6-13-09 Paris, Day Three

Oh my. Now it's been almost a year since I went to Paris and I haven't written down everything the way I said I was going to. I really wanted to commit to that, and now, I have to rely on the pictures to remind me of what happened each day. I will do what I can to remember it as it happened....

Sunday was the day that we visited the Centre Pompidou which was a really cool place. They call it the inside out building because all the pipes and stuff that's usually in the walls is on the outside so they can get more uber cool art on the inside. That seemed pretty groovy to me. There's like this large open space in front of the Centre, and it's pretty cool because there are all sorts of street vendors, performers and stuff that setup around there. I am sure to many it all seems very tourist trappy, but I enjoyed it a ton and thought it was charming. We saw magic tricks, dancing, musicians, it was awesome.

Here's the photo set from Day Three:

There was this giant flower pot outside the museum, which was pretty interesting. Inside, it was also very interesting, but it's sort of an odd thing. When you are surrounded by SO MUCH, after awhile, one just seems to get desensitized to things. We did see an angry feminist exhibit that I thought was pretty awesome. I thought of my old women studie's prof's and how much they would have enjoyed it. OH, OH, OH...there was one other thing I wanted to say about Pompidou. There is some rad sculpture there. Last year, I took a "Welding as Art" class at our local community college, and the teacher was awesome. His name is John Septien and he's an amazing artist as well as an amazing teacher. In discussing this class with some of the others that took it with me, we mused at what NOT an easy job John has essentially shoving an Art class and a welding class together, but needing to make sure the students understand concepts of both. Large concepts like negative space, orientation, and having your sculpture look good from all angles are a challenge to someone who's spatially challenged like me. Being in Paris and seeing all the amazing sculpture made me understand these concepts in a way that John could not have shown me with two-dimensional pictures. I am not sure yet that I will ever be a decent welder or metal art sculptor, but I understand better what he meant =)

After the Pompidou, we walked up the empty space and found an adorable little Italian place that was sort of indoor/outdoor seating. Some of the seats faced outside, and it was all open air. We got a table on the inside. We had the first of what would be a series of AWESOME pizzas. I would NEVER have guessed this, but we had a pizza with smoked salmon and lots and lots of cheese on it. It was amazing. I had pasta and a salad, and I don't remember what everyone else had, but I do remember that all the food was amazing.

After that we headed back to our neck of the woods and chilled out for awhile. We had some free time, and no dinner plans with the group, so we looked and decided we were going to have Sushi in Paris. This seemed a very metropolitan thing for us to do, we took advantage!

We walked to the Sushi place, through the streets of Paris. It was very cool. Seeing things that are so old. We found these little kiosks they have along the way that allow you to exchange money like right there, on the street. It's so funny how Americans assume everything revolves around them and Europeans assume the opposite, that others may need to access different stuff. heh. Along the way to the restaurant we saw the Canadian embassy. I pointed it out to Margo, but we were past it by the time she noticed. Heh. The days, in many ways were a complete blur.

When we got to the sushi place, it was totally cool because the whole thing was done like in purple neon. How cool is that?!? Then I brought one of their menu's home because it, too, was cool. I think it's like a city law or something that everything in Paris must be a work of art. Or maybe it's competition, who knows?

6-12-09 Paris, Day Two...

Day two was sort of like a hangover day, but, like, when in Paris, keep going baby, you can sleep when your dead because you better see all you can see while you are there! As you doubtless will realize, this is a recurring theme of the trip. Sleep? Sleep is for the weak!

We had to get up early, seemingly early, so that we could take a couple of trains to Versailles. The hotel had a really quaint little breakfast room where we were able to eat each day, I will have to see if any of us got a picture in there, it seems odd because it was such a large part of where we gathered each morning, and ate each day, but maybe it's like the kitchen in one's house...you take it for granted that it will always be there...

Breakfast in France, or Paris, is an interesting thing. Mostly portable, I wonder how much of the food they had they had because many Americans stay with them? There was cereal, and yummy brown hard-boiled eggs, that always seemed to be in short supply. Then strong coffee, tea, water, an assortment of juices and OF COURSE, bread, and cheese. Bread and cheese, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways....of course there were croissants there, which were delectable, I think I had two while we were there. I probably COULD have eaten my body weight in them....

We meet in the lobby in time to walk across the street and down the block to get to the Metro station. I heart the Metro. If you miss a train, hang around, there is a good chance another will be by within five minutes. Our fearless leader experienced a moment of panic herding us cats near the Metro station, but we were reasonably quickly sorted and on our way to the RR train, which takes us to Versailles.

The Metro station in Versailles is it's own historical building, very beautiful. We walk across the street and we have a bit of time before we have to walk over to the palace for our appointment to go see it. We decided to head down into the little town and see what we could find. It was really our first opportunity for some SHOPPING! Everything seemed like a specialty shop! Quaint little shops everywhere, each having a specialty. Cheese shops and bread shops and sandwich shops and candy shops and sweet shops separate from candy shops. Dizzying! We went into a small boutique and I found a lovely skirt for my daughter at a decent price, so I bought it.

In an aside here, you have no concept of how important a good travel bag is until you take a trip like this. Nina had gotten a Rick Steve's backpack as a prize for something she did. I coveted this backpack the entire time we were there! I liked it so much, as SOON as I got home, I ordered one. I had a HUGE National Guard backpack that while I was grateful to have had it, it really was much too heavy to carry around all the time. I ended up buying a much smaller purse that I still use for such things, but now, I have THE BACKPACK!

We headed back in time to make the rendezvous, and headed to the Palace. When the palace first came in sight, I seriously thought it was a compound, it was so huge, and it seemed like we were half a mile away JUST walking through the parking lots! Scale takes on a whole new meaning! The closer we got, the shinier the palace got. There was a huge line, which seemed very daunting at first. On the opposite side of the palace, there was another set of double-doors, with no line. "Group Entrance". Score. Gold gilded scroll work around the top of the ENTIRE palace. Really?!? In one of the videos I made from the trip, my first comment was "Today's lesson in excess is the Palace of Versaillies..." Seriously. To think that this was the home of one family is really mind-boggling. That's the first thing I noticed.

   

Above are the pictures from the day. If I had it to do over again, I would have spent less time in the palace, and more time in the gardens, but the whole thing is an experience, and I am glad I got to experience it. I cannot imagine what it must have been like to live or be entertained during the time this palace was someone's house. Seeing a couple of thousand people in the Hall of Mirrors barely made a dent. The king and queen bed chambers looked very small compared to the grandeur and scale of everything else. It seems like it would be a very COLD existence. The gardens were phenomenal, even the small amount we got to see.

6-11-09 Paris, Day One...

So, I think I might have mentioned before that Paris rocked my world. It was so far beyond awesome, I can't even express. It was my first time out of the Continental US, and I was nervous. Boy, was I nervous. For one thing, I was pretty scared because here it was, going to be my first time out of the country, and I was going to do something to possibly get myself in trouble =) You see, when we first started talking about going to Paris, one of the first things that came to mind was, "Wouldn't it be cool if we managed to spin fire while we are in France?!?" And WHAT is the most recognizable landmark in Paris? Yes, the Eiffel Tower. The challenge came in with trying to fly with our fire tools. With the level of paranoia in my country, I didn't want to end up accused of anything bad...

The entire time at SFO we were waiting to board the plane, I kept waiting for them to call me over the loud speaker and tell me I couldn't go and could I please follow the nice man in the dark suit? BUT, that didn't happen, and before we knew it, we were being whisked towards Paris on the hellish odyssey that is unique to cheap international flights.

I am tall, but not overly so. I am five feet, seven inches tall. I pity my husband, who flies more often than I do and is six feet two inches tall. To say there is no leg room on an international flight is a gross understatement. If I had to describe that flight in two words, they would be loooooong and cramped =) I do realize how fortunate I am to have been able to take such a trip, however, and am not complaining, just pointing out the curiosities that occurred to a first time international traveler...

We arrived in Paris at around noon the day after we had left San Francisco. Let me just posit here that for 20 people that have not slept in about a day and a half, the driving tour of Paris might not have been the best choice for the first activity off the plane =) I got to wear some of my red wine that was imbibed on the plane, as my seat mate was skooching by me to go the bathroom and didn't see my wine there in the drink holder. Nothing a little spot remover won't cure =) The bottom line, however, was that by the time we GOT to Paris, we were TIRED! This is where the "I can sleep when I'm dead" credo starts to kick in, knowing we have less than ten days in France...

However, many of us were falling asleep during our driving tour of France, which I believe was merely the long way to the hotel down many side streets. However, given that our hotel was in the center of Paris, not far from the Eiffel Tower, this seems a very logical hypothesis. Seeing things you have only seen in pictures and movies until now is really, really awesome! Being in a city with the amount of History that exists in Paris is divine. Seeing buildings probably older than most anything you've seen in your lifetime is surreal. These are thoughts that went through my head as we were driving through Paris. My near-constant mantra was "I CAN'T BELIEVE I'M HERE!!"

We stopped near the Air France building to stretch our legs a bit, and the sense of history struck me again. Just, WOW!

