Random Errands

Everything I wanted to see and do was checked off on my list which made today a random errand
day. I spent the morning sleeping in and doing some blog work. Afterwards I secured my
ticket to Cologne, Germany at the Gare du Nord train station and decided to check in at the
Gare de Lyon station to see if my lost bag had been left there. It turns out it hadn't, but
at least I tried my best to get it back. I feel slightly better that I at least have A scarf
instead of none.

By the time I reached the hostel again it was time to eat. To keep things simple I stopped at
the grocery store and picked up a random smattering of foods: chocolate pudding, berry yogurt
and a carrot. I also polished off some bread I had left over with a bit of Nutella. It was
all quite yummy and served its purpose.

I've had some postcards from S France hanging around in my bag that needed mailed.
Fortunately the post office was nearby. Inside however, there were no instructions and the
lady I asked about what to do spoke only French and pointed across a busy room indicating
where I was to go. I guessed what she meant and hopped into a line with people who appeared
to have envelopes and such to mail. I pulled out the last stamps I had bought in France to
show the guy who was trying to help me. He looked at them like I found them on Mars, but
checked with his co-workers to see if they were in stock. He returned saying he was sorry
they didn't have them. When I said I needed to mail postcards to the US, he seemed to have a
solution for that. Eventually I got the stamps I needed. It's strange having the old lick
and stick stamps again. Like stepping back in time!

On the way to the post office I noticed another grocery store. Another errand I was
attempting to complete was to find some saucisson sausage to bring back home. This market was
much better than the first one I entered. They had a larger selection on most things. I
found a small chunk of saucisson and picked up some mint tea bags for future enjoyment. All
that was left was to eat dinner and to decide on evening entertainment. I was in the mood for
a movie and the hostel had advertised a theater that showed movies in the "version origional."
None of the English movies sounded good. There was, however, one playing in French which I'd
seen posters for all over France and figured I would have to watch it later on when I returned
to the US. I figured why not just see it now?? One for Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec please. The show was 1.5 hours away, so I found a restaurant just S of the hostel offering salads. [Notice the PA license plate on the wall!] I thought it was time for some veggies. I had a HUGE salad with shrimp, salmon and mayo on dried bread, tomatoes, egg and two dressings--one a mustard and one a ketchup base. It took longer than I thought to find the restaurant, so I had a brisk walk back to the theater. The theater was really nice with stadium seating and comfy chairs. Just like in the US they run pre-show entertainment music (sorry no trivia!) and commercials with the previews. Looks like some good shows are coming out in the future. The movie was really good. I thought it would be more of a kid movie as it was billed like a cross of Night At The Museum and The Mummy except with a female lead character. I was puzzled when only adults walked into the theater. Naturally the movie was classically French--i.e. brief nudity and a quizzically grotesque twist to the plot (think Edgar Allan Poe/Alfred Hitchcock rather than gorey). I still enjoyed the movie even without subtitles. It would be nice to have them though to enjoy the dialogue more. You could tell from the movie context that some jokes went by without my knowing the full reason for why they were funny. Great way to spend the evening.

Catacombes

This morning I took it easy by sleeping in and spending the morning working on my blog.
Manuel and I planned to meet up this afternoon to tackle the Catacombes which promise to be
spooky, but interesting. A whopping 1.6km long series of tunnels underneath the S central
area of Paris has become the home and resting place for millions of human bones. Originally
formed though mines and quarrys to procure the much desired bedrock of stone for building, the
tunnels also played a very important role in the various wars as part of the resistance
movements. The displays in the Catacombes are a combination of lack of in ground graveyard
space, thousands of deaths due to multiple wars throughout the 17-18th centuries, a desire to
honor those who died and a great tourist exposition. First you must descend an untold number
of stairs to get down to the catacomb level. With a few boards of interesting history you
begin walking underground through narrow tunnels for quite a long time before finally coming
to the section where the bones are kept. Once you reach it there's nothing in the rooms but
bones. They are stacked about 4-4.5 feet high with varying patterns of leg/arm bones and
skulls. Every so often there are poetic quotes about death and plaques stating which war or
cemetery the bones came from and when they were moved to the Catacombes. You happen upon the
bones as quickly as you leave them. In one room and not the next.

Once back up top we walked over to Rue Moufftard again and picked up some tasty morsels for an
outdoor dinner in the Jardin du Luxembourg. We picked out 5 different French cheeses (strong
bleu/chevre/munster/2 I cant remember), herbed ham, saucisson (french salami), mousse de
canard (duck mousse), another sausage I don't know the name of, poppy seed and plain baguettes
and a half bottle of Cote du Rhone red wine. It was all so delicious!! The cheeses were so
varied from mild and fruity to pungent. The bread was fresh and the meats full of flavor.
This was yet another very French way to spend time in a park.

We took the metro to the Latin Quarter to scout out a jazz club. The area is not so much
latin as it is Greek. For a while I thought I was back in Athens with restaurants offering
moussaka and gyros. We were about an hour early for the jazz show, so we stopped into one of
the bars for drinks while we waited. This place was pricey! Tea for E4!! Usually it's
around 2 or 3 tops and that's for an entire tea pot of about 18oz. This was only about 12oz.
The alcoholic drinks were even more expensive: E7 for a pint. The only interesting part
about this place was they had the futbol game on of Lyon vs. a German team. An important game
for France to see if they could make it into the European World Cup. The club was right
across the street and we headed in around 10pm. The music didn't start until 10:30pm, so we
sat around for a bit and watched some more of the futbol game. A group of 3 teenagers were
interviewing the lead band member with some fancy video equipment. It seemed like a couple
times a day I would run into a group of teenagers filming something right where I was trying
to see something or walk.

