More places where I ate

Last friday was a good food day. I ate out for both lunch and dinner. Tummy full, wallet empty...

Café d'Angel
16, rue Brey, 75017 Paris.
We had lunch with my collegues, one of whitch was leaving us to go back to Helsinki, here in this very sympatethic little bistro. "Typically french" and "typically parisian" are the two clichés that fit here perfectly and in a good way. Staff was helpful, food was good, clientele was local. Not the cheapest option at 24 € for a 2-course lunch menu, but the quality of the food was great. I had lieu jaune (probably "white fish" like all of them on english menus...) and liégois chocolat avec caramel beurre salé for dessert. Fish was oily and really well seasoned, really good and the dessert was hefty, chocolaty and with lots of caramel.

Tierra del Fuego

4-6 rue Sainte Marthe, 75010 Paris. www.tierradelfuego.fr
After the perfect 'Ti Punch at the colourful bar I can't remember the name of on the same street, we had a chilean dinner with Maaria and Henna at Tierra del Fuego. It's a cozy and colourful little restaurant run by two charming chileans, a father and son, Gonzalo and Carlo (I think). A three course menu is 20 €, I had a (YUMMY!!) ceviche and a (HUGE) chili con carne and mango mousse for dessert (desserts are tiny, but since the other two courses are truckdriver-size, a small dessert is just perfecto ). They also have a fantastic chilean wine selection, a rarity in Paris, since the french (for a perfectly good reason) love and cherish their own produce. Great food, great atmosphere, charming and fast service. Just one thing: If you (Henna) hate coriander, make sure to mention it. It's everywhere and it's a-plenty.
I do recommend I doooo!

Guerrisol, means "The love of my life" in french, or at least it should.

I might live to regret this, but I will now spill my best Paris shopping secret.
It's called Guerrisol and it's on Rue de Rochechouart. I'm not giving the number nor the metrostation. To deserve this, you need to work a bit... (A bribe will also work.)
This is the real deal. Not for amateurs. Not for the faint of heart. If you get confused and uncertain at H&M, forget about Guerrisol. It's for those who like to dig dig dig and who know that under 100 crappy garments there just might be the treasure, or then there will just be the 101st crappy garment. It's for those who can tell the difference between make-up stains and the never-gonna-wash-off stains. Those who know, when a missing button isn't a problem and when it is. Those, who can picture the garment in a different environment, not in the middle of faded, deformed t-shirts in a dusty warehouse-type space.
Those, who deserve to buy the perfect blue printed silk/cotton dress that makes you look slim and sophisticated, yet youthful and trendy, for 3 euros. Yes. 3. Euros. Here it is. Looks even better on a person.

 

 Never mind the shoe selection that looks like it has passed through a dog's digestive system. Twice.

For my traveling sisters

This website has been established by a Evelyn, a 70-year old traveling lady, who's been traveling solo for the last three decades. Too dangerous to travel as a single woman? Yeah right...

www.journeywoman.com/

22 strange and unpleasant, if not quite traumatizing things I've seen on the Paris metro

Gonna say right up, that I might not be able to come up with 22. At least not on one go. But in case I fail to write down 22 things, I still have a month to come up with them... And these are in a random order. Some of them are more tragic than funny, some are kind of both...

1. Château Rouge's resident crack-lady. A big, black woman with a very disoriented look in her glassy eyes can almost always be found on the direction Porte de Clignancourt side of the tracks sitting on a bench. She can be mumbling and/or shouting something incomprehensible if she has not passed out. She passes out in a seated position with her arms and legs spread in a very relaxed manner. She has almost always peed her pants so sitting on a bench on that platform is not recommendable. Also, as Heli and Ulla were also surely very pleased to witness, she sometimes takes a leak on the platform. Puddles of anything liquid on the platform are not to be stepped into. Sure, it could be just water sometimes. Or not.
2. The traveling crackheads. This is a general category. They might just have passed out somewhere on the train, when the only problem they cause is the smell. Crackheads have other priorities than staying clean (no pun intended, or maybe a little one) that control their actions. If they haven't passed out (yet), they can be mumbling or shouting. Once I experienced all three options in the same carriage. Passed out and mumbling are usually only a stink problem. The shouting ones are a bit more scary, since they often are pretty aggressive and totally unpredictable. Most of the time they are screaming at people not present in the train (i.e. Sarkozy) or to an evil, invisible twin. They might even be staring directly to your direction and shouting obscenities. The thing is, that it's just the eye that is pointing at you. What the crackhead sees, can be anything, anywhere. Just hope it's not the mumbling guy cooking the last dose of crack cocaine on earth that he's seeing there, where it's just the harmless little you sitting and listening to your i-pod and breathing only through your mouth.
3. Smelly people who are not on drugs (at least not so much that it shows) but still manage to produce pretty heavy and disturbing odours. This can also be divided into categories. 1: People who don't use deodorant but who do use shirts made of synthetic materials that don't breath. WHY? 2: People who might use deodorant, but it's a very, very hot day and, oh well. This could even be me. But if this is you, and if the metro is quite full, please don't hold on to anything so high that you must lift your arm. 3. People who don't wash often enough. EEEUUUUGGH! Also people who've worn the same coat for decades without washing it. WASH IT! 4. People who've just (seconds before) finished their cigarette and are getting on a really full metro right next to you and you end up breething the fumes floating around them. These fumes are probably caused by spending the day in a smoke filled room. COUGH! 5. The Sephora echantillon overdosers. These are usually tourist women who get on the metro somewhere close to a Sephora or another big cosmetics shop. They have just tried on 5 to 28 different perfumes. They can't smell them anymore after spending hours sniffing around the Chanel shelf. And you wish you couldn't either. A great way to get a banging headache also.
4. Musicians. Here I mean the "artists" who get on the trains. The illegitimate ones. The ones playing in the corridors on the stations all have special authorisations and they have to pass a casting to get it. Not a very hard one obviously, judging by the frequency of panflute macchupicchu-inca/apache indian -groups blasting el condor pasas from their speakers. Most of the corridor artists seem like pretty capable musicians though. There is of course also "Raisa's favorite SDF", a (probably) homeless guy who plays hats (yes, hats) with a big smile on his face and sings/makes noise just below the escalator of the Arc de Triomphe exit at Charles de Gaulle-Etoile -station. He might not be the most capable musician, but he is capable of getting you somehow in a good mood. Or at least he'll make you laugh. A unique talent, he is. I'm pretty sure he hasn't passed the castings either... On lines 1 and 2 in particular you can "enjoy" the illegitimate entertainment. Usually it's a man or a woman, who has some kind of a stereosystem attached to a shopping trolley and a mug attached to the stereo. They climb in, turn on the background tape and start singing (besa me mucho/numa numa yeah/etc. classics), playing french horn, etc. They do a set of about 2 masterful interpretations, then leave the playback on, take a tour with their mug and get off. Then there's my personal favourite, the mini-synthethiser man. He gets on, throws a mini synthethiser on his shoulder and turns on the rythm. Tshih tshih tshih goes the rythm machine. Then he starts playing some chords and singing them as well. Aaaah aaaah aaaah hmmm hmmmm mmmmmh mmmh. Then he starts singing in some language that I don't know. But he has a pretty agreeable voice, still I can't get past the comic aspect of that mini synthethiser played vertically on his shoulder. There is also a guy in a cheap clown suit walking up and down the aisle making parrot- and fart noises. But he can't be considered as a musician I guess. And then. He shouldn't technically be mentioned, since he was on an RER train and not on a metro. But he has to be mentioned since he is a Michael Jackson impersonator. He got on the train, turned on Thriller and started dancing and doing Michael Jackson "WHOA"s and the act went on for 10 minutes at least. Totally unexpected. And fairly absurd.
5. The beggars who tell their life story. Ok. Life is hard and for them it's even worse. I feel for these people I do, but it's a very uncomfortable feeling that you get when you're riding home and a pretty average looking young girl gets on and starts by apologizing for bothering everyone and then goes on explaining in a loud voice to the whole carriage everything starting from an abusive childhood to youth delinquance to unemployment to drugs to prison to not adapting the society to drugs to prison to a mental institution to trying to adapt to not finding work because of her background to having to do this. It makes you question your own moral integrity as well as her's as well as the construction of french social welfare and honestly, out of the blue on my way home from work or from wherever, it's too much for me to digest. And then I feel quilty for looking away, turning up the volume on my i-pod and not giving anything, like 99,8 % of the people. This happens often btw.
6. Huge and nasty looking dogs. Ok, I admit it, I'm a recovering dog-phobic and I feel a bit unsure with dogs. And I think they can sense it and for that reason obviously want to sink their teeth into my throat. But these are the kind of dogs that you'd rather not be in a small, closed space with. They usually have a Hannibal Lecter-type of a very credible muzzle, but I always think that they could just break it apart in the manner of the Tyrannosaurus Rex in the Jurassic Parc. And they often look like they would really want to, their whole thorax moving as they pant heavily and seem kind of panicked. And sometimes that muzzle is open and the owner isn't looking that credible either, usually leaning on the dog to stay in an upright position. Call me neurotic, but those animals make me feel like getting off and catching the next train.
7. A geisha.
8. A couple of a certain age making out in a very drunken manner.

