Beautiful Paris

Today I went to a restaurant with my friends Joanne, Flo and Thibault to have a brunch.

It was great! I loved the place, there was a live jazz band and it was good and not too expensive (24€).

I had been told about that place a long time ago by a friend and I recommend it: Le réservoir

Unfortunately, we had a table close to the stage and the music was a little too loud to hear each other very well. But when the singer was done, it was ok.

Then, we had a walk with Thibault to digest all that food (it's a buffet). We went from Place de la Bastille to l'île de la Cité through l'île Saint Louis.

It was very enjoyable, the sun was warm and it reminded me of that nice end of summer we had here in Paris. Because I remember when I came back from Los Angeles at the beginning of September, it was raining and so cold! I thought summer was definitively over here!

Anyway, I don't know what it is but we saw big eyes on some of the bridges and big pictures on the walls along the Seine. It was very strange at first but kind of nice...

And just so you know, I took the pictures with my new iPhone ;). It worked: I was able to terminate my previous phone contract and get my so desired phone!

------------------------------------------------------Big eyes on the bridge...

Is Ken gay?

My boyfriend just bought a doll: It's a Ken...

He had one before, an old one, and he bought the new one for the clothes because he had to make it look like an Artistic Director for a school project...

I came home and he was cursing at it:

"the texture is cheaper than the old one, it's stiffer..."

I was already laughing, but that wasn't it!

He had to change the color of its tie (the doll was wearing a suit): it was pink!!

It had a sleeveless shirt and pants made in an awful synthetic fabric, orthopedic shoes and a jacket with cheap buttons that fell immediately...

Moreover, the new Ken is smaller, but has bigger feet than the former one, so now the old one looks like it's gay with the new one's clothes (the shirt is super tight), but has shoes too big for it.

It's ridiculous! But it was sooo funny :D

The new Ken, naked

IPhone

Why does it seem that everyone has an IPhone but me?

I feel trapped. I want badly one but I have still one year to go with my contract and if I terminate it now, it will cost me around 100€. Now I realise it's not that much and that it would still be less expensive to do that and have a new IPhone with a new contract than to just buy one for 600€... But it used to be more expensive a few months ago...

The thing is, I broke my former phone last February and now I have an incredibly old one that don't even have a color screen... or a camera!

My great phone

So now everytime I see something great in Paris I wanna share with you, like a beautiful sunset on Place de la Concorde or an amazing contemporary building, which is not that common in here, I think: "Damn I wish I had not lost my camera and I had an IPhone!"

Last week, I sent a letter to the phone company to tell them I was no longer using my phone anymore in order to terminate the contract without any breaking fees. If this works, I will be able to get an IPhone for a reasonable price.

But in the meantime, if you think you're missing something in this blog because of my not having an IPhone, of course you are more than welcome to help me. I will accept any form of donation!

D&G new commercial

The first time I saw this commercial on the back cover of a magazine, I went crazy! OMG, so much beauty and perfection on only one page! They could have had one of them it would have been great, but they had all of them: Claudia Schiffer, Naomi Campbell, Eva Herzigova, Fernando Fernandes, Noah Mills AND Tyson Ballou... That's it? No guest star?!?
Then the first thing that hit me was: "I'm wondering how much this marketing campaign has cost...". I know, I'm so materialistic... Later,I saw that they had also made a TV commercial, which must have cost even more...

But after a second thought, maybe it hasn't cost too much: the girls are not the latest most wanted models and the guys are not the most famous one either...
Let's imagine how this could have been more expensive: Gisele Bündchen, Heidi Klum, David Beckham, Cristiano Ronaldo...?

Any other ideas?

Fireworks

Last week-end, the biggest firework in Europe was shot in the Parc de Saint Cloud near Paris. They advertised a lot for it so when I got back from Los Angeles I thought it could be a very nice evening.
I told Lionel to buy tickets to go: it was going to be my birthday present. Unfortunately, the event was sold out... :( I was really pissed about that so I decided to go anyway and see if we could buy tickets at the gate.
Many many people, a few without tickets, and NO ONE selling any tickets! What a shame! After 20 minutes, I see a small kid going to a group of people coming and asking them if they were selling any tickets, and they were! I ran to them, thinking I would be very upset to be defeated by a kid who is just not as shy as I am! Thank God they had more spare tickets and as all the other free-ticket persons were coming as scavengers on a rotting carcass, I was able to buy us 2 tickets for the show!

And what a show!
Past the fact that we had to stand up for 2 hours because people wouldn't sit down, it was the best firework in my life. We had a little picnic with white wine before the show, then it started. First, an hour wih a musician playing piano in the smoke..., regular fireworks.
Then, 1h15 of amazing, incredible, unique, huge fireworks! Colors I had never seen: orange, mint blue, dark yellow... Shapes I couldn't believe: triangles, stars, hearts!!
And even with 2 small parachutes linked by a string, making illuminated smiles in the sky!

It was an awesome night!

