Friday, August 31, 2007

August 31

Coming back to LA was a bit of a shock. It was incredibly hot, which is not unusual for LA, but the hottest it had been all month in Europe was probably about 85, and that was only one of the days we were in Prague. So the heat wave was a little hard to get used to.

IMG_1803.JPG
Luckily, there's ridiculously brightly colored ice cream at Rite Aid. I had none of these flavors.

IMG_1805.JPG
Samantha and I had a mani-pedi party, and this is her unsuccessful attempt at French-tipping her toes. I thought it was kind of an interesting look.

IMG_1807.JPG
Eleven days later and my toes still look like this.

IMG_1808.JPG
My fingers stopped looking like this after a few days though. I am way too much of a fidgety picker to keep nail polish for very long, much as I try.

Wednesday, August 08, 2007

August 8

IMG_2938.JPG
My cousin's cat, Biscot, is ridiculouly adorable.

IMG_2942.JPG
Fairly miserable day at the Louvre.

IMG_2945.JPG
The ceiling was leaking, and water was being caught in a giant dumpster.

IMG_2947.JPG
Ze juxtaposition of the drastically different styles of architecture.

IMG_2948.JPG

IMG_2949.JPG
The French really hated the glass pyramids at first, but now they are more easily recognizable than the palace itself. The French are generally opposed to all the new things that are built in Paris, but then they become really, really iconic.

IMG_2950.JPG
CROWDED.

IMG_2953.JPG
The big JC! Julius Caesar, that is.

IMG_2957.JPG
Somewhere in the past year, I cultivated an interest in ceilings.

IMG_2958.JPG
Winged Victory!

IMG_2959.JPG

IMG_2961.JPG
Botticelli. (Pardon the angle. I am short, and this is really big.)

IMG_2963.JPG
RF= Republique de France

IMG_2964.JPG
Yep, ceilings.

IMG_2965.JPG

IMG_2967.JPG
People have been touching this toe.

IMG_2968.JPG
I love that John the Baptist looks like a zombie.

IMG_2971.JPG
This is as much of the Mona Lisa as I was at any point able to see.

IMG_2974.JPG

IMG_2976.JPG

IMG_2980.JPG
By Pierre-Narcisse Guerin. Clytaemnestra and Aegisthus creep up upon and murder Agamemnon, according to the Oresteia. They were some of my favorite plays.

IMG_2984.JPG
Napoleon crowning Josephine. I always thought it was interesting that Jacques-Louis David chose to paint this instead of the more famous instance of Napoleon snatching the crown away from the Pope and crowning himself instead, thereby demonstrating that the power of the state was greater than the power of the church.

IMG_2986.JPG
Endymion.

IMG_2988.JPG
Winged Victory, and all of her admirers, from above.

IMG_2989.JPG
Here is where they put things that are being repaired/going to a traveling collection maybe?

IMG_2993.JPG

IMG_2997.JPG
The Venus di Milo has always been one of my favorites.

IMG_3000.JPG
I also like her sour expression.

IMG_3003.JPG

IMG_3004.JPG
The Louvre catacombs! This stuff was around when the palace was first, first built, before it was called the Louvre, in the Middle Ages.

IMG_3007.JPG

IMG_3008.JPG

IMG_3010.JPG

IMG_3012.JPG

IMG_3021.JPG

IMG_3027.JPG
Yes, the art is beautiful, but the escalators are something else!

IMG_3033.JPG
Mon oncle.

IMG_3035.JPG
During a coffee break, my mother checks out my brother's veins. Axel looks on.

IMG_3036.JPG
I try to make my own coffee foam drawing, but it's not actually that easy. Who knew.

IMG_3039.JPG
We were still looking for the Egyptian display, and this might have been as close as we got. This is Mesopotamian.

IMG_3043.JPG
Giant curved mirror makes for good times.

IMG_3046.JPG
I am a giant.

IMG_3052.JPG
Axel, many times.

IMG_3055.JPG
Zoom!

IMG_3067.JPG
These guys had enough legs to be visible from the front and the side.

IMG_3068.JPG
Which amounts to about six legs.

IMG_3073.JPG

IMG_3081.JPG
Islamic vases.

IMG_3088.JPG

And then my favorite part, (one of) the sculpture galleries.

IMG_3090.JPG
It is a reflex to think all statues of muscular men are Hercules. I don't think this one is, actually.

IMG_3091.JPG

IMG_3092.JPG
This one might be Hercules. I'm rusty on the labors of.

IMG_3093.JPG

IMG_3097.JPG

IMG_3098.JPG

IMG_3101.JPG
Pascal.

IMG_3102.JPG
Pascal is thinking about his drawing.

IMG_3104.JPG

IMG_3105.JPG
Homer.

IMG_3109.JPG
Napoleon was still taller than me.

IMG_3110.JPG
Telling secrets to the statues.

IMG_3114.JPG

IMG_3115.JPG
More Julius Caesar.

IMG_3116.JPG
Old Man Winter.

IMG_3118.JPG

IMG_3119.JPG

IMG_3120.JPG

IMG_3125.JPG
All things must come to an end.

IMG_3134.JPG
The Paris Eye. Just kidding, it's not called that.

IMG_3136.JPG

IMG_3139.JPG
Notables: Chambiche and Liberal Bruant.

IMG_3140.JPG
B. Palissy and H. Rigaud. I don't know who they are.

IMG_3141.JPG
The Musee d'Orsay and the tip of the Eiffel Tower.

IMG_3142.JPG
Russian Dolls in St. Michel.

IMG_3144.JPG
Formerly an old hangout for intellectuals and artists. Now, for men in orange shirts.

IMG_3146.JPG
Les Sevres.

IMG_3149.JPG
St. Michel is very quaint.

IMG_3153.JPG

In a cute shop:

IMG_3154.JPG
Scrub brushes.

IMG_3155.JPG
Cheese graters.

IMG_3156.JPG
Self explanatory.

IMG_3157.JPG
My mother got this for her friend.

IMG_3158.JPG
Zombie attack!

IMG_3159.JPG
Fruitless sangria. (Literally.)

IMG_8225.JPG
I was singing Victor/Victoria for the rest of the night. I am again now.

IMG_8226.JPG
Yes, that is a pile of broken plates on the floor. No, I don't know why.