Bastille Day at the Eiffel Tower

Finally we come to the portion of the program that everyone has been waiting for...Bastille Day Night!! Or perhaps I should just say Bastille Night? I don't know. What's summer time without at least one night of spending hours sitting on the lawn waiting for the fireworks to get started? With that in mind Sara and I made the brave decision of staking out a bench along the perimeter of the Champ de Mars at about six o'clock, on which we planned to wait until the firework show surrounding the Eiffel Tower began at eleven. Our bench didn't afford a very good view of the tower because it was surrounded with trees, but we figured that when the fireworks started we'd just get up and stand in the pathway in front of the bench. There we sat and sat and sat, while the sun set and set and set. Meanwhile, the other people waiting, who had originally been on the grass across the pathway, began to get larger and larger and drunker and drunker. Before we knew it, the pathway was gone and the people were becoming so many that we were surrounded. To avoid drowning in the high tide we moved behind us on the other side of the trees and sat in the sand. The picture up yonder is of the view from our bench. Isn't it a cool picture. There were a lot of people there.

Napolean and I

I got my picture taken with Napolean. He was certainly a famous sort of person. I read a whole bunch about him, but I am still no Bonaparte expert. Suffice it to say that Napolean was a short Sicilian dude who didn't even speak French very well (he was a native Italian speaker), yet he was still able to take all necesary steps to crown himself Emperor of France and massacre a bunch of innocent people. By a bunch I mean probably next to a million or so. Even better, after he becomes emperor he messes up and winds up exiled to an island. He then makes his way back, becomes emperor again (this time even more illegaly) and reigns for 100 days and then messes up and gets exiled to another island. There he dies (by arsenic poisoning?), yet his body still finds its way back to France and ends up lying in a coffin surrounded by the riches and glory that ought only be given to an emperor (or someone who actually deserves it). Talk about ambition. Caesar had nothin' on this guy. Remember in Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure when Napolean eats that huge bowl of ice cream, what was it called, the Pig Trough or something? That was great. By the way, I'm not kidding when I say short. He was 5'2", which is just a touch taller than Sara.

All You Need to Know About Domes

Check out these three buildings, all of which look nearly the same, but are actually found in three different countries and were built in three different centuries. This first one on the left here is St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican City. It, including its legendary dome, was designed by none other than Michelangelo and was completed in 1626. Until 1990 when the Basilica of Our Lady of Peace was completed in Yamoussoukro, Ivory Coast, this was the largest Christian church in the world, yet it still remains the absolute coolest building ever. It was supposedly built on top of the bones of St. Peter. Mark my words, I will not be a complete person until I have visited this church! Anyhow, back to Paris. The building on the right is the Dome church in Les Invalides. Surely you've seen this all over my blog, as it seems to just show up everywhere in the city. It houses the body of Napolean after it was dug up and brought back to Paris from the island he was exiled to for the second time. Napolean's third come back. The architect who completed the building in 1708 modeled it after St. Peter's Basilica. You'll notice the picture of the cross canopy in the next blog down, it is pretty much a spitting image of the Bernini canopy in St. Peter's Basilica, just a whole lot smaller. Finally, this last building is, believe it or not, the City Hall of San Francisco, California. Pretty cool, eh? It was built in 1915 to replace the original city hall which was destroyed during the 1906 earthquake. It looks almost exactly like the Dome church in Paris. I really doubt it was built atop any famous dead folks, but it did temporarily house the body of President Warren G. Harding after he died of pneumonia in San Francisco in 1923. Also, Joe DiMaggio married Marilyn Monroe under its dome in 1954. Wow, that's a lot more than you ever thought you would know about international domes. I just think all that stuff is cool.

Inside Invalides

You remember that big golden dome church, right? Well here's the inside of it. I was never really sure what to expect while inside the huge domed buliding that the French call Invalides, in the end I was overwhelmed with how cool it was. Originally Sara and I had intended to go to the Rodin museum and then cross the street and take a glance at the building, but when we found the Rodin museum closed (At five o'clock on a holiday Friday) we decided to use our time and money to go look inside the dome. To our complete astonishment we found Invalides open and free. It was some sort of Parisian miracle. I'm gussing that they keep Napolean's tomb open on Bastille Day since he was in ways the hero of the Revolution (although I think he stood for the opposite of what the Revolutionists were trying to do). There is just as much gold on the inside as there is on the outside, and the inside design is spectacular. Napolean's great big tomb is set in the basement of the building directly underneath the huge dome, with an overlook on the main floor. All around his tomb are statues, the tombs of many of his co-generals, and this St. Peter's Basilica-like cross structure. I had no idea how neat this place was. Unfortunately, like most other dark churchy places in the city we had a very hard time taking any good pictures inside. This is certainly the neatest tomb in all of Paris, I dare say all the world. Great hommage to a man considered a Saint by many and quite the opposite by others. I've read a whole bunch about him lately and all I can say is that he was certainly good at what he did, but what he did certainly wasn't good. I'll go out on a limb and say that there are thousands of people in the world who would be better suited by a giant golden tomb watched over by a huge cross. But you didn't hear that from me.

Bastille Day from the Whip Cream Tart

As Sara's official tour guide I felt it my solemn duty to take her high up the hill to see the Parisian sight that has for some reason been looked over by the Americans. I had never even seen a picture of the Basilica of the Sacre Coeur before I came to Paris, but judging by the souvenirs and T-shirts out here, it is on of the four wonders of the city; The Eiffel Tower, The Arc de Triumph, The Louvre Pyramid and The Sacre Coeur. Have any of you guys ever heard of this place before I brought it up? Maybe I'm jsut super uncultured or something. So here we are, having climbed hundreds of stairs, and about to climb quite a few more. I think these are some pretty good pictures. We went inside and enjoyed the giant Jesus mosaic and then we made the rounds around the building and over to the many picture places. Of course, I will spare you another seven or eight pictures of the Paris landscape, if you want those you'll just have to scroll down. Waaaaay down. It was another lovely trip up the hill to see where good ol' Saint Denis was beheaded. This time the fountains were on and that made it even better. Come on over and check out the video sometime.

Bastille Day in Levallois - Perret

On July 14th, 1789 the Bastille Prison was stormed and taken over by the revolutionists, thus beginning France's rocky road towards being a free country; a destination they will likely reach very soon. In commemoration of said event the French hold Bastille Day on the 14th of July each year and celebrate in a way not unlike the Americans celebrate the 4th of July. The only real difference is that while we eat our way through thousands of pounds of ground up animal pieces, the French drink thousands of kiloliters of wine and smoke thousands of hectares of tobacco (some of which smelled awfully sweet). Sara and I spent most of the holiday in Paris soaking up the sun and the smoke, but here for you I have included some pictures of the festivities in Levallois on Bastille Day Eve. I really like how the city has put lights on city hall and the fountains surrounding it in such a fashion to simulate the French flag. It was an absolutely gorgeous night, and just as dusk turned to dark the place filled up with all sorts of Levalloisians, old and young, and a band and I think some sort of food. Originally we had planned to go sit by the Seine and enjoy the evening, but to our chagrin the City had roped off all access. We came home in a huff, not noticing that there were posters up advertising the City's fireworks display to be shown that evening along the banks of the river. I'm sure the show was spectacular, but I was just as happy to avoid the crowd and be at home. We saw an even better show the next day. To sum up, Bastille Day in Levallois was a little chunk of home far far away, or at least it would have been provided we were comfortable enough among the locals and their food to stick around. Stay tuned for even more Bastille Day fun.

Hmmm...

Metro Rats

Here I am fixin' to hop on the Metro line from the Louvre to home. Sara and I are only a few rides short of being officially inducted into the Metro Rat hall of fame. I think that the smell will come out of my clothes some time in late 2009. One thing for sure is that the metro is a lot more tolerable when it is cold outside, needless to say, it was a pretty nasty experience most of the time, but we got around the city for realy cheap. I miss Nermal (my car).

Un Lion à Paris / The Inverse Pyramid

During my first trip into the depths of the Louvre I couldn't find the now legendary Inverse Pyramid. This was back in my youthful single days here in France's capital. Once Sara came out and showed me around we finally came across it. I guess my problem was that I figured it would be right close to the big pyramid, but boy was I wrong, the inverse pyramid is hidden away back behind the security check in the little mall sorta thing way out towards one of the exits. We were very lucky to find someone who was able to take a good picture (always ask oriental people) of us in front of it. This guy even waited until all the people were away from it, making it look even more like we were there on some sort of religious trek to kneel over the alleged chamber underneath. Or something like that. Anyhow, on the way out we decided that it would be in our best interst to walk into the book store and check things out. Of course we were completely dumbfounded by all the neat books we wanted to buy, and sad that we couldn't. Instead we ended up going to the Louvre Bookstore For Kids, where things are a bit less overwhelming and the shelves a lot less tall. This ended up being a great choice because we found the most amazing little book in there; Un Lion à Paris. This book is a synopsis of my time in Paris all alone, as though I were a lion. Even the title is appropriate. It is so good, and very funny. I'll have to read it to you sometime. See how sad I am looking into the Seine with only strangers nearby. Boohoo.

Whistle Lady and the Regent Diamond

Hey look, we're inside the Louvre. I find it impossible to ever know where you are while inside this terribly huge building. We'll be walking and walking and eventually I get to wondering how in the world we will ever get out, and then about that time I find myself right back where I started from. Every so often you'll come across a window looking into the courtyard, yet there will be no way out in either direction, as though the window was just taunting you, and the people outside are basking in their freedom while I am consigned to be lost in the Louvre unitl I die. Don't get me wrong, I really like the place, but after a while, my brain and I really need a bit of fresh air. Here's a funny story though, after walking along what must have been about nineteen miles of gallery filled with shiny furniture we came across (intentionally) ol' King Louis XV's crown, and the regent diamond. In what has become an instinctual reaction I turned on the video camera and started filming away. After only a few seconds some museum lady whistled at me and said "no cameras" in a less than kind fashion. Apparently, there is a tiny little sign posted on the other end of the gallery facing the incoming crowd. How dare I not see that! There were probably about three other malefactors doing the same thing before we left the exhibit. You'd think someone (whistle lady) would get smart and put a sign NEXT TO THE EXHIBIT!! I guarantee you, if I'd had known I wouldn't have even thought about filming it, but now that I know it forced the whistle lady to work a bit harder, I'm glad I did. If anyone wants to see footage of Louis' crown, come on over. By the way, the Regent Diamond is 141 carats and has been in the crowns of Louis XV, Napolean Bonaparte, Charles X, Louis XVIII, and Napolean III. It was also used as an adornment in one of Marie Antoinette's hats, and as a jewel on the hilt of Napolean's sword. In 1791 its apraised value was £480,000, which means it is currently worth a whole lot more.

The Green Giants

For the last year or so everytime Sara and I went to a new city it was so that she could participate in a conference for work, and I would come along for the ride. It was a little bit odd to have things the other way around this time. Usually while I was at work Sara would spend the entire day at a museum and I would meet her there at about six thirty. I'm still not sure how she was able to stay at a museum the entire day, I get tired after about four hours. I guess one doesn't get tired of looking at what he or she loves. About twice a week (days vary for each museum) most Parisian museums are open until nine thirty, thus, when I went to pick up Sara on this day spent the rest of the evening at the Louvre. She gave me the grand tour, including the dungeon and the ancient mote and room after room of paintings by famous folks. I discovered that the best way to do the Louvre is quickly, stopping only at the stuff that interests you. I really liked the four green guys pictured above. They are huge!! The expressions on each ones' face is perfect, and unique, and I love how the sculptor took such detail in portraying not only them, but what is going on around them. The scultpures at the Louvre are really neat, we spent a lot of time looking at them. Man that building is huge!

Fancy French Food

Here we are in front of the restraunt, as photographed by an American tourist who had had a few too many glasses of wine. We absolutely recommend dinner on the Eiffel Tower to anyone even thinking about going to Paris. You really ought to put this on your list of things to do before you die. After dinner we walked around the first floor there and admired Paris from far above late at night. I still have no idea why they call this place the city of lights because it has no more lights than any other city I've been to. Perhaps it got the reputation a long time ago when few cities had lights. Can anyone explain this to me? Sorry we didn't get any pictures of the night time view, but I really doubt they would have been any good as all the landmarks were dark. It ended up being kind of cold and windy up there, so I had to hold on to Sara really tight to keep her warm and stationary, I didn't want her to get blown off the tower. We could taste that food for about three days after we ate there, but it wasn't like we had bad breath, it's more like French food stays there and never lets you forget how wonderful it is until days later. Remember, however, that I'm talking about classy French food here, not the boulangerie/café surprise, that stuff is in a whole different realm which I could talk about forever, but will spare you.

Altitude 95

The name of the restraunt on the Eiffel Tower's first floor is Altitude 95, but it ought to be called Cloud 9. This place offers the prime cuisine of what I've experienced in Paris. Of course, I haven't been to a lot of fancy restraunts in the area, mostly because I don't have wine taste, or even beer taste, I'm limited to Coke taste. This is a fact that has made the trip quite a bit cheaper, but no less romantic. The restraunt is set up to look like the interior of an airship akin to those used at the time that the Eiffel Tower was built. The decor is great, but it didn't really have to be, since you're having dinner on the world's most famous monument. Honestly, when you come home you won't be going off on how lovely the wall paper was, you'll be bragging to all your friends about the view and the atmosphere. Sorry these pictures aren't perfect, I was in a bit of a hurry since I felt wildly out of place taking pictures at a restraunt that had escargot, truffles and duck on the menu. You'll see the view of a beautiful sunset over La Défense behind Sara and the view of the innards of the Eiffel Tower over my shoulder. We were there from daylight to nighttime and got to see all the beauty inbetween, including the flashes of the lights on the tower as it sparkled towards the end of our meal. And what a meal it was! I had chicken all stuffed with sausage and swimming about in some sort of sweet potato sauce, and Sara had a steak all covered in truffle butter. Truffle butter! The prices weren't exaclty Applebees, but neither was the food, so we left with smiles on our faces. I've got some more to say, but I best be getting to the next blog to say it. What's the point of doing such a thing if I can't brag to my friends and family about it for a long long time?

Altitude 0

Thanks to the wonderful suggestion from Sara's Aunt Janet, we had the most incredible evening that Paris can offer to its thousands of tourists. The two of us got all dressed up in our fancy clothes and took a romantic metro ride to the Eiffel Tower, where we took the lift up to the first floor and had a gourmet French dinner! It was definitely one of the best nights I've ever had with my dear sweetheart. Look how beautifully gorgeously pretty she is all dressed up underneath the Eiffel Tower. My picture isn't so bad either, I think my smile is living proof of how honored I was to be able to show off to all the tourists how pretty of a girl ended up marrying such a funny-lookin' guy. We're a cute couple, huh? I made reservations at the restraunt for nine o'clock, and its a good thing, too, because the super mean elevator ticket lady wouldn't even consider letting us up there unless we had reservations, even then we still had to pay the standard first floor elevator price. That lady was way super mean. Fortunately, the staff in the restraunt didn't follow suit, so our evening was perfect. Has anyone else noticed that only one fifth of my head is face parts? The rest is hair forehead and chin. What a strange looking fellow.

Love 'im and Leave 'im

Hey ho everyone out there, I just got back from dropping off my wife at the airport, not to see her again for three whole weeks! Isn't that terribly sad? Three weeks is nothing compared to the nine we've already spent apart, but it is a lot compared to the years we've spent together. I think I am going to go home now and eat some dinner because I am pretty hungry, and very interested in drowning away my loneliness in a big glass of coke. Anyhow, I promise that there will be a bunch of blogs coming your way, I've got so many pictures that are blog worthy that I can't even count them all. As for tonight, I hope everyone is doing well, but I'm off to the corner store to buy some cola. Au revoir.

