Crazy Day of Driving

I guess you remove an American from his country, but you can't remove
him from his cars. After nearly a whole week without driving, sitting
in one, smelling gas fumes or fondling a steering wheel we had to get
our fix. So, we took the Metro to the SW corner of Paris and rented a
smart looking Nissan Micra and prepared to battle the traffic of Paris.
Now, I had been watching the driving techniques of my French
counterparts for the past few days as I pedestrianed my way around
Paris so I had an idea of the driving skills I would need to bring to
bear if I were to be successful. It seems to me all it takes is a
rauchishly heavy foot on gas and brake, unrelenting nerve at cutting
off other drivers and adroit skills at negotiating tight spaces.
As I sized up my rental car, a short little 4 door, I made note of
it's corners, clearances and blind spots so I could thread it through
the eye of a needle if need be.
While Sally finished up the paperwork with the rental agency, I
studied vociferously the maps, trying to figure out how to get out of
Paris and out to the Normandy beaches. It took a while to distinguish
road numbers, but a quick check of the key in the corner of the map
helped me figure it out.
Sally was the assigned navigator, so I quickly briefed her on what I
had discovered. She said she was ready, so I waited for a break in the
flow of traffic and zoomed into a tight hole. I quiried her as to when
my next turn was. Her reply "I can't find Paris on this map!".
The map was a 2 foot by 3 foot sheet of paper with a 10" diameter
bright yellow circle in the middle representing Paris. My confidence
in the navigation department was shaken.
But, she quickly redeemed herself and we navigated our way out of
Paris to a main freeway and headed toward Versialles. From this point
on we could have been in Washington state. We were on freeways,
negotiating traffic jams and road construction and jumping into quicky
marts at the freeway exits for pop and goodies. The only difference
was no one spoke the same language as us so we were reduced to
"bonjour" and "merci".
Following the advice of our personal guide Rick Steves, we made it to
the WWII museum in Caen (pronounced "coh") on the Normandy coast.
Great display showing man decending into war and all the aspects of
this terrible conflict. It was a spectacular exhibit especially
because it was presented from a nuetral point of view, that is a third
party. Did not have the usual "raw, raw" patriot ferver when presented
by the US nor the down with America attitude of the Russian side. It
was very refreshing.
Camping for the night was the plan, so as we left the museum at 7:45PM
on our way to the D-Day beaches we were on the lookout for places to
camp. We drove by a sign advertising camping, did a u-turn (I am
getting good at those by now) and pulled into a quaint French chateau.
The proprietor, a sandled, t-shirted man of 50ish greeted us in the
room of the brown brick house that served as an office. A very
interesting French-English-hand signal-scribbling-pointing
"conversation" took place where upon a price of €15.40 for the night
for the three of us was decided. "Le Tour" followed. We pitched out
tent in the open field that served as a campground amidst an ancient
stone wall, farmer's crops and a few other campers and then headed for
Arramonches, a sea side town near Gold beach where the British landed.
A sunset dinner on the sidewalk at closing time, a stroll near the
beach and a look at some WWII military equipment and we returned to
our campsite by 10:30PM for bed.

Chuck

Versailles' Opulance

All the reading about the opulance of the French court during the
Renaissance nor the viewing of Hollywood's movies can begin to prepare
one for the sheer magnitude of wealth and showiness of the Palace at
Versaille. The aristocracy under the leadership of Louis the XIV
spent one half of their entire GDP for a year to create the palace and
the incredible grounds that flourish to this day. 1500 fountains. The
hall of mirrors. Sculpture and paintings of Louis everywhere. The
French like to build monuments to themselves. It was a step back in
history being there. You could easily see the members of the court
strutting, primping and playing social cat and mouse in self absorbing
games of decadence. Amazingly fun to see. Makes me want to study
history!!

