Aw, I made a friend!

I was walking along the Seine, west from Les Halles. And the whole north side of the street was plant shops and, randomly, pet shops as well.

Miscellaneous Pictures and Stories and Quirks

After our initial visit at Chartres, we broke for a much-needed lunch and warm-up. (It was really cold outside, and inside the cathedral we still needed gloves and hats.) So Mom and I went to a pizzeria/salon du the. I had a delightful fizzy lemony beverage by the onomatopoeiay name of Pshitt. This made us giggle. Oh, but then. While walking around the old town of Chartres before getting the train home, we bought me this little vanilla Yule log.
On the train ride home, we were discussing what to do the rest of the evening. I was talking about something and dinner: "...and then for you we'll have a nice crepe [rhymes with PEP not PAPE]; a sit-down crepe. Oh, that sounds like something else..."

At which Mom and I burst into giggles like the ten-year-old American schoolgirls that lurk inside us all.

That night, writing in our journals back at the hotel, Mom asked me how to spell the name of the Pshitt. And then she wrote down about the log, and the crepecrap, and we had a fit of laughter for a solid five minutes.

I like comparing American cinema when I'm overseas. The Narnia posters were very pretty, so I took a Spanish picture. The French posters were even more fierce, and I loved looking at them every time they appeared (which is often; the Metro stations are like giant advertising stations. Each has six or seven HUGE posters on each side of the platform. There are less than ten ads you'll see at any one time, total, among all the stations.).

This one, though, is from a bus stop thing. You can see it better than the one I took in the metro (which is wider too).

At El Corte Ingles, I "shopped" on the nine floors, mostly just quickly strolling through. But I took a few minutes to look at the jacket/coat selections on the 4th floor, and I found this cute, cheap green corduroy coat. It had a hood and toggles and was cozy comfy. I didn't buy it, though.

I brought Mom back later that night. She really liked the coat.

In fact, she liked it so much, she bought one for herself.

Look at our size difference. Heh. She's like a mini next to me.

I have several strange photo habits. One is taking pictures out of moving vehicles: cars, busses, trains, planes. Another is taking pictures of sunrises and sunsets. I am always thrilled to get to combine those hobbies, like you saw with the sunrise pictures from the Barcelona flight.

Another thing I like to take pictures of is giant ice cream. Here's one of my favorites, from the summer in 2000.

(sorry for the double; I couldn't erase it without erasing them all for some reason.)

My first giant ice cream in Spain! Yummy gelato with whip cream on top!

This ice cream is a chain around Barcelona. I think this giant cone is chocolate chip or something.
I am nonchalantly drinking the orange drink I bought for dinner at the Pizza Hut on Via Laeitana.

Imagine my excitement when, while partaking of a morning coffee and orange juice, this giant mug of hot chocolate!
(There was actually giant ice cream in the shop too, but there were people in the way.)

And then, at the buffet restaurant near the Sagrada Familia, giant fruits and vegetables!

And giant chicken!! There was even a giant fish in the next window!

Paris in Pictures

We left Barcelona at 1pm, flew over the snow-capped Pyranees, and arrived in Paris around 3ish. On the RER train in, we witnessed a bag snatching. It was the first time I've ever seen any kind of theft or crime, and it was pretty awful. It happened so very quickly: a guy stepped through the doors, dashed over to the set of seats across the aisle from us--the quick movement drew my eye away from the book I was reading--and snatched a small suitcase, even as he turned to dash back out the doors. The woman jumped up and tried to grab it back; she ended up with a snapped strap in her hand, but she couldn't get off the train with the rest of her things still on it. A bunch of passengers, including Mom, also jumped up to hold the doors and call the authorities over. The victim collected her things and went off with the transit police, but I doubt there was much hope to catch the thief.

For awhile after that, Mom and I both sat in shocked, sad silence. What an awful thing to happen; I'm a bit ashamed that mostly I was relieved it hadn't happened to either of us. And that it wasn't the woman's purse. I tried to imagine what would happen if my purse was stolen: it had my cell phone, my passport, my debit and credit cards, and my driver's license. I only know each of my parents' phone numbers by heart, I'd forgotten an extra copy of my passport, but it's on my computer...which is 3,000 miles from either of my parents. I'd have zero money and zero identifcation, and no way to recover either, or contact anyone from home. Shudder.

Eventually we arrived in the 14th arrondissement, my preferred place to stay. It's quiet, it's got a metro and an RER stop, there's a big park and the university where I lived for a month five years ago (feeling old!).
This time we had no jetlag to worry about, so we got settled in our lovely small hotel room, I brushed up on the Paris goods, and we set out...

... to get crepes on the corner (mm, how I love butter and sugar crepes!), and then to Saint Michel, my favorite place, due to its Gibert Jeune and its proximity to Notre Dame.
We walked west along the Seine, passing shops, like this couture store--look at that sumptuous dress, and there are wings behind it!--not to mention pubs and museums.
Eventually we crossed the iron pedestrian bridge toward the Louvre.

Since we've both been to the museum at least five times, but it was Wednesday (late-open night), so we went to the gift shops instead. Sweet! I spent too much time and too much money...but the Louvre is awesome, thus so is its shop.
I wrote postcards right away and sent them from the museum post office.

The next day, our first full day in Paris, we headed by train (SNCF) to the town of Chartres, to see the cathedral. Isn't my monster fuschia scarf gorgeous?

This cathedral, pardon my French (ha!), is fucking huge. You can see it for miles and miles around. Literally. To take this picture, with the entire facade, you have to walk to the very opposite end of the square, and then to the other side of the street. It was a bit cloudy when we arrived at 10.45, but just look at this deep blue sky when we left around 3.30.

These windows are the oldest and some of the most famous. They are original stained glass from the 12th century.

We were lucky enough to take one of Malcolm Miller's tours. When I told Mom about it, she was all meh, skeptical. She came around quickly enough though. He's been leading these for 48 years, and written numerous books about Chartres. All the information in the gift shop is written by him. He's also featured in a fascinating documentary called Chartres: The Sacred Geometry.

Anyway, he is obviously the leading expert; he has so much knowledge that every tour he does is different. For us, he "read" the panels of the stained glass windows. First he discussed the three on the main facade. They are read left to right, bottom to top, like the world's biggest religious comic strip. The window on the right is the Jesse tree, nameless kings of Israel forming the trunk, Mary on the top, Jesus as the fruit and flower. The middle window is Christ's life. The left window is the Passion.

Each square (the middle window is three squares across and about seven rows high) is four feet square. It doesn't seem like it, but it makes sense, since people have to be able to read it. As he mentioned each square, the small colorful scenes suddenly sprang into focus. Have you ever seen Jesus shown on a green crucifix? That's because it was supposedly made from a tree from the Garden of Eden, or living wood.

This is the reason the cathedral in its current size was built: the Sancta Camisia, the Sacred Shroud that Mary wore when giving birth to Jesus. Pilgrims have been arriving from all over the world for a millenium to see it and invoke Mary's blessings. The people and bishop knew that a very large place was needed to house all those pilgrims. And that's literal; they slept there too. The floors slant toward the middle to facilitate washing down all the filth from the travelers.

Another reason that Chartres is so famous is its labyrinth. Labyrinths go way back into early Celtic times, but I think this one is the first "modern" (again, 12th century) one that still survives. This is the rose center, which is supposed to be a spot of extra-powerful energy. Unfortunately, that's all we could walk on; there were rows of chairs covering the outlying circles.
Here's a reproduction of the labyrinth.
The first thing Mom and I did was actually climb the north tower. It's 300 steps, with lots of interesting things to see along the way. Here are the flying buttresses, the copper rooftops, and a Gollum-like gargoyle creature, tail wrapped around a vine as it climbs down. Creepy.





Behind the cathedral are some gardens, including this half-labyrinth made in grass.

Mom's yoga pose looked right at home in the spiritual path.


