Mon anniversaire, rock en seine, et 'La mécanique des dessous, une histoire indiscrète de la silhouette'

Alors. After my post on Thursday I went on a wonderful champagne tasting cruise along the seine departing from the eiffel tower, thanks to Forrest: the best boyfriend ever. The champagne was amazing, obviously the views were spectacular, and I met this wonderful couple to enjoy the experience with - and get some tips about where to visit outside of Paris.

first glass!

our champagne expert - who was actually sweedish & came to france to study wine!

the love bridge! lovers place locks along the sides.

Lauren!

Marina!

Andrea!

After that the girls met me at the Eiffel Tower where we hung out for a couple hours in the grass. (similar to back then, but during the daylight.) We were going to go out to the oberkampf district for a couple of drinks, but unfortunately Lauren had to move out of the apartments early the following morning so we opted out of that - and saved quite a few euros.

Yesterday (vendredi) we went to rock en seine! Little did I realize Johnny Marr was playing, aka guitarist and co-writer in the smiths. I was just chilling when I hear a smiths song at one of the close stages and think "oh, it must just be the radio as the band is getting ready," then I hear the performer play some very smiths-esque songs and think "hmm, it might just have been a cover... but maybe this guy was one of the members way back when," which I decide MUST be the case when I heard the second smiths cover and ran over there to enjoy the rest of the show - aka some of his new songs, in addition to how soon is now & there is a light that never goes out. probably one of the best coincidences that has ever happened to me.

I also very much enjoyed getting dragged to see daughter perform, whom I'd never heard of but am now pretty stoked about, and of course, savages, franz ferdinand, alt-j, and the others were fun as well. After the concert we went to a beautiful home for a party hosted by the French girlfriend of one of Andrea's friends from Mexico! He studied in Austin where she took a semester abroad, totally crazy. Connections will get you everywhere, and while we didn't stay for long everyone was very nice and happy to speak some english with us.

daughter

Johnny Marr!

 

Finally, today I pulled out my yoga mat for the first time since I got here (and bought it... how is that supposed to fit in your carry-on?) & it was great to do just a few basic exercises and say "hello!" to muscle groups again.

This afternoon we went to the louvre to see the temporary exhibit 'Behind The Seams: An Indiscreet Look At The Mechanics of Fashion' and might I say I am very grateful to live in 2013 instead of 1713 after taking a glance at their steel corsets. However, incidentally, apparently in addition to being corsets, the metal contraptions served as back braces for those young hunchback ladies with curved spines like mine!

Andrea trying on a corset

I kind of snuck a picture of a versace dress I recognized from s/s 2012 before realizing you weren't supposed to take pictures, oops! (but also yay!)

Finally, before retiring home we grabbed a bite to eat and stopped at a cute bookstore where I picked up some amazing cards to send and a book of short stories (in french) by Barbara Kingsolver, one of my favorite authors! Pretty stoked on that.

Tomorrow should be relatively lazy, definitely need to do some laundry aka hand wash and hang dry - embracing the French way.

à bientôt!
xx taylor