TUESDAY-Notre Dame

Stopped in to Notre Dame on the way back from Pere Lachaise. It's that big, old church on a island in the middle of the Seine that you see pics of a lot? You know, where the hunchback rang the bells and all that jazz?



Yup, that's the one.


It wasn't as big as I thought it would be. We didn't plan to go inside and they didn't have the windows lit at night, bit of a bummer there. But the gothic sculpture and carvings all over the outside, the double flying buttresses in the back, that was all pretty cool.

TUESDAY-Pere Lachaise

The coolest attraction of the trip to me so far was a trip to Pere Lachaise, the largest cemetary in Paris. They built it in the 1800s when the rest of the city graveyards had become so full of corpses they were truly spilling out. Think oozey. Yup, like that.

They built Pere Lachaise, dug up most of the rest of the cemeteries, and moved all the bones deep under the city into the catacombes (which are currently closed for repairs so we can't see them this time). So relatively speaking Pere Lachaise is pretty young.

And pretty fresh. If you get buried there (or cremated - yup, they've got their own ovens at Pere Lachaise *crackle! crackle!*) if your family doesn't keep up payments on your plot, it goes back to the cememtery and someone else can take up residence. You might be there 10 years or so and then it's out on your duff for some new dead person. Your remains? No worries, you'll join a mass grave with the rest of the people who defaulted on their rent. Misery loves company, no? :)

So you can see there's all theses cool above ground monuments, but there's no one in them like you'd expect if they were vaults. Everyone is under them. 10 to 12 feet under them. They bury 'em deep at Pere Lachaise. No clawing to the surface.

It was also the day after All Saints Day when the French decorate their graves and almost every relatively active grave was flowered, usually with mums. Even very old ones of popular historical figures got flowers, some covered in them.

Our guide told us if your loved one is being cremated, you can even wait for them to finish. Yes, you get to see the box pushed into the oven and then you wait while your loved one is flame broiled. He's even seen people handed the hot remains in an urn and then inter their loved one with oven mitts on. I'm not makin' this up (you know how the French are about fresh baked goods. No serious, i'm not makin' this up. Oven mitts.).

The more I thought about it, I really liked the idea actually. It reminded me of funeral pyres of the past and the places along the Ganges where even today you can have your dead burned on a pyre while you and other loved ones look on. Having lost a couple of people I was very close to, the closure of this would have been very reassuring to me.

The cemetary is massive. I've been in some pretty big ones. Sleepy Hollow has a huge cemetary; Meterie in New Orleans is enormous. But this is truly grand.

And hilly as hell. Our guide, Malcolm, had an encyclopedic knowledge of Pere Lachaise and at probably 60 kept us at a steady double time trot up and down hills on nasty worn cobblestone and wet slippery leaves. I definitely worked off my croissant from breakfast.

The place is truly amazing and beautiful though. Those of you who know me know I not only really love Halloween, but also graveyards; I've got a little morbid streak. The aged and sometimes falling in tombs of Pere Lachaise with the wet, dark day in a grave yard filled with cats and crows, tombs marked with owls and bats, were like a dream come true for me and I'm pretty sure I took over 200 pictures.

We saw a number of composers' tombs, lots of Napolean's generals, poets, Oscar Wilde, Jim Morrison, Seurat, and just a load of cool stuff. Our two hours or so there went by like a blink for me. I will never forget it.

Why not be familiar with places like these, I think. We'll all be spending a lot of time there.

TUESDAY-Marche St. Germain

For the first time on this trip, I was filled with deep emotion. Swept up into near mania and then pained to my heart. We visited the market, Marche St. Germain.

The selection of vegetables is gorgeous. The selection of butters, creams, and cheeses is breath-taking. The selections of beef, veal, liver, beef knuckles, dried hams, sausages, poultry, pates, ox tail, and other gorgeous cuts made me sigh.

The selections of fresh fish, mussels, periwinkles, sardines, great slabs of salmon, drifts of sole, the glutenous mass of a whole octopus, mounds of prawns, piles of calamari, grand chunks of tuna, and ... oysters... mountains of fresh oysters... made tears come to my eyes.

I was in rapture. All time stopped as I saw all and smelled all my culinary dreams come true. Behind me veggies, before me fish, to the right beef, to the left every baked good I could want freshly made that morning.

Then I remembered. I had no way to cook. *Cue overhead spiraling zoom shot as James looks up, center camera and screams 'NOOOOoOOOOOOO!!!!!!' *

So much before me and no way to truly partake. No soups, croutons, bouef dishes, or my beloved sole munier would be made by me today. *sigh*

Luckily I was able to assuage my grief with a shave. If you've not done this before guys, I highly recommend. A straight razor shave by someone who really knows what they're doing. Sure your face feels like it's being ripped off torwards the end, but it's a very, very relaxing ripping. If I could, I'd get a shave like this every morning.

TUESDAY-Sputnik

I know I mentioned Sputnik when we first got to our room (he escorted us into the lift and up to our room, and sat on the bed while we unpacked). But he's such a great kitty, he deserved his own entry.

