Île Saint-Germain

I've seen Île Saint-Germain on the map and always wanted to check it out.  Well Martin and I have checked it out for you so you never have to.  There is no reason to go to this island ever unless you are going to "L'Ile" the restaurant in the park that is supposed to be very nice and on the expensive side.  And there is no reason to ever go to that restaurant unless you have a car or highway capable scooter because its not easily accessible by train and to get to this island I had to ride my bike on the highway twice!  This might have a more negative tone because it was a balls hot summer day that day.


This island is in the Seine but not in Paris.  There are two islands in the Seine within Paris, Ile de la Cité and Ile St Louis.



one half is residential and the other half a park.  Ile Seguin is downstream from it.



There are some interesting structures













a Citroen "Duck"



Ile Seguin.  There is a former Renault factory on it.  That's about it. 









another Citroen "Duck"











Tour aux Figures (Tower of Figures) painting by Jean Dubuffet.



Paris Plages.  Artificial beaches made along the Seine for the last 10 years in Paris.  Topless sunbathing not permitted, swimming in the Seine not permitted.  Sounds like you get the worst parts of going to the beach and none of the good. 

Le Tour de France 100

The 100th Tour de France was in July, 2013 and I went to Champs Élysées to see the the finish.  This was my first year watching the tour de France.  It's a lot more than you think.  Its a team sport.  Sacrifices are made, strategies are built around a single rider, patience is needed, and also the breakneck speeds.  There are fans littered in the streets waving flags and tossing beverages.  There is the Peleton (the pack of riders behind the leader) phenomenon.  There is attacking, sprinting, team cars handing off sports drinks to 1 rider who sprints ahead to distribute them to the team knowing he will never see glory at the water boy.  You see detailed topographical and elevation maps of the terrain, some of the peaks in the alps are so extreme they are Hors catégorie (not categorizable).  You see scenery of a lot of france in helicopter flybys.  If you ride a bike you will appreciate the tour de france more, I recommend it for you next year.



is Carrefour the sponsor for the whole polka dot jersey thing?  There are 6 jerseys that riders wear at the end of each stage.  The Yellow is the overall leader.  The green is the points leader.  The polka dots is the best climber who gains the most points on climbs.  The white is for the best young rider.  





a Norwegian fan.



the last section of the final stage is comprised of 53 km of laps around the charles de gaulle etoile, down champs elysees, down to the pyramid at the Louvre and back again.  Here is the peleton on the other side of champs elysees.



Mark Millar was ahead for a lot of the time but ended up falling back.  The crappy thing about riding on champs elysees are all the cobble stones.



the peleton





got a decent spot on a railing right at the front of the Charles de Gaulle etoile.







guy wearing hat from that bike cafe in London, "Look Mum No Hands"





they lit up the Arc de Triomphe with a light show accompanied by tons of dubstep.  Looks like dubstep is commercial music now





this woman in the front is an example of French trash.  She was with her family and they all resembled American trash so I'm assuming they're French trash
 


Here is some British trash.  they were so loud and annoying everyone and making everyone uncomfortable after the Brit Chris Froome won the whole tour de France.  After this I rode my bike over to Bastille for dinner.  They just opened the road up that all the riders had just been riding on so I actually rode that route as fast as I could on my bike to Bastille.  On the way people in cars cheered me on.  I gave them a fist pump.  pretty funny.  I rode like 3km, I can't imagine riding 53 km on that route let alone 228 km which is the longest stage. 

Summer Seul

So my family went on vacation to the US for a month and a half so I am alone in Paris in their awesome house for a month and a half.



well not totally alone, it's me and Kazam, the Golden Doodle all summer.  Don't let his not so thrilled look fool you.  He's thrilled



my baguette transport



First time making a quiche.  It's like the easiest thing in the world.  They sell pre-made quiche crusts (pate brisée) everywhere and then you just mix up some eggs, chopped spinach, lardons (french bacon chunks), salt, pepper, a lot of cream and pour it in and bake for 30 minutes at 180C.  So easy a gorilla could do it, and he did.  The amount of cream plus eggs and french bacon and a butter crust ensure that you can't fail at making something delicious



Dans quel univers de fiction parle-t-on le klingon?  In what fictional universe is klingon spoken.  SPOILER:  Star Trek, and apparently Hasbro owns the copyright?  cheese by La Vache qui rit aka Laughing cow in the US.  I asked a few people at Myriam's party about this cheese since I know the french are proud of their french stuff, like cheese (which they should be its amaze-balls).  They said yes, it's sh!t cheese but at a party its not bad.  I guess that's like how maybe you don't really eat chips but at a party you would.  I ate like 10 cubes of this but the rest of the trivia was either too french in nature for me to get the pop culture or too french in terms of french language and me not being able to read it.
 


