LDN

"Have you got any kind of like sort of punky, electronica, kinda grime? Kind of like new wave grime but kind of maybe like more broken beats? Like kind of dubby broken beats but a little bit kind of soulful? Like kind of like drum and bassy but kind of like broken drum and bass? Like broken beats, like break beat kind of broken drum and bass kind of...do you know what I mean?"  -- oh that Lily Allen...she gets me every time (http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x26tts_lily-allen-ldn_music)

Ok, so I'm thinking of renaming this blog The Lazarus Project cuz it just seems to keep rising from the dead n' shit (that was like weird Biblical humor and I apologize if you guys didn't get it but I thought it was funny so whatever). Annnnyway, a looooooong time ago, I promised you guys a post of when La Bêtiserie went to London and I think I promised it within the following week, butttttt as you all know, that didn't happen. BUT DON'T EVEN WORRY, CUZ IT'S HERE! Whooooooop!

So as those of you faithful bêtiserie readers know, my Mom and sister came to Paris for a week in Feb, and then that weekend, we went to London. I had never techincally been to London/England before, with the exception of one short trip btwn Heathrow and Gatwick in order to catch a connecting flight to France when I was like 12, so I guess this would count as my first "real" time in England. 

I was really surprised at how different London is from Paris. I'm not sure why, but I guess I had always pictured, from what I had read and seen and heard and stuff, that London was quaint and charming and proper and frilly. I mean, maybe it's just an American thing, but I guess I thought the whole place was full of stuff like Big Ben and Parliament and Buckingham Palace. Yet it simply is not. Like, not at all. London is a living, breathing, working city. It's modern and up-to-date and in some places, gritty and unpleasant. I guess the biggest difference that I found between London and Paris was that when in Paris, one feels like one is in a fairytale, almost captured in time. The city is so charming and quaint that it seems as if no one does any work, as if everyone is just going about their Parisian lives, eating baguettes, smoking in parks, walking tiny dogs, etc. It sometimes almost feels like a set-up or a façade, like everyone is just acting cutesy and French while racial tensions and poverty simmer on the outskirts of the city/in les banlieues. London is not like that. It's not putting up a front or pretending to be anything it's not. It's real, it's gritty, it's alive, and while in some places it's less than aesthetically pleasing, it's got an authenticity and an edginess to it that one doesn't really find in Paris. And I respect that... 

But I still like Paris more ;)

Annnnnnd that was a long-ass rant. I'mma post some photos now to keep me from writing any more. Weeeeeee here they are!:

Adorbz

 If I lived in London, I think I would live here...

 

I think I'm going to start giving titles to my photos. I call this one Why Did I Take a Picture of the Back of This Statue? or Nice Ass, Soldier! 

Either one...

 I think I would call this photo Church that I think was bombed during WWII but I'm not really sure which is proof of how little I was listening on the tour bus.

 Rolls right off the tongue doesn't it?

 

Big Ben is a Big Beast, at least from this angle...

Also, as we were walking around Big Ben, getting ourselves lost, I overheard one woman say "Isn't it just crazy how all these tourists are walking around taking pictures of Big Ben? Like, they'll see it once in their lifetimes and I see it twice a day!" Now, that might sound like bragging to you, but it made perfect sense to me, because it's exactly how I feel about living in Paris. Like, in order to get home from class, I walk through the Jardin de Luxembourg. If I need a sunny place to read a book, I walk down to the Seine. I ate lunch on the steps of the Paris Opera the other day. Like it's a big deal to me how not a big deal these things have become in my life...

ANNNYWAY, moving on...

 "Yo, whaddup, we're taking a pic with this mailbox because we're tourists and it's fine."

 St. Paul's

And again...

 One more time (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGBhQbmPwH8)

 Tower of London -- note the ravens on the wall; these are 2 of 6 ravens that must be kept on the Tower of London grounds at all times, according to a superstition that suggests that if they are lost or fly away "the Crown will fall and Britain with it." BUM BUM BUMMMMMM (that was supposed to be this sound, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7g9WjcGdxuM, in case you were wondering... )

Let's all just stop and appreciate the fact that this photo includes a baby...on a leash.

 "We're in England..."

 Parliament at dusk...

 Hidden garden at Westminster Abbey

Annnnnd here we have the obnoxiously artsy photo, without which a Bêtiserie post would be incomplete.

Lookin' dapper

 Spaghetti hats!

 I got really bored watching the Changing of the Guard (it took forever!) so I just took a picture of the Buckingham Palace gate instead.

 She got really excited about this cake we found in Herrod's, couldn't tell you why...

Alllllright kiddos, there's London for ya! I should have another post up for you soon!!

Stay fly, ladies and gents, stay fly.

That time Mom and Audrey came to Paris

I feel like the subject of this post is pretty self-explanatory given the title...

Musée National du Moyen Age

Note the hand pushing her...

Sweet stained-glass window...

Where's everybody's heads?

Oh there they are...

   The museum had a chapel that I found to be rather ballin'

I feel like I'm past the point of apologizing for these indie photos...let's just accept that they are gonna be a part of this blog and move on, mmmk?

Ca-yuuute

I don't know what this mural means but I think I like it...

