Episode X

FEUILLES FRANÇAISES EPISODE X ~ February 24, 2010

Dear Friends,

Ok, this stands to be possibly the longest blog I have ever written, so hang in there, because I promise, its worth it…

Aside from not understanding the language, there were some cultural things I did not get, these signs were in EVERY bathroom. Apparently in Greece, toilet paper does not go in the toilet. Who knew?


Just another example of how little sense Greek makes to me, if not for the translation, I would have thought the sign was hacking up a hairball...

So, I have spent the last two weeks doing some world-class adventuring. My adventure began on Friday, February 5 with a revoltingly early train to Paris to catch an early flight to Athens, Greece. The flight over was uneventful, and just under three hours. The first thing I remarked about Greece was: I had NO idea what was going on. It was hilarious, for the first time in my life; I did not understand a single sign, had it not been for the English translations, I would not have been able to find baggage claim, let alone my way to the hostel. I now truly grasp the amusing nature of the phrase, “it’s all Greek to me.” By some miracle of fate (maybe the Ancient Gods knew I was a lover of ancient history and sent Hermes to guide me) I did make it out of the airport and into central Athens to my hostel.

I checked in and was immediately reminded of how much I enjoy traveling and staying in hostels. Hostels are wonderful. Right behind me checking in, were a young man and a young woman, both Anglophones. Turns out we would be sharing a dorm room. They were both from Hawaii, not originally, they work on a cruise ship. Jen is from Cleveland, and Quevin is from Jamaica and Jersey. We made fast friends, and quickly formed a little hostel posse to travel together. (Late at night we were joined by a fourth musketeer, Felicity, whom we called Kiwi from New Zealand, but working in London at the moment). I really love that hostel culture. Strangers thrown together in a room (out of trying to be economical and travel at the same time), and more often than not, you end up becoming friends and seeing the world with these complete strangers. This group was fantastic, I will never forget them.

REAL Greek Salad


Hephaestus' Temple at night

The Acropolis by night

My first night in Athens, I grabbed some grub: GREEK SALAD! It was, of course, incredible. Normally I am not a big fan of feta cheese, but then again in the states it comes in little Tupperware containers and tastes and looks more like wet smelly Styrofoam crumbles than anything else. In Greece, it comes in thick, creamy, buttery slabs, and is amazing. Now wrap some of that in filo dough with some watercress, and you have it made. It was love at first bite; I knew Greek food and I were going to be friends. That evening I took in the view of the illuminated Parthenon from the roof-top bar of the hostel. Life was good.

Athens Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

Fallen Athenian Warrior Frieze


Changing of the guard at the tomb. Rather unfortunate uniforms...

Temple of Olympian Zeus, which was quite massive.

On my first whole day in Greece, my new-found travel buddies and I set about exploring Athens. We took in the Botanical Gardens, and saw the changing of the guard at the tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Athens has one of the coolest monuments to the Unknown Soldier that I have seen. It is simple, but very elegant, it is a frieze of a fallen ancient Athenian warrior, and I thought it was very beautiful. We strolled past the mostly-toppled temple of Olympian Zeus before grabbing some lunch: Hello Spinach Pie! A favorite of mine from my Dad’s international cooking repertoire, but made all the more incredible by being consumed in the shadow of the acropolis.

Yum. Sorry the baklava disappeared too quickly to be photographed... :o)

Having refueled, the band of wanders struck out towards Sounio, a small town about 90 minutes by bus outside of Athens, to visit Poseidon’s temple. There were some problems with the metro (which was difficult to figure out with none of the four of us able to read a word of Greek) and so we missed the bus we intended to take, but in the process of walking to the correct station we happened across a Greek pastry shop, and all woes were forgotten. I think the Greeks might actually best the French in the pastry department (I know, blasphemy for a Francophile). There is nothing as amazing as fresh baklava, and if that was not enough, there were also different little mousse-filled cakes (it makes my eyes water to think about them still).

