Paris

So here she is, The Mona Lisa.

Since we didn't get to The Louvre the last time we were here, I told Hans that it was the one place I really did want see while we had the chance. I also can't believe in all the years that Hans has traveled, The Louvre is one place he's never visited!

I got a kick out of this little budding artist. With a very important air, she stomped about, studying the paintings and then proceeded to scribble in her book. I peeked over her shoulder and believe me, 'scribble' is an accurate term.

Hans is intently studying 'David and Goliath'.

Here I am in one of the many wings of the Louvre. I believe I read somewhere that if you viewed each item in the museum for 10 seconds each, it would take four years to see everything. I'll let someone else try it.

The building is also a work of art. Here is a view of just one ceiling. And they're all like this in one way or another. Either beautiful sculptures or huge paintings.

This has nothing to do with art but I saw this purse in Duty Free and I loved it! I think it was something like 250 euros ($375.00 I think). So I took pictures and made notes and I'd like to try to make something similar.

This is a short video of the room where the Mona Lisa is on display and it gives you an idea of what we saw.
We are now done with Paris and landed in Italy late last night and I have to say that I hope to never use the Charles De Gaulle Airport again. In addition to being gloomy and difficult to maneuver around, there was almost no decent food to be had. I ended up eating a mystery sandwich on stale bread and washed it down with Scotch and orange juice!!! Yes Scotch and orange juice.

I don't recommend it.

The last of Barcelona

Here is Christopher Columbus, pointing to the way to America! Not a very good picture but it will do! Can you imagine such a thing! Even with engines and GPS I wouldn't do it!

We went to the Cathedral, and I mean 'The Cathedral' ; a truly traditional Catholic Cathedral and a huge tourist attraction. Right now it's under huge major construction and I couldn't get an outside photo of it for this reason.
On the cement floor inside, there are many symbols of those buried below (at least I think that's what they are) such as sculls and crossbones and these scissors which may represent a tailor?? We weren't sure, maybe someone else out there knows what this means?

Here is a sclulped figure at The Gaudi Tower. All of the figures look like this. Not life like at all, but more like Tim Burton's Nightmare Before Christmas.

See the scull at Christ's feet? Weird.

Another view of the incomplete Gaudi Cathedral.

Cranes in the background. They could be there for another 200 years!

I kid you not.

Here is a view of a different cathedral at the top of Mount Tibidabo. The restaurant we ate at was about 3 quarters of the way up this mountain. One Sunday, about 15 years ago, when Hans was in Barcelona on business he actually walked up this mountain from bottom to top because he had nothing else to do that day!

You'd have to be here to appreciate this!

Of course I knew exactly what he did when he reached the top.

Had a beer and got a taxi back to the hotel!

We landed at Orly Airport in Paris on Saturday and today is Sunday. We went to the Louvre today and I do have photos but have only just now been able to get online.

We did have a minor problem on the subway when my ticket wouldn't work at the turnstyle and when I motioned to the nasty ticket seller that there was an issue, she waved her hands over her head, stuck out her tongue, and rolled her eyes at me.

She should be incredibly thankful that I don't have PMS!!

Wrapping things up in Paris

A few parting memories before we leave Paris and move on to Geneva.








Here is Hans holding the French version of an ice bucket.







Our poor little front desk girl had to go down to a lower level to get this for us. I'd forgotten from our trip to Germany last year that it would appear that Europeans don't like ice. If you are gauche enough to order a mixed drink your server will ask you if you want ice. If you are gauche enough to order a mixed drink be prepared to pay about 15 bucks. If you don't want to remortgage the house then learn to drink wine. Luckily I don't have a problem in that area.











This is the bathroom with the defective shower head. Believe me that flimsy little shower curtain did nothing to contain its spray but the hotel did get it fixed.




The day we left.























Oh and let's not forget the potty. The mirror was directly across from it.

Hhhmm, you gotta wonder.


















I passed this window every day. I finally had Hans take a picture of me with it. This would be one easy dress to make.














Grabbing us a quick snack; a foot long hot dog baked into a baguette. I prayed we wouldn't get sick and we didn't.










This is in a little cafe on a side street. I had escargot (which I love) and the owner informed us with a sneer that the credit card machine had broken down.



Liar, liar, pants on fire!


I had to stay while Hans went out and got robbed by the exchange machine.



Our mode of transportation and apparently the object of that new Olympic sport: Fling yourself under the train.

And finally. My own little porta-bar. This made the train trip from Paris to Geneva. You can see my cranberry juice in front of me, orange juice stored in the convenient garbage can next to me, and vodka in my purse. Was that necessary?

Absolutely!

... Paris, Part 2

Here I am about 2/3 of the way up the Eiffel Tower. Hans bought tickets for us to get to the top, but once the elevators dumped us at this level, the line to get to the top was awful. Only a small amount of people at a time can go up and the line was huge and serpentined in a horrible, claustrophbic way so we stopped here, otherwise it would have been a long wait.







Below is a foggy kind of view of the Eiffel tower taken from near the fabric district.

Here I am (if you can see me, and I don't know why I'm standing so pigeon-toed) at Versailles under a cupid. We took this picture because I told Hans that about 4 years ago Cupid had to beat the heck out of me with MANY arrows on the night of what I thought was going to be our second and last date. I have no idea what happened that evening but I went into that date expecting to tell him he was a nice guy but... and something just happened.

So I blame Cupid, and for once in my life I didn't make a really stupid mistake.

This above picture of me is hideous but we're still at Versailles and I just wanted to give you an idea of how huge it is. This is the lower end but unfortunately the fountains weren't yet working. Once again we just couldn't fathom standing in the enormous lines that were waiting to into the buildings themselves. There must have been 50 tour buses there. Maybe we should have just done it though, who knows if we'll ever go back.


This shop was just down the street from our hotel. Actually it's right where the body I almost stepped on was. I was excited to find fabric so close to our hotel but once I looked at it, even I could tell that the quality was extremely cheap. Oh well.

Hans outside of Notre Dame. We were fortunate enough to go in and find that a service was being performed. A priest was doing the whole incense waving thing and 2 people were singing and the acoustics were unbelievable.

Below is the entrance to Notre Dame.

Looks like someone lost his head.

Here we are eating yet once again. Hans had a difficult time with the menu and luckily he asked for some help or I never would have known that moule meant mussels. So I got a bucket of mussels saturated with roquefort cheese. I was a complete pig and just ate them straight from the shell. Hans ordered what had to be the toughest steak I've ever tried. He gave me a bite and I chewed it for hours! Too bad because the night before he ordered filet and the bite I had of it was fabulous!

We also watched cars whizzing around the Arche de Triumphe (ala Chevy Chase in National Lampoons European Vacation). There's nothing like watching cars and scooters shooting into the circle, merging, and then exiting. All of this happens in about 5 unmarked lanes and at what I think are unbelievable speeds. I have no idea how anyone knows how to get on or off that insane piece of pavement.

Actually Hans said he once walked across it. He's has done a lot of crazy things in his time, I'm not sure that I want the details.

Next... Good bye Paris, Hello Geneva.

Paris: Part 1

Reine (Hans pronounced it Renn) is a 4 story fabric store that I read about on Pattern Review and that Karen let me know about also. You can see their name running down the side of the building. I only bought 2 pieces of fabric there. I couldn't afford their satin which was about 50 euros so I bought some satin-like polyester (the crazy striped stuff, below) and a piece of stretchy jersey (on the right). Each floor catered to different types of fabric. There was a drapery/upholstery floor, and I know the top floor had wools that were very nice but I'm not a wool person so I passed them up.

Here is the main floor with miniature mannequins wearing dresses made from the fabrics on display. I was naughty and peeked at the insides of some of them and was surprised to note that the hems had been fused into place (with steam a seam or stitch witchery or whatever)! I liked that because I hate hemming and if their stuff looked as nice as they did using that technique then I might do the same thing. Why not?

At Reine the 'help' didn't want to be helpful and they stomped around the store with their scissors slung over their shoulders while purposely ignoring us. I wasn't sure if I was to take my fabric to a cutting table or let them cut it at the bin where I found it as I had witnessed both practices being performed. When Hans (in very good French) asked for help, one of the ladies barked something back at him and he told me that she said someone would be right with us.

She fibbed.

It appeared that two of the ladies had a little feud going on and each felt that they were working harder than the other (Aha! It seems that women working with women equals fight, no matter what continent you're on!). After a few minutes of watching them zip around pretending to be busy and doing absolutely nothing Hans dared to ask for help again. The translation was, "We see you, we know you're there, and you can just wait." That's when I said I certainly didn't need to be treated poorly and that we should leave.

Of course I said it out of ear shot of the scissor wielding ladies.

Eventually they directed me to a table, cut my fabric, told me to go to hell (I think) and we were on our way.

A lovely lady wearing a pretty little coat...


...and a very patient man.

Below is outside of the store, out on the street, but these are not their fabrics. These are from a home dec fabric store. Outside at one point I told Hans to "Stay right where you are! I don't need to lose you!" And some man who spoke perfect English (and obviously hasn't shopped with Hans) remarked, "Don't you think he's too big to lose?"

Below are 2 pieces of silk that I bought at a little shop that's on the main drag. I've placed a business card on one print and my change purse on the other so that you can see that they really are 2 different prints as they are very similar. They are the equivalent of 1.5 yards each and ended up costing 75 euros. Ouch.

The next fabric (below) are nice stretchy jerseys. The black and white is a little heavier than the rest. The last one has some very pretty, shiny gold printed on it and when I remarked that I liked it, the little shopkeeper who looked like an absent minded professor became alarmed and made sure that I understood that it wasn't real gold!

He also told Hans that Hans had a very honest face and a good heart. He then told me that I had a good heart, and were we married?

I will add my comments to pattern review's store reviews for those of you who might get there one day.

Upon my return to the states, I was pleasantly surprised to find that Angelia gave me an E for Excellent award for my blog. This is much nicer than the E's (the same equivalent as an F) that I used to get when I was in school. I'm ashamed to admit that in the 8th grade I got one in Home Ec.

Are you really surprised?

