Paris part 3: Les Quatre Temps and The Grand Arche!
We only walked maybe 2-3 blocks down the Champs Élysées before we decided to leave and head to a normally affordable shopping mall the translator suggested we go to buy food to take home. It would be another Metro ride from the station near Louis Vuitton to La Défense where Les Quatre Temps was located. Les Quatre Temps was HUGE o-O! As a perspective, for you Minnesotans, it's like 3 Har Mar Malls in length pasted together with half the Megamall! It was filled with all your regular mall shops and mall food shops including a Virgin Megastore! I just had to see it and check out the books and things, so while Dad was getting something to eat from a Vietnamese/Chinese mall restaurant, I went to browse around Virgin.
OH MY GOSH 8D! I was totally FLOORED by Virgin's COMIC BOOK SECTION! It was larger than the children's book section (of that store or any normal bookstore)! Apparently, comic books or graphic novels are considered mainstream in Europe o-O! Signs I had seen at Metro stations that looked like some cool animated Pirates of the Caribbean-like movie weren't for a movie, but they were for a NEW GRAPHIC NOVEL! Mom was even wondering about that 'movie' too XD! It was the equivalent of seeing DC's Final Crisis or Marvel's Secret Invasion advertised at a bus station or something! I couldn't believe just how many comic books, all in hardcover, were available in all sorts of art styles, genres, etc.! Now, I always thought that when Stuart Ng Books bought comics in France to sell here, they were searching for them in these little comic book shops scattered all across the city like they are here in the States. What I didn't know was that one could buy ANY French comic book in ANY regular bookstore XP! Heck, when I got home, I found out that I could just go through Amazon.fr to buy them too, just like regular books o~O! I probably will do just that for new issues/tomes of Lys which I first had bought issues/tomes 1 and 3 from Stuart Ng for $25.00 each. Each issue/tome of Lys only costs about 10 Euros ~ $15.00, so there is a slight markup, but then again, I have no idea how much shipping will cost me from Amazon.fr. On the other hand, Stuart Ng only makes 2-3 trips to Paris per year, so getting new issues or back issues is somewhat of a problem unless they remember to shop for it.
Anyway, back to the comics! I was missing Lys 2, so I asked someone who could speak English where I could find it. Even though everything was listed alphabetically, there was a separate section for more 'kid friendly' comics. I was so happy to find it in stock along with the latest issue, 4, which wasn't available at Stuart Ng! I bought that along with an all French version of Martin Mysteries comic based on the animated series of the same name which shortly aired here in the U.S. by Nickelodeon. I can barely remember any French I learned in high school, let alone read it, but I didn't care for Lys ;b! I'll probably use Babelfish to translate everything or something! I also bought this BEAUTIFULLY illustrated one-shot of a series called Kookaburra Universe, tome 10, Les Prêtresses d'Isis/The Priestess of Isis! Again, I knew I can't read a thing, but it was too gorgeous to resist! I later found out from the guys at Source that Soleil, the publisher of Kookaburra Universe, Lys, and many other titles now has a deal with Marvel to publish some of their titles here in the U.S. in ENGLISH! Maybe, some of these will be translated and published by Marvel just like Ythaq: The Forsaken World, whose first issue just came out last week here! My fingers are crossed that Soleil's deal will be successful, so they can bring more French comics here!
After loading up with an armful of large HEAVY hardcover comics and 2 children's hardcover books, I went DROOLING at the large manga section! Again, just like the comic book section, the manga area was HUGE too! It's about 3-4 TIMES the size of the manga sections in U.S. bookstores with TONS more titles O-O! I was so JEALOUS that the French were getting SO many more translated-into-French manga titles than we were in the States! Not only were there more titles, but they were printed more true to their original formats in terms of size, cover, and COLOR inserts, which are considered to be a 'luxury' for State publishers. Viz and Tokyopop are SO SCREWING OVER the U.S., Canada, and the UK in terms of publishing and releasing titles. I think, from what I saw, French publishers were almost caught up with their Japanese counterparts in terms of releasing titles while Viz and Tokyopop are taking their sweet time in just finishing off the titles of their more popular series (i.e. Inu-Yasha, Fruits Basket, Fullmetal Alchemist, Bleach, Naruto, etc.), taking up to 6 MONTHS in between releases of the next issues. IT'S NOT FAIR >8(! %@#_!*%)*#!% YOU, VIZ AND TOKYOPOP! I heard from the guys at Source that Viz and Tokyopop have actually bought up a LOT more titles than they're publishing. They're going to keep them until they get the 'opportunity' to publish them >;P!
Sigh, back to Virgin's manga section, manga was even divided by genre for the display tables, so there was a whole table for shonen, shoujo, yaoi, etc.! I think U.S. bookstores have no clue about different manga genres other than kid friendly and regular manga ;b. I was MOST upset at seeing a title called Death Joke, a CUTE PARODY of Death Note featuring CHIBITIZED versions of the characters from Death Note! If you Google for Death Joke, there is only 1 page about it in English you can find about it! WHY HASN'T VIZ PUBLISHED THIS YET >8( while the French have 3 volumes of it out already?! %*#)!*%()! YOU VIZ FOR BEING STINGY AND STUPID! I WANT IT NOW! I was VERY tempted to buy it, but I decided against it, hoping that Viz will give me an English version of it soon. If not, I will go to Amazon.fr to buy it >8P! I think someone needs to completely overhaul Viz and Tokyopop before I MURDER THEM MYSELF >8(!
I went to console myself in the magazine section which actually was both consoling and infuriating at the same time o~O! On the one hand, I found tons of wonderful magazines which are rarely seen if at all in the U.S. like The Winx Club and W.I.T.C.H., both of which I snapped up and added to my pile. On the other hand, all the 'kids' magazines gave away COOL FREEBIES with each issue, which, as everyone knows, is NOT the norm in the U.S. >8(! ARRRRGH! IT'S NOT FAIR ;_;! Why don't WE get any cool freebies with any of our magazines?! I love cool freebies too! W.I.T.C.H. came with a free metal tin card case with Wil on it, mini notebook, sticker, pencil, Chibi Wil erasers, and a large lenticular card of Iridessa from Disney's Fairies 8D! The U.S. doesn't even have the magazine let alone free goodies X(! Every single kids magazine had freebies of some sort from stationery to toys!
Also in the magazine section, I found huge phonebook Disney comics priced at only 6 Euros each X(! Don Rosa was right! Disney comics, especially Duck comics, are VERY popular outside the U.S.! I know Gemstone is losing money on printing Disney Duck comics here, but someone at Source said that Gemstone is publishing and promoting them incorrectly =/. Supposedly, Disney Duck comics could do better with a different approach, but I guess we'll see.
After I made my heavy purchases at Virgin, I was EXTREMELY hungry 8(! The only things I had eaten were Dad's potato wedges from McDonald's and that crappy crépe near The Eiffel Tower. Sadly, the only places to eat in Les Quatre Temps were chain store French cafés, and none of their sandwiches looked as appetizing as the non-chain store cafés ;6! I settled on a chain store named Paul's sweet fare which included a gingerbread shaped bread topped with dark chocolate on his head, feet, and hands. It was good, but I guess I was expecting a more sweeter bread than just regular bread with chocolate. I also bought a large chocolate macaroon which is nothing like the macaroons in the U.S.. It looked like a cookie sandwich, but it was made of crispy on the outside but moist on the inside cakes with chocolate paste sandwiched in between =9! Now THOSE were good! It was like eating a cake and a cookie at the same time, and it wasn't too overly sweet! We ended up buying a variety macaroon pack to take home which had vanilla, strawberry, coffee, chocolate, lemon, and I think pistachio flavors!
