This Week's Door Picture from Paris

Sometimes it's the simple, quiet, battered door that catches my attention. I found this door on a narrow street in the Montremarte district of Paris. In Paris, many front doors are entered right off a busy sidewalk....but sometimes when someone briefly leaves a door open you see it may lead into a huge foyer where stairways and hallways take you to apartments or even in some cases directly into a courtyard where Vestas and bikes may line the walls.

Feeling a bit melancholy today as I try and whip up my enthusiasm to finish my book proposal with a bang....this door spoke to me....I guess I feel...gray, banged up and a bit tired....LOL>>

Rediscovering Paris

I was searching for a picture yesterday and was surprised to find how many photos I have completely overlooked in my files because they are from Paris versus Africa. These pictures, now months old, seem new and undiscovered. I sat down with them on this cold rainy day and looked to see if there might be a few I could share.

I remember shooting this picture for a couple of reasons. I loved the man's arm crocked at his elbow (so continental!) and I loved the woman's shoes. I spied those heels from across the street and immediately had shoe envy since I was walking in oh-so-practical athletic shoes. I also liked the light....it was blue... just like in this picture....a consequence of walking down a narrow street with tall venerable old buildings casting gray shadows which reflected the overcast sky.


Here's another photo that surprised me. I took it in the Rodin Museum. I remember passing by it without much thought.... then retraced my steps. "It looks like a Van Gogh," I said to myself but it seemed so ordinary....no glass to protect it....no huge lumbering guards next to it...not even a spot light..instead it just occupied space quietly....as if it was confident that eventually it would dawn on you that it was a Van Gogh....and you would rush back....to adore it. Which is exactly what I did.....

The picture is titled "Portrait of Pere Tanguy" and it has a curious Japanese background. Pere Tanguy owned a paint shop in Paris and apparently was immortalized because he made generous advances of supplies to Van Gogh and other unknowns such as Toulouse-Lautrec and Signac. Van Gogh, during this period, had purchased over 400 Japanese woodcuts which he exhibited in small cafes and studied. He felt their clean lines and their effortless style had something to teach him and some critics feel they helped him break away from Western convention. Van Gogh's painting room had many of these woodcuts pinned to the wall....which is why they appeared in this portrait.

I found 6-7 other pictures from my Paris trip that I thought were interesting...a chocolate shop, a little itty bitty smart car, the Eiffel Tower...and ohhhhh a wonderful food picture from Montremarte. Instead of clumping them here out of context....I decided to post them in my Paris entries in August/September of 06. So please scroll down (a one second scroll) and have a peek at them.

The one I have absolutely fallen in love with is titled.."Window Shopping in Paris." It's wonderful and quiet.

Pastis to the Rescue

One of the great things about traveling is all the new weird things you can add to your real life.

This week, I've had a copy bouts of tummy trouble. My hub, tapping into my residual African paranoia, teases me and suggests it might be the tapeworm acting up. Now, I know I don't have a tapeworm....but I guess my face registers that nanosecond of insecurity which he finds amusing.

Last night I was up late reading.... totally engrossed in a new quirky novel....by A.M. Homes called....This Book Will Save Your Life....when I finally decided to quit....my tum was a rumbling....so I thought about the bottle of Pastis I had bought and decided to try a little....and ohhhhhh.....after sipping a small glass....my tum was happy.

I was introduced to Pastis in the desert. Susan, our co-trip leader, suggested we might try a few drops in our water bottles. When you are drinking 8-10 liters of water a day....believe me.....you get "tired" of drinking water and tired of plain water. Apparently, the Foreign Legion, found that a few drops of Pastis helps fight water boredom and at 45% proof...might help you forget how hot you are.

Pastis is a famous drink from Marseille in southern France. Apparently it was created because brain stupifying absinth was banned and folks were looking for a substitute. I've never tasted absinth (although I learned there is a legal version of the stuff in Paris which we never tried) but I'll have to assume it has a spicy flavor since Pastis, depending upon the distillery, has about 25 other spices. When you open the bottle and inhale.....it's licorice and anise you smell. There's an art to drinking Pastis. You don't drink it straight...it must be diluted. You pour a small amount of Pastis in a glass....it's a clear amber liquid...and then you pour cold water on top of it. It immediately turns milky white...as in the picture and you sip it. It's touted as an aperitif.

I never liked it in the desert. I tried it in my water but licorice at 110 degrees just tasted weird. I'm not sure why I bought the bottle when I got home...I guess I was so excited to see something from my trip--- it was a classic impulse buy. I've tried it a couple times as an aperitif but found it .... odd. I tried it with ice cubes---something which people do---but the French find as reprehensible as discovering a dog turd in the middle of your living room. I remember reading some folks loved it as a soothing drink for digestive misadventures. So that's why I tried it last night.....and I can say it was just that....soothing and cool....and pleasant.

Perhaps my taste buds will always prefer wine as an aperitif......but as a pleasant after dinner drink and tummy soother it might just hit the spot.

Welcome Pastis.....and if you're traveling in Europe in the summer....and want to appear way hip.....order Pastis.....it makes you look ....so international.

And So It Begins.....

23 Days to Go...

I decided to keep a blog... a diary....of the comings and goings of what I jokingly call..."Gina's Big Adventure." Those of you who remember Pee-Wee Herman...know I've stolen the name from his movie. Unlike Pee-Wee, I hope my adventure doesn't conclude with me being arrested for masturbating in public. No... I'm sort of hoping for something more grand than that...maybe a book...or two? or perhaps a few great essays or articles. But even if I didn't write a word about my upcoming journey...I'm at least hoping for transformation...and a bit more texture in my life. I like texture... and transformation always sounds hopeful.

Just so we're on the same page...I'm leaving in 23 days for Paris and then I'm going to cross the Sahara desert starting in Tunisia and ending up in Togo. For the record, before this trip, I'm not sure I knew Togo was a country (Do pogos come from Togo?) and quite frankly although I knew the Sahara was the mother of all deserts..wasn't it mostly sand? and somewhere south of Morrocco? Okay...I didn't realize I was so completely ignorant about Africa and there are some days I even admit to not knowing exactly what signing up for a 30 day camping trip across this rugged environment might entail ...but a life too sane and safe ends up ....just that ...safe and sane....and who wants those words to be inscribed as your epitaph on some urn? (For those of you going for a "green " burial...picture a discreet cream colored printed card pinned onto your canvas shroud.)

So that's the kernel of this big adventure....a week in Paris... a month in Africa...but to tell you the truth I think since the first day I've signed up for this trip the adventure started....so that's what I'd like to talk about and share over the next couple months.