22 most traumatizing things seen on the Paris metro etc.

I love Les Inrockuptibles's L'anti-guide de Paris. http://blogs.lesinrocks.com/antiguideparis/
I'm so stealing their ideas to make my own lists. I'm sure I can come up with 22 traumatizing or just plain weird things I've seen on the metro. F.ex. today I saw a geisha and the angriest, most stressed looking dog ever (very sturdily muzzeld, thank god).

Those business cards

Here are the business cards I mentioned in my first restaurant post.
To turn this post into a fun, interactive and most of all incredibly exciting, though ridiculously easy, game, I am not telling wich card belongs to wich restaurant. You have to figure it out yourself.

More places where I ate

Looking through my pictures, I found these places to add to my list of restaurants:

"Chéz Eugène"

Chéz Eugène
17, pl du Tertre, 75018 Paris. http://www.chezeugene.fr 
This big and touristy creperie is situated on the Place du Tertre square up in the heart of the Montmartre "tourist district" right behind the Sacré Coeur. Many guide books describe the square as "filled with portrait artists". I personally would describe it as "filled with aging alcoholics who for some reason think I would like to have a big-toothed charichature/a portrait drawing that looks like one of those make-up heads that I had as a child, of myself and that I would happily pay 20 € + for it". In the context of that square, this is a relatively nice place to go to (but within this context only!). Not expensive, food is worth it anf service is efficient. The waiters all wear braces and a cap and are your typical tourist restaurant tip-hungry young men. Some of them are even kind of cute, so even if they're really flirting with your wallet (nice try), their little winks do warm a single girl's frozen heart a bit, I have to admit. Apparently this place also has some cabaret-side to it, but I know nothing of that. I've had dinner here with Raisa and her parents and lunch with Mari and Annika. I always eat the Crèpe "Chéz Eugène" with chicken, mushroom, cheese and egg (see picture).

I have to add here that just a street away from Place du Tertre there is a really cool créperie/bar that I actually honestly would like to recommed. It has the most awful toilets, reminds me of many bars I like. Door not locking, never any paper, dishwasher in guise of a hand soap etc. I'll go check the name of the place and add all the details.

Paradis du Fruit

Paradis du Fruit
A chain of restaurants around the city. www.leparadisdufruit.fr/ 
This is a perpetual easy-to-go destination. They're everywhere and they're all the same. As the name hints, the speciality is fruits and they do in fact have fantastic fruit cocktails (non-alcoholic). They also have a nice "build-your-own-course" type of a menu solution with 20 little things to choose from. And be warned: Their ice creams are HUGE. The last one I had was probably 30cm high. Now that's what I call an ice cream. Except that now that I think of it, I can't call it an ice cream since it was a frozen yoghurt, but that's just technicalities. Raisa loves the place, so we were there on the pl de la Bastille for her b-day with also Joachim, Saija and Hamada and the boyzz, Elias & Adam. (Elias anecdote: When Raisa mentioned Gare de Lyon, Elias started explaining me about the lions of this "Gare de Lions". Love those kids.) We also went to the St Germain de Prés -one with Raisa, Mari and Annika and I had lunch with Milda once in the one on George V. A good place also on the day after, those fruit cocktails are so refreshing and make you feel cleansed if you have drenched your insides in alcohol the night before. Citronnade Sicilienne is my favorite. Not too sweet, nice and zesty with a hint of fresh mint. I think I need one now...