Poseidon's temple at Sounio


More of Poseidon's badly eroded temple.


My Athens travel Family: Jen, me, Quevin, and Kiwi

We arrived at a very windy Sounio just before they closed off the temple, so we were lucky. The temple is situated on a cliff which is pretty much surrounded by water (there is a narrow isthmus connecting the “island” to the mainland). And my Gods, was it windy. Zeus apparently did not take kindly to us paying to see Poseidon’s temple but only looking at his from outside the gate. I was fearful that Felicity would blow away (being the smallest of the Quartet). The temple was beautiful (in the eyes of this historian). It was built around 400 BC and was once a common place for the Ancients to pray to Poseidon before departing on a long maritime voyage (apparently Odysseus skipped that step before his double-decade debacle). We returned to Athens around supper time and I chowed down on some chicken kebabs before calling it a night.

Bird of Paradise on the path up the Acropolis

No words, only awe.


Usually scaffolding bothers me, but it was nice to see the work being done on the Parthenon as they put it back together piece by piece.

One of the smaller temples of the Acropolis


The Erechtheion beside the Parthenon where rituals and rites were conducted

The beautiful sculptures of the Erechtheion

Dionysus' Theatre, afterall, he was the God of partying and having a good time.

I am so happy to have this picture, it may be one of my favorites of all time!

On Sunday morning, we woke up and headed straight for the Acropolis. (I bet you are all shocked by my restraint that I did not run up the hill, luggage and all when I first arrived, we waited until Sunday because it was free!). The hill is a bit of a climb, but it’s not bad. Purely by accident, we climbed up the back side, through a nice little shady woods, which was quite nice. We also managed to beat the incredible throngs of people, and we able to go right through the gates and approach Athena’s temple. I honestly cannot find the words to describe what it felt like to stand there. I am a historian, and I have been fascinated with Ancient Greece for as long as I can remember, and there I was in front of Athena’s temple in Athens. I was so excited, I did not even register the scaffolding (I get a little peeved every time I visit a major monument and it is covered in scaffolding, that seems to be my curse in life). It was incredible, truly, there are no words. We spent a good hour wandering the Acropolis mostly gawking the Parthenon, and occasionally taking a break to ogle the smaller temple beside it or Dionysus’ theatre below. The weather was perfect, fairly warm, and partly sunny. Definitely an experience I will never forget.

In Athens, there are dogs EVERYWHERE. They roam around, and seem friendly enough. This dog just hangs out all day at the Acropolis, its nice to know that canines have a sense of history too.

From the Acropolis, we made our way down to the new Acropolis museum, which is also magnificent. Tons of wonderful artifacts, but the best part is the top floor, which is a scale replica of the Parthenon with some of the original friezes and statues. This was so cool, as someone who had worked in a museum; I really appreciated the design of this one. There were also two artist renderings of the original décor of the two pyramid facades of the Parthenon, they were fantastic (no pictures though because they made me leave my camera at the coat check).

Temple of Hephaestus


Corinthian column, see Mr. Petrigno, I remembered!


The detail of the sculptures amazes me, this was made over 2000 years ago, and still it is beautiful (despite being somewhat amputated)


Getting rained on in the Agora. Why the big smile? Because I am in GREECE!


Moussaka!

From the museum we did a little souvenir shopping (being the off season, EVERYTHING in pretty much every store was 50% off), and then decided to explore the ancient Agora (market), containing the temple of Hephaestus (which is the most complete ancient temple remaining in Greece, also built around 400 BC). It was cool, like a smaller, more whole version of the Parthenon, but also roped off so you could not go inside. The Agora was cool, full of partially in tact ancient sculptures and ruins, but we didn’t stay long, Zeus was still angry and chased us inside with some more rain. We took refuge in a local restaurant and again consumed large quantities of fantastic Greek food. I tasted moussaka, which is like a Greek lasagna but made with potatoes rather than pasta, a meat sauce, and eggplant. The verdict: absolutely delicious.

