as usual... FYI.... but mainly for my own. Pics in a separate entry [maybe].
So I arrived on Saturday. It was snowing (a bit)!! I was ecstatic! 
And decided to go for a wander around and take pics and stuff. I managed about 500m til I realized my left foot was wet. Wet!!! My foot!!!! I hate having wet feet. Which is why I'd worn my waterproof Nikes, tho they're not my fave ones. Turned out they were no longer waterproof, for one of them had a hole. So I knew what my first destination was... a sports store to get new shoes. 
I bought waterproof Nikes, same size as always, not too expensive.. but unfortunately not too comfortable. So I bought inlays. Still not too comf. So I wore two pairs of socks. 
I binned my old pair since
1. couldn't be bothered carrying it,
2. were no longer waterproof and
3. had been looking kinda rough since I'd gone for a walk in the sea with them. 
But well yeah, the new ones kinda suck, must get better ones. *sigh*
Mhm, did some more shopping, nothing too exciting, then made my way to Caro's place (where I was staying). We did some chatting, I studied my event guide, and set off again. There was loooads going on, I was never gonna manage it all, so I had to take a pick. So this is what I did on Saturday:
First went to the Musée Carnavalet to go see Un Amour de Paris, photos of Paris taken by Dorothy Bohm across 40 or so years. They were ok. Not that exciting. Next was Les Bidules de Maître Molina. This guy's a Brazilian artist who made these... well I dunno what to call them, constructions that run on pulleys and these little people do things. See here to get a vague idea of what I mean. This was generally fun, however since it's something that's likely to appeal to kids, it was full of annoying little brats. He did the whole life of Jesus Christ too - it was humongous and quite impressive. Mhm that was it for Saturday I believe. Just some more shopping, and then I went to dinner with Caro. Jaja.
Sunday I first went to see Voyage Intérieur Paris-London - this was very odd and very cool. A few dozen artists from both cities were invited to participate, and the whole thing recreates a house inspired by the one in A Rebours by Huysmans (I don't expect you to know this 
- is fun even if you don't. I don't even remember it myself). It was dark and fantastic and nightmarish and very strange and fun. Oh, and free. And I discovered the very cute square Récamier which I'd never seen before. Was closed unfortunately but will go back.
Then I slowly made my way towards where I was gonna meet Karin. Went thru my beloved Luxembourg aand found one of the frequent exhibitions they do on the gates - Instantanés d'un Siècle - just random photos from the past century - some really cool ones. I got kinda cold tho. But yeah, great stuff. Then had lunch, then went to meet Karin. Was weird and fun seeing her again too.
So we headed to the Dada exhibition at Centre Pompidou - you know, the whole reason I went. There were two problems with it - 1st there were waaaayyy too many people (we had to queue up three times, and obviously it was hella crowded inside too, which always annoys me), and 2ndly it was just too large. We didn't see all of it in the end cuz we'd just had enough after a while. Which is a shame. However I've found out that I far prefer Dada literature to Dada visual arts. Maybe I should've known this beforehand. 
Aaanyway then we went for a drink, and then for dinner, and talked rather a lot. Karin and I that is. It was... very interesting. But does not belong here. 
Monday... ah yes, the Nurnberg trials at the Mémorial de la Shoah, then Paris dans l'oeil de Willy Ronis - photographs of Paris (again) at the Hôtel de Ville. These were really incredible, I loved them. Finally, last exhibition of the trip was Mélancolie - Génie et folie en Occident (genius and madness in the Western World) - this was bloody amazing!!! Too many people again, but well worth it! I don't regret queuing or paying €10 for this. It was about melancholy/depression throughout the ages - in art, in religion, etc etc. Really fascinating. Yep yep.
After that, more wandering through Paris.... I suddenly decided to go to the Butte Montmartre - such a tourist cliché but oooh how I love the view! Was very nice, took pics, admired my city... then slowly walked back to Caro's place to collect my bag. And then my back started hurting a lot (it had been sorta bad throughout the day), so I had to kinda hurry and ended up spending the last hour or so on her sofa recovering
Theeen I was on my way to the airport (sob sob) - got there and found out my flight was cancelled. Walked up to the BA desk and was told they'd put me on the earlier flight 
- I thought how does that work? - It worked because that one was 90mins delayed. So I was happy because I left pretty much on schedule, but there were lots of unhappy people (and it was one hell of a full flight). Funny thing is, when I flew out the previous flight had been cancelled too and those people had been relocated onto my flight. So turned out ok for me both times, but still annoying as a rule.
Mhm, rest was uneventul tho the usual stressful. Don't like that rushing about airports stuff. Caught bus to Gatwick, hung about in Gatwick for an hour, caught bus to Brighton, walked home, froze a bit, went to bed. The end. If you found this very boring - tough shit, haha.
i thought it was spelt 'ecstatic'?
Posted by: shaziak on Tue November 29, 2005 at 22:16
maybe?
So it is
*goes to correct*
I always get that wrong.
*lol* How did you spell it originally?
Wow, you fitted in a lot! Fit in a lot. Fat, fut, fet in a lot. Hmmm.
And I know this is the wrong entry, but :-O @ Karin in braids! Cool! Does she live in Paris now btw..?
extatic
she studies there
Posted by: Clarissa on Thu December 1, 2005 at 16:30