Picture of the Week : Château d'Eau Montmartre

 Château d'Eau in French means water tower in English and these water towers really are castle-like. I have yet to find one that does not look plain. This one in the photo is found near Sacré Coeur in Montmartre.
 

Picture of the Week : The Louvre

Another sunny one by the Louvre. Look at all those tourists!

Funny story : One day when one of my American friends was visiting, we were sitting in the Jardin de Tuilleries. There were these older American women sitting next to us and one says to the other in a thick-Southern accent, "Come on let's go! I didn't come to Paris to sit around the Garden de Twilleries all day! Let's go to the Champs Elysees (american pronunciation!)."

 

Who would you vote for ?

If you had French nationality, who would you vote for ?

Here is another article for English speakers about the French candidates.

I am between Hollande or Bayrou !
 

Presidential Elections in France : François Hollande

Here is a video with François Hollande visiting the suburbs, specifically the area where I live. It seems like Hollande has really made a mark on the foreigners and immigrants. He is all about change, something that sounds like Obama. His logo is "Changement, C'est maintenant","Change is now"

Picture of the Week : Sacré Coeur

During a  relaxing walk with Yilmaz we spotted beautiful cherry blossoms with a butterfly and Sacré Coeur in the background.

 

Presidential Elections in France

The French Republic will hold a presidential election on April 22, 2012, and (if necessary) a runoff election on May 6, 2012. We are nine days away !

The president of France is directly elected by universal suffrage in two stages of voting. All parties take part in the first round, usually promoting their own candidates. However, presidential hopefuls are required to present 500 endorsements signed by elected officials in order to secure a place on the ballot. If no candidate obtains an absolute majority of all valid votes cast in the first round, then the top two candidates qualify for a runoff election, in which the candidate with the largest number of votes is elected to office for a term of five years. For more information, refer to this website

This year there are 10 candidates.

The Favorites

• François Hollande (Parti Socialiste)
• Nicolas Sarkozy (Union pour un Mouvement Populaire)

The Other Candidates

• Nathalie Arthaud (Lutte Ouvrière)
• Philippe Poutou (Nouveau Parti Anticapitaliste)
• Jean-Luc Mélenchon (Front de Gauche)
• Eva Joly (Europe Ecologie Les Verts)
• François Bayrou (MoDem)
• Jacques Cheminade (Solidarité et Progrès)
• Nicolas Dupont-Aignan (Debout la République)
• Marine Le Pen (Front National) - very much against foreigners and immigration !

Those Eliminated

These two didn't get the 500 required signatures :

• Dominique de Villepin (République solidaire)
• Corinne Lepage (Cap21)

 

The Turkish/Armenian Debate in France

Below are some scenes from the Turkish/Armenian debate that happened last January/Febuary. They are all from the Turkish perspective

(c) Yilmaz Demirelli

(c) Yilmaz Demirelli

(c) Yilmaz Demirelli

(c) Yilmaz Demirelli

Picture of the Week : The Seine

Every week I am going to post a picture of Paris. Because there are so many amazing things to take pictures of.

Below is a picture of the Seine right next to Notre Dame. The sun and the shadow is so beautiful. 

Where are you summer ?

How many more months til Paris Plage ? I am really looking forward to summer, I need a break now!

Disneyland and it's secrets

Yesterday Yilmaz and I watched a really interesting documentary about Disneyland Paris and it's secrets.

Here is the link if you would like to see it as well en français, no subtitles :

http://www.pluzz.fr/disneyland-et-ses-secrets.html

It's a small world dolls and Pirates are all robots, then dressed with handmade costumes.

There is more than 36000 squared meters of plants in the whole parc. and things that look like rock are really cement than

Each one of the costumes are hand-sewn they related it to haute couture. 

All of the objects are hand painted as well at least twice a year. Also, the castle is painted and each of the gold pieces are covered in 24K gold.

Apparently they go to Native American reservations at least twice a year to audition and hire Native Americans for their Cowboys and Indians show.
 

Nothing is made in China except for maybe the toys in the gift shops!