Back in the US!

Thanks to everyone who followed this blog over the past year.  This will probably be the last post. We are back in the US! It is now three weeks since we got back and we are finally unpacked (mostly). We have gotten to enjoy a few last nice Fall days, like this one since our return.  This picture is from a park two blocks from where we live. That is downtown New York with the Freedom Tower rising in the center.  The haze is from a light fog on an otherwise beautiful day.

Barcelona

November 1st is a holiday in France so we took a last trip to Barcelona. It was beautiful, in the 70s every day, even at night. A little too cold to swim but Mary was up for some wading!

We had a nice day trip out to Montserrat. The mountain is beautiful. Getting up to the top nearly did Dave in, but the views and interesting rock formations were amazing.

The Montserrat monastery nestled in the mountains (this is the part you can get to by cable car)

The chapel at Montserrat

Gaudi's Sagrada Familia, one hundred years old and still 30 years from completion.

Guedelon

Mary just outside the castle walls

Diane and Mary bond with the horses

A workman making beams

Wow! We are getting behind on our blogging.  After this update we still have trips to Amsterdam, London, and Annecy in our queue...

Mary's folks came out to visit us in mid-September.  They wanted to do something a little different so one Saturday we drove two and a half hours south to Guedelon.  There they are building a castle, the way they would have in 13th century.   Picture a medieval Williamsburgh, instead of making hand-dipped candles, they are quarrying and dressing stone, cutting timber, and really building a castle. It is a long term project, currently they are fifteen years in and have twenty more years to run. I imagine its a great place for a family with kids tired of yet another cathedral or museum. 

A castle rises in the distance.

Since it is a bit off the beaten path its one of the few sites in France, we have visited, where French is the predominant language.  An interesting experience, but Mary and Dave were left to puzzle rough explanations for Mary's parents.

A ne'er-do-well gets scolded

medieval crane

La Difference ( 1 of ?)

Closed for August

When we were back visiting the States we were often asked how is France different. We never had a good response to that question. So we may post something here from time to time pieces of an answer.

In the month of August many shops shut down and offices are extremely quiet. You will hear many languages walking around the heart of Paris but French is not prevalent.  Everyone is on vacation. In some industries five weeks is the minimum and most of Mary's coworkers get 8 weeks.

The picture above is a clothing shop but all sorts of stores close. Little groceries close, pharmacies, and restaurants.  Last weekend we went out with a couple of friends walking to Paris' (only?) authentic BBQ place only to discover it was closed until September 6th!

The French attitude toward work is very different and that is often backed up by law.  For instance there are rules about working on Sunday and evenings that involve extra pay. As a consequence most shops are closed on Sunday. Even bakeries!  Getting a good baguette on Sunday is very hard (much like the day old bread you'll find in the markets that stay open!)

Fontainebleu

Dave's folks stayed with us a few days longer because of Irene. On Saturday we placed a call letting their ride know and headed out to Fontainebleu. It is, yet another, royal residence with a magnificent park and a glorious history.  It is also where Napoleon 'resigned' as Emperor.

These newly weds, with their wedding procession, broke down just in front of Fontainebleu

Luckily the car started again, just minutes later the skies opened up, a small taste of what it must have been like back home.

The famous double curved stairs of Fontainebleu

That's the library!

Here we are having a nice French dinner on what we thought was the parents last night in Paris!

Prague & Vienna (Vienna)

If you might remember our camera was baptized in Cesky Krumlov so we have many pictures of Vienna that look like this one of St Stephens Cathedral
We have no pictures of the Winter and Summer palaces (camera sigh!)  but the Summer palace was great, nice gardens and just the right ratio of commentary to rooms. It focuses on just two rulers, Maria Theresa and Franz Josef, so it is comprehensible.

 

The view from St Stephens

KunstHausWein a museum devoted to an artist who believed the straight line is an abomination

Here we are atop a hundred year old ferris wheel, expensive, but you can arrange a romantic dinner with a new course every time the wheel goes around

The future Lipizzaners, the show horses were on vacation, but we got to watch these younger horses frolic

Prague & Vienna (Prague)

Charlesbridge with Prague Castle in the background, this was the view from the (affordable!) restaurant we ate at in Prague

 Wow! Prague is incredible. Not being bombed during the war and suffering under Communism did wonders to preserve the historic city.  Prices are much lower than in other parts of Europe we have visited and Dave really enjoyed the meat heavy traditional Czech food.
  It was raining for most of the start of our visit which is the day we decided to do a walking tour but even so the scenery and history was incredible.  Between the tour and our own explorations, we hit the New Town Square, site of the Velvet revolution, Old Town Square, the Jewish Quarter, Charles Bridge and Prague Castle.  Prague Castle is actually more like a complex with lots of history. Dave enjoyed the Golden Lane where the castle guards built houses into the castle walls and each house was set in a different time period. Mary preferred the gardens and walking in the park in the old moat.  We also took a day trip to Karlovy Vary which was a pretty spa town but not so interesting.
 We are going to break from our habits to post an actual album on The Facebook since we have so many great shots. 
  After Prague we went to Cesky (pronounce chess-key) Krumlov which was a quaint medieval village. Complete with castle.  Dave convinced Mary to go canoeing on the spur of the moment. This was a complete success!  We successfully navigated three of four flumes on the river and the cost was only twenty euros, one sandal and a waterlogged camera!  Thus our Vienna pictures are a bit sparser until the camera finished drying.

Another view from the restaurant

View from the vineyard on Prague Castle

Old Town Square

View from castle in Cesky Krumlov

Mary canoeing

Dave canoeing (last photo for a bit due to waterlogged camera)

Tour de France

What is it like to watch the Tour de France? In Paris its 'whoosh!' We were hanging out right in front of Notre Dame but on the wrong side to get a shot with the church in it. I try to console myself that they went by too quick anyway.

From seeing the bikes in the distance to these three stragglers was a total of 20 seconds. The wait was an hour. The smart folks hung out near the Louvre where they do eight loops (and they got there 5 minutes before the group arrived...)

Here is the peleton in the distance. Oh and the winner was an Aussie, Cadel Evans.

Back in France & an Eiffel Tower visit

The tower at midnight

  Mary and Dave are back in Paris! To everyone we got to spend time with during our visit back to the States, we had so much fun and it was good to see you.  To everyone else, sorry we missed you!

 We were scolded multiple times for not visiting the Louvre or the Eiffel Tower during our time in Paris but we scratched one of those off our list last night when we visited the Eiffel 58 restaurant. We were there to celebrate Mary's birthday and for the record this was planned before our trip home!  We had a great time despite an overcast night and a fair bit of rain.

ps. It is an expensive way to do it but getting dinner reservations is a great way to jump the elevator line at the tower.

An impromptu shot of Mary as we approach the tower.

We took a walk around on the first platform before dinner, unfortunately no sunset because of the weather

Mary had the salmon

Dave had the veal

But of course its all about the view! This is what we saw from our table.

 

After dinner we walked up to the second platform

An 'artistic' shot of the tower at night

Fete de la Musique

 

 

 

 

Familyone at Trinity's storefront outreach center

Pretty decent crowd. People we talked to said it was even more crowded at midnight

Every year on the Summer solstice Paris lets anyone who wants can play music outdoors without fear of cops shutting them down.  Its a family event these days though rumor is that the media used to cover it with stories like 'only X killed at Fete de la Musique.'

Virtually every street corner had someone or some group playing.  We went to see a gospel/motown group associated with our church and then wandered the First arrondisement where we live. Sorry if I misidentify groups, there was too much that didn't categorize well and I can only really tell the difference between country and not country. We did see sing-a-longs, French rap, singer songwriters and something involving vocals distilled down to noise for a band that seemed vaguely 80's. Not everyone was good but most were solid and a few were amazing.  We retired just as the light faded, 11 or so, but the festival went on late into the night...

This group marched through playing drums and made quite an impression. Seemed like a mixed group of men, women and children.

These guys were playing wild fiddling music from the balcony of an art gallery on Rue Rivoli

As is required by international law, every street festival includes a Peruvian pipe band dressed as American Indians.

A hair metal tribute band?

A real fun brass group belting out pop hits.