Although we were staying in the more central part of town by The Farmer's Market, a trip to LA wouldn't be complete without giving Aurelien a mini-tour of where I spent my early 20s. I mean, I talk about it enough, might as well give the guy some visuals, right?
My first year in Tinseltown, because I was living with a roommate, was able to afford an apartment in the safe, clean, and accessible West Hollywood. Sadly, once she moved back to New York, I could no longer stay...and so I packed my bags and headed to the Eastside. I'd like to say that I was "movin' on up" but back in those days Silver Lake wasn't quite what it is now, and it would take years after I moved out for it to be the hipster enclave with soaring rents, yoga moms, and dudes with well-manicured beards sporting fitted t-shirts sipping on designer coffee at Intelligentsia.
Back in 2002, it was getting there, but not quite. So the trade off for hearing the occasional gunshot on Hoover Street, my neighbors getting attacked at night, street parking (which in LA is unheard of), and being far away from many of my friends who were all doing the beach thing in Venice, I had a spacious hardwood floor studio, a walk-in closet that lead to my bathroom (yes, like Carrie), a terrace looking out onto the building's private community garden that was nurtured by our building manager -- someone whom I now call Aunt Terri -- bursting with flowers, vegetables seasonal and fruit.
I've enjoyed sharing this part of my life with him because in Paris, I feel a bit disconnected to these formative years. As I cultivate my life in France, years in LA are slowly fading, so it was nice to awaken some old memories with a stroll through the Silver Lake...
The best place to get a margarita on the Eastside.
Sadly, this 50 year old staple will be closing down for good on December 22, so those of you who will be out in LA, I do recommend stopping in...
How could you not want to have a drink in this fiesta-like atmosphere? We stopped in for one margarita and left having two.
The more urban side of the Sunset Boulevard that we're not used to seeing.
Being broke during what seems like my entire 20s,
El 7 Mares on Sunset didn't remind me of that.
Fresh fish tacos that came with slices of lime fit into my budgetwhile getting in my weekly Omegas...even if they were fried.
He fits in just like a local taking down that fish taco!
The 99 cents store
(a real one, none of this 98 cents "and up" business)
was a frequent locale for dinner when I didn't want to lose my parking spot (or didn't want to pay for gas) by going to Trader Joe's. I told you, I was broke.
The view down to Sunset from my former street, Sanborn Avenue
...and then we got a parking ticket for 68 bucks. To make it a real experience, I uselessly chased down the parking official as he was taking evil pleasure in issuing out more tickets to unsuspecting victims.
His explanation made total sense.
And I walked away. Feeling defeated.
That was perhaps one memory I didn't exactly want to revisit.
We then drove past a filming of some sort.
We're guessing that this will be a soda commercial.What do you guys think?
