Monday, May 10th: Exploring, Geocaching

Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it - Ferris Bueller

Today, I'm stopping and looking around. Decided to get out early. Alright, the housekeepers stop by on Monday morning and I wanted to be dressed and ready to go before they arrived.

Tomorrow is a busy day with a schedule. But today is Carpe Diem ... no itinerary, no plan, walk out the door with my map, iPhone with GPS app and camera. Take photos and check out the architecture.

Geocache
Geocaching is like a high-tech treasure hunt. Using an iPhone app, we can find the approximate location of a small hidden box. You find the box, take a trinket/ leave a trinket and sign the tiny log book. Back in Half Moon Bay, David, Davey and I have begun geocaching on weekends and it's great fun.

For the Paris trip, I brought along a geocache (small fake rock with a hidden compartment with trinkets and log book). I'm planning to hide it in the Champ du Mars and map the GPS location on line. Can't be close to the Eiffel Tower... don't want to set off any security alerts.

Baron Haussmann
When I'm walking or riding through Paris, I think of Baron Haussmann. Haussmann was a man with a plan, literally. In the early 1800s, Paris was densely populated with a tangled web of narrow streets and alleys. The cramped quarters, virtually unchanged since the middle ages, facilitated the cholera epidemic of 1832.

In the mid-1800's, Haussmann developed the plan for the modernization of Paris. Grand boulevards designed to highlight monuments (Champs Elysees and the Arch d'Triumph is a great example) and beautiful apartment buildings (ornate facades, wrought iron embellishments) that are now referred to as Haussmannian or Haussmann style. The grand boulevards included plenty of sidewalk space for cafes. Haussmann's approach to urban planning had plenty of critics.

Hermitage
n. place where a hermit lives; retreat, isolated dwelling
The name of the apartment is "Hermitage." A fitting name for a beautiful space in this Haussmann-style building.

Parisian Etiquette
Most Parisians (I heard 98% earlier this week) live in apartments. Most are privately owned residences (what we would call condos). Most kitchens have a window facing an interior courtyard and the kitchen windows of neighbors.

There seems to be an etiquette rule regarding the kitchen / courtyard windows. Never look directly, certainly don't watch. I suppose it's tough to find privacy in Paris. A couple of times I have been cooking and noticed one or two were in their kitchens. I made sure I was looking down and, heaven forbid, ensured that they didn't catch me looking. Sometimes I feel like I'm doing an anthropological study of the Parisians. It would be hilarious to make generalizations based on a handful of neighbors. I simply do not have a statistically relevant sampling size.

French Broadcast Television
I'm used to relaxed standards regarding nudity and adult situations on European TV. Last night, on what I think is broadcast television, there was a director's cut of Basic Instinct (the movie where Sharon Stone forgets to wear panties to her police interrogation). That scene was fairly mild compared to some of the other scenes. Ayy Carumba.

The French Jerry Springer
Cavase Savoir is the French version of Jerry Springer. Kind of surprised to see a show like this in France. These look like working class people.. no Chanel models, no socialites. I have no idea what they're saying but I know exactly what's happening .. too funny.