Correr Es Mi Destino » Cheese-Eating Surrender Monkeys

Another World

Zhu — Thu, 08 May 2008 02:35:32 +0000

“An imbalance between rich and poor is the oldest and most fatal ailment of all republics” –- Plutarch

Champs Élysées from The Arc de Triomphe

Paris, the Champs-Élysées, on a chilly afternoon, about a month ago. We were walking down the broad avenue when we suddenly found ourself drifting to avenue Montaigne.

We had walked all the way from the upper part which extend to the Arc de Triomphe. We had passed a parade of chain-stores (mostly fast foods and sport shops), we had noticed the Iran Air office and almost withdrew money at the National Bank of Pakistan, we had had a taste of luxury looking at the Mont Blanc and Louis Vuitton stores. No small businesses here: you have to able to afford up to €10,000/sq meter a month.

Further down, the shops had disappeared and the street had turned into a tree-lined boulevard, flanked by gardens, theaters and museums. Still as broad but not as busy. We headed towards Avenue Montaigne, which branches off the Champs-Elysées at the Rond-Point and runs to the banks of the Seine.

The further we walked from the Arc de Triomphe, the fewer pedestrian there were — a nice change from the upper Champs-Élysées where tourists were gathering in front of each flagship stores, barely noticing they had the same at home. Dear globalization — you won.

Avenue Montaigne seemed to be designed for window-shopping with its wide sidewalks. Although there were very little traffic, not a single parking spot was left and most cars were nicely parked parallel to the sidewalks. Most of them from Monaco and Luxembourg, according to the license plates. We walked a few meters, past the Canadian embassy, to the iconic Plaza-Athénée.

The hotel was busy. Black tinted-windows Mercedes were stopping directly on the sidewalk. There seemed to be a constant stream of thin blond women with oversize glasses, presumably to 1) look mysterious 2) hide wrinkles or latest Botox injection. Same clothes as Britney Spears but a good thirty years older. Women who didn’t look like disturbed pop stars had the Parisian chic uniform: trench coat, skinny pants tucked into shiny high-heels boots, long hair, shades (wrinkles as well) and a tote bag. The clothes said “I’m rich” while the bag presumably meant “I often go to the food market and I’m accessible”. It could have contradicted checking in a €1,000/ night hotel. Nevermind. Maybe they do shop at the market to be able to afford the extravaganza. Men didn’t have anything special but for two bulges in their tuxedo pockets: cell phone and oversize wallet.

And more rich people were getting off of rich cars, abandoning them to the valet on the sidewalk, making their way through revolving door. Not a word was spoken, these people were natural. I guess unlike us when we look for an hotel, they didn’t need to ask if there were some rooms available or if hot water for the shower was included in the price.

We kept on walking and passed numerous high fashion stores: Chanel, Valentino, Christian Dior, Max Mara, Louis Vuitton, Prada, Céline, Hermès, you name it. Highly respected designers seemed to favor the street… but they also favored discretion and elitism. Each shop’s windows was clearly visible and well-set with a few items on display, but the main entrance, a tinted sliding door, was blocked by two bouncers. Two huge Cerberus, one on each side of the door, talkie-walkie in hands even though they were only a few meters apart. No every one can come in, not every one can afford it. Got it.

I still managed to get close to one of the window, Dior I believe. Prices were astronomical. I’m talking about €2,000 for a handbag, €3,000 for shoes (a pair, though), €5,000 for pants etc. etc. I was turning my back to walk away when a couple walked by my side, toward the entrance of the shop. The two bouncers nodded and the door slided open. I caught a glimpse of the inside of the shop. It was full of people inside. Sure enough, a few seconds later, two women exited Dior, and walked by me, holding a bag full of their purchases.

I suddenly felt very out-of-place. Who were these people? Why them? Were they the elected ones? On which planet were they living? It wasn’t fashion week and we were in the middle of the week on a cold April day. It wasn’t for a special event. This was a normal day in Paris’ posh district. I kept thinking that the average monthly salary in France is €1,800. Considering the very high cost of housing, the ever increasing cost of food and utilities and an unemployment rate French aren’t exactly proud of, I was literally in an other world. A world that I knew existed but, naive as I am, had never really seen that close.

Rebel France (2/2)

Zhu — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 03:22:14 +0000

This is the second part of my “graffiti study”. Like in the first post, all the pictures were taken in France last month. Let’s have a look… you’ll find the commentary and translation below.

From top left to bottom:

Résister c’est créer & pas de fascistes: “to create to to resist” and “no fascists”. These bumper stickers were found on a FIAT car parked nearby my parents’ place.
On veut une vie de riche!: “We want to live like rich people!”. Another sticker found on the Loire river’s main bridge. All these stickers are distributed by No Pasaran, a French left-wing activism group. Pretty popular in France and yes, I once was part if it. In another life.
Sarko va remplacer Ingrid Bettancourt chez les FARC. Elle sera libre… et nous aussi!: “Sarkozy is going to take Ingrid Bettancourt’s place in Colombia. She will be free… and so will we!” I found this one in the subway and found it hilarious. Let me explain… Ingrid Betanncourt is a French-Colombian politician who was kidnapped in Colombia by the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) in 2002, when running for President. Nothing funny here. Now the French President stepped in lately and offered, among other things, to go take her place in the jungle (he later offered to travel there… not to take her place anymore). People questioned this hasty mission and some may have even hinted it was a way for Sarkozy to appear as an hero and regain some popularity…
Que les humains, aussi nombreux que les poux, s’agenouillent enfin et fassent de longues prières…: “May human people, as numerous as lice, kneel down and pray”. This mysterious sentence was found in Rennes and signed “King Oedipus”. So deep I don’t get it.
Pas besoin d’eau, pas besoin de jardin, mais des fleurs: “we don’t need water, we don’t need gardens, we need flowers” — a poetic graffiti in a bohemian borough.
Allée des femmes sans papiers en lutte: “Alley of the struggling illegal women immigrant”. This popular square was renamed following a demonstration.
The chicken in a cage: I was walking in a bohemian district when I noticed a small netted opening at the bottom of the building’s wall. Someone had put a couple of terracotta chicken in there and had written on the wall: “we are held in hostage, please notice our family”. I’m sorry to report I wasn’t able to locate the chicken’s family, so they might still be there.
Le soleil a rendez-vous avec la lune: “the sun has a rendez-vous with the moon”. This is the first stanza of a famous French nursery rythm. It was a chalk drawing/ writing I found in Paris.

And that’s it, no more graffiti I promise! Saturday will be my last post for the Canadian-ism(s) series and next week, the contest’s winners. But right now, I need a Coke… and sleep…

Rebel France (1/2)

Zhu — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 00:50:23 +0000

What if the walls around you were wiser than you expected?

Lately, I became interested in graffiti found on cities walls. Not the illegible signatures but rather the drawings, the short sentences, sometimes political, sometimes poetic, sometimes naive and sometimes so true. So here a few pictures I took in France last month. You will find their meaning below the mosaic.

From top left to bottom:

Fuck Sarko: Sarko is, of course, short for Sarkozy, our…er… beloved President. I found that on a wall nearby the shipyards, on the island of Nantes, in my hometown.
The guy in jail and the anarchy symbol painted over it: this picture was taken in the bathroom (yes, I know…!) of a popular hangout in Nantes, the Lieu Unique (“Unique Place”), a former biscuit factory now a trendy bar. I guess this is modern art…
La gauche cherche un homme… des hommes…: this poster was glued on a mailbox. It means “the left-wing is looking for a leader…supporters…”. The “Parti Socialiste” (Socialist Party) is pretty weak in France now and it needs a strong leader. Still looking for it…
La France solidaire, le gouvernement en colère: “French are in solidarity with each other, the government is angry”. These two lines were written on a garbage can, probably following the latest demonstrations.
Saccage ta ville, annihile ta cage: “destroy your city, destroy your cage”. This was written on a wall in one of Nantes’ poshest district.
Demonstration against a new airport: flyers were found everywhere when people in Nantes opposed against the construction of a new airport.

Up In The Sky

Zhu — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 01:38:13 +0000

Traveling from the East to the West meant following the sun… and not sleeping much because we shared the plane with two minor league soccer teams on their way to Toronto (one day, I’ll tell you about in-flight food fights… I’m still too traumatized to speak!). I was seated by the window and snapped a few pictures along the way.

Taking off in Paris… a lot of thick clouds — I rarely get to see them that close, much less fly through them!

A few hours later, flying over… Greenland! Seeing icebergs was just amazing. Keep in mind we were at least 10 000 feet above ground level, so the “small” chunks of ice were probably actually huge! The sea was so blue as well… just amazing.

Flying over Canada… seeing land for the first time in about seven hours (long hours — did I mention the food fight?). This was probably Prince Edward Island or Newfound Land. Looks pretty cold, doesn’t it?

Over Northern Quebec, and then landing in Montreal…

The flight was tiring but pretty unique otherwise. It was my first time taking pictures from above… and I loved it!

—————-

Oh by the way… I have just update to WordPress 2.5 yesterday night and I’m telling you, WordPress users, do it as soon as you can! The new version is just perfect.

I usually upgrade using Fantastico (lazy me) but couldn’t wait to test WP 2.5, so I upgraded manually, following the instructions. Funny thing, first time of my life I actually understand WordPress instructions! Anyway, everything was completed in about 30 minutes and all my plugins worked just fine, except one called “Popularity Contest” — but I found a fix.

I didn’t like the new admin interface much but I found a new plugin, Fluency 1.1, which is more user-friendly.

My favorite new WordPress 2.5 features?

The one-click plugins upgrade
Widget management
The new fresh feeling!

Don’t wait any longer… download WordPress 2.5! (damn, I don’t even get paid for saying that!)

Along The Seine

Zhu — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 04:03:54 +0000

Wednesday was our last day in Paris… and we decided to take a walk along the Seine. Paris is famous for its many bridges and the shore of the — pretty dirty — river are quite nice. We even took the boat from St Germain, to the Louvre, the Champs-Élysés and the Eiffel Tower for more sightseeing.

