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Published: July 24th 2012
Cat Time
She looks a bit like our shy MadelineWe though we might go to Amsterdam for a few days via the train. I've never been before and the train sounded like fun - its only a few hours away, we'll ride the rails and see the countryside. It was a great idea until we looked into the cost. $700 round trip! That can't be right- we tried another website - $700 round trip (and it was the same train...Thalys seems to have the monopoly on trains). after an hour of shaking our heads and trying every which way to deal,including a personal trip down to Gare Lyon and Gare Nord (2 big train stations), we admitted defeat and gave up. If we had planned our spontaneity 30 to 60 days in advance, it would have cost us about $200. So much for the impromptu trip...
Check out my picture of the day page to see the story of the little caterpillar that could... And know that chenille means caterpillar in French. www.kellicox.blogspot.com
Montmartre and Sacre Couer are the highest points in Paris and the streets are hilly and steep. We sat on the steps of Sacre Couer for a while and just enjoyed the view. We wandered
Sacre Coeur
Still more steps to climb until we found the little artist colony at rue de Tertres and sat with our Coca light and cafe creme, just people watching. The beauty of spending a lot of time in one place and having been here before- we are never pressed for time. Lots of school kids on field trips, all holding hands. We saw many cool street signs that renegade artists have "improved" and headed down the hill to see the headless bishop, St. Denis, in a children's park. Yes, children play in the shadow of a bishop holding his own head. Mothers can probably use that somehow to their advantage, I'm sure. We also ended up by the famous Moulin Rouge, and much like the Mona Lisa - much smaller inreal life. On the way back to the metro, we saw a car called a "Yeti" and instantly we wanted one of our own. Except for the time we'd have to call the repair shop and imagined the conversation -
-Do you repair Yeti's?
-Yeti's? Like the monster Big Foot?
-Yes, Yeti's. But it's a car. A real car.
- hahahahahahahah...click.
So we are opting out of the Yeti purchase.
A dinner at Chez Margot made us feel better about both the Yeti and Amsterdam.
The next day, we went to climb the tower at Notre Dame. We passed the 2 hour line time talking to a lovely Australian family. They were on a whirlwind 5 week tour that was going to include a trip to to London to maybe get a ticket to watch their son...the #2 swimmer in the WORLD - James Roberts, swim in a race or 2. Can you imagine having your child in the Olympics and you can't get a ticket? They were pretty nonchalant about the matter saying they would either know the morning of the race if they could get a ticket, and if not, they'd go to a pub and watch. I'd be screaming. They were definitely a very nice family and enjoyed hearing Lee tell the history tales of building the tower. And, we decided the dad and Lee were twin sons of different mothers - they were so much alike. We have their emails and maybe one day we'll trade houses in Australia! Keep your ears open for their swimmer son, too.
The tower at Notre Dame is
unbelievable- 360 degree views everywhere and we got to see the grotesques eye to eye. Originally they were built to scare the peasants into coming into the church and they are sort of scary, but also sort of cute...even the ones biting heads off chickens. The word for gargle and gutter came from the root word that also gave us gargoyle and the ones on the tower are medieval gutters...many still working. We walked around the top and climbed more stairs to the bell tower - the same as Quasimodo. The bell tower is wood, not stone, because the vibrations from the bells would cause stone to crack. You can touch the bell (so we did) and imagined going deaf from the sound it must make. All in all, we climbed 382 steps up and 382 steps down. Yes, I'm such a teacher.
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linda signer
non-member comment
artist colony
I have been in San Diego for 2 weeks so have missed all your blogging. Have to read it and catch up. Just saw this though and was very jealous. I wanted to find this type of thing when I was there and buy a piece of art; a painting but it was cold and rainy and there were no artists anywhere where we thought they might be. Just too wet!! Meanwhile I saw your comment about the trains. Wow, Ilana went on little jaunts everywhere but I know she didn't pay those prices; she had no money; I will have to ask her how she travelled. Sounds like you are having a wonderful trip. Keep enjoying, need I say that, no!!!!!!!