O'Kay Café

View from the terrace of O'Kay Café

51 bis, Quai de Loire, 75019 Paris.
The best part about this place is the view. The terrace is practically on the Bassin de la Villette. We came here after a free Caribou concert at the Parc de la Villette with Henna, Elisa and Annemari. The food was basic, I had a crèpe again. Probably a complète (ham, cheese, egg, the classic and the best) and I remember the absurd difficulty of trying to get une carafe d'eau, a jug of tap water. (btw if you should learn only one french expression ever, that would be the one. Almost always the tap water is free, it's completely, absolutely drinkable as well and doesn't taste any worse than any water you could get from a tap in Turku. If you just ask for "still water" they will bring you a bottle of Evian or Vittel. And you have to pay. Plus, it's less ecologic. So repeat after me: Une carafe d'eau, s'il vous plaît.) We asked for this probably about 10 times but it never came so we just drank wine (tough life). And the waiter had kind of stupid jokes, but the waiters here often have. Just smile and then disapprove in finnish. But once more: One of the nicest terraces in Paris.

Museau at Le Limousin

Le Limousin
1, rue de Satory, 78000 Versailles. versailles/restaurant_le-limousin

This is in Versailles and I definitely recommed going here to eat on your Versailles day rather than paying the same money for something much less particular in the restaurants right by the castle. I haven't been to those nor have I been to the other restaurants on this restaurant-filled street where Le Limousin is, but in a totally unfair, unfouded and unjustified manner I reserve the right to declare Le Limousin the best. We had lunch there on our office wellbeing-day after visiting the château and it was such a nice experience. The speciality is gigot d'agneau, some part of lamb, please excuse my lack of lamb bodypart vocabulary here. It's sliced at the table by a guy who looks like he's had a slice or few himself. I had that for main course, obviously. For started I had museau, cow's face/nose in vinegar sauce. Yes, in France they eat all parts and most of all, they know how to make them edible. My museau was sliced thin like your average charcuterie and served with plenty of creamy vinegar sauce. It tasted like a very good ham, only a little bit leathery. I'm not squeamish at all about eating something that they don't sell at your average super market and every time I've tried something like this, I've been very happy I did. The only thing to remember when eating these more exotic animal parts is that the more you pay, the more likely you're going to get the real deal. These parts are very difficult to prepare and to cook (I've learned this by watching Top Chef here) and can have unpleasant flavor, odors and textures if not prepared right. I guess the very best stuff you would get in some countryside village in an old lady's kitchen, where she would be serving the head of her beloved veal, that she has been preparing for hours. I have yet to try that. For dessert I had (a bucketful) of crème de marron with vanilla ice cream and chantilly with almond chips. I could get so fat here. All drenched down with some lovely Pomérol. We had champagne also as an apéritif and it was probably the freshest, nicest champagne I've ever had. I have completely forgotten the brand, obviously. And to add to this our waiter was hilarious. His jokes actually were funny. He was also super professional, I love the professionalism of the waiters in some places here, the little metallic spatulas for wiping bread crumbs from the table on a little plate with a folded cloth serviette on it, and all the rest of the tricks of the trade. Please never ever make them disappear. As you might have guessed by now, it's not the cheapest one, but not totally unaffordable either. And oh how worth every cent.

