Flew into Paris in the afternoon. Overall painless flight, redeye, I slept until around an hour before we landed thinking that I had hacked the system and somehow would avoid jet lag. The board bag and luggage arrived unscathed and I was on my way to figure out how to get to the airbnb in the center of Paris. Right as I get out the door I am asked if I need a taxi and I say yes. This big Brazilian dude speaks to me in French and I can barely understand. I'm responding to him in Spanish and then he's responding to me in Portuguese. I'm like “Woah! I can understand this guy.” We slide the boards into his sedan with the back seats down and we go. I foolishly get in without discussing the fare to town, all I asked him is how should I pay, I don't have cash. “Do you have venmo?” “Don't worry I'll take you to the ATM.” He punches the address into his phone and shows me that uber's fee from the airport to my airbnb is like €380. How is it this expensive? There have been labor strikes, protesting the rising energy and fuel prices and that the center has been shut down today. “No taxis, bus, or train today. Everyone walks today.” “C’mon man I can't drop 400 on this car ride.” “I'll do it for €150.” Still expensive but I guess I have no choice. I mean I'm in the car, stuck in traffic with this guy- it's slow going into downtown, many of the freeway exits are blocked. “Why didn't you strike, aren't you a taxi?” “I was there earlier today. Did you notice how I was limping when we were coming to the car? I got hit by police in the leg today.”
We eventually get to an exit that is open and now we really are some crazy traffic, standstill little by little inching forward through roundabouts, cars in every direction. A while later we get through a barricade and a cop asks the driver some questions. I can't make out a word of it, and we made it to the center. Now there’s no traffic and we race through beautiful, tree lined streets with the 4-5 story apartment buildings with their beautiful matching windows. “This is so beautiful.” “It gets more beautiful the deeper we go in,” he says with a grin.
He pulls to the side and shows an ATM. I run out and pull out €600, got owned with a fee. As I’m fiddling with the ATM trying to make the right decision in French, a homeless guy starts begging for money. “Don’t speak French,” I say in Portuguese/Spanish. He’s right up on me and I’m thinking I have to give him something to get him off my back. I can’t focus on the ATM and him at the same time. Luckily I had a random €10 bill in my pocket that I grabbed from the house on my way out in case of an emergency. Well here’s the emergency. I give it to him and he’s psyched! He kisses me hard on the cheek and says Merci, Gracias, Thank You. A block away he’s still yelling Thanks! I get back in the car, the driver pretends like he saw nothing. He gets me to my apt entrance, I give him the €150, feeling a little bit scammed but oh well, I’m here!
To get into the airbnb I have to use a code to the through to a door on the street. It leads to another gate in a nasty dark corridor that opens with a key fob. Then I go upstairs, a rickety spiral staircase. I got to take two trips, one with boards vertical and another with suitcase to the very top floor. I smell French bouillon or something delicious on the way and open my little door to a tiny apartment. The kitchen basically is the living room and there is a tiny bedroom with a bathroom attached to it. Settle in for a sec, it’s 5:30pm and I venture out into the street to walk in the direction I fancy. Through the sketchy hallway I go and either right or left.
To the left is a beautiful mini Arc de Triomphe and to the right in the distance is an old gorgeous looking train station or government type looking building with arches and ornate decorations. I go right and just wander looking at street after street lined up apartment buildings with little shops on the ground floor and many cages with tables and people having coffee on the street. I decide to head to the Seine for a nice sunset view and head to Les Marais. Nice long walk to get there and then over to Les Marais where people are around but not too many. I think the strike or maybe it's just Sunday evening keeping the crowds down. Obviously there are tourists but it doesn't feel touristy as I walk. I made a conscious decision not to walk the Louvre area, I’ll wait to do that when Evan arrives.
By the time I’m in Les Marais I’m pretty hungry but intent on finding a classic Parisian bistro with a menu del dia etc. I find Les Philosophes and have a beer. The place is packed but I get put right amongst a bunch of people speaking English. To the right I have a boring ass couple barely talking to each other and to my left I have a Brit and American gossiping about weddings and other adventures moving to Paris or something. I’m totally eavesdropping because I have nothing better to do but I stay completely quiet. Both couples leave and a French teen couple sith down for some French onion soup. I should have ordered that, it looks amazing. Super gooey and melted cheese with every bite. My food wasn't bad though. I got menu del dia which was a butternut squash soup, a white bean stew with veggies, and chocolate mousse. Since I’m trying not to speak English, I’ve been speaking Portuñol to the waiters and teen next door asks where I’m from. I tell him LA and that it’s my first day in Paris, I’ve been here for several hours. “How do you like it?” “I mean I’ve been here for not even a full day but so far it’s been pretty sweet.”
. 
9/19-
Woke up at 2:30am. I thought I had done good by sleeping on the plane and then staying up til midnight, figured it’d just sinc me up with the time over here. Can't fall asleep. There's no food in this apartment except some random shit in the pantry. Open the computer to do some Paris research until 6:30, take a nap and wake up at 8:30.
There are bakeries everywhere, I go for a pain au chocolat and a cappuccino. Fuck that’s good! First one of the trip. It’s a chilly morning and I’m sitting in my puffer drinking probably the best morning cup of joe I’ve ever had with a buttery, chocolatey croissant. Get a couple groceries. I’m not going to be foodless in the apartment again. Plus, I figure I’ll be spending some time there as I’ve committed to being on the computer from 6-9pm for work.
I set off on a massive walk around the city. My destination is Montemartre to check out a bistro for lunch but first I’ve got to go 30 min uphill to the church on top of the neighborhood. The whole neighborhood is beautiful with windy, narrow streets and steep staircases connecting different levels of streets. The only turn off is that it is swarming with tourists. Fat gringos huffing and puffing as they climb up the incline complaining about how hot it is or how much longer to the church. The view from up top is pretty spectacular. I believe it’s the highest point in Paris and you can see the wonderful city sprawl around you with distinct landmarks, like the Eiffel tower or Pantheon in the distance. The church actually has mass in session when I get there so I can’t really check out all the cool religious art inside as much as I’d like. The restaurant I want to check out is at the bottom of the hill so down I go ready to eat. Definitely earned my lunch. To my surprise everyone in the restaurant was French and speaking loudly next to me, all the little tables crowded together. I had french onion soup (fomo from last night) and steak frites. Classic and pretty good with the two cups of wine that come with the meal.
From there I walk across the city to the gardens of Luxembourg. I’m actually tired when I arrive. The lack of sleep and tons of walking I’ve already done are starting to weigh on me. Although the gardens are sweet, all grassy areas are roped off. I would’ve loved to doze off, barefoot on some grass but instead I settle for an iron bench watching people go by. I’m like an hour away from home. My plan is to make it halfway, stop for a beer, and then finish the journey. Only thing is, once I started walking, I never found a cool place that suited me. Little by little I make it back for a nap with a strict wake up time. I’m determined to go out tonight, have a beer, and beat this jetlag. Fully worn out, I pass out deeply.
. 
. 
9/20-
Woke up, had some coffee and a choco-croissant like yesterday and bought some tickets to the Musee d’Orsay. Psyched to take the metro this time and make it safe and sound. The museum may be my favorite one I've ever been to, period. It's a lovely old school train station converted into a museum so it still has this great main hall with a massive clock posted high up at the end of the hallway. On this ground level there are many classical or neoclassical sculptures in the Greek and Roman style and on the wings are beautiful paintings from the 1800s.
The really incredible stuff is their insane collection of impressionist (Monet) and post-impressionist (van Gogh) on the 5th floor. I love the experience of looking at some of these up close and then zooming out to see how these colors and brushstrokes over lapped come together to form a kind of hazy image. It’s like they had a mastery of understanding how colors all blend together in images when you squint your eyes and observe an ordinary scene. In many of these paintings it seems like there's a haze but there still often is a subject and background, it’s really something special. I spend several hours through this section, super up close and zoomed out over and over again. Some of the paintings are a collection of very different colored dots and on zoom out you see the paintings as a kind of mosaic.
The post-impressionist section is gorgeous as well and shows more of a history of van Gogh. These paintings are so striking there is contrast with darks and lights and the paintings almost seem vividly psychedelic. That was a real treat as it was basically a whole section devoted to him.
On my way out I notice there was a Munch exhibit downstairs so I go down to check it out. I know his name vaguely, I’m so glad I do. This is the guy who made the “scream.” Norwegian painter whose pictures are totally spooky and gothic. His mom died when he was a kid and then his sister died when he was 15 so his work is heavily death and psychological torment related. It’s so dark and awesome, it's like Edgar Allen Poe in paintings. Couldn’t recommend d’Orsay enough!
