Jhender

25june.

went to Ile St Louis, finally. also finally got to exit from Pont Marie métro. little tiny island with old shops, and lots of icecream. there’s Berthillon and Amorino. both oh so expensive.

Summer sales have started. realised they had late-daylight shopping. the crowds everywhere make everyday look like saturday. the sales are very good though. buyable stuff. i have just realised that two years ago when i was here i din realise they were having a great sale.

took a look at anvers/pigalle at night. it looked safe enough, although there was security at métro entrances. saw Moulin Rouge at night, so much more activity than in the day, long queues and all. those ppl are going to pay 80€ to enter.

also finally found the N120/N121 bus stop at chatelet, although it was so far away it’s nearer to Hotel de Ville.

26 June

took a walk along Rue Saint Honoré. I really miss all those shops. I love that street. It’s got lots of uncommon expensive brands. really exotic. tired of LV and the common stuff. Place Vendrome is always always so quiet. incredible that those shops surive well. went to magdeline too. saw king crab legs at Kaspia. lovely. and all those caviar. and walked through Fauchon and Hediard. the stuff at Hediard is really lovely. lots of expensive food. ooh.
took a last trip to Orsay. so many so many familiar art pieces. smile and sigh. it’s like, i can’t believe im seeing them for the last time (almost). all this while, they’ve just been there, free to see any time i want to, and now they will be gone, and also no more free entry, ever. i’ll miss them lots lots lots. the other museums too, of course. but i will miss the paris ones the most. Kristy wondered if we feel over-cultured here. oddly i’ve never thought of that. but it’s true that there’s alot of expensive artwork here. lots of big-name stuff that’s scattered all over the city. i guess we’re used to it.

saw Tour Eiffel at night, all the glitter and all. it’s really rare to see night scenes in paris nowadays, what with the no night. starting to say goodbye to things, it’s sad. it’s like i know i will get to see some things again, but there are always other little experiences that i will miss. all the little streets i pass by, the supermarket shopping, the different metro stops and interchanges. all the stuff. i will miss them all so much. haha. sentimenalism. i miss the museums, the shops, the library, the this the that. the lessons, i havent had lessons in so long, the exams, the school campus!, the school meals(cheap!), the expensive food, the euros, my bank card, all the rendezvous, all the grêves and manifestations. yikes. =]

27 June

the last result came out ytd and i got 49/100 for my BFOA. har?. from 48/100 to 49/100. with 2/20 for systeme nerveuse and 0/10 for repro. amusing. anyway i went down to look at the paper and managed to get my grande fonctions mark increased by 1. yay. i did get one of the highest score for that part tho. crap.

went to Musée Marmottan-Monet today. smal little homely place. the vestiare guy called me japanese. amusement. and after i said im singapourien, he said he didnt know how to say hello in that language. *faints*. anyway the museum is nicey. except if you dislike Monet, but that’s quite rare. so far the consensus has been that christian artwork is boring and impressionism rules. interestingly they reduced entry price from 5.5 to 5 euros. perhaps they had a problem with giving change. going by recent prices, this museum has so many nympheas paintings and Monet stuff, and The Impression painting, that it’s worth at least 1 billion dollars, even though the museum is small.

digression: Musée du Louvre attendance: 8.3 million in 2006. a full price adult ticket costs €9. if 3/4 of the people paid full admission, they would have collected €56 million. assuming many of those people would not visit the museum if Mme Lisa were not there, the painting is worth maybe €5.6 billion? assuming ticket receipts over 100 years. hey wait, we’re not even counting gift shops yet.

After four years of construction, the viewing room for the Mona Lisa, previously referred to as Salle des Etas, will now be called Salle de la Joconde. A special independent exhibition wall has been created in the 800-square-meter room exclusively to display the Mona Lisa.

