Wonderful Weekend

So, the weekend is nearly over, it's sunday afternoon and I'm determined to be productive!
I had a wonderful weekend full of sunshine and good company; je suis tres contente

I was so happy to finish work on Friday, after an exhausting day full of scooters, bikes and tears (not my own), and knowing that there will be two weeks of freedom (albeit financial shit) to follow. It looks like I will have to further downsize my already shoestring lifestyle, a challenge, but I think it's do-able. It just means, less convenient grocery shopping to find the cheapest markets in town, more penny pinching, no more giving to beggars (sorry) and no more chucking 1 and 2 centimes pieces in the bottom of my bag. It means bending over to pick up that 10 centimes piece, and possibly (finally) exchanging my safety-net of swiss francs and seeing how many euros I can get for US$8.19.

Anyway, back to my weekend. Friday night involved cocktails, more specifically, pina colada and lots of French! Trying to keep up is still hard, but getting easier. Saturday was brilliant; involving a walk around the old town, croix rousse, down the Rhone river and a petit repose in the gardens of the art gallery. On saturday night, crepe party chez moi, complete with wine, tarot cards, cosmo magazines and a Gerald Butler film. This morning, I called my parents and must say it made me feel so much better but made me miss them like crazy. I realise I do, infact, have the best parents! And talking to my dad, which I havent done for ages, was so good and he helped me get some real perspective on my life and the near future. I don't think he gets quite how much he helped me this morning! Now, I've just finished work and plan to keep up my productivity even though watching some films is getting too tempting. Perhaps, if I write down my to-do list, it will be easier to get motivated;

• reply to some pressing emails
• re-post work advertisments online
• take out the rubbish
• put my name on the mailbox (finally)
• clean the kitchen
• work on some paintings
• post finished paintings on new blog (yet another!)
• eat. soup w couscous. not my favourite, but all I have that is not pasta. (which I'm sick of)

Ok! Allons-y!

bisous. a.

Dear New York.

written at the Musée des Beaux Arts, Lyon.

I'm so spoiled. I don't mean materially (I'm writing this on a croissant-wrapper). No, I mean intellectually spoiled. I'm sitting here at the Musee des Beaux Arts, I got in for free (yay to being European and under 25), and yet I'm still so disappointed. I just passed by a Picasso, and all I could think about was how much I wanted to see the Demoiselles d'Avignon again in NYC.

I saw some Delacroix and Gericault originals and thought that the collection is not as good as the Met.

There is Matta, Dufy and Chagall within a few meters of me, but it's not the MoMA - the modern art wing at the Musee des Beaux Arts was barely half of what I expected it to be. There is no Dali, or Khalo, or Rivera, or Calderon, or Calder. And the two Delaunay pieces (one Sonia and one Robert) are unbelievably small and underwhelming.

I don't get the tiniest bit of emotion here. I almost cried when I saw Malevich's White on White in NYC last summer. I'm not joking, I welled up.

I keep thinking my life would be so much easier if I never went to NYC. I would be happy in France. I wouldn't miss it so much. I wouldn't be sitting in a museum (my favourite place in the world; the museum), counting down the days until I leave for JFK.

New York -

My life would be easier if I never met you.

I would be blissfully ignorant of what I'm missing out on.

New York - I hate you

But I'm also deeply, madly in love with you.

Please take me back.

Chère France

[Eugene Delacroix, Liberty Leading the people/La Liberté guidant le peuple, 1830, Oil on Canvas. Source: here]

Chère France;

Here are some things I find interesting about you

• The blue street signs in places like Paris or Lyon. They are so French.
• Your pastries are to die for, which makes your lack of Milo or TimTams bearable
• The freedom to explore your museums if one is under 25 and European
• Your frequent condom-dispensing machines. I have never used them, but I find them very amusing
• French gentlemen are the epitome of gentlemen (rivalled only by Americans, I must admit)
• Your artists and writers are pretty amazing (see Delacroix, above.)
• I truly love your accent (even if you don't)

However, there are some things I dislike about you;

• Your railway system's ability to make life oh so complicated, and the reluctance, nay, refusal to exchange tickets. Also, your trains are too small, I cannot fit my luggage in the aisles.
• Your metros are expensive. They are good. But they are expensive
• You sell too many cigarettes
• Your language is very difficult. Even after 8 years of A's and Distinctions, and many dollars spent at the Alliance Francaise, I am having lots of problems to communicate.
• Your bureaucracy is a little on the frustrating side

Cordialement,

Mademoiselle A.F.