Canicule, Tatoos, Tourist Day, Spider-Man 3, Chris Isaak & Tattoos

I hate to start an entry by writing about the weather but from many I’ve talked to, it’s the subject du jour here in Paris. It has been unseasonably hot here with almost no rain this month; this is rarely the case in April. The reason is that scientist are saying that there’s a reasonable chance the dreaded “canicule” or “heat wave” of 2003 could be repeated this summer. That summer, thousands of people all across Europe died from the intense heat and lack of medical preparation. Some estimates put the number of deaths just in France at around 15,000! So although there have been new plans put in place to avoid a repeat of that summer, I think everyone is hoping that we’re just experience summer now rather than a preview of a coming canicule. Note: coincidentally, as I write this, the BBC is doing a story about how old age homes and hospitals in Paris have been installing new air conditioning systems “just in case”.

This weekend I attended the Paris Tattoo Art Festival. It was pretty intense and included a “Worst Tattoo” competition won by a guy who tattooed fake hair on his underarm. You can see some of my images from the Festival here:

Paris Tattoo Art Festival

The mom and sister of a good friend of mine popped into Paris for a 6-hour visit in between cruise ship stops. I got to play tour guide, something I love doing when visitors are really interested in what they’re seeing. We did the classic Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame and Louvre trifecta and then had to say goodbye. It had been a while since I’d actually visited these places so I quite enjoyed it, even though each stop was too short to take it all in.

I photographed singer Chris Isaak and his opening act, Swedish-born Peter von Poehl, a very talented musician.

The concert took place at the Palais des Congres, a classy venue where many big American acts tend to play (I’ve photographed James Brown there twice!). Isaak is really entertaining in concert and at one point, jumped off stage and walked all throughout the theatre, even sitting next to a young girl in the very last section at the top of the venue.

I also photographed the French premiere of Spider-Man 3, which opens this week in Paris. These big events are fun because I get to see all my fellow French photographers, who are rarely all together other than at Cannes or at big premieres like this one.

And now a couple of photos from the week …

Parc Floral

A woman rides a razor through FNAC (a big department store)

My Private Flight, Slovenia, Short Street & Election Night

I missed last Sunday’s blog entry since I was traveling in Slovenia. Speaking of which, my flight from Paris to Ljubljana was one of the best travel experiences of my life. I was the ONLY passenger on the Air France Easter Monday early morning flight. That would have been enough but before takeoff, the captain opened the door and asked me if I wanted to fly up front in the cockpit. Of course I said yes and it was an unforgettable experience. If you’re interested in learning a bit about Slovenia, I invite you to check out my photo expose at http://www.davidsilpa.com/slovenia/index.html. And one more thing about Slovenia – I saw an ad for beer there that was written in English and it described their beer as “sweet & useful”.

I discovered a street near my apartment recently that really must be one of the shortest streets in the word – it’s called rue du Fouarre and the entire street is this building. On both sides of the building the street has a different name. Only in Paris …

Found out that Paris has a Meetup.com photographers group that regularly meets here. By chance, they were doing their monthly walk-a-round today so I joined them. There were about 20 of us that broke into 4 groups and walked around a part of the city and photographed what we saw. We then all went back to the organizer’s apartment, ate lunch and looked at everyone’s photos. It was a fun exercise with everyone there into photography but I don’t think I’ll learn much – most members weren’t so advanced photographically.

And in France it was the first round of the Presidential elections here today. The system works like this: there are many candidates (usually a dozen or so) that run in this first round and then the top 2 vote getters go on to a run-off election in 2 weeks to decide who will be the next President. A group of my Italian friends organized an election night soiree to find out the results of the first round today. In France, it is illegal to report any election results or projections before 8pm of the election day, so we got together just before then and made (from scratch, tossing the dough in the air and all – see photo) and ate some pizza. The results of the election turned out as expected – Nicolas Sarkozy and Segolene Royal made it through to the second round. The only surprise was how high voter turnout was – around 85%, the highest in over 50 years.

And now a couple of photos from the week …

His and Her wine called “Le” & “La”

A glass recycling truck from my bedroom window

Springtime, Banking, L’Orangerie & Easter

Springtime arrived in Paris this week and like in most cold-weather cities, everyone goes nuts when the sun comes out. It’s a great time of the year.

I paid a visit to my good friend Bipul, an Indian man from the Himalayas who owns a import store in the Marais. As is usually the case, he closed his store and we went upstairs to his office, shared some chai and I showed him prints of my images from India. He asked if we could sell the prints in his store and we decided to give all the proceeds to his ashram in India, a place M and I visited last year. Hopefully we’ll have some success.

The big event of the week was the culmination of my 2-week attempt to open a new bank account here. This isn’t the first time I’ve opened an account in France; I’ve had one since I moved here 5 years ago. The motivation for opening this new account was simply a huge difference in the exchange rate the bank uses to convert dollars to euros – a difference of thousands of dollars for me over a year. Well, if you factor in the number of hours it took to do something seemingly this simple, I’m not sure it was a good deal. I was stunned when the bank asked me questions like how many kids I had, details about my job and other things that I really didn’t think were necessary in order for me to give them my money. The coup de grace came when I had to sign the agreement and before my signature, I had to write an unbelievable number of words in French (see photo); the text roughly translates to “read and approved, as well as the general conditions attached and the current fees brochure, that I recognize having received and accepted without reservation”. I had even write this on my own duplicate copy before my account could be opened.

One last note about my bank: my account comes with a small personal insurance policy against theft and, I kid you not, there is a provision in the policy which excludes any loss stemming from the “disintegration of an atomic kernel or ion ray”.