Australia in Paris

The Paris metro system is laid out nearly perfectly; to the point that there are few places in the entire city that are more than a block away from a metro station. Oddly enough, one of those places that require a good deal of walking from the metro is the Eiffel Tower. The building is right in the center of a ring of metro stations, all of them being a good distance away. Isn't that weird? Because of this, we tend to get to the famous structure from different stations each time, allowing us to see all the sights on the way to the sight. Here's a picture of Sara standing to the side of the Australian Embassy, which we happened upon en route to dinner at Altitude 95 (more on that to come). We thought it would be appropriate to take a picture, in tribute to the international status that we find our family in. Sara's brother, Tyler, is currently serving an LDS misison about seven thousand miles to the South East in Sydney, Australia, while we are five thousand three hundred miles from home in Paris. I've always considered it pretty neat that all of us country folk have had so many great opportunities to travel. George Harrison was wrong, the further one travels, the MORE one really knows, says I. But here's a chunck of Australia in downtown Paris. Funny how I am still not one hundred percent sure where the American Embassy is in Paris, but I know the way to about twenty other ones. Weird.

Nose Water at the Gardens of Luxembourg

Gardens and parks in Paris are absolutely gorgeous. Its an odd thing really, places like the Champ de Mars and the squares in front of churches have little to nothing in the way of landscaping and flowers, whereas, we will often come across the most beautiful gardens in the middle of the city. I've posted a lot of pictures of the Gardens of Luxembourg before, so I'll just throw out a few good ones that Sara and I took while there two Mondays ago. My favorite is the one to the left there. Yep, that's a nose and a mouth coming out of the water. Pretty weird, huh? Doesn't Sara look pretty in front of a bunch of flowers? Notice the palm tree out in the distance, we felt like we were in a tropical paradise right here in urban Paris. We had a good sit in front of the fountain in the gardens and watched the people do their things. We then climbed up the hill to the Pantheon where we took some pictures of the exterior since the inside was closed. Go figure. I'll go into the Pantheon after Sara leaves and get some great pictures of famous dead people. In the end I decided to deem Sara and I's promenade through the Latin Quarter a success, even though we never patronized any of the famous bistros along the way. I think we plan on doing that on Friday night (two days before she goes home). Maybe I ought to figure out what in the world a bistro is, huh?

Saint Sulpice

We made it to Saint Sulpice, and its a good thing too, because a few more steps probably would have been the death of us in that terrible heat. Unfortunately, just as we got there, the doors slammed shut, causing us to miss out on the Delacroix paintings, the rose line, and the obelisque that are inside. This was enough to frustrate us quite a bit, so we left in a bit of a huff. I guess we are still accustomed to our museum/sight-seeing time out in Washington DC, where every building and monument had free admission and didn't close at the most inconvenient and random of times. At any rate, here's a picture that Sara took of the façade, notice that the spire on the left is still broken and in a cast. Also, please enjoy this internet picture of the gnomon inside the chruch. It was used as an ancient calendar, in conjunction with a series of lenses which caused a sun ray to run along the brass line, reaching the tip of the obelisque at noon on the spring equinox. All you faitful Da Vinci Code fans know all about this. I may have mentioned this before, but there's a big sign up by the obelisque that pretty much discounts that Dan Brown was ever born and that anyone who has so much as heard of his book will likely become part of the pavement on the road to hell. All the more reason for me to want to read it again. Wouldn't the church be better off just saying nothing at all, rather than draw everyone's attention to it? By the way, Saint Sulpice is Paris' second largest church (Notre Dame being the first).

