Monday, June 9, 2008

laundry, the eiffel tower, and
le satire incomprehensible



all right!! nice weather at last. of course we spent about 90 minutes of it washing our clothes at the laundromat down the street. but that was essential.

doing laundry was sort of like buying gas at some stations in america: instead of selecting the numbered pump on a central machine, putting in your credit or debit card, and then going to pump gas, you put your clothes into a numbered washer, go to the central machine and select the number, put in the money, and watch it go. you also buy soap that way -- select what you want, put money in the same central machine, and the soap comes out in a package of two little cube-shaped "sachets" of pressed dry powder. the directions said to use two cubes per load, but that seemed like too much to me, so we used one per each load we had. a good decision, b/c the stuff is very strong-smelling, and the odor is nose-itchingly intense for a person like me who uses unscented detergent.

anyway, as it is our last day in this neighborhood, AND such a nice sunny one, we decided to carpe diem and headed off to le tour eiffel. i actually wore my black dress and was quite comfortable (and looked very fetching i might add). we expected a mob scene, but it really wasn't bad. we waited about a half-hour in line for tickets and the elevator. the sign at the base of the tower said that the third tier (aka the top) was closed, but the woman in the ticket booth said that it might reopen, and we could buy another ticket for the top on the 2nd level. (tix can be bought to go to just the 1st level, or to the 2nd -- costs more -- or to the 3rd -- also costs more.) once on the 2nd level, we learned that the top WAS open, so we ponied up and got in line for the next elevator.

it was a bit confusing as to where to go to get that top-level ticket, so i approached this adorable french lad in a brown suit and orange eiffel tower tie (what's with the french and orange?). "we want to go to the tower," i said like an idiot. he laughed and said, "you ARE on the tower." so i had to laugh too, and then said, "er, i mean, we want to go to the TOP of the tower!" and then he pointed the way to the ticket booth. ahaha. whatevs.

while riding the elevator to the top i punched the button on my ipod and played the pixies' "alec eiffel" -- another dream realized. i felt a little bit uneasy going up; probably i should not have looked straight down, but i couldn't help it. once up there i was ok. we took some pictures from the bottom, glassed-in level, and then went up to the top, caged-in one. i think the above shot of the seine was from the caged-in level; can't remember.

so, wow. whotta view. in this shot (which is def taken through a dirty window) you can see the arc de triomphe off in the distance, and the trocadero at the nearer left:



this is looking toward ecole militaire (not far from our hotel), and the big tower is i think montparnasse:



and this is looking toward les invalides (the golden dome):



and here is the eiffel tower under a blue sky! (it would be cropped except it's from the set of photos that got deleted from the camera...)



it was getting late-ish by the time we descended the tower. the squirrel had decided some days ago that we should go to the comedie francaise to see dom quichotte. i don't know how i let myself get talked into these things -- i can barely speak french, let alone understand it in a satirical play full of singing, puppetry, visions, and historical doings. but i went anyway. she said if we didn't like it we could bail at intermission -- ahaha! no intermission. it was somewhat bamboozling to sit there for nearly two hours watching something i basically didn't comprehend at all, beyond a word or two and some general activity. i could sort of follow along at points, but other times i just made up what was happening in my head. the actor who played santo was great, though. the whole production seemed fairly insane -- even if i had understood it.

anyway, before the show we ate dinner on the patio at the nearby restaurant hotel de louvre. some lovely foie gras (probably the second best after la terrasse). and i had squid stuffed with ... stuff. not sure what, but it was fragrant and delicious. drank a lot of wine and then dashed off to the comedie next door. deb took my picture a million times at dinner, and during the last one this older woman sitting across from us looked at me and smiled, like, "yeah, i have a camera-happy sibling too." or something.

also, i did take a picture of one of these iconic metro stations that look so sci-fi, and which the doctor and romana II ran out of while sightseeing/dashing around paris in "city of death." there's a bunch of them, but they're so cool:



after the comedie debacle, we descended into the metro and returned to our hotel to drink wine and pack up everything, b/c tomorrow we move to the eugenie hotel in the latin quarter. kind of sad to be leaving valadon, but excited to be seeing a different neighborhood, and one that's supposed to be more lively and "city-like."

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