Sorry, I didn't take any picture as I still haven't buy a new camera... (I lost the one I bought 2 months ago...) Just so you're not too frustrated:

Last Day in LA

Today is my last day in Los Angeles. Everything happened so fast I didn't realise it was coming.

Actually, yesterday I found out that my landlord thought I was leaving the house today when he reminded that my contract ended yesterday at 12:00am and that I had to pack and clean everything by that time. That meant that I had to find a place to stay for tonight, and make tons of clothes and shoes fit in my suitcase (that would have happened anyway...). And that's not easy, especially for me who hate packing if I'm not leaving right away after.

But I won't have time to be bored today. Matthew is taking me to the Glendale Galleria to go to the Ruehl store (is that a good idea considering that I do know that my suitcase is already too full...?), I'm going to a few friend's houses to say goodbye, I have to remember to take my car back before 6pm (I could forget... I know myself), I'm still considering buying an Apple laptop here (is that reasonable considering what happened to my camera? I lost it 3 weeks after I bought it...)...

Good part is, I get to see my boyfriend and my friends again!

How to be a good matchmaker host

I was at Teryl's birthday party last Saturday, enjoying my time, talking to new people, petting the dog (that was also his 10th birthday by the way...)...

I spoke with that woman who was really urging me on going to South-East Asia for the next two months, who taught me about chakras in general and mine in particular, and how she could see other people's energies. She was so into it she even broke a glass while teaching me all those things. That was really interesting though.

But that's not the point. I started to get hungry so I headed for the food and I saw those little napkins on the table...

One really tries to make your life easier. No need to find a piece of paper now to write your number on it, just take a napkin and say your name, your star sign (!), your favorite music, what you like and what you are expecting: a coffee with your new target, or directly heading to the bathroom (!!). It's that simple.

I can totally see myself saying to a guy: "You have guacamole on the corner of your mouth, please use this napkin to clean that up. You can keep the napkin".

But there is yet room for improvement as I don't carry any pen with me... It would be a shame to miss a date because you couln't write your number on that napkin...

The Getty Villa

I finally went to the Getty Villa! This is something I really wanted to do before I leave because when I came here 3 years ago, the Villa was closed for renovation, so I couldn't see it.

The Getty Villa has been built in 1968 to recreate a first-century Roman country house, the Villa dei Papiri, and is a museum dedicated to the study of the arts and cultures of ancient Greece, Rome, and Etruria. Another museum is part of the Getty Foundation, the Getty Center. I had already been there: it houses European and American art in a incredibly beautiful contemporary building on the top of a hill with a breathtaking view of the city of Los Angeles.

To visit the Villa, you need to make a reservation on the Internet and come at a specific time. They tell you it's free but you kinda need to take your car to get there and there is a $15 fee for parking...
So here we are, Efren, Orlando, Matthew and I, euh... wait, no Efren was sick so he couldn't come and Orlando had actually friends visiting and he had to pick them up at the airport... so I guess it's only Matthew and I! There is a very nice view of the ocean once you climbed all these stairs to the Villa. Ok, we took the elevator, but at least 3 of them to get there!

I have my old camera with me (yes, if you don't know, I lost my brand new 3-week old camera at a pool party 2 weeks ago...) and it takes good photos sometimes, pretty bad sometimes, or from time to time, very interesting ones. As usual when I'm in a museum I run hysterically everywhere and I keep laughing (I exaggerate a little but not that much... Matt can tell). The Villa is very beautiful, the weather too, and the Greek Gods sculptures as well!

In the afternoon, we decide to have a little happy hour on the Malibu pier, close by, which has just been renovated too. I'm impressed by the waves here when only a few miles south in Santa Monica, they are not that big. The pier is smaller than I expected but there are two nice restaurants where you can eat or have a drink. We're lucky the sun is still there because as soon as it hides behind the hills, it gets chilly and windy here.

Enough talking, please enjoy the pictures!

The view from the Getty Villa on the ocean -------------------------------The Villa-------------è------

Inside the Villa

Sculpture ----------------------------------------------Caught!------------


Sometimes my camera takes good photos...

At the Malibu Pier -------------------------------------The Malibu Pier -------

----------------------------------------------(my camera did the filter...don't know how though!)

Matthew and I on the Malibu Pier

What would I do for a living (room)?

Everyday I receive a newsletter in my mailbox from this website: Curbed LA. It's a blog about the Los Angeles neighborhoods and real estate. Sometimes it's not interesting, but last Wednesday, a small article struck me: it was about a new 5-unit project developped on San Vicente Boulevard in West Hollywood. The pictures looked nice so I decided to go see it by myself.

Three weeks ago, my friend Efren and I had already gone to visit new condos on Santa Monica Boulevard (901 Hancock Avenue, WeHo), but it turned out they were not that great and rather overpriced. Yes there was a common swimming pool, yes there was a nice fountain, but that was it! Who would pay nearly $1 million to get a 1,000 sqft (around 100 m2) and have a carwash by the window, one of the busiest/noisiest street in front of the unit, a view of the A/C units on the top of the next building, a giant commercial for Aussiebum right accross the street (ok the ad was nice to look at, but what if they change it for an ad about an hemorrhoid ointment?) and on top of that would have to pay monthly charges of $600 for a 3,5 feet-deep pool (1m)?

