skien (or bundle, whatever you call it) of yarn hanging from hooks on the walls lining the entire front hall of the store - any kind of yard you could wish for - mohair, alpaca, etc etc. Tthere were millions of different types of yarn. I went in looking for a new scarf, but what I found was much better - turn the corner and there were all of the sewing notions one could ever wish for! The walls were lined with shelf after shelf of specialty ribbon and trims, jars and jars of buttons and beads, and tons of millinery supplies, from felt bases to feathers! But the best treat of all was the section they had of silk and velvet leaves and flowers! I was in trimming heaven! After hemming and hawing for quite some time over white minature beaded fruit picks and velvet floral stems I was going to get, I was shooed out of the store by my father and brother, who arent as excited as I by little bits and baubles (cant really blame them, I suppose...) Here are some pictures of the shop, you can see some of my floral loot in the front corner!

As we continued to walk though the neighborhood, we made another heavenly shopping discovery - Dehillerin, a HUGE cooking supply store. they had any and everything you could ever want to cook with! Take, for example, their wall of whisks:

The woman next to me was freaking out because they had the smallest melon ballers she had ever seen. (its true, they could scoop a tiny ball the size of a pea!) I was fascinated by all of the differnt molds of chocolates, tarts, and pie crusts, as well as the pastry section, which had close to 1 million different kinds of tips for piping icing and whatnottery. But perhaps the most impressive thing was the wall of copper - what the manager claimed was just a fine selection of all the various copper accoutrmants they carried for cooking:

That one is for you, David Crowl.

Finally, the last magical discovery of the evening was the forum les halles, which from a bit away looks like a futuristic sunken garden:

It is actually a large underground shopping mall, but the parks and gardens above are a pleasure to stroll though. Their is a cute childrens park, and what looked like an old closed putt putt course. Because it is winter and all the plants are dead, parts of the park looked like a secret garden:

All of the ivy winding around the metal arches  of similar design gave the park a eerie and awesome feel, and in the background we could see a huge, Gothic style church with a lovely rose window lit up in the background - it was so cool! I am surprised I didnt read about it in any of the many tourbooks I brough with me - it was the best discovery I have made yet!

 
 
 
 

A day of secrets and discoveries

Whew! it has been a busy few days and i have to had time to write at all! Lets pick up on Dec. 31 - I started the day out with a visit to the Pompidou Museum, France's biggest modern art museum. The outside of the building is enough to enjoy without even going inside! All of the stairs and escaloators of the building are located on the outside in crazy tunnel tubes, and you take the tubes up to the top (6th) floor and work your way down. Here is a picture of the outsid, but it doesnt really do the experience justice.

(this and more good images at http://www.neurosoftware.ro/programming-blog)

They had an awesome exhibition up that took up two floors, titled elles@centrepompidou. this was a sort of retrospective through their collection of various works done by women in the past century, and there works were grouped into many different themes. There was an interesting mix of sculpture, film, photography, painting, installation art, and some pieces so avant garde I am not even sure how to define them here. I took pictures of some of my favorite works, and will post them later. this computer is too slow.

Also very interesting was a short exhibtion of work done by the American artist Jim Hodges, who uses alot of interesting media in his work, including gold leaf, silver jewelry chain ( to make elaborate spiderwebs) and fake flowers.

Speaking of fake flowers, later that day I found the most magical sewing/craft supply store called La Droguerie located at 11 rue du jour. I waled into the store because I saw skiens (sp?) after skien (or bundle, whatever you call it) of yarn hanging from hooks on the walls lining the entire front hall of the store - any kind of yard you could wish for - mohair, alpaca, etc etc. Tthere were millions of different types of yarn. I went in looking for a new scarf, but what I found was much better - turn the corner and there were all of the sewing notions one could ever wish for! The walls were lined with shelf after shelf of specialty ribbon and trims, jars and jars of buttons and beads, and tons of millinery supplies, from felt bases to feathers! But the best treat of all was the section they had of silk and velvet leaves and flowers! I was in trimming heaven! After hemming and hawing for quite some time over white minature beaded fruit picks and velvet floral stems I was going to get, I was shooed out of the store by my father and brother, who arent as excited as I by little bits and baubles (cant really blame them, I suppose...) Here are some pictures of the shop, you can see some of my floral loot in the front corner!

