Friday 26 September 2008

Mission "Seeing the Divine Comedy in Paris": Accomplished!

Wow. I haven't been online for a week, and I am already completely out of touch with the majority of my friends - at least those who haven't been with me for the greater part of the week, or are in constant drivel exchanging text contact with me.
So while the world has clearly moved on, my last week has been quite eventful as well.

Let's rewind to Sunday, September 21st!

Of course, I spend the day at work, and after 6, rushed to Vienna. I pursued my traditional custom of cleaning, which is what I always do when I return to my flat after my flatmate has been inhabiting it on her own for a while. After that, I started finishing my English Literature paper, which took longer than expected, and resulted in my dear friend Julia beta-reading it till 1 a.m. and Max waiting for us to finish with increasing desperation, as he was the one who was commissioned to hand it in at the office the next day, and he really had better things to do. (When will I finally learn not to do everything SO last minute that it drives me and the people around me to the point of (almost) having a nervous breakdown? There are two possible answers:
a) Why, this semester, of course!
b) Never.
You are invited to place bets on which answer makes it.)

Eventually I went to bed, but found it hard to go to sleep, as tense and stressed out as I apparently was, and considering the prospect of having to get up in just 2 and a half hours, to catch our flight
Lisa and Karl picked Julia and me up at 4 a.m. and we drove to the airport. Everything went smoothly there, and we even found time to smoke pink cigarettes from Barcelona.

We arrived in Paris at half past seven, it was still early in the morning, and the RER (err-eu-err = erreur) was delayed so we had some coffee and pain au chocolate (a fun fact: it falls under the category "Viennoiserie", so the most edible items of french cuisine are actually Austrian, SCOOOORE). When we arrived at our "hotel" it was still too early to check in, so we just left our suitcases, and went for a walk. The lovely concierge didn't even allow us to use the toilets, ftw. I don't really remember what we did during those 3 or 4 hours. I think we staggered through The Marais and the adjoining arrondissements, but my memory is hazy due to extreme fatigue causing a near-unconscious state of mind. I do have evidence of finding two really cheap Vintage shops and buying a mindless number of dresses (3? ... no 2, well not so mindless), as well as 2 shawls (Victorian prostitute style) and a short-sleeved pink jumper.
Eventually we did check into the hotel, where we tried to get some sleep, and prepare ourselves mentally for the concert. Somehow we were all far too tired to get properly excited. But at the end it was a really great concert. We were in the 3rd row, and I managed to procure quite some enthusiasm there - but somehow I increasingly get the impression that in general my obsessibility is starting to fade.

The Cité de la Musique looks a bit like the Kulturzentrum in Eisenstadt (a bit of a turn-off), but Neil Hannon looked lovely in a lavender shirt, purple cardigan, and brownish jacket (turn-on). The concert was not thoroughly seated, as we first suspected (turn-off-ish, but at least gave us the opportunity to dance) The "friends" mentioned on the ticket were Vincent Delerm (I had as much as guessed that one - turn on!) and a woman named Daphné, who had a great voice but an annoying appearance (turn-off?). The set was tailored for a French audience, that means they played a brief The Divine Comedy best of interspersed with a number of interesting covers of French chansons, etc. So there was Brel, Galle, Hardy, even Vanessa Paradis! I'm sure I forgot some. He sang Songs of Love together with Vincent, and If together with Daphné. Many many songs were dearly missed by me, but I assume he would have to play a 10 hour gig in order to satisfy me. :/

I will tell about the following 2 days in Paris tomorrow & or on Sunday, and will come bearing pictures, to back up the story. I assume that will make it much more readable. :)

No comments: