4 days in Los Angeles – Road trip in the American West #14

I was a bit apprehensive about going to Los Angeles. I’ve heard so much about it that I was afraid of being disappointed. And then, in the end, I really liked it. It’s great to visit, but to live there, I doubt it 😀

This article is part of our series of articles on the American West road trip. If you haven’t read the previous travel diaries, here they are: #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, #8, #9, #10, #11, #12, #13

Part 1: Travel Journal
Part 2: Practical Tips

Part 1: Travel Journal

Day 28 of the road trip

Today, we don’t do much because JB is super stressed. And for good reason: he has a dentist appointment. It’s a much-awaited but also dreaded appointment, as he’s been dealing with a small problem since our Atlantic crossing. Thanks to our friend G. whom we saw again in San Francisco, we know we have to say very quickly that we don’t just have a basic travel insurance, not a 5-star insurance like Americans, because the bills can be made up on the spot.

After dropping off all our stuff at the hotel, we barely have time to look at the “Hollywood” sign from afar (you have to walk to get closer). It’s not extraordinary, but the lookout where we are also gives a clear view over all of Los Angeles.

JB opts for a French dentist because he doesn’t trust his language skills. Luckily the dentist was very nice, understandable, and he left 500$ poorer but happy. As everywhere in America, every appointment starts with a dental X-ray, and that alone costs 150$. Our travel insurance will, hopefully, reimburse part of it; we’ll update the insurance article once we receive it.

Crab House

The good news is that despite the anesthesia, he can still eat and we can comfort ourselves at the restaurant Crab House. Oh yes, oh yes, it’s such a long-awaited step! We discovered a great Korean restaurant in Seoul (Michelin-starred) thanks to my friend M., who introduced us to the dish ganjang gejang (crab marinated in soy sauce). Since then, I’ve been on the hunt for this dish whenever I’m in a city with a significant Korean community. Prices vary wildly in Los Angeles; some sell 1 crab for 70$, others for 100$. Crab House sells 3 small ones for 40$ (kimchi and rice included). Despite their only 4 stars on Google Maps, we go without fear. They’re poorly rated because they require valet parking in the evening, but it’s very reasonable (4$). The 4 stars are not due to the quality or freshness of the crabs (M. explained that some unfresh crabs had sent her brother to the hospital, so we had to be very careful about the restaurant’s quality).

At the time of ordering, the waitress asks for confirmation “You know it’s raw, right?” because she’s too amazed that JB (a white guy) knows how to eat it. We feel watched by the waitresses, very amused to see JB enjoy it just like all the other Asian customers in the restaurant. We thus had VIP service; they regularly came by to give us what we were missing: a napkin, a cracker…

I put a short on YouTube explaining how to eat ganjang gejang. It’s a bit different from the restaurant in Korea because the sesame leaves are missing, but it’s still very, very good. If we can compare (unfairly), we can say it’s like raw fish well soaked in soy sauce.

With our wallet completely empty, we head back to the hotel. JB takes the wrong lane and drives around in circles a bit. With 6 lanes and many interlocking exits, we’ll systematically take the wrong exit every day. Our hotel is in the suburbs, in Glendale. We chose this location to pay less, and because it’s a 15-minute drive from Universal Studios and Warner Bros.

Day 29:

Hollywood Boulevard

I pick up some discount coupons at the hotel before driving to Hollywood Boulevard. There’s a spacious parking lot where everyone parks to visit this legendary avenue. We arrived a bit early, and the street is under construction, so the atmosphere seems a bit sketchy. It’s the complete opposite of the glamour you imagine at an Oscars ceremony, held in that ugly, poorly aged theater (Dolby Theatre).

We have the names of all the films that won the Oscar for Best Picture on the columns, and there’s space until 205x. We notice that the glory of the Oscars hasn’t left us indifferent because we’ve actually seen almost all the films that won the prize in the last 25 years!!

The other disappointment is related to the stars bearing the names of celebrities. Some stars are in front of clean or prestigious stores, others in front of stores too sketchy, too dirty, we even see traces of dog pee. Oh my, it’s really too sad! It must be a pride to have your star on Hollywood Boulevard, and to visit it a few years later, covered in filth.

We notice plenty of empty stars, ready to receive a name. There’s one particularly clean one, protected by a lady sitting there. In fact, she has in her basket metal letters of the same font as the real stars, and for a few dollars, she can prepare a brand new star with your name. I think that’s the cleanest star of all.

We then pass in front of the Chinese Theatre where actors and actresses leave their prints in concrete. That’s more fun because you can compare your hand with Marilyn Monroe’s, or Tom Cruise’s shoe size with JB’s. These plaques also feature their signatures. There are so many that you have to Google the prints of your favorite actors.

Speaking of Tom Cruise, we passed a Scientology office and there was the famous sign “free personality test” and lots of L. Ron Hubbard books. Every time we pass their offices, whether here or in Canada, they are always so smiley and wave at us from afar. I understand the appeal of these kinds of groups, everyone is so nice… at first!

Well, I expected more wealth, more bling bling, but we’ll find some a few days later in Beverly Hills. For bling, you need a different avenue actually 😀

I buy a bubble tea without paying much attention. $12. Ouch! Good thing I didn’t have the bad idea to eat vegan, gluten-free. LA is outrageously expensive! California charges more taxes for gas, so we pay 20% more than in Las Vegas, for example. Impossible to find a gallon of gas for less than $4.95

I visit a dated museum called Hollywood Museum, I have a voucher found at my hotel, so I pay $12 instead of $15. This building and its collection belong to a cosmetics brand that used to make up actors a century ago. They even invented a “kissing machine” to test the endurance of their lipstick. Even though it’s a museum that hasn’t aged well, you can find interesting things: a room dedicated to Marilyn Monroe. They say she was a size 10 and struggled with her weight, but seeing her clothes, I get the impression she was the same size as me (a 4). I don’t know, should I worry about my weight? ahaha There are lots of autographs from actors we no longer recognize. Star Trek costumes, Planet of the Apes masks. You either have to be a baby boomer or have extensive cinematic knowledge spanning a century to appreciate this museum at its true value. Upstairs, there are costumes from Harry Potter, Mad Men, and Transformers. In the basement, there’s a replica of Hannibal Lecter’s prison cell (and his mask). It still gives you the creeps! I know this museum disappoints a lot of people, but for the few items I recognized, I thought it was worth it. I enjoyed the visit.

Venice Beach

We then head to Venice Beach , thinking that this iconic spot will surely live up to its reputation. It’s a very, very long beach with a long, pleasant boardwalk. I don’t see much difference from the beaches in Florida. They’re all very beautiful. We wanted to see wealth, well we found it here: lots of villas, beautiful houses, even the roads are perfectly clean as if someone had vacuumed them. Parking is pay-per-hour, and we barely had time to figure out how the parking works before someone was ready to slap us with a fine.

I quickly book free tickets for the Getty Villa. It was G. again who recommended it. I had never heard of it, not even the name. It’s a billionaire collector who wanted to rebuild the Villa of the Papyri in Pompeii. He enriched it with his personal collection of artworks and sculptures. The cherry on top: entry is free. You “just” have to pay the $20 parking fee upon arrival. Entry requires a reservation, but on a weekday, I was able to book 20 minutes in advance without any problem.

Between Venice Beach and the Getty Villa, I notice lots of vans parked along the beautiful road. JB tells me that many actors live precariously in them while waiting to find a job. We’ll pass by a car that encourages us to make a donation. Out of curiosity, I go to the TikTok account (https://www.tiktok.com/@ms.rabbitblood) in question, and the person explains that Covid, illness, and the actors’ and writers’ strike that lasted for months in Hollywood have consumed all this person’s savings, and they need financial help to survive. In the US, you can be so rich and end up on the street without knowing why. As soon as bills aren’t paid, you end up on the street, unlike in France. I saw on YouTube a millionaire who wanted to prove that anyone can become a millionaire, even starting from zero, by working hard. He voluntarily put himself on the street and gave himself a year to become a millionaire again. Reality slapped him in the face: being on the street immediately affects your health, and despite all the willpower in the world, this trust-fund kid can’t make it without cheating (for example, by calling on an acquaintance to be his guarantor). There was another TV show, and the same thing happened: the guy got seriously ill sleeping in his car.

Yeah so next to people sleeping in their cars, we have this Getty Villa, absolutely majestic. The collections are rich and worthy of the Louvre. I find it very generous to make the villa accessible to the public, because this kind of collection isn’t as abundant as in Europe, and museums here cost a fortune. If you come by bus or on foot, for example, access is completely free. We take a good 3 hours to see everything. There are 2 gardens, and the big garden is obviously my favorite. The heat of Los Angeles is completely erased in this villa, which proves the usefulness of adapted architecture (and the presence of water and trees). There’s a nice little workshop where you can decorate ceramic vases by drawing with erasable markers. The owner of the Getty Villa has better taste than the one at Hearst Castle. Here, the collections are more harmonious. Having visited Pompeii, I appreciate it even more because it allows me to better imagine the luxury of that villa.

JB asks if I want to go to Malibu Beach, but since I don’t know the show “Baywatch”, I don’t see much point in adding 40 minutes to our drive. We head straight back to the hotel, not without suffering through traffic jams (and a missed exit, as usual). We have dinner for $12 each at a sort of fast food place; it’s food worse than processed, but we’re too tired to go to a real restaurant.

Day 30: Universal Studios

Today’s the big day, we’re spending the whole day at Universal Studios!!! In Florida, we were a bit disappointed because we could only go to one of the two Universal Studios parks. But here, there’s only one Universal Studios park and all the best rides are here. On weekdays, we were able to do them all. The Nintendo section is the newest and its ride is the most disappointing, but I loved the decor.

Seeing the gold coins, mushrooms, and turtles gives me an irresistible urge to jump on them, go pick up gold coins, and kick the turtles out of the way. Fortunately for obsessed fans like us, they’ve included real ones, and you can press underneath to trigger the characteristic sound. You have to go early in the day because it gets much more crowded, as it’s a brand new world.

The other rides were great; we find Hogwarts and Hogsmeade village (with the famous very expensive and very sweet butterbeer), exactly like in Orlando. There’s notably a live show where they crash a small plane. We totally didn’t expect it!

But what we really loved was the real studio tour, which is still in use.

So we board a trolley with a guide who explains live movie sets. We can only visit the empty sets. If there’s a film crew on site, they won’t take us there, so zero chance of spotting a known actor. However, we did see, for example, real sets from Jaws, Norman Bates (they brought in an unknown actor to reenact a small scene), a fake flood… Each example aims to show us the technique behind it and share anecdotes.

I particularly enjoyed the King Kong 3D (we had the same in Florida), seeing the cars from Jurassic Park and Transformers. The guide told us about some films and series we don’t know, but there’s a screen inside the trolley that helps us compare the movie set with the film/show shown on screen. The tour lasted about 90 minutes and I absolutely loved it! We even passed by Wisteria Lane from Desperate Housewives!! I absolutely didn’t recognize the houses. The cool thing about Universal Studios is the 2-in-1 aspect: rides on one side and the outdoor studio tour on the other. We didn’t get access to the indoor studio, and I think you have to pay for another type of ticket, but we’ll do that at Warner Bros.

I took a long time to look at the souvenir shops, I particularly liked the ones from Pets , and Minions

Oh, by the way, parking costs $35; if you want to walk less and be closer to the park, it’s insanely expensive. $35 is fine.

Day 31: Warner Bros.

We have an appointment at 11am, but we arrive well in advance because we don’t know, parking might be far away like at Universal. Not at all! We walk very little to access the main building, and parking is only $25.

Wokeness has definitely taken over Hollywood because it’s the first time we’ve seen three categories of restrooms: men’s, women’s, and “gender neutral”. Wonka just came out, and there are some pretty cool goodies. If I lived in Los Angeles, I’d come for every movie release to check them out haha.

We opted for a French tour; there aren’t many, so if you absolutely want French, think about booking early. The advantage is that we were few compared to Spanish and English speakers. And the guide is French, so he can offer a certain comparison with France.

If films and series are shot in big studios like Warner Bros. or Universal, it’s because they have large ready-made sets (for New York, a typical American city) but also an impressive prop library. Miles and miles of shoes, thousands of doorknobs in all colors and shapes. This way, the budget is greatly reduced when you borrow these props instead of buying them all. Plus, everything is adapted: lighting, space needed for the film crew, silence… they even have a mini forest (“the jungle”) for shooting forest, beach, and lake scenes. It’s so practical! Unfortunately, we couldn’t tour the jungle because there’s a shoot in progress!

The studios look huge, but they fill up quickly. The indoor studios (one huge building per studio) are reserved for one film or series at a time. And when a show like The Big Bang Theory shoots 12 seasons, that’s a studio reserved for 12 years! So if you book too late, sorry, there’s no room for you. The guide tells us that many films are now shot in Venezuela, for cheaper. It’s a shame we’re touring the studio on the weekend because that’s when you can sometimes bump into actors, especially those from Young Sheldon who occasionally give visitors photos. By the way, we’ll get access to a real indoor studio (where we couldn’t take photos unfortunately) and we’re surprised to discover chairs for the audience.

The applause you hear in Friends is from a real audience!! We were convinced it was canned laughter added after filming, like a TV show. There’s a website to sign up, and since you don’t appear on screen, you don’t need to dress up; you just need to laugh a lot and clap a lot.

After the tour of the real movie sets, we visit a building dedicated to selfies. So we can take photos sitting on the couch from Friends or The Big Bang Theory. We can also, taking a different car, stage ourselves on a couch like in the Friends trailer. Finally, we end the tour with props from Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, and Batman. The mechanical Sorting Hat sorts us into different Harry Potter houses; I was sorted into Hufflepuff, Rowling’s favorite house. Generally, everyone is in Hufflepuff, Gryffindor, and Ravenclaw. Only one was placed in Slytherin, and the tourists waiting in line couldn’t help but go ahahaha.

We’re super happy with this visit and decide to head to Beverly Hills because the other parts of the city still don’t seem flashy enough for us. Past the first houses, we think “okay, it’s like Silicon Valley and Miami, very pretty, very rich”… then we reach an area where we can’t see the houses anymore, just huge trees hiding the view of surely lavish villas. In front, there are one or two “security” cars. We search in vain for Michael Jackson’s former mansion and can’t find it because everything is hidden. Luckily, a tourist bus passes by (there’s a bus and a tour specialized in celebrity homes!). It’s right there!! Hidden behind 10 meters of trees and the “beware of dog” sign or something like that. Our presence might alert the “security,” so we drive by without stopping too much—the taller the wall, the more we think “it must be lavish behind there.”

It’s in Beverly Hills that we find the ultra-flashy avenue with luxury brands. Phew, that reassures me; I thought the US wasn’t “great” anymore like before. With Christmas decorations, 20-meter trees beautifully decorated, Beverly Hills knows how to sell the American dream.

Part 2: Practical Tips

All our routes and points of interest are available on this Google Maps map. I’ve already explained how to use our custom maps here