I wish I could say this post is a jam packed one, but the truth is I slacked a little bit this week. Don’t worry, I still did a couple of fun things and I have some good pictures but I also had a couple days of absolutely nothing.
Dracula lecture at Shakespeare and Company
Monday night I went to a lecture on Bram Stoker’s Dracula held at Shakespeare and Company. The event started at 7 pm and was free and open to all. I arrived around 6:45 only to find out that the shop was already full and they weren’t admitting any more people! There were a number of others who had shown up at about the same time who were disappointed by this news as well. However, all was not lost as there was a set of speakers outside that would be projecting the lecture and so we were welcome to listen outside. It wasn’t cold out, so I wasn’t too upset. There was a fairly large group behind me who already had a friend inside. The friend poked her head out to talk to them and decided she’d rather leave the comfort of the shop in order to be with her friends for the lecture. I took this opportunity to ask the guy at the door if I could take her place and was admitted inside. Once inside I even managed to grab a seat. There were festive decorations such as pumpkins and spiderwebs and as 7 o’clock approached the lights were all turned off save for one illuminating the speaker. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to see him because of where I was sitting, but it wasn’t necessary to see him to enjoy the lecture. The speaker was the curator of a vampire museum (which it turns out is within walking distance of where I live!) and spoke perfect English.
Now, I’ve been saying that I don’t miss school and that is the truth. I don’t miss writing lengthy essays. I don’t miss juggling assignments. I don’t miss having mountains of readings each week. However, I really do miss learning. I can’t stress enough how good it felt to sit and listen to someone intelligent, passionate, and very well versed on his subject. And it felt even better to know I could just listen and enjoy without having to sift through the information to decide which bits were important enough to make notes on. In true academic fashion, the lecture did not focus so much on vampire lore as it did the symbolism and cultural/sociological importance of the novel Dracula.
After the 50 minute lecture there was a very short question and answer period and then we were invited to grab a free Bloody Mary courtesy of Shakespeare and Co out front. The glasses were garnished with little fake spiders and it was very cute, but since I don’t really like Bloody Mary’s and I didn’t have anyone to chat with, I decided to go home. It was a great event.
Tuesday and Wednesday
Tuesday and Wednesday I did a whole lot of nothing. The mom of my family was gone on business so I had the house entirely to myself. I just bummed around.
Halloween
Thursday was Halloween and even though it is a mostly unrecognized holiday here in France, I had to get in the spirit as best I could. I had planned a scary movie night and sleepover with a friend, but I decided before that I would visit the largest cemetery in Paris.
I have to say, Père Lachaise cemetery made quite an impression on me. It was the perfect kind of day and time of year to visit. It was overcast but still, with desiccated leaves strewn across the ground. The silence was occasionally punctuated by the caw of a raven. There was a real significance and solemnity to the place. Here are some pictures. 
Oscar Wilde’s grave
After the cemetery I met my friend and we headed back to her place for our scary movie night and sleep over. She lives in a much larger suburb farther outside Paris and it felt a lot more like a suburb back home. It was quite a difference from where I live!
Pitchfork After Party
Friday night was a night I have been looking forward to for a long time. This weekend was the Pitchfork music festival in Paris, and while it wasn’t financially viable for me to go to any of the shows during the day, the second day’s after party was cheap and featured none other than electronic music wizard Jon Hopkins. The after party hours were set from midnight to 6 am and luckily I found a friend willing to brave the all night party with me. The other bonus of the night is that it was located at Parc de la Villette, which I’ve mentioned here before and is only about a 15 minute walk away from me. We arrived just after midnight and the first dj was playing but there weren’t too many people there yet and the atmosphere was very relaxed. We grabbed a drink and sat down. After about an hour things were starting to pick up. I enjoyed the first set, which had kind of an old school disco/funk groove. The second guy I wasn’t as much a fan of. He used more rap and the music felt a little aggressive, but not in a good way. At 3 am, Jon Hopkins came on. I wormed my way pretty close to the front and the next hour was musical bliss. It’s been a long time since I’ve been to a show and I’ve really missed that incomparable feeling you get from being immersed in live music. Time stops being linear and widens into an all encompassing moment. And in that moment you leave your head and all thinking gives way to feeling. You are your limbs, your gut, the bass rattling your ribcage. You become centred within yourself but also become bigger than yourself. It’s a beautiful thing.
The next dj sounded good but my friend was tired and hankering for some ultra late night McDonald’s so we left. Unfortunately Paris is not as accommodating as the Canadian cities than I’m used to and the McDonald’s had closed at 2. Luckily I had some chicken nuggets in the freezer so we cooked those up and then headed to bed just after 5.
Weekend – Back to reality
Saturday I only slept until 11:30 but surprisingly I didn’t feel too terrible! I was definitely a bit worn out but luckily I was able to take it easy for most of the day. Now, the mom of my family has been away seeing her parents and sister in Bretagne for the weekend and the girls were supposed to be with their dad until the end of the week. He ended up having to work though, so at 7:30 on Saturday night the girls got dropped off here and I’ve had to take care of them all by myself for the first time so far. It’s gone well though. I was told to just make meals that are easy and not to fuss too much so it’s been all the frozen/prepared stuff that I know the girls like (chicken nuggets, cordon bleu, hot dogs, etc). I would have liked to take the opportunity to make some of my favourite go to meals like spaghetti bolognese or french toast for breakfast but I didn’t want to risk putting a lot of effort in to cooking only to have the girls reject it. The youngest is pretty picky. Speaking of the youngest, I haven’t seen her for 2 weeks and I think she missed me a bit cause she’s been stuck to me like glue since she got here. Her best friend’s dad very kindly took her out for a couple of hours to the park with his daughter, which gave me a nice little breather.
Tomorrow it’s back to my routine complete with early mornings, French classes, and lots of one on one with the seven year old. Hopefully it won’t be too tough to readjust after this nice relaxing two weeks that I’ve had.
À bientôt!
Victoria's Adventures Abroad 