Monday, February 19, 2007

Happy Chinese New Year!!

Hi again and Happy Chinese New Year!!

Now that I'm back in Paris, it's a good occasion to post my first English message (since I was only writing in French when I was in HK... yeah, I'm a very logical girl I know).
Yesterday was Chinese New year in Paris too, I think it's the year of the pig in 2007, which means next year will be the year of the rat/mouse :) . I read a newspaper where French current president was making a speech for Chinese new year, talking about China/France friendship (blablabla...) and said that the pig was the symbol of generosity and kindness?! Anyway, the French president is not vegetarian, and I don't know if it's really true but my piggy brother is both generous and kind, so that may be the case.

As the dragon march and Chinese party was in Paris it started "only" with 1 hour delay. The streets around the City hall were really crowded but I managed to take a few pictures and here are a few ones:


(more on my gallery very soon --> http://membres.lycos.fr/tokygallery)

The weather was incredibly sunny for the season (around 15°C with a bright bright sun :D) . After this short walk, we headed back home, and then to Paris Chinatown to meet Fong Yei... who was late as usual ("c'est mal Fong Yei !!"), Laure - who was surprisingly in advance -, and Till, also late because he was following Fong Yei. We then went to a strange cultural centre to watch a Chinese movie called "Wives and Concubines" from Hou Hsiao Hsien (I'm not sure about the spelling). It was a good and very sad movie but maybe a bit "cliché". Some of the things inside the movie were supposed to look like traditional China but I don't think it is close to reality (maybe it was closer to "folklore").
We wanted to find some superweird food after that, but all the restaurants were full T_T and we finally ate some delicious Vietnamese food run by very welcoming people in a small not crowded restaurant :D.



It reminded me of my trip to Hanoi. Aah and of course they had
a big "Vache qui rit" in front of the restaurant.



The reason why this "cheese" is so popular in Vietnam still remains a mystery to me. In fact, this is what French children eat when they are young: it is a melt of different cheeses and has no real taste.
After I was surprised to see that the streets were so quiet. Maybe people were sleeping already to go to work on monday mroning? My monday morning was a sleepy one, to enjoy my last few days as a student ^_^ !

No comments: