Paris, je t'aime

(note: This post was written on Sunday, July 8. We didn't have Internet to post it until now.)

Bonjour readers!

The Bombastics are in France! Well, technically, in the street performing world we're now known as Circus Van Champ (had to avoid running afoul of these tough fellows: www.thebombastics.de). “The Blogtastic Circus Van Champtics” just didn't have the same ring it, though, so we decided to keep this old blog. 

The obligatory "before" shot. Note our bikes hanging from the ceiling.

Anyway, the flight over here was easy as apple pie, or whatever the French equivalent is... apple croissant? It was dramatically underbooked, so after 1 hour of sort of watching Candid Camera and 1940's Looney Tunes cartoons (both dubbed in French), Mark claimed 3 seats in the middle aisle, I claimed 3 seats in the window aisle, and we spread out. We slept like giant babies all the way to Paris.

Paris is lovely and unbelievably full of interesting sights and small enough to walk around with only the mildest of footsores. Every day, it's threatened to rain, and so far, every day it's carried through with the threat. Paris don't play. But the rain has never lasted, and when it finally stops and the clouds part and the blue peeks out and the beams of light shoot down to illuminate Gothic spires, it's pretty okay. And it hasn't kept us inside. So far, we've visited the Louvre, Musee d'Orsay, Sacre Coeur, the Eiffel Tower (just from below), Musee Rodin, Notre Dame, the cemetery Pere Lachaise, a few gardens, and a million sidestreets. Today I made Mark drink overpriced coffees with me at Les Deux Magots, a hang-out of Lost Generation artists like Hemingway and Picasso. I bet they're turning in their graves – 4.50 Euro for an espresso? Incredible! Make sure you said that like you were a French cartoon character.

The Pere Lachaise cemetary, home of Oscar Wilde and Jim Morrison and Moliere, among others. It rained and we hid under a tree.

Let's go Louvre! We followed some secret tips and got in right away.

Mark wears the crown jewels of France. Tinier than we expected.

From left: Marya, Eiffel Tower/Japanese tourist, Mark.

Our plan was to be in Paris for a week before picking up our car and driving off into the sunset (assuming the sun sets over Germany every other Tuesday). Paris housing is expensive, we discovered, really really expensive, so we were really really lucky to find 2 great hosts though couchsurfing willing to let us stay at their places for free. Our first host, Naoki, greeted us warmly in his tiny 5^th floor apartment and treated us like old friends for the 4 nights we spent with him. He showed us around his neighborhood's daily farmers market, took us to the local bakery, taught us whist, and even brought us along to his friend's birthday picnic.

Resting on the click-clack.

My favorite time we spent with him was Friday, his day off. We rented bicycles using Paris's amazing Velib network and took off north through the busy streets of Aligre (his neighborhood in the 12^th arrondissement). He was determined to show us real Parisian neighborhoods where real struggling artists live on real cobblestone alleys, not just over touristed places like Montmarte or Montparnasse where people go to look for remnants of old genius. Cool, like us, is always on the move. We explored the neighborhoods of Menilmontant and Belleville, which are full of graffiti, murals, urban gardens, art squats, warehouse bars, and dollar stores. It was like Mission Street mixed with Oakland. We were right at home.

Paris or the Mission? That's Naoki in the blue plaid up front.

Later, we ate cheese sandwiches sitting on the banks of the canal, sheltered from the rain by a tree (bet you Mark will be able to ID it in a second, I'm asking him now... “It was a horse chestnut.” Zero hesitation. Pro status. New test: I just asked him what we did yesterday. 30 seconds of hesitation: “Uhh... we slept late. Was yesterday the day that we slept late? I don't know, is this a trick question? We had oatmeal for breakfast and a falafel for dinner.” Oh Mark.)

We're in our 2^nd couchsurfing home now, but haven't met our host yet. He was at a wedding all weekend, and left the key under the mat for us. We expect him home any minute now, which is sort of weird. From a close examination of all his books and posters and 6 guitars, we think we're going to be friends, though.

Tomorrow, we're going to head to a famous flea market, maybe go to the Medieval History Museum that houses the Lady and the Unicorn tapestries, maybe pay 4.50 Euro to descend into the Sewer Museum, which is located in a real working sewer. Incredible! (Still a French cartoon character, but this time, you're really excited.)

Tuesday, we pick up our manual transmission car and head to Freiburg, Germany for 3 days to camp in the Black Forest before going to our first festival in Bamberg, Germany on Friday. Maybe we'll practice our show before then, maybe we'll just drink wine and talk about politics. We love Paris.

Au revoir! 

We took this popular tourist shot just so we could later take this one...

Marya holding tourist holding tower.

Two street clowns fight for prime busking spot. One with a fishbowl on his head. With fish in it.

Feeding sparrows at Notre Dame.

Quick update: Never met our host. Basically had our own private apartment in Paris, but we couldn't walk around pants-less because we were constantly awaiting his arrival. Also, the sewer museum was awesome. Like, super awesome. Highly recommended. And we somehow made it to Freiburg (details of our journey to come.) Also, look out for the Facebook album with the rest of our Paris pictures in it.

They have the same signs underground as they do above, so sewer workers know where they're at. 

These giant balls are used to clean "hybrid mixture" out of dangerous sewers using water pressure. Hybrid mixture = exactly what you're thinking