Au revior

Day 171
I got up at a descent time and packed up my stuff before I left for Paris. This was my last day, I had a night train to Hamburg at the end of the day.

When I got to Paris I walked up to Mont Martre, a hill that is above Paris. I had a bit of a problem with the scammers who try to tie a bracelet on people and then get money from them. I gave the guy my best don´t mess with me look though and he backed down.

At the top I took a walk around and tried to avoid the droves of tourists and guys trying to draw their pictures. I had thought that I would have lunch up here, but wasn´t the least big hungry. Instead I headed straight for the history museum. Apparently20the tourists haven´t found this place yet, it was almost empty.

Mont Martre started as a religious settlement. The Romans even had a temple here. Fast forward a few hundred years. Mont Martre was not considered to be part of Paris and was therefore not taxed. The once religious hill became a center of debauchery. Cabarets opened up, bars were overflowing and I´m sure there were some brothels mixed in as well. Artists flocked here and even Renoir lived here for a bit. Eventually it was incorporated into Paris and is now a really cute place to wander in.

I still wasn´t hungry when I finished the museum but felt compelled to have a street crepe. Yum. I walked down the opposite side of the steps thinking I would avoid the bracelet guys. The ones over here were much more aggressive though and when I ignored one of them he hit me on the shoulder as I walked past. I wanted to call him some names, but decided that I should really just keep moving. By the time I was close to the train station I was hungry and I grabbed some fast food.

Back in Langy I accidentally took a nap. I hadn´t meant to do that, I wanted to sleep on the train. It wasn´t long before I had to say goodbye to everyone. It was really sad.

Eliane took me to the town across the way and we fed the swans some bread before checking out the church. Saying goodbye to Eliane was re ally very sad. I had had such a great time talking20to her. I know that I will keep in touch though.

I got to Gare du Nord about 20 minutes before my train left. I had a beer in the restaurant car before calling it a night.

Charting the Course

Day 170
I got myself up earlier than I had been all week. I just made it by about 20 seconds for the 8 am train to Paris. I then raced to Montparnasse train station and ran for a train to Chartres. A little over an hour later I was there.

Chartres is a small town with a massive cathedral. I headed right for it. Well, it would have been really hard to miss, it was the absolute biggest thing in town. I was a bit disappointed that there was scaffolding on the front, but it was still beautiful. Inside it was much like the other medieval cathedrals that I have been to. Several of the French monarchs were buried here, but I couldn´t seem to find their memorials. The cathedral dates back to 1230, but sits on the foundations of a much older church.

The stained glass windows were just amazing. They have whole books you can buy on them, I declined though. Even without detailed descriptions I still found them to be memorizing. The stone sculptures around the apse were also stunning.

One of the main reasons for visiting this cathedral is the stunning labyrinth built into the floor. I had been looking forward to completing it and was really disappointed when there were chairs all over it. I only got a picture of part of it.

I wanted to take a tour of the crypts next but it didn't start20for about 3 hours. I explored Chartres for a bit but eventually ran out of streets to check out. I then did the next best thing I could come up with, I ate crepes. The crepes in France are so wonderful, I don´t know what I will do without them. I also spent some time writing in my journal.

The crypt tour was quite possibly the worst tour I have been on so far. It wasn´t in English and I was given a piece of paper to read about each of the highlights. They were all numbered, of course, the woman giving the tour in French didn´t go to each point in the same order and I had a lot of problems trying to figure out what was what. She also talked a lot about everything. I had the entire paper read before she even finished going over the first part. I was getting very sleepy. I took some probably not allowed pictures when the guide wasn´t looking. The main relic down there was Mary´s veil. I couldn´t seem to find it though, so I don´t know if I actually saw it or not. The frescoes were quite nice, I just couldn´t understand what their significance was.

After about an hour th e group was lead outside and she began pointing to carvings. Th ere was nothing on my paper about the out side and I simply walked away. I didn´t want to be rude, but I was really beyond bored by the whole thing.

I slept for the entirety of the train ride back to Paris. At Montparnasse while I waited in line to buy a metro ticket the woman ahead of me got into a yelling match with the ticket guy. After a while a guy behind him came out and helped me to use the machine to buy a ticket.

Back in Langy I had another wonderful dinner with everyone and chatted with Eliane. I have had such a good time here, leaving will be hard.

Now and Then

Day 169
After a nice breakfast with Eliane I commuted into Paris once again. I decided to start with the Pompidou Center and the Museum of Modern Art. I thought that the building was really pretty ugly and the touts outside trying to sell stuff were really annoying. I´m also not a huge moder n art person. I had heard really good things about this museum though and felt that it was time that I checked it out.

The museum was anything but disappointing. There were detailed descriptions of each painting and movement. This really helped me to understand pieces that would have been really baffling. Most I would have just written off as crap.

However, I don´t think any type of description could adequately explain to me why there was a room full of inflatable furniture. I might have some new decorating ideas though. A living room full of clear plastic air filled furniture might be in my future. Some of the sculptures were really nice. I especially liked a life sized red rhino. The thing was huge! There was another sculpture of a man and a woman hugging, the woman was also kissing another man who was standing behind. I guess it was a threes a crowd metaphor. For unknown reasons a wicker airplane had hundreds of pairs of scissors protruding out from it. From the roof deck I got a really good view of the Eiffel Tower and Mont Martre.

Upstairs 0there were several rooms with works by Henri Matisse. He´s been a new favorite of mine since I visited his house in Nice. There were also some nice Piccassos and Dalis to examine.

When I had finished pondering art I walked to St. Sulpice. I think this was in t he Da Vinci Code, but I didn´t recognize anything. I then headed down the street to the Chapel of Notre Dame de la Medaille to check out some mummies. There was a huge number of people here and I thought that there might be a service starting. Turns out there was and I didn´t get to see the dead nuns for long. I then stumbled upon the church I had been looking for yesterday in a totaly different area of the city than my guidebook had said it was in. It was closed though, so no more mummies for me today.

After a bit more of a walk I came to the Rodin Museum. This was phenomenal. There were several statues of couples that seemed to be breaking out of the rock they were carved in while embarrassing moments. It was just amazing. For some reason there were also a Van Gogh and a Monet. I don´t know why. The statues were just so amazing, I counted myself very lucky that photography was allowed. Rodin's carvings were so expressive, they seemed almost lifelike to me.

Once I was finished here I headed to the Gare de l`Est via the metro. I got a bit confused though and ended up switching lines quite a few times before finally getting there. That evening I tried to do a bit of blogging, but mostly I just chatted with Eliane. Before sleeping I watched a bit of The Holiday. Eliane had lent me her portable dvd player and she had loads of movies to choose from . I might never leave!

Long Walk Paris Style

Day 168
Today was Tuesday and the day that museums are closed here. Eliane made me a real American breakfast of pancakes and we chatted some more before I headed it. I really didn´t know I had that many things to say. I hope that I wasn´t too boring!



When I got to Paris I headed straight into Notre Dame. The plan had been to go inside and find Quasimodo (I had missed him last time) but the line reached Rome and I declined. Instead I went searching for a nearby church. I never did find the church, but I did find the crepe place that I had eaten at with my Uncle Steven on one of my first days in Paris on St. Louie. I decided to go here again, it was as good as I remembered it.

After lunch I kept looking for the church but instead found a store that sold American food. I bought a root beer and a pack of nerds. The root beer wasn´t too expensive, but my excitment about the nerds made me not realize that they cost almost $3 until I had started to eat them. They are only $0.75 in the States! Forget eating nerds, I am a nerd.

I then happened to find the Musee Carnavalet, this was on my list, just not expected at this monument. It was however open and free (two of my favorite words) so I decided to check it out. The museum has random objects from Paris in chronological order. It seemed to me that the collection was made up of nice pieces that didn´t quite fit into any other museum. Some of the gargoyle's posed for me and I found several of the paintings to be rather good. Many of the rooms were right out of long forgotten palaces. There were also several models of what the Bastille (really big prison) had looked like. The Carnavalet Museum was quite large, but as much as I wanted to be there, I don´t think I was really in a museum mood. I went through it all quite fast and didn´t even bother with most of the section on the revolution.

Strangely, after I left the museum I found a Kiels. I had thought this was a New York only institution and was pretty surprised.

I then headed to the 12th arrondissement for a little walking tour. My uncle had lived here for20several years and had sent me an email with places to check out. I started by walking along the viaduct of the arts. This is an elevated pathway. I wish that it had been a slightly shadier pathway. It was really cool though to be walking among the rooftops of Paris.

After the path I came to a bridge. Loads of people were hanging out underneath it, some had brought their dogs. One family brought their rabbit. I´m not kidding. I then found a rather large fountain with lions spitting water out of their mouths. I tried to get a picture of me in front of it and grabbed the first person walking by to help. He spoke some English and asked if I wanted the fountain in the background, I said yes. The first picture was of me and a car, for the second one he zoomed in to get a better look at my cleavage. How would he think that I wouldn´t notice that? When I got my camera back he told me that he didn´t want to be forward but that I was very cute and he would like to have dinner with me. He was wearing socks and sandels (a total deal breaker) so I had to decline. Plus, I had dinner plans already. I gave up on a good picture and continued on my way.

I then tried to find a monastery that Lafayette had been buried in. I was very much unsuccessful. Well, my feet hurt and I didn´t feel like walking around any longer. I had lied before though, my dinner plans were not confirmed so I set off to Gare de Lyon to find an internet cafe to see if I did in fact have plans. After more walking I found that I did. I called Eliane to tell her that I would not make it to dinner and headed off to my next stop.

Back in Siracusa I had met a really nice Parisian named Dorthee. We had kept in touch over the past few months and she was kind enough to invite me over to dinner. I couldn´t find her street on the map, but luckily each metro stop has very detailed maps and her tiny street showed up there.

Dorthee had made us a really fabulous soup and we had a great time catching up while her cat played with the cork from the wine bottle. At the end of the evening Dorthee walked me to the metro stop and pointed out the sparkling Eiffel Tower, it really was beautiful.

I was a bit worried that I would miss the last train but actually ended up on one an hour before that. I was tired when I got back, but it had been a very good day.

Paris from the top and bottom

Day 167
The plan was to wake up early and spend the day checking off sites from my list. I was up a bit early though and talking to Eliane was more interesting than taking an early train. I didn´t get into Paris until about noon.

My first stop was the Andre Citroen Park. As this is my second time really seeing Paris (I did it 6 years ago), I had seen the city from the Eiffel Tower and from the Arc de Triomphe, now it was time to see it from a balloon! Luckily there is a company that does ten minute hot air balloon rides. After waiting for some school group to go up, they all screamed as the balloon tipped on its accent, it was finally my turn.

I shouldn´t have made fun of the kids though, the balloon did tip quite a bit as we went up. I held on to the railing tightly but I didn´t scream. The view really isn´t as good as the other two I´ve had in Paris. I could only see part of the Eiffel Tower and non of the Arc de Triomph e. Still, I was in a hot air balloon and it was freaking cool! I had thought that everyone would move around to get a panoramic view, but they didn´t. In fact when I tried to move around I was given rather dirty looks. I asked a woman standing next to me to take my picture. The whole time she had my camera in her hands I was afraid that she would drop it, she was really off balance. She also seemed to have no concept that I wanted to be in the picture and not my feet, or just the top of my head, or the guy behind me. Instead I made a video myself of the experience, you can check it out on You Tube.

Once I was back down on the ground I decided to get a better view of the Eiffel Tower and walked about 20 minutes to get there. On the way I gave the guys selling cheap replicas my best don´t even bother look. It seemed to work. I must be improving. When I got to the base I took a couple of pictures. I didn´t go up though, the line reached all the way to Berlin and I didn´t want to wait in it.

My stomach was growling at this point and I stopped for a sandwich and a break. My feet were happy about this.

After lunch I stumbled on a monument that is a replica of the flame from the Statue of Liberty. This is very close to 0where Princess Diana was in a car accident and people seem to think that the monument is for her. There were flowers and letters scattered around it.

It took me a bit of searching to find my next stop, the sign wasn´t in English and I=2 0don´t speak French. Eventually I just went to what I thought might be the right place and it turned out to be it. I was visiting the Paris Sewer Museum. Why a sewer you might ask , well its different and unlike anything I have seen before.

The tour brings you through different tunnels with various gross smell levels. There are several displays on the machines used to clean out the sewers. Pretty gross. In several places the floor had a metal grate, I passed by these quickly, I didn´t want the grates to give in and me to plummet into I don´t want to know.

Until the middle ages drinking water was taken right out of the Seine. The larger the population grew though, the grosser this became. In 1370 the first sewers were constructed, well, it was really more like a drainage system without filtration. Over the next few hundred years different systems were tired. In 1850 the current sewer and water supply system was designed. The Paris sewer had 2,100 km of tunnels.

At the end of the museum I practically took a bath in the sink. I had been very careful not to touch anything, but still wanted to be sure. Overall, it was really sorta interesting.

When I came up the stairs the sunlight made me blink. I took a bit of a walk to the Arc de Triomphe. I didn´t go up this one either, I´d done it before and really just wanted the picture. Along the way I walked along the Champes - Elysees.

I still had time to make it too one more place. Had I realized how far away it was I might have given in and taken the metro, but I walked anyway. I was attempting to visit the Museum of Counterfeit Goods. Unfortunately even though I was there when it said it would be open the door was shut and no one answered when I rang the bell. I guess it was a counterfeit museum.

There wasn´t any time at this point to see anything else so I simply got on the metro and then on a train back home. After an accidental nap and dinner I chatted happily away with Eliane before bed.

Cats and Dogs

Day 166
It was raining when I got up. Yuck. Eliane and I spent a lot of time chatting over breakfast and it was quite late when I got going. I didn’t want to wander around in the rain so I headed straight to the Cluny Museum.

The Cluny holds an assortment of medieval artifacts. It began with some Islamic inspired art. I had no idea that the Moorish influence had traveled so far north. One room glowed with stained glass windows. The sculptures in the next room had belonged in Notre Dame at some point. Most of the rooms seemed to contain sculptures in various levels of wear and tear.

One room had a tapestry that told a story. I decided to make up my own to see how close I could get. Once upon a time there was a princess, she had lots of pets. She liked her unicorn best and often pet him. This made her monkey very jealous. To gain attention the monkey climbed on the princess. She punished him by putting a chain around his neck. In the end all was forgiven and they all had a big party under a tent. The set was actually about the five senses. I think mine was better.

Upstairs there was a collection of everyday things including bits of shoes and bowls. I liked the paintings the best. I have finally gotten to a point where I can appreciate religious art out of a church. This was a pretty fabulous museum, it also helped that I was given the under 25 price without even asking!

When I had finished with the museum I grabbed some lunch and worked on my journal. It was still raining and I decided to spend the rest of the day doing that, just catching up. After lunch I had a cup of tea to help me write.

I had hoped that the rain would stop and that I would be able to wander a bit, but this never happened. In the end I just headed back. Dinner was once again wonderful and the chatting even better. Eliane is a whole lot of fun to talk to. I also spent some time with blog before calling it a night.

Permanent Parisians

Day 165
After chatting with Eliane over breakfast I headed into the city. Commuting to Paris for a week was going to be fun.

My first stop was the Catacombs. Some time ago there was a big problem with overcrowding in cemeteries. They smelled and the bones were protruding from the earth. To clean up the city the bones were moved to the catacombs. They were arranged by the cemetery they had come from. Instead of just stacking them up people thought it would be more fun to arrange them artistically.

After waiting in line for about an hour I started down the 100 or so steps. I then followed several winding hallways. I hadn’t even gotten to the bones and it was already creepy. In fact, it seemed like forever before I even got to the really creepy part. Pictures were allowed, but only without flash. It seemed like I was the only one who had listened to this though.

Nestled among the bones were some famous people. I didn’t recognize any of them though. As much as I enjoy creepy things after about 20 minutes of bone lined hallways I was about done. I was almost happy to climb the 83 steps at the end. Up top there was a pile of skulls and bones, these were the ones that people had tried to steal that day. I don’t know how they ever caught anyone though, no one was there as I exited.

After getting lost and then giving up for a bit and just grabbing lunch I headed to the Pantheon. This is basically where some famous French guys were buried. There is also some nice artwork here. I paid my respects to Voltaire, Victor Hugo, and the Curries. It was odd, there were several crypts just sitting there empty. I don’t know if there was ever anyone there or if they were waiting for people to die.

Upstairs was a huge pendulum. Right next to it was a small cat statue. This had been a clue in the first season of the Amazing Race. This was really why I came!

When I exited the Pantheon I could see the Eiffel Tower. I had forgotten that this was here too.

I then walked back to the train station and waited in a very long line to book a ticket for my next night train. Eventually I ended up back in Lagny. After more good food Eliane and I chatted before heading off to bed.

3rd Times a Charm

Day 164
After about ten hours on the train I finally disembarked at Paris Nord. This was my third time in Paris on this trip but the first time I would see anything more than train stations. After walking to Gare du l’est I hopped on another train. This time for not quite 30 minutes. After that I made a quick phone call and just a few minutes later my ride arrived.

My Uncle Steven lived in Paris for about 12 years. During that time he met his wife Myna. They live in Florida now. Myrna’s sister, Eliane lives with her husband Rene and daughters Deborah and Johanna is a small town just outside of Paris called Lagny Thorigny. They were very nicely letting me stay with them for the next week. August certainly has been a nice month for this.

I had met everyone 6 years ago when I stayed with Uncle Steven for a week here. I was shocked at how tall Johanna and Deborah had gotten, they were both taller than me! The last time I had seen them they were 10 and 7 years old.

After a fabulous lunch and a few hours spent chatting with Eliane I headed into Paris to check out the Shakespeare and Co. bookstore. I was desperate for new books. After picking out a few things I headed right back to Lagny. I lucked out and got there just in time for dinner. After a lot more chatting I headed up to sleep feeling very much at home.