The Place de la Concorde (Place of Peace, to attempt to make up for its previous incarnation as the Place de la Revolution, wheren 1,000 people were beheaded). This Ferris wheel has been up for at least five years. And you can make out the Obelisk of Luxor in the background.
The Champs-Elysees lit up for the holiday evenings. Or maybe those lights are always on the trees. In any case, it's quite gorgeous between the Place de la Concorde (one end of the boulevard) and the Arc de Triomphe.

The Pont Alexandre III is the most ornate bridge in Paris, full of gilded statues. This one looks to me like Neptune, but who knows. Notice the Eiffel Tower (this is as close as we got; we've both been to the Tower on previous trips) and the reflections in the Seine. Also gorgeous, no?

On Friday, our second and last full day, we began by heading to the Opera Garnier (the famous one you've heard of, as in The Phantom of). As we ascended the stairs in front of the facade, we saw that it was snowing gently. We'd really wanted to take a tour of the building, but the auditorium was closed for rehearsals (Swan Lake), plus there were no English tours at that time. So we only looked at the lobby, including this lovely lamp.

From there, we walked around the corner to the Galeries Lafayette, the original department store (no, really, the first one. There's a French novel based on it...something about the happiness of women. I read one part about the store: it was designed to be confusing and overwhelming, to instill a sense of exhilaration in the shopper.). We ate a picnic-style lunch in the upstairs cafe, watching the snow fall on the back of the Opera. To the left is the Art Deco? dome.




A handful of Parisian snow outside the Galeries. I love all the textures and shapes in this photo!







After the Opera and Galeries, Mom and I visited the Pantheon, a huge building now dedicated to the Great Men of the Grateful Fatherland. Victor Hugo, Emile Zola, Louis Braille, Antoine St-Expury, and Pierre and Marie Curie are all entombed here, among many others.

When we left, in the cold and windy rain, we wanted to head up to Notre Dame; it should have been only a ten-minute walk. Before we got out of the square, we stopped to warm up in Saint Genevieve's church (she's the patron saint of Paris). Mom noticed a tourist who had taken advantage of the heating vents and propped up her gloves to warm up. A modern prayer and blessing from the saint.

The last morning, returning after the ridiculously-overpriced hotel continental breakfast.

I was glad to go home, but very sad to leave Paris.

19/01/04: I am home now. Boo.

Look at me trying to type on a French keyboard! The trip ended better than Friday started. Over the weekend I met some more fun Australians, and I explored more of the city. I took a couple walking tours, went to the currency museum, etc etc. It was SO COLD. Really really cold. I couldn't feel my face for all of Sunday.

Got up at 7am today and headed for the airport, which was insane of course. The nine hour flight in coach was just thrilling...mostly I slept. The four hour flight from Dallas felt super cramped and I was anxious and sleepy, and I'd already finished the one book I had with me. I got through about twenty pages of a French student version of the Three Musketeers. But I just kept drifting off to sleep.

Now I am at home. It was weird walking in the door, the place looked different. But as I looked around, nothing had actually changed. It was nice, but surreal, to see all my stuff here. Had a lovely, non-button shower, finally took all the stuff out of the suitcase I've been living in for a week. I don't know. It is always nice to return to one's own bed and such, and it will be nice to see family and friends again. But holy cow, it's only been a week! It honestly feels like my trip was a lot longer than a week, though. When you travel, you do so much stuff everyday that each day passes fairly quickly. But in order to remember a few days back, you have to go through the catalog of everything you've been doing, so it seems longer than just a few days. Does that make sense?

16 Jan 2004: Okay, you can have the oyster back.

I am in Paris again. Yesterday was my full day of guided tours, first by bus in Brussels, then to Bruge for the afternoon. The former was lame and the latter was great. Brussels is interesting, and parts are very pretty. Bruge (you know, I'm not really sure how to spell it...) was lovely. Small, quaint cobblestone streets, several lovely churchtowers and a gorgeous market square. I climbed the belfry tower and the view was breathtaking. And yes, I felt the burn. Woo!

This morning I slept in...ah, wonderous. Ooh, did I mention the beautiful shower at the Brussels hotel? Oh it was perfect and amazing. Anyhoo, caught the noon train back to Paris, arrived back at the button-shower hostel, and did laundry and then went shopping. Holy cow. Talk about mad cow disease. No, I'm not sure what that meant. But people were everywhere and lines were long. It was exhilarating and frustrating at the same time.

It's gotten to that dangerous point in the trip, where the end is nigh and so one has to start thinking of it. It's only two full days left til I go back to home and work, but again, that is two entire days! Do you see what I mean here?

14/01/04: Look at that, I'm picking up Euro-isms all over the place. And it's Wednesday, I'm pretty sure, so that means my trip is already halfway over. But I'm trying not to think about it like that. So would the optimist version of that say it's half begun? Weird.

Tuesday I began with an eclair au chocolat (finally!) and then a walking tour of the Marais (the Jewish district, home of the Place des Vosges). It was lovely and educational, the guide was wonderful, and the rain wasn't even a problem. Anyone who is planning a visit to Paris or London should go on a walking tour, check them out. There is a Rome equivalent, whose name is escaping me, that is also excellent. Hurrah for walking tours. Then the bulk of my day (five hours of the afternoon) was spent at the Musee d'Orsay. It was incredible and huge. It just kept going and going. Also, I attended a concert at Notre Dame in the evening, which was just incredible.

Today, I am pleased to report, you will find me in Brussels. It's quite interesting, but only when you're in the centre of the town, which is where you find the Grand Place and environs. I have no idea what I'm doing or where I'm going, but I'm remaining patient and good things are happening. I happened into a museum of chocolate this afternoon, for instance.

I booked into a small hotel today, the room is TEENSY, but it's a bed, plus a bathroom en suite. That's what matters. And there's even a TV; I can watch Euro-MTV tonight!

12 Jan 2004: That link said Zelco,e to Pqris1 7no; thqtùs not q typo0

Welcome to paris! (no, that's not a typo)

Hurrah for new keyboards!

I am here! I was even fairly awake all day yesterday (for those who didn't hear, I left at 11:30 (but actually it was 1) on Saturday and arrived (on time) in Paris at 11am. I checked in to the hostel and took for a walk for the rest of the afternoon, from Opera (in the 8th I think) back to the hostel in the 5th. I took the mother of all naps around five, passing out and then waking up at nine and not sure what day I was in. Anyway, had a fairly normal night last night.

Today had a leisurely breakfast of orange juice and a demi-baguette, and then spent a few hours at the Centre Pompidou. Went shopping and then saw a film, called Happy End, at the underground mall, Les Halles. It rather wore me out. I meant to go back out and to the Louvre this evening, but oops, oh well. Tomorrow am planning on attending a walking tour and then visiting the Musee d'Orsay.

I love being in Paris! The smells, even the icky ones, remind me that I'm really here, and that I love it. I wish I had more time to visit other places; everyone else here (well, in the hostel) is Australian or American and all have buckets of time to visit all over Europe. It's strange being a "grown-up" around all these younger student types.

Anyway, now I am tired and need a shower. I'm glad I like adventure, because the showers are just weird. It's a button. Bonne nuit!

07/07/01: Hey, I found the Paris branch of EasyEverything-yay! I sort of found the one in Rome too, one night walking around. I love this place! Sigh.

So it's the last day here in Paris, as you may have noticed. I am just wandering around looking at things and visiting things for the last time, like Gibert-Jeune, a colossal University Bookstore of Paris, only better, of course. :) And I will go to Champion (the supermarket not the clothes shop) one last time, later today. It feels weird to be leaving already; last year I had so much time and there was absolutely no rush. Hmm.

It has been raining, no, monsooning, the past few nights, along with thunder and lightning. I wish it was a little nicer, it's no fun walking in the rain. Dancing, yes, but walking, nope. Of course I do have an umbrella, but I have forgotten it more often than not.

Oh. Yesterday evening we walked from the Place de la Concorde, past the Madeleine and to the Opera and the big department stores. They're still expensive, even with the fabulous sales. Really nice jewelry and I was very tempted. But alas, too frugal for my own good. Damn. After that we had dinner at the Frog and Princess. At last a real salad.

07/06/01: Last night we realized that we had a lovely view of the Eiffel Tower from our room! That is, it is lovely if one stands on a chair and looks over a big tree. But we can see enough to see the lights and the fun sparkly light show at nighttime. So pretty.

Mom arrived safely this morning. We are all going to go shopping and perhaps to a cemetary or two. The weather here has been questionable, lots of thunder and lightning, and rain.

Tomorrow is Saturday and will be our last full day here in Paris. Sunday morning we leave for Scotland. If we can get our Chunnel tickets, of course. They are in Paris somewhere, we just have to find them, in a matter of speaking. Not like a big game of Scavenger Hunt or something. That would be great fun, though. I should enjoy that. Our time in Paris has gone by surprisingly quickly, considering we haven't done anything of great consequence. But that just makes me all the more determined to return here and stay for as long as I can. Someday. Hopefully sooner rather than later, I'm impatient! Oh. My. God. The men. Italian men have a horrible reputation, so I thought things would be pretty bad there, worse than Paris last year. However, there really wasn't too many problems. Some random icky people saying ciao at you, but hey it could be worse, I hear in the South of Italy they'll grab you. Anyway, so yesterday afternoon I took myself to the Luxembourg Garden, to sit and write postcards and such, because it's quiet and very pretty. So I sat on a chair and began writing. I was there perhaps half an hour, maybe less. And in that time, no less than THREE gross men significantly older than me sat in the chair nearest me and began talking at me out of nowhere. There I sat, alone yes, but clearly occupied, not looking up or around and merely minding MY OWN FREAKIN BUSINESS, and these men took it upon themselves to strike up conversation out of thin air. Not much of a conversation, mind you, all three asked me the same questions. Where are you from? Why are you in Paris? How long have you been here? Do you like it? One asked my name, and I said, huh, no. Then he got a little testy, but hell what do I care. The first two left of their own accord, because yes I answered the questions they all asked but then promptly returned to the postcards, trying to show that I was not interested in talking and that I was otherwise employed. But they pressed on with the stupid questions! I chatted a little better with the third man, who was the oldest, but also the most polite and unrude. However, it had begun to rain so I got up to leave. The man, who I would guess was around sixty or so, asked what I was going to do, if I wanted to get something to drink. Oh, and all of these conversations took place in French, except for some of the middle guy because he was straight harrassing me. And this was creepy, some buddy of his was pacing around behind him as he shot stupid questions at me. Ew! What is up with these people? The interesting thing is that I believe all or most of these men were not actually French. Nor was the Rome guy Italian. All of these men were Arab and/or North African (ie, Caucasian). Last year the men that gave me trouble were all French-speaking African men. Apparently I have stages in which I attract clearly unwanted attention from different sorts of men. EW! Do I look that stupid, naive and gullible? I do my best not to smile at people to not give them mixed messages but they forge ahead anyway.

Okay. Trying to calm down. Breathe.

I still love Paris and I still want to live here. I love just walking around and seeing whatever is there to see. I like to shop here, especially with all the sales. I love the beauty of the city, with the buildings, churches, old stone streets, tree-lined boulevards, produce stands and lovely bakeries/pastry shops on every corner. What's not to love?

07/05/01: Well so much for that. Tuesday, our plans did not go according to plan. The Louvre is closed on Tuesdays, which we should have had the sense to look up. We thought maybe we'd go see the Musee D'Orsay instead, but there was a huge line, so skipped that too. Decided not to go to Versailles yesterday.

It is Thursday now. Wednesday we did go to the Louvre. And I went shopping and got a cute new outfit if I ever decide to go out in the evening. Went to the Champs-Elysees just in time for a typical Parisian downpour, then went shopping and saw another movie. Tuesday night Sara and I saw Tomb Raider, and last night all three of us saw Return of the Mummy. Stacey, you were right, it was incredibly silly and implausible. But oh well. :) Today Maureen and Sara braved Versailles, and I met up with Kathleen from last year and her friend Marlow. We have walked around several districts, and though the gelato place was sadly not open, we did find some heavenly fruit sorbet. Tasty.

