Venice? Florence? Where do I begin?

Alright, I just got to Florence, and I know I've been awful about updating, so I'm going to type out some of the hard copy journal entries I've been writing. I've really not had access to the internet long enough at any given point to ramble on about things - but tonight I've got it, so I'll get everyone up to speed.

We'll make it a date...

Monster Europa Entry coming soon - stay tuned!

-Ryan

News of a Nicoisian Magnitude

So I finally came across a scale today... it's been over a month since I've been able to weigh myself.

Survey says...

109kilos, or 239.8lbs to those of you not running on the metric system.

Wow - that's less than I weighed when I came home from France in 2001 (245lbs at that point; and I arrived this February at a staggering 310lbs - 140.9kilos for those of you running on the metric system).

It's quite amusing to catch my profile in store front plate glass windows.

Oh, and I'm in Nice now... it's beautiful here. Spending the rest of today here, then tomorrow in Monaco and Eze, Tuesday in Cannes and back here - then on my merry way to beautiful Venezia (Venice), Italia!

VinExpo 2007

Yea... that's right. I'm at the 2007 Wine Expo in Bordeaux, France. And god am I tipsy.

So much wine, so many contacts, so much fun.

What a wonderful thing this is.

More to come when I come down from Euphoria.

Un petit blog photographique de la Paris

Here are some of the better photos I took around Paris. Most things are recognizably famous, but I'll be a good chap - yes, someone called me that earlier - and label each one. Enjoy.

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Nike or Winged Victory of Samothrace
seen in the Musée du Louvre (Louvre Museum)

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Aphrodite of Milos, better known as the Venus de Milo
seen in the Musée du Louvre (Louvre Museum)

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La Tour Eiffel (Eiffel Tower)
illuminated in the evening, seen from le Champs de Mars

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La Tour Eiffel (Eiffel Tower)
during the day, as seen from Trocadéro

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Sacré-Cœur Basilica (the Basilica of the Sacred Heart)

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La Place de la Concorde

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Le Petit Palais

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Panthéon

seen from an odd angle, because that was the
best way to fit it all in the frame!

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Notre Dame de Paris

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Mur pour la Paix (The Wall for Peace)

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Bal du Moulin Rouge (Cabaret of the Red Windmill)

as seen during the day

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Bal du Moulin Rouge (Cabaret of the Red Windmill)
as seen in the evening, from Métro Blanche

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Musée du Louvre (Louvre Museum) & the Louvre Pyramid

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Les Invalides

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l'Arc de Triomphe (Triumph Arch)

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An interesting tomb found in Cimetière de Montmarte (Montmarte Cemetery)

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Les Invalides and shadow from the Eiffel Tower
as seen from the 2nd level of the tower

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Auguste Rodin's sculpture Le Penseur (The Thinker)
as seen in the gardens of the Musée Rodin

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So that finishes my photographic tour of Paris. I hope you enjoyed it, and hopefully gleaned some interesting information from the links!

How could anyone ever forget Paris?!

So that about sums up how marvelous it is here. One of the best pictures I've had during the last two weeks. I've been writing in a physical journal about my adventures, which I suppose doesn't really count in terms of letting everyone who reads this what I'm up to. Sorry!

Tomorrow is my last day in Paris, and after that I'm headed to Bordeaux. I'll be there for about a week before moving on to the south of France.

Paris has been so amazingly wonderful, and I've met many great new people during my stay here so far. CouchSurfing is really one of the greatest ways to travel I think. My hosts have all been very nice people, including Jeanne - Rebekah's best friend and not a CSer - and her family, whom I stayed with when I first arrived in Paris.

Being here for nearly two weeks has really given me the opportunity to see Paris more as an inhabitant than as a tourist. I've spent days exploring each individual Arrondissement - there are twenty seperate neighborhoods in Paris proper - on foot, and seeing all the major attractions as well as countless unheard of wonders. I think I've managed to step foot in almost every church - of varying denominations - in town. Those are some of the best things to see because they're always remarkable outside and in, it's constantly cooler inside a church than it is outside - temperature wise I mean - and they're all free. It amazes me how many of these people pass up too because they're concerned with getting to Notre Dame and Ste. Chapelle. Granted those are both amazing feats of architecture and stained glass, some of the smaller cathedrals and churches are just as wonderful. Amusingly enough the only church I had a problem getting in to was the American Cathedral, only because they didn't allow bags inside, and had no facility for storing them if you had one. Oh well.

As cliché as it may be, my favorite spot in all of Paris is right next to the Eiffel Tower. There are so many fantastic places in this city, but not any of them can compare to the immense joy this area (in the 7eme) gives me. I think it's partly due to it being one of the first truly amazing things I'd seen when I first came to France, and partly because it really is just one of the most incredible structures on all the earth.

More to come...

Pleased to Meat You

So I went to the Chevaline today down the street from Marianne's apartment and got myself a small portion of horse steak.

I was delighted. The butcher was delighted. Black Beauty was not.

So I brought it back to Marianne's and cooked it up and had a super tasty snack. The flavor was great, and it was so tender. Yum. I'd eat this every day if it were legal.