Signing off..

Well it's been a few days since I wrote in this blog--lots and lots of things have happened in the last week or so--very full on and amazing and frightening and horrible things--not things I can really write about on this blog because some of it is police stuff and I can't say anything till the trial's over--and also because some of it is still a bit raw and shocking--But good stuff has come out of it, really, really good stuff. I'll tell you all about it--and I promise to write about it in detail too one day--but I'm going to leave you on a teaser--a photo taken near the Place de la Concorde, just yesterday..

And that's my last post. Because right now there's too much going on for me to keep this up any more. And much that I need to think about, to process--and in the future, to understand.

This is me, Cristal Lyon, signing off.

Some mysterious paintings in Belleville..

Mum and I went out to Belleville again today, Mum to check out the Pere Lachaise cemetery(which has lots of famous people in it) and me to look again at the street art and take extra photos for my project. And I came across these three that I hadn't seen the first time, which I'm putting up here. There's something really intriguing about them, that really captures my imagination, they are kind of mysterious and I'd love to know what they're about! They were in exactly the sequence I've put them up in, with the two people following each other, and then one looming over the other and then the third face to face...Really quite cool and weird and enigmatic.

I don't think they're by those same artists I looked at before, like Nemo or Mosko or Jerome Mesnager, in fact I couldn't see any name signing it, just the symbol of the lightning bolt, which is kind of cool! I'm going to contact that Paris Paradis Pochoir person to see if they know who it is.

What we did today..

Today we didn't do much actually, spent the morning mooching around in the apartment and the afternoon in the shops which was pretty fun, but ordinary after yesterday! Anyway to make up for lack of news, here are some more photos of Paris I thought you might like! The baker you see there is our local baker where we buy our bread every morning!

A couple of Dad's horse sketches

Done at Chantilly on Feb 7.

Chateau Dillon!

Didn't have time to blog yesterday as we got back rather late from our big trip out to Chantilly to have lunch with Johnny Dillon and his aunt Celia, as well as Monsieur Lacoste, Johnny's lawyer whom we'd met when we first arrived in Paris.

Anyway--it was an amazing day! We got driven out to Chantilly by Johnny's chauffeur, it was a nice trip and we were glad to be in the car out of the cold! Anyway we arrived at the chateau which is just beautiful and so charming(here's a photo of it) and Johnny was there to meet us. He's so nice! Yes, really good-looking too but absolutely totally so nice as well, not at all stuck-up or anything like that. His aunt--well she was kinda--well difficult, I suppose is the best way of outting it! (And no, I didn't take photos of them, would've been sorta rude!!)

We had the best lunch--mussels in a creamy sauce, delicious pork chops and vegetables, salad, cheese, and this three-tiered chocolate and coffee cake-- and then they took us to the Tallien stables where Free Spirit is stabled and met the horse for the first time--Here's a picture of him, doesn't he look gorgeous! Dad took photos of him and started sketching him too, I'll put up one or two of those as well..

I had a really good talk with Johnny too yesterday, and he's not what I expected at all. I think there's something really sad about him. That's understandable cos his parents died like that and so recently--but it's something else as well, something I can't put my finger on. Anyway..

We went to the Chantilly training centre too and Dad did some sketches of guys exercising horses--I'm going to put one up on the next post, I think it's best if I put all the horse sketches together.

Harry Potter's world..

Well not exactly, but it did feel like it a bit this afternoon, because Mum(who's going to write about it in her book) and I went to this weird little museum called Le Musee de la Magie et des Automates(Museum of Magic and Automata)which is not far from where we are. It was really cool actually--there were displays of all sorts of magic stuff, like disappearing boxes and cages with false bottoms and all sorts of things--stuff about the famous French magician Eugene Robert-Houdin who was the first one to really make magic a stage act, in the 19th cent, and who inspired the famous Houdini(he took that name as a tribute) magic lanterns, mirrors etc and all sorts of other things..including a mechanical owl in a cage that reminded me of Hedwig! There was a magic show with some really clever tricks, with ropes and cards and stuff, and there was also this really cool section of 'automata' or little clockwork toys and doll things that move, old ones and newer ones, really clever and spooky and funny! There were tons of little kids there which made it a bit noisy but that didn't matter too much, it was heaps of fun. Here's some photos of it, plus at the end, if I can attach it properly, a little video of some of the automata moving.

Also, here's the museum's website: http://www.museedelamagie.com

Meanwhile Dad stayed at home in the apartment, he's working on some preliminary sketches of Free Spirit, based on photographs--as we actually get to see him--and Johnny!--tomorrow when we go for Sunday lunch to Chateau Dillon, imagine!! I'm a bit nervous actually, not sure what to expect at all. And I can't decide what to wear!