Finally, we got to the hotel. I left the bus feeling guilty because our very nice French tour guide kept saying "You all are so quiet. Do you not have any questions about France of Paris?" No, dear, really, we were just a tad catatonic from a very long flight and still experiencing ass-numbness. She was great, though...what I remember of her =) 

We got to the hotel and I was pleasantly surprised. It was very quaint! We were very close to the Metro, and centrally located to many other things, including the Eiffel Tower, which ended up being perhaps a ten minute walk from the hotel. Hotel rooms, and dwellings in general in Paris seem to run along two different styles. Oppressively small if it's affordable, of ridiculously huge palace that had no choice in modern times but to become a museum or public building. That's one of the first things that struck me. When I saw my bed, I wasn't sure it was possible to push two single beds that close. It's a good thing my roomy and I have a relatively close sense of personal space, or we would have been sleeping on top of each other. The bathroom in the room was so tiny there's no way more than one person could fit in it at a time and I wonder what the rooms looked like before the invention of flat/LCD type televisions, because if our TV had not been hung on the wall, it would have taken half the room if it were an old style tellie. 

Once we got checked in, there was a little time to relax. We were to meet in the lobby before walking to the restaurant for dinner, then heading to the Eiffel Tower. 

Pictures are worth so much more than a thousand words, here are some of mine of day one: 

 

Dinner, was amazing. We walked to this little restaurant about a block and a half away from the hotel. On the way, we found these amazing little kiosks, where you can do currency exchange, like, right there, on the street. They are like these little walk up or smallish booth things where you go in, tell folks how much you want in Euro's, give them your money, and you are situated. 

I think someone told French people that all Americans eat is steak. I think in our first few meals, all we had was steak. Now, that first night, it was good, but steak it was. For desert we got Creme Brulee'. YUM! The place is quaint, there are long tables where everyone sits family style. Vegetarians apparently present a problem for folks in France =) We had a few with us, and if you don't eat steak, you should be disdained, but they did accommodate. 

We walk back to the hotel and have just enough time to gather our senses before we have to meet back down in the lobby to walk to the Eiffel Tower. What can one say about such an iconic thing? Being there was amazing. The detail in the scroll work was unreal. We were talking about it like the worlds largest erector set =) That thought is amusing, until you actually get ON the tower, hehe. 

Perhaps the most disconcerting thing about being at the Eiffel Tower are the people that come up to you and try to sell you things. These folks walk around with these large metal circles with all manner of Eiffel Tower representations on them and they want you to buy them. Badly. They try to get your attention by shoving their wares in your face..."LADY! Pretty lady, Eiffel Tower? One Euro, one euro, only one euro for theese." It was disconcerting... 

It could be ignorance, but I am sort of glad I didn't do a bunch of research on Paris before I went. Somehow, I think that might have made my reactions different. The child-like wonder with which I was able to experience everything is not something I would have traded for the world. I had no idea there was a nightly light show that happens at dusk on the Tower, lighting it up in a cascade of firefly-looking glitter that sparkles up and down the tower, showcasing it's magnificence. It was very cool, I will add a video of this when I can. 

I have to say that this was truly one of the longest days I've ever had. Truly. OMG. It seems like it went on and on and on. This entry might seem like that, too =) 

By the time we collapsed that night, I thought I would sleep forever...knowing I would have less than six hours. My basic philosophy? I can sleep when I'm dead, as I may never be in Paris again....

Paris is AMAZING!!

Today, I got to Paris.

So many beautiful things to see...

I will post more and pictures once I've had some sleep. They are uploaded to Facebook so far, if you want to see them.

 Here's a sample:

deep in the heart....

I am seeing if I can post to this from my Blackberry (this was unsuccessful, hence why it's taken me so long to post it =) But, I did save it on my BB and here's what I wrote when I was there). I am in Texas right now and have been having a fabulous time.

There's this friend that we've known for over a decade. A million years ago in what seems like a different lifetime, my husband and I volunteered for a customer service position for a game called Everquest. The guy was a kid when we met him, now he's 25 and he got married this weekend. He asked my husband to be his best man and he's camped with us at Burning Man the last few years. It's really amazing and sort of funny sometimes how things happen and how people come in to each others lives. I am glad and proud to have Ross and Lauren as our friends. I hope we get to visit them again, soon, some day!

Here's Ross:

Here's Lauren before the wedding:

They are good friends, beautiful people and I feel priveleged that they included us and they were very good to us when we were there. Good times, guys. Truly family of choice.

There was an Elvis sighting....

Anyway, this is the first time as an adult that I have ever visited the Dallas/Fort Worth area and it's not really what I expected. We headed the other day down to the West End where the wedding was going to be and we come off the freeway to be driving along the stretch of road where Kennedy was shot...we could see the grassy knoll right there. It was very surreal feeling because we hadn't sought it out, we just sort of stumbled across it.

Being the morbid soul I am, I had to go back the next day and take pictures:

View from the X where the car was

Closeup of the window where the shot was fired from

An X in the road where he was shot...

And finally, from the Dallas Aquarium, our friend the turtle, who posed for us and everything:

What you lookin' at?!?

And that's part of what happening in Forth Worth/Dallas. Next stop, PARIS!!
Peace!