Wuthering Heights and Tosca

Each day as I leave the apartment building and after I've passed through the glass door into the foyer, I begin to hear the street noises even before I've opened the green wooden door to the outside. It always makes my blood rush a little, the anticipation and the excitement of being on the streets of Paris once again.

La Tour St Jacques is not far from where I live so I often pass by or near it. It is currently covered with scaffolding for repairs/renovations but the scaffolding is covered with some sort of cloth. At night, there are photographs of some of the architectural or decorative features of the tower projected onto the "screen." Like a big drive-in (or as in this case, walk-by) theatre.

Furthur exploration of the linen closet this morning reveals a sheet that can actually be tucked in around all three sides of the bed (with hospital corners even!). Hot diggity dog.

Here's something cool: Today, I'm checking out the website for L'Opera Nationale de Paris. When you buy tickets on line, they give you the best available (like most places). However, before proceeding with the purchase, you can click on a little "eye" labeled "apercu" and another little window opens up to show you the view of the stage from that seat. Pretty nifty! So now I'm going to see a French ballet based on an English novel, Wuthering Heights, at the Opera Garnier, and Tosca at the Opera Bastille. And I spent more money on the tickets that I had hoped to: it's clear after a little poking around on the site, that ALL of the (relatively) inexpensive tickets go quickly. Some are, in fact, quite inexpensive: for the ballet 6 euros and for the ballet 5 euros. Takes me back to the times I went to the Opera Garnier for 5 francs (at the time, about $1 US). Ok so it was 1968 but at least it seems they still try to provide tickets to the poor huddled masses yearning to hear Puccini.

Off to La Defense. I've never been there before although have seen it many times from afar, in photographs and once, even three-dimensionally, on Google Earth.