Wander around the Latin Quarter and have a delicious duck dish with potatoes. Again slowly make my way back to the apartment up in the 11th arr. I metro’d down there but even though my legs are tired and my knee kinda hurts from so much walking, once I start trekking home, I put one foot after the other til I’m there.
. 
9/19-
Woke up at 2:30am. I thought I had done good by sleeping on the plane and then staying up til midnight, figured it’d just sinc me up with the time over here. Can't fall asleep. There's no food in this apartment except some random shit in the pantry. Open the computer to do some Paris research until 6:30, take a nap and wake up at 8:30.
There are bakeries everywhere, I go for a pain au chocolat and a cappuccino. Fuck that’s good! First one of the trip. It’s a chilly morning and I’m sitting in my puffer drinking probably the best morning cup of joe I’ve ever had with a buttery, chocolatey croissant. Get a couple groceries. I’m not going to be foodless in the apartment again. Plus, I figure I’ll be spending some time there as I’ve committed to being on the computer from 6-9pm for work.
I set off on a massive walk around the city. My destination is Montemartre to check out a bistro for lunch but first I’ve got to go 30 min uphill to the church on top of the neighborhood. The whole neighborhood is beautiful with windy, narrow streets and steep staircases connecting different levels of streets. The only turn off is that it is swarming with tourists. Fat gringos huffing and puffing as they climb up the incline complaining about how hot it is or how much longer to the church. The view from up top is pretty spectacular. I believe it’s the highest point in Paris and you can see the wonderful city sprawl around you with distinct landmarks, like the Eiffel tower or Pantheon in the distance. The church actually has mass in session when I get there so I can’t really check out all the cool religious art inside as much as I’d like. The restaurant I want to check out is at the bottom of the hill so down I go ready to eat. Definitely earned my lunch. To my surprise everyone in the restaurant was French and speaking loudly next to me, all the little tables crowded together. I had french onion soup (fomo from last night) and steak frites. Classic and pretty good with the two cups of wine that come with the meal.
From there I walk across the city to the gardens of Luxembourg. I’m actually tired when I arrive. The lack of sleep and tons of walking I’ve already done are starting to weigh on me. Although the gardens are sweet, all grassy areas are roped off. I would’ve loved to doze off, barefoot on some grass but instead I settle for an iron bench watching people go by. I’m like an hour away from home. My plan is to make it halfway, stop for a beer, and then finish the journey. Only thing is, once I started walking, I never found a cool place that suited me. Little by little I make it back for a nap with a strict wake up time. I’m determined to go out tonight, have a beer, and beat this jetlag. Fully worn out, I pass out deeply.
. 
. 
9/20-
Woke up, had some coffee and a choco-croissant like yesterday and bought some tickets to the Musee d’Orsay. Psyched to take the metro this time and make it safe and sound. The museum may be my favorite one I've ever been to, period. It's a lovely old school train station converted into a museum so it still has this great main hall with a massive clock posted high up at the end of the hallway. On this ground level there are many classical or neoclassical sculptures in the Greek and Roman style and on the wings are beautiful paintings from the 1800s.
The really incredible stuff is their insane collection of impressionist (Monet) and post-impressionist (van Gogh) on the 5th floor. I love the experience of looking at some of these up close and then zooming out to see how these colors and brushstrokes over lapped come together to form a kind of hazy image. It’s like they had a mastery of understanding how colors all blend together in images when you squint your eyes and observe an ordinary scene. In many of these paintings it seems like there's a haze but there still often is a subject and background, it’s really something special. I spend several hours through this section, super up close and zoomed out over and over again. Some of the paintings are a collection of very different colored dots and on zoom out you see the paintings as a kind of mosaic.
The post-impressionist section is gorgeous as well and shows more of a history of van Gogh. These paintings are so striking there is contrast with darks and lights and the paintings almost seem vividly psychedelic. That was a real treat as it was basically a whole section devoted to him.
On my way out I notice there was a Munch exhibit downstairs so I go down to check it out. I know his name vaguely, I’m so glad I do. This is the guy who made the “scream.” Norwegian painter whose pictures are totally spooky and gothic. His mom died when he was a kid and then his sister died when he was 15 so his work is heavily death and psychological torment related. It’s so dark and awesome, it's like Edgar Allen Poe in paintings. Couldn’t recommend d’Orsay enough!
Wander around the Latin Quarter and have a delicious duck dish with potatoes. Again slowly make my way back to the apartment up in the 11th arr. I metro’d down there but even though my legs are tired and my knee kinda hurts from so much walking, once I start trekking home, I put one foot after the other til I’m there.
9/21-
Had to check out the apt in the 11th arr. It's been nice there and comfortable but excited to move and see Evan Blaney later. He’s coming into town this evening and we are sharing an airbnb over by the Bastille. 30 min walk per Google maps. I get it in my head that I’m going to walk there; strap my boards to my suitcase and pull it all together as an aquatic hyper elongated roller. It takes me a couple tries to get the thing cinched up and ready for hauling but now I got to lug this across town to the new airbnb. The handle I've jimmy-rigged on this thing that isn't that good and it digs into my hand uncomfortably. I kinda build up a sweat after not going that far. Oh man, I should really take a taxi but you know I’ve already got it in my head that i've got this mission to accomplish. I'm going to get my stuff to the apt by myself. It’s like when we got stuck at the TJ border for 12 hours and John made a deal with himself that he wasn't going to get out of the driver's seat til we crossed. Terrible decision but sometimes you gotta follow through with your own challenges. It takes me an hour to make it.
I get into the airbnb and it’s dirty with luggage from the previous guests stacked on the floor. I've arrived early and have permission to leave my shit there til check in. Then minutes later, the cleaners arrive, a Russian couple confused as fuck as to why I’m in there. Immediately they put me on facetime with my host since we cannot communicate, I don't think their french was that good. Took a while to get everything all cleared up and they in the end understood what was my stuff (suitcase & surfboard) and that everything else was the previous guests’.
Bounce off to the Orangerie museum back over by the Louvre by metro. This museum is smaller and has way less people. It has a 8 painting collection of Mone’s Lilies in 2 oval rooms. Massive curved paintings along the walls in an elliptical shape, 4 in one and 4 in the other room, with natural softened light coming from the roof. It’s a quiet meditative experience to sit there and in all directions around you, you see Monet’s pond in different lights and perspectives. Spectacular as hell. Such a sweet, classy, small exhibit with an absolute master class of haziness and faded darks and pinks. I can only imagine how dope this place must have been before cell phones and people trying to capture this experience, like I was.
Made it back to the crib so that I could open it up for Evan. Great to see him again. We cruised around the neighborhood and ate at some random place. I felt like I talked nearly the entire time. I had been so quiet the last couple days, barely communicating with people. Walking in silence observing the Parisian streets around. I'd been cruising around and thinking and enjoying people watching but connecting with a friend was a huge change and a welcomed one. Had some beers and stumbled into an Arabian style concert in a warehouse close to our place with an interpretive dancer and candles all around. Pretty cool and random sight and phenomenal setting with a bud to converse with.
9/22-
Today we biked from our apartment and did the real touristy shit. Cross town to the Pantheon, Louvre, and Eiffel Tower. The Pantheon was pretty sweet, more so for the views from the top and the crypts below. Up top there is a big dome so we walked around it and took in the 360 degrees of the Parisian skyline. Below, great French writers, thinkers, politicians, abolitionists, martyrs, etc. have tombs down there. Kind of awesome thinking about all the greats of this society and culture all at the roots of this immense structure dating back to the 1700s. Also, the Pantheon is in the college neighborhood so when you leave to you're surrounded by young students out for lunch surrounded by greatness. Not bad.
Biked over to the Louvre and got involved in the most crowded/touristy thing I’ve done. I mean it is phenomenal so tourists, anti-tourists, and art lovers alike go there to appreciate. There is so much art in there with people swarming all around that it can get kind of overwhelming. You have to just pick a zone or couple things you want to see and stick to them. I read somewhere that if you were to spend thirty seconds at each piece in the entire museum, it’d take you 5 years to see everything. So naturally we go up to the European paintings section, the crown jewel being the Mona Lisa. There's also the coronation of Napoleon and his wife, Lady liberty leading the revolution, and winged justice close by. Many of these oil paintings are enourmous and show huge religious or historical moments with tons of people in them. Massive battles with people dying in agony or scenes of conquest are everywhere and mainly part of the Napoleonic era. The Mona Lisa is underwhelming and there is a gnarly line of people trying to get close to take pictures. The painting of the feast where Jesus turns water into wine across the room greatly overpowers it.
Left the Louvre after checking out a couple more things and laid down barefoot on some grass close by. Much needed rest after hitting so much biking. The biking in Paris has been so convenient and perfect, should've been doing this earlier. Back on the bike to the Eiffel Tower and quick stop at the Arc du Triomphe. That whole zone there pretty much sucks. Disneyland with Gucci stores etc. glad to get out of there quick. The Arc is gorgeous and I love thinking about it with it’s symbolism, under Nazi occupation and then the Allies liberation. (Can’t go to Paris without thinking about WW2 at least once.)
Keep weaving through cars and pedestrians through the bougiest part of Paris and end up under the Eiffel Tower. Honestly totally worth the hype. It’s kinda breathtaking. We've seen it so many times but up close you see so many of the bars of metal and the scaffolding and angles; its a geometric masterpiece. I really enjoyed looking up at it. Thought about getting to the top of it but had to go to a cafe to get some work done. Had a bottle of Rose the bartender recommended with some delicious charcuterie to go with it. Finished up on the computer and we cruised back to the Marais/11th arr to see what was going on tonight. The Eiffel Tower at dark is pretty sweet since they light it up in yellow and it sparkles.
Bike along the Seine for the way back and get to Les Philosophes Bistro. Same place where I watched those kids get French onion soup and have been talking it up to Evan ever since. Eat an amazing meal of French onion soup (thick layer of melted cheese in beef broth with caramelized onions and bread in every bite) and lamb chops finished with creme brulee. Walk home passing gangs of people partying and drinking.
Today was a full blown tourist day. We knew what we wanted to hit and knocked out these 3 activities back to back to back all on bikes. A super eventful day but exhausting. We kinda thought we'd go out and rip it up tonight but after that massive meal and so much biking, we passed out.
. 
Woke up pretty late, last day in Paris and we are starting off at noon. Go to a famous Boulangerie- Tout Autor du Pain that specializes in chocolate croissants. The croissant is so freaking good. Flakey and buttery. Chewy and airy. Bars of dark chocolate in the middle adding that sweet, bitter bite. I’ve had a chocolate croissant and a cappuccino or espresso every morning and this was definitely the best I've had. Really fun to go search it out and for it to deliver.
Since we were at the top of Le Marais we decided to have a Marais day and go to the Pompidou. But first we'd go to another famous treat. A chocolatier shop, Jean Paul Hwin, where we bought several squares of chocolate and 5 macaroons. We ate the chocolate squares outside and were thrilled. The passion fruit chocolate was a perfect balance of the tart fruit mixed with a creamy chocolate that coated your tongue and disintegrated slowly. Every flavored chocolate square was a balanced mix every time. So so good.
In the Pompidou we had an espresso because we were trying to combat the inevitable tranquilizer darts that get shot into your legs the second you see art at a museum. We bought the tickets to the exhibits including the Gerard Garouste on the top floor. I loved this exhibit. His stuff is so cool and unsettling. The beginning of his life was in and out of a psych ward for his bipolar disorder and his art has been influenced by that and his fascination with Dante’s Inferno and other religious texts. Disfigured people, darks and lights, strange grotesque takes on the classics, mischievous grins, occasional violence. He has a really cool collection of portraits of his wife and kids where they are all disfigured w/ arms and body parts coming out where they shouldn't. The Pompidou building itself is a radical building with pipes and tubes all on the exterior in different colors. The escalator runs outside the building inside a big transparent tunel with a really cool view of the surrounding neighborhood and plaza. So down we go to the lower floor to see the modern art. There’s some really cool stuff here as well but perhaps I’ve spent the majority of my art viewing attention span upstairs at the Garouste exhibit. The Pompidou is totally worth checking out, there is so much going on. It’s a cultural center with a performing arts center as well as the galleries above. The radical modern architecture alone makes it worth seeing.
Cruise out after several hours, grab a shawarma, and chill at a bar/cafe for a while to rest and have some beers. The girl who’s serving looks like a blond cleopatra and I stay for a while Evan runs some errands. He returns with brand new asics looking fresh with gum soles so can walk around in style. Head home later and eat the charcuterie he's bought; 2 soft cheeses and 2 hard cheeses recommended by the love of his life girl working at the cheese shop. He also got some hams and salami.
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