We took the train to Versailles today. Maybe because we are all feeling a bit worn down (I was tired and had a low grade headache, and we’d gotten up extra early), we just couldn’t deal with the tour of the Chateau. Ungodly numbers of tourists, dark stuffy interiors mostly, and the famous Hall of Mirrors was undergoing renovation and thus all under wraps. So it was a downer, not […]
The explanation for this strange thing: is apparently contained here: Sorry we didn’t get it all, but could some of our better-French speaking correspondents please post the translation of what we did get? Merci. Added 2 August 2005: Thanks to Paul Kay for this translation, which we have confirmed from the highest sources is accurate and “exactly the story.” Too bad we didn’t take a picture of the whole sign, […]
We decided over the weekend to cancel the car trip to Normandy we had planned. Given how exhausting the drive was from Germany to Paris, and the hassles with the car, and the work of packing and unpacking everything yet again, and the constant news reports about how packed and slow the highways are because of the beginning of the vacation period (for some, and apparently the end for others), […]
Random thoughts after two weeks in Paris…. (1) We have been surprised at the disparity among the cost of various items when compared to their relative cost in the United States. Some things are much more expensive: gasoline, of course (I had the pleasure of a $110 fill-up during the trip to Luxembourg), but also clothing (particularly men’s shirts, for some reason; common white cotton dress shirts run about $55 […]
My mother wanted to hear a free organ concert in a cathedral called St. Sulpice today. The concert (really just a mini-recital or something, it lasted about 25 minutes) was very good, the same sort of experience we had in the other church, with the huge organ pipes echoing sound all up and through the vast stone space. But unknown to (or unremembered by) me was the fact that St. […]
Today was our day to hit the stores. We took the Metro to Place de la Bastille, then walked around (delayed by several downpours) the Place des Vosges, where Suzie bought several prints, then walked to the Marais, where we found the best deal we’ve found so far in Paris for lunch, at a place called La Locandiera — an excellent satisfying lunch for 5, including coffees, for 25 euros. […]
The last two days were the most relaxed we’ve had. On Friday, we split up because Suzie and my mom wanted to shop. In the morning I took the boys to the Musee des Arts et Metiers, which contains exhibits about the invention of various things. Housed in a handsome cathedral built between the 11th and 13th centuries, it was very well done, displaying the artifacts according to various themes […]
Yesterday we did things that you’d expect tourists in Paris to do: We visited St. Chapelle (noted for its stained glass; it was beautiful, but somehow not quite as spectacular as I expected), climbed the towers of Notre Dame (the boys and I anyway, more on this later), and toured the Luxembourg Garden (by far the most beautiful spot in Paris, in my opinion). Our day started out, as it […]
This is a mini-post for my attorney friends in Santa Rosa. We visited St. Chapelle yesterday, which is surrounded by the French courts. As a result, we had to go through a thorough security check to get in the complex, but once we were in, we were free to walk about the complex. The boys and I got adventurous, and found our way into the main court building. I asked […]
Some have noted that I left hanging the question of whether we ever found the right parking spot (a critical part of this narrative, to be sure). It turns out that the Mechalis had written the wrong number on the information sheet they left us. Their space is 187, not 87, so we ended up in the right space after all.