Next, we went to the SUPERMARKET located inside Les Quatre Temps for regular food goodies! There was an entire section dedicated to holiday and regular CHOCOLATES 89! There were several brands we recognized like Ferrero Roche, Mon Cheri, Nestlé, Lindt, etc., but they all had a different twist! Ferrero Roche had a multi-flavor pack with strawberry, almond, pecan, pistachio, coconut, and a few other nut flavors that weren't available in the States, so I bought one of those. When we got home later and tried them, Mom thought they were too sweet, but I loved them =9! I also bought a pack of dark chocolate cherry Mon Cheri, but I sadly found out they were LIQUOR cherry X6! Mom liked them though, so she's eating them. There were also chocolate that came with 99% cacao o-O! I don't think I've seen them higher than 80% in the States. Those must be extremely bitter (1% left for things like sugar and milk!), but I guess French people like 99%.
The rest of the supermarket was pretty HUGE for one located inside a mall. I think it's probably a little bigger than the Cub located at Har Mar. Besides the chocolate, Mom bought some more persimmons which were the size of baseballs there o-O! We also visited the wine section to see if there were any we could take home. Not only were there plenty of wines to choose from, including flavors Mom had never heard about, they were extremely CHEAP O-O! The cheapest bottle of wine costs only 0.99 Euros! That's cheaper than any wine you could find here at World Market or Trader Joe's! The prices were so cheap that Mom had to bring back at least 3 bottles of some red wine for herself and friends XD! Dad kept complaining our suitcases would be overweight with my books and Mom's wine!
After we finished shopping, we headed outside to see something we weren't expecting to see or even knew about: The Grand Arche! According to the translator, it's the 'new' version of The Arc de Triomphe and was built by contributions from some firm in Dubai I think =/. It looked like a large square outline, and it was lit quite plainly with white lights. Of course, we asked Dad to take pictures, but again, I don't think he was able to get the entire structure in one shot without cutting off the bottom. Next to the Arche was some large lighted globe by a company called Equival if I remember correctly. I thought it looked neat too, so I asked Dad to take pictures of that too even though it wasn't lit very well. I asked the translator if she knew anything about the globe or Equival, but she had no clue XP!
We returned to our hotel area to eat our final dinner in Paris at the WORST Chinese retaurant I've ever been X6! Dad was hungry though, again, and wanted Chinese. The fried rice was soggy, and everything just tasted wrong. Dad didn't care though. It was food I guess ;b.
We left our hotel bright and early Sunday morning and took a van to the airport. There, I had my last taste of Paris via sandwiches at Paul's, again, near the ticket counter. I guess Paul's sandwiches weren't that bad, but I still think I could have tasted better IF I had bought a sandwich the first day just outside our hotel. I got a brie sandwich, a salmon sandwich, and a ham sandwich. Yes, I ate 3 sandwiches (with Mom), but they were somewhat small and didn't have much filling in them ^^;! The bread, of course, was excellent! I'm SO glad I bought the sandwiches before we entered the terminal area. Inside the gates, there was almost NOTHING to eat except for a cheap overpriced food area that had MICROWAVE pre-packaged food! Dad tried eating there, but even he gave up after having only a couple of bites.
We did add some final items to our carry on luggage though in the terminal area including a set of spring Peugeot salt and pepper mills colored pastel yellow and green! They had sets for summer, fall, and winter too including a beautiful purple themed summer set which we had to pass on because we bought 2 spring sets (1 for Mom and 1 for my sister). I had to hand carry my HEAVY books because, as it turned out, our luggage barely fit the regulation weight limit without my books inside. I bought some last minute tea and chocolates by Fauchon and a cute plush killer whale by a company that I've only seen their plushies for sale at Patina and Home Goods here in the States. I should have bought more Fauchon for friends, but Dad was already yelling at me about the books X(! If I get a chance to find more in Taiwan, I will buy them for gifts X)! I gave the tea to my sister and kept the chocolate for myself.
On our flight back, I was very pleased to discover that French airplane food was 100 times tastier than the BLECH stuff we got to eat on our way to Paris from the U.S.! We got the same food choices: vegetarian pasta or terriyaki chicken, but they were made so much better and tastier =9! I also watched 3 movies total on the flights: Meet the Robinsons, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and Journey to the Center of the Earth! Meet the Robinsons was disappointing as I had thought it would be for a non Pixar Disney 3D animated movie. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was in some ways better than the original Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory in plotting, but I think I liked the songs from the original better. Journey to the Center of the Earth was a lot better than I had expected, so I was very pleased with that!