The jazz club had an underground, metro/subway, old church design to it. It reminded me of
the place I would go swing dancing in grad school at the Wabasha Street Caves--literally a
series of subway like rooms built into the side of a rocky mountain/hill on the S St. Paul
side of the river. Downstairs there was what appeared to be a dance floor and some people
already dancing as the band did some skat warm ups. I wasn't expecting to dance and Manuel
informed me his dancing was like an epileptic crab. I will be cracking up over that for a
long time! The band was quite good. Most of the musicians were from the Provence area. We
heard Take the A Train, What A Wonderful World, and one other song I recognized, but couldn't
remember the name of. Before long it was about 11:45pm when I wondered what time the metro
stopped running. Manuel thought it was around 12:45am which is when we decided that with 1/2
hour rides for each of us, we'd hear one more song and head home. Shame we had to leave early
with such good music and dancing. At the metro we realized this would probably be the last
time to hang out since tomorrow was my last day and he had work. It was great having my own
personal tour guide for Paris. I think I got some of the inside scoop of what it's like to
live there and a taste of some classically French food and customs.

Versailles

Woke up not feeling too great so I took it slow getting ready. I ended up being 30 minutes late to meet up with Manuel, but better that than not showing up at all. I had no way to
contact him, so he would have just been standing there for a long time wondering what was
going on. We boarded the train to Versailles and arrived 20 minutes later. About 500m
walking down the road and around the corner brought the splendid palace into view. My cousin
Val had been here on a trip to Paris through school, but she didn't tell me how huge the place
is or how gilded! The glamor soon faded as we saw the very long line we had to wait in to
get tickets. We then lamented each separately thinking of getting tickets ahead of time and
not doing it. Fortunately we only had to wait about 15-20 minutes. Not bad considering there
were about 100 people in front of us. After getting the tickets we had to wait in the
entrance line to go through a bag screening (which I'm not sure anyone was even monitoring)
that took about 20 minutes again.

Once inside we decided to head out to the Queen's Hamlet to make sure we didn't miss it by
spending too much time in the Chateaux. Unknowingly this took us into the garden which we
could have easily entered without passing through security. By going the way we did we
procured a map and had a shot at knowing where we were going. We wandered through the vast gardens which almost looked imaginary or movie like at the far end (3.5km away). French gardens really means a wide pathway with white powdery gravel and some trees or shrubs along the sides. There is rarely grass and when there is, it's forbidden to walk on it. Apparently France is much more dry and desert like than I realized. We had taken a slightly shorter route toward the Queen's area only to discover that a large gate and a moat blocked our way. Making our way back around the wall and off to the far corner of the estate brought us to the first of three places the Queen had built solely for her. I didn't enjoy the first very much. It was very late 17th/early 18th century fashion which was a bit too fru fru and pastel colored for me. Many of the rooms had lemon colored furniture or pastel green walls with lots of pastel pink stone making up the building. It was nice to see some furniture though.

The second place was much more relaxed and almost like a summer cottage. The rooms were
smaller and cozy with a natural color palate. By far the grander part of this whole area is
the garden outside the houses. This was much more like a real garden. Grass abounded, paths
were small, flowers were in bloom, trees grew naturally and not into trimmed shapes. The
first garden by the Chateaux felt very formal and harsh. The Queen's garden was much more relaxed and homey. We found our way back to the far end and suddenly a whole tiny village came into view. What was this? Not on the map. We checked it out and it turned out to be the third part of the Queen's area--a farm, servants' houses, stable. The Queen really had her own place to rule just like she asked. While it was all quite lovely, when this was being built most of France was starving and destitute. Hard to reconcile.

On our way back to the main garden we stopped at one of the cafes for lunch and ice cream.
Realizing we needed to move along to see more things, we moved through the other side of the
main garden and back to the Chateaux. Originally we chose this day to visit because they turn
the fountains on for Sunday. After the first few up by the main entrance, the rest were dry
as a bone or had still water. Around 4pm an announcement indicated that some of the
fountains were about to be turned on. It was most refreshing to see and feel them in action. Moving water naturally makes it cooler and that was nice on such a sunny day. At last we made it to the Chateaux and picked up our complimentary audio guides. In typical French fashion there was only one number to listen to for the first floor, though it was filled with paintings. We had to get to the second floor with all the official kingly apartments before any new numbers showed up. [Famous Hall of Mirrors] When we reached the end of this tour we had another very French moment. The organization of the tour routes was never listed and both routes end in the same place without warning. We naturally kept following the hall around the corner when we realized that the numbers had changed and the information was going backwards as the numbers were counting down. No great loss. We trudged ahead and made it all the way to the princesses' apartments and the Dauphin's (I think he was the 2nd in command and next in line for the throne??) apartments. This is when we noticed we were running out of time to make it to the Neptune Fountain show at 5:20pm.

At a quick pace we saw the beginning from the walkway and arrived in just enough time to catch
the last few minutes. It really wasn't a show so much as music playing while the large
fountain was running. The water pressure never varied and there were no lights. It was nice
to see the water flowing though after so many fountains were not working. Having seen all we
could see, we stopped at a cafe on the way to the train station to avoid the large crowd
heading that direction. This worked out well as the train back was not quite as full. We
were going past the area where Manuel lives and it was getting close to dinner time for me.
Manuel thought it would be a good idea to sample some sushi at a great place near his
apartment. The food was actually really good. A nice change from bread and sandwiches. I
sampled some salmon, tuna, and some kind of white fish sushi along with 4 grilled kebabs (2
chicken, 1 steak and 1 ground up meats shaped into balls). It was all delicious which made it
worth the 45 minute metro ride back to the hostel.