Paris When it Sizzles

Today we slept in.  Until 8:30!  The box of cereal contained too little cereal for everyone to get some, so I brought out the baguette and croissants with butter and apricot jam.  Rounded out with some Camembert and cut up peaches and nectarines and we were all sufficiently filled up to start the day.  Our goal for the day was to go to Notre Dame and the L'Arc de Triomphe.  Before we left the apartment, we closed both the windows and drapes as the sun had already hit our wall and it was beginning to heat up.

We took the Metro into the heart of the City and walked into the usual throng around the Notre Dame.  After some recon, we determined that there was a 2 hour wait to go up the tower (standing in the sun) and the Archaeological Crypt is closed on Mondays.  I waited outside with the backpacks and sent Bob and the kids in to the church since the line was moving quite nicely.

Afterwards, we walked towards the Jewish Holocaust Memorial (also closed on Mondays) walking through the park at the back end of the church.   It was lunch time and the park was FULL of children involved in some summer program as they all were wearing red baseball hats.  There were a lot of kids and a lot of activity and I have no idea how anyone was making sure they didn't wander off.

These two boys were playing a clapping game similar to patty cake that involved spinning around in place and convoluted hand movements.  They were quite intent on their game.

We then crossed the Petit Pont.  This bridge connecting the little island in the middle of the Seine with the Left Bank was covered with padlocks.   Here is a link describing why.
http://french-news-online.com/wordpress/?p=6063#axzz1QVcAeUn7  Cute concept but we were baffled by the plastic bags (yes, just like the little ones that you use to pick up your doggy's poop when you take him on his walkies) that were also tied in amongst all the locks.  If anyone finds anything on line about these, please feel free to post in a comment.  Then we'll ALL know.

At this point the temperature was increasing and we were trying to walk in the shade.  We walked down the Rue de Colbert just opposite the South Rose window of the cathedral to see the hotel I stayed in on my first trip to Paris in 1972. The Hotel Colbert is now a four star hotel.  Needless to say, it wasn't back then.  Justin asked me if I remember which room I stayed in.  I didn't, but just now I remembered with whom I shared the room.  Her name was Sue LaVoie and she was a year behind me in high school and she bought French bird seed to take back to her bird as a souvenir.  Perhaps I should of simply remembered which room.

 A little further away from the Seine, we stopped for lunch at a nice little creperie called Creposuk.  Yes, Don, that is how it was spelled and we can't comment on the pronunciation.  How unfortunate for them that it doesn't translate to English speakers very well.   Furthermore, there was a Chinese restaurant across the street called Palais de Grisirie.  The temperature was not retreating, but neither were we.  Up the hill to the Pantheon where it was relatively cool inside.  This was originally a church dedicated to Saint Genevieve but was decommissioned in the late 1800's and now serves as a memorial to all the "great French people" such as Marie Curie, Victor Hugo, Voltaire,  etc., who are now interred in the nicely chilled crypt below the building.  Many of the occupants of the crypt were exhumed from other locations and re-interred in the Pantheon with great ceremony.  We decided it was a great place to be on a hot day.

Justin and Bob through the scale model of the Parthenon.

Interior shots is all you get to see of the Pantheon!

After we had successfully dried the first (or was it the second) layer of sweat, we headed out into the bright sunshine and over to the Gardens of Luxembourg where we walked on the gravel paths and collected a fine layer of grit on our second or third layer of sweat.

Back to Notre Dame, with a side trip to Saint Sulpice church.

We only had to stand in line for about 45 minutes until we were allowed to descend the tower.  Along the way the bells were chiming the half hour and it was evident that we were in the bell tower.  Again, having been here in '72, I noticed that the tour wasn't the same as the one I took then.  Now we were confined to the tower and before we had walked along the roof.  Gargoyle viewing was much better in the old days.