The cuteness don't stop

We went to Le Grand Mosquée (the Grand Mosque of Paris) for tea

The next day, they went shopping at Les Galleries Lafayette. I joined them there after class. Because of the sheer size of the store and immense quantity of merchandise being sold there, it was a patently overwhelming experience for me. The ceiling, however, was lovely. Best viewed large, beeteedubbz

The church of La Madeleine

Ok, so there you have it! Another post! Comin' soon... La Bêtiserie goes to London! I'm gonna try to have that up next week... *fingers crossed*

Past few weeks...because I am lazy

Soooooo, I originally planned to make many little posts for you, each with a theme of what I had been up to  (i.e., "Louvre Excursion") or an area of Paris or whatever, but I got busy/lazy so now you will all have to endure a MONDO post with everything from the past few weeks.  I was going to apologize to you for not posting sooner, or more often, or in smaller and more digestible and coherent posts, but then I thought better of it, so really, all I have to say to you is "shut up please, I'm very busy and important!" http://www.radio-quality.com/wp content/uploads/2010/09/bridget_jones.jpg (hi Carolyn Fanning) 

Anyway, what has happened over the past few weeks, you ask? What hasn't happened?! Two weeks ago, after I got back from Lyon, we still had CUPA classes, so I went to those, but I also managed to get some fun stuff in too. I went to a small museum called the Musée Maillol to see an exhibit on "The Treasure of the Medicis" which was pretty cool. I also had my camera with me, so I snapped a few shots of the area (i.e., the 7th arrondissement):

 Kewl sneakaz

Then, on Thursday, I had the day off from CUPA, so I headed over to the Louvre with Hannah to see an exhibit on Antiquity Rediscovered, which was basically about the influence of antiquity on 18th century art. Go here for a better explanation - http://www.boutiquesdemusees.fr/en/shop/special/329-antiquity-rediscovered-innovation-and-resistance-in-the-18th-century

After that, we went for a nice walk from the Louvre to L'Arc de Triomphe . Here are those pictures.

 The bubbles that this man was blowing were ridiculously large and mesmerizing. Hannah and I seriously considered forgoing the Louvre just to stand in front of this magician and watch him work.

But then we went anyway...

I really like the way this one came out...

The best McDonald's I have ever seen.

 Graffiti at Gare St. Lazare

That Friday was gorgeous and we enjoyed it by walking around Place St. Sulpice...

(best viewed large!)

Pierre Hermé, one of the best pâtissiers/chocolatiers in Paris, with a lovely cake just in time for Valentine's day!

Then on Saturday, I really wanted to go out and take those Marais photographs that I promised you guys, but the day suddenly turned gray and awful and just looking at my photos made me depressed, so I stopped taking them. I did manage to get a few ok ones in before I turned my camera off...

 Le Pont de l'Archevêché, where lovers attach locks to symbolize their love and then throw the keys into the Seine below... Also, check out Notre Dame looking like a beast in the background...

 More of the same...

Then, because the weather was slowly draining me of my will to live, I figured I'd better find something else to do. So I went to the Monet museum (Musée Marmottan) and saw this huge exhibition they were having on all of Monet's greatest works. I think I like his scenic paintings (i.e., Rouen Cathedral, Impression: Soleil Levant, etc) better than his nature paintings, some of which look like he just happened to have a massive muscular spasm while holding a paint brush in his hand. 

This is a statue of Aesop (of Aesop's Fables) that I saw on my walk to the Musée Marmottan. Anyone recognize the fable?

And now for la pièce de résistance (that's French, you know)...MONTMARTRE. It's where Amélie was filmed (you know, that painfully adorable French movie where Audrey Tatou goes around changing peoples lives for the better and looking incredibly French? No? Just watch it... Seriously, watch it right now...) Anyway, Montmarte is also the area where all the famous artists lived and worked, like Picasso and Matisse. It's very charming and hilly and still looks, in a way, like the small village it once was. Here are some photosssss:

CANDY CART

Om nom nom nom

A wall on which "I love you" is written in like a bazillion languages. Oh Paris, you hopeless romantic.

Too indie? My apologies...

As we were walking down the steps of Sacré-Cœur, we found ourselves in the middle of this big sing-along concert. Not sure what the song was, but it was a very "We Are the World" moment, as Isabella described it. And it made for a cool picture...

Ok, I feel like the next thing I'm about to tell you should have it's own freakin' post called something like "Remember that time we saw Justin Bieber?" Cuz we did. In Paris. For the premiere of his highly anticipated biopic Never Say Never. French girls were going crazy. The red carpet was purple. JBiebz was there in all his pre-pubescent, cherub-faced glory. It was a night to remember...

Oh hey Justin... (photo courtesy of Aly Kravitz)

When Bieber Fever hits, it hits hard...

Then we did some other, less important stuff...

This building is the Institut de France, which houses the Academie Française, a society dedicated to maintaining the purity and integrity of the French language. This means that before a word goes into the French dictionary, it has to go through them first. Yes, the French really are that crazy.

Ok, so that's all for now. I know I'm really behind on posting and everything so I'mma try to get my next few posts up in the next couple days, so stay tuned. If you're reading this, I guess that means you're one of the faithful ones, which means you deserve a reward...

So here it is

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15sD8IxBsRw&feature=related