Everyday MRM

The fog followed Jor and I back into Paris from Versailles. We met Rachel back at the flat and enjoyed some of her Eiffel Tower brandy. It was horrendous, but look at the bottle!    After a good pre dinner drink, we decided to take the Metro up to Sacré Coeur. I loved the apartment that Rach picked out on VRBO. It meant we had to walk towards the Tuilleries and pass by this every night. Gorgeous! Of course every restaurant closed at 10pm. We got in right under the wire at some mediocre tourist eaterie. Rach and I proceeded to order spaghetti and something, while Joren ran off to take pictures of the church. He was gone so long that I had to track him down in the streets! I think the Eiffel brandy had something to do with it. 

Five days into Paris, and we were faced with some tough decisions. Versailles or not Versailles? We'd basically gone to museums every single day, so Rachel decided to take the day for her own brand of sightseeing. Jor and I decided to brave the chilly air and head out to the country. I'd seen Versailles many years before on a school trip at age 16, but since then the historic community had put a massive amount of money into the restoration of the old palace. It gleamed. I don't think there is too much to say about Versailles that the pictures won't say for themselves. So I'll just comment on the fog, the gorgeous, creepy, chilly fog. And the brilliance of the gold and mirrors. And the haunting gardens.

When I lived in Paris way way back (I can't believe its "way way back"), my first apartment was in the 7th. I lived in a chambre de bonne which is like the maid's quarters. My flat was on floor six with a walk up staircase. I used to practice my numbers when walking up the stairs. It was a tiny little room and an even tinier little bed, but what sold me was the view. When my parents and Mema visited way way back, they toured Les Invalides, but I never went in. Every morning I was woken with sunlight hitting the top of that sparkling gold dome. It flooded my room with pink and gold light. So today, thirteen years later, I finally went to visit Napoleon. We spent a Very Long Time in the armoury, and this is how it happened. We walked into the Armoury Museum and viewed the large open space filled with medieval knights swords and horse body armour. After about 10 minutes, I think Rachel was done, but I happened to peek my head around a silv...

Did you think the museum's were nearly over? We're just getting started. The Louvre was up next, but first a stop at l'Orangerie. This guy is museum crazy. It's a good thing he brought a terabyte of photocards to fill up. I think he might have used them all. Early in the day, Jor and I lost Rachel. Somewhere in l'Orangerie, since I spent way too long look at the Monets, I think Rachel decided to cut out early and head to the Louvre. She's got her own schedule to follow, and it was checkmarked and color coded.  Since technically I'd already spent time in many of these spaces, I was content to just follow those who wanted to experience as much as they could. As it was, when I finally left the waterlilies, Rach had vanished.  Joren and I sat around outside l'Orangerie for awhile waiting for her to appear from inside the museum. When she didn't, I went back in to look, and finally we decided she must have gone on to the Louvre. S...

The next morning dawned bring and early at ten am! On the docket was the Musée d'Orsay. First though, an ambling walk across the Seine. Paris in November is usually grey and overcast like this. And maybe because the clouds lay low in the sky, there's a delicate beauty to the light that no other city has. At least none that I've seen yet.  Musée d'Orsay was crowded! I guess November isn't really a slow season. Mostly we were in the midst of school tours and Chinese tours. It started sprinkling while we were in line. Joren asked me to hold the umbrella over him while he put his camera away. I was not a good holder. He got wet. I did not. I'm sorry.   We made up quick and got inside to get our tickets. Sadly, the museum did not allow photography, so Joren was a starfish out of water. He really experiences things through the lens, so I don't know how much he remembers of this part of the trip. He snuck one good shot though. The d'O...

Ahh Paris. I don't know that I can ever adequately write about this city... what she means to me, how she has grown in stature in my mind, all the ways she will never live up to our past, and all the ways in which she is so much greater than I remembered. Maybe the best way to begin this is to list the facts, just the facts ma'am. So here goes. The Paris post. Joren and I left Sevilla by train the night of November 6. It was a fairly uneventful journey, uneventful in that it was alternately hot and cold, with too-upright seats and strange people sleeping next to us, but nowhere near as weird as some of the train rides back in 1999. At ten am, Jor and I arrived at Gare du Nord (Gare du Lyon?) in a grey Paris, industrial and full of commuters. The air smelled like coffee and exhaust and I was so tired but so happy to be back, finally. We went immediately to the station counter (to the English line) and bought our ticket to Rome for the following week. Once that was se...

The Alhambra is huge! We'd bought our tickets a few weeks in advance, but even that wasn't early enough to get a morning entry. So for a few hours we just kicked around Granada and then made our way to the Alhambra by noon for our 2pm ticket time. The Alhambra was a fortress first constructed in 889 and then later transformed into the palace in the 14th century for the Islamic Sultan Yusuf I. Following the Reconquista in 1492, some of the muslim influences were turned into christian themes, but then the whole thing fell into disrepair until the late 19th-century.  After four or five hours at the Alhambra, we were more than ready for some food. We walked back down the mountain and into the first tapas place we could find. Turned out, it was the greatest choice we could have made. This presentation is still my favorite I've received, ever. Especially because I got to eat next to this cute elf.

One of our team's weekend trips was to Granada. This bus ride (I don't know why I keep telling you guys about all the bus rides) was about six hours, but it was through some of the most stunning Spanish countryside I've seen yet. Most of the landscape was either olive or orange trees, and with the sweeping grey-blue skies, it was like being transported into a Hemingway novel. Joren took these photos from the window seat of a moving bus. I just wanted to say that for the record so you all know how good a photographer he is. Granada's Cathedral was remarkable. They'd spent a lot of money on restoration, so her walls gleamed and you could see the beautiful patterns on the ceilings and domes. This is unlike Sevilla's Cathedral, which had ropes of netting to catch the crumbling ceiling plaster and dark with centuries of smudged candle smoke. Funny story. Granada's church no longer allowed true candles to be burned because of the smoke damage, so they...