We came back down out of the tower and the line to get into the cathedral was really short now so we all went in again so I could see it since you WERE allowed to take backpacks and purses in. Luggage is a no-no.  Taking pictures of the stained glass windows is not easy without a tripod and using other people's shoulders does NOT work well at all.  Even then I managed to get an ok shot which I cropped with the software on my handy little Airbook.

Back to the apartment, stopping at the market along the way.  I saw the roasted chickens and decided that I was not going to heat up the apartment any further by cooking chicken to put on a nice green salad.  Added some feta, olives, tomato, cucumber and some purchased vinaigrette.  Followed by an apple tart chaser and we were satisfied.  The only downside was that the white wine didn't chill fast enough or it would have been opened to accompany dinner.

Fortified by this hearty repast, we headed out to see the light show at the Eiffel Tower which provided the final layer of sweat for the day.  I failed to get a photo of the light show, but I got a lot of really short little videos of it.  Operator error.   Got some great shots of the tower all lit up though.  The other day, we were all talking about the color that they paint the tower.  It's a non-descript blah-brown.  Hayley suggested last night that maybe they pick that color because it illuminates so well.  I think she's right!

Here's Hayley rocking that little Canon camera of hers.  It doesn't have enough buttons and knobs for what she'd like to do with it, but she takes some great shots with it and she's got the intricacies of how it works down cold.  I ask her camera questions all the time.

We walked back through the quiet streets and after a shower, will be fast asleep in no time at all.  We are pooped.  It has been another busy day.  As Justin said at dinner, "If you aren't tired by the end of the day, you're just not doing something right."  That's a fact.

So, Paris When it Sizzles.  It was forecast to hit 95 degrees today and it is possible that it was even hotter.  It's also a bit on the humid side.  Tomorrow will be 10 degrees cooler and rain is possible.  Hopefully, we won't feel like we're swimming down the sidewalk.

Steps logged today:  21,760.  My calves can't decide if they want to keep going or reject the rest of the body that keeps abusing them.

Slacking in Paris

In spite of best intentions to be on the way by 8:15, we made it out of the apartment by 8:45.  From the notebook of info left here in the apartment for guests, we knew that there was a local Sunday market.  Yesterday on our way back to the apartment for lunch, we noticed that under the elevated Metro tracks in front of the building, there were metal stall frames set up which meant the market was right there at our doorstep.  I wanted to get up early and go out there before everyone else was ready to leave for the day, but after staying up until 1:30 in the morning, it wasn't in the cards.  I had to content myself with a quick walk through the market and only stopping for an occasional photo.  It was a riot of colors and smells.

When I saw this, I thought about the fourth little piggy that built his house from baguettes.  On second thought maybe this is the French version of the game Jenga.

I don't think that I have ever seen fruit this colorful at home.  It is evident that they do not pick the fruit green and gas it to ripen.  All of the flavor in the fruit we have eaten so far has been so intense.  We had some red cherries with lunch yesterday that were not Bing cherries.  They were a little darker and very full of flavor.

I think they even polish some of the produce.  You can see my reflection in the eggplant.

JT told me to take pictures of pretty food when I saw it.  I'm hoping that this is what he meant.  This variety of tomato was totally new to me.  If we hadn't been heading out, I would have bought one to try.

Now we come to the "parts is parts" section of the market.   All the little rows of beady black eyes caught my eye in this stall.

More eyes.  I'm not sure that the photo does justice to the color on this fish.

More parts.

Hooves and ears from the little piggies that built their house from baguettes I guess.

And even more parts.  There doesn't seem to be anything roly poly about these fish heads, nor do I want to eat them up, yum.

A couple of short metro rides later we arrived at the Louvre.  Learning from yesterday's mistake, we actually looked up in our handy travel guide HOW to get to the Louvre.  It seems that you just can't find the Metro stopped named Montmartre and expect to pop up out of the ground in front of Sacre Coeur.  When you do that, you find yourself somewhere off of the map that you're carrying and you walk for 30 minutes or so using the location of the sun in the sky and dead reckoning.  This helped to account for a good portion of the 20,000 steps we walked yesterday.

As we walked into the courtyard where the famous glass pyramid that is the entrance to the Louvre is located, we saw a good sized line already forming.  Once inside, we bought our museum passes and headed off to the Richelieu wing where they house sculpture and paintings from the Middle Ages and Renaissance as well as the royal apartments of  Louis Napoleon III.

This is the handle on one of the windows.  The face measures about 1.25"  Justin and I marveled at the artistry expended on something so utilitarian.  I wonder how many people that visit this room even notice it.

This photo shows some of the objets d'arts that were in one of the royal collections.  Justin and I spent quite a bit of time exclaiming over these and looking at them from different angles.  They were amazingly pierced and multi-layered as well as beautifully decorated.

I took this photo on the way back to meet up with Bob and Hayley for lunch.  Justin had stayed on a bit longer to see the Van Dyck and Durer section.  This was a class that the museum puts on to inspire curiosity about art in children.  The teacher was dressed up like a statue and was teaching them about statuary by getting them to look at it and tell her about what they were seeing.  It was a neat thing to see.  I love the pose that I caught her in.

After lunch we went into the Sully wing to see the excavation of the medieval Louvre castle that was built in the 12th century.  At the end of the 16th century, the northwest corner of the current Henri II square was built over the older castle.  When Bob and I were last here in 2000, all that was exposed was one corner.  Now they have exposed two whole walls and also access to the donjon or keep inside the walls.  Dim lighting and no flash photos prevent me from sharing that.

We also took in quite a bit of the Greek and Egyptian sculpture.  I was experiencing some dissonance along the way between the Egyptian art and artifacts and the rooms in which they were housed.  Some how the rococo style of the rooms just didn't seem to be the best match to me.  

By 3:30 we all agreed that we were very tired and had sore legs to boot; the stairs were getting to be painful.  So we wended our way back to the entrance and climbed out of the museum.  It was a very warm day today and the air up on top gets hot and stifling with all that glass.

A few more quick rides on the Metro and we were back in our neighborhood.  The market was long gone and the debris hosed to the curbs where the pigeons were having a field day.  Another brief nap and then I cooked dinner which consisted of the country sausage, sauerkraut, baby potatoes and green beans that we bought on Rue Cler yesterday afternoon.  The apple tart was served afterwards and the next thing I realized, everyone crashed.  I'm sitting in the dark as I type, looking forward to another busy day tomorrow.  An even hotter one than today.  Who knew we'd have to leave home to actually enjoy the summer.

So, the post title.  Right.  Well, we only walked 13,000 steps today.  Two reasons for that.  1) We didn't get temporarily "misplaced" like yesterday and 2) you do a lot of standing in one place in a museum.  Especially when you are trying to translate the placards from French to English.  :)

20,000 steps across Paris

We just finished our first full day in Paris.  Flight over was uneventful for the most part...that's a story for another day.

We're all bushed.  We made it to the Eiffel Tower by 9:30 this morning and the lines already snaked across the pavillion under the tower.  We stood in one of the long lines to purchase the tickets and then took the first elevator to the 2nd level platform.  From there you stand in line to catch the elevator to the top.  As the day started out overcast and cool, it was a little chilly up there but mainly on the western side.  The Japanese have been replaced as the country providing the highest numbers of tourists by the Swedes, Poles and Russians.  The place was absolutely packed with these denominations of tourist.

Lots of nice architectural shots to be had here...

The usual suspects...

The long lines seen from the second level.

After we descended from the first level platform via the stairs, we walked through the Rue Cler neighborhood so touted and beloved by Rick Steves totally by chance.  We purchased some lovely fruit, sliced lunch meats, bread and a ripe and runny camembert which we ate back at our apartment.

After a nap (all of us!) we headed back out and spent the early evening at Sacre Coeur, just missing the chance to go up into the dome.   Below is some odd artwork found on a wall.

