They have a thing for gospel music over here. That's one thing I have to say that I like about France. They are quick to embrace "black" music (if there is such a thing). Hip hop (I heard more Bad Boy than I'd have liked while in the club), R&B (Sade is the music they use to advertise phone sex lines), Jazz (can you say Miles Davis), and now Gospel!

Brasseries, Bistros, & Beyonce?
Apparently Beyonce is popular in Paris as well. I saw a lot of beautiful black women in Paris...clearly mixed (as was evident in their varying degrees of curly hair & shades of brown skin). I also saw a lot of interracial couples. Parisians don't care about race the way many Americans do. It's something we can certainly learn from them...that and about food. Brasseries are different from bistrots, and cafes are different from restaurants. In Paris, diversity shows up in the women & the food.

I slept late again today (I must've really needed this vacation!!!), so the only "April In Paris" landscapes I captured were these flowers in bloom near the Eiffel tower.

It's All About The Beer

I got back to my hotel room pretty late in the night. I was still wired so I decided to go down to the hotel bar and get a beer (Europeans are gearing up for the World Cup, and I've recently fallen in love with soccer!). I ordered my drink and returned to my room when I realized, "I'm every man's dream! I can order a Heineken in three languages [without a phrase book]! I hate shopping! I love sports! And I don't care how big my butt looks in what I'm wearing (it's just big...it doesn't matter what I'm wearing and I know it...I'm fine regardless!)" With that I had the Epiphany of a Lifetime: The Jack@$$ that recently told me that he can't commit to me is not just a jack@$$, but an idiot too! I had 3 proposals at the club tonight (3 more than I've had in the States). He just doesn't know what he's missing!

Originally, he was supposed to go on this trip with me, but he backed out (commitmentphobe that he is)...if he only knew that he could've had my big @$$, Heineken's paid for by men who were enamoured with me, and my love for the rest of his life. Unfortunately, he's all about himself (ahem), I mean, the beer [and he missed the beautiful woman in cream who's holding the beer...duh]!

A Brasserie, A Bistro, & Beyonce?!

Apparently she's popular in France as well...berets off to her father for his marketing genious...he's even won over the French with her beauty (in spite of her lack of true talent). I've lost a lot of respect for the French...they've put Beyonce up there with Ella, Sarah, & Josephine. Times have certainly changed since the golden ages.

Today I slept late (again), but got up just in time to discover the Eiffel tower at sunset. Now I know why they call it the city of lights (although I think that's an over statement if all you count is the bulbous fallic symbol that didn't exist until just over 100 years ago!)

A Room With A View

Villa Montparnasse- Chambre Cinq-Zero-Sept (Room 507)

I checked into my room around 11:30 this morning. The room I'd originally requested wasn't ready, so they put me in this one. I was so tired when I arrived that I didn't care. I just needed to sleep (because God knows that sleeping on a plane isn't a restful sleep).

This is the view of the street below my room.
And that is the view of the cemetary across the street from the hotel (Cemeterie Montparnasse - Montparnasse Cemetary). Yeah I know it's a little creepy, but not half as creepy as what happened to me the first two days I was there.














As I said, I was so tired that the first thing I did when I got to the room was turn on the t.v. (what better way to begin testing my french skills), unpack, undress, and get in the bed. I fell asleep almost instantly. With the sound of french daytime t.v. in the background and the occassional wimpy french horn from cars in the street, I drifted into a midday slumber. I was briefly interrupted by a knock at the door.

"Madame?"

"Just a minute," I replied as I pulled on my jeans. "Yes?!"

"Are you find the room O.K.?" asked the kind yet simply dressed french desk clerk that'd checked me in an hour earlier.

"Oui. C'est bon. Merci," I replied (I needed to practice my french).

"D'accord," she said as I closed the door.

Back into the bed I went, holding on to the state of half sleep I was in.

I drifted back into the twilight world of afternoon sleep, half hearing what was going on in the world while the other half of my brain enjoyed the rest. Not too much later, the strangest thing happened. I heard a woman giggling in a flirtatious way, with the sound moving closer and closer to me on the bed. I felt someone sit on the edge of the bed next to me and felt the woman's spirit guided down onto the pillow I was lying on. I literally felt her pass through me as she rolled onto the pillow on the bed next to me. There was a man there, and he was making out with the woman. They (ahem) made out for a while but I addressed them, letting them know that I was fine with them doing whatever it was they were doing and, "don't let me interrupt," but they left, as ethereally as they'd entered my room. I opened my eyes: 1:13 PM...and went back to sleep wondering if I'd just had an odd dream...or was it real?

The next day, I ended up sleeping late again (right through breakfast AND lunch). Around 1 PM my sleep was interrupted again by the same desk clerk. She wanted to know if I wanted my room cleaned (I'd purposely left the "Deranger Pas" sign on the door [DO NOT DISTURB] because I don't like hotel staff in my room while I'm on vacation). I told her no and went back to sleep. About 30 minutes later, I felt a spirit enter the room again. This time, there was no giggling.

It was the same male spirit that had been there the day before. I was half in-half out of sleep, but I could feel my body become paralized. I knew he was there and assumed he wanted what he didn't get from the other spirit the day before. In my spirit form, I told him to go ahead and do whatever it was he was going to do. He grabbed me, pulled me across the bed and onto the floor. He stuffed a cloth in my mouth and dragged me toward the room door. I didn't feel too worried until I saw a metal object suspended above my spirit.

He opened my hotel room door and I looked across the hallway and saw a wrench suspended in the air. It was then that I realized he was bringing a friend for this encounter, and this spirit wasn't friendly to me.

"You're going to kill me, aren't you?!" I said to him in my spirit. I then began to cry out, "HELP! HELP!"

My mind was racing! I knew that help! is the last thing you scream when you need help (yell "Fire!" or something else), but I couldn't think of what else to do. Then I realized I was yelling in english, but I couldn't remember what "Help!" is in french, so I started praying.

"Dear God! I welcome the Holy Spirit into my body right now and I command that Jesus has dominion over my soul!" Then I started speaking to the male spirit: "You can't hurt me! I am a child of God and no weapon formed against me shall prosper!"

Just like that, he was gone. I literally felt my spirit sucked back into my body and simultaneously heard what can only be described as a bug zapper sound. My eyes popped open. I glanced at the clock: 1:13 PM. This time I knew it wasn't a dream.

I'd originally asked for a room with a view of the cemetary. I think I got more than I bargained for.

I got lost tonight (something I always do when I go to a new city). I put on my best walking shoes and left the hotel in search of an internet cafe so I could blog. Apparently, I was still bleary-eyed from the much needed deep sleep I've been deprived of in the last year (thanks a lot Espen & Katrina), so when I got directions from the hotel desk clerk I must have gotten them mixed up because I ended up wandering around the Septieme Arrondisment (7th district) for hours into the night. Fortunately, I came across the Eiffel tower which made it all ok...even when I got back to my room with swollen feet. At any rate, I had dreams of the entrance to Musee D'Orsay, and visions of Paris at night over the Seine, and of the Louve after dark.

I'm learning as much French etiquette as possible before I leave on Thursday. It's bad enough that I'll be an american in Paris & my french is rusty...I don't want to piss the xenophobes off any more than I have to.