August 18, 2007 by tgill1.

I’ve always heard that there’s no such thing as a free lunch, and I truly believe that’s true after yesterday. Imagine, to my surprise, that I had been upgraded to business class on my Air Canada flight from Paris to Montreal! I couldn’t believe it! I have never been in anything other than economy and really felt like a poser sitting in the wide, reclining seats.

I was offered champagne, newspapers, food on real dishes. Better than anything was the reclining action on the chair. I kicked up my feet, leaned back and relaxed. I was so amazed that even when the lady in front of me was fully reclined, I STILL had plenty of space to walk around. It was quite nice indeed.

Like I said, however, nothing in life is ever free, and I should have known that in the scheme of things, there would be something attached to the business class upgrade. Indeed, there was. We arrived in Montreal about 45 minutes late, due to a late take off from Paris, and strong winds. To go through customs I had to claim by suitcase, and I swear my bag was pretty much the very last one off the plane. It was ridiculous. Then, to my surprise, I had to clear customs twice! Once for Canada, and then again for the United States. Strange I thought, since I was still in Canada. Anyway, it became very clear that I was not going to make the flight, and nobody seemed inclined to help me out. By this time I’m exhausted and a tad upset. After standing in a corner of customs for nearly an hour, (having been informed by an Air Canada representative that I had missed my flight), I found that thankfully I could take another flight at 5:30, that was leaving in about three hours. I was just thankful that I didn’t have to spend the night in Montreal, but it wasn’t long before utter derangement set in, waiting for the next flight. I was tired and upset, and was starting to freak out that it was still light outside, since according to my time clock, the sun clearly should have set long ago. The next leg of the flight pretty much sucked, since I had a seat that wouldn’t recline an inch, but I was still glad to make it home. By the time I caught a shuttle to Glendale, it was 11pm in Los Angeles, exactly 24 hours since I’d left the door of MySuite Village. Long day you could say.

Today was crazy with tons of mail, running by work to check on my job status, and taking care of a rent check that went awry while I was away to no fault of my own. It’s amazing the work it takes to clean up one’s life after five weeks away. That said, I loved every minute of it and wouldn’t trade the experience for the world. Tomorrow I’ll head to Fresno to see the family and hopefully catch up on some more sleep.

For the record, I intend on continuing this blog, just not on a daily basis as before. But as things arise, I will post. Check back once and a while.

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August 15, 2007 by tgill1.

Ah, my last full day in Paris!  Tomorrow I leave at 10:30 in the morning, and I will arrive in Los Angeles at 5:00 p.m. Thursday.  My last day was a bit uneventful, since it was raining cats and dogs most of the day.  I did go to the stores nearby for last minute gift shopping, and of course I had to organize and pack my things.  Fortunately, Jason was able to leave work early today so we went into Paris for one last dinner.

We had a very delicious Italian meal, walked around a bit, took one last look at the Seine River at dusk, and hopped back on the train for Montevrain.

Remember the Reims champagne tasting trip a few weeks back?  Jason had bought a bottle to take back with us, so we decided tonight would be the perfect night to enjoy it.  So here I sit, enjoying champagne, and contemplating packing up my computer gear for the long trip home.  I’ve had a fantastic time in Paris, as you’ve probably noticed.  Some of the highlights of the trip: Bastille Day at the Eiffel Tower was naturally a knock-out, the top of Sacre-Coeur Cathedral, the Rodin Museum, the trip to Normandy, the Pere-Lachaise Cemetery, baguettes and wine galore, steak with french fries, of course the chocolate pyramids, and getting to meet and hang out with Blake and Andrea.  Naturally, the number one highlight of the trip was being able to travel and be with Jason each day for the last five weeks.  Paris has been wonderful, but coming home will be just as sweet.  With that said, I’m going to pack up the computer and officially end this blog.  Thanks for reading and for all of your encouragement.  I’ll see you at home very soon. 

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August 14, 2007 by tgill1.

Andrea, Nancy and I made the trip to Versailles, this time in a car as opposed to a train, which saved us about an hour and twenty minutes.  We visited the Grand Canal today so that Nancy could get a feel for the grounds, which are very nice.  Afterwards we had a nice lunch in Versailles at a cute American diner, and then continued the day in Fontainbleau.

This was extremely fortunate since I was finally able to see the palace that several monarchs, including Napoleon Bonaparte, lived in.  Even better, we each had another delicious chocolate pyramid, an exquisite pastry discovered by Andrea and Nancy when they visited the Fontainbleau palace last week.

