Through the Looking Glass

One of the questions that obsesses me is "what is American?" I especially want to know what is American from the outside looking in - what do people from around the world consider American. I also want to know if it's a good thing, a bad thing, a selling point, a deterrent, an approbation, a moral indictment...

What is American?

So I'm always on the lookout for anything labeled "American" when I travel. I studied abroad in Ireland when I was in college and one of my favorite candies - purely for the name, I think - was a product called "American Hard Gums." They were like nothing I'd ever eaten in America. I suppose they most closely resembled gumdrops if you scraped the sugar off the sides, squashed them a bit, and made them slightly harder than stale jujubees. What made them American? I have no idea.

Here's something "American" I stumbled across while wandering around Paris. It hardly seems fair that the French get to the claim French tips and we get stuck with the airbrushed acrylic monstrosities. Which raises the question: are French tips really French?

Though I don't see a way of getting out of claiming acrylic nails as American. And I'm going to have to assume that in a stylish place like Paris, that is not a good thing...

Copyright 2010 Sara Harding

A Taste of What's Out There: Chateauneuf du Pape

I never get French wine in America. First of all, it's expensive. Secondly, I would have no idea what to pick. My experience of European wines is pretty much limited to Italy, so if I have $15 to spend on a bottle of wine, I buy Italian - at least I know what I'm getting. In reality, three-buck-Chuck is more my speed, and though I genuinely enjoy a glass of nice wine, it just isn't in my budget.

So I really wanted to try a good French wine while I was in Paris and could avoid the import taxes. A European friend suggested I get a bottle of Chateauneuf du Pape. The village of Chateauneuf has been producing wine since the 13th century and has a long history of supplying wine to famous clients, including a number of Popes (hence the appellation) and great French writers like Alexandre Dumas.

I walked into a wine shop on Rue Daguerre and in my horrendous French explained that "I search a particular bottle of wine - Chateauneuf du Pape." The kind shop owner suffered through my pronunciation and found me a bottle of the 2007 vintage for 19 euros. Then - because apparently I looked a little too scruffy to be buying a nice wine - asked if he should wrap it as a gift.

"No, I drink it," I declared. And drink it I did.

The wine was a serious departure from my usual range of Californian wines, but in a very good way. It had a mineral nose with hints of earth, medium body, and a well-balanced palate. The fruit flavors were subtler and not as juicy as is typical for American wines, so I can finally understand why my European friends often describe Californian wines as "like drinking jam."

Overall, Chateauneuf du Pape was an excellent introduction to French wines, one I wish I had more time to follow up on! I would strongly recommend it if you, like me, are curious about the famous wines of France but aren't sure where to begin.

Copyright 2010 Sara Harding

A Great Place to Shop in Paris (That You Can Afford!)

The entrance to Extrovert, a great boutique in the Quartier Latin

Everyone knows that Paris is a great place to shop. Unfortunately, to enjoy much of that shopping either you or someone you love needs to be independently wealthy. Being a penniless blogger myself, I've been on the lookout for good stores that I can actually afford, and I did find one that provides edgy European fashion for prices that didn't make me gasp. It's called Extrovert.

Extrovert (apologies to non French speakers, but the website doesn't have an English option) is located at 47 Rue St-Andre des Arts in the heart of Paris's lively and historic Quartier Latin. Rue St-Andre des Arts is a good place in general to find boutiques that won't break the bank, but Extrovert struck me as having a particularly exciting array of clothing and accessories - definitely stuff that will get you noticed back in the states - while still being affordable. The staff was friendly and spoke English and the styles ranged from clean and contemporary to vintage inspired to urban chic. Extrovert has both men's and women's sections and the guys' clothes were every bit as distinctively Parisian as the girls' (the white leather jacket in the window is a great example).

If you find your shopping trip exhausting, Rue St-Andre des Arts is also full of bistros and bars where you can have un verre de vin and talk over your plans to wear your new purchases to the nightclubs which you'll also find nearby.

Copyright 2010 Sara Harding

Visiting the Musee d'Orsay

For most of western history, painting just isn't my thing. I mean, I love what they did at Lascaux, but after that I lose interest for about the next 16, 800 years.

Which makes the Musee d'Orsay the perfect museum of painting, at least for me. The Musee d'Orsay is devoted to impressionism, which is right about where I start to be interested again. With important works by Monet, Renoir, Pissaro, and Degas, exploring the museum is a chance to experience all the highlights of the movement that thumbed its nose at realism and academic painting and took its canvases into the great outdoors.

The Musee d'Orsay also displays works from the origins and aftermath of impressionism, including a small but wonderful collection of Van Goghs. A post-impressionist painter, Van Gogh shared and developed many of the Impressionists' interests, like light, experience, mood, perception, and outdoor painting. The Church at Auvers, one of my all-time favorites and one of the last paintings the artist ever did, is one of the must-sees among the collection. Works by Gauguin are also among the museum's post-impressionist masterpieces.

The Musee d'Orsay is located on Quai Anatole France (oddly enough, not on the nearby Quai d'Orsay) on the bank of the Seine near the Pont Royal. Tickets are 8 euros (not including special exhibits) or free with the Paris Museum Pass.

Copyright 2010 Sara Harding

The Writing on the Wall

I love graffiti. Great graffiti is beautiful and thought-provoking: it's art, it's comedy, it's social commentary, it's political protest, it's philosophy. Sure, some graffiti is inane, but some graffiti stays with you and makes you think. And of course, I'm hardly the first person to notice - by this point, artists like Banksy have raised graffiti to an accepted form of artistic expression, with glossy books in the MoMA gift shop and everything.

But just because I'm not setting the trend doesn't mean I can't enjoy it. I'm always on the lookout for interesting graffiti when I'm in a new city. I recently discovered this great wall - flanked on both sides by completely untouched white, in the quiet Rue de Verneuil in Paris. I spent fifteen minutes photographing my favorites. Here are some of them:

Copyright 2010 Sara Harding