As we continued to walk though the neighborhood, we made another heavenly shopping discovery - Dehillerin, a HUGE cooking supply store. they had any and everything you could ever want to cook with! Take, for example, their wall of whisks:

The woman next to me was freaking out because they had the smallest melon ballers she had ever seen. (its true, they could scoop a tiny ball the size of a pea!) I was fascinated by all of the differnt molds of chocolates, tarts, and pie crusts, as well as the pastry section, which had close to 1 million different kinds of tips for piping icing and whatnottery. But perhaps the most impressive thing was the wall of copper - what the manager claimed was just a fine selection of all the various copper accoutrmants they carried for cooking:

That one is for you, David Crowl.

Finally, the last magical discovery of the evening was the forum les halles, which from a bit away looks like a futuristic sunken garden:

It is actually a large underground shopping mall, but the parks and gardens above are a pleasure to stroll though. Their is a cute childrens park, and what looked like an old closed putt putt course. Because it is winter and all the plants are dead, parts of the park looked like a secret garden:

All of the ivy winding around the metal arches  of similar design gave the park a eerie and awesome feel, and in the background we could see a huge, Gothic style church with a lovely rose window lit up in the background - it was so cool! I am surprised I didnt read about it in any of the many tourbooks I brough with me - it was the best discovery I have made yet!

 
 
 
 

Versilles, in a few words.

Crowded.

Wet.

Rainy.

Gilded.

Magical.

Falafels for Stephanie

Paris, Day 4

We spend today in the Marais district of Paris, which has lots of interesting boutiques, cafes, and shops. I twas fun to stroll around and look into all of the stores, which had some really hip, design oriented merchandise. I was tempted to buy many things ( a pantone color chip mug, a ceramic crate of six eggs that were salt and pepper shakers, creamer, sugar, and toothpick holders...so cute) but had to content myself with just pictures, as those are the easiest things to carry with me for the next two weeks in a backpack! Below are pictures from a few of the shops in the following order:

1) Fleux on 39 rue Sainte Croix de la Bretonnerie (visit them online at www.fleux.com, their online catalouge is awesome!)

2)Pylonnes shop on 13 Rue Sainte-Croix de la Bretonnerie (We used to carry alo tof their stuff at Toy Joy - they have very colorful, cute household accessories)

3)Izrael Spice Shop on 30 rue Francois-Miron ( an amazing spice and condiment store that is like an outdoor market inside - my favorite thing was these giant candied clemintines! Yum!)

4) I didnt remember to get the name of this awesome vintage design shop, but they sold wonderful kitchy vintage home decor/objects, including a sweet snow white and the seven dwarves tea set and two large, beautiful white peacocks that stood on a golden bar (i dont think they were real, but it would be awesome if they were) They were a bit prickly about pictures so I took one from outside of this fancy lady and some vintage fruit cookie jars.

We then ate lunch at L'As Falafel, which had been recommended to me by my friends Stephanie and David. The spot was super packed with a line that stetched down the block! It was totally worth it though - my brother and I both agreed it was the best falfel we had ever had! The pita comes stuffed with salad, cabbage, and sauce, and there was a delicious red sauce that I also poled onto my pita. Thanks for the great recommendation!

After lunch we stopped for tea at my favorite place in all of Paris, Mariage Freres. This wonderful tea shop has been around since 1854, and offers over 600 varities of tea. When you step inside you are overwhelmed by the delicious odor of tea, and the servers there measure looseleaf tea out of giant jars lining the wall for you to purchase. In the tea room, the waiters contunue the tradition of wearing two piece white linen suits, and present you with a thick menu of all the hundreds of teas you can choose from. It is so, so wonderful.If you ever find yourself in Paris, this is the #1 thing I would do! I went many times when I was studying aborad in Paris and really enjoyed it - unfortunately it was super packed today so I had to content myself with just the shop and not the salon du the.

 

Last stop of the day was the Palais du Tokyo, a very avant garde art museum. the Current exhibit was titled "Chasing Napoleon" and "brings together eighteen artists whose works also read as instruction manuals on how to withdraw into seclusion and take refuge in the limits of the visible." (quote taken from the Palais du Tokyo website)
Some of the most interesting pieces on display were a wooden cabin built in a room (that you could not enter, I wish you could, I think that would have been a really interesting experience space wise) a pile of euros eternally on fire, a photo series of over 33,000 pictures cataloging all of the houses from one city in Iceland (forgive me I cant remember the name) in two separate two year periods set 20 years apart (but done by the same artist) and finally, my favorite piece, titled "For the Dogs", a musical piece first composed in the 1910s by a musician, and then recorded in 2002 by an artist, who then was able to create a new recording of the piece at a certain pitch frequency that is audible to humans but able to be heard by dogs.

Oh! and one last thing! i had my first crepe today! but i am getting kicked out of the internet room so pictures later....