Paris?

Here are a few pictures from my trip to Paris in November. I am feel awfully spoiled in saying this, but, I really wasn't that impressed. It must be because 99% of Americans are immensely enthralled by the place (probably owing to the fact that it is one of the only places they been, and the amount of movies it has been in is innumerable), and I just think that there are plenty of other fabulous cities throughout Europe that get less credit that do certain things better. Vienna has better architecture. Spain has fabulous food. Copenhagen is more quaint. Stockholm has wider streets and great cafes. Koln cathedral is more impressive than Notre Dame. Belgrade has great nightlife. Amsterdam and Gent have more beautiful canals & rivers. All of the above are cleaner...... nonetheless, it is still a very nice city (brownie points for a fantastic subway system?). Like with any city, though, I would need to spend more time to get a good feel for it. The food, I must say, definitely lived up to the reputation. I stayed at my friend Aurelien's place, whom I met when he was living in Chicago. He has a friend who reviews restaurants, and thus recommended to us to a place with a great trade off of price/quality. Although my entree was about 23 euros, one of my priciest meals this past year, the duck was simply amazing. The escargot, also, was phenomenal. I guess my Paris-upset could have been easily predicted, as I seem to have a particular penchant for seeing places that nobody else really wants to go to (like..... Skopje, Macedonia....or Qatar!).

There it is folks.

Ah, hijacking monoliths from Egypt always makes for a much more beautiful plaza.

Mmm Crepes.

Requisite Eiffel photo.

Lille

My first trip to France came in the form of Lille, in then northern part of the country. Merely an hour from Gent. A lovely fall day. Full of cliche decisions such as croissant sampling and crepe eating. Though only 1 hour away, a remarkable difference appeared between Gent, mainly in the form of bigger roads, more cars and motorcycles, and more congestion. Still, however, like Gent, full of upscale outdoor shopping streets, plazas, and fine restaurants and coffee shops. Sans canals and good beer.



Ah, a Frenchman painting. Yup, a Frenchman painting.

Map Check:

Fall is here:





I strongly recommend bringing your own French person along to France. It helps. With Helene:


The best source of cheap coffee when you don't want to pay 3 euros for a cup. And you can get le double cheese while your ate it. (zing!)

Being cliche again and sampling some upscale French crepes:

Heavenly Snails

This weekend in Paris, my friend Aurelien got a restaurant recommendation from one of his friends who is a restaurant reviewer in the city. Hence, we ended up going to an incredible yet reasonably affordable restaurant (at about $30/plate). The escargot here is one of the best dishes I have ever tried. The sauce, called Persillade (or beurre d'ail), was simple but unbelievable. The texture of the escargot was like a perfect shrimp with even less crunch. All for a cool 1 euro per snail. Stewed snails here in Gent just don't compare. Chalk one up for the inflated reputation of French food.

A Secular Catholic Church

France is a secular state. Here is a Catholic church we went to in Lille. At first thought, it seemed like a typical old Western European Catholic church. Then, a few things were encountered that I have not seen before in churches. Though, not necessarily in bad ways:

Guy Sleeping on floor:

Children's play area in church:

Not so typical Catholic art, let alone for a church:

Looks like a typical European church at first glance:

Large art exhibition in the church seemingly not so religious oriented: