If it's loudly sung and in a foreign tongue..

I haven't really had much to write about recently, so I'm sorry for the lag between posts.  Mostly I've been running around to cooking classes and taking care of the baby, who is a little sick. 

This weekend I was very productive and got a bunch of things for the apartment that I really needed - and spent pretty much all of last month's pay in the process.  Sigh.  But!  I was able to get: more pillowcases, a sheet, and duvet cover (I only had one of each and since it's too cold to leave the windows open now they take forever to dry); another pillow; a throw blanket (again, too cold for me to just have a comforter!); an electric tea kettle; a spatula and flipper thing; two more bowls (I hated the ones that were here, they were huge and shallow) and a mug.  I also got a bunch of Christmas presents for my pack of nieces.  Yay!  I just need to get another big pot with a cover; a larger saute pan; if I can find a cheap one, a toaster oven; and maybe a drying rack.  Then I will really feel like I live here.

A few pictures from my wanderings.

First, J had a class at Le Notre, a very well-regarded restaurant/tea room based on the Champs Elysees.  It turns out that if he wins Masterchef he will get 5 days of classes there as part of his prize, so that's pretty cool.  Anyway, I've noticed that when people visit Paris everyone wants to "go to" the Champs Elysees but no one is sure what to do there.  It's just a long avenue with lots of designer shops and other expensive things.  If you walk the whole way it will take you from the Place de la Concorde (you might remember that from last time I was here - it used to be the home of the guillotine), past the president's residence, past the "Large Palace" and "Small Palace" (both built for Napoleon and they are now art museums), the shopping area, and finally you would end up at the Arc de Triomphe. 

This is what about half of the avenue is like - lined with trees, wide, lots of cars, not many buildings or anything to look at.  If I turned in the other direction you could see the beginning of the area with the shops.

Next - Bon Marche is well known for its creative and elaborate window displays that change about every month or so.  The newest ones, for their lingerie, amuse me: they took lots of very famous paintings of naked ladies and put lingerie on them.  I only took pictures of the last two, but there are many other famous paintings done up in this manner, like Botticelli's Birth of Venus.  Sorry about the glare, I couldn't really get any shots without it.

This is mostly for Kerry, since she is both awesome and a dedicated reader.  I thought you might like some pics of the opera house! 

I've been spending a lot of time at the Galeries Lafayette lately, and those are right behind the old opera house.  Today I took the long way and got some pics.  If anyone talks about the "Paris opera house" this is it.  Not the current building of the Paris opera, which is a modern monstrosity at the Place de la Bastille.  This is the Opera Garnier, finished in 1875, and where the Paris opera was immediately before moving to the Bastille in 1989.  It was without a doubt THE place to set fashion in the late 19th and early 20th centuries - rich bourgeois came to see and be seen and whatever the most fashionable ladies wore to the opera would appear later as the new fads within a few weeks.  The French onion soup that is so famous?  It's said to have been created for people coming back at 2 and 3am after the opera and looking for something to eat in the area - restaurants were out of most things by that time of night so scrounged around and created the soup.  I don't know if that's true.

Of course, it also housed the most famous and renowned opera company in the world at that point, and it is the setting of the novel and musical Phantom of the Opera.  Comparisons: in 1896 a counterweight fell off the giant center chandelier and killed someone (though the 6 ton chandelier itself apparently did not fall); the building really was constructed on an underground lake; and during renovations they supposedly did find some very strange things in the vaults, though I can't really find out what.

It's huge.  The side views were attempting to show that but it's hard to get good pictures while in the crowds of this area.

Now it is only used by the ballet contingent of the Paris Opera, but it also is home to Paris' opera library and they run tours.  I will do a tour at some point because the outside is really nothing to the crazy opulence of the inside.  Not so much "darkness deep as hell."