done AND done

done AND done

I just finished my last tutorial for term! Insane! I was so relieved that my tutor actually liked my paper - I started it the night before... as it is with all my paper now.

What Oxford has taught me: how to procrastinate, and procrastinate well.


Anyway, now I have to figure out the insanity that is my Easter break - 5 weeks traveling around Europe! I'll share my intinerary later, but what I'm most excited about is spending 10 days in Paris with one of my best friends, Jansa, who's flying in from Houston just to see me! Let's hope we don't kill each other by the end of the trip!

Anyway, what's particularly exciting for me about Paris is that it is the site of a store that I've been waiting to go to for what seems like my entire life: Deyrolle.

Deyrolle is a taxidermy shop, one of the oldest in the world, and absolutely beautiful. It burned down last year, but they've rebuilt since then. I admit, taxidermy is kind of creepy, strange, and offensive, but I have a perverse love for it and everything about Deyrolle is so whimsical and elegant.

Here are some pictures:






Fantastic right? I love the "Deyrolle blue" of the walls. I mean, everything about it is gorgeously macabre. Dead animals having a tea party? Right up my boat!

For more on taxidermy, a more personal take, check out this audio essay by Melissa Dixon, "the urban taxidermist". She's self-taught - how cool is that??? The NYTimes interviewed her as part of their "One in 8 Million" series.