August 7

Day 1 in France. We were really jet lagged, having arrived at 8:30 am or something ungodly like that, so we did minimal stuff. So we walked around La Défense, which is the major business center of Paris, and is incidentally where my aunt works. (As well as a few of my cousins, which I would learn later.)


This is the actual building where my aunt works. I think it's pretty. This is also the only day that we saw blue sky for several days.


At La Défense was this weird sculpture garden with this weird pool of what are apparently pinwheels on top of giant screws for holding buildings together. That's what my dad said. Not everything he says is accurate. Anyone can feel free to correct me.


This is my 12 year old cousin, Axel. I wouldn't call him hyperactive... but he has more energy than anyone else I know. But then again, I don't know many 12 year old boys anymore.


Aw, Lil Brudder. (He's got the heart of a champion.) (He also left those sunglasses in London, I think, and he bought new ones in Venice. But more on that later.)


My mother, bathing her feet. The water was probably cold.

We then walked around, and saw some of the stuff that decorates the courtyard of La Defense. Not bad for a business park, actually.


This is one of the strange sculptures in the sculpture garden, that someone saw fit to provide with a face. Not bad. I don't know if I would kiss a public statue though.


Then there was this monolith that just looked like a bunch of multicolored wires, and I have no idea what it was made of.


La Grande Arche de la Défense! It is on a single axis with the Arc de Triomphe and the obelisk in the Place de la Concorde.


This is called "In Their Father's Shoes" or something like that. I thought it worked better in silhouette.


This says, "At La Défense/Fascist art/exposes itself with/all impunity/The persistence of F. Pinault/spits in the face/of male and female workers/and reaps the cash." (Roughly.)


I thought this was a very pretty planter.


This was an interesting, er, piece of art. It looks like a bunch of upside-down trees on a tiered trashcan. Except kinda pretty.


I rather like this sculpture.


So do my mom and my brother. It is what they are photographing.


A reflection. I am extraordinarily proud of this photo, and it wasn't a mistake or a coincidence photo! Yay!


Big stripey fountain. From the other side, it looks like the water is running down into the freeway below, but I think it just gets recycled back up through some fancy piping mechanism underneath it.


The ever-present rifle-laden military just walking around. They were EVERYWHERE. And yet, much less aggressive a presence than the American military always is.

Then there was this mall where Axel wanted to buy new tennis shoes because my aunt accidentally threw his other ones away.


We walked through a department store and I saw these. They are essentially nice leather shoes, slapped with several canvas straps. They are in the running for the ugliest things I've ever seen.


This is bar none, my favorite carbonated beverage. I drank it whenever I could in Paris, which only ended up being twice, unfortunately. What makes it particularly delicious is the quinine, which they also put in tonic water. My aunt and uncle bought a bottle for the big dinner we had on the last night we were there, but it was diet and it didn't have quinine in it! Disappointing. Also, I don't know why it says "lemon" and not "citron."


Nice name.

And now, because it is a formula that I love and never gets old to me, many pictures of shiny buildings with clouds reflected in them:






I liked this building the best.



Finally, we went to a grocery store, where I marveled at the differences between their food and ours here in the states.


Cute radishes!


Yellow green beans. (Yellow beans?)


These are both a variety of plum, which are so pretty. I hear they don't taste that good. They might be for making jams and compotes and things like that.


I had never seen fresh sole before! They're so flat! They must be so difficult to fillet!


Loose sardines!


I really wanted to try these, but I didn't. In fact, the only odd flavored chips I had were in London, when I had roast chicken with rosemary flavored ones. They were quite good. I should have had more, like the shrimp cocktail and roast beef flavored ones. And olive, of course. But then again, I do think it's weird that we have pickle flavored chips now.


You see this? Those two refrigerators, both sides, the whole length, are just plain and flavored yogurts and soft cheeses eaten out of cups. The other cheeses, milk, flan, mousse, butter, and other dairy products take up additional refrigerators like this. They do NOT mess around with their dairy, I tell you what. Also, they all taste really good.