Dali, the Catacombs and Paris - October 21, 2008

Okay, I just wrote this whole blog in the myspace window and then hit some key on accident and deleted everything I wrote. I am now typing in Microsoft word so that doesn't happen again and to ensure Stephane's computer does not get thrown out the window . I'll just cut and paste when I'm done. Anyway, I forgot to mention in my previous days blog that I had gone to an exhibition of Salvador Dali's sculptures and sketches/simple drawings from the late 60's and 70's. I actually cannot believe I had forgotten to write about this, but that's why I save all my ticket stubs and flyers so I can remember everything. Anywho, they did not allow pictures so unfortunately I cannot show you any of what I saw. But I will add a link for you to peruse if you should desire. http://www.daliparis.com/english/index.html I actually, until seeing this gallery, did not realize that Dali had done so many sculptures. I had only know of his sculpting abilities regarding his moustache, but never about the long legged elephants, women with drawers extending from their legs, and droopy gold clocks hanging on trees. It's mostly stuff from his famous drawings. But the sketches were what really excited me . Seeing an artist's sketches is like seeing a cross section of their creative drive, I believe. Some were clearly early sketches of later masterpieces and some were just déjà vu of his previous stuff. Some were crude and some were really detailed and magnificent. The Romeo and Juliet sketches were there which is some really cool colorful stuff. It was really neat being so up close and personal with his work. Until this point I have only seen one of his paintings in person and that is the one at the MET. Which is a shitty pointillism piece that I actually can't stand. Now , I feel I can hold off a while before going to Spain to see his original studio. It is right over the border into Spain, so it will happen soon. It was really a treat for me to see this and it was pretty random. I saw the flyer at the hotel we were staying at. I had no idea it was in Paris. But it is a permanent gallery so I would have thought I would have known about it.



Okay, next day, Friday, The longest day of the trip. I had some time after Stephane went to work to sit around and collect myself before having to check out of the hotel. While I was cruising through email I noticed a slideshow on the yahoo main page of the « Scariest Places on Earth » . So while I was scanning through it , I had one of those « AHA ! » moments. One of the « scariest places » was the Catacombs in Paris. I thought « ooh scary » and then « OMG I'm IN Paris and can go there ! » Well, it turns out this was possibly the worst idea I have ever had. I got dressed and got our stuff together and went off in search of the Catacombs. It turns out it was only like 3 Metro stops away from our hotel. I got there and was standing on line reading the signs next to me on the wall. Turns out there was no tours that day, apparently, they just let you wander around down there. Well, this kind of sucked because I was planning on touring because I was alone. I figured even if it wasn't in English I would at least be WITH other people down there. Well, not today. Some of the other signs read, « Not for children », « Not for people with respiratory issues », « Not for people of a 'nervous disposition' » (which really should have read « Not for big pussies like you Tara ! ») Also, it says that you enter the catacombs at this point , walk for 45 fucking minutes underground (unguided) and then emerge on the surface at some other place in Paris. I proceeded to ignore all of the tell tale signs and purchase my ticket for 10 € and try to stick with the people in front of me who were bringing their BABY and stroller into the catacombs. I figured, ok for baby, okay for me. Well, as it turns out, they were the fastest couple in the world with a stroller and were quickly out of sight by the time I was done buying my ticket. So, I gave my ticket to the guy and he kind of looked at me funny like I was crazy for going alone but I just hurried by him so I could stick with the stroller couple. They had completely disappeared into the stairs. So I started walking….and walking….and descending into the depths of hell….and walking…..down down down….soon I started to smell the stench of death (or so I thought) and not being able to breathe. I stopped to fumble with my camera for a minute and let some people pass by me. These are extremely narrow stairs too ! You know, stupid me, I thought it was just a touristy part of the catacombs where you go down with a tour guide and it's not really scary. Yeah right ! I never knew I had any claustrophobia until this day. SO, after fumbling with my camera, finding it difficult to breathe, I continued walking…..and walking….and walking…I swear I walked for five minutes straight ! I decided that I was TOTALLY WIGGED OUT and that I had better turn around before there was an episode down in the catacombs which included, running, gasping and crying ! So, I tucked my tail between my legs , put my camera back in my bag, and started to ascend the staircase. I passed several people on their way down and just avoided their eyes. Finally I reached the top of those hellish steps and went to pass the ticket taker. He said « ça va ? » which can mean several different things in French, but in this case, I'm sure it meant « Are you ok ? »… I said « NON ! » and pushed past him and others in line out into the fresh (LOL) and open air on the streets of Paris. I swear to fucking god I was going to kiss the ground ! Or a tree. Or a person. I was so excited to be out again. So, now, I bet some of you are probably thinking this sounds nothing like the Tara you know. Not afraid of anything right ? Well, I was TERRIFIED ! I dare you to do it, alone ! LOL So, I have the ticket stub for the catacombs but in fact do not have any other story to tell other than this one. Perhaps I will try it again in the future, but I will arm myself with 1) A buddy 2) a dust mask or scarf to cover my mouth and 3) Valium. I did learn one thing, though. I do agree with those people at yahoo who made that list, The Catacombs of Paris ARE one of the scariest places on Earth (and I didn't even go down there) ! So, now all of you know my secret that I am just a big fat pussy !

