Impressions

To celebrate the end of our time here, we'd like to ask a favor of our readers: take a minute to read back through your favorite posts, and send your "top 3" list to panda.a.paris [at] gmail.com. We'll be collecting your submissions throughout the week, and next week (our last in Paris!) we'll post the results. Thanks in advance, and happy browsing!

Monet may have had the idea first, but I think my choice of subjects is way more interesting that any cathedral or parliament building. I certainly had enough opportunities to study it - we walk by this guardien building at least four times a day, since it sits at the entrance to the Parc des Buttes Chaumont.


Ok, maybe not as interesting as I thought. But the sentiment is 100% Impressionist, and I'm inspired to try again with a different subject when we get back home. Of all the places you see every day (or several times a day), which would you choose to portray through a series of "impressions"?

Mercredi Mashup

We take lots of photos. Beaucoup, as they say. At last count, our Flickr photostream contained over 6,000 items. Many of these photos appear on this blog. Some go the way of the dinosaur. Still others get set aside, hoping for recognition, holding their breath every time we browse for a blog-worthy photo. This post is dedicated to all the misfit photos out there . . . get ready for a whirlwind tour of photos that have nothing to do with one another, other than the fact that they are random, and we took them.

This Scooby Doo character and van was parked outside the Hôtel de Ville (City Hall). Many, many otherwise sane looking adults were waiting to have their picture taken with Scooby. I really don't get this. What's the attraction? Maybe it's a generational thing...

We had a coffee and used the toilet in this bar/restaurant with Katie and Darryl. A rugby game (England? Italy? who? what?) was playing on the telly. The Gaudì-inspired decor was super cool and super trashed. Too bad.

This dog was hanging out around the Jardin de Luxembourg. Thank goodness for that convenient opening.

Street art in Belleville. Awesome.

The latest performance art installation at the Louvre.

Maggie and Louis attempt to create art. Fail.

 

We saw this dog on the street, at night, and had to do a double-take. Doesn't he/she look just like Panda??

Photoquai

Yesterday, after taking advantage of the "free museum entrance the first Sunday of every month" to check out the Musée du Quai Branly (detailed post coming soon!), we walked through another free event called Photoquai.

A bi-annual, outdoor photography exposition, you'll find Photoquai along the left bank of the Seine between the Champ du Mars and the Pont d'Alma from September 22 through November 22. Its purpose is to showcase the work of photographers from all over the world, and this year the emphasis is on 165 years of Iranian photography. (You can see some of it here.)

In addition to its Seine-side "gallery," Photoquai has indoor outposts all over the city: at the Bibliothèque Nationale, at the Australian Embassy, at the Musée du Quai Branly (which is where you'll find the Iranian Photography exhibit), at the Musée d'Art Moderne, and elsewhere. But there's something special about viewing high-quality, high-resolution photography in an outdoor setting as unique as this quai along the Seine. (Even dreary weather can contrast provocatively with one shot, and emphasize the pathos of another.)

Inspired by what we'd seen, I attempted some clandestine, candid photography of my own during the métro-ride home . Maggie warned me that it was dangerous - what if someone realized what I was doing, and took issue? But true art is more important than worldy concerns, and so I forged boldly ahead en route to producing these masterpieces:

Ok, maybe I have some work to do. But I should be ready just in time for the next Photoquai in September 2011. Right?

Quiche Bis

Four years ago, my French host mother first taught me how to make quiche, and I've been tinkering with the recipe ever since. (It's only recently that Maggie and I also started tinkering with our food photography, inspired as we are by Smitten Kitchen, the most amazing food blog ever.)

This is the second quiche I've made since we arrived ("bis" means "again"; you can see the first one here), and I'm extremely pleased with how it came out. It has a whole wheat, spiced crust (I used herbes de provence), caramelized onions and lardons (the traditional French version of bacon), crème fraîche, eggs, and a light sprinkling of emmenthaler. There's still some leftover if you're in the neighborhood and feel like dropping by!

Compare it to a few quiche/salad plats we've had at various bistrots/cafés:

Café le Paris, 24 Rue St.-Sabin, 11e

Pause Café, 41 Rue de Charonne, 11e

In conclusion, Maggie and I are thinking about opening our own café. I will make the quiche, cookies, and cakes; she will make the coffee, bagels, and breads. Would you be our customer?