But it was such a nice thought and I do appreciate it! Thanks Angelia.

I will pass this on to a non sewing blog; Mary the Resident Alien. Her writing is very entertaining and as a traveler she understands my pain.

And Laura from Laura's sewing room. She has such vast sewing knowledge and doesn't hesitate to share. If she ever goes on a world wide instruction tour I will be the first to sign up!

To be continued, Paris Part 2

The Eagle has Landed

Well, it's not quite that dramatic but we're home!


We had next to no Internet access on our trip but maybe it's just as well or I would have spent far too much time on the computer and not enough time experiencing Europe. Also I probably would have bored everyone silly with far too many details.


Tomorrow night I'm going to get some pictures in order and put together some of the details of our trip. We did get to some fabric stores and I completely agree with Bonnie in that I had absolutely no room in for souvenirs but there is always room for fabric. I took pictures of what I bought and will post those also.


I was for the most part amazed at how smoothly our trip went and I'm not kidding! Rain had been predicted but when we got to Paris everything cleared up although we carried an umbrella just in case. It started to rain on the day we left for Geneva but since it was a traveling day we didn't care. It did turn into an issue though when our train was stopped for 2 hours and finally we were told that the tracks were flooded and then we were thrown to the curb. In the dreary rain we were all huddled together like refugees and I felt a deja vu like moment when Hans remarked, "This has never happened to me before in my life." and then he looked at me.


Go figure.


But for some reason they decided we could go on another train and as all the tracks run parallel to each other this made no sense to me, but I wasn't about to argue.


We finally arrived at Hans' brothers house in Geneva to find appetizers, wine, and the aroma of something wonderful cooking for dinner, which was served at around 9:00 PM complete with candles and wonderful conversation that went on for hours.


And that was only the beginning of the end of our wonderful trip.



Tomorrow: pictures and fabric.

to be continued...

I don't have a lot of time! Hans used our 'time' tonight to watch Penguin hockey hightlights.

I did get to the fabric district 2 times. I went to the Riene as recommended by Karen at sewing by the seat of my pants. I also found a little place on a side street that had almost exclusively lycra blends. I will post pictures of my fabric when I can and I have business cards from them also.

This is Thursday night and we leave by train tomorrow at noon for Geneva, where we will be staying at Hans' brother's house. We have no idea if they have internet access or not.



I will leave you with this.



I wish I knew French for:



Where the hell are the bathrooms!? (Since the signs obviously lie!).



How long does it take to move a body off the tracks? I have places to go! (After 2 people in as many days decided to fling themselves willy nilly on the tracks in front of our subway!!).



Oh, Paris in the spring.



It's certainly different.

Vacation ala Laura

Tuesday April 8 2008

We are finally in Paris and for the most part have only suffered a few minor setbacks.

Hans is wearing the wrong shoes and forgot to change into his favorite traveling jeans.

Still sitting in his fridge is the little sack lunch (my stinginess has rubbed off on him) that we planned on eating at the airport during our 4 hour layover.

We have a strong feeling that Hans' car will be towed while we are away.

Don't ask.

Hans forgot his high blood pressure medication (and don't forget who he's traveling with!).

Tomorrow the hotel promises to: replace the much needed light bulbs in the bathroom (If you've ever seen Baby Jane portrayed by Bette Davis you may have an idea of what I looked like after putting on my makeup). They will look at the shower head that sprays everywhere but where you want it to. They are also very sorry that we misunderstood that 'Internet access' means $15.00 per hour or minute or whatever.

After our arrival, a shower in which I'm thankful that no one was electrocuted, followed by a quick nap, we went out to dinner.

After maybe 10 steps from our hotel room, I consider myself lucky to have stepped over and not on the dead body that the French police were attempting to load into a police van.

I'm sure they were happy too.

I kid you not!

And in case you were wondering? The French wrap their dead in white plastic as opposed to black body bags.

We consoled ourselves with a $53.00 hamburger. Split 2 ways.

I will post this as soon as our hotel can find us one of their 'coffee cards' which will allow us to go to a local cafe and access a reasonable Internet access rate!

I just found my Qumana post and I have to send it now!!!!!

Pray for us!!

We need vacations from vacations

If I could have a stroke right now I would!
Yesterday, I posted off line on Qumana which is designed for just my situation: posting when you have no on-line access and then posting when you do.
It's not working.
My first post which was on Tuesday is still stuck in the bowels of Quamana. I may have to stoop to feeding my computer ex-lax.
I will also tell you this:
Bring a DEBIT card.
The French no longer care about your credit card. Well, they do care. They just WON'T accept it!!! (And they will hold your girlfriend hostage until you find an exchange center which will then keep half of your money).
I kid you not!!!
We were in Europe last year and it wasn't an issue. This year it is.

I have some pictures but, as we have just a few minutes on-line access, I don't dare try to down load them.
But I have vodka.
Hans has beer.
And somehow we will get through this!!!!
Why do I have to be the guniea pig?
And guess what?
Blogger spell check just quit working!!!!!

PS
Perhaps if the French wore something, anything but black, Paris would be a brighter place!!!!!!!!