I'm Back!!!

I am back from Paris! The jet lag is over with, most of the pictures are on my computer and the suitcase has been more or less unpacked. My friends and family tell me that they did get their postcards, so most of them arrived before I actually came home! Also, one of the girls on the trip sent me one, so I had a lovely, vintage reminder about my trip waiting for me a few days after I got back.

Now all I have to do is go through the 2000+ photos and notes to write my journal for my final project!
*sigh

It's a lot of porn/art to sift through, but somebody has to do it. Here's a small selection for the great wide web.

This is a wonderful place called the Albert Khan Museum and Gardens. He was a pretty cool (and rich) guy that wanted a record of the world. As a result, he commissioned a little over 72,000 autochromes to be taken of people, places and things. Autochromes are some of the first colour photographs, and are unbelievably stunning to see in the flesh. They are also fairly hard to get a hold of in North America, so seeing as many as we did here, and at other collections is pretty insane.
The gardens at the museum are really beautiful, they're filled with ponds and little waterfalls that block out the noise and smell of downtown Paris.

These autochromes are from the Société Française de Photographie's collection. Note the early, colour "art" (ie porn) on the left. They've held up beautifully, especially being about 100 years old.

We lucked out while we were there, since not only was it International Museum Day, Paris was having a "Night at the Museum" evening, where admission was free to several museums and galleries! Most were also open later than usual, closer to midnight. The Paris Museum of Natural History was the one my buddy and I went to. They like their bugs and lack of decent lighting on their exhibit cases. Despite that, it was really cool!

This is the minor issue with glass plates, occasionally they don't make it from one place to the other very well.

Don't think we didn't go flea marketing! This is one of the many, many flea markets in the larger area of Saint-Ouen. We got some amazing photographs, including autochromes, and spent well too much money. So far as souvenirs go, they're pretty awesome. I have some great cabinet cards of the Arc de Triomphe and the Saint-Michel fountain.

We spent many an evening and afternoon picnicking on the Pont des Arts. Nice view eh? We had a picnic dinner on the lawn outside the Eiffel Tower one evening. As the evening goes along, the tower starts lighting up, and than at 10pm, the sparkly, twinkling lights turn on. A very nice backdrop for some cheap wine, smoked salmon and a lot of cheese and baguettes.

I have a lot of photos to go through, and I have every intention of posting some of the food pictures  I have of the picnics and escargots.