Americans in Paris

Right after my parents left, my cousin Collin and his girlfriend Kim came to visit me. Collin's grandmother lives in Geneva, so they came to this side of the ocean to see her and spend some time abroad with me as well as Kim's cousin who is also studying in France. Getting to see them is always wonderful, but showing them around Paris was even better! They came on monday night and left wednesday, thankfully taking the approach that it would be cool to see anything rather than trying to squeeze in all the sites. I must say though, we covered some ground.


They did quite well getting around on the metro, here they are on their first ride. Our first night, we went out for dinner and did a Paris by night walk from the Latin Quarter, past Notre Dame, and to the Louvre, all of which I love to see lit up at night.

We started tuesday, our only full day, bright and early with a walk to the Bastille and moved on towards the Marais, one of my favorite neighborhoods. I had just been in the Paris history Museum, Musee Carnavalet, a few days before so after we walked around the Place des Vosges (oldest planned square in the city and site of a preserved former home of Victor Hugo), we breezed through the museum. With the Jewish community present in the Marais, finding a delicious lunch at a Jewish bakery was no difficulty and from there were walked towards the Eiffel Tower (and split up because I am, after all, here for classes). The evening was full of excitement because one of my favorite American bands, The Mountain Goats, performed in Paris! My friend Molly joined us for dinner before the two of us headed to the show.


There were two openers, a British band called This Is the Kit and a Swede who now lives in Paris named Herman Dune. His music was good and the (English) lyrics were funny, but I probably would have enjoyed his set more if I hadn't been anxiously awaiting The Mountain Goats!

The show was not, however, the Mountain Goats, but rather John Darnielle, the singer, songwriter, and mastermind behind the band. I have over 200 songs by him and still didn't know everything he played. Prolific is an understatement. He played a few songs from his newest album on the piano then played a lot on guitar (returning to the piano for "Thank You Mario But Our Princess is in Another Castle," a dramatic narrative from Toadstool's point of view). I read online that the venue's capacity is 300 and I think some people left after Herman Dune; I'm pretty sure it's not possible to experience a Mountain Goats show this small and close in the US. He took requests and even closed with one (California Song), the whole set was amazing. Here's a video of one of my favorites, Dance Music, filmed with my mom in mind because she sings along now after I put it on a mix for her.

And wednesday, Collin and Kim left for Geneva, but not without a nice lunch together after visiting the Louvre.