The Coles are in Paris

Bonjour!

Matt, Frankie, and I had a fantastic day in Paris today. We slept in late and woke up to sunny Parisian skies. It's a beautiful day today. Blue skies and bright sunshine, with a slight cool breeze. It feels like the first day of fall; One of those days where the moment you think to yourself that it's starting to get a little too warm out, the breeze swoops in and cold everything off. Pretty perfect.

We're staying in an apartment in "le Marais." It's in an adorable little neighborhood that seems to be an interesting mix of Jewish and gay populations. I know it seems at first to be an odd mix, but the two seem to be beautifully coexisting. It's the kind of place where a bar with a giant Tom of Finland mural is plunked right next to a Synagogue. Very eclectic, and very interesting.

The neighborhood itself doesn't seem to be too terribly touristy. Outside our door, we see mostly locals, which is great, except for the flip side is that we've also encountered very few English-speaking individuals. The apartment we're staying in is small, but very cute. It has a bedroom, a bathroom, a small living room, and a teeny tiny kitchen. It still has the original wooden beams from a million years ago when the building was first constructed, which is quite charming. It's on the second floor, and the windows open up onto a little pedestrian square: The Bourg Tibourg. Of course, every time we pass the sign for Bourg Tibourg, I hear the voice of the Swedish Chef from the Muppets in my head saying "Borg borg borg!" The square below us has at least four restaurants on it, and the surrounding streets are also filled with interesting and quirky little cafes and bakeries.

Our major outing for the day was a trip to "The Fleas." The Fleas is a weekly antique/flea market on the north side of Paris. The flea market was enormous, and covered a seemingly endless number of the city streets. It wasn't as crowded as the Portobello Market in London (thank goodness!), but also seemed a little overrun with stands selling cheap generic blue jeans and weird African masks. I was most interested in looking at antiques and weird decorative items, so I was a little disappointed with the market until we walked down the Rue Paul Bert.

This section of The Fleas was right up my alley. They had booth after booth of antiques and decorative items that all seem specifically chosen to be as odd and eclectic as possible. There were lots of mid-century modern furniture pieces, egg chairs, weird atomic age lamps, bizarre and disturbing paintings, vintage taxidermied animals, and all kinds of crazy, crazy things that I've never seen before. There was one booth that was solely devoted to enormous chrome sculptures and furniture. Another booth had the most amazing collection of vintage sunglasses that I had ever seen. One booth actually seemed to contain some sort of an old medical school cadaver. Just when I thought I had seen the weirdest thing I had ever seen in my life, we'd turn the corner and the next booth would top it. Most of the booths were meticulously set up, too, so that they all looked like little rooms taken from the inside of some sort of crazy house.

Needless to say, I loved every minute of it.

After The Fleas, we decided to lunch at a nearby place called the Restaurant Paul Bert. It was a nice restaurant, but honestly the meal was a real challenge to negotiate. Neither Matt or I speak French, and our waitress didn't know any English. Not that I expected her to, mind you. We're in Paris-- I get it. Everyone's French. I totally don't want to be that guy that comes in to a foreign country and complains when no one speaks their language. So, really... I'm not complaining. I'm just saying that it was really tough to order lunch from a menu that was entirely in French, from a waitress that was expecting us to be able to speak to her in French. My French is extremely limited. I basically know nothing. So, the whole process of getting food turned into a fairly epic negotiation. Every time we would make a mistake when we tried to order, the waitress would leave the table and return ten minutes later, likely hoping that in the interim we had suddenly learned how to speak French. It probably took a good half an hour to get the orders negotiated. It was a little intimidating, and exhausting.

Honestly, I wish I would have tried to learn more French for our trip to Paris. I have a few key phrases memorized, but here's the thing about those pocket French phrasebooks: Sure, I can look up the phonetic pronunciation of "I would like to order a grilled cheese sandwich," but every question that the person I'm talking to asks me in return is completely and utterly lost on me. I have no experience with the French language whatsoever. They might as well be speaking that weird African language that's all clicks and whistles.

Maybe the language barrier will give us less trouble when we get to the more tourist-filled parts of Paris. Still, even though we were able to negotiate lunch and the Metro with no major mishaps, it's still much harder than I thought it was going to be. I feel self-conscious-- Embarrassed that I can't speak the language, and frustrated that I can't communicate. Ah well. I'm sure as the days here pass, I'll get better. Or, it won't bother me as much. Either way.

Our last outing of the day today was the Jardin du Luxembourg. It’s the largest public park in Paris, and Frankie had a blast running around all of the playground equipment and making new French friends. The most interesting thing about the park was the number of benches and chairs scattered around the grounds. They were everywhere! Seriously, everywhere you looked there were picnic benches, chairs, or some other cozy place where you could sit and people watch. My realization of the day? People in Paris like to sit. They sit in cafes, on the street, in parks... Sitting and relaxing with a cup of coffee or a glass of wine is a major pastime in Paris. Sitting is to Paris what mountain biking is to Fort Collins. It's actually really nice-- It creates a very relaxed, casual, and friendly vibe.

After the park we popped into a grocery store and grabbed a few staples for the apartment. Now, we're resting and recharging our batteries before heading out to try and negotiate some dinner.

Wish us luck!