Paris Recap 2

Of course these were in most of the places we stayed. I'm sad to say I never used one...

I saw a lot of fun signs around, which is what most of my pictures are of. Something about the signage of a different culture catches my eye. No walking with children allowed on this small street near Sacrecure.
All of the parks we visited have roped off/fenced off grass sections. People are not allowed to walk or sit on the grass in Paris. All the lawns are well manicured and have little paths cut through the lawns where you walk. In one small park where our apartment was, they even had a tiny section cut out for dogs.
and whatever it is you're thinking, just know that you do not have priority.
In La Maison de La Vache Qui Rit they had a lot of old advertisements all over the walls. This one caught my eye, for obvious reasons.
And while we were there we ate a lot of different cheese, but none of them were as tasteless as this kind... (Ha Ha). My body still has not come back to West Coast US time. I'm waking up between 4 and 5 AM every day. I should be asleep right now, but I can't. Damn you, timezones!

Paris Recap 1

We had a lot of fun on our long trip to France. It's hard to make it all make sense in a recap right here - and I have to upload my pictures one at a time, so I'm doing it step by step. Here is the first batch of pictures and brief explanations of some of the things we did while in France.
As part of our accidental creepy tour of Paris, we stumbled into two different cemeteries, one where Oscar Wilde was buried - and the other where Serge Gainsbourg was laid to rest.

At this park there was a little pond where French children could rent tiny boats to push around with sticks. So Cute.
Check out this lovely park
Hung out around Montparnasse for a while
and of course... the famous french tower thing.

final work day

And finally, after 4 days of working with La Vache Qui Rit, the presentation went well - they're excited about Character findings and now know what their main story conflict is, Stacey has gone to bed... in her new Parisian dress. How adorable.

Back in Paris

We left the small town of Lons at 8 this morning and made our way back to Paris.
For tonight, we're staying in the Hotel Bedford, but we're moving to the Apartment we rented tomorrow. Everyone from Character is doing the presentation this afternoon / evening. I spent a few hours wandering around the area we're in. We're near a huge Opera and everything looks exactly the same. It's pretty touristy with a lot of American stores to shop in. Not sure what I'll be doing tonight, but I'm happy to be back in Paris.

Lons Le Saunier

We took two trains for a total of just over three hours Southeast from Paris. We are maybe 60 miles from Geneva? Something like that. It is a small town that is home to La Vache Qui Rit (Laughing Cow Cheese). We set up the Character camp at Le Maison de la Vache Qui Rit this morning. I'm pretty sure it's the whole reason this town exists. Yesterday, when going from the local train depot to our hotel we asked a depot employee, the guy at a pizza place and our cab driver all "What is there to do in this town?" The most popular answer was "Pfffftttt!" Bonne Chance. The second most popular answer was Masion de La Vache Qui Rit - so luckily that's where camp is.
It is a beautiful French village with a lot of charm, narrow roads and nothing to do. We are staying at Hotel de Parenthese. The Parentheses Hotel... I think they're waiting for something exiting to put between the parentheses...

France arrival

We traveled nine hours into the future over the course of the day/night. I am writing you to let you know - it looks good. I realized that I will not be able to post any of the pictures that I'm taking, so I will have to go back and update each blog post I make while I'm here in France, because my phone has to send my pictures to my account.
I used to be able to plug in my phone and access it like a hard drive, but A) I didn't bring any firewire cables and B) My new phone doesn't even operate that way...
So - I will write up what I want to write and do my best to remember to post pictures at a later date.
We left Portland around 10:30 Thursday morning and flew 25 whole minutes to Seattle.
We then left Seattle headed for Paris around 1:15 pm Thursday afternoon. We arrived in Paris at 8:45 am Friday morning, boarded a train and made it to our hotel.
We unpacked our stuff and went out in search of a light lunch. We found some decent stuff (pictures of funny-named boulangerie stuff and crazy meringue things). Got a good picture of Stacey taking a bite of a gigantic coffee meringue.

It's lovely. Now we have to do our best to stay awake until 9pm tonight - we're fighting off jet lag. ugh.

Home Again

We had a great time away from Portland over the past week and a half.
Saw plenty of friends, family and fun times happening. It's nice to be back home, if only for two and a half days. How cute is this baby???

Stacey and Matt at the alter, about to use the powers vested in them to marry Sarah and Arnie.

A strange upload of a picture of Natalie and Stacey on the Addison redline platform. Hello friends!