From the rant above you have perceived that we toured Versaille
yesterday. Took the train from Paris the 14 miles to Versaille,
entered the grounds with the 1000's of other tourist there and walked
through the palace using a Rick Steves free mp3 tour I downloaded from
the iTunes store. It was perfect. Quick enough to keep us interested
but complete enough to give a feel for the times and the activities,
pointing out enough details in the painting and sculptures to bring
the experience to life.
We returned to Paris about five in the afternoon, we thought with
enough time to see the Water Lilies of Monet at the Oranges gallery,
but they closed an hour earlier than advertised and we missed them.
Then, I ran to Notre Dame to climb to the bell tower but they
mysteriously closed 4 hours early, so I missed that, too. We ate
dinner at St.Germaine cafe, then took the subway (called the Metro) to
the Arch of Triumph and the Champs de Elysses. Ran to the top of the
arch for a sunset view of Paris, then strolled down the dissapointing
Champs. Dirty, commercial-the least interesting part of Paris by far.
Everything else was so cool. This stretch of commercial real estate
was not. Another quick ride on the Metro and we were back at 88 Rue de
Bac for our earliest night in-11:30. Another magical day in Paris.

Paris in a day

What a party town! Unreal. We're not in Toledo anymore, Toto!
We were finishing up a whirlwind tour of the city last night. As the
evening got later the crowds got bigger. We took a tour cruise on the
Seine between 9:30 and 10:30. The quays were lined with thousands and
thousands of people, mile after mile, a crowd we would see on the
fourth waiting for fireworks to begin. Yet, this was just your average
Saturday night.
We tried to get to the top of The Notre Dame before the 11PM closing
but did not make it in time. We walked back toward our hotel thru the
Latin district about midnight through standing room only crowds in the
street. There were more people on the streets and in the cafes at
midnight than there were tourist out during the day. Packed. Rowdy. Fun.
You may sleep thru reading this, bit there was no rest for us
yesterday. Here is the list: The Orsay, The Louvre, St. Chappell,
Moulin Rouge, Seine Tour plus sidewalk cafe dining, an attempt at the
Notre Dame towers and a walk thru the Latin district. Our days in
Paris are running short and there is so much to see. Next time, a week
in Paris just to savor the city. We hustled for 8am to 12.30am.
Fantastic day.

A Day In Paris

It is hard to fathom that 11:30PM here, dark on the streets of Paris finds you guys at work at 2:30PM.
Fun day in the big city. We slept in to recover from the flights, changed hotels to one closer to the Orsay and Louvre, then toured town on foot a bit while waiting for Cindy to show. She took a taxi from the airport, arriving at the hotel at 1:00. We then headed for a walking tour of historical Paris including the Notre Dame, the Latin district and some other areas nearby along the river. Dinner outdoors at a restaurant and then Cindy to bed. Sally and I went to the Eiffel Tower and walked to the first level for the sunset, then walked and subwayed back to the hotel.
Impressions: amazing place and lots of people think the same judging from the crowds.
Looking forward to a fun day tomorrow chasing museums and more churches.

Chuck

Chuck

Pics To Go With Previous Post

Getting Here (this post is a sleeper!)

Shades of the Titanic era. No, not a sinking or a catastrophe. In this instance I am reminded of the class divisions. We boarded our Virgin Atlantic Airbus 340 holding tickets with seat assignments 65D and 65E.  It is a  long hike down that plane to row 65. We figured we would be in the back of the plane . . . and we were.  Last row, backs to the wall. Any farther and we would have been dangling from the rudder. When we first entered the plane we marveled at the leather couches with automans that made comfy beds for the overnight flight in first class. As we moved further down we admired the leather chairs with ample leg room and near horizontal reclining in business class.  The leather changed to cloth in standard fare, but the seat spacing still gave plenty of room to stretch out. As we entered rows 55-65 we marvelled how the floor was no longer visible between the seats. "Fit like spoons" took on new meaning. It became apparent that Virgin Atlantic assigned so many square feet of floor space per dollar. Let's do a little math, shall we? A first class ticket runs $3000, fetching an area large enough for a grown man to lie down, say 12 square feet. This computes out to roughly $250 per square foot. We paid $600 for our tickets, giving us a floor allowance of roughly 2.5 square feet, about the room required to accomodate a man standing up.  This explains why my knees were millimeters from the bum of the man in front of me (although I must confess, it might have been a woman.  He/she was so close even with my reading glasses on I could not focus enough to distinguish) and my lower legs extended far beneath.  I took a photo of the person next to me in steerage with my iPhone.  It is attached. All I could get was an eye. We were really packed in. 

