It looks like our trip will now include Barcelona. Depending on feasibility, we will be taking night trains the day after we arrive in Paris, spending the first day in Paris, then two in Barcelona, three in Rome, and two more in Paris.  August is apparently an unbearably warm time to visit all three cities, especially Barcelona, but we might bear it!

In other news, I’ve had an incredibly inspiring few days and anticipate that the inspiration will thankfully remain for a while [due to a resurgence of consistent solitude].. One of the first things on my to-do list is to finish posting photos here!

A quick note; it is the beginning of April, and I have paid off two of three credit cards used in my November trip to Europe. I am now able to add more substantial payments to the third, which still holds a little over $2,500 from the trip. With loans and other bills, I should be able to finish payments in July.

Additionally, the trip I’m taking with my family in August has been reformed into a Paris/Rome vacation instead of Paris/London! Now we just have to figure out the best way to get there and back….

If I have enough time this weekend and am able to close some open browsers waiting for SimoneChoule updates, then I will resume daily photo postings next week.

the flickr photos below are going go to be the only photos online for a while.. i’ve uploaded many, but the code is just too much right now, especially considering that no one reads this. [my fault] looking at the fafsa recently has been bad enough, let alone an endless barrage of brackets and quotation marks! i’ve really grown fond of flickr, though, because i was able to arrange them all in collections which is indescribably satisfying. there are many more photos which i will definitely post sometime here in the future, but those were the nicest-looking. in the meantime, i’m blogging regularly here. :)

in other travel news, i booked tickets for my family & i for a 10 day trip to paris and london in august. [they were $612! ] we are flying in & out of charles de gaulle, and have yet to plan when and for how many days we will be travelling to london…

oh code code code how i loathe thee!

–back online [generally], and have been uploading photos.. photos through the 17th of november are now online, and are just waiting for code to be assembled so they can be seen. belgium and the netherlands should be up within the next two days as i am not working and am hibernating in the cold.
–i also will start actually posting on my regular blog of all things aesthetic, ae [it was my intention to do this daily after new years, we'll let my avoidance of internets conveniently step in the way of that], which should hopefully be an interesting, positive, and productive sort of place. as for lesypr, it will continue after the complete month is posted. after this point it will take a more practical turn with promised recommendations and observations, and will document further travails.
—my next trip is a week in paris and london with my family in september, for which i am currently trying to find tickets. after this, i will embark on some sort of journey, global or local, every november [if this doesn't work, a '-ber' month will do], and will be documenting accordingly….]. i’m especially interested to see if/how further travels fix logistical flaws, make the major minor and the minor major. and of course to visit and discuss lovely new places!

until i am able to organize code for the hundreds of photos from brussels, antwerp, [both of which i was unduly harsh about] amsterdam, and rotterdam, there are some photo edits on flickr which are hungry to be viewed. all manipulated images are sent here, and while they certainly remain fun vacation pictures, they should be viewed as dreamy little film stills [and should nevertheless be played at maximum volume].

here are two collections from flickr.. one for europe, and one for paris & rouen.. each has its own set of categories inside….

xx!

[[i'm on really inconsistent internet right now, [of the stolen, inconsistent, and strange-acting variety] so i won’t be able to upload anything for another two weeks, when the new internet is installed… hope anyone who might be clicking this way has a wonderful holiday!]]

i don’t think i was at all in the area of this street featured in breathless.. but i did check a magazine seller for the new-york herald tribune..

it was raining and i kind of stopped looking for this, but then a big mint square passed by

it is also a very busy restaurant and has a glamorous bar in the back

i was in a big line of people and waiting for my turn to purchase macarons. while waiting, i was snapping pictures and a man behind the counter, one around my age, came to tell me that photos weren’t allowed. i laughed but he was very serious and said that they weren’t permitted.
i kept taking pictures, though, because they’re fucking desserts

i hate louis vuitton. i like marc, but not louis vuitton. and i hate people who tolerate the louis vuitton design because its so crass and grotesque and UGH ENOUGH but this building is pretty to me;

i think this might be a discount store or something, but it says ‘tati’.

i was so sad to throw this box away 2 cities later.. its so pretty!

+;

in the metro

trying to find cafes, and stumbled upon borges and paz exhibits

the most perverted of many disturbing children’s rides. the first of many atrocities to come.

a cute shop window with baby wares inside

a store being attacked by a smurfed alligator.

i don’t know why this is the only photo i took at sonia rykiel. inside, i purchased a rainbow wallet. there was a lot of rainbow stuff, and a lot of sparkly stuff. and a special room upstairs with a wall of rainbow-jewel encrusted flaccid peen for sale.
i love her very much.

cafe de flore

i ordered something which i could tell was ‘bread’ and ‘cheese’ which turned out to be open-faced grilled cheese.

les deux magots

generally, i did not take interior shots of anything unless it was a museum or i was alone, but i was feeling particularly willful here… maybe it is because my waiter was the most irrefutably perfect looking man one could ever see?
[no offense to the one pictured, but it is not this man]
he was so beautiful and so sculpted he made me wish i was genet.

a lot of my photos are slightly crooked.
am i a crooked person?

i then passed a popcorn vendor and went into a bookstore which had stefan zweig correspondences in the window. hyperventilating, i went inside only to find it was in french. [the cover made it seem otherwise]. the shop lady then directed me to an english bookstore i never found, but i did see these posters above some shops near the street she sent me to.

+;

a very small, very adorable store of musical instruments.

in the back of a bookstore in bastille

cafe in before sunset
[i didn't go in--there weren't enough people to be inconspicuous, and anyway i wanted out of this neighborhood *immediately.

my hostel home is right behind this little market, which popped up to say goodbye

of course this hotel was not as pretty as the photos online, but i think thats because i booked a single room, and the cheapest one possible... nonetheless, it was very luxurious and i enjoyed every drunken minute of my time there.

windows with paintings that slide open

[the following day]

the hallway;

inside the elevator;

lobby;

outside;

+;

there were some works by other artists in the picasso museum. here and in other museums, though, i kept thinking of elmyr de hory. especially the modigliani since he faked those so well. the entire walk through the museum and for much of the rest of the day i kept hearing ‘i don’t feel bad for them, i feel good for me’ in my head.

the picasso museum has lots of painted windows, and inside features funhouse/distortion mirrors everywhere.

place des vosges to try to see hugo’s house again. even though it was the third time i visited this place, before finding the museum, i had to walk down each side of the square interior..

in hugo’s house

sadly, i was reprimanded after the above photo for taking pictures. it would not have been especially important if the rooms following were not so fabulous. there was a sitting/dining room after which featured a wall of china flatware that was extraordinarily decadent, then two rooms which had an identical pattern on the floor, the walls, and the ceiling. separated by thick wood panel, each had the most grotesque dark green pattern with swooping golden florals that made you feel claustrophobic, nauseous, and deviantly indulgent.

i did sneak a photo of his bedroom, though;

+;