mardi, février 21, 2006
Un petit voyage à Bruxelles
What to do on a grey and boring February weekend, when the Eiffel Tower can hardly be seen through the clouds and fog? Why, take a weekend jaunt to another country of course!
Belgium, to be more exact, and Brussels, to be even more exact, was the destination of choice this particular grey weekend. Sadly, Brussels was even more grey of weather, but at least the background was new and exploration-worthy!
After arriving on our €25 (return!) bus tickets, Ruxandra and I immediately went in search of the famous belgian beer. The bar looked normal enough, rather quiet, a bit smoky, beers of every shade of brown between black and gold lined up along the counter, an aging barmaid with a cigarette clamped in the corner of her mouth and too much make up (there but for the grace of god...) lining up even more. Things livened up with the arrival of two girls wearing knee high boots, black sunglasses and black vinyl trenchcoats. The sunglasses stayed on, but the trenchcoats only lasted 20 seconds or so. Luckily, there were a few scraps of gold sparkly material underneath, and the two belgian beauties (more belgian than beautiful) proceeded to writhe and wriggle up and down the tired and cramped passageway in front of the bar, about a metre from our table! The performance lasted three songs, before the audience was kindly invited to jam their cleavages full of euros. We, however, beat a quick exit, for fear of further entertainment!
I can happily report that while the quality of the exotic dancers could be improved (are gold sequins exotic? what would you call them?), the beers were top quality! As were the moules frites (mussels and chips, delicious belgian specialty), the many gaufres (belgian waffles) and the chocolate. Suffice to say, we were never hungry for long!
Brussels itself is an interesting city. Certainly not as classically beautiful as some cities (in my opinion), though it does have plenty of beautiful bits - the very grand Grand Place, for example - but instead, I would describe the city as interesting and rather charming. We saw some lovely churches, and managed to catch two choir concerts in two of these, an underwhelming chocolate museum, the atomium (a giant "iron molecule" - don't ask me to explain this, I know that iron is not a molecule, and I know, I know, but we are chemists after all), a rather deserted European Parliament (from the outside!), and of course the Manneken Pis, pissing.
Accent-wise, I'm afraid I've discovered that my french is not good enough to distinguish between the, apparently obviously different, belgian french and french french. Maybe next time.
The Grand Place, surrounded by beautiful buildings and filled with tourists.
Two lovely girls in front of the Mannekin Pis. Why this little fountain is famous, I'll never know (unless I find out).
Self-explanatory.
The bandes dessinées (comic books) are even more popular here than in France, and they have the murals to prove it.
The atomium!
Belgium, to be more exact, and Brussels, to be even more exact, was the destination of choice this particular grey weekend. Sadly, Brussels was even more grey of weather, but at least the background was new and exploration-worthy!
After arriving on our €25 (return!) bus tickets, Ruxandra and I immediately went in search of the famous belgian beer. The bar looked normal enough, rather quiet, a bit smoky, beers of every shade of brown between black and gold lined up along the counter, an aging barmaid with a cigarette clamped in the corner of her mouth and too much make up (there but for the grace of god...) lining up even more. Things livened up with the arrival of two girls wearing knee high boots, black sunglasses and black vinyl trenchcoats. The sunglasses stayed on, but the trenchcoats only lasted 20 seconds or so. Luckily, there were a few scraps of gold sparkly material underneath, and the two belgian beauties (more belgian than beautiful) proceeded to writhe and wriggle up and down the tired and cramped passageway in front of the bar, about a metre from our table! The performance lasted three songs, before the audience was kindly invited to jam their cleavages full of euros. We, however, beat a quick exit, for fear of further entertainment!
I can happily report that while the quality of the exotic dancers could be improved (are gold sequins exotic? what would you call them?), the beers were top quality! As were the moules frites (mussels and chips, delicious belgian specialty), the many gaufres (belgian waffles) and the chocolate. Suffice to say, we were never hungry for long!
Brussels itself is an interesting city. Certainly not as classically beautiful as some cities (in my opinion), though it does have plenty of beautiful bits - the very grand Grand Place, for example - but instead, I would describe the city as interesting and rather charming. We saw some lovely churches, and managed to catch two choir concerts in two of these, an underwhelming chocolate museum, the atomium (a giant "iron molecule" - don't ask me to explain this, I know that iron is not a molecule, and I know, I know, but we are chemists after all), a rather deserted European Parliament (from the outside!), and of course the Manneken Pis, pissing.
Accent-wise, I'm afraid I've discovered that my french is not good enough to distinguish between the, apparently obviously different, belgian french and french french. Maybe next time.
The Grand Place, surrounded by beautiful buildings and filled with tourists.
Two lovely girls in front of the Mannekin Pis. Why this little fountain is famous, I'll never know (unless I find out).
Self-explanatory.
The bandes dessinées (comic books) are even more popular here than in France, and they have the murals to prove it.
The atomium!
jeudi, février 16, 2006
Or!
