Le Parc de Seaux and une soirée de salsa

The morning began with a jaunt about the neighborhood. I had read that the marché des enfants rouges was having a little fête today and tomorrow, so I walked over and sure enough, there were dégustations galore. There was a boulangère, a fromagère, a boucherie and a caviste. Pretty much everything you'd expect from France but all right outside my favorite market and all handing out free samples.

After helping myself to some Tomme that couldn't have been more delicious or expensive (38 EUR the kilogram! yikes!), some gormet saucisson sec and a bit of wine, I bought a chocolate covered palmier from an adorable man who assured me that I wouldn't get fat from the monstrosity of a pastry he handed me for a mere 1,50 EUR. I don't know what this man was thinking; the thing does not have any indication of being good for you. Picture warm, buttery pastry dough, covered in sugar, and covered in chocolate. It was pure deliciousness and the perfect petit dejeuner.

I walked through the quartier a little bit before grabbing a hot baguette for the road on my way to the Parc de Seaux. Seaux is a sub-urb of Paris (a banlieue) that is built around a very gorgeous chateau and even more gorgeous gardens. This was the chateau built immediately before Versailles, and the gardens do not dissapoint. The Chateau is in "zone 3," so the regular metro pass doesn't cover the trip - luckily SLC payed for our aller-retours.


After arriving at the chateau, we walked around inside the gorgeous 18th century building. I felt like a real princess -- everything was lined in gold. The view from the chateau was even more impressive. The french doors on the first floor opened up to a view of an enormous series of gardens "à la française."


The nice thing about the chateau is that it is not only a museum and historical monument, it is a public parc. Ironically, many things that were originally built for the aristocrats are now public establishments for the rich and poor alike. Anyway, the residents of Seaux were out and about on the grounds playing sports, having picnics and walking their dogs.


After a jaunt about the gardens, Natalie, Tanya and I stopped at a café for some chocolat chaud and a nice view of the gardens. It's been beautiful out lately and today was no different.

I returned home and got ready for a night at Pachanga, the salsa club I had heard about. I was kind of sceptacle, but the entry fees were not very expensive (only 8 EUR) and came with a drink, so I figured I could just enjoy a beverage if worst came to worst.

I did not just enjoy my beverage.

When I got there, they were having a lesson and I jumped right in. I was really excited to see so many people out and about. It was kind of hard to understand everything the teacher was saying since the steps are obviously called different things in French, but I just did my best watching and following the guys.

Everything was going great until the lesson finished and someone asked me to dance. He started dancing and it was completely different than anything I'd ever seen before. I tried to ask in my best French, "What is that you're doing?"

Apparently, most people in Paris dance a type of salsa that is rarely danced in LA. They call it "cuban salsa" here (go figure that speaking the language was not going to be my only problem for the evening). I asked the man next to me what they call the type of salsa that the teacher was just teaching, and he told me that they call it "puerto rican salsa" here. Apparently, they only teach the kind of salsa that I do on Friday nights. I got in the habbit of introducing myself as, "Hi! I'm Emily and I only dance puerto rican salsa."

Luckily there were some guys there who also danced puerto rican and were happy to dance with me. I did try cuban a couple of times, and it was ok -- I'm just stubborn I guess. I like to know what I'm doing before I do it.

All in all, I'm very satisfied with my evening at Pachanga. It's a real nice place even if you don't like dancing. There are lots of tables and the food looked really good (one of the few places that serves mexican food in Paris). You can get a full meal for 22 EUR and the meals that include drinks start at 27 EUR. The drinks are a bit pricey on their own (8-10 EUR) but you get one (or two) included with an entry fee of 8 (or 14) EUR.

The music was good, the people were nice (espeically the staff), and I am really starting to feel like I've found my crowd in Paris.

Total Damages:
1 palmier dipped in chocolate: 1,50 EUR
1 baguette: ,90 EUR
bottle of faux-rangina: ,81 EUR
entry, dance lesson, and drink (the first place I've seen that serves margaritas) to Pachanga: 8 EUR

1er cours de photo et une soirée avec quelques français

Je suis allée à Belleville dans le 20e.
J'ai pris des photos.
J'ai bien mangé.
J'ai rencontré quelques jeunes français.
Je suis très fatiguée.

Today Phillip met us at a café called, "aux folies" in Belleville. The café was lively, filled with people who Phillip called, "bobos," and looked like the kind of café that really buzzes at night. However, we were at the café at 9am because the light was better, the coffee was cheaper, and the area was bustling with more locals than tourists. After scarfing down the coissants and other sweet treats that Phillip brought for us, we took off our lens caps and headed out.

Just behind the café was a magical ally filled with graffiti, collage, mozaics and very interesting people. It was like someone had dedicated this place to artists and let them run wild. Phillip was very insistant that we take pictures of everything, he even started conversations with random people just so we could get in a get a shot.


I took some pictures with backgrounds that looked like they belonged in high fashion magazines. Every wall was another canvas -- it was just gorgeous. We then hiked our way into a huge junkyard where some homeless people lived and some artists had set up studios. We met one artist who takes pictures of people on the metro with his cell phone and then makes elaborate sculptures of them.



The junkyard itself was a piece of art, too. The walls were filled with graffiti in vibrant colors and the ground was part garden, part assemblage. Phillip took pictures of us all jumping in front of a graffiti-ed wall and I felt like we were in some sort of movie. This place was unreal.

We left the artsy section and moved on to the more yuppy side of town for a great view of all of Paris and a walk through some gardens. Philip is hilarious -- he just flat out asks people if he can take their pictures. This one woman told him that she didn't want her picture taken but happily offered up her child to our lenses.

After a fabulous trip to a quartier I probably wouldn't have visited or even known about otherwise, I headed home to scarf down a crêpe with egg, brie, salami, tomatoes and mustard vinagrette. Yum. Then it was back to the studio for my photoshop lab.

I hesitate to even post the pictures I took in class today as I improved them greatly in the "labo." I feel like an evil genius. My labo teacher retouches for fashion magazines and I really did not know I could make my photos look so much better in post. We layered colors, removed blemishes -- I even did an excersize where I removed all the cracks off of a cracking clay sclupture from a photo I took today. It's amazing how you can make an average looking photo look fantastic with just a few tricks. I will never throw away a gray-toned, bland-looking photo again. Vive la photoshop!

After Labo, I headed down to the Cité Universitaire (the student dorms in Paris) for a night of "tex mex" dinner with some parisian students. I met a good handful of people that I really liked -- they go to a university called "Charles V" that specialises in English. Many of them are studying exactly what I study but the other way around. It gave us a lot to talk about.

I have learned of a salsa club in Paris from one of the Charles V girls, and I was very excited to here that many other Parisians dance salsa. Definitely want to check it out!

Tomorrow I have a trip to a chateau and Saturday is La nuit blanche (a great big all night party all over Paris, but particularly in my neighborhood; "la nuit blanche" means "all nighter" in French). Then I have homework!

Paris is crazy, but I'm loving every second.

Photos from today will come in this Friday when I have them photoshopped to satisfaction!

Total Damages today:
0,00 EUR