I was very fortunate that they brought me back a sample last week, but today I was able to experience the pyramids from the source.  Back to the palace, the property really is beautiful and enormous.

I wasn’t able to see the inside but the exterior was very well manicured and peaceful.  The horseshoe staircase where Andrea and I took a picture together is the same stairwell where Napoleon exited and said good-bye to his subjects as he was exiled from France.

Before this trip I really only thought of Napoleon as a short, pompous ass, but now I am much more curious about his life and legacy.  Clearly he did a lot for France, especially Paris, and I hope to read more about him at some point soon.

Alas, tomorrow is my last day here.  I suspect I’ll go into Paris at some point, although I haven’t fully decided in what capacity.  Obviously I have to pack as well.  It’s supposed to be raining tomorrow, so I suppose my activities will be limited.  Check back tomorrow for what will indeed be the very last blog entry from France!

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August 13, 2007 by tgill1.

It may sound macabre, but today I went to visit the Pere-Lachaise Cemetery, which is the largest cemetery in Paris and the final resting place of some notable folks.  The cemetery itself is a crazy and cluttered mess, which makes Paris cemeteries so interesting.

The tombs don’t all face the same way with equal spaces of grass between, but rather occupy every inch of square space possible like pieces of a puzzle, facing every which way.  There’s also an interesting mix of the old and new, again, all tossed together.  One grave can be so old that it is literally caving in and no legible words can be made out, while the one immediately next to it is the tomb of someone who died in 2005.  Anyway, saw a few interesting things today, including the grave of Jim Morrison, the lead singer of the Doors, and that of Oscar Wilde.

Oscar Wilde’s tomb has messages and kiss marks from top to bottom, and a plaque below warning that disturbing the grave in any such manner is against the law.  On the back reads the inscription “And alien tears will fill for him / Pity’s long broken urn / For his mourners will be outcast men / And outcasts always mourn.”  Despite the unheeded warning, I think the additions to the monument are the perfect homage to such a great writer.

Even more interesting however, was stumbling across the random tomb of a man named Victor Noir, a 22 year old journalist who was shot to death by Pierre Bonaparte in 1870.  The tomb has a bronze sculpture of his life-sized body as he apparently looked as he died.

A certain body part seems somewhat enlarged, if you know what I mean.  I also noticed that the lips, feet, and that particular area are completely worn smooth.  Next to the body is his top hat, which had baby booties inside.

I made a mental note to further investigate who this man was when I got home.  I will not repeat the entire story here, but urge you to read up on the death and  tomb of Victor Noir.  To this day his grave is seen by many women as a good luck charm for either fertility or finding a husband, which explains why those particular areas are worn.  In fact, some people complained that they had seen women humping the tomb.  A few years ago, a fence was erected, (no pun intended), to stop visitors from copping a feel on the statue, but amidst public outcry, it was removed soon after.  This is probably one of the most interesting and unexpected things I have found in Paris.  Who new?  I bet poor Victor had no clue what was to become of his, uh, er, legacy after he died so young.  Anyway, to round out the day Jason and I spent the evening at Disneyland because we wanted to go at least one time together.

This time I managed to finally ride Thunder Mountain Railroad, which by the way is AWESOME!  It’s not completely different from the ride in California, but the whole ride takes place on an island in a lagoon, two trains run at once, and the ride is longer with some really great effects.  We also caught the evening fireworks show.  Tomorrow I’m headed toward Versaille again with Andrea so that Nancy can check out the property.  We will not be buying tickets this time, however, but simply checking out the grounds and the lower lagoon area.  It should be a lot more enjoyable without the hours in line.  Pictures tomorrow.

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August 12, 2007 by tgill1.

Back from Geneva!  Sadly, our weekend in Geneva did not get off on a good start but it turned out to be fun all the same.  After driving six hours from Paris on Friday night, we went to check in at the Ibis Hotel where I had made reservations almost three weeks ago.  Upon entering I knew something was up.  The eyes of the guy at the front desk bulged and then he just started shaking his head, like he knew this would happen all along.  Of course, I immediately had a sinking feeling in my gut, and for good reason.  Apparently earlier in the evening some guy tried to check in but realized his card had been denied and they gave away his room.  The hotel was completely booked for Friday night, he put up a huge stink, and guess what, the idiot working at the front desk gave him our room.  So then WE were up a creek.  Totally infuriating and unprofessional.  Just so you know, that’s IBIS HOTEL.  They suck!  They are owned by the same people as Motel 6 though (Accor Hotels), so maybe that says something.  Anyway, my rage at the situation wasn’t going to change the fact that we literally had no room and we were in a brand new city and country.  Luckily, since they are a huge chain hotel, they had extra room at their inferior chain hotel about ten minutes away that could take us for the evening.  I’m used to poor standards of lodging in Europe, but this was low even by European standards.  Think of the cheap room of a three day Carnival cruise to Ensenada.  Kind of like that.  Bunk beds included.  Really special.  Needless to say, I was not impressed with night one in Geneva.  Fortunately the next day we were able to get into the room we had reserved nice and early, walked around, had a nice lunch, and went to check out the on-going festival on the shore of Lake Geneva put on by the Geneva Tourism Bureau.

