Finale

Well, it's about that time. I have so many more posts I could write about my week+ trip to France and Spain, and in fact had some planned. But I have been in Wisconisn for almost a week now visiting with my family, and while I thought I would have a lot of time to continue blogging, I am finding that there is actually less time. And now, on top of all that, there are new adventrues to move on to. So this will be my finale, though I wish I were still anticipating the trip becuase it was so much fun. But vacations can't go on forever, or they would cease to be something worth holding on to, and I don't feel the need to look at my pictures every day now which means that it is time to put this baby to bed. So let me just make a few more comments and share the last few of my favorite images from this extra special trip.

France:









And Spain:





A trip is only as good as the people who are on it with you, and I had a great bunch of people with me. Ann, my collegue and friend at Cedar High, and I took seven students with us. They were awesome and we couldn't have asked for a more fun clan.





THE END

So Many Beautiful Things To See!

I am an unabashed museum lover, so I was in heaven at being able to go to some of the most famous art museums in the world: the Louvre, d'Orsay, and Prado. While many, including myself, think it is rediculous to go to an art museum and spend your time taking pictures, I nonetheless do it and did it and have a lot of pictures to show for it. Here are some of my favorites from the Louvre and d'Orsay museums:

My favorite part of the Louvre was the scultpures. I spent the majority of my time perusing the collections of Greek, Roman, and especially French works. This surprised me - I never thought of myself as a lover of scultpure, but there really were some amazing pieces and I had a lot of fun looking at some of the strange, fantastial, and downright whimsical pieces.

Cupid is the man/man-child/boy of the hour at the Louvre Museum. This one was a particular favorite. The title, which is in French and I am left guessing what the official title is, is something about Cupid playing with a butterfly (I know, I am a genius to figure that out!)

This one is titled something about a water nyph and the scorpion (there is one between her feet). I want her hairstyle!

Of all the famous paintings and sculptures, this one of Psyche and Cupid is actually as amazing as the fame builds it up to be. It is such a stunning piece of sculpture. Every angle is beautiful.

The women in these two paining look so tired, as does that baby in the second, that my thoughs went to how a mother's job is never done, even when she herself is tired. I couldn't stop thinking about these two, so I had to go back and take a picture of them so I would always remember. The second one's title includes something about Italian women travelling to Rome. The first is called "The Guardian Angel."

I ran out of time at the Louvre. Well, I guess everyone does. Where I didn't have enough time was the wing which held the collection of Dutch, Flemish, and German rural life/village paintings which are my favorite thanks to the Milwaukee Art Musuem. I had so little time towards the end that I started doing run-by photography. I would catch a glimpse, think I liked it, snap a picture, and repeat. There was no time to linger and the animal portion of my brain said "you can look at them later in the pictures." Anyway, this particular grouping I found visually appealling for the 30 seconds I stood in front of it.

This was probably the funniest scultpure I've ever seen. There were a few that made me smile out loud, but this one was a hoot!
Of all the sculptures I've seen now between the three museums, this one was my favorite, and I think the winning piece of art from the whole trip. There were so many sculptures that were part onyx, part marble (or bronze). The onyx was always different from scultpure to sculpture, and I often couldn't tell how the pieces of different materials were joined together. I thought this one was particularly beautiful.

The Orsay had a huge collection of Monet's and Degas'. These two were my favorite by each.

This is how we roll!

For all you doubters out there who thought I was finished blogging about my recent vacation, man were you ever wrong! While I am winding down, hearing myself talk over and over and over and over again about my trip just isn't old enough for me yet, so I am back with a new vengance! ;)

When it came to transportation on this trip, there were a few things our group had crash courses in. The first was walking, our predominate mode of getting from point A to point B. I knew mentally that we would be doing a lot of it, but my feet had absolutely no idea, as can be seen by the cankles I developed for a little more than half of the trip in the picture to the right. Em-bar-assing. I even bought some cute leather sandles in Spain and had to hope they would fit when I got them home becuase my feet were so swolen that I coldn't buckle them, and Spanish women must have tiny feet becuase I had the biggest size they make. Luckily they do fit. But this is not the only type of transportation that we - or the natives - use.

I think I saw two pickup trucks the whole time we were in France (a Nissan and a Toyota). Not a single mini van, but that makes sense since Parisians only have one or two children. Cars come mostly in one size: ultra-compact. There are so many people you would have to be clinically deranged to have anything different. Tour busses are everywhere, but smart cars are very popular to compensate. The horn is used a LOT. Now, Spain is bigger-car territory, but they also have larger families. More of the SUV and four door sedan crowd.

But Spain (and big-city France) has TONS of mopeds, scooters, and motorcycles. They just make sense in cities with so many millions of people and no place to park, becuase with one of these pretty maids, you can make up a parking spot anywhere you need it!

Paris had lots of BMW's and Audi's. Barcelona had a Ferrari. In red. Bad A.!

And this little number - well, there was actually a caravan of three of them - went zipping through Carcassonne. I don't know what it is, but it sure was cute and expensive looking!

But the bikes are also an economical, and often faster, way to meneuver the city and traffic that doesn't encourage movement in a rush. That is, unless you are a pedestrian and a bicycle is coming your way!

Paris has racks of bikes you can rent. I think they get used more at night on weekends. But I did see some people using them. If time had permitted I would have love using one of these. In fact, one way to fight obesity in America would be to enlist a rental program like Paris has. Any takers?
But for us lowly commoners - well, for everyone - the Metro was the way to go. There are times where a literally broken-dam flow of people rushes through the stations, but it really is convenient as long as you're willing to pay attention and have a reliable metro map. Oh, and don't stop at the information desk at the line 12 Metro station at the intersection by the phone booth and Starbucks when it's not busy when you're looking for the line 8 station becuase they guy working the desk won't even attempt to help you!


For longer journeys, the train may come in handy. This station (above) seemed to cater to a rougher crowd, so, just as we were accustomed to doing on the Metro, we had to make sure our eyes were on our personal effects at all times, lest they disappear. I suggest paying for a a second class sleeper cabin if you are traveling overnight. Packing light is a MUST (if you pack like the women from Kansas did, you will make a fool of yourself and I dare say America), but at least you'll get to your destination while you would be sleeping anyway, so it saves a lot of valuable time.

We also saw the inside of a bus a lot, ,especially in Spain. Some were better than others. This comes from the expert opinion of my knees and how much room they had.

Buses are also a way for the ulta sleepy to catch up on a few Z's. I stayed awake as much as possible in order to see the countryside, and it was worth it. Where else can you come around a bend in the road and see an abandoned castle or fortress, or a sleepy little rural town on a hill with a church spire piercing the sky? None other place I know of around here!

We're not in Kansas anymore!

Every trip, no matter where you go, has something out of the ordinary occur. It may be a person you meet, something you could never see anywhere else, a random even that happens because of the folly of people, being somewhere at just the right moment, or maybe even a combination of them all. Here is my combination:

1) While my flight landed safely in Paris, another flight did not. The memorial for those that died in the AirFrance plane crash took place the evening of June 3 at Notre Dame Cathedral, the same time our tour group was scheculed to visit. We were not initially aware of the evenings events, and were surprised at all of the police officers and road blocks in front of Notre Dame, but eventually pieced together what was going on. We found ourselves on the road as Nicolas Sarkozy's, France's president, motercade drove by (the 10 black, tinted window luxury cars, police escort, and police soluting gave it away, in addition to the moving of the road blocks). Following the motercade were the buses holding families of the victims.

The crowd gathering for the service, which was broadcast through loudspeakers so those outside could hear, spilled out in front. The singing was beautiful. Though it was for a tragic event, there is probably no other way really that I would have been able to hear a choir singing at Notre Dame.
One never expects to see snipers at the top of one of the most famous cathedrals in the world.
2) I guess Parisians are famous for their protesting. Check that off the "must see" list...
This sign, hung with a homemade poster, translates into the French version of "same crap, different day."

3) This is the tunnel where Princess Diana died. The memorial is the golden flame at the left.
4) A high fasion model shoot - didn't expect to see this at all! Just walked around a few bushes and statues in Luxemburg Garden and there were suddenly a lot of white sheets set up, people standing around fixing makeup, holding cameras. It was a very "French" thing to see while in a country known historically for its designer clothing.