Saint Germain des Pres

During our sweaty walk from The Louvre to Saint Sulpice we came across the former Abbey Saint Germain Des Pres. This building is relatively unkown to the tourist, but seems to often escape the lips of the native French person, probably since he or she uses it as a reference to the area around it. "Hey French Person", I might say, "Where is the café of the two maggots?" The French person would certainly respond by saying (In French), "what are you talking about you silly American?" I would then try to repeat the question in French, clearing my throat on every 'r' saying my "u" sounds with my lips nearly closed, and not saying any of the letters in the last two thirds of my words. The French person would then understand me and say, in perfect English, "Over there by the former Abbey Saint Germain Des Pres." In looking up the history of the building, there really isn't anything too special about it, except for the fact that it has been burnt down and rebuilt something like five times. How can a building made completely of stone be "burnt down"? I don't know, but apparently the French revolutionists sure did, because this is what occupied most of their time from 1789 to 1800.

Les Deux Magots

This is the café Les Deux Magots, located across the street from the Saint Germain des Pres church, on the left bank of the Seine, not too far from Saint Sulpice and the Pantheon. Of all the famous café/restraunts in Paris, this is probably the one that has attained the prestige of being on a wall calendar more often than all the rest. And the feat is well meritted, seeing how it not only features outrageous prices and a romantic atmosphere (as measured in average number of wine glasses per table), but the café is also teaming with significant Parisian history which includes, as you might have guessed, Ernest Hemingway and Pablo Picasso. The café started off as a silk and drapery store way back in 1813, taking its name from a successful play at the time. It was later turned into a wine bibbery (possibly the coolest word in the entire blog) and later a café. Throughout the years all sorts of famous artists and authors have frequented the café, and since 1933 the prestigious "Les Deux Magots" award has been awarded to the year's most outstanding French novel (none of which I've ever heard of). The word Magot means "nest egg" according to my terrible internet French-to-English converter, but is really meant to reference a Chinese merchant who were for some reason called Magots back in the day. There is supposedly a pillar in the café which features two Magots etched in its stone, retaining the name of the restraunt. We didn't eat there, probably because we're not fond of French food, nor French prices. There are likely few tourists about because they all assume the title is interpreted as "The Two Maggots", which would be a much more interesting translation, though one prone to a much shorter history.

The Da Vince Code at The Louvre

Look who we came across at the Louvre! Also, I had to include the picture on the bottom there because I think it is pretty good. I figure that since I am posting Louvre pictures I ought to say that Sara and I went to see The Da Vinci Code on Saturday right there on the Champs Élysées. No, I didn't feel bad about spending Paris time watching a movie that could have just as easily been seen at home, it was so hot outside, that we needed a break in the air conditioning. Besides, its not very often you get to see the Summer's Blockbuster in the city that it was filmed. Paris has fallen deeper in love with The Da Vinci Code than America has, so I would call watching the movie a cultural experience anyhow. The film was really good, and I recommend it to everyone. The star studded cast is perfect, and the screenplay is just close enough to the book to not irritate you, but far enough away from it to keep your attention. We saw the movie in Version Originale, where they just throw the French subtitles on the bottom, however, whenever a conversation occurrs in French, the English subtitles are not put on the screen. This makes it a bit tough, since a significant portion of the movie is in French. Having read the book like three times, I didn't miss much of the plot though. Ron Howard asked permission from the Louvre curator to shoot scenes of the movie in the Louvre, but he said absolutely not. Later on, Ron got a call from Jacques Chirac himself, requesting a lunch appointment wherein he was given permission to shoot his movie wherever he wanted to in France, including the Louvre and Saint Sulpice and that if he had anymore problems to just let him know. Take that curator man! It was a good show, go see it. It was air conditioned and in English! Wahoo! By the way, the Louvre has had a 20% increase in number of visitors since Dan Brown's book came out, why the curator would refuse to have the movie done in the Louvre I have no idea. Real genius is often crowded out by incredible ego.