Oh, and the other day we went to Champion, the supermarket. I got lots of yummy food, and notably a melon. I was all excited to have melon again, and the next morning I cut it with a plastic knife, only to discover it was a plain old cantaloupe! I was terribly disappointed. Boo hoo.

Can't stay, gotta run. The girls are waiting for me. Mom arrives tomorrow morning!

07/03/01: Well here it is the first full day in Paris! Got a chocolate eclair this morning, you remember how I love those! And I'll get cookies and other goodies later at the store.

We went to Notre Dame this morning, not as early as planned but still pretty early. Apparently many things don't open before 10 am. Sadly, the towers are closed for two weeks starting yesterday! They're building a protective corridor or something, so no tower tour for us. Boohoo. But in any case, Notre Dame is magnificent. And ever cleaner. We are now at an internet cafe which has, wonder of wonders, american keyboards! Hallelujah! Gotta love that.

So let's see, it's still just the morning. We are planning a stop at the Louvre, and at Les Halles for some shopping. As some of you may remember, the entire city of Paris is ON SALE from the end of June to the middle of July. I'm all ready to spend some money! Tomorrow morning we will go to Versailles and get that 'out of the way,' so to speak. Other than that, we don't have too much planned just yet. I definitely want to go back to the Frog and Princess, but we may wait til Mum gets here on Friday so she can see it too. And then I can finally get a real salad. Yesterday we went out to dinner but all I had was a plate of frites, which, frankly, are getting rather boring. Time for some new food. Well, not really, but you know. I think I for one will be going to the Place des Vosges tomorrow, which I can't wait for. Also, we will attempt to secure free ice cream at the Champs-Elysees Ben and Jerry's store. We heard a rumor of this phenomenon last summer, so we're hoping it's still true. Plus maybe we'll see an American movie again too. There's a lot over here, Valentine is just coming out, and Tomb Raider, and even Crouching Tiger (which, obviously, is not american but whatever). I love seeing movies in English and reading the French subtitles. It's so educational! and fun!

Man, somehow this has gotten boring, hasn't it? And I promised everyone a better one than last year and now it's starting to be crap. I'm terribly sorry! I'll do what I can, but I have such a limited imagination, it's difficult to think outside the box.

Here's something interesting. On Sunday, in Venice, I just sat around various places reading, and of course there are pigeons absolutely everywhere. I was absently watching them bob around and all that, when I noticed that one of them was missing a foot! It was a one-footed pigeon! I never saw one of those before, nor did I imagine there were any. I found myself wondering about the life story of this little bird, and how it felt about not being a normal pigeon. Do you think the others disowned him, and he has to fend for himself, with his one foot and really short legs?

07/02/01: Yahoo, welcome to Paris. The exclamation point button does not work, or I would use it. Back to the joys of the french keyboard.

Last night I took the overnight train from Venice to Paris. I actually slept pretty well, and my body kept feeling as if in a train for an extra two hours, too. Interesting. So I got to the hotel at 9,30 and Maureen and Sara got here at noon. I led them on a short walk, and then we went to the ever-fabulous Gibert-Jeune and got stationery stuff, yay. I love new pens. Then I showed them Shakespeare and Co, and gawked at Notre Dame-so clean it practically sparkles-it is gorgeous. The other two are currently napping; jet lag sucks.

It`s so strange to be here again-I don`t feel like I never left, but I feel so at ease and comfortable. I keep forgetting I`m here and out of Italy. I also forget that we have a long time-nearly a week. No rush, there`s plenty of time for everything. Also strange to be not a lone traveler once more. I`ve had three distinctly different experiences so far: with mum in a tour group in greece, alone in italy, and now with relative-people in Paris. I do enjoy the independence of solitude, one has to constantly prove one`s mettle. I feel very proud for getting around Italy and doing so well, on my own. So we`ll see how I adapt. I think I move a lot faster than most people when traveling; this may be an issue.

Excited to get to a grocery store after all this time away to have my favorites--fresh bread; crepes; melon, etc. And you all get to hear about it again--bwa ha ha....