Je suis désolé...

...or "I'm sorry" that I haven't posted in a while. I've been working a lot and have had a little less time for interesting activities to write about. I did get to go to the Musée Picasso last weekend where I snapped a picture of this sculpture (taking pictures of the paintings was interdit):

It's called "The woman with an orange or the woman with an apple." I guess Pablo couldn't make up his mind. It was an excellent museum, and after the overwhelming vastness of the Louvre, it felt much more manageable. On Sunday I was invited to lunch by a woman in the lab - this turned out to be a 5 course (not including the aperitif) meal that took about 3 hours. We drank quite a lot of wine and discussed politics, child rearing (they have 3 daughters and 1 son, the son being about 6 months older than Sadie) and basically any topic that came to mind. They wanted my opinion on who would be the next president of the US (I told them I had no idea) - and my reassurances that Bush couldn't run again. I was happy to tell them that he can't, and that you even see bumper stickers printed with his last day in office. It was a great time.

Other than that, I have been settling in. My French has not improved, but I can get my daily baguette with no problem which serves as dinner (sandwhich) and breakfast (jam). I even branched out a bit and grabbed a slice of Quiche Lorraine the other night, which was by far the fluffiest, most delicious piece of Quiche I have ever had (apologies to my mom and Ann of course). Here is the view down the street from my front door (and yes, that is the Eiffel Tower in the distance):

I'll try to post a little more often, I'm going to see a Castle tomorrow so I will definitely have some pictures.

Les souris

I got to meet les souris (the mice) today. Any doubt I had that my research could have been done in New Hampshire was erased when I saw the gigantic isolation unit the mice live in to keep them germ-free. The Institut Pasteur is an impressive facility - it's packed into a place much smaller than Dartmouth, but they have every piece of equipment one could want.

After work I went to the Louvre, which is open late on Fridays. Of course I had to continue in my series of bad pictures of famous art, so here is the Venus de Milo:

I was told at the lab that I had to check out the Napoleon III Apartment. I was glad that I did - it was probably the closest I'll ever come to walking through a palace. Here's the dining room:

But overall, I probably spent the most time checking out the Egyptian artifacts. I never knew, but the Louvre puts the British Museum to shame as far as Egyptian stuff goes (with the exception of the Rosetta stone which is probably the coolest archaeological find ever). The had a great display of a mummy taken out of his sarcophagus:

And his organ jars below him:

I don't think I'd ever seen a mummy in such a state, it was really interesting, and I didn't see Brendan Fraser around so I figured I was safe. There was also a cool exhibit of the old Louvre deep in the basement of the new Louvre - it's amazing they built around it the way they did:

On the way home, I got off the metro a couple stops before mine to check out the area around the big station. I saw a place called Cafe Leffe, so I decided to give it a try for dinner. Now this place goes against everything I believe in as a beer lover - it is a chain restaurant owned by the biggest beer conglomerate (InBev) in Europe (and second in the world to A-B). But damn if it wasn't good - the Leffe 9 was pretty tasty (nowhere near as good as a real Triple, of course, but not bad) and the Moules Marnier Frites (mussels with fries) were amazing. The waiter brought a 3 quart pot filled to the brim with mussels with a ton of white wine/onion broth, a huge plate of fries and, of course, bread. There was absolutely no way I could finish it - at 11 euros, it was a great value. I may have to go back.

Aujourd'hui

I think the title means "today" and it's a perfect example why learning Spanish is useless if you want to know French - in Spanish today is "hoy" and pronounced with a silent h. Easy. I don't even know where to begin with "aujourd'hui."



Anyway, today was my first day at work (mostly administrative stuff, if you think beuracracy is bad in the US, come to France), but I didn't have a full day, so I left mid-afternoon to do some sightseeing. I popped over to the Museé d'Orsay, which is only a couple stops on the metro from where I am. For those of you who may not know, this museum has nearly every impressionist painting you have ever seen reproduced (well, not really, but it sure seems like it). It's kind of weird seeing paintings that you have seen pictures of over and over. And then taking your own pictures of them.



Afterward, I grabbed an Affligem blonde at a cafe and watched a guy on a bike get hit by a car. Hard. It even shocked the Parisians. He's still alive, but I think he had a broken leg, probably some ribs too - I didn't stick around to watch him get loaded into the ambulance. It was his fault though (riding in the crosswalk against the light), and of course he wasn't wearing a helmet.

Funniest sight today: You know how when cops in the US are together, invariably one of them grabs a bunch of doughnuts? Well, it's the same in France, except one of the cops brings a bunch of yogurt.

Bonjour!

Well, I successfully made it to Paris. I'm getting settled in and trying to learn French as fast as I can so I don't starve. I was able to get my first dinner all by myself yesterday. Here it is:



The wine in the picture was less than 2 euros, and is as good as anything I have had in the US under $20. The baguette was amazing, still warm when I bought it and maybe the best bread I have ever tasted. The cheese was dirt cheap supermarket cheese, and damn good, but I found a fromagerie today that surely has even better cheese.

Funniest sight so far: when I turned on the TV in my apartment, the first thing that came on was Beverly Hills 90210. In French.

Tomorrow I get to work. Wish me luck!