Sputnik is about 16 and very well mannered for the most part. He was named Sputnik because he ran around and around like a nut when he was little. He's on the front desk every morning and most of the day and greets everyone.

In the evening, he's in his favorite chair in the foyer. We often sit with him for a while at night and read and pet him. He seems ok with this.

This morning he was at breakfast with us downstairs. We shared some croissant and hot cream with him. He seemed to enjoy this.

He's got a great meow and is so special, I just wanted to make sure he got the attention he deserved here :)

SUNDAY-Light Shopping

We had a tiny shopping excursion over lunch and Jeri found some really cool stuff. The sales person knew a little English and me a little French so it went off pretty well. Very fun!

SATURDAY-Jardin du Luxembourg

Of everything I've seen so far, nothing holds my attention like Jardin du Luxembourg. It's a huge park with an old palace in the middle, and it's sooo wonderful. It was like this park was designed with autumn in mind. I can't imagine another time of the year it's more beautiful.

The French love their parks and staff them well. Lawns, flowers, and trees are perfectly cared for, and people take in conversation and the day itself in the park in a satisfied, relaxed way I can't remember seeing in the US.

The octagonal lake near the palace is a great place to people watch. There's this cool think were kids rent little sailboats that they push across the pond with poles back and forth. Kids and old people feed the ducks and gulls.

The Medici fountain is my favorite place in the park. It depicts a scene of Zeus catching a faun with the young Venus. See, Zeus had first dibs on foolin' around with anyone, so he isn't a happy camper in this scene.

I'm really amazed with how sexy this centuries old sculpture, but love to sit nearby and listen to the gentle sounds of the water, see the leaves fall, and watch the ducks paddle around. I could go to this park every day I was here and not feel disappointed I missed anything in Paris.

FRIDAY-Moonlight Boat Tour of the Seine

After the Eiffel Tower we hopped on an open air boat for a moonlight tour of the Seine. Very romantic and fun. They told us a bunch of quasi interesting stuff about the bridges and buildings along the way that I don't remember a bit. Not much depth to any of the commentary anyway.


Mostly I was thinkin' "i'm on a moonlight touring going down the Seine at night! How cool is this!"

FRIDAY-Eiffel Tower

First off, the tower's brown, not black. A light chocolate brown actually. I'd always thought it was black.

I couldn't really appreciate the tower's height from the ground. Frankly, as we approached, I thought to myself, "Yup, that's the Eiffel Tower. The same one I've seen in pictures and other cheesy representations my whole life." Truth be told, in my mind the damn thing was seriously packed with frommage.

The base of the tower was peppered with vendors selling keychains, plastic light-up towers, toys of all sorts, and junk, and a few pan-handlers. The base was also crawling with tourists from all over, not just the US. This time of year there aren't very many US people to be found actually. The lines for lifts seemed huge. The base of the tower was also freaking enormous.

It wasn't until we started sating our growling tummies with a fantastic ham and gruyere on a baguette that I looked up and suddenly became aware of the enormity of this thing. The Eiffel Tower was fricken huge.

But was it this magical thing, place, experience that so many people seem to wax romantic about? Sure didn't seem that way. Between the lines and the incessant sales pitches for knick-knacks, I wasn't so sure it was even worth the trip across town to see it. Sure, feat of engineering for it's time, etc., but sheesh. This looked like a giant pain in the ass for the pleasure of going up in one of the most done-to-death icons in the western world.

Nevermind that; we were in Paris, and by god, we needed to go up and all the way to the top. If we came home without even going in the Eiffel Tower, some people might think we were nuts. Into line we went.

With the off season we were through in less than 40 minutes and on our way up. There was a transfer to the final lift that took us to the top. The ground dropped away from us and seemed like it would never stop. Vertigo baby. And then we were there. Through the doors, up a short flight of stairs and we were in the open air above Paris.

Dusk had fallen while we waited in line and took the lifts to the top. Approaching the edge, a thin fog had crept in across the city making the lights of the city below glow with a fairy tale halo. There was the Arc d'Triumph and the Seine and the lit winding streets of one of the oldest cities on the planet. I forgot to breathe.

We both stood, overcome with the beauty of the city of lights below and all around us. As Jeri squeezed my arm tight and kissed me, it was clear that this was indeed a magical place that we would remember visiting for the rest of our lives. I can't imagine a city view that could compare with Paris at dusk from the top of the Eiffel Tower.

It was Jeri's birthday today too. It was somewhat arranged and somewhat happy accident that we took our trip to fit her birthday in Paris. Jeri had said this was her birthday present.

As we raised a glass of champagne to toast her special day, I reached into my pocket and took out a diamond rimmed watch I'd gotten her for her birthday a few weeks ago and hid to bring on the trip. She was pleased and touched, and I think this was a good birthday for her.

Later, back on the ground we watched the tower's lightshow, a waxing moon behind it, we reflected on what an amazing visit it had been so far. So, if you're in Paris, really do see the Eiffel Tower. You might not feel what we did, but you'll feel something and I bet that feeling will be special.