Not me!

But the project I visited with Efren yesterday, The Vue, was quite more interesting. Located at the 912 on San Vicente Boulevard in West Hollywood, this 5-unit development features a much better view (at least from the living areas), is much less noisy (you actually can open the window and rest on the balcony), is bigger (around 1,800 sqft or 170m2) and is hardly more expensive: $1.2 million... The only flaw I can see now is the fact that it's a totally vertical unit: 5 floors, only stairs! You don't wanna break your leg while living there...

2 bedrooms and a bathroom on the first floor, a master bedroom including a private bathroom on the 2nd floor, kitchen, living room and mezzanine on the 3rd and 4th floors and a private rooftop deck on the 5th floor, waiting for the jacuzzi! Better to take a look at the pictures:

The building----------------------------------------------------- Entrance

1st floor bedroom -----------------------------------1st floor bathroom

Master bedroom --------------------------------------View from the master bedroom

Master bedroom's bathroom-------------------------------------Living room----------

View from the living room on the Pacific Design Center------------------- Kitchen-------------------

Mezzanine------------------------------------------------- Rooftop deck

I literally fell in love with this condo... Who wants to help me buy it? ;)

D-9 before what ?

It's been a few days since I have been thinking that I'm going to go back soon to France and I'm torn. I have the same feelings than when I left Montreal, Canada or Rabat, Morocco. The feeling that I haven't visited all the places I wanted to visit, that I'm sad to leave but happy to go back home. In top of that, this time, I'm even more happy to be with my boyfriend again, but also more feared of what I'm gonna do.

My first thought when I took this 4-month leave was to spent 2 months in Los Angeles and then 2 months in Asia. At some point during my stay here, I realised that I didn't really want to go to Asia alone and that I would just come back to Los Angeles where I'm having so much fun. Now I have also realised that I just can't go on and on doing nothing; thus the idea to go back to Paris and stay there. I just have to figure out what to do for.

So now I'm basically trying to do as much as I can during each day so I can do all the things I want to do. I am literally running out of time !!

I won't let you go without a little picture... I went to the hairdresser today (again...I've been 3 weeks ago !), so I thought it could deserve a picture ;)

------------------Me...

Stephen Schwartz - Ford Amphitheatre

To end yet another great week-end and a cool Sunday Funday summer afternoon in Los Angeles, my friend David invited me to go with him to the Ford Amphitheatre to see and listen to Stephen Schwartz productions. It is in the Hollywood Hills, just next to the famous Hollywood Bowl. It's the first time I go in that kind of outdoor concert place and I must say I liked it. Having a little breathe while listening to great music and watching beautiful people on the stage with a full of tree, palmy background is very enjoyable! Though it was a little ackward when a helicopter just flew over the amphitheatre in a noisy way...
Anyway the singers were really good and it is also the first time I am at a concert and I can have a glass of wine: we had a little wine and cheese (people here can bring their own food, and they do), lovely! Even though we drank the wine in big red plastic glasses, which is not very fancy... but that's ok, the evening was rather casual.

Of course I would have loved taking pictures of the show for you, but my camera was out of battery and my phone still doesn't take pictures... So for you, yes, you're welcome, my pleasure, I found one on the Internet so you can have a little glimpse of what it looks like.

Ford Amphitheatre

The Grove - outdoor mall in Los Angeles

After a quick work out at the gym this morning with John, we decided to go to the movies at The Grove. The Grove is an outdoor mall in Los Angeles at the corner of Fairfax avenue, Beverly Boulevard and Third Avenue.

Going to that kind of a mall here is a whole experience. I can remember the first time I went there, it was in the evening and I thought it looked exactly like Disneyland ! Big stores are aligned along a large pedestrian street where a trolley can ride you around, big fountains, jazz music, lots of restaurants with nice outdoor tables... I've got to say that shopping have now reached a new level of greatness to me.

That being said, we wandered around a little, went to the inevitable Abercrombie store still featuring f*** good looking model at the entrance, tried the new 1969 GAP jean's collection and had lunch at a fancy italian ristorante where the waiter kept using italian words to raise his tip ;)

We then saw the movie District 9, which was interesting in the way that it deals with a story involving humans and aliens in a new angle that I hadn't seen before.

Here are some pictures of the Grove:

----------------------------Pedestrian street -------------------------------John and I

---------Fountain-------------------------------------- How fancy is that parking !?

The trolley (in the back) ----------------------Me at the restaurant-----

-------A&F---------------------------------------- Me in front of the fountain-----

House's facades - Mulholland Drive

House's facades - Mulholland Drive

I took a drive on Mulholland Drive last week, trying to find some nice houses there.

It is a windy road up on the mountains north of Los Angeles, with an incredible view of the valley and of course, some nice properties.

This road is also a good spot to see the famous Hollywood sign.

I especially like the gate in the 5th picture, which fits perfectly with the house's shape.