Erene and Me

My stay in Athens ended far too soon, but my little group was also moving on to other adventures, and I was as well. On Monday morning I headed north to Thessaloniki to visit an old friend. I met Erene Barr at Merrimack High School a million years ago. Her father is an American, and her mother is a Greek. She was born in the states, but moved to Greece quite young, but opted to finish High School in the US, and she came to Merrimack because her father’s sister lives in town. I have fond memories of learning the Greek alphabet and a couple of Greek swear words in the school cafeteria while checking out boys with Erene at MHS. This was our first reunion in eight years.

24 hours earlier I was in a tee-shirt in Athens, but in Thessaloniki, there was a lot of snow.

Unfortunately it was hazy, but in the middle, that would be Mount Olympus!


Sunset over the Aegean Sea in Thessaloniki

Thessaloniki is on the coast in the north, and was MUCH colder than Athens. Thessaloniki has a long and interesting history involving many changes of power and influence. Once upon a time, it was Macedonia, you know, that place that produced Alexander the Great. Then for a long time it was Turkish (until 1912), so the city has some unique architecture. Not to mention, it is right by Mount Olympus!

I miss Greek food already. (This particular restaurant didn't even bother with plates)

It was fascinating to see Greece with a native family, I found out many things that normal tourists often miss. Firstly: food. Erene only really eats one meal a day. In the morning she has something small to eat, and some coffee, and then does not eat again until 3 PM, when the Greeks eat a big meal, and that’s pretty much it for the day. Occasionally they will eat something small in the evening if they are hungry, but it is nothing like the states, or even the rest of Europe. That took a little getting used to. And going to restaurants with her was great, I could not understand a THING on the menu (Thessaloniki is not a huge tourist destination, so many restaurants do not have translated menus) so she would order whatever, and I tried it all. The Greeks also seem to eat family style. In a restaurant, Erene would order an assortment of things, and we would just both pick and eat from all the plates. I tried so many wonderful things: melitzanokroketes (fried balls of eggplant and cheese), tasousika (ground beef and pork on pita bread with yoghurt sauce), pastourmafopita (sort of an omelet with salami and cheese), taziki, sausages, veal, and salads of every kind. I don’t think I have ever eaten so much in my life, but it was all INCREDIBLE. Greece: go for the History, stay for the FOOD!

Erene’s family was very kind, and I had a great time with them. Her mother was very much like the mom in “My Big Fat Greek Wedding,” always asking if I was hungry. And around her parents’ shop there was always a collection of friends and neighbors and relative stopping by to chat.

The White Tower in Thessaloniki


Classic Ancient Greek Pottery


If you were really cool in Ancient Greece, you would wear a golden wreath around your head.


Arch of Galerius


The carvings on the Arch of Galerius

In Thessaloniki, I visited the White Tower which is an old fortification from the Ottoman period. We visited a couple of museums, including the Byzantine museum, and the Archaeological museum. The Archaeological museum was a treasure trove of wonderful precious artifacts from gold laurel wreaths, and helmets and jewelry to exquisite pottery. For normal people: really old glittery things, for Monica: really cools things that she wants. We also visited the Arch of Galerius (who was a Roman Emperor), which is covered in beautiful carvings.

Church of Saint Dimitrios

Some of the beautiful work inside St. Dimitrios


Inside St. Dimitrios

We also visited the Church of St. Dimtrios, which of course is a Greek Orthodox Church, and very different from most of the Catholic churches and cathedrals I visit over here. It is built on the foundations and ruins of many previous churches, and so in the crypt, you can explore the older ruins, and I am always up for some ruin exploration (I think I was Indiana Jones in another life).

