Late January to February

A writer's tools. (That big pink thing in the foreground is the most expensive sandwich I've ever had, it being an open-faced smoked salmon sandwich at the Cafe Select, where Hemingway used to go; the postcard is to my friend Toby, to wish him happy St. Thomas' Day since his actual name is Thomas.) And NO, I don't smoke, although Paris has already given me a smoker's cough. >_<




The window display of the flagship store for Hermes. As a Francophile, a Japanophile, a fashionista, a geek, a prepster and a woman, I love love LOVE this store. And as a balletomane, I love this window display.




The slogan for this store is "The House of Beauty" (I just found out that it's a cosmetics company).




I met Jane Goodall! (She's the English lady who's really famous for working with chimpanzees.)




Notre Dame Cathedral at night. "Paris is worth a Mass." - Henri IV of Navarre




Place de la Bastille. That big thing to the right is the Opera Bastille; while I love opera, I don't love this building. I much prefer the elegant Palais Garnier (which is the setting for "Phantom of the Opera").




Ah, the Metro.




Funnily enough, I saw this restaurant on the way home. It made me smile.




Rachel in front of the Eiffel Tower on Valentine's Day.




Obviously not Rachel.





Goofing around.




My favourite shot of the session. :D I think it looks very mod/60s, with the light and the peacoat and the cherry blossoms and all. When I showed it to my friend Lindsey, she said, "I need to hang out with you so you can take pictures of me!" XD (I was very flattered; I like to think I take good photos.)




La Grande Arche de la Defense; built in 1989 for the bicentennial of the French Revolution, it stands 6 km away in a straight line from the Arc de Triomphe...




Which you can see from the Grande Arche.



La Defense is awesome; it is futuristic, whereas the rest of Paris is very antique (there are buildings over a hundred years old still in use in some arrondissements, like mine). My host mom hates La Defense, though. "C'est moche" (it's ugly), she says. I love it - it looks like what people (including myself when I was little) envisioned cities would look like in 2008, sans the flying cars. (I really wish they had them though.)




It was freezing (well, two degrees Celsius above freezing; I checked) so I finally gave up and had my first ever Starbucks in France.