A walk around the neighborhood (still)

What is that ugly thing? That's Les Halles, don't worry the French think its ugly too. Its one of two honest-to-goodness malls in Paris. It is actually huge on the inside, there are three levels underground.  Notre Dame is about ten minutes more on this street, and we'd be at the Centre Pompidou in five minutes if we'd made a left at Les Halles. In the background you can see Eglise Saint-Eustache. The area is fairly littered with centuries old buildings, after a while you hardly even notice them.

Over this way, past Saint-Eustache, is Rue Montorgueil, Paris' oldest shopping street. Its where we go for the boulangerie, the boucherie and the fromagerie.  Why am I talking SO LOUD? So people will know we are Americans (Mais bien sur!).

I'll take you back by why of the shopping arcade. Lots of real cool shops along here.
(pardon blogger does formating poorly so we had to break the post up to make it look right)

A walk around the neighborhood

Here let me show you around the neighborhood.

There is Mary at that front door. Let's "traverser la rue" to get a better look...

Our apartment is on the third floor to the far left.  Our area has many streets that are pedestrian only, lined with shops.  Let's walk down Rue Pierre Lescot towards the Seine. We just passed our Metro stop, Etienne-Marcel, we are lucky to be only a stones-throw from the train.

Welcome to our apartment!

Oh, I'm sorry I didn't hear you knocking! We were busy making fondue and eating baguette in the 'cusine.' Come on in!

Welcome to Paris (and our apartment)! This is the hallway, on your right is the toilet.  No, its just a toilet, here in France it's very common to have two half-baths. And on your left you'll see antique maps of New Jersey, a little touch to make Dave feel at home.  We really like the floor tiles (they're over 100 years-old!)!

Just down the hall, on the right is our 'cuisine.' It's small but it has a 'lave-vaisselle' and a 'lave-linge,' no dish washing or taking our clothes to the 'laverie' (though we have to use a drying rack)!

On the left is our 'salle de sejour' take a look around while you put your bags down. It's a a good size (though perhaps it looks 'un peu petit' from this angle)- space is at a real premium here in Paris so it's great to have room to spread out.

Yes, it's always this clean, you think we run around cleaning like crazy before we have guests? Heh-heh. And we've been informed that the 'canapes' are comfortable to sleep on (thanks for testing them out, Liz and Katie!).

Finally at the end of the hall is the 'chambre' with the 'salle de bain' off of it. I know the room is very orange but it works quite well. Umm, the 'salle de bain' isn't really part of the tour, but what are you looking at, you ask? The bidet? Remember, this is France, after all!

Why don't your freshen up, maybe get a quick nap and we'll take you around our neighborhood and help you get oriented? :)

La Difference

So far France hasn't been too different than the United States, more bureaucracy, sure, a bigger wine and cheese selection in the supermarket, okay, and of course the language, but last week I saw something that drove home the difference. I met Mary for lunch one day last week with her sister and her sister's friend and she showed us one of the nearby office buildings (previously empty) had been taken over by a student group called Jeudi Noir, Black Thursday.

Instead of getting kicked out and maybe spending the night in jail, the Jeudi Noir leaders were holding a press conference highlighting the lack of housing in Paris. The police at the front doors were there for the new tenant's protection. According to a Frenchman of our acquaintance you are not allowed to evict tenants in the winter, even if they snuck on to your property. Needless to say we are making doubly sure to lock our doors for fear of finding long term roommates when we return. (family and friends excepted)

Aswan and Cairo (part 2 of 2)

The trip up the Nile was very nice and relaxing. We visited several more temples on the way up to Aswan. In Aswan we took a ride on a faluca (traditional sail boat) and visited the Temple of Isis. The trip out to the temple was very interesting as the Temple is on an island.  We later made the trip at night for the sight and sound show (we learned Isis is pro Aswan dam) on unlit boats that the pilots treated like bumper cars.

The next day was a hard one because we woke at 2 AM to see Abu Simbel. The buses all leave in a giant caravan, for security purposes. Abu Simbel is another site rescued from the rising waters of Lake Nasser.  It has the very famous image of four seated Pharaohs, all Ramses II (no false modesty for kings).

The day after that was Cairo (another 3 AM wakeup, followed by a 7 AM flight and a full day of touring). We got to see the Pyramids, The Sphinx and the King Tut exhibit at the Cairo Museum.  This was New Year's Eve, needless to say we didn't make it to midnight (though we did celebrate with Dubai right before we fell asleep and NY upon waking up!). We definitely felt better with the rest as we flew back the next day, especially as the airline lost our connecting flight for an hour and a half (no we did not mistype- they lost our FLIGHT, not our tickets). Fortunately several other groups had the same issue and it was all resolved before we left Cairo. All in all it was a wonderful trip, we saw many amazing things, and met some really nice people! We highly recommend such a trip - just make sure you sign up for an English-speaking tour (it was a small difficulty for us since all of the guided tour explanations were in French - oops!)!! But still a wonderful trip!

Link to see more pics on 'The Facebook'

Luxor and the Nile! ( part 1 of 2)

Karnak

Our ship started at Luxor and unfortunately the tour starts with Karnak. Unfortunate, I say, because its pretty amazing, its the largest complex, with the biggest ruins this side of the pyramid you get to visit and the public is only allowed in part of it. Its big. Afterwards you start comparing everything to it and most come up short, so you look for other interesting things.

 

Roman mural over heiroglyphs

Luxor Temple

For instance, Luxor temple which we saw later that first day (the 26th). Not as big, but it was used by Romans,Christians and Muslims as well as ancient Egyptian (you can see the later people's "re-usage" of the temple on the right).

The second day we saw the Valley of Artisans, which housed the work force for the Valley of the Kings. It was interesting in that we saw non-temple & grave ruins for the only time in Egypt. It also had two small very well preserved tombs for overseers. The painting was still amazingly vibrant after 3000 years. Valley of the Kings was also very cool, we weren't allowed to take any photos there though. Its amazingly unassuming, and looks like pretty much any other dusty valley in Egypt except the massive tombs beneath the hills.

In the Nile valley it is incredibly green

Valley of the Artisans - outside the Nile it looks like this

That actually brings me to another thought, we were amazed at how green Egypt was. I know we shouldn't have been, but the area near the Nile was verdant, then as if someone drew a line, the landscape changes to dusty scarp as soon as any elevation over the plain.

The trip up the Nile was pleasant but uneventful. We saw several more temples but none that could compare to Karnak. ('Its a well-preseved 3000 year old temple but is it perfectly preserved?') One promised crocodile mummies but that exhibit was closed at the time. Part 2 (Aswan and Cairo) coming soon!

The temples have amazing color even after millenia

And Flea to Egypt

Following Joseph's example, David decided to take Mary and flee to Egypt around Christmas time. It was a great trip! Its winter there so the weather was like a perfect June day back in New York. We left Christmas day and had a cruise starting from Luxor. The first couple days we were actually in Luxor, visiting Karnak, the Valley of the  Kings, etc. Then up the Nile to the Aswan Dam and out to Abu Simbel. Finally a sprint to the finish line, a day in Cairo on New Years Eve and a trip back to Paris New Years Day. But I know what everyone really wants, so here is the obligatory picture of us on a camel, in front of the Pyramids. We'll have a few follow up posts in the next few days.

Happy New Year to everyone!

PS. We took a lot of photos, but we hope to post the top 20 or so on 'The Facebook' sometime soon.