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Published: August 7th 2007
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Not New York
We're in York, England. Note the cute little streets.... Monday, July 30, 2007. Though we sent out the blog yesterday, we still have till tomorrow, Tuesday, in England and fly out early Wednesday morning. Today, Kevin’s mum, sister, Kevin and I went off to York for the day, for a bit of a look-around, and some shopping for Kevin’s mum. For those of you that don’t know York, it is an old Roman and Viking town and even today has great old buildings, narrow streets, and is just charming. I found a yarn shop and, rather than get yarn and needles for a sweater, I picked up a couple of balls of crochet cotton - not too thin, mind you - and a hook. The ultimate goal is to do a couple of pillows or a table cloth (small), but right now I am just practicing. Noon time brought us to a local pub for lunch, and a nice sit in the beautiful, but cool, weather.
The evening was topped-off with dinner with Kevin’s sister, Ann and her family and a murder-mystery play in a wonderful old theatre in Leeds. The play was enjoyable, based in the 30s, and all around it was a very fun evening.
Tuesday, Pere LaChaise
Now, this really is a cemetery and spreads over an area of at least 4 blocks. I was quietly humming "Riders on the Storm" while looking at this one.... July 31, 2007. Since this was really our last day in England, Kevin and I packed in the AM and then took off on a bit of a tiki-tour by ourselves. I had researched a jeweler who made rings to order and thought it would be nice as a 20th Anniversary present to ourselves (aside from the trip) to buy identical rings. So, we went and saw the gentleman and his wares. Hopefully, we will have something by the time we leave England in October. A bonus was finding the village he lived in had been an old Roman town, and had been continuously occupied since around 300-400 AD. Unfortunately, we couldn’t visit the Roman town sight as it was closed Mondays - Wednesdays, but we had a bit of a look around at some of the wonderful old architecture. As we had to return the car to Kevin’s mum, we headed back to her place and visited with her until Ann picked us up. After dinner at Ann’s, she took us to the train so we could catch one up to Manchester to fly out bright and early on the 1st. The trip followed the manufacturing towns of
Musee d'Orsay
Note the timepiece in the background. This combines sculpture and paintings from the late 1800's and has a spectacular Van Gogh collection. the north, with their canal systems and one could see where the man who built Lowell, Massachusetts, got many of his ideas. It was still light so there was a lot to look at. I do love taking the train as you can look at all the scenery and not worry about maps.
Wednesday, August 1, 2007. BONJOUR PARIS!!!!!!!! Should I bore you with the flight? Hmmm…..No, if you write personally and ask I will tell you. It was a bit of an adventure, but just a means to an end.
Ah, Paris. There is NOTHING like this city! We are staying in the 11th Arrondissemont, literally right across the street from Pere LaChaise Cemetery, final home of Heloise and Abelard, Frederic Chopin, Edith Piaf, Oscar Wilde and……Jim Morrison, among lots of others. After meeting with our swap people, who are VERY nice ladies, we took off for a quick lunch (our first food with flavor) and the cemetery. This cemetery is very famous, and huge. There are family crypts and I guess everyone gets cremated and put in the crypt. We started walking, cameras and inadequate map in hand. First, came the Jewish section, and I
Sacre Coeur
This church sits on a hill above the area that houses the Moulin Rouge and the red light district. was struck and saddened by the number of names listed of family members who had died in Auschwitz and other camps, though I shouldn’t be as there was a large Jewish population in France during the war. We then found Chopin’s grave, covered with lots of flowers. After that, we just seemed to walk and walk and one thing I learned is that wedgies are not good for walking on cobblestones. And we walked…..We finally found Edith Piaf, and Oscar Wilde. And I was thinking that was the end and we would leave, but then Kevin wanted to find Jimbo. So did a couple of young girls, in their early 20s. I wanted to ask what the fascination was, since they weren’t even ALIVE when he died, but I chose to let it go. We got there, to find the grave had been blocked off by a fence, which was to keep the loopies away. We saw the girls a bit later, who were in rapture. They had pulled out their book of Jim Morrison poems (C’mon Baby, Light My Fire), opened it up randomly and read the poem at the grave. Kevin and I at that point lost it
Hotel DeVille
Or Paris town hall to the uninitiated.... and went off giggling…..
That night we hooked up with our friend Rob, who is over here traveling around Europe, and had dinner in the neighborhood. Since it was our first night and we really didn’t have our bearings, we thought it best to stay close to home and get to bed early. The good news is that parking in our neighborhood is free in August, so we aren’t moving the car until we go to Brittany.
Thursday, August 2, 2007. Bonjour Paris!!!!!! I sent Kevin out for une baguette for breakfast on the terrasse avec café au lait, without the lait, since we had forgotten to buy it at the market. Never mind. We were meeting Rob at Musee d’Orsay at noon, but before then we decided to exchange ALL the French francs we had left over from the last trip. After a couple of detours, and wrong banks, we found the right one. Was it worth it? Well 90 Euro’s is a very nice dinner for two. And we made it to the Musee d’Orsay by noon. The museum was originally a train station, that had been abandoned and then later developed into the museum. On
Trucked in Sand
Walkin on the beaches looking at the peaches.... arrival we found there was a WONDERFUL special exhibit of art collected and bought/sold by a French dealer who died in the 30s, and who capitalized on everyone from Renoir and Cezanne to Gaugain and Picasso. However, these were pieces of artwork not normally seen and it was a delightful bonus to see this rather rare exhibit. All we can say is that this Museum remains one of our favorites……
Our friends, Mr. Ed and Wendy of Russell, arrived that afternoon and we made arrangements to meet up with them for drinks and dinner. Knowing they would be tired, we kept it pretty low-key, but had a great time at dinner and drinks, Wendy and I planning how we could ditch the boys and go shopping. We sent them back to the hotel with plans to meet up at 10:30 AM in front of Galleries LaFayette.
Friday, August 3, 2007. The boys headed off for Sacre Couer while we went shopping.
Saturday, August 4, 2007. A tour of the Marais, where we saw Victor Hugo’s home (Les Miserables fame) and one of the museums dedicated to the era around the French Revolution. This was followed by a
A Bargain
The flea market, but good for shoes... stroll along the Seine, on the right bank, where the Parisians had trucked in sand to create beaches. Sadly, lots of umbrellas and palms, but no bare boobs….
In the evening we met the Ackman’s for dinner at the “Hotel Du Nord” with two of their friends; this is one of the up-coming restaurants, highly rated and certainly trendy. A very nice meal.
Sunday, August 5, 2007. The “Flea Market with Fleas” or as we French say “Marche aux Puces”. Today, brought us 30C, and it was hot, hot, hot, almost too hot for shopping. The bargain du jour was a 5 Euro pair of shoes for Caroline.
Monday, August 6, 2007. Today, we woke up to rain. It had started sometime in the night and continued all day. This was a day of “things to do” such as meeting our Nice swap. So again, map in hand, we descended into the Paris Metro with a destination of the Champs Elysses and a coffee meeting with Normand. A very nice man and a successful introduction, I think. This was quickly followed by an unsuccessful meeting with the Chinese Consulate. For some reason they want a week
House Painting
This is a trompe d' oiel? Now that's a mouthful, however it's a painted optical illusion to process Caroline’s US passport for a visa, so our plan is to deal with this when we get to the South of France and Marseille. Anyway, by lunchtime we were both looking like drowned rats.
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Jay Brara
non-member comment
Sounds wonderful!
Seems like an absolutely fabulous trip. We've been to Paris several times but this makes me want to go back and revisit the places you mention ASAP...