We walked back down the hill and caught the Metro to the Latin Quarter where we proceeded to locate and devour a very nice dinner.  By dessert we all realized how tired we were and no wonder.  It was almost 11 by the time we left the restaurant.  The Latin Quarter was still hopping at that hour.

Quick trip home on the Metro and then ready for bed.  The kids crashed about 50 minutes ago, Bob 30 minutes ago and I am pushing the edge of the envelope to get this entry in.  Unlike other trips, we've simply been too busy to work on this blog.  Hopefully, the pace will slow down or we'll drop!

Which brings me to the title of this post!  Back home, Boeing is doing another fitness program this year with it's employees.  This means that Bob is wearing a pedometer at work as well as on vacation.  Today he/we logged over 20,000 steps; a lot of those up and down towers, through Metro stations and of course Montmartre.  No wonder we're all tired!

Bonsoir!

How to Shine (and make the world a better place to live)

A couple of weeks ago, Andrew gave us the word "SHINE" for our blogging assignment.  As usual, I am late due to stewing over what this word meant to me.  Interestingly, since I don't believe in concidence, I have had several epiphanies these past two weeks that have led me back to this word. 

Originally, I thought about a time in my past where there was this extremely intelligent but unpleasant woman that I worked with.  I focused way too much time complaining about her various traits and habits that annoyed me until one day I realized that her path in life was the same as mine - to love and be loved in return.  To be understood and to understand in return.  Realizing this allowed me to let go of the dissonance I felt towards her.  Oddly enough, the man I was seeing at the time noticed this shift in my demeanor that day.  While I can't say that this lesson stayed with me for very long, I still remember that day and had planned to share that story here but didn't get to it right away...

Then yesterday occurred.  I was driving to Issaquah to run errands and was listening to a story on NPR about an Iraqi woman who went by the name of Sarah. She worked for the U.S. to gather intelligence on the Iraqi militia and had a real gift for people wanting to open up to her and talk.  As she told her story, the listener followed her growth from the role of an Iraqi housewife to an empowered woman working against the repression of Sadam Hussein's regime.  She was well known by the opposition and had been given the name "The Lion".   The pride in her voice was inspiring to hear at that point of the story.  The story took a turn soon enough as she told about a local woman whose home was at a very strategic point in the city.  She began to be in daily contact with this woman, they became friends and she met and came to care about the woman's familiy.  One day, the husband called to tell her that his wife had been taken away by the militia.  Sarah begged for assistance from the U.S. military and tried to negotiate with the Iraqi militia for her release, but a couple of weeks later she heard from the husband once more.  His wife had been killed.  I started to cry at this point as it seemed so crazy and futile.  The story went on from there and became even more sad.  I didn't hear the end of it as I arrived at the store and left the car.  However, in the short time between starting to cry and pulling off of the freeway, I made a resolution.  This world needs to change and today it will start with me.  Going back to that day long ago, it is time to once more realize that we are all here to love and be loved...to be understood and understand in return.  It is time to throw aside thoughts about others that are non-productive.  Really, in the scheme of things, does it matter if someone wears too much perfume or hairspray?  If they are rude and insinuating?  Unless someone's actions might cause you personal harm, let it go.  In your heart and mind, send them the thought that there are kinder, gentler ways to achieve one's needs. 

Another item I came across yesterday that reinforced my thoughts were the words written on the bottom of a Nature's Path cereal box.  "Always leave the Earth better than you found it" ~ Rupert Stevens.  He was talking about organic farming, but I really think it applies to everything that we do in life.   A few minutes later, the sun blasted a hole through the overcast and rain that permeated our pre-spring Saturday.  It felt warm on our faces and hit the thermometer outside the kitchen window driving it up to almost 60 degrees.  A coincidence?  I think not.

So leave a legacy of kindness, tolerance, love and understanding.  Be a shining example of humanity in your life.