Le Panthéon : Aux grands hommes la patrie reconnaissante.( "To the great men, the grateful homeland")

Le panthéon.
I feel like nobody really knows or talks about this place, while talking about Paris, which I don't understand because this is a wonderful and so impressive sight, as well inside or outside.
It was originally a church but now is a mausoleum for all great men in french history.
The Pantheon was built between 1758 and 1790.
The building itself, is 110 meters long, by 84 meters wide, and 83meters high. The crypt is just the same.
Useless to say it's really huge and impressive.


The inside is full of very beautiful and giant paintings, which tell The Apotheosis of Saint Genevieve( for whom the Pantheon was originally built.


In the crypt are buried people such as Rousseau, Voltaire, Victor Hugo, Alexandre Dumas or Louis Braille.
As a big admirer of Rousseau I find it quite weird that he was buried in front of Voltaire. 
However, I'll let you appreciate some pictures I took when my father visited me.

만추(Late Autumn) & きみにしか聞こえない(Only you can hear me).

I've been studying a lot lately, but I had the time to watch two movies, which I really enjoyed and I thought I'd share with you. One is japanese, one is korean, both are very different, but both really moved me to tears.

Let's begin with Late Autumn, the 2010's version, directed by Kim Tae-young.
I saw this movie during the festival of the korean cinema in Paris, this month, and I had almost no idea of what it would be like. I hadn't seen the trailer, only read a short synopsis.
However, this movie has made its way to my heart, and is now one of my favorite movies.
Late Autumn is the story of a young woman, Anna, who murdered her husband to save her life, and therefore was sent to jail. Because of her mother's death, she is allowed to spend two days outside, and that's when she meets Hoon, an original&charming gigolo.

I'm not going further into the story because I really would recommend you to watch it, and I don't want to spoil anything. The actors are great, especially Hyun Bin who plays the role of Hoon, and whom you may know from Secret Garden. Wei Tang(Anna) is also noteworthy in this movie, all in silence and looks. The whole atmospheer of the movie is pretty unique, in lots of grey,brown and dark colors, yet with a lovely&sweet dimension to it. 
This movie is funny, serious, deep&moving. From the begining to the very end, you are carried along and I would definitely watch it again.

Second movie, absolutely different but that I still enjoyed, Only you can hear me.
This is definitely a different style, a different way to film, to portray love but I really appreciated the story.
Ryou is a very lonely girl, who has no friend and feel absolutely invisible and worthless. She doesn't own a cellphone, for the previous reasons, but she suddenly starts hearing the voice of Shinya, who lives in a different prefecture. They will become closer and closer through this telepathic relationship.


I really liked the hint of fantasy in this film, the beautiful landscapes, and melodies. It's a very pretty movie, full of poetry.

Let me know if you have watched these movies, or if there's any movie you think I should see. Preferably in japanese or korean, so that I can practise at the same time;) and because these are the ones I like best.

SunnySunday.

On Sunday afternoon, with two of my friends I went to the Albert Kahn gardens.
You can read about him on here http://albert-kahn.hauts-de-seine.net/english/ :)
The gardens are very pretty, though a bit small in fact. There's a japanese village :

Along with a japanese garden:

And there are also a french garden, which isn't that pretty I must say, compared to other gardens in Paris, an english one, not nice either compared to those I saw in England, and a blue forest.
All in all, it's a nice place to go if you can, to spend a great time with friends, it's a very peaceful place and it's amazing to see the atmospheer changing just at the corner of a bush.

And after that, I'm sure you knew it was coming, we went to a korean restaurant, to which I will ALWAYS go back. It's so cheap, so good, so big, and people there are so nice. I just hope next time I'll be brave enough to say hello, thank you&bye in korean.

저눈해물파전+라멘룰 먹었어요 :)

(wow amazing korean skills isn't it?)

And this pause, now usual after the Gackt trip. I guess I love food. Too much.

Alternative Blanquette ~ Curry&Tofu Spaghettis

You may know this famous french meal, la blanquette, usually made of veal and without any spices.
Well, I kind of made it my own way, which means, the vegetarian way ! 


A lot of people say they don't like tofu, that it tastes so bad and so on ... Please try this before saying this again, if this is your case !  I can assure you this plate is delicious and really not the kind of meal that let you hungry, though it's perfect for a diet. 
The cream is light, the pastas if eaten only like twice a week give you the carbs you need, the tofu is full of proteins and with a ridiculously low number of calories!  Carrots and mushrooms are obviously only good for you! 

You'll just need about 2 or 3 mushrooms, according to your taste, spaghettis, 1 carrot, 1 block of firm tofu and some crème fraîche.

1. Put the pastas in the boiling water.

2. Meanwhile, cut the carrot&the mushrooms.

3. Cook the carrot with some olive oil. Few minutes afterwarnthough it's firm, you want to be gentle not to break it.
5. When it's almost cooked, it's time for the crème fraîcheds, cook the mushrooms.

4. Cut the tofu in little squares,add curry and add it to the vegetables. Eve !  :)

6. Let it cook a little bit more, not too much, add spices of your choice, and serve on the spaghettis :)

Easy, quick& really delicous! 

Easy&Healthy Fajitas.

Today I was so damn hungry when I got back from college, and I was craving for a kind of spicy/mexican food, which I very rarely have. 

These fajitas are incredibly easy&quick to do, delicious and yet they make you full they are very healthy. Apart from the cheese, it contains few calories&carbs which is very nice.

1. Cut any vegetables of your choice in squares, I chose red&green pepers, with tomatoes.

2. Add some spicy tomatoe sauce to the vegetables after 5/6 minutes of cooking, and let it cook until it gets the desired consistency.

3. Break and egg or two on top of it and mix :)

4. Heat the fajitas, add lettuce, and serve the mixture, with some cheese on top. :)

And tadaaaa :)

花見.

I just feel like sharing some pretty pictures I like to look at for hours. You may not know this but I'm slightly obsssed with sakura, or cherry blossoms. I have one tattooed on my right ribcage, and I just love these flowers so much. They're powerful, delicate and absolutely feminine. People wait for them to blow the whole year, just to catch a glance of their magnificence.

"The traditional Japanese values of purity and simplicity are thought to be reflected in the form and color of the blossoms." (Osamu, 1983).

Though fragile and brief, during hanami, flowers overrun every hill or city, coloring the country in this famous&sweet light pink.

What I find extremely moving in blossoms is how short they are, for they are said to last "no more than three days", and the comparison that was made with samurais' lives, who were always ready to sacrifice themselves. There's a saying that is :

"Among flowers, the cherry blossom;

Among men, the samurai."

.花は桜木人は武士.

Also, the famous japanese cherry tree that is celebrated during hanami doesn't yield any fruit like any other cherry tree, which makes it very special, because its only mission is to be beautiful. A concept highly similar, to me, to Aestheticism with its famous slogan : " Art for Art's Sake."

There's a noble feeling to hanami, and it's interesting to know that it was initially limited to the Imperial Court, but then to samurais, to finally be celebrated by everyone.

The origin of hanami is said to be the adoption of the celebration by the Emperor Saga, who held flower-viewing parties with sake, underneath the trees in the Imperial Court in Kyoto, during which people would write poems and songs about the ephemeral yet luminous and beautiful flowers, metaphors for life itself.

Arashiyama

 Kubo Shunman

Hiroshige