Fortunately, the festival was really cool, with tons of food, drinks, rides, live music, vendors and later, dancing.  They also put on a really nice fireworks show that was choreographed to music and lasted a full half an hour.

We mostly spent the day drinking our way through the festival and then enjoyed some dancing at night.

Today, with the six hour drive back to Paris looming ahead of us, we didn’t want to waste too much time, but did manage to see the United Nations headquarters, as well as the headquarters for the Red Cross, (at about 30 miles an hour from the car window, that is, since Jason wasn’t terribly interested in stopping).

In all we had a nice time, and the natural resources in Geneva, meaning the lake and surrounding mountains, are gorgeous.  The city of Geneva is only okay, and if it wasn’t for the festival, I think we may have been a tad bored.  Anyway, nice to be back in Paris, if only for a few more days.

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August 10, 2007 by tgill1.

I’ve decided I can cram in one quick blog today before we take off for Geneva shortly.  Today I visited the archeological crypts underneath the Notre Dame Cathedral.  No, no this one does not involve dead bodies that I know of, but simply the cellar frameworks of now demolished buildings dating randomly from the fourth century until the eighteenth century.

Pretty cool but most of the display was in French so I’ll need to do more research on my own to see what I was really looking at.  I also strolled through the cathedral and took some pictures.  Apparently the funeral services of what looked like a cardinal were held in the cathedral that morning so it was closed most of the day and blocked off for security.  I overheard that the new president of France, Nicolas Sarkozy was in attendance.

It’s so huge inside they still had television screens up and down the pews from the morning’s services, since to sit in the back virtually guarantees you won’t see a thing up front.  I also saw my first French smack down during lunch!  I chose a quaint little crepe shop for lunch that is on a street that isn’t much more than a glorified sidewalk.  At some point this moving truck parked out front and needed space to set up their lift outside the window of the dwelling.  I’m imagining there isn’t an elevator and that the stairwells are far too small to lift anything upstairs.  Since cars were in the way, the two guys apparently decided to take a scene right out of a Mentos commercial and lift this small, white hatchback car out of the way.  Problem is when they set it down partially on the sidewalk it rolled forward and hit the car in front of it, causing noticeable body damage to both vehicles.

Crepe shop waitress knows the owner of the white car and proceeds to get in a ten minute super yelling match with the moving guys.  Very interesting indeed.  By the time I was leaving, they had moved the mattresses into the apartment.  Nuts.  Can’t tell you what came of the whole situation since I couldn’t understand.  Anyway, off I go.  See you on Sunday.

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August 9, 2007 by tgill1.

I finally made it to the Musee d’Orsay today, and am glad to have done so although the security line was rather gnarly.  The building actually used to be a gorgeous train station that ceased to be so several decades ago.

It came very close to a wrecking ball in the seventies, but in the eighties it was decided that it would be the perfect place to store late nineteenth/early twentieth century works that were crowded in the Louvre.  This museum is best known for its realist and impressionist works by Manet, Degas, Monet, Van Gogh and Toulouse-Lautrec to name a few.

It was awesome to finally see the original version of the prints everyone had hanging in their college dorm rooms.  Although the Louvre is so damned impressive, I liked this museum better for its style of art and mellow atmosphere.  Later in the evening, we met Blake, Andrea and Nancy, (Andrea’s aunt), for Nancy’s 64th birthday.

We ate dinner at Nos Ancetres Les Gaulois, a restaurant much in the same style of the dinner Jason and I had a few weeks back where we cut the vegetables and salami meats.

Incidentally, it was right next door.  Small world.

Anyway, tomorrow Jason and I head to Geneva, Switzerland to check out some festival.  We’re not really sure what to expect but I’m sure we’ll enjoy it no matter what.  See you on Sunday!  (Unless I find some extra time tomorrow to post a blog before we leave, but no promises).

