Los Angeles (8 – and last)

Saturday 30/06

Vlog by Florence: see below.

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By me:

We wake up at 8am. 

We leave to the city centre at 9:15am.

The appointment for the ‘Broadway Historic Theater & Commercial Walking Tour’ organized by the LA Conservancy is in Pershing Square. It’s a walk through this National Historic District; we will learn about Broadway’s evolution and ongoing revitalization.

Our group is composed of 14 people. 

We visited many different theatres. We can go inside 2 of them: the Los Angeles Theatre and the Orpheum Theatre. Their interiors are really impressive and give a very good idea of what this neighborhood must have looked like during its heyday (‘splendeur’). What people say about the Los Angeles Theatre is quite eloquent: if Louis XIV had built a theatre, that’s how it would have looked like…

Our guide confirms that there’s actually a revival of the area (Downtown LA). 

There are many homeless people in the streets.

After the visit, we go to the Ace Hotel to meet a friend of Isabelle, Sophie, who is in LA with her family. We have lunch (avocado toasts and hummus) with them on the rooftop. Nice.

We take the car to go to the Walt Disney Concert Hall and the MOCA to see whether they found my new laptop battery that I lost (it was delivered to Anuraag’s house; he then brought it to me yesterday morning but I must have left it in one of these 2 museums that we visited yesterday). Unfortunately, they did not. While Isabelle checks in the Walt Disney Concert Hall, I go and fill up the tank of the car.

We then drive to Echo Park, Silver Lake and Los Felix. My cousin Fabrice recommended me these districts (he lived in LA during the filming of his movie). 

We first stop in Echo Park for an ice cream for Jules and Florence (at the intersection between Alvarado Street and Sunset Blvd). 

We continue driving to the start of Griffith Park, first on Sunset Boulevard and then in the beautiful N Vermont Avenue. We then drive in this posh neighbourhood, looking for architects’ houses. We see 4 of them, including 3 designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. 

We then go to a WholeFoods supermarket to buy a picnic for tonight. We indeed go to the Hollywood Bowl tonight, with Anuraag, Sayana and Eva, to watch Grease Sing-A-Long.

The place is impressive with a massive HD screen; the capacity of the Bowl is 17,000 people and it’s full!

In this kind of ‘Sing-Along’ event (for film musical), we don’t have to restrain our often uncontrollable urge to burst into song. The evening begins with a host leading a vocal warm-up before they show us how to use our free interactive prop bag during the film and suggest some appropriate heckles and accompanying actions. It’s cool. Many of the spectators dressed up like in the movies, especially the Pink Ladies. What a great atmosphere! Most of the spectators know the dialogues (and especially the songs) of the movie by heart (and for the ones who don’t, the movie is a specially-subtitled version.

We all love the movie. I was the only one of the family who had watched the movie before.

Thanks Anuraag for these tickets! It was another very local experience. Kids loved it. GREASE is still, and will always be, the word!

We come back home at 11:30pm. I write the day (until 12:30am) and Isabelle does backups (until 2am!). 

 

 

Sunday 01/07

Wake up around 9am. Late breakfast.

Isabelle and the girls go the Santa Monica Apple store (by Uber), where they have an appointment at noon.

I join them around 2pm, with Jules. Good news: Florence’s screen is repaired, Ludivine’s phone is fixed (they gave her a new phone) and Isabelle changed the battery of hers.

We go and eat at The Hive, an “Organic Cafe & Superfood Bar”. Nice açai bowls.

I had planned to visit the Getty Centre and to drive Mulholland Drive today but we feel like taking it cool today. Isabelle and I do some shopping in Santa Monica (on the Third Street Promenade) while the kids enjoy the playground on the beach.

Around 5pm, we go back to the apartment. Isabelle and I go to Abbot Kinney Blvd and the kids stay at home (Ludivine comes with us just to grab an ice cream). Nice street, full of cool places.

At 7:30pm, we leave again. We take the car to go and join Anuraag and Sayana (and their kids) in the Stella Barra Pizzeria, in Santa Monica. Delicious pizzas. It’s great to spend a good (last) moment with our friends. Thanks a lot, guys, for your hospitality during our stay in LA. It was great to see you and to meet the kids! Hope to see you soon (in Europe this time).

We are back home at 9:30pm.

Isabelle tries to reinstall Ludivine’s backup on her new phone while I prepare our stay in San Francisco and write the summary of the day.

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