Street art in Belleville

This morning Mum and I went off together to Belleville, which is an area of Paris that is famous not only because of it's where the singer Edith Piaf was born at the beginning of the 20th century, and because it was the setting of a famous short French childeren's film called The Red Balloon in the 1950's, but more recently it's become a big centre for street art or graffiti--well not the sort of graffiti you see normally in Australia, like tags and writing and stuff, but actual paintings, many of them done with stencils, or 'pochoirs' as the French call it. Anyway cos Mum's writing her Guide to Unusual Paris, this was to be part of it--and also it was for me for my art project for school--and I liked what I saw there so much that I decided I'd make it the focus of my art project in fact. Anyway we went round Belleville in this big circuit--it's much shabbier than where we're staying but it was still pretty interesting, and finding the street art unexpectedly was really fun! It all started in the 1980's apparently and it's kept going for ages, with artists such as Nemo and Mosko and Jerome Mesnager. I'm putting up here some pictures of what I saw, but also here's a link to this really good blog I found, which is all about the history of it and stuff and which is going to be so useful for me!

http://parisstreetart.blogspot.com/

Montmartre

In the afternoon after lunch(we just had a baguette in a cafe--it was really yummy and filled with gorgeous ham and cheese and salad--plus a sort of donut thing they call a beignet, filled with apricot, delicious!)we went to Montmartre and climbed up the hill and then about a million steps to the Sacre Coeur church which is huge and all white like a wedding cake. It's not as old as Notre-Dame and churches like that, but it's pretty impressive. It was lovely there with the sun shining and people playing music down at the bottom of the steps, and 'living statues' also, including a really weird Egyptian mummy one, which I took a picture of.

Montmartre used to be a really dodgy area in the past(it still is in places) but it was also a big place for artists, like Picasso and Van Gogh and Toulouse-Lautrec. Grandmere says artists still go there but I don't think any of them are as famous as those guys were! These are some of the pictures they painted there--the Harlequin is by Picasso; the scene is by Van Gogh; and the dancers by Touloise-Lautrec. It was amazing being there in the place they'd painted their famous pictures, and weird to think they probably had no idea when they were painting them how famous they'd get! Dad told us this story of how Picasso once didn't have enough money for a meal, so he paid for it with a painting! These days, that painting is worth about 22 million euros!!

Fabulous department stores!

Today I spent with just Grandmere in the morning, and then Dad in the afternoon too(Mum was still working on her book.). It was much nicer weather today, there was even blue sky, the sun came out and it wasn't even that cold(though of course you still needed your jumper and coat!) so it was really nice to walk around(and we walked our feet off again of course!!)

In the morning then Grandmere and I went to the big department stores, Galeries Lafayette and Le Printemps--they are really old department stores that started in the 19th century and they are really quite grand, especially Galeries Lafayette which has this gorgeous domed roof with stained glass and and golden carved balcony things, really very amazing! It is huge too with so many clothes and stuff you start to feel quite dizzy after a while!

Here are some pictures of Galeries Lafayette's domed roof and balconies, and also one of the jacket Grandmere bought me(it's the cream one on the dummy in the centre, it's gorgeous!) I also took a picture of this gorgeous dress that I'd like one of these days(like when I win Lotto, cos it was really really expensive!)

And also a picture of some rather cool fake fur jackets I saw..

Frozen people!

No, not us in the Paris winter, but pictures I took in the Luxembourg Gardens(and one just outside it) which is just full of statues, frozen people who remind me of the White Witch's courtyard in the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe! Thought you guys might like these!

Because Mum had to work on her book and wanted to be left in peace in the apartment, Grandmere and Dad and I walked around all day again today in all sorts of places on the Left Bank, including the Luxembourg Gardens. It was fun but tiring as we also walked all the way back! I keep saying to Grandmere and Dad that we're wasting those Metro tickets we bought, but they pretend not to hear!

A view of our apartment

Just to give you an idea of where we are, here's a view of the outside of the apartment building where we're staying(which belongs to the Dillons--well only Johnny now of course). And a picture of a couple of some of the rooms including my bedroom! (which is the lilac and white one--Mum's and Dad's is the one with the four-poster bed)

Our apartment occupies the whole second floor of the building, it's huge. You can see my window in the middle there.

Funny faces on buildings and monuments..

I love all these sorts of things, you see them everywhere around Paris! Little bearded faces and grinning gargoyles and cross-looking gods and all sorts of stuff!

Walking our feet off around Paris

This morning we went on this great long walk by the river, to Notre-Dame and lots of other places. It was pretty cold but not as bad as yesterday and it didn't rain at all. In fact the sun even popped out a couple of times!

I took heaps of pictures, this is just a small selection(I'll put some on Facebook too). The top one is of the Pont-Neuf(that means New Bridge, but it's actually the oldest bridge in Paris, weird, huh?)then of the river with boats on it and then of Notre Dame from a distance and some of the gargoyles(the French call them 'chimeres' or chimera, they're really cool--you see lots of things like that around Paris, in fact I'm going to put up some pictures just of funny faces you see on buildings! There's also a statue of Charlemagne, an important French king from the early Middle Ages..

After our long walk, we had lunch in this great little cafe, leek soup and veal stew and the greatest chocolate cake! Sorry I didn't take any pictures of that, Dad said I wasn't to be flashing the camera in people's faces when they were trying to eat!!

In afternoon we went out to Longchamp racecourse just to have a look(Free Spirit has raced there)--I only took one photo there as it wasn't very interesting, nothing going on at the moment, cos it's winter. In the racing season though, dad says, it's fantastic well maybe we'll see it one of these days!

Haven't met Johnny Dillon yet--supposed to be doing that in a couple of days' time apparently..