Hurrah for gold medals!
In the literally five minutes I had the TV on yesterday, I managed to catch Australia winning a gold medal in the moguls! I wasn't even sure they had won it until checking the internet this morning, because they didn't show the medal ceremony, or dwell too much on it, so I thought it might have been a preliminary thing. But certainly good timing!
And checking the medal tally, Sweden has two golds already and a bronze, for cross country and alpine skiing, though I haven't seen any of these being won.
France has just the one gold so far, and that win I have seen many, many times, in replay after replay after replay. At least it isn't a curling win they have to replay.
The Olympics coverage here is disappointing. I was really looking forward to being in the right timezone for a change, but France is really not such a sports interested country, unfortunately. Some nights they have only a 30 minute round-up, others a couple of hours, but mostly they show it during the day, but even then, only for a couple of hours here and there, and it doesn't help me in any case!
Also makes me very itchy to find myself a mountain covered in cold, white stuff... Though I don't think it will be happening this winter, alas.
In the literally five minutes I had the TV on yesterday, I managed to catch Australia winning a gold medal in the moguls! I wasn't even sure they had won it until checking the internet this morning, because they didn't show the medal ceremony, or dwell too much on it, so I thought it might have been a preliminary thing. But certainly good timing!
And checking the medal tally, Sweden has two golds already and a bronze, for cross country and alpine skiing, though I haven't seen any of these being won.
France has just the one gold so far, and that win I have seen many, many times, in replay after replay after replay. At least it isn't a curling win they have to replay.
The Olympics coverage here is disappointing. I was really looking forward to being in the right timezone for a change, but France is really not such a sports interested country, unfortunately. Some nights they have only a 30 minute round-up, others a couple of hours, but mostly they show it during the day, but even then, only for a couple of hours here and there, and it doesn't help me in any case!
Also makes me very itchy to find myself a mountain covered in cold, white stuff... Though I don't think it will be happening this winter, alas.
mercredi, février 08, 2006
Au hasard
Not much of a post this time, but it is something... random touristy photos that have been sitting on the computer for various amounts of time!
Alex and myself at Versailles.
Chateau Chambord in the Loire Valley, gorgeous!
Us getting soaked in the rain at Chambord. This was when Luke was visiting from Scotland, and we went with Cecelia and Dominique.
The lovely belly dancer who kept John and Shari and Alex and myself entertained on New Years Eve!
Alex and myself at Versailles.
Chateau Chambord in the Loire Valley, gorgeous!
Us getting soaked in the rain at Chambord. This was when Luke was visiting from Scotland, and we went with Cecelia and Dominique.
The lovely belly dancer who kept John and Shari and Alex and myself entertained on New Years Eve!
mercredi, février 01, 2006
En garde, Pret, Allez!
Unfortunately for France, the number one ranked Le Pechoux was knocked out of the contention by a tall chinese guy for the Coupe du Monde de Fleuret on Saturday night at the Stade de Coubertin here in Paris. One frenchie made it into the quarter finals, but was there beaten by a German. Possibly the same German who went home with the trophy - I can't remember! There was just too much swashbuckling sword clashing between men wearing tight white pants!
Dominique from the lab is in a fencing club, and got us (Ruxandra, Vicente (spanish postdoc) and his girlfrind, Dominique himself and his wife, and myself) half price tickets to the championship, one leg of the fencing world championships for fleuret, the fencing event where, unlike epée, you can only score by touches to the torso, and unlike sabre, you can only stab, not slash. And it was really fun! They scream and shout just as much as you see on TV during the olympics, and they have funny little cords that tie them to the scoring board that makes them look like those little kids with leashes!
After a late bite to eat afterwards, I missed the last metro home, and had to finally sample the Parisian taxi system, which I had not yet had the chance to do. Rather unexciting, I must report. I've heard that apparently, you are not allowed to sit in the front seat, like if there are four of you, you have to take two taxis, but since I was all alone, I didn't have a chance to verify this. I can report that they have cool computer GPS map systems that tell them where to go, which are quite fun to watch!
Dominique from the lab is in a fencing club, and got us (Ruxandra, Vicente (spanish postdoc) and his girlfrind, Dominique himself and his wife, and myself) half price tickets to the championship, one leg of the fencing world championships for fleuret, the fencing event where, unlike epée, you can only score by touches to the torso, and unlike sabre, you can only stab, not slash. And it was really fun! They scream and shout just as much as you see on TV during the olympics, and they have funny little cords that tie them to the scoring board that makes them look like those little kids with leashes!
After a late bite to eat afterwards, I missed the last metro home, and had to finally sample the Parisian taxi system, which I had not yet had the chance to do. Rather unexciting, I must report. I've heard that apparently, you are not allowed to sit in the front seat, like if there are four of you, you have to take two taxis, but since I was all alone, I didn't have a chance to verify this. I can report that they have cool computer GPS map systems that tell them where to go, which are quite fun to watch!
