Gemini

Oh my. Now it’s been almost a year since I went to Paris and I haven’t written down everything the way I said I was going to. I really wanted to commit to that, and now, I have to rely on the pictures to remind me of what happened each day. I will do what I can to remember it as it happened….

Sunday was the day that we visited the Centre Pompidou which was a really cool place. They call it the inside out building because all the pipes and stuff that’s usually in the walls is on the outside so they can get more uber cool art on the inside. That seemed pretty groovy to me. There’s like this large open space in front of the Centre, and it’s pretty cool because there are all sorts of street vendors, performers and stuff that setup around there. I am sure to many it all seems very tourist trappy, but I enjoyed it a ton and thought it was charming. We saw magic tricks, dancing, musicians, it was awesome.

Here’s the photo set from Day Three:

There was this giant flower pot outside the museum, which was pretty interesting. Inside, it was also very interesting, but it’s sort of an odd thing. When you are surrounded by SO MUCH, after awhile, one just seems to get desensitized to things. We did see an angry feminist exhibit that I thought was pretty awesome. I thought of my old women studie’s prof’s and how much they would have enjoyed it. OH, OH, OH…there was one other thing I wanted to say about Pompidou. There is some rad sculpture there. Last year, I took a “Welding as Art” class at our local community college, and the teacher was awesome. His name is John Septien and he’s an amazing artist as well as an amazing teacher. In discussing this class with some of the others that took it with me, we mused at what NOT an easy job John has essentially shoving an Art class and a welding class together, but needing to make sure the students understand concepts of both. Large concepts like negative space, orientation, and having your sculpture look good from all angles are a challenge to someone who’s spatially challenged like me. Being in Paris and seeing all the amazing sculpture made me understand these concepts in a way that John could not have shown me with two-dimensional pictures. I am not sure yet that I will ever be a decent welder or metal art sculptor, but I understand better what he meant =)

After the Pompidou, we walked up the empty space and found an adorable little Italian place that was sort of indoor/outdoor seating. Some of the seats faced outside, and it was all open air. We got a table on the inside. We had the first of what would be a series of AWESOME pizzas. I would NEVER have guessed this, but we had a pizza with smoked salmon and lots and lots of cheese on it. It was amazing. I had pasta and a salad, and I don’t remember what everyone else had, but I do remember that all the food was amazing.

After that we headed back to our neck of the woods and chilled out for awhile. We had some free time, and no dinner plans with the group, so we looked and decided we were going to have Sushi in Paris. This seemed a very metropolitan thing for us to do, we took advantage!

We walked to the Sushi place, through the streets of Paris. It was very cool. Seeing things that are so old. We found these little kiosks they have along the way that allow you to exchange money like right there, on the street. It’s so funny how Americans assume everything revolves around them and Europeans assume the opposite, that others may need to access different stuff. heh. Along the way to the restaurant we saw the Canadian embassy. I pointed it out to Margo, but we were past it by the time she noticed. Heh. The days, in many ways were a complete blur.

When we got to the sushi place, it was totally cool because the whole thing was done like in purple neon. How cool is that?!? Then I brought one of their menu’s home because it, too, was cool. I think it’s like a city law or something that everything in Paris must be a work of art. Or maybe it’s competition, who knows?

Day two was sort of like a hangover day, but, like, when in Paris, keep going baby, you can sleep when your dead because you better see all you can see while you are there! As you doubtless will realize, this is a recurring theme of the trip. Sleep? Sleep is for the weak!

We had to get up early, seemingly early, so that we could take a couple of trains to Versailles. The hotel had a really quaint little breakfast room where we were able to eat each day, I will have to see if any of us got a picture in there, it seems odd because it was such a large part of where we gathered each morning, and ate each day, but maybe it’s like the kitchen in one’s house…you take it for granted that it will always be there…

Breakfast in France, or Paris, is an interesting thing. Mostly portable, I wonder how much of the food they had they had because many Americans stay with them? There was cereal, and yummy brown hard-boiled eggs, that always seemed to be in short supply. Then strong coffee, tea, water, an assortment of juices and OF COURSE, bread, and cheese. Bread and cheese, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways….of course there were croissants there, which were delectable, I think I had two while we were there. I probably COULD have eaten my body weight in them….

We meet in the lobby in time to walk across the street and down the block to get to the Metro station. I heart the Metro. If you miss a train, hang around, there is a good chance another will be by within five minutes. Our fearless leader experienced a moment of panic herding us cats near the Metro station, but we were reasonably quickly sorted and on our way to the RR train, which takes us to Versailles.

The Metro station in Versailles is it’s own historical building, very beautiful. We walk across the street and we have a bit of time before we have to walk over to the palace for our appointment to go see it. We decided to head down into the little town and see what we could find. It was really our first opportunity for some SHOPPING! Everything seemed like a specialty shop! Quaint little shops everywhere, each having a specialty. Cheese shops and bread shops and sandwich shops and candy shops and sweet shops separate from candy shops. Dizzying! We went into a small boutique and I found a lovely skirt for my daughter at a decent price, so I bought it.

In an aside here, you have no concept of how important a good travel bag is until you take a trip like this. Nina had gotten a Rick Steve’s backpack as a prize for something she did. I coveted this backpack the entire time we were there! I liked it so much, as SOON as I got home, I ordered one. I had a HUGE National Guard backpack that while I was grateful to have had it, it really was much too heavy to carry around all the time. I ended up buying a much smaller purse that I still use for such things, but now, I have THE BACKPACK!

We headed back in time to make the rendezvous, and headed to the Palace. When the palace first came in sight, I seriously thought it was a compound, it was so huge, and it seemed like we were half a mile away JUST walking through the parking lots! Scale takes on a whole new meaning! The closer we got, the shinier the palace got. There was a huge line, which seemed very daunting at first. On the opposite side of the palace, there was another set of double-doors, with no line. “Group Entrance”. Score. Gold gilded scroll work around the top of the ENTIRE palace. Really?!? In one of the videos I made from the trip, my first comment was “Today’s lesson in excess is the Palace of Versaillies…” Seriously. To think that this was the home of one family is really mind-boggling. That’s the first thing I noticed.

Above are the pictures from the day. If I had it to do over again, I would have spent less time in the palace, and more time in the gardens, but the whole thing is an experience, and I am glad I got to experience it. I cannot imagine what it must have been like to live or be entertained during the time this palace was someone’s house. Seeing a couple of thousand people in the Hall of Mirrors barely made a dent. The king and queen bed chambers looked very small compared to the grandeur and scale of everything else. It seems like it would be a very COLD existence. The gardens were phenomenal, even the small amount we got to see.