And that's it for Paris! I'm off to Taiwan tomorrow, bright and early! Maybe I'll figure out how to get the rest of our Paris photos off Dad's cameras by the time I get back XP! By the way, while I'm gone, if anyone spots a Combee plushie that doesn't come with a Pokéball, PLEASE let me know 8}!
OH MY GOSH 8D! I was totally FLOORED by Virgin's COMIC BOOK SECTION! It was larger than the children's book section (of that store or any normal bookstore)! Apparently, comic books or graphic novels are considered mainstream in Europe o-O! Signs I had seen at Metro stations that looked like some cool animated Pirates of the Caribbean-like movie weren't for a movie, but they were for a NEW GRAPHIC NOVEL! Mom was even wondering about that 'movie' too XD! It was the equivalent of seeing DC's Final Crisis or Marvel's Secret Invasion advertised at a bus station or something! I couldn't believe just how many comic books, all in hardcover, were available in all sorts of art styles, genres, etc.! Now, I always thought that when Stuart Ng Books bought comics in France to sell here, they were searching for them in these little comic book shops scattered all across the city like they are here in the States. What I didn't know was that one could buy ANY French comic book in ANY regular bookstore XP! Heck, when I got home, I found out that I could just go through Amazon.fr to buy them too, just like regular books o~O! I probably will do just that for new issues/tomes of Lys which I first had bought issues/tomes 1 and 3 from Stuart Ng for $25.00 each. Each issue/tome of Lys only costs about 10 Euros ~ $15.00, so there is a slight markup, but then again, I have no idea how much shipping will cost me from Amazon.fr. On the other hand, Stuart Ng only makes 2-3 trips to Paris per year, so getting new issues or back issues is somewhat of a problem unless they remember to shop for it.
Anyway, back to the comics! I was missing Lys 2, so I asked someone who could speak English where I could find it. Even though everything was listed alphabetically, there was a separate section for more 'kid friendly' comics. I was so happy to find it in stock along with the latest issue, 4, which wasn't available at Stuart Ng! I bought that along with an all French version of Martin Mysteries comic based on the animated series of the same name which shortly aired here in the U.S. by Nickelodeon. I can barely remember any French I learned in high school, let alone read it, but I didn't care for Lys ;b! I'll probably use Babelfish to translate everything or something! I also bought this BEAUTIFULLY illustrated one-shot of a series called Kookaburra Universe, tome 10, Les Prêtresses d'Isis/The Priestess of Isis! Again, I knew I can't read a thing, but it was too gorgeous to resist! I later found out from the guys at Source that Soleil, the publisher of Kookaburra Universe, Lys, and many other titles now has a deal with Marvel to publish some of their titles here in the U.S. in ENGLISH! Maybe, some of these will be translated and published by Marvel just like Ythaq: The Forsaken World, whose first issue just came out last week here! My fingers are crossed that Soleil's deal will be successful, so they can bring more French comics here!
After loading up with an armful of large HEAVY hardcover comics and 2 children's hardcover books, I went DROOLING at the large manga section! Again, just like the comic book section, the manga area was HUGE too! It's about 3-4 TIMES the size of the manga sections in U.S. bookstores with TONS more titles O-O! I was so JEALOUS that the French were getting SO many more translated-into-French manga titles than we were in the States! Not only were there more titles, but they were printed more true to their original formats in terms of size, cover, and COLOR inserts, which are considered to be a 'luxury' for State publishers. Viz and Tokyopop are SO SCREWING OVER the U.S., Canada, and the UK in terms of publishing and releasing titles. I think, from what I saw, French publishers were almost caught up with their Japanese counterparts in terms of releasing titles while Viz and Tokyopop are taking their sweet time in just finishing off the titles of their more popular series (i.e. Inu-Yasha, Fruits Basket, Fullmetal Alchemist, Bleach, Naruto, etc.), taking up to 6 MONTHS in between releases of the next issues. IT'S NOT FAIR >8(! %@#_!*%)*#!% YOU, VIZ AND TOKYOPOP! I heard from the guys at Source that Viz and Tokyopop have actually bought up a LOT more titles than they're publishing. They're going to keep them until they get the 'opportunity' to publish them >;P!
