An American (or six!) in Paris

In the interests of traveling light, we did not pack our laptops -- only ipads.  For me, they are about the most annoying thing ever on which to type, hence my lack of posting.  As a result, you'll get the whole experience in one post!

The kids & I left for Paris on Wednesday, leaving Michael behind to work on his Italian and his job.  For those who were confused, let clarity reign! Because I have so many days to post and don't want it to be boring, this will be a photo essay...

Georges, the candy man, had a great eye for incorporating the classroom into his sweetshop.

You can see the little 50's style school posters

He was just like Willy Wonka, handing out his beloved sweets for the kids to enjoy!

How could anyone resist his smile?

It's hard to show in photos, but the glass jars & gorgeous colors were such a treat for the eye!

At the top of the Eiffel Tower

Jeremy loves his cameras and has a lot of fun experimenting with them.

Eleanor, meanwhile, thrives on looking like a fashion plate.

I loved these shoes...shown in the vignette of Eiffel & Edison.

This is a job I would NOT like, although they did have a circus net suspended under them, and they were clipped in well.

This is a church where we stopped to light a few candles for folks on our prayer list.

The cemetery at Montparnasse

A carving in the catacombs in Montparnasse.

Okay, I have to break out of photos to talk about the catacombs.  They were fascinating!  Apparently, there are huge quarries underneath the city of Paris, dating from who-knows-when.  Much of the old stonework in the city comes from these quarries.  At some point, the quarries were (I think) forgotten, and later (when there was a greater building density & weight on the surface), there were a few sinkhole issues.  Perhaps coincidentally, with greater population pressures, the Parisian cemeteries were bursting at the seams.  Someone had the bright idea to remove the remains to the existing quarry space - et, voilà! A solution!  Over the course of around 100 years, over 6 million (either bones or skeletons; I'm a bit hazy) sumpin' were moved.

The workmen also did some carvings in the stone that remains.  This carving above was done by a workman who had been imprisoned opposite this palace for many years (the placard didn't specify why).  After having observed this palace so minutely over such a long time, he was able to reproduce it from memory in the quarries.

To give an idea of the extent of these quarries, we walked on a long path (1.8 km long) that was fairly wide.  That represents 1/800th of the entire size of the underground caverns.  One interesting thing was the opportunity to observe a sinkhole from underneath!  It was bell-shaped, and had been reinforced with concrete from below.

An absolutely gorgeous illumination in Notre Dame

I don't think I'd like to find myself on this side at judgment day...

These carvings (and the ones depicted above) were at Sainte Chapelle, which I'd never seen.  Absolutely lovely! For more information...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sainte-Chapelle

All 5 present and accounted for!  I can't tell you how many times I counted noses on this trip!

I asked the docent why they had so many H's on the ceilings of the Louvre (and in other monuments).  He thought they were for Henri IV, but wasn't sure.  After some conversation, he & I were in agreement that they were actually for Hook.

Pretty nifty spoon, huh?

I thought he was marvelous!

This is what I will do to stray cats in my garden (just kidding!)...the mummified animals in the Egyptian section of the Louvre were highly entertaining to all of us.

A different style of mummification

A mummified ibex.

I had never seen these bead-cloths used as funerary equipment...very, very interesting, and absolutely beautiful workmanship!

I couldn't get a closeup, but these are some beautifully crafted miniatures.

I loved the coloration in the sarcophagi

We wondered why gilding on roofs is uncommon -- it's so beautiful!

Quite a bed, but I wouldn't want to meet Marie Antoinette's fate.

Eleanor & James at Versailles, with Jeremy calculating the number of cobblestones required for the pavement.

James loved seeing the pigeons taking a shower!

A James's-eye view of Notre Dame

James's take on the Eiffel Tower

This is the dome of the church where we attended Mass on Sunday.  

The altar and baldaquin

The kids liked the taxi in which we left, because the seats faced each other.

If you look closely, you can see that this is an Italian light fixture...one of the branches is held up by a ribbon!

Other notable memories: goat-cheese flavored Lay's potato chips, the racial diversity of the city (lots of Vietnamese and Africans -- we discussed the effects of colonization on this diversity), the bathtub/shower in the apartment (open to the bathroom -- no shower curtain -- and about 3 feet long, with the base divided so that half was much higher -- you sat on it!), the pastries, and the sheer expanse of Versailles!