In Thessaloniki, I ran into some difficulties, however. Erene’s family lives on a mountain overlooking the city, so one night when we wanted to go out on the town, we got a cheap hotel room for the night. Before we went out, I put some cash and my French bank card in small purse (not wanting to risk losing my full wallet in a club or a bar) and left my wallet in the hotel room. Unfortunately it disappeared. So, either the hotel room ate it, or it was stolen. And I really cannot divine which, so all I know is I ended up with about 20 Euros in my pocket and about 200 Euros in my French bank account, so that kind of put a damper on the end of my adventure in Greece (since that was only week 1 of a two-week trip).

From Thessaloniki, I headed back to Athens, and then changed planes to return to France to the second leg of my journey. I spent the evening in Paris with my friend Adrien, and we spent the night alternately hounding CitiBank and UPS trying to find out where my emergency credit card had gotten to. Apparently the person at CitiBank had not understood that the card was being sent to a little tiny village called PARIS, and thus with an invalid address, French customs had refused the card which I rather desperately needed.

On Saturday I headed to Charles de Gaulle to collect Andrew from the airport. I was quite kind and did allow him a short nap before dragging him out for dinner and an evening viewing of the Eiffel Tower. Here’s a tip to people traveling abroad: get on local time as fast as possible, the first day will be miserable (believe me, I have done it many times) but after that, all will be well.

The vaulted ceilings of Notre Dame de Paris

I remember, very well, almost a decade ago, my first trip to Paris. I went with my high school French teacher, Mr. Powers, who had been to Paris some 40 or so times before he took my group. I remember him constantly saying something, which at the time I found corny, but now I understand. He used to say, “I can never see Paris again for the first time except through your eyes.” I know Paris like the back of my hand now, but every time I share the city I love with someone new, watching them explore the city, it becomes new to me too. I started Drew off with my first monument, Notre Dame, which of course is still as awe-inspiring as ever.

Centre Pompidou, if they ever had their pipes burst, at least the art work inside would be spared, though in my book, some of it could use a good hosing...

This work epitomizes why I hate most modern art, it is a canvas painted a single solid shade of blue.

Picasso, the Guitarist (not always a Picasso fan, but I respect him)

Some of that lovely WTF modern-modern art...



Really, a urinal off a wall in a glass case counts as modern art, REALLY!?


I actually like this one, by Luigi Russalo, Dynamicism of an Automobile


This one I like too, Robert Deluanay part of a concentric circles series.


I have a love-hate relationship with Henri Matisse, hate his sculptures, can tolerate some of his paintings.


More ultra modern art, yes, that is a bookcase with the contents strewn about the floor. Why????

Next up, we actually did something I had never done. Drew wanted to visit Centre Pompidou. I had never been because modern art is usually not my thing. I had been to Pompidou many times during my days as a student in Paris (because Pompidou is one of the largest FREE libraries in Paris, most of them you have to pay for), but I had never seen the museum. It was… interesting. I didn’t hate it, but give me the Louvre any day. I did stumble across a few pieces that did not irk me to the point of wanting to break things (I hate when someone throws water balloons full of paint at a canvas and calls it a masterwork of modern art), but them there were a few I would not mind being consumed by fire. Overall, I would say I… broadened my cultural horizons, but in general, I will stick to the more classical works. I found that the older modern art (early to mid- twentieth century) was less irksome than the truly modern business.

Maybe he was compensating for lack of height when he stole this, he was, afterall, quite short, and it is tall...

La Grande Arche de la Defense

Your not-so-typical skyscrapers

From Pompidou Drew was subjected to the first falafel of his life, which he did not entirely hate, and then we took a stroll to Place de la Concorde, with Napoleon’s pilfered Obelisk, which I still think really ought to be returned to the Egyptians. Continuing with our Napoleon theme, we visited his Arc de Triomphe, and for good measure, continued to the end of the “Triumphal Way” to see la Grande Arche de la Defense. I always like visiting la Defense, which is the business end of Paris. All the skyscrapers are concentrated into one area, which is really nice, and I think not having skyscrapers overshadowing the Eiffel Tower and such adds to the charm of Paris. But even la Defense is beautiful in its own unique way. I find the buildings to be much more architecturally interesting than your average American skyscraper.