Sigh, back to Virgin's manga section, manga was even divided by genre for the display tables, so there was a whole table for shonen, shoujo, yaoi, etc.! I think U.S. bookstores have no clue about different manga genres other than kid friendly and regular manga ;b. I was MOST upset at seeing a title called Death Joke, a CUTE PARODY of Death Note featuring CHIBITIZED versions of the characters from Death Note! If you Google for Death Joke, there is only 1 page about it in English you can find about it! WHY HASN'T VIZ PUBLISHED THIS YET >8( while the French have 3 volumes of it out already?! %*#)!*%()! YOU VIZ FOR BEING STINGY AND STUPID! I WANT IT NOW! I was VERY tempted to buy it, but I decided against it, hoping that Viz will give me an English version of it soon. If not, I will go to Amazon.fr to buy it >8P! I think someone needs to completely overhaul Viz and Tokyopop before I MURDER THEM MYSELF >8(!
I went to console myself in the magazine section which actually was both consoling and infuriating at the same time o~O! On the one hand, I found tons of wonderful magazines which are rarely seen if at all in the U.S. like The Winx Club and W.I.T.C.H., both of which I snapped up and added to my pile. On the other hand, all the 'kids' magazines gave away COOL FREEBIES with each issue, which, as everyone knows, is NOT the norm in the U.S. >8(! ARRRRGH! IT'S NOT FAIR ;_;! Why don't WE get any cool freebies with any of our magazines?! I love cool freebies too! W.I.T.C.H. came with a free metal tin card case with Wil on it, mini notebook, sticker, pencil, Chibi Wil erasers, and a large lenticular card of Iridessa from Disney's Fairies 8D! The U.S. doesn't even have the magazine let alone free goodies X(! Every single kids magazine had freebies of some sort from stationery to toys!
Also in the magazine section, I found huge phonebook Disney comics priced at only 6 Euros each X(! Don Rosa was right! Disney comics, especially Duck comics, are VERY popular outside the U.S.! I know Gemstone is losing money on printing Disney Duck comics here, but someone at Source said that Gemstone is publishing and promoting them incorrectly =/. Supposedly, Disney Duck comics could do better with a different approach, but I guess we'll see.
After I made my heavy purchases at Virgin, I was EXTREMELY hungry 8(! The only things I had eaten were Dad's potato wedges from McDonald's and that crappy crépe near The Eiffel Tower. Sadly, the only places to eat in Les Quatre Temps were chain store French cafés, and none of their sandwiches looked as appetizing as the non-chain store cafés ;6! I settled on a chain store named Paul's sweet fare which included a gingerbread shaped bread topped with dark chocolate on his head, feet, and hands. It was good, but I guess I was expecting a more sweeter bread than just regular bread with chocolate. I also bought a large chocolate macaroon which is nothing like the macaroons in the U.S.. It looked like a cookie sandwich, but it was made of crispy on the outside but moist on the inside cakes with chocolate paste sandwiched in between =9! Now THOSE were good! It was like eating a cake and a cookie at the same time, and it wasn't too overly sweet! We ended up buying a variety macaroon pack to take home which had vanilla, strawberry, coffee, chocolate, lemon, and I think pistachio flavors!
Next, we went to the SUPERMARKET located inside Les Quatre Temps for regular food goodies! There was an entire section dedicated to holiday and regular CHOCOLATES 89! There were several brands we recognized like Ferrero Roche, Mon Cheri, Nestlé, Lindt, etc., but they all had a different twist! Ferrero Roche had a multi-flavor pack with strawberry, almond, pecan, pistachio, coconut, and a few other nut flavors that weren't available in the States, so I bought one of those. When we got home later and tried them, Mom thought they were too sweet, but I loved them =9! I also bought a pack of dark chocolate cherry Mon Cheri, but I sadly found out they were LIQUOR cherry X6! Mom liked them though, so she's eating them. There were also chocolate that came with 99% cacao o-O! I don't think I've seen them higher than 80% in the States. Those must be extremely bitter (1% left for things like sugar and milk!), but I guess French people like 99%.