Le Café Charbon

Le Café Charbon

109, rue Oberkampf, 75011 Paris. www.lecafecharbon.com 
This is a "typical" bar-brasserie type of a place on rue Oberkampf (a super spot for an evening/night out in Paris with it's bars, restaurants and a really nice concert venue, Le Nouveau Casino.) Waiters are nice, atmosphere is relaxed and the food is good and so are the prices. I ate Encornets farcis de Piperade avec pommes de terre confits de l'huile d'olive (see photo). I ordered it for the simple reason that none of us four francophone/francophile eaters knew what it was ( I mean the first part was a mystery, potatoes in olive oil is the sort of food vocabulary that even I can master.) and the rest was your basic brasserie dishes, all of wich I've already tasted somewhere. And making a blind order is just so much fun. When I got the plate the encornets looked like endives and that's what I assumed they would be, since often farcis is some kind of stuffed vegetables, usually peppers or tomatoes (yum yum both of them). I wasn't too pleased because I'm not a fan of endives, but thought well, I only have myself to blame for ordering blind. I was pleasantly surprised as I cut into my dish, wich turned out to be stuffed seafood instead. The stuffing was nice and spicy with peppers and juicy sauce. A google later I now know that I ate this:

stuffed with this:

So I had a lovely, basque/gascon dish by accident. Ace! I almost feel like I've been to the sea. Almost...
Also, as I got home and went to bed, I read a chapter of Hemingway's "A Moveable Feast" (yep, that's the reason for the name of this blog), that tells about the years he spent in Paris. And in this very chapter he ate potatoes in olive oil. Just like me. And he really enjoyed them, wiping the rest of the oil on a piece of bread. I totally knew what he was talking about. Ernie and me, were basically BFF's now, I think. Since we both like potatoes in olive oil.
The only negative thing to say is that the restaurant had a funny, "fin de soirée" type of an unpleasant smell of human origine floating into our noses when it wasn't covered by the aromas of the food. It wasn't overpowering but everyone could smell it. But that aside, do eat here.

That's about it for now. I'm so hungry.

Places where I ate

I'm already hungry but cooking that fish seems like so much work. My plan now is to build up my hunger by writing about restaurants. Then I will be so hungry that I have no other choice but to drag myself to that pan and stir up that piece of salmon that I'm planning to enjoy with some Ikea fish sauce. Here goes.

Considering how desperately poor I've been here, I've managed to have some pretty good meals. I'm basing the following list of restaurants on the business cards I have piled up in my wallet from all the nice places (also if they had very nice business cards, even if the food wasn't that special...). So I've actually been to these places, they're not run by a friend and no-one's paying me (unfortunately) to say nice things about them. If the food wasn't worth mentioning, usually the company or the occassion was.
I'm also excluding picnic meals here. Obviously they're the best.

Crépérie Beaubourg
2 rue Brisemiche, 75004 Paris
Business card appearance: Small and orange, 3 twiggy female characters dressed in traditional breton attire dancing/jumping on a background of (wtf) the map of Mid- and South America + Mexico and the Pacific Ocean. Backside blank.
I've been to this touristy/traditional crèpe-restaurant twice. First with Raisa for some kind of chocolate-crème de marron-chantilly -overload soon if not immediately after I arrived. I was there also with Minja once soon after she arrived. It's located right next to Beaubourg/ Centre Pompidou (Why does that place have two names...?) in a touristy neighbourhood. But in that area it's a nice place to go to for a crèpe and a coupe (a little teacup) of cider. The real kind where you don't add ice (god forbid).

L'Été en Pente Douce
23 rue Muller, 75018 Paris.
Business card appearance: Small, but larger than Créperie Beaubourg's. A pretty nice black and white drawing of the terrace seen from the stairs of Montmartre. A little Sacré Coeur drawn to the upper corner. A cute handdrawn map on the backside with some info.
This is possibly one of the most photographed terraces in Paris. It's right down the east side stairs from Sacré Coeur and has irresistibly photogenic colorful metal tables. It sure is cute. It's also a very short walk from home for me so I've been there a few times. I have never eaten there though, but Mari and Anna had had some cheese there. And wine. So that was good. I've also had some wine there with Justine, it was good. And the waiters are kinda hot.

Chamarré Montmartre
52, rue Lamarck, 75018 Paris.
Business card appearance: Standard size. Metallic, steel gray base colour. Very minimalist with logo, name, chef's name, website. On the backside just chef's name (he's famous apparently) and contact info. Chic.
We ate here at our boss's going away dinner. The cheapest menu was 50 € for 5 courses dégustation, meaning two small starters, two small maincourses and a light dessert. And a bottle of wine was about as much as the menu. Needless to say, I wasn't paying for this myself. This menu was essentially fish and the chef is known for his fruit and seafood combos. Everything was delicious, although half of the time I didn't know what I was eating, because there was no list, the menu changes every day according to available ingredients and so the waiter told us every time what we were being served. And I forgot it right away since there were at least 5 ingredients in each course and fish names, exotic fruits, food vocabulary... Not my strongest point. Even if I'm completely hooked on french cooking reality shows like Top Chef (each episode is 3h!) since they just have such an amazing knowledge of the most unlikely ingredients.
The food was good and the restaurant was very chic and wines were damn expensive. I'm sure my boss enjoyed it, I personally prefer more simple, more familiar feel. Plus it was expensive, not on a parisian scale but totally out of reach on a usual student/intern/traveler scale. And the dessert was a "fruit tartar". What a waste of space. Icy fruit mush. Whatever.

Marcel
1, Villa Léandre, 75018 Paris
Business card appearance: Smallish. Grey with MARCEL typed in the middle in black blocks. Minimalist chic. What else... Info on the backside.
This is THE bobo-brunch haunt on the northside of Montmartre. Cramped and pricy so obviously the place to be. Went there with Minja and Hanna for an overpriced brunch on a sunny day in march or april. Everything was oh so bio. To be a bobo you have to be bio, baby. I still somehow like it though, but probably only because I'm such a wannabe bobo.

Miroir
94, rue des Martyrs, 75018 Paris
Business card appearance: Standard size. Red background with Miroir printed in white 4 times, twice upside down. Backside grey with info printed in black. Also info the the Cave du Miroir, the restaurant's wine shop opposite across the street.
A lovely place close to rue des Abbesses. Got the tip from my collegue Steve, our resident restaurant guide... They also have a changing menu for about 25 euros + wine. Typical neo-bistro food, thus typically french enough for visitors f.ex. Wines are great, since they have their own wine shop as well. Also a walking distance from home for me. Only negative point is that you have to book EARLY. Otherwise you might get a table at 19h30 but you will (yes you must) give it up at 21h. And 1h30 is not a nice timespace for a proper dinner. I know, I've tested. Not good. But the restaurant otherwise is really nice.

Grain d'Orge

Grain d'Orge

15, rue de l'Arc de Triomphe,75017 Paris
Business card appearance: Standard size. Buttery yellowish base, shiny finish, name and address plus some art-deco-ish stuff printed in burgundy. Map on the backside.
We ate here with two of our bosses and my collegues so I the price range is about the same as at Chamarrée. We went here also because it's a walking distance from the office and it's yet another Steve's suggetion. The kitchen is flemish and I had some *flemish word* fish. Everything was good and pricey. Went for drinks afterwards and The Big Boss promised us an even pricier dinner if we reach 300 000 in sales. Which we have! Looking forward to the next treat...

Le Basilic
33, rue Lepic, 75018 Paris.

Le Basilic

Business card appearance: Standard size, rounded corners. Another one with a light yellowish butterish base. A drawing of the entrance to the restaurant in brown. It's all covered in vines. Info in black on the backside and a print of a vine sprout.
We had dinner here with Mari and Annika. Had to wait a bit to get in but nothing too bad. It was ok priced, normal stuff, a bit touristy with all kinds of frenchy trinkets around as decoration but never mind. The company was marvellous and we had a great 9 flavour ice cream assortment as a special dessert. Also a walking distance from home.

La Fourmi Ailée
5,rue du Fouarre, 75005 Paris.
Business card appearance: Like something I used to draw as a kid. A colourful picture of the entrance and terrace of the restaurant and some info in curlywurly letters. Map (drawn in the same kiddy style) on the back.
We ate here with Justyna and Nico. We stumbled upon it after wondering around the 5th looking for a restaurant that was open, maybe it was sunday or smth, I don't know why they were all closed. It was directed by a fairly obvious gay couple, they were nice but pretty slow and forgetful. But it was nice to eat with my surprise visitors. I think we had crèpes. Basic crèpes they were.

Rimal take-away

Rimal
109, Blvd St. Germain, 75006 Paris.
Business card appearance: White background, logo, superbasic. Blank backside.
This is my favorite lebanese sandwich place ever (also the first one I've been to...). You can eat sur place or have a take-away lunch at the Jardin du Luxembourg really close by. They have about 20 varieties of sandwiches (huge, filled pitas) and a menu is only 10 euros. Plus, their upstairs is always really calm. Great for gossip. I came here first time with Mari and Annika, since then I've been there with pretty much everyone or at least advertised it.

Café de l'Industrie

Café de l'Industrie
16, rue Sabin.
I don't have their business card, just a gorgeous piece of paper with my hand drawn incomprehensible map.
Been here many times as well. Good prices, always good company. Really noisy though if full. But when wouldn't it be a bit noisy in Paris. Love this place. Thanks to Henna for taking us there with Elisa for the first time before going to see Rubik's gig (that was greeeeat).


I'm ending my restaurant report here for now. I'll add more as they come up. Now I'm damn hungry.

"I had a home in Paris, at the foot of the Montmartre hill"

What a better way to start this blog dedicated to my 6 months (well) spent in Paris than the (slightly modified) starting phrase of Karen Blixen's "Out of Africa". Not because I love the book and the film and the way Meryl Streep speaks with a lovely fake accent in the movie and how incredibly beautiful she was (still is) and I don't mind a young Robert Redford either. It's because of and in honor of my hustling, misunderstood and colourful african neighbourhood in the Goutte d'Or and because of the love/hate relationship I have with it. And that's the kind of relationship I have with Paris in general, in the matter of a fact.

And what a better time to start writing about my view of this city than 5 months into my stay in Paris. By now, I've realized that Amélie Poulain must've never wondered down to Boulevard Barbés just down a few streets to the east of her magical Montmartre of winking statues and a Matthieu Kassovitz that manages to follow her leads left on the Sacré Coeur stairs before a group of 346 japanese tourists marches in a disorderly manner all over them. I also realized watching Woody Allen's "Midnight in Paris" here that when Owen Wilson says "I really love walking in Paris", he means he REALLY loves it, since he has just walked from Montmarte down to the Grand Palais in about 30 seconds. The distance is 2.659 km. He says this to a gorgeous parisian girl who sells old music equipment and old records at the Marché Paul-Bert. The grumpy old men selling antiques over there and the extremely (EXTREMELY) groomed retro design-furniture (prizes starting from 5000 € a chair) salesment at that very market must have eaten her (they're always eating for some reason, and look like they shouldn't be bothered). They have also taken over her stall, since no-one sells music equipment there. Or then she ran off with that Owen Wilson character and they're now happily married somewhere in the States, polishing gramphones and listening to early jazz and charleston. Who knows. My point is, salespeople down there are never attractive young women.
I've also started to turn a bit cynic/overly sarcastic (see above), I've started grunting and going "pppphhhffff pppppphhhhhfff" when someone blocks my way. If it's a tourist, it's a triple ppphhhfff. If it's the african ladies selling random unknown vegetables just outside my entrance, hence blocking it, they get a "PARDOOON MESDAMMMES!". These are typical parisian tics. I've also started to show signs of passive aggressiveness when it comes to the traffic, i.e. taxis burning red lights and almost running over my toes. They've been known to get their cars punched/yelled at/a murderly glance by me. If I start thinking out loud in a grocery store ("olives c'est bon... ils sont où les fruits... Aprés il me faut des surgelées...") like half of the population here, regardless of age, sex or ethnic background, then please somebody stop me. It's just too mental patient-y for my taste.

Here I will share the things I've done, the things I would love to do, the things I haven't done, the things I won't do, the things I think everyone should do, the things I think no-one should do, but what they should do instead, the places I've been, the things I've seen, the treasures I've uncovered, the things I've eaten, the songs I've heard, the things I hate, and most of all, the things and people I love. After all, they call it the city of love...

And why am I here? On an internship at the Finnish Trade Center (I'm finnish), that's why. Traveling 20 minutes by metro between Africa and the business world every day. And being able to do that is just one of the things I love about Paris.