The Eiffel Tower From The Seine

The Pont Neuf and the small shops (usually bookshops) along the Seine.

Damn, it’s hard to look at these pictures from my igloo! Yes, I’m back in Ottawa…

Carnac, Vannes, And Menhirs

Zhu — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 13:20:00 +0000

Mysterious Carnac, on the coast, and Vannes… our last stops.

Walking in the middle of nowhere, we saw old stones everywhere.

We also stopped in Vannes, on the way back to Nantes.

Back to Canada this Thursday… Anyone to help us shovel one month’s worth of snow in front of the house?

Drinking In Rennes

Zhu — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 17:16:41 +0000

After St Malo, Rennes, the official capital of Brittany. Rennes has always competed with Nantes: both city have good universities, both are lively and relatively cheap and both are buzzing cities. But Rennes has a stronger “Bretagne” (Brittany) feeling, proud and alive.

A quasi-independent kingdom during the Middle Ages, the old province was eventually split between two regions of France: Bretagne (capital: Rennes) and Pays-De-La-Loire (capital: Nantes), mostly to avoid the rivalry between Nantes and Rennes. Brittany lost its juridical existence and autonomy right after the French revolution and the cultural area was weaken. Breton language, for example, declined precipitously after WW2 and kids were forced to learn French as school, which is still resented today in Brittany.

Since the 1970’s, various regionalist and separatist movement have debated about the “Breton identity” and its revival… hence bilingual signs in Rennes and even a local “Breizh Cola” (“Breizh” being “Brittany” in Breton).

Bilingual Street Signs

Local Breizh Cola

Rennes is a beautiful city by day, with its small cobblestone streets and small shops. But the city truly comes alive at night.

Downtown Rennes

White Building

At night, monuments are lit, coffee shops are bars install chairs and tables everywhere in the small streets and people go out. A lot.

Just After Dark

Central Plaza

The street pictured below is “Rue St Michel”, nicknamed “Rue De La Soif”, or “The Street Of Thirst”, because it only has one kind of shop: bars! We went there on a Friday night… an interesting experience, indeed. First of all, since Canada and the USA both enforce a legal drinking age, I’m not used to see teens in bars anymore. But it’s fairly normal in France, as I explained in Cigarettes & Alcohol a few months ago. The legal drinking age is between 14 and 16 years old and no one is likely to check ID’s…

Because of the recent smoking ban in public places in France (and yes, people actually respect it — beat me!), people congregate in front of bars and restaurants. People gather in the middle of streets, a cigarette in one hand and a glass of beer in the other and chat. We sat in an almost empty bar (empty because the customers were all smoking outside) and had a drink. We noticed groups of teens coming in, ordering “mètres” (un mètre being shots of alcohol lined up on a meter… forming literally one meter of drinks), drinking quick and then hoping to another bar a few minutes later. Binge drinking to its best. It did get quite rowdy and aggressive later at night (gee, I wonder why) and we left for another quieter place.

At 5am, the city was still alive. We were back at the hotel and trying to sleep (man, I feel old!) and from the window, I could see people walking around with bottles of alcohol, drunk teens and students smoking pot. Man, I feel even older. I know drinking was an art in Brittany. I didn’t know it was that bad though!

Cute Buildings

Rue de la Soif

St Malo -- A Walled City

Zhu — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 17:18:48 +0000

Earlier this week, we decided to take a trip to Saint Malo, in the heart of Brittany. This relatively small city has a particularity: a seaward fortress since the Middle Ages, St Malo still has a 1.8 km wall circling the city. Designed by Vauban, Louis XIV’s military engineer, the wall offers a great view of the city and the harbor.

Through The Walls

The Harbor

The old “Château de St Malo” (castle of the city) is now the City Hall. The small and narrow streets are typical of France… yes, parking is difficult!

The City Hall

Narrow Streets

Saint Malo was the birthplace of Jacques Cartier, who discovered Canada, and the city is also famous for its… pirates. Growing up by the sea and close to major trade routes can do that do you I guess!

Seeweed On The Beach

Atlantic Ocean

St Malo has the highest tides in France… it’s quite impressive! A 14 meters difference between low tide and high tide is common.

On The Beach

Drawing On The Sand

Because it was still low-season, the city was very quiet and relaxing. We walked on the wall around the city, then on the beach, before feasting on a seafood dinner… and before heading to Rennes, capital of Brittany, the following day.

Best Of Paris (2/2)

Zhu — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 16:53:32 +0000

Even though I’m now back in Brittany, a few more pictures we took during our week in Paris…

Arc of Triumph

The Champs Élysées

Notre Dame

Radeau de la Méduse

Le Louvre

Mona Lisa

The Pei Pyramids

View From The Eiffel Tower

Best Of Paris (1/2)

Zhu — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 23:37:04 +0000

After a week in Paris, let me show you the best places in the capital!

Eiffel Tower And Blue Sky

Eiffel Tower and Clouds

Beaubourg

Pompidou Center

Montmartre

Art Market

The Moulin Rouge

Opera House

The Moulin Rouge in Pigalle and the Opera house (yeah, I know, not the same kind of venues…)

Notre Dame

Colorful Windows