After the aforementioned harrowing experience, I decided to proceed with my original plan and take the Metro into downtown and go to the Paris Botanical Gardens and be around living things. What is really awesome about most natural type places, is that it's free or extremely cheap to get into them. This place is huge, it has the Museum of Man in it, Museum of Natural History, a zoo, a labyrinth and some geologic history of France which is laid out in huge rock pieces all around the park. At the zoo there was a really awesome temporary photographic exhibit on Aldabra http://www.aldabrafoundation.org/index.php Really awesome ! So, in addition to this they had HUGE old turtles lazing around outside the exhibition hall. Really neat. SO, I spent most of my day here going to the museums and looking at old whale bones and exotic plants, and amazing photographs and geologic formations from France. Pretty awesome for the geek in me. I spent a total of 15 € the entire time I was there and that includes my lunch.

After that I still had some time to kill before I was supposed to meet Stephane at a restaurant across from the train station. So, I wandered around the shops and walked along the Seine river and just enjoyed some time alone in Paris. I went to the cafe to meet him and grabbed something to eat. It was important that we got this train because we had a tight schedule between our connections. Stephane's birthday was at the beginning of this month and he received two tickets for a classical music concert that night. Basically, even if we got this train, we still would only have a half hour or so to get to the concert in time. Well, for reasons beyond his control, he could not meet me on time. I was very worried and I had left the restaurant at ten minutes before the train was supposed to leave to go up to the station. I thought I had made a mistake and he would be waiting for me at the train, but no, he never showed and I watched our train leave. I did not know what else to do and went back to the restaurant to wait for him. He showed up about ten minutes later and we were able to get back up there and get on the next train. But there were no seats available. So, I had paid for a first class ticket and ended up sitting on some stairs outside the bathroom on the trip home instead. Fucking awesome ! So, I had been on my feet the whole day and was exhausted. We still have this concert though so I decided to just drink a small bottle of red wine and relax. The train takes two hours, after all and we now only had approx. 15 minutes to get to the concert. We figured we would just hop a cab and be on our way. Well, when we arrived, the first cabby would not take our fare!!!! I just about strangled him. I told Stephane to ask the next guy. They both denied our fare because they felt it was too close to drive us there !! My head just about split open and I'm pretty sure in any language my disdain for them was clearly expressed. After all, I am from NY and we have hand gestures and dirty looks that get the point across. SO now, we had 10 MINUTES and a heavy bag and some distance to cover to get there. Well, as it turned out, we got there with minutes to spare and found our seats. Both totally sweaty and gross. I could see our seatmates inching further away by the minute. LOL but hey, at least I got to use the arm rest ! So anyway, the concert was very nice. I actually love live classical music. See, you really didn't know the real me before you read this blog ! But in fact, along with Metallica and Slayer in my iTunes, I also have some Mozart, Bach and Beethoven. The concert was two players. One Dutch violinist, Janine Jansen. And one Lithuanian pianist, Itamar Golan. Totally awesome ! She actually was tearing it up and his piano was great ! They played a series of music from Stravinsky, Prokofiev and Beethoven. I cried a little. Probably from the stress of the day, but let's say it was the music. So, after that we went home. Which included yet another walk with the heavy bag back to our car. But this was not the end of the night for us. We still had to unpack and repack our bag for the following day, when we were to awake early and fly to Bordeaux for the wedding of a friend and colleague of Stephane's. But I have been writing for what seems like hours and that story is another long one . So I will quit now, and write the blog about my first French wedding at some later time.



I hope you all enjoyed this blog.