M and I decided to finally visit the l’Orangerie Museum in the Tuileries Garden. The museum had been closed for renovations for 6.5 years – it’s been closed the whole time I’ve lived here – and re-opened last summer. The museum is quite beautifully designed, very stylish and extremely manageable, unlike the Louvre. The top floor features huge murals painted by Monet and the lower level has paintings from various artists, all pretty impressive.

Went for a walk in the 5th and decided to visit the Mosque of Paris, a beautiful complex near the Jardin des Plantes. It’s open to the public except for the prayer room and in fact, they serve some good mint tea on their terrace.

This last weekend was filled with Easter-related activities at the big cathedrals of Paris. On Good Friday, I shot the ” Stations of the Cross” ritual at Sacre Coeur and then last night (Holy Saturday) I shot the Easter Vigil ceremony at Notre Dame (see images below).

And now, the photos of the week:

The archbishop of Paris, Monsignor Twenty-Three (not kidding), genuflects in front of Sacre Coeur.

Crowds rush up the stairs at Sacre Coeur during the Stations of the Cross Good Friday ritual.

M checks out one of Monet’s murals in the l’Orangerie Musuem.

A room filled with Monet’s giant wall murals in the l’Orangerie Museum

A mildly disturbing painting in the l’Orangerie Musuem

A flame takes on a human form during the Easter Vigil at Notre Dame.

A couple walks by Notre Dame at night.

A seriously disturbing exterminator store window display near Chatelet

Pink Martini, Top Models, Slovenia, Gisele, Freebox and Cynthia McKinney

The band Pink Martini was in town to play a special performance with the Orchestre de l’Ile de France. M and I went to see the performance at the Salle Pleyel not far from the Arc de Triomphe in the 8th. Great show like always with them and we were invited to go backstage afterwards by band member Timothy, who I’d come to know a few years back after one of their previous Paris performances that I photographed.

Photography highlight of the week was the France Top Model Competition at the Espace Pierre Cardin near the American Embassy and Concorde. It was the finals of a country-wide competition to find a new fresh face with the winner being awarded a modeling agency contract. Here’s the winner:

I’ve been feeling lately like doing another exploration trip, where I travel somewhere alone with my camera and just spend a few days looking and shooting. I spent some hours researching and decided on where I’m going … Slovenia. I didn’t know much about the country, only that it’s beautiful and inexpensive. The Tourism Board there has agreed to take care of my expenses there in exchange for them using my images so I’m quite happy about that. I’ll be staying in the capital of Ljubljana for 3 nights and then exploring the countryside and Adriatic coast. I head out for 1 week starting April 9.

Spent a nice afternoon with Gisele, my journal-translating long-time friend, at her apartment in the 15th. She is a researcher/historian and her most important tool – her typewriter – was broken so I picked up a new one for her and took it over there. We spent a while figuring out how to change the ribbon (it had been approximately 25 years for me!) and then chatted about life over special Easter cookies.

My Freebox service has finally been activated. After being without a fixed telephone line for over 3 weeks, having my service turned on was disproportionately exciting. It’s a pretty spectacular deal – for 30 euros a month, you get high-speed, wireless internet, free unlimited local and international calling and about 300 TV channels. Not sure how they do it but so far so good.

Attended a Democrats Abroad meeting where six-term former congresswoman from Georgia Cynthia McKinney presented a film called “American Blackout”, a documentary laying out how to steal an election (in state and national elections), how black voters where disenfranchised and how flawed our system of voting is. It’s quite informative and disturbing. I found the 2-minute opening rap poetry amazing. You can watch the film here:

And now, the photos of the week:

The fountains of the Hotel de Ville were green during a recent water exhibition

Some prankster placed hearts over the red traffic light near the Bastille

Note the classic French non-reaction of the people passing by

A needed break during the Paris half-marathon

Blogging from Paris …

Even though I’m quite late to the game, after some needed encouragement, I’ve decided to start this blog to share some of my experiences living in Paris. I don’t have a clear idea yet of the style of this blog but I hope it serves as another way to stay connected to my family and friends. The plan is to update this blog once a week, each Sunday, with a few images, recounting of experiences and random thoughts about living in Paris. As you’ll likely see in the images I post, even after 5 years in Paris, I’m still very frequently entertained with quite simply what I see on the street here.

I journal everyday. I have for 5 years now. Each night, for the last 1,877 nights, I’ve sat down at my computer and written in my electronic journal (yes, I back it up regularly). My journal is many things to me: a way to organize and crystalize my thoughts, a reference for people I’ve met and places I’ve been, a tangible way to track the progress (I hope) of my own thinking over a number of years and a long-term insurance policy against Alzheimer’s.

There is an older woman named Gisele here in Paris that I met while wandering around the Marais my first week here who, in broken English, randomly asked me if I happened to keep a journal. I said I did and she said that she collected journals going back to the Middle Ages and had the audacity to ask me if I would send her my journal. I agreed and now, for the last 5 years, she’s been translating my journal into French and sending it to a French organization that archives journals for the purpose of documenting life during this time on earth. My journal is their first from an American this century. Don’t worry, I only use first names in the journal so if you’re mentioned you’re unlikely to get a phone call from some historian 20 years from now.

I’m writing about my journal because it will serve as the source for this blog. I will likely pull out some excerpts each week, embellish a bit, add some photos … et voila …my blog.

I encourage anyone reading this blog to leave me some form of comment just so I know this blog is serving its purpose ok? (click on the word “Comments” below each entry to leave a comment)