When we reached Heathrow in London they extracted us from our seats with the Jaws-of-Life.  We limbered up, then hobbled into the terminal.  

However, don't think us ungrateful. We are so pleased to have gotten on the flight.  Responsibly, we made our reservations in January, using Orbitz to secure passage on Air India from Newark to London. In late February Orbitz sent an email saying Air India was no longer going to fly to London, but never fear, they had our backs and would rebook with another airline. Could I call Orbit at 5am when Air India, in India was still open? 3 weeks and many early morning phone calls later we were confirmed on Virgin Atlantic. We printed our confirmation. Superorganized Sally filed it away and as late winter blossemed into spring we built our itenarary around this all important Atlantic crossing flight.  

Tuesday, two days ago, as I was about to load our packs into the car for the drive to Portland to begin our journeys we got a reminder from Orbitz about our Heathrow to Paris flight, but not a word about Newark to London. Concerned, I called Orbitz, read the locater number from the dutifully filed confirmation page and inquired about our transoceanic flight. "Yes, here it is," said the bright young person at Orbitz, "that flight was cancelled. You have no flight tomorrow." 7 hrs of phone calls, 5 of which were spent on hold listening to the same tinny version is some classical piece of music, and two "I need to talk to your supervisor"s later and we were assured passage on Virgin Atlantic. So imagine our lack of surprise when we arrived at the Virgin Atlantic desk in Newark to find they had our names in their system, but  no tickets. We dug in our heels, chained ourselves to their registration counter and did what any good American would do when confronted by oppressive British (in this case company) rule-we flashed our printed confirmation paper from February. 30 minutes later they miraculously found two seats on the "full flight" and we were off. 

I suspect they installed those seats as we cued up, hence the lovely conditions of our passge as described above.

So here we are in Paris-jet lagged but happy. We dined on traditional French food last night and then collapsed into bed. I am awake now  The local clock says 2:30am, but Mr.Chuck's clock says 9:30pm.

Looking forward to connecting up with Cindy around noon today.  

If you made it reading this far, you deserve a medal. I will contact my embassy and arrange one to be shipped. 

All our best!

We will keep you posted. 

Chuck and Sally   

Chuck

We Are Off

With Sally behind the wheel and me exercising my new found blogging
skills, we head south to Portland for the night with Sally's sister
Wendy. We fly out tomorrow morning for Newark, NJ, then catch an
overnight flight to Heathrow arriving about nine in the morning, then
catch a flight about 2:30PM to Paris. Of course those are all by local
times, so I have no idea what actual flight times are and how long we
will actually be awake, but it is assured we will be ugly Americans
with red eyes and grumpy dispositions when we arrive in Paris.
I have a great tale to tell about cancelled airline tickets and hours
on the phone this morning trying to rescue our trip, but I will wait
until the events play out tomorrow to relay the story. (I am trying to
build intrigue to keep you awake.).
Sally is going through her late father's photos and journal
chronicling his landing at Normandy at D-day +6 and their nearly year
long advancement to Berlin, picking put places we will visit. We are
photographing his photos with my iPhone so we can compare then and now.
Sally's dad is the soldier standing in the one picture.

Shuttle Launch Experience

We arrived at the space center at midnight hoping to see the 7am
launch. With many hours to kill we tried the shuttle simulator ride.
Very fun. The videos leading up to the ride are excellent.
Entertaining and informative. The whole experience is very Disneyland
like. Herding people while keeping them entertained.
We found out the launch was scrubbed right after the ride, yet still
had breakfast with an astronaut at 3:30am. Prime rib. Got to bed about
the time the Shuttle should have flown, 7am.

Kennedy Space Center

On Jeff's initiative we flew to Florida to watch the Shuttle launch on
June 13th. The flight was delayed so we did not see it fly, but we
toured the Kennedy Space Center, much to our delight. The highlight
was seeing the Saturn V which Jeff and I have read so much about
recently and seen in documentaries. Wow! What a monster of a machine!
We also enjoyed the Space Shuttle Simulator, the exhibits and the 3D
IMAX films.
The new launch date is set for July. The tickets are still good. Maybe
Jeff will fly down for this next attempt while we are in Europe.