The Lady of Paris in her evening wear.

We headed to my personal favorite dining location: the Latin Quarter for dinner and Drew was treated to his second French meal. The Latin Quarter is right beside Notre Dame, so we passed by for a second night time viewing. That is another thing I love about Paris, it becomes an entirely different city at night with all the monuments illuminated, it becomes a different kind of impressive, a different kind of beautiful. We ended our evening at the Eiffel Tower, Drew had seen it from afar, but I figured his first full day in France needed to be concluded with an up close and personal encounter, not to mention to see it glittering.

Day three dawned with difficulties. An accident on one of the metro lines forced us to abandon the metro several stops from our destination and we had to make the journey to Isle de la Cite on foot, which was kind of interesting, because we emerged on a street I had never visited, and were confronted by a large archway I had never seen before. Apparently it was one of the gates from when the city was smaller. I think I could live in Paris for 100 years and still discover new things in the city, which is another thing I love.

We hoped to go to Sainte Chapelle when it opened to beat the crowds, but found it was closed. Why? Apparently it was too cold inside the chapel. Interesting considering the teeming hordes of tourists didn’t seem to mind the cold standing outside arguing with the staff to be let in. So plan B involved climbing the towers of Notre Dame, which were also closed. Why? The attendants were on strike. Yes, striking, were it an Olympic sport, the French would always win the Gold. Well, at least Drew got the “true” French experience. For me, an adventure in France is never complete without some form of “grève” (strike). Plan C (I think we are up to C) was to visit Chateau de Vincennes, which is not necessarily on the Paris Top 5 list, but it definitely makes the top 15, and Drew had never seen a real medieval castle, so off we went, I will never object to wandering a medieval castle.

La Tour Eiffel, as lovely as ever.

Tour Eiffel


Again, but in this one you can see the flash bulbs that make it sparkle at night.


On top of the Eiffel Tower... very high in the air...


And then we took a side trip to New York... maybe not... guess you have to read on and find out...

From Vincennes, we headed to Sacre Coeur for a quick tour, and to take a wander around Place du Tetre, where my artist friends hang out. After a quick stop off at the hostel, we had a rendez-vous with M. Eiffel’s Tower (I definitely recommend buying your tickets online and avoiding the lines). My fear of heights was not so thrilled, but still, it is always a cool feeling to think at the summit, “Yea, I am on top of the Eiffel Tower.” From the tower Drew came up with another Paris first for me, he wanted to see the Statue of Liberty. Yes, there is a littler version in Paris which is the twin to the one in New York, except on her tablet is also engraved the date of the fall of the Bastille.

We called it an early night, as the next day we were heading to Italy. Our exit from France was quite problematic on a number of levels. The ineptitude of CitiBank and UPS France left me in quite a pickle without a credit card, and after four days of waiting for an emergency credit card meant to be sent in 24 hours, I had to get to UPS central to collect my card. Drew went on ahead to the airport with our luggage, and I braved the wilds of the suburbs to find my urgent package, which UPS assured me would be there to be picked up. Well, after my detour, it turns out, they forgot to hold it, and after a fair amount of shouting on my part, they called the delivery truck back to get me my card (again, how getting a simple credit card become so complicated I will never know). Eventually, card in hand, I made my way back to the train station to discover that all trains to Charles de Gaulle airport had been stopped because an unattended package was found, and naturally, everyone freaked out. Finally trains began running again, and by some miracle, we did make our flight, it was a little tighter than I was comfortable with, but all’s well that ends well.

Just a typical day in Venice. :o)


Stumbled across this scene while wandering that first afternoon in Venice.


I am terribly jealous of these costumes.

An hour and a half later we arrived in Venice with the stressors of the morning behind us. We found our hotel and checked in and then set about exploring. Venice is a maze, an incredibly large maze with water hazards and dead ends, but this is all easy to forget when you find beautiful architecture around every corner. The other trouble with Venice is that it is so tightly packed (small avenues and alleys which do not allow for car travel) with the buildings so high and so close, that it is almost impossible to establish a landmark for your bearings. In Paris, I can emerge from just about any Metro tunnel and establish roughly where I am based on the positions of the monuments (which really can be seen from anywhere in the city), this is not possible in Venice, and the Venetians do not compensate with proper signage, so needless to say, we ended up taking a quite roundabout route to Piazza San Marco. But we did find some gelato on the way, so not to worry, all was well.

Carnivale, where men don't just bring flowers, they dress in them.

This was the most OUTRAGEOUS hat I have EVER seen, and I loved it.


I wonder what happens when they look in a mirror.


So many beautiful costumes!


A lot of couples had coordinating outfits which was really cool.

And some groups were themed.

Once we arrived in San Marco, we found Carnivale in full swing. Turns out it was the last night of the two-week festival, and everyone seemed to have taken to the streets to enjoy the festivities. Tourists wandered around masked, locals in costume, and then, in a class entirely by themselves, there were some people who I can only guess spend the entire year making/building their Carnivale attire. Never have I seen such beautiful and elaborate costumes before. Again, I fail to describe them, so I will let the pictures speak for themselves.

The Carnivale Stage, this giant winged lion was made entirely of fresh produce.

With that headdress, I wonder how she remained upright.

Shall we dance? Indeed.

This couple got extra points for dressing in my favorite color!

Lady in Blue

We arrived just in time to witness the parade of the Carnivale court and to hear a performance by a beautiful REAL Italian opera singer. I have never been a huge Opera fan myself, but it was so beautiful that it brought tears to my eyes. There was music and dancing, and all the beautiful costumes and masks swirled around. It was like a dream. New life goal: be in Venice for Carnivale (intentionally) and go ALL out, become one of the costumed people that everyone was photographing.

Public transportation in Venice. Imagine taking a boat to school or work every day.

Rialto Bridge

The next day there was much wandering to be done. However, it is easier to navigate Venice by boat. There are no cars in the city and so even the locals get around by Vaporetto (which basically is their bus system). It’s also a nice way to see the city, most of the lines seem to run straight down the Grand Canal, so on your way to whatever destination, you whiz past Rialto Bridge and countless churches. Not to mention save yourself thousands of footsteps, because all of Venice’s bridges are arched, so you are constantly climbing stairs when walking through town.

Venice has it all, canals, cathedrals, and boardwalks for your entertainment.

Upon returning to Piazza San Marco, I was a little concerned to find it under water, indeed, only 6 inches there of, but still, a little alarming. The city had set up some boardwalks so that tourists (the locals have a different system) could still get around, but it was awkward at best, especially with legions of tourists stopping in the middle of the gangway to take photos can causing traffic jams and near accidents. The locals mostly seemed to bypass the silly boardwalk system and just wore tall galoshes and sloshed their way to work or whatever.

San Marco, half of which was covered in scaffolding, ugh.

The facade of San Marco.


More of the exterior of San Marco, such beautiful mosaics.

The flooded entry of San Marco with the beautiful ceiling.


More San Marco, again, unbelievable
!

It's hard to tell in the picture, but there are six inches of water on the floor...


Inside San Marco, everywhere you looked the floor was done in different patterns of every sort of marble known to man.

... case and point...


More mosaics. (My interest in mosaics is similar to my interest in stained glass)


One of the huge bronze stallions atop the Basilica of San Marco

Once finally arriving in San Marco’s Basilica, that was found to be flooded too, only the entryway, thankfully, the inside was magnificent. The floors were covered in mosaics of hundreds of sorts of marble, and the ceilings were plastered with golden mosaics. If I ever came across a hybrid of a French gothic cathedral with the stained glass windows, and an Italian church with the mosaic ceilings and marble floors, I really think my head would explode. The workmanship is amazing.