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August 8, 2007 by tgill1.

I thought I would head over to the Louvre again today, and I can only say that I’m glad that I had the awesome experience last week.  If I had based my opinion of the Louvre on today, it would have been much lower.  Unlike last Thursday, the museum was absolutely packed with people and tour groups.  I actually left for awhile during the day because I simply didn’t want to deal with the crowds.  It turned out to be a good move because the crowds had mellowed out by the time I returned.  Fortunately I saw some awesome pieces again today.  I saw the Venus de Milo, some great artifacts from Egypt, and the luxurious “small” apartments of Napoleon III.

The one thing that really blew me away today was seeing Hammurabi’s Code, which I didn’t even know was available for display anywhere.

After today’s debacle, I decided to wrap up my Louvre experience for now.  Two days will be just fine, since I don’t want to risk a potential third day being anything like today.  I am glad I was able to see everything I wanted to, however, and now just need to hit Musee d’Orsay.  I leave one week from tomorrow so I’d better get moving!

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August 7, 2007 by tgill1.

I decided to try another of one the walking audio tours today since I enjoyed the first one so much through Saint Michel on Friday.  This time I walked through Saint-Germain des Pres, which is a district named after the oldest church in Paris.

The current structure is not the oldest, but the original church on the site was, and bits of it still remain in the garden.  Also present is a sculpture by Picasso in remembrance of his friend.

The small garden is also the the site where 321 priests were literally hacked to death by an angry mob during the revolution.  That’s always special.

I also took a nice long walk along the Seine, which was only interrupted by the increasingly bad weather.  Apparently rain is coming tomorrow.

At any rate, I was also able to check out the Plages de Paris, or Beaches of Paris, which is something the city organizes along the Seine for one month each summer.  Basically it is comprised of local merchants, restaurants and drinking establishments setting up temporary business along the bank of the Seine for one month.  Although the wind had started kicking up, I still was able to appreciate what a fun idea this is.

Afterwards, Jason and I had intended to hit up Disneyland but with the impending rain we decided to just grab some dinner instead.  It was a nice surprise to get back at 11pm tonight and realize that out electronic keys had expired at some point during the day and we had to call the maintenance person to let us in.  She actually was friendly about the whole situation, which was refreshing because she’s usually not.  Tomorrow, hitting up the Louvre for part deux.

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August 6, 2007 by tgill1.

Jason and I drove to Normandy this weekend to visit the D-Day beaches and sites.  It was an incredibly powerful experience, kind of like visiting Pearl Harbor but on a larger scale.  We stayed the night in Bayeaux, which proved to be a nice place to stay to visit the beaches and was so old and quaint it seemed unreal.

We first visited Omaha Beach, where the American troops encountered the most resistance on D-Day.  To look at the beach now, you would never guess that at some point so many lives were lost on those same shores.  It is a recreational beach now.  Hundreds of families and children were beached out with towels and umbrellas, playing games, running in and out of the surf.

The beach itself is beautiful.  It’s also long: 4 miles.  Neither of us had any idea how long the beach was, especially considering that Omaha was simply one of five beaches attacked on the same day.  As if it didn’t seem so before, the task seems even more daunting and impossible.  Making it onto the beach itself would have been an amazing feat considering the heavy firing, but the troops also had to climb up cliffs and steep embankments.

It’s no wonder why Omaha suffered the greatest casualties and took the longest to claim.  We visited the Point du Hoc memorial and site, where members of the U.S. Army Rangers had to scale up cliffs under heavy fire to seize German guns, only to find when they arrived at the destination that the Germans had already moved the guns.  They later found the guns about a kilometer away but had lost well over half of their men, (only 90 remained of over 225).  The area above the cliffs still has the remains of the German artillery bunkers and fortifications.

Also present are tons of enormous craters in the earth left over by the bombings.

We spent most of Saturday on or around Omaha Beach, walking around and driving by as much of it as we could.

Sunday we first visited the Normandy American Cemetery that overlooks Omaha Beach.  The grounds have an impressive museum site that talks about preparations and strategies in preparation for D-Day, as well as specific stories of soldiers who fought that day, both from the survivors and from those who did not.

We also went to see Pegasus Bridge, which was captured by the British to take control of the Caen Canal and and thereby seize control of a major port of entry.

Looking around it’s hard to believe what happened there just over 60 years ago, but reminders exist everywhere.  All over the names of streets, memorials and plaques thank the liberators for their deeds and sacrifices.  It’s a good thing, because the outcome was priceless but the cost was incredibly steep.

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