On Friday, I went to the Parc de la Villette (again) for a 'spectacle pyrotechnique' by Groupe F that was so amazing that I'm tempted to surrender to it the title of 'best fireworks I've ever seen' that is currently held by the Bastille Day fireworks from this summer. But, it was more than fireworks -- there were multiple fiery plumes of natural gas beating in time to abstract synthesized music being performed live, spinning wheels of sparklers rising and falling with the ebb and flow of jazz themes by a saxophonist and then a cellist, and dancers bearing fireworks mounted on huge frames to give the shape of wings and the forms of somethings, I'm not sure, but maybe monsters? And of course more banging, spiraling, and exploding fireworks than one's field of vision can encompass simultaneously. It was quite a sublime exhibition of light and sound. I didn't have my camera with me, so you'll have to take my word for it.
And today, a 9-day festival of Thai culture ended at the Place St. Sulpice in the 6eme arrondisement. The church I go to to is nearby, in the 7eme, so I stopped there to have a look and happened also to have some pad thai and a dessert that was made from sweetened glutinous rice and black beans cooked inside a stick of bamboo (see photo below of stuffed bamboo and banana leaves), since it was lunchtime after all. Having never been there, my only experience of Thailand is through the food, which seems much less spicy here in Paris than what I had in California, but I certainly hope that that country can make it peacefully through its current political transition.
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