Love,

Alexandra

An American in Paris

Just to confuse you further about the family whereabouts, tonight I attended a balletic performance of Gershwin's "An American in Paris". The family is, of course, on their way back to Todi from said city.

First, what do you do when you need performance space that can seat 1000+ in reserved seating? You close off the main piazza, of course. Tonight all the entrances to the piazza, including the only road through the center of town, were barricaded off so the piazza was available only to ticket holders. Having seen this routine last night for a different event I had my ticket ready.

Ballet never has been my favorite, but by partway through "An American in Paris" I had decided it was really great--kind of an early version of the music video. Gershwin's music is wonderful, and the scenes had a lot of energy and personality without any real need to transmit a story line.

Unfortunately the work is only 15 minutes, and at 18 Euros for the cheap seats that would be a bit steep. The second piece listed on the ticket (no program, of course) was Ravel's "Boléro", which is also 15 minutes. What to do? Insert other pieces you like to dance, of course.

The little I could understand in the announcement said that the next piece was something Vivaldi. Not wanting to distract from the dancing itself, the dancers performed in grey underwear. Since we had descended into dance "interpretation" I was pretty lost.

Things went further amiss with the next piece, which was announced as a tango. It was either multiple pieces or one that was in a half dozen movements. They decided to wear clothes for this one. I'm pretty sure they danced the Macarena in the middle of the first movement. Maybe that wasn't the dancers' fault: there wasn't much in the piece to suggest a traditional tango. One of the movements sounded like it might have some 70's percussion influence, another could have had african drums, and in another I thought, "Do you normally have a sax in a tango?". Eventually the music rose in pitch and dissonance and ended in piecing violin shrieks. I did see a dozen bars of heavily interpreted tango. There might have been more, but I haven't been watching "Dancing with the Stars" to keep up with modern developments.

The program ended with the promised "Boléro". Whatever. Ballet isn't my thing. A single couple putting some passion into their dance would have been more interesting. Instead, I noticed the artistic nonsense like the male dancers throwing off their shirts one by one as the dance heated up.

The troupe had a choreographed curtain call (to the "Boléro" refrain). Then they decided we were more enthusiastic than we wanted to be and they kept coming back. They gave up when more people were at the exits than in their seats.

Don't get me wrong. I'm sure these were great dancers and I know they were great athletes. It is just that great dancing can't make up for the fact that classical music makes my mind wander and ballet just makes me wonder what the choreographer was thinking.

Michael

A Dream Come True

Yesterday, we discovered a candyshop. It had a very cute facade, but we forgot to take photos ( sorry). Naturally, we went in. The story is, we were going to Notre Dame and the Louvre, but we could return later. The man smiled, talked with Mummy (none of the rest of us spoke French), and talked about his shop and was very sweet. This shop was a fulfillment of his childhood dream (to turn his classroom into a candyshop. He made his candyshop like a classroom). Eventually we had to leave, and we promised to come back. We parted with smiles and more talking. Then he walked to the back, and brought back five lollipops. Then he realized that he hadn't brought one for Mummy, so he trotted back and got one for her. We parted with the time the shop closed and six lollipops (the place closed at seven). After going around, we realized it was five-thirty! We were all STARVING! So we went into a pastry place and ate. At about six we walked out of the cafe and down the street to a chocolate shop ( Vovo recomended it to us). By the time we were through, it was six-fifteen!!! We ran to the metro (getting slightly lost), got tickets and got on a train. We got off at our stop and hurried off when we got to the street it was on, we ran off. In the wrong direction. When we realized which way we had ACTUALLY gone, we ran back, down the right direction, and... Actually arrived at the place. There were a few more customers, so we were fine. It was six forty-five. We examined the candies for fifteen minutes. Then Georges closed up the door cover halfway. We waited for our turn, and just as we were finishing our order, an ADORABLE little boy came up and started playing hopscotch on the sidewalk outside of the candyman's door. Georges looked at the parents, and re-opened his shop. I forgot to mention earlier that he had been giving out samples the whole time we were in his shop. We finally paid for our candy, and left with some photos.

Ciao,

Fiorella