How to Do The Louvre

One of Sara's life long dreams has been to be able to just spend days at Parisian museums. Here is her big chance. While I am at work Sara usually spends the day at The Louvre, and I meet her there afterwards. Here she is after spending her first full day there. It is not easy to avoid turning into a zombie while in the Louvre for longer than a few hours. Its a historical building full of priceless things to look at, but sometimes a person just gets tired of standing in front of works of art and taking it all in. I suggest that a person spends no longer than four or five hours in the Louvre in one day. Sara has taught me that the best way to look through such a huge museum is to pretty much run through with your eyes set on scan and then stop to look at the ones that catch your eye, regardless of who painted what. This is certainly a good idea. After I picked up Sara from the Louvre we went on a bit of a walk around the area and came across some pretty neat stuff. Its kinda cool to tell your wife as you walk out the door to go to work that you'll meet her at the Louvre pyramid at six thirty.

Sara's Versailles Day Photos

These are some original Sara photos taken on Versailles day. The Grand Canal on the bottom and the mini Statue of Liberty (as taken from the Metro window) on top. Not so bad, eh? She has a much steadier hand than I do, so her zoomed in pictures look pretty great. That was a fun little trip.

Some Versaillesian Fountains

There were so many fountains that Sara found that I never came across that I felt like I had gone to the wrong castle. Holy cow! Louis XIV really needed to take a class on how to be more frugal because there was no expense spared in the building of his little manor. To the left is a fountain out in the hedges that features some golden fellow trying to break out from underneath the ground. This has got to be nearly the coolest fountain I've ever seen. He's all spittin water up high and there's all sorts of little water streams coming up from the ground like lava and stuff. You've got to zoom up on this guy. Look how even the chunk of dirt he is holding onto is gushing out water. What a neat place! We went back to this fountain to eat our lunch but for some crazy psycho reason that we haven't figured out yet, they decided to close it off like five hours before closing time. What?! The other fountain was in a little section of the gardens that I didn't even know existed until my map master wife introduced me to it. And its a good thing she did too, because all the fountains had sea shells and statues in them and they were gorgeous. There are just too many fountains at Versailles to even count, and I recommend over and over to anyone going to Paris that you must get to the palace on a Sunday afternoon or else you'll be coming home having missed the best part of the country! I kid you not. You'll have to see our video, we tried to get a little bit of all the fountains we could find. It's pretty neat stuff.

Sara at Her Palace

I had been looking forward to taking Sara out to Versailles from the first day I ever saw the place. We've always been big fans of going for walks in parks and gardens, and I knew that the palace would be our cup of tea. The best day to go to Versailles is on Sunday, since they turn the fountains on in the afternoon for about two hours. You have just enough time to get home from church, change clothes, make some Nutella sandwiches, get on the metro and get to the castle just before the fountains come on. Here is Sara waiting in front of the biggest fountain in the area. It was a really hot day, the first of many, so we were all lotioned down and full of sunglasses. Isn't this place gorgeous? It wasn't as full of people as I had expected, perhaps because the final game of the World Cup was to be played that afternoon, and all the natives were out preparing for the parites. We asked someone to take our picture for us, and they did. Unfortunately the took in such a way that for all we know the picture was taken in New Mexico. I swear that is Versailles! I didn't do anything with my hair that day because I had originally planned on wearing one of those powdery wigs in order to fit with the era, but I couldn't find the wig anywhere. Eventually the fountains turned on and were off like lights in order to see them all before the time was up. I'll just include pictures of our favorite fountains, as you can check out some of the rest from previous posts.

Sara On Montparnasse

We had originally slated the entire day out at Chartres and when we got home at three thirty or so we had an entire evening to fill. I figured that I would drag Sara up to the top of the Tour Montparnasse, since the train station to Chartres happens to be at the base of the 210 meter building. After our 38 second elevator ride, we spent an hour looking out on Paris from high above. We took a bunch more pictures of this, but I suppose that I will spare you from them since I included something like a million of them in the blog already. Don't worry though, we got a lot of video of me quickly scanning the city and zooming in on famous buildings. Should you somehow be conned into watching this video, I recommend dramamine as a munchie. Isn't Sara a cute little woman? Her shirt says Roxy, but it ought to say Foxy.

