2 Exhausted 2 Write Quint-ennial
Vacation
"Sometimes
it's better to lose your map anyway
You may end up where you were going
Instead of where you thought you were"
– kendall brown
I printed 42-page itineraries for Gramma, the twins, and Alan and I so everyone would know where we were going and where we had been. The first page was headlined with the above quote. When I told people about the itineraries I was pouring so many hours and effort into, I said I knew God was laughing as I laid our plans. What I didn't know was that the angels watching me over God's shoulder as I laid our plans were laughing so hard they wet themselves.
April
28 - April 30, 2006 | May
1 - 3, 2006 | May 4 - 5, 2006 | May
6 - 7, 2006 | May 8 - 9, 2006
May
10 -11, 2006 |
May 12, 2006 | May
13, 2006 | Mother's
Day, May 14, 2006 | May
15, 2006 | May
16 -17, 2006
European
Hitchhikers We Picked Up '06 | Europe
2006 Archive | Newsletter Archive
So here's how it went down May 13 (You don't have to read any of the words! You can just look at the pictures. There will be no test.) :
SATURDAY May 13
"When good Americans die they go to Paris." – Oscar Wilde
Another
item on the things to-do list (not that Gramma ever said it was her to-do
list) was eat stinky cheese. OK. All well and good. 
She'll
take the Gouda, thank you very much.
After our stinky breakfast, I dragged them all to the Promenade Plantée/Viaduc des Arts in order to show them the coolest building ever.
The
Promenade Plantée is an elevated park that is 4.5 km long. It was constructed
on an abandoned 19th century railway viaduct, which connected the Bastille
area to the eastern suburbs of Paris in 1859, and ceased operation
on December 14, 1969. The parkway runs from the Opéra Bastille
(from 1 to 129 avenue Daumesnil), ending up only a short distance
from the Bois de Vincennes.
Pedestrians have a garden environment for their high-level walk and cyclists have a route at ground level.
This Promenade, and the bookstore Shakespeare and Company, were featured in the movie "Before Sunset."
The
arcades beneath the viaduct have been transformed into arts and crafts workshops.
This
section is called the Viaduc des Arts.
None of this, however, jazzed the troupe. Flowers, trees, ponds, all on top of a former railroad track, yeah yeah yeah. Urban renewal, yeah yeah yeah.
But look at the views, I said. Look at the beautiful architecture around you, I said.
Are we having fun yet? they asked. Is it finished yet? they asked. Why have you brought us here to die, Moses? they asked.
We're
here! I said, coming to the building at left. Isn't this the funkiest building
ever, I asked. Isn't it the coolest?!
Yeah, yeah, yeah, they said. Where are you taking us now? Do we have to walk or can we take a bus?
*grumble* *$#@%* *grumble,* I said. And I meant it, too. Revolting peasants.
The
next stop was the Musée National du Moyen-Age, in whose "Forêt
de la Licorne" gardens we ate our sandwich lunch. Everything tastes better
when shared with a pigeon. It's a fact.
The Musée National du Moyen-Age Thermes de Cluny is comprised of two important sites. One is a 15th century Gothic mansion containing a wide selection of medieval art, as well as a collection of original sculptures from the facade of Notre Dame. Next to the mansion are 3rd century Gallic-Roman baths, including a "Frigidarium" (cold room).
Occupants of the house over the years have included Mary Tudor -- installed here after the death of her husband Louis XII by his successor Francis I of France in 1515 so he could watch her more closely, particularly to see if she was pregnant.
In 1793 it was confiscated
by the state and for the next three decades served several different functions.
At one point it was owned by a physician who used the magnificent flamboyant
chapel on the first floor as a dissection room.
The
Lady and the Unicorn (La dame à la licorne) is the title of a cycle
of French tapestries often considered one of the greatest works of art of
the Middle Ages in Europe.
On my list of things to-do was to finally get to the Cluny to see the original sculpted heads of the Kings of Israel and Judah from Notre-Dame, decapitated from the cathedral during the Revolution, hidden by a respectful man, and discovered in the '70s. During the Revolution, the figures on the façade of Notre-Dame were systematically destroyed or beheaded by government edict. Just as the king was subjected to the guillotine, the sculptures—seen as symbols of authority—were destroyed in parallel acts of vengeance. Their remains were unearthed in 1977 in the basement of a bank near today's Galeries Lafayette.
God bless the man who hid the sculpture remnants. God bless him: for his piety, or for his sense of history, or architecture, or art, or all of the above. I wanted to see this gallery of kings, not to admire their artistry or history, but to do homage to a man who felt duty bound to show respect.
Respects
paid, we headed for the Panthéon.
Why?
