Two Days of Rain

August 16, 2010 – Monday

We are down to our last day in Paris. I know it has been a great vacation because I am sad to leave but not regretful because I felt like we got to do all that we really wanted to do. I am also looking forward to getting home and seeing our dogs and house. I will need to jump right into Spanish work and church work however so we’ll need to hit the ground running. Morgan, Kara and Heather are a bit concerned about only having two weeks before heading back to school, but I am sure we’ll be able to get everything done that is necessary. Both Kara and Heather are moving up to a new school (high school – Stadium for Kara and middle school – Meeker for Heather). You can tell my mind is already switching because I am giving you details about life at home and not life in Paris. I’ll remedy that right now!

The last 2 days have been rainy. I realized the true luxury of having had a whole month in Paris while it rained hard all day yesterday. We went to church in the morning and then came home to make some dinner and relax. Because it was raining, we relaxed most of the afternoon and didn’t go out until about 5 PM. I felt sorry for the sopping wet tourists we saw that were trudging through all the activities they needed to get done in the few short days they had. We looked the same as all the other sopping wet tourists (except that we had umbrellas) but probably didn’t feel the same because the weather was not ruining one of the few precious days we had. We got on the metro to see the Opera Garnier – a most beautiful building with or without the rain! We walked down to the Place Vendome for a look at the Ritz Hotel and the very upper crust jewelry stores that surround it. There is a very tall pillar in the middle of the place with Napoleon standing victoriously at the top with war scenes snaking up around the column showing war scenes from the Battle of Austerlitz. The column is made of cannons won at that battle and other Napoleonic victories. It was a short walk from Place Vendome looking at expensive shops and hotels to the Place de la Concorde. Morgan, Kara and Heather each threw a coin into one of the fountains at Place de la Concrode. We then walked by the Petite Palais and the Exposition Hall and the the Alexander Bridge with the Ecole Militaire at the other end. These landmarks are all in the core of Paris and are truly examples of grand boulevards and amazing buildings. It is has been great to just walk from place to place and enjoy the beauty of Paris. There are not many cities with so many areas of beauty in the architecture, the open spaces, and the gardens – all linked easily by a metro system that is extremely easy to navigate.

Morgan has not been feeling 100% well and we were a bit wet at this point, so my family headed home and I decided to make one more trip to Notre Dame. August 15 is the Catholic celebration of the Assumption of Mary and there were many activities at Notre Dame in honor of the day. I got there to see the end of the sacred mass that ended the procession with the statue of the Virgin. There is a silver statue of Mary with baby Jesus that is THE virgin of Notre Dame. The mass was presided over by a Cardinal (don’t know his name) and the Archbishop of Paris. The nave of the church was full of people participating in the mass but there were still tourists circulating the ambulatories around the nave. I found a spot right outside the cordoned area of the nave and was able to see the stature of the virgin adorned with beautiful white flowers, hear the choir and see part of the altar. The Cardinal prepared the host for communion and the faithful went up to receive it (there were a lot of people). The end of the service was a song that everyone sang together and then the choir, nuns, and other priests assisting at the altar filed out right in front of me followed by the Archbisop and Cardinal. The final processional played by the organist was very powerful and sounded like all the key boards and pedals were in use. I wonder how many times the high holy day of the Assumption of Mary has been celebrated in that cathedral. I am so glad I decided to go to Notre Dame (my favorite place in Paris) one more time before our trip home. The power, beauty and history of that place never disappoint.

I rode the bus home – my girls always roll their eyes and plead to go on the metro when I suggest the bus because I have taken them on a few long rides. They say the bus is only fun for “old people.” Guess I know into which population group they have placed me! It was an easy ride home – even in the rain!

We got up this morning, Monday, to pack and clean. It was still raining – hard. We spent about 3 hours gathering all our belongings that get spread throughout all available space during regular life and doing some dusting, vacuuming, scrubbing, etc. I still need to do a final clean on the bathroom after all the hair and makeup is done tomorrow morning, but everything else is done. We then took a long walk down the Avenue Republique with the eventual goal of ending up at the Hard Rock Café. We stopped at several fun clothes stores - I found a cute jacket and Steve found a soccer shirt big enough for him! Our umbrellas kept us dry (except for some wet feet) on the long walk all down the avenue. We saw the most expensive parts of Paris yesterday and some of the bargain areas today. We found the Hard Rock Café and went in (mob scene at the t-shirt shop!) to what seemed like something lifted right out of the US somewhere. All the wait staff spoke English, the menu was in English and the food was over the top fatty, calorie laden and yummy! We enjoyed our lunch and decided we wouldn’t need to eat again until tomorrow (that may not be true but it is how we felt!). We didn’t buy any t-shirts but had fun looking at the memorabilia. Morgan was still not feeling 100% so she and Steve went back to the apartment and Kara, Heather and I went on a search for the final souvenirs.

We went to Montmartre because Kara saw a painting there on the 2^nd day we were in Paris that she didn’t buy at the time but then decided she’d like to have. We went back with my parents, but there were no paintings. I was doubtful we’d find many artists today because of the rain – I was right. We were a bit disappointed but started descending the hill (Montmartre really is on a “mount” and there are a lot of steps to go up to get there!) and found a small art shop on one of the streets. We found a small canvas (just cheap oil paintings – but a nice souvenir) and Kara found one she liked for only 18 euros. I was glad we found it. We then went to the Rue de Rivoli for a t-shirt for Heather. We found the “perfect” one for Heather as well as a few other small purchases and our last ice cream cones at the carnival that is in the Tuileries in the summer. It was still gray but not raining. It was a very fun day.

I am sure I should have something important and introspective to say at this point. Nothing profound comes to mind…maybe you’ll have to check in again for one more post after we make it home. (Don’t get your hopes up for anything too profound however!) I am very grateful we’ve had this opportunity. It has been as good as I hoped and expected. The last steps are to get the apartment deposit back (my fingers are still crossed), get to the airport and have a safe trip home. And so au revoir pour maintenant (good-bye for now).

A Few Moments

Thursday, August 12, 2010

We have fallen sorely behind in keeping our blog up to date with our travels because we have been doing so much! Of course this means that we will only fall further behind because we are down to our last 5 days in Paris and we are feeling the pressure of the upcoming flight home. We will be sad to leave.

My parents arrived on Monday and so we have been touring around with them. I have to tell you first of all that my parents have been a bad influence on us in their few short days here. Last night we got home at 1:30 AM and the night before that we were out until 12:30 AM. Hopefully I can convince them to let us go to bed a bit earlier tonight!

There were a few special moments that represented our day. First was a moment of lost and then found.

We lost my parents at the Louvre. We had intended to rendez-vouz (meet) at the bottom escalator of the Denon wing. Well with a building as big as the Louvre with as many people as you can possibly imagine and jet lag on my parents’ part (they slept in!), we did not rendez-vouz. Note to self – don’t try to meet at the Louvre on a Wednesday in the summer! Luckily my parents did get to see the Louvre. We got to enjoy the delicious lunch I brought along (baguettes, butter, salami, 2 kinds of cheeses, apples, baguette a la provencal, and of course chocolate) in the gardens of the Palais Royale and then we headed off to see the Francois Mitterand National Library.

We had a quiet moment.

The library is on the outskirts of Pairs in a business district. It is a large 4 part structure around a big sunken forest court yard. We did not go into the library but it is a place I wanted to see. Heather’s comment as we were walking along was, “It’s so quiet. I like being here just because it is quiet.” It was quiet as far as street noise goes and the weather was very pleasant so it was an enjoyable walk and view. After the library, we split up so that I could try to find my parents and Steve and the girls went back to the apartment to rest a bit.

Then came the “found” moment.

After the metro ride and a short walk down the Champs Eleyses the thought occurred that my parents might be in the café right in front of their hotel, and as I approached, voila, there they were. They had just sat down but not yet ordered. We went up to their room and they got to eat the sack lunch that we had left which they very much enjoyed. We rested a bit (on a nice soft bed with carpet on the floor – ahhhh) and then met my family at the Bastille monument. We did a walk through the Marais neighborhood and saw the Place des Vosges, and the narrow streets of what Paris used to look like in the late 1400’s. We walked through the Jewish Quarter and ate a dinner of shwarma, lamb, veggies, hummus, pita and tsazki. We then headed to the Eiffel Tower for our 10:30 PM reservation to go to the top.

We then had an “are you kidding me?” moment.

The metro ride was made more interesting not just because we got seats for almost the whole ride but because someone almost pick pocketed me! It was a woman and a young man about 15 or 16 years old who were working together. We saw the woman as we were walking through the metro to our next train and she was acting a bit “crazy” by yelling and changing directions, etc. We heard her yell, but I did not see them following us at all. Heather had my small orange shoulder bag (it’s in all the pictures with me!) and I took it from her and sort of joked that I didn’t want anyone to take her because she had the money. As we got on to our train, I felt someone pushing up behind me – I thought it was Heather. But when I turned around, it was the young looking at me asking if this was the Chatelet metro stop, then the woman yelled again and they both got off the metro car before the doors closed to leave. I looked down at my orange bag and it was unzipped! He wasn’t able to take anything out however because it was too close to my body and my wallet is too well fitted to the purse. Whew – but are you kidding me?!?

Then we had our classic, romantic Paris moment.

We walked to the Eiffel Tower from the Trocadero metro stop which gives you a glorious view of the Tower from the Chaillot Palace. It was all lit up and truly evokes romantic images of Paris. It is truly beautiful to look at – so glad they didn’t take it down after the exposition it was built for! The lines to go up the Eiffel Tower are long, but with our reservation we took only about 10 minutes to get into the first lift that takes you to the 2^nd level observation deck. We then got in line for the lift to the top.

Paris in the summer moment.

While in line we met a whole group of travelers from Uruguay, someone from New Zealand who commented on the “All Blacks” shirt Steve was wearing, a couple from England, a group of kids from Mexico who sang Las Mananitas (Happy B-Day) at the top to a girl in their group, and I overheard a Russian and German girl who are living and waiting tables here for the summer talking to a Mexican boy about which tourists they like to serve best and least (all this done in OK English). That gives you a picture of what Paris is like in the summer!

A moment at the top.

We got to the top and had to put up with a bit of wind making it chilly but the views were marvelous and everything was lit up to show “The City of Lights.” It was fun to pick out all the landmarks we have visited, see the Seine and its bridges, the dark spot of the Bois de Boulogne, and all the streets radiating from the Etoile of the Arc de Triomphe. It was beautiful moment before the descent and the mad dash to the metro before it closed.

We had our “whew what luck and eeew that’s interesting” moment.

We made it onto the LAST metro train at 1 AM and arrived at our stop as they were closing it up for the night (or morning?). We were the last people out of the Republique Metro station and even got to see the first rat scurrying across the ticket buying area as he and his fellows began their nighttime reign of the metro station. Morgan thinks the rats live in the “moat of disgustingness” which is a small 3 inch wide gutter that runs between the walls and floors throughout the metro. Heather even found a probable entry into the rat kindgdom.

Last night was the first time that even I was dreading the trudge up the five flights of stairs before being able to fall into bed. We made it however and truly enjoyed all the moments of the day!

Day Trip to Chartres

Blue rose window, Old testament

Red rose window, New Testament

Overview for Mary's gown

Peter, holding the Keys of authority

View of the village from the back of the church

Mary's veil or birthing gown

The white part is the restored section

The girls navigating the mini labyrinth

Chartres, one of the rose windows

Chartres, front center section being retored

Saturday Aug 7^th – Steve

We took it easy this morning and started out a little later for a day trip to Chartres Cathedral. Quick jump on the metro with a transfer to the train, for a 1-hour ride out of town. It was nice to look the countryside over on the way out, with small villages and farms dotting the horizon. I was a little surprised to see how small some of the fields are, just an acre or two, with the wheat having just been harvested. Doesn’t seem like much economy of scale. Guess I’m just used to big fields in eastern Washington!

Chartres Cathedral is a smaller version of Norte Dame, but is Europe’s best example of French-style or Gothic cathedrals because it was built in one generation and there was less chance to make changes with the changing building styles. This current church, a big city cathedral, was quickly built to replace the old one that burned down in 1194, by a very small community of around 10,000 people. Chartres is the home of Mary’s 2,000-year-old veil or birthing gown, acquired in 876 and it became the focus of worship at the church with pilgrims making trips to view it. So it was quite important to replace the church as quickly as possible. Chartres Cathedral was started around the same time as Notre Dame, but finished in about 60 years compared to 200 years for Notre Dame. Chartres then became a leading center of learning in the middle ages until the focus shifted to Paris.

Much of the church is going through a restoration process and it is amazing to compare the before to after sections of the church. We even got to see a wedding take place as we, among hundreds of other tourists, walked through the cathedral. It seemed a little strange at first, but it is a working church. Maybe a bit too much noise for my taste, but what a setting!

The entryway of the cathedral floor has a large round maze inlaid in black marble that is about 900 ft long. The pilgrims would follow the maze on knee or foot with the idea being to symbolize the journey of life and to meet Christ in the center of the maze.

There are 28,000 square feet of stained glass, and it was interesting to find out that the financial donors (local merchants) of 42 of these window have at least a small stained glass advertisement in the lower corner of the window. I guess things haven’t changed much when it comes to advertising except we have big names on Safeco Field, etc. The stained glass is quite beautiful and we spent quite a bit of time looking at the various Bible stories spread out before us in picture form, which is just what the people in the middle ages would do, as they could not read and this was one of the ways to bring to life the stories they heard.

We took a short stroll through part of the city center and stopped to eat dinner at a pub. Our timing for the return train trip turned out to be perfect as it began to rain as we waited for the train and turned into quite a storm on the return trip.

Carnavalet Museum

August 7, 2010 – Saturday

Here is an attempt to record some of our activities in the last couple of days. We still have not posted about our trip to London, but maybe I can convince someone else in the family to do that!

On Thursday, the 5^th of August, we slept in a bit because we arrived “home” late the night before after our return from London. I got up first and went to the boulangerie for croissants and baguettes for breakfast. Steve decided to stay home to rest his back and the girls and I went to the Carnavalet Museum. This is now my second favorite museum in Paris (the first being the Organerie with the Monet paintings). The museum is free and much less crowded than most museums we have visited. I think that is because there is very little in English, but I was able to translate enough and ask enough questions that the visit was very informative. The museum is dedicated to French history both before and after the Revolution of 1789. There are two houses or hotels that have been joined to form the museum and the first is all about France pre-Revolution. There were lots of beautiful signs that hung outside of Paris businesses throughout the last 500 years. As many customers were illiterate up until 200 years ago, many of the signs are very graphic so that you know exactly what the shop is – great big scissors for the barber shop, a pig for the butcher, grape arbors for the vintner, etc. Some of the most interesting things to me were the personal artifacts from Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette and their family. There were toys that the young prince (dauphin) played with, a chess set of Louis’s, swatches of hair from all members of the royal family, the knife and spoon of Louis while in Temple prison before his execution, and many more artifacts from their personal life after leaving Versailles and before their deaths. There were several rooms in the museum that were full rooms transported from famous hotels in Paris. There was a yellow music room where the beautiful walls, drapery and carpets repeated the theme of yellow and music. For example, the chairs displayed musical instruments in their woodwork or upholstery, the carving and molding on the walls also had instruments, as well as real instruments. There followed a blue room, a lilac room, a flower room, a green room and a gray room where the whole room was done in the given color and the furnishings reflected the purpose of the room. It was all beautifully done and took you back to the time when the rooms had been in use. Most rooms in the museum were small enough that you felt you could take everything in and understand it at some level.

The second house of the museum was dedicated to the Revolutions (1789, 1830 and other smaller ones in between). The 1789 Revoltuion was the most interesting to me – there were banners with “Egalite, Fratenite et Liberte” that were flown to show your allegiance to the Revolution; artifacts and portraits of the succession of revolutionary leaders that had their moment in the sun and there were eventually killed by the next set of leaders because the previous set was not “revolutionary enough.” It was dangerous business to be a leader during that time. There was a painting of Dr. Guillotine who invented the more humane killing machine and a small model of his invention. It was very interesting. There were a couple of French young men going through the museum just ahead of us who seemed to know a lot about the history and when I found a word I couldn’t understand in the display labels I asked them. Between their English and my French it was very helpful. I truly loved this museum. I think Morgan, Kara and Heather also enjoyed it, but they are also polite to their mother and show interest at appropriate times when I am just about jumping up and down telling them to “come see this!” They are patient children and GREAT travelers.

After the museum we walked through the Jewish quarter of Paris, ate some yummy bread from Kosher bakery and saw many families with fathers in traditional dress (I think it might be Hassidic – long curly hair on each side, formal black hat and overcoat) with their families. We also saw one young man putting on a phylactery that had a very LONG leather band wrapping all the way around his arm. There was also a lot of food from the middle east – shwarmas, gyros, falafel, hummus, etc. We want to go back there to eat one day. It was all very interesting and done under a sunny (but not hot) Paris sky.

We ate dinner at home that night and then went to the “free” movie at Notre Dame that gives a history of the cathedral. Notre Dame is my favorite place in all of Paris and I have dragged my family back there on many occasions. As we were waiting at the back of the nave of the church for the beginning of the movie I asked the man standing there about the display of the Crown of Thorns the next day and the procession with the Virgin Mary that happens on Ascension Day – August 15. He was very happy to tell me all about it. As much as we’d like to see the Crown of Thorns, we decided it would not be appropriate for us to come to the Veneration because you proceed down the aisle where you approach the crown and then do something to venerate it. In the movie they showed people kissing the reliquary of the crown. I am not sure they let you kiss it anymore, but it would probably be appropriate to kneel or make the sign of the cross before it and as we are not Catholic, we decided we didn’t want to make an important religious act a tourist act on our part. We were also told how we could take part in the procession of the Virgin on the 15^th and reserve our spot on the boat that goes around the Ile de la Cite, but decided we should just come watch that. After the discussion we gave the less than voluntary donation of 3 euros per adult to watch the “free” movie. It was worth the 6 euros though as the film had beautiful footage of the cathedral complete with English subtitles.

You probably won’t believe me next time I say that something is my “favorite” will you? I am wracking up favorites at a great rate!

A Perfect Metro Moment

August 6, 2010, Friday

We got to spend the day in the Louvre. Anyone who has visited the Louvre knows that you could spend a week in the Louvre either because you got lost or because you wanted to see at least 1/10 of the largest museum in the world. We went in the morning, packed our lunch which we ate in the gardens of the Palais Royale, did some shopping along Rue de Rivoli, went home to rest a bit and eat dinner then returned to the museum for another 3 hours because the Louvre is open until 10 PM on Wednesday and Friday. Our tickets were good for all day and another beauty of Paris is that kids under 18 are free for almost all museums – gotta love that!

This is just a short post about one of our trips to and from the Louvre on the Metro. We switched trains at Bastille and as we were making our way from one train to another we heard some beautiful music. That is not unusual as there are often musicians playing for the Euros they collect. We have heard several lone violin players that also have a sound system set up which plays the score of a full orchestra behind them. We thought we would find the same again, but as we rounded the corner there really was an almost full orchestra set up. There were at least 6 violinists (some may have been violists), 2 cellists, one bass player and someone else selling their CD’s. The music was BEAUTIFUL and most of the players were quite young (some probably only 15 or 16). In addition to the beautiful music, there was a small sandwich shop/bakery in the Metro and the smell of fresh bread added to ambiance. It was a perfect (and very French) Metro Moment. To complete the experience we found the platform for our next train close at hand (not always the case) and a seat on the train (also not always the case) which felt good to our Louvre weary feet.

Squeak, Squeak, Squeak

Thursday, August 5, 2010

We just returned from a two day trip to London which will be its own blog entry at some point, but I wanted to share a peculiarity of life in our Pairs apartment. We stayed in a nice Marriott hotel in London (yeah for Priceline!) and enjoyed the very comfortable beds but also greatly appreciated a floor that is: 1) carpeted and 2) does not squeak. It is amazing how the small things in life become more appreciated when you don’t have them. We truly are enjoying our apartment (Steve may be of a different opinion when he has to climb the 5 flights of stairs at the end of a long day), but the floor squeaks with almost every step you take. This may be much more a problem for our neighbors below (whom we have not seen or heard at all), but it is an interesting experience for us. Steve observed that there have probably been a lot of remodeling, changing walls, repartitioning rooms, etc. in this building since it was first constructed, but maybe the floors have not changed at all! As a matter of fact, if you look at the paining by Monet called “A Corner of the Apartment” you will see the exact same kind of floor we have. (Here is a link so you can take a look http://www.paintinghere.com/painting/A_Corner_of_the_Apartment_2331.html)/ As we were touring the Orsay Museum and saw this beautiful painting, the ever-observant Kara looked at it and made the comment that the floors were the same as ours! The wooden planks are laid diagonally in most of the apartment and give a squeak every time you take a step. Heather got up the other morning and asked if I had heard her activities because she had been trying to step lightly enough to not make the floor squeak. Even the lightweight of our family didn’t manage any stealth because I was able to tell her exactly where she had been!

Being able to appreciate flooring is not a new experience for me however. I still vividly remember the first morning home after serving a mission in Paraguay for 18 months when I swung my feet out of bed and felt the soft, warm, cushiness of a carpeted floor. It was a moment of pure pleasure. Do your floors squeak?

A bientot,

Terri

Beauty (Versailles Gardens at Night) and the Beast (Catacombs of Paris)

one of the main fountains

path of dancing fire

fountains with laser and smoke

pathway from one fountain to the next

kids running through the smoke

water fountain with lights

Versailles, one small garden of many

stacks of thigh bones

stacks of "old" bones

tunnel to catacombs

Saturday July 31^st : report by Steve

After days of looking at “old things”, buildings, statues, paintings, stained glass windows, etc, it was my turn to pick something “old” to go look at. It’s now a family joke to say, “ Do you know how old that is?” because Terri is always comparing to what we have or don’t have in the USA, to give the girls perspective of what they are looking at. Anything over a hundred years of age is old in our area and a couple hundred years for most of the US and we have looked at some building structures from 60 AD and most of the stuff is at least 300 - 400 years old. I decided to put a male spin on things. We went to the catacombs!

The catacombs started out as quarries for limestone and gypsum. In 1786 the unsanitary city cemetery had become a problem so they began the monumental project of removing and transporting millions of skulls, bones and rotting corpses to the quarries. It took 15 months to complete the project, which was done at night, so as to not upset the “living” folk.

Just before the Revolution, Charles X threw parties in the catacombs (could have been a great Halloween bash!), and during World War II the French Resistance set up headquarters there.

We spent just over an hour waiting in line, just like Rick Steve’s guide told us and we began our descent down the narrow stairway into the underground. After maneuvering as many stairs as we did ascending Notre Dame, we were several floors below the busy crowds above and headed down long tunnels to the bones. If you are over 6 foot tall be sure to duck you head at the appropriate times and all should be aware of the goo dripping from the ceiling and the slick stone floors. The bones are stacked in very neat, organized and even artistic patterns. Outlines of churches, crosses and designs can be seen with the various arrangements of skulls and thighbones!

We spent over an hour following the trails between the stacks of bones and Terri translated some of the various quotes about death etched in marble. Almost like headstones, but not a tribute to any one person, because no one knows whose skull is who’s.

Upon finishing the tour, we returned to the girls favorite activity, shopping. After a while of that, we had a little competition to see who could get back to the apartment first, Terri on the bus, or the girls and I on the metro. We won by 20 minutes, but found out that it wasn’t really a competition after all, because Terri stopped to do some more shopping on the way home.

We took a break, and rested up for our evening Versailles garden and fountain tour.

Jumped on the metro, then the train to Versailles. Had dinner at an outdoor table, typical French postcard setting, then headed on over to the palace. The weather was just right for a 3-hour stroll around the gardens. It was amazing to see how big, beautiful and detailed the gardens are. The grounds of Versailles cover over 4,000 acres and the gardens are likely 200 acres or so. A new fountain is discovered with almost every turn and many have been updated with sound, light, laser, smoke, and fire to add to the effect. The evening finished with a 30 minute or so fireworks show set to classical music, then it was off to the races to beat the other tourists to the train so that we had a seat for the return trip. Got to bed at 2:00 am, but had a great day in spite of the blisters.