Une Journee Extraordinaire

Here in Paris, our program has pre-scheduled events nearly every day -- museum visits, tours by boat, plays, dinners, etc. This isn't exactly a problem -- it's been excellent to have a guided overview of what Paris has to offer, so when we do get some time to ourselves, we can maximize our time around the city to do what we please.

Yesterday we had a free day and thus I was able to plan and execute some quite exciting adventures!

My day began with a visit to the Musée des Arts et Métiers. This museum doesn't have impressionist art or Greek sculptures or tapestries: what it does have is a wide assortment of historical technology, contraptions, inventions, and (as the French would say) rather strange trucs. One may see a re-creation of Lavoisier's laboratory, a miniature model of a steam-powered engine, astrolabes from hundreds of years ago, very early sewing machines, and modern robotic technology (to name a few).

However, the journey is half the fun. The metro stop on line 11 for the museum, called Arts et Metiers, is decorated like a Jules Verne submarine. Any steampunk worth her salt knows about this metro stop! It is part of the destination itself, and I found it delightfully shiny. I'd read online that it had been largely obscured by graffiti, and so I was pleased to find that was not the case at all.


After locating the museum (it is situated in an old abbey right near the metro stop), I began my exploration. I enjoyed it immensely; it was laid out in a logical, orderly fashion, broken into categories like Navigation and Energy. Most of the displays were in nearly all glass boxes, set in the middle of the corridors so that one could fully circle the objects within.

Here's a flying machine I came across:


Any museum that brilliant has to be followed by a meal somewhere. As I had yet to explore any of my vegetarian restaurant listings, I decided to check out La Victoire Supreme du Coeur. There I enjoyed a lavish lunch: an appetizer of little onion fritters and salad, the Indian plate for my main course, and then the chocolate-orange-cardamom cream for dessert! It was all delicious and I adored having wheat bread instead of the all-fluff-no-substance baguettes that are tasty but not very filling.


I still had some time to spend in the afternoon, so I took the metro to the Centre Pompidou, where I recorded my adventures the old-fashioned way (in my Moleskine) for future reference. Then I headed back to the hostel for some resting (reading, not napping -- napping is something I find very difficult).


But friends! The day is not yet over! A friend from Davidson, the charming Ms. Wood, met me for drinks at Les Furieux. After several minutes of debating whether we ought to order at the bar (apparently we are both rather inept at bar culture and correct mannerisms?) we both ordered glasses of absinthe. Never fear, ye who worry about such things. Today's absinthe bears little resemblance to the absinthe of early bohemians. It lacks the hallucinogenic properties and simply bears a strong licorice flavour. We found it quite appealing.

Here Ms. Wood looks charming with her glass:


And I simply guard my drink from passers-by:


So there you have it! It was one of the best days of the trip thus far. I really enjoyed planning out the day, navigating toute seule, and of course, seeing Ms. Wood.

Excellent NYT Article

My roommate kindly pointed out this fantastic NYT piece about steampunk. Though I think it focuses too myopically on the commercial potential of steampunk, it does mention some mainstays in the community and says positive things about the movement overall.

Explanation for the Concerned & Weaponry

So. Perhaps I was over-hasty in posting my latest entry with the photos of the cemetery, for two reasons. First, it's important to note that apparently images do not show up in the email feed, so some of y'all may have gotten simply the list of captions. Thus, they would have seen a vaguely emo and scatterbrained poem. The photos are the essential part of the post, folks!

Second, I must be clear. I am not a card-carrying Goth who wears excessive amounts of black eyeliner, maintains a grieved expression, and clutches a Nightwish CD. Though I occasionally indulge in my romantic sensibilities and attempt to walk lightly among oak trees, singing ballads (off-key), and looking for mythic creatures, it's not because I'm mentally imbalanced. Yes, I wrote my share of depressed love poetry in high school (fortunately, that's not longer my métier); however, I am not depressed nor do I immerse myself in macabre settings constantly. The cemetery is a place of quiet, of history, of beauty; I enjoy it for those reasons, not because I long to live out a Poe short story.

Anyway. Over Easter break my brother gave me this fantastic weapon that he re-made for me, completely of his own volition. He's gotten interested in steampunk as well, so he refashioned this nerf gun which will come in handy should I ever really get into cosplay. Thanks bro!

[classy carpet shot]

The Violent Collision of My Interests

When it comes to subcultures and styles, I've never fallen into one perfectly. Too gypsy for the preppy set, not hardcore enough for the punks, not quite intense enough to join the goths, too pragmatic for the bohemian types...

And yet, I think I may just have found a subculture/movement/aesthetic that neatly sums up my interests. It is Steampunk.

Most simply, Steampunk is a type of science fiction set in the Victorian era (when steam power was still prevalent -- hence the first half of the name). More broadly, it's corsets and goggles, fine calligraphy and spaceships, classy manners and fighting with rayguns. What appeals to me most is the embrace of new technology along with the historical setting of Victoriana and a certain attention to beauty. Why use an ugly plain brick for computing when you can enjoy a machine of elegance and style?
I always thought that being interested in the archaic disqualified me from being interested in new technologies; surely I couldn't hold a PDA in one hand and an antique classic book in the other? With steampunk, I'm learning how those two are not mutually exclusive.

Besides the excellent Wikipedia article, I also recommend the forums at Brass Goggles, where everyone has been solicitous and helpful. One of the best parts of steampunk is that there is a wide range of interests: some people use steam power for their creations, but dress in a normal fashion. Others wear cravats day in and day out, but may spend more time tailoring their clothes than welding in a workshop. Overall the community seems reluctant to set boundaries to declare what counts as steampunk and what doesn't; instead, people embrace the idea of a spectrum. That is vastly more apppealing than an over-policed group of elitists, laying down the law.