To pay respects to Voltaire, Zola, and Hugo. I try to impress upon the girls
that literature is important. That literature reaches people. That literature
can change things. A pen is a powerful thing.
Risking his career and life, Zola's "J'accuse" accused the French government of anti-Semitism and of wrongful imprisonment of an innocent Jew. He was convicted of libel and fled the country to avoid prison, but innocent Dreyfus was cleared and released.
Victor Hugo's works highlighted
political and social issues. He highlighted a building which might have crumbled
away if he hadn't based a story about a hunchback in it. 
One
of the effects of this novel was to shame the City of Paris to restore the
much-neglected Cathedral of Notre Dame, which was now attracting thousands
of tourists who had read the popular novel. The book also inspired a renewed
appreciation for pre-renaissance buildings,
which thereafter began to be actively preserved.
Voltaire made religious intolerance unfashionable with "Candide."
Respects were also paid to Jean Moulin -- a model of civic virtues, moral rectitude and patriotism. He is a symbol of the French Resistance. I read somewhere, in the States, that he was the greatest hero of any nationality of WWII. He did the right thing. He was a great man who has made a great difference in the world and I wanted the girls to know about him.
The
Panthéon is called a "Masterpiece by Soufflot (1713-1780)".
King Louis XV vowed in 1744 that if he recovered from an illness he would replace the ruined church of Sainte-Geneviève with an edifice worthy of the patron saint of Paris. The Marquis of Marigny was entrusted with the fulfillment of the vow after the king regained his health. Marigny's protégé Jacques-Germain Soufflot (1713-1780) was charged with the plans, and the construction of the Panthéon began.
Originally a church, after many changes of fortune it now combines liturgical functions with its role as a famous burial place.
It is an early example of Neoclassicism, with a façade modeled on the Pantheon in Rome, surmounted by a small dome that owes some of its character to Bramante's "Tempietto". Located in the 5th arrondissement on the top of Montagne Sainte-Geneviève, the Panthéon looks out over all of Paris.
On
one side of Voltaire's sarcophagus here it says (translation by Veronique
Wiist): He fought the atheists and the fanatics. He inspired tolerance.
He demanded the rights of men against servitude and feudalism.
Another
item on my to-do list was sail a boat on a reflection pool. (In the picture
at left, my caboose appears enormous because I'm wearing a shiny plastic bag.
That's my story and I'm sticking to it.)
As luck would have it, the Luxembourg gardens are down the hill from the Panthéon. At the Luxembourg gardens one can rent a boat to sail, something I've wanted to do in Paris since 1996.
Today was the day, so even though it was raining, I was determined. I put on my pocket poncho and accomplished two things simultaneously: 1. I kept dry; and, 2. embarrassed the bejeebies out of my family.
This
kid had a great time with his boat. The little boy next to Alan had a good
time, too.
I
rented two boats: one for me and one for Kilory. They came with sticks to
prod and maneuver the boats. Alan offered to prod my boat which was out of
my reach. I gave him my stick and never saw it again. My, I had fun sailing
my boat.
Then
we were off to the Parc Monceau.
The colonnade at right can be seen in "Gigi."
A favorite haunt where Marcel Proust used to stroll, the Parc Monceau was commissioned in 1778 by Louis Philippe Joseph, duc de Chartres et Orléans, who was guillotined after the Revolution. After the painter Carmontelle designed several whimsical follies for the park -- including a windmill, a Roman temple, a farm, medieval ruins, and a pagoda -- the place became known as "Chartres' folly."
On
the outside of Monceau's fence is the location of geocache where we picked
up another Travel Bug hitchhiker and dropped off Alan's hitchhiker.
This particular Geocache owner says "I started the cache with 20 US state quarters. If you are from the US bring a state quarter to leave in the cache. If you are NOT from the US feel free to take a US state quarter from the cache." So naturally we brought a Pennsylvania State quarter to Europe to put in, and naturally left it in the hotel room that morning. We left Alan's Travel Bug Hitchhiker in the cache and took out Travel Bug Hitchhiker Dat Dingaling.
Previously, we'd picked up a TBH Dwarf in Zürich, at the same time that we dropped off my Travel Bug Hitchhiker complete with towel, because..."A towel...is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have." A hotel manager in Bregenz, Austria helped Alan read TB Dwarf's "mission" in German. The hitchhiking dwarf wanted to go as far as he could go, so we'd take him to Texas.
However,
Dat Dingaling's physically attached mission said "One of four Dingaling
brothers, Dis, Dat, and the twins Ima and Iza. They have no goal, they're
already gone, maybe you can take them a little farther. Thanks!"
-- in ENGLISH. He had a decidedly southwestern feel about his cowboy hat and
boots and revolver. I made Alan call people until he found someone