Another pretty view of the chapel with our good friends Scot and Holly posing as the happy married couple on a bridge.

where the hell is Galena, Illinois?

We set off around 11 am from Chicago and headed Northwest to Galena. Holy crap is it far away from reality. I can't remember the last time I saw this much corn. Arnie and Sarah's wedding is this afternoon and things couldn't be prettier. It's a strange town, but I can't think of a better place for these two weirdos to wed.

Pictures from our Austin show

The festival had a photographer at every show. We got some good pictures taken of our performance thanks to Roy Moore for taking such great pictures of us.

Friends!

We spent today seeing as many friends as we could. It was so great to see all the wonderful people we haven't seen in far too long. Thanks to everyone for being such great people and listen to us bother you about coming to Portland.

Here's Jay and Melissa with their beautiful baby boy, Colin. We love these jerks.

These are things that make me laugh

remix song:

Chicago 2010

We have been in Chicago about 24 hours now. It hasn't changed a bit. Of course, we've only been at the airport and around wrigleyville - so I haven't seen all my old haunts yet.
There is a huge Target a few blocks North of where we used to live... so I guess that's one change.
I had to pick up one of these today, while I was out grocery shopping for the dinner we're making our hosts tonight.
Our hosts. Sarah and Arnie. They are getting married this weekend, which is the whole purpose for our visit. Don't they already look like a perfect couple, here at dinner last night outside at Leona's..? Too perfect.

New Pals, mini golf

Today, as part of the improv festival we had a mini golf challenge. We were put into teams with other improvisors from around the country and played a two hour round of mini golf. it was great. I was on a group with my friend Joel from Seattle, a couple (Tom and Anna) from Minneapolis, Jeff Griggs from Chicago, and Rod, Raychel and Prescott - who I never found out where they were from. It was a lot of fun... even though it was hot as Texas.

Also, I found a flickr page with a group of photos from our show on Friday. Thanks to Roy Moore for taking and posting pictures of us in action! Click this link::> Jean Louis

Austin

Fun things I've learned about Austin since I've been here
1. Austin's Capital Building faces south so they will have no problem turning their back on the rest of the country when they declare themselves a sovereign nation.
2. Ironworks - a famous Austin BBQ joint with their own BBQ sauce recipe tastes, to me, just like the BBQ sauce at Mcdonalds.
3. Also - they have Texas' most impressive salad bar

Checked in, Checked out (shows)

We made it to the Salvage Vanguard Theater this evening. We checked in and got our badges / T Shirts and we checked out a couple shows.
Grandma Hates Technology was a very fun, cute improv show. A father/daughter team who improvise together. She's twelve (I think) and already a very clever improvisor. They're from New Jersey and they're not muscle-bound idiots!
Available Cup Holders - holy crap. The improvised set they did was hilarious right from the beginning. A group of "actors" putting up a play from the first table read - to the final show night. A ridiculous format for a team of 4 great improvisors. They had us laughing for 45 minutes straight.
Jill Bernard and our host Asaf did their two person set called Switch, in which Jill had the line of the night, "You are about to have the most magical evening of your night." Ridiculous.
She then surprised Asaf with a scooter she has been taking collections for, from the Austin improv community. It was pretty great. He was shocked. Now he'll never have to ask for a ride again.

Good first night for the Out Of Bounds comedy festival. Tomorrow night, we perform!

Hey Austin!

I made a postcard for our show here at the Out of Bounds festival. If you're in Austin, come check us out.

Made it to Austin

We left our home in Portland at 4 am and have landed in Austin.

Hey everyone... Austin is freakin' HHOOTT!! No joke. I forget how spoiled we are in Portland because we have weather. Austin - so far: Dry and Hot.
We were picked up by one of our hosts (Tom... thank you, Tom) and were driven back to Asaf (and Tom)'s apartment, where we'll be staying this weekend.
Asaf then took us out to lunch and grocery shopping so we could stock up and not have to spend thousands of dollars on food at every meal. Look what Texas has. Individual servings of jalepeno peppers, packaged for your convenience.
Also - we have a pair of weiner dogs as neighbors. Fun times. We'll be checking out the festival tonight and performing tomorrow.

Jean Louis world tour!

Tomorrow at 6:15 am our flight leaves Portland - headed to Austin Texas for the Out OF Bounds Comedy Festival. We will be performing Friday night at 9pm. Check out the
Out Of Bounds Festival for more details. I hope to keep up-to-date posts here during the trip.