5) You could NEVER see something like this in the USA - Le Catacombs (which means, 'the catacombs'). In the late 18th century, there developed a problem with where to bury all of these dead Parisians - land was an issue, the city was massive, and cemetaries were full and in some places the decay was leaching into the groundwater and making people sick. The solution was to dig up the cemetaries and relocate the bones to the old limestone quarries that maze under the city, some dating back to the Romans (that's how Paris's buildings are all in that matching white stone!) Only a small portion of the catecombs are open for visitors, though it is believed that there are around 18 miles of relocated corpses - 5 to 6 million people!!! You follow a lot of tunnels that seem to be leading to nothing, but then you arrive at these black and white pillars with a sign saying something to the effect of, "Halt, you are entering the realm of the dead." From that point on, you walk down tunnel after tunnel of femur and skull lined walls. Sometimes the ceiling is dripping. Sometimes the skulls are arranged into designs - hearts, crosses, squares and triangles. The poor and the wealthy are buried there together. So were those who died fighting in the French Revolution. But there was nothing left to identify one from another except plaques distinguising which cememtary that particular section's worth of bones had come from. There were a lot of people there, which I am grateful for becuase it might have been too creepy otherwise. But I did feel keenly aware of my mortality, and that someday there will be noone left to remember me and I will just be a faceless skull somewhere.




6) The bathrooms I went into in France were di-sgust-ing. Often they were open to both genders (THAT was strange in itself) and they always smelled bad. You could be in a charming restaurant, no concerns about cleanliness, but upon walking into the bathroom you choke. Cleanliness doesn't seem to be a priority there (at least in the city) and there didn't seem to be any public restrooms in shops even, like there are in the US. I've been in rest-stop bathrooms at the hight of American cross-country interstate travel that are cleaner and more plentiful than what Paris had! Throughout downtown there are these dirty green public bathrooms, but you do have to pay to use them and I would be afraid of what I would bring out with me if I went inside. McDonalds seemed like a solution at one moment of desperation (McD's are everywhere), but we had to buy something to get the code. So yes, I did make a purchase at McDonalds while in Paris, buying a Coke to get into a bathroom that smelled like urine where a man startled me by walking out of the neighboring stall right next to me. My thought? "What is a man doing in the ladies room? And why doesn't he seem to care that he is?"

But there are other 'luxury bathrooms' increasing in popularity that you still pay for, but have an entirely different experience in. Not as plentiful, the only one I saw and experienced was in the Louvre. For 1 euro, the bath-ROOM would be wood-paneled, sanitized by a person right before you walk in, perfumed, there is splendid music and mood-lighting, and washing your hands was...cool! They were so soft after! And the blow dryers shot out a high-powered jet that you slide your hands into, once, palms down, and when you pull them out they are dry! For .50 more, you could have another service, but I wasn't sure what it was and the perfumed bathroom room was sending me into a giggle fit anyway as I walked past designer toilet papers in every color of the rainbow, or with cartoon characters on them, that I didn't figure it out. It was TOTALLY worth it.

7). Just a random Roman cemetary that was discovered in Barcelona. No big deal.
8) Model shoot #2 in Barcelona.
9) Didn't expect to see HIS face here! It's in Catalan, another language spoken in northeastern Spain. Something about what GW and other world leaders (who were on other banners) were going to do about the world financial crisis.
10) Topless beaches...ahem.
11) Groves of olive trees everywhere in between one city and the next
12) Bidets! Only the hotels we stayed at in Spain had them. A reliable source (OK, it was Jesus -hehehe) told us that the bowl (which did have a stopper in it) could be used to soak your feet. If you're using it for its intended purpose though, why would you want to put your feet...I don't want to think about it anymore. Ann and I were both going to try it out, but neither of us did. I did turn it on once to see what the stream of water looked like, and you can adjust the temperature of the water thank GOODNESS. But I just couldn't. I just don't get it!

**Additional Commentary: To make sure I spelled 'bidet' correctly, I Googled the word, and of course the trusty Wikipedia had and article about it which included how to use one. Though Jesus told us, he didn't go into the detail this article did. I get it now, but I still don't think I could do it. I just don't think so.
13) Toledo, as well as other cities around the world, celebrate the Catholic holiday of Corpus Christi. We were there two days before the festival, but the city was already decorated. There were white linen banners covering the streets around the cathedral (symbolic of the sacrament, a.k.a. Christ's body, being covered), and we even saw some of the mannequins that are used during the religious procession. Houses were decorated too, as there is a contest for the best. I would have loved to be there during the festivities, but seeing this medieval city decorated as it has probably been for generations was a special treat!