The rest of the supermarket was pretty HUGE for one located inside a mall. I think it's probably a little bigger than the Cub located at Har Mar. Besides the chocolate, Mom bought some more persimmons which were the size of baseballs there o-O! We also visited the wine section to see if there were any we could take home. Not only were there plenty of wines to choose from, including flavors Mom had never heard about, they were extremely CHEAP O-O! The cheapest bottle of wine costs only 0.99 Euros! That's cheaper than any wine you could find here at World Market or Trader Joe's! The prices were so cheap that Mom had to bring back at least 3 bottles of some red wine for herself and friends XD! Dad kept complaining our suitcases would be overweight with my books and Mom's wine!
After we finished shopping, we headed outside to see something we weren't expecting to see or even knew about: The Grand Arche! According to the translator, it's the 'new' version of The Arc de Triomphe and was built by contributions from some firm in Dubai I think =/. It looked like a large square outline, and it was lit quite plainly with white lights. Of course, we asked Dad to take pictures, but again, I don't think he was able to get the entire structure in one shot without cutting off the bottom. Next to the Arche was some large lighted globe by a company called Equival if I remember correctly. I thought it looked neat too, so I asked Dad to take pictures of that too even though it wasn't lit very well. I asked the translator if she knew anything about the globe or Equival, but she had no clue XP!
We returned to our hotel area to eat our final dinner in Paris at the WORST Chinese retaurant I've ever been X6! Dad was hungry though, again, and wanted Chinese. The fried rice was soggy, and everything just tasted wrong. Dad didn't care though. It was food I guess ;b.
We left our hotel bright and early Sunday morning and took a van to the airport. There, I had my last taste of Paris via sandwiches at Paul's, again, near the ticket counter. I guess Paul's sandwiches weren't that bad, but I still think I could have tasted better IF I had bought a sandwich the first day just outside our hotel. I got a brie sandwich, a salmon sandwich, and a ham sandwich. Yes, I ate 3 sandwiches (with Mom), but they were somewhat small and didn't have much filling in them ^^;! The bread, of course, was excellent! I'm SO glad I bought the sandwiches before we entered the terminal area. Inside the gates, there was almost NOTHING to eat except for a cheap overpriced food area that had MICROWAVE pre-packaged food! Dad tried eating there, but even he gave up after having only a couple of bites.
We did add some final items to our carry on luggage though in the terminal area including a set of spring Peugeot salt and pepper mills colored pastel yellow and green! They had sets for summer, fall, and winter too including a beautiful purple themed summer set which we had to pass on because we bought 2 spring sets (1 for Mom and 1 for my sister). I had to hand carry my HEAVY books because, as it turned out, our luggage barely fit the regulation weight limit without my books inside. I bought some last minute tea and chocolates by Fauchon and a cute plush killer whale by a company that I've only seen their plushies for sale at Patina and Home Goods here in the States. I should have bought more Fauchon for friends, but Dad was already yelling at me about the books X(! If I get a chance to find more in Taiwan, I will buy them for gifts X)! I gave the tea to my sister and kept the chocolate for myself.
On our flight back, I was very pleased to discover that French airplane food was 100 times tastier than the BLECH stuff we got to eat on our way to Paris from the U.S.! We got the same food choices: vegetarian pasta or terriyaki chicken, but they were made so much better and tastier =9! I also watched 3 movies total on the flights: Meet the Robinsons, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and Journey to the Center of the Earth! Meet the Robinsons was disappointing as I had thought it would be for a non Pixar Disney 3D animated movie. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was in some ways better than the original Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory in plotting, but I think I liked the songs from the original better. Journey to the Center of the Earth was a lot better than I had expected, so I was very pleased with that!
And that's it for Paris! I'm off to Taiwan tomorrow, bright and early! Maybe I'll figure out how to get the rest of our Paris photos off Dad's cameras by the time I get back XP! By the way, while I'm gone, if anyone spots a Combee plushie that doesn't come with a Pokéball, PLEASE let me know 8}!