The Louvre Museum’s largest painting “The Marriage at Cana” will be displayed on the opposite wall, along with Venetian paintings on surrounding walls. In order to provide the utmost protection for the Mona Lisa which is delicately drawn on a poplar board, a glass research laboratory in Milan created a bulletproof, non-reflecting, temperature and humidity-controlled, and highly airtight glass case. The lighting of the room is set up in such a way to allow natural light to abundantly flow in from the ceiling. Of the 7.5 million annual visitors to the Louvre Museum, 90% say that seeing the Mona Lisa is one distinct purpose of their visit. The completion of this special viewing room will allow more visitors to view the Mona Lisa as well as heighten the security and preservation of the actual piece.

that was in 2006. but anyway it’s mad.

so top museum in the world is louvre, 2nd highest attendance is (surprisingly) Georges Pompidou with 5.5 million. that is incredible, i didn’t know that their stuff was so widely appreciated. it’s weird because the museum has never seemed crowded to me, not on the scale of louvre, and some of those modern stuff is really really bizarre. perhaps it’s because they have a huge collection that the rotate on their walls. still. oops perhaps i contributed multiple times to those figures. Orsay comes in at 9th with 3.1 million, then Rodin is the next with only 692k. Louvre still beats the rest by a huge margin. crazy.

[interestingly, La Grande Arche, Eiffel and Tour Montparnasse are in line]

enough of museums. i went window shopping at La Fayette. well it is crowded, but it still seems quite orderly and neat. the tills are ringing crazily. i was watching and i saw figures that reach 600 euros. that’s probably averagey, i mean, the stuff at the top floor of the men’s department has stuff priced above 1000 euros. i estimate at least 1 million dollars worth is paid at the cashiers every hour. i really like the Rykiel Homme trenchcoat. 400 euros. anyway that’s Sonia Rykiel, a brand the silly tourists won’t be carrying. well it was already on discount from 600 euros. saw plenty of other nice shirts and coats and jackets that i cannot afford.

Hermès was promoting some new perfume unavailable at duty free stores. nvm. the ribbon was nice though.

visited the wine section and discovered their expensive wines stored in locked refrigerators. like wow labels of 2000 euros, 6000 euros.

and then i want to complain about some people. i was on the métro, and this positively ugly couple gets on. an indian-looking fatty woman and a western non-blonde middle aged man. both wearing pink tees/poloT, berms. such a typical color. (it’s ‘typical’, but then not many people here wear that stupid color) anyway the woman had a big LV shopping bag, no doubt they just came from there. she had gold-y earrings, rings, necklaces, black goldy sunglasses, and a blinky watch which i guess is probably real diamonds. and she looks pathetic. laughable even. the man is worse. firstly he is wearing a simple watch, something like a lousy casio watch kinda thing, and he’s wearing sports shoes. evidently they have laughable dress sense. he can waste all that money on her and not even know how to dress. oh they also have a small prada shopping bag. they are so damn pathetic. even the french kids can do better.

and i guess that’s why there are some things some people just can’t learn. from what i feel, the french aren’t very rich people. money-rich. the middle-class isn’t rich. But they still live well and dress well. i suppose they spend less on stuff like cars and technology and more on food and clothes. but it’s still majorly a state of mind, a way of life. something you cant just swoop in here with a credit card and buy. “effortlessly chic” not equals to bling/flashy. anyway two days ago i saw this girl on the metro who was so pretty that i stayed an extra stop. well actually i could’ve alighted from either stop. then today i also saw this normal looking girl who seemed so pretty. nvm.

and interestingly the night when i was leaving from Moulin Rouge, i was reading my Iain M. Bank while waiting for the métro and this guy came up to me and asked me what was I reading. even more interestingly, he seeemed really curious, i dont know why. and i was telling him it’s a science-fiction book translated from english. and he couldnt tell whether the book i was holding was in english or french. it was in french btw. hm he couldnt read. poor thing. but he speaks french. at first i was afraid he was some drunk person or bad guy, but hm he seemed harmless. weirdy. =]