My Synopsis on French Dairy

Its not like Chartres is out in the wine country or anything, but is is certainly far enough away from Paris to consider it the country. Somewhere amidst the whining and flirting of the spoiled-little-rich-kids tourist group accompanying us on the train to Chartres we were able to snap some pictures of the green fields between Versailles and Chartres. One of those pictures includes these cows. This is the perfect time to bring up our latest quandry about French lifestyle. Sara and I have discovered that the French excel beyond our wildest dreams at the manufacture of dairy products (are goats considered dairy?). The cheese, ice cream and yogurt in the country are absolutely wonderful, and will be missed. However, we have also found that we can't find a glass of real milk anywhere, the only thing available is that nasty cupboard kind of milk that sort of tastes like preservatives. Where has all the good milk gone? Afterall, wasn't Louis Pasteur French? This is a tragedy for Sara who is a lactose addict, but good news for me since I scream for ice cream. But enough of this, you'll notice the other picture here, which was taken from the back yard of the cathedral. Isn't it gorgeous?! We only stayed at Chartres for two hours. Cathedrals are really neat on the outside, but all a bit the same on the inside. It was a good trip.

The Chartres Cathedral

During art classes of yester-year Sara had been told that one of the hot spots for stained glass and architecture was the Chartres Cathedral, just South West of Paris. I did a bit of research and discovered that the cathedral is France's largest, and that it features a gothic style spire AND a romanesque style spire. Such information left me chomping at the bit to go check it out, plus we were both in the mood to see a bit of the French country side en route, so off we went to Chartres. The train ride there was only an hour, and not very expensive; the only real problem we had in getting to the place is that it is completely impossible for any American to correctly pronounce the word "Chartres", so many ticket vendors were confused. Not to complain, but you'd think that someone who's sole job is to sell train tickets to tourists wanting to go to Chartres wouldn't have to look smug and say "Pardon" three times as I pronounced the word over and over again. I believe the key is to do a lot of snorting. The Cathedral had everything we had hoped for; largeness and stained glass. Those spires are pretty neat, eh? I guess I ought to note that the actual name of the cathedral is The Cathedral de Notre Dame de Chartres, the big Cathedrals are always named after Mary, as she seems to be quite the inspirational figure.

My Work Commute

Just a few short comments here. You'll see me all dressed up in my cute work outfit walking home there on the left. Now that Sara walks around town with me, I have a lot more pictures of pretty old buildings since she has a better eye for that sort of thing than I do. When I walk home from work my eyes spend most of their time looking down so that my feet don't spend most of their time stepping in dog offerings. Anyhow, I deemed this picture blog worthy since there are Italian flags hanging from yonder windows, and I must mention that Italy won the World Cup two Sundays ago, beating out France during the Super Double Overtime penaly kicks. We don't have TV in our apartment, so we weren't able to watch the game, but we knew exactly what the outcome was as we saw very sad French people walking home waving their blue white and red with a little less enthusiasm than they had while the match was on. Dang, I was hoping France would go all the way. Oh well, there's always four years from now.

I figured I ought to also include this photo of the Smart Car that we came across on the way home. We couldn't help but notice the likeness of this car to Sara's cat, Tinker, who is evil. If this car is anything like the cat it is portraying, I would hate to come across it on the road, as I am sure it would be chasing after me for miles, its horn growling. I like the motto for the cat food company advertised; "As good as it is beautiful". I am sure that the cat food tastes as good as it looks.

Seine Sights

There were two landmarks that I just had to get a picture of as we were floating along the Seine. To the left there is the prison, surrounding Saint Chapelle, where the revolutionists kept Marie Antoinette and most of the French royals. Looks quite dismal, doesn't it? The Place de La Concorde, where she was guillotined is just across the bridge and down the way, but history said they paraded her about the city for a long long time before they took her to her fate. Down below and to the right is a picture, taken quickly as the buildings got further and further away, of Paris' skinniest house. You can see it there between to two larger buildings. I'll definitely go and get a better picture later on, but I just couldn't help but post this one, since it was taken from quite a different angle. It is obvious that this house has laid off the crême broulée and the goat cheese.