Inside the Doge's palace, the ceilings look like this.

I would some day like to be rich enough to have priceless paintings hung on my ceiling...

Right next to San Marco is the Doge’s Palace. The Doge was the Duke of Venice during the middle ages and the Renaissance. He was quite politically powerful considering he controlled one of the richest cities in Italy. His palace is decorated to rival Louis XIV’s Versailles, and that takes some doing. I would say that it is as elaborately decorated as the Vatican, beautiful gilded ceilings, paintings, gorgeous furniture. Just all around, wow.

View of Piazza San Marco from the top of the clock tower


San Marco from above

Across from the basilica and the palace there is a clock tower, and as is my tradition and my curse, I must climb to the highest point in any city I visit. Thankfully the clock tower was equipped with an elevator, so the journey to the top was not overly tiring or stressful. You can see all of Venice from the top, all the houses with their terracotta roofs, and all the churches scattered around the city. But even a bird’s eye view did not help me make any sense of Venice’s geography.

Church of the Salute

Venetian Masks. I found these ones to be a little creepy and slightly demonic.


Artisan masks, slightly less creepy. All very intricate.

Much of what you visit as a tourist in Italy seems to be churches, and so that was much of the first day in Venice. Church of the Salute, (right across the water from San Marco) and a hundred other “little” (compared to the basilica or cathedral, but larger than any church back home) churches whose names and locations I cannot remember. And of course, my quest to find my Venetian mask began in earnest. There were so many to choose from, and all so different. Being me, I wanted a “real” one, not a chintzy plastic one, so I visited a number of artisan’s shops looking for “the one.”

Murano Glass


This is a tiny orchestra made entirely of glass. We watched someone doing this sort of thing, it was amazing.

Our second full day in Venice dawned damp, but despite the weather, we hitched a boat to Murano, the adjacent island known for glasswork. We wandered the streets admiring the beautiful artwork in all the windows. We also took in the glass museum, which was very interesting detailing the process of making the glass and the evolution of the craft. Unfortunately we did not get to see anyone in the process of making anything on Murano (we skipped the factory tour because we were told you can find artisans at work who will gladly demonstrate their craft), but we did see some unique pieces.

Along the Grand Canal... Not sure I would want to live here, a little too much rain, and you'll be swimming in the living room.


Inside one of the many, MANY churches.


I loved all the details in the architecture.

Again, it is really the details that grabbed me.

At the Armory


One of the towers at the armory, but it struck me as interesting that all the glass in all the street lamps was tinted pink.

Sunset over the Grand Canal in Venice

From Murano, we returned to Venice proper and did some more walking and gawking. We passed the armory where once there was a battle for control of Venice, and wandered in and out of more churches, some of which even housed some beautiful Renaissance art. And in and out of more shops than I can remember (Drew was looking for a leather-bound journal, and I for the elusive mask). Our wanderings did take us up and over Rialto Bridge around sunset, and the lighting made Venice even more beautiful.

We followed our noses to dinner (I choose restaurants in Italy mostly based on the smells emanating from them), and I need not tell you how good the pasta was, because we were, after all, in Italy. And both being lovers of tiramisu, there was debating over dessert choices.

Basilica of Santi Giovanni E Paolo

Day three dawned rainier than before, and once again, we found parts of Venice underwater. Once again we took to the streets popping into churches and shops to escape the rain, and generally becoming soaked. I ultimately did make a mask selection (oh all right, I bought two) and we found some wonderful pizza for lunch. By happenstance, we came across a man demonstrating glasswork in his shop and watched him for a bit. We tried to make it back across to Murano to see some glassmakers who, we were assured would be open, but the northern half of the city was completely flooded, and so, there was no way to get to a vaporetto stop to get to Murano without going for a swim (the boardwalks are only set up in high-traffic areas apparently). And also, we could not get a gondola to save our souls, very few run in the rain, and most of their docking points are underwater at that point anyways.

Gondola!

One way to keep unwelcome guests from stopping by

I am thinking that I will NOT be moving to Venice any time soon. The flooding brought on by a bit of rain was quite alarming, and even under dry conditions, the water levels there are steadily rising (or the city is steadily sinking, take your pick). Doorways that once presumable opened to a dock now have water creeping six inches up from the canals, and getting around the city can be quite difficult if you have any quantity of stuff, boats only go so far, and the constant up, over, and down of the bridges can be fatiguing. I tried to imagine what it must be like to move in Venice, and it was a horrible thought.

In the words of Indiana Jones, "Ah, Venice."

Even still, Venice is a beautiful place to visit, and I will definitely make another trip sometime later in life. But, as is normal with these sort of adventures, we had to leave to get back to Paris.

Sainte Chappelle

I know I have posted a million pictures of these windows, but I cannot resist.

Back in Paris we did have the remainder of an afternoon to do everything we either did not have time for, or could not do before. Apparently Sainte Chappelle warmed up (or the employees stopped being whinny about it) and so Drew did get to visit one of my favorite places in Paris. And I did just about have to drag him away with promises of Angelina hot chocolate and the largest museum in the world.

Gazing down the galleries of the Louvre

This was a gallery I had never seen before, mostly Greco-Roman sculptures (a couple of Egyptian) but mostly accented with an interesting purple stone.

The smirking Mona Lisa

Some beautiful work by Botticelli in the Louvre, he's one of my favorite Renaissance painters.

Botticelli detail.

I really miss living six Metro stops from the Louvre (yet another place that I never tire of). There is just so much to take in. We spent the rest of the afternoon getting lost in the endless galleries. We did see the “big three” and then contented ourselves with the Italian Renaissance galleries, French 18^th century paintings, Classical (Greco-Roman) and Neo-Classical sculpture, the Egyptian wing, the Persian gallery, and wound up in the Napoleon III apartments and medieval furnishings area. I love the Louvre, even without the art on the walls, it is a beautiful building.

Drew’s European experience ended in a very French way, sitting outside a café on Rue de Rivoli sipping champagne and watching the world go by. La vie française, comme elle est bonne.

On Sunday morning Drew had to get back to the US of A, and this time, we had no train or plane troubles. After seeing him off, I had some time. I promised Viola we would take the train back to Bourges together, and she was not arriving from Germany until late afternoon. Feeling slightly drained from all my adventures, I opted to be lazy and spent my day at the cinema watching a couple American movies: Percy Jackson (which ripped off the idea of a great book and made a mediocre movie) and Sherlock Holmes (which was as delightful as I had hoped it would be).

The return to Bourges was uneventful, and I found everything just as I had left it. I returned to school on Monday morning, and found my kids feeling lazy and disinterested in the afterglow of vacation. So my week has been spent trying to find some semblance of motivation in my students, and trying to recover from one Hell of a vacation. And the scary part is, in five weeks, I have another vacation, so I need to hurry up and recover.

On a side note, I finally got a chance to read A Year in the Merde about a Brit living for a year in France. It is probably one of the funniest books I have ever read, and I am mad that I did not get around to writing it first, because it quite literally is the story (mostly) of my life here in France.

Speaking of life here in France, it goes on, as ever. It’s hard to believe that I am nearing the end of my stay. I will be home in just over two months, which means, only four more blogs. Whatever will you do without me? The weather is getting warmer, and the days are getting perceptibly longer. :o) As for upcoming adventures, I am off to Nantes this weekend with Gina and Viola, possibly Amsterdam a little later on, and a trip to Hungary is taking shape for Easter Vacation. Never fear, there are more adventures to come!

Until next time, I remain your favorite globe trotter and wanna-be travel journalist,

~Monica

Me on the terrace of San Marco looking out over the water