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Negotiations: an intensive class
The day after we got back to Paris, Nat started class bright and early at 9am. T of course meant leaving the house at 7:45am to get to school on time. She survived the rush-hour throngs of sweaty business people and was able to make it to class every day, which in this case was Monday to Thursday. Class ran from 9am to 5:30pm and consisted of lectures, role-plays and debriefs with one of the most famous professors at ESSEC: Alain Lempreur. He is the director of the European Centre for Research in Negotiations, a Harvard prof, and has worked with the WHO, NATO, the European Commission, and the Hutsus and Tutsis in Burundi (Africa) (he also used to teach at France's prestigious ENA for those in the know!). The class was intense and left Nat exhausted and zombie-like everyday. It's evident that she learned something though: even in daily life negotiations, she's ramped up the skills. Watch out!
What Corey did all week while Nat was in school
Oh yes, I had many adventures during the daylight hours in Paris. But mostly I discovered my obsession, and knack - like a radar of sorts - for finding the graffiti mosaics hidden around the city.
My favourite one so far.
It is really akin to say a Tony Hawk video game where you have to travel around locating all the various secret elements in a level to score 100%. So technically speaking, if there are 704 mosaics in this city (and this is according to some info I found online although I don't really believe it) and I've found 21 - unassisted by any maps online mind you - then as of this posting, I've got a score of 3.4%. At least I've got something to do for the next 2.5 months, n'est pas?
Check out my mosaic collection here.
Anyway, here is what I did this week…
Sancha says it's a church therefor we must photograph it.
This monument was all smashed up and looked like it belonged in another country.
Smashed-up-ness. I think someone was living in there.
The Zodiac relief was cool and Sancha loved the door handle.
I finally painted something, Notre Dame from behind.
Paris's skinniest park with Iris. It's on a viaduct 40 feet above the city.
Cliché but fragrant.
Everything is pretty here.
Drinking some wine to escape the downpour.
A trip to the photo museum.
We were inspired to take some black and white shots.
The gang, in blue.
Smoking only looks good in photos.
An interesting building I noticed while Nat and I searched for the American Library in Paris.
Oooh, art.
Nat celebrates fall (or gravity).
Louis Vuitton flagship store on Champs Elysee.
Architectural juxtaposition.
Caroline and Graham visit Paris
Natalie's little sister Caroline and her boyfriend Graham came to visit us at the end of the week. Our cozy (read: tiny) apartment and the new foursome make for intimate living quarters!
Nuit Blanche
For all you Torontonians who thought Nuit Blanche was an awesome idea, guess what? You have the French to thank for it! Apparently Nuit Blanche originated in Paris 7 years ago and has since sparked similar movements across the world, all on the same day. We dragged Care and Graham to check it out.
Excited to go. Unaware of the crowds.
First stop: Tour Montparnasse (remember the ugly tower that resulted in the city of Paris creating a special business district outside of the borders?). There was a set of intense spotlights aimed at the sky: they were so strong, the beams of light reached the clouds. The exhibit was set up to show the interaction of light and sound - people could actually interact with the exhibit to produce different sounds. We joined the throngs of people in the line-up to participate. Of course, the French don't really DO line-ups, so it was just a massive crush of people all pushing to enter the exhibit. We mustered up all the Frenchness we could and eventually wrestled our way into the exhibit.
Tour Montparnasse with the light beams.
Light beams from crowd level.
Yay we finally made it into the exhibit.
From inside (obviously).
We also saw another exhibit which was images of computer screens arranged in a configuration of the world's continents and projected into a public swimming pool. The screens each showed what the sky looked like in various parts of the world. Interesting but not quite worth the hassle of removing our shoes and socks to enter the exhibit!
Pretty lame, but the facility did have washrooms and I needed to pee.
The last exhibit was in a totally different part of town. It was a new area to us and was actually really cool to discover since it's kind of like the Distillery District in Toronto. We thought we were going to see an exhibit of what looked like Pikachus performing an opera. In fact, that's what it was, but somehow I was expecting them to be big. Instead, they were about 5 inches high. With hundreds of people lining up to see the exhibit, we decided to call it a night.
The newest metro line has security gates.
It is also just one really long train.
Free Museum Day - part deux
or
Come all ye assholes!
So yet another first Sunday of the month came this week, and with it: Free Museum Day. Although Caroline and Graham came in just the day before, and we had been out late at Nuit Blanche, Corey set the alarm and was up at 10:30am marching around, barking orders to hurry up so we could capitalize on the free-ness. After a few mugs of coffee, the rest of us troops were ready to go. Out we set to see the Musee d'Orsay… along with half of the tourists in Paris apparently! The line-up was huge, yet remarkably orderly and organized - a dead giveaway that there were no locals present.
Inside was the usual tourist scene: people taking pictures with flash directly in front of signs specifically banning them from doing so; giant crowds in the rooms with famous artists (Van Gogh, Degas) and empty rooms containing works of less-than-famous others; and, just a general free-for-all that was enough to make any rational person want to run out of the building screaming. We soldiered through and were rewarded with the understanding of the origins of the famous Art Nouveau "Chat Noir" poster that is somewhat symbolic of Paris.
Full house at Musee d'Orsay.
No one wants to SEE the painting, they just want a picture of it.
More jerks in the Van Gogh room; impossible to enjoy the art with these circumstances.
The guy on the right is saying "Yeah let's get photo of these" (well maybe).
...But the metro never arrived.
Next up: the Musee de l'Orangerie which is located in the gardens across from the Louvre. After waiting in line in the drizzle and occasional duststorms, we made it inside. This is a smaller museum whose pride and glory is two oval rooms arranged as an ellipse, which contain full-size panoramas of Monet's world-famous Water Lillies. There was other stuff in the museum, and it was pretty impressive given that the bulk of the art there was the collection of just two guys. But by far and away, the Water Lillies were the best: they alone made it worth the wait.
This crowd seemed more civilized.
Corey ponders Monet (but only for the camera).
Really big paintings.
Where the wild things are?
And finally, a mad dash through the Louvre to see the famous Mona Lisa. Or really, to laugh at all the tourists in front of her!! She is now on her own wall in the middle of the room, and is of course surrounded by throngs (if you're not keeping count, this is actually the third time Nat has used the word "throng") of tourists who don't understand WHY she is beautiful or important, but just know that if they bring home pictures of her, their friends will be impressed. Ha!
Mona Lisa Chaos I, 2008.
Mona Lisa Chaos II, 2008.
Mona Lisa Chaos III, 2008.
Sure there are other paintings in this room (and huge!) but does anyone notice?
Graham's favourite painting.
Randomly, amongst the thousands of people there, we managed to run into Iris. See? Even in the biggest museum in Paris, it's really just a small world.
Week 6 photos on Flickr
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