Parc Montsouris where i go running sometimes.  A huge yoga meeting or class or something with music.  I'm sure a lot of my pals would also like to sit around on the grass and video tape 100 French girls in yoga pants sweatin' it out.



the back yard by night





Why does "Walker, Texas Ranger" have to be one of the ambassadors of American television in France?  Why!



I've seen this recipe floating around for a while, eggs baked in avocados.  I upped the ante and added some lardons and comté cheese on top.  In theory this would be the most amazing thing you've ever eaten.  In reality it's a waste of an avocado and eggs.  baking it cooked all the flavor out of it and made it gross.  Or the avocado sucked really bad.  I don't know if I have the balls to try this again though because I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I wasted another good avocado on this.





This season's latest fashions on display in the Marais



gazpacho.  you know I guess I really do prefer salmorejo over gazpacho after making it a few times.  both are still awesome on a summer day though.



Went to see Pacific Rim.  It met my expectations which were super high because I hadn't been that excited to see a movie in years.  giant robots fighting giant monsters?!!! come on that's what i'm talking about!!! what i'm not talking about is 3D though, 3D still sucks super bad, I hate 3D!!!!.  So when you go to a movie at 6pm on a saturday in France in July it means you still have 4.5 hours of sunlight (sun goes down at 10:30pm) and you will be the only losers in the theatre jumping up an down in your seats like little kids because you can't contain your excitement and couldn't wait to see the movie at a normal time like an adult. 



Les Enfants Perdus gets my recommendation



nice job on the Tartare de Beouf



noticed this cool architectural feature on some houses near my house.  Drawing those building behind that one older woman for my Parisians project has made me notice architecture more because drawing ornate buildings like that for hours and hours is like studying them for hours and hours.  I'm in love with the rooftops and all their variations here.



Rue Dieulafoy has these roofs too.



Kaz used to never dare to come down here but now that there is no one else in the house he has no choice or else face a whole day of boredom upstairs by himself.



Le Roi et L'Oiseau.  The King and the Bird.  Manga and animation are big in France.



12 Heures starring Nicolas Cage.  God I want to punch that face.  and what happened to that face anyway Nic?  I've never even heard of this movie and I read a few movie websites frequently.  Ils ont kidnappé sa fille, il a 12 heures pour trouver 10 millions de $ par le réalisateur d'expendables 2.  They kidnapped his daughter, he has 12 hours to find 10 million dollars, by the director(or producer not sure) of the expendables 2.  Oh awesome everything on this poster makes me want to hit the theater on july 24th



I inherited like 2 liters of cream in the fridge when my family left for vacation hence all the quiches you will see on this blog.  I have to find ways to get rid of this cream, delicious ways. Here you have an over easy egg, fried SPAM (don't scrunch your nose up at me!!! You need to be tolerant of this ethnic food we're talking about here.  It's not just mechanically separated pork-like parts and 75% of your daily sodium, it is a part of Korean cuisine since being introduced to the country during the Korean war), and épinards a la crème (creamed spinach) on rice.



leeks, blue d'avergne cheese quiche.


lardons and chimichuri fried rice.  the chimichuri needed to get used up somehow



If Josh ever sees this photo I hope he has a good long laugh.  I forgot my keys one day when i took Kaz for a walk.  I had to tie him to a post and climb over the gate, but there is only a small gap to get through and dull spikes at the top.  I should have taken a photo of the top of the gate so you can see its not as easy as just climbing a gate, it's tricky.  in the process i got stabbed in the inner thigh, ripped my pants and had an ultra deep bruise for a month there.  Josh told me he has had to climb over that gate before so I'm sure he will enjoy this story.  Well this was a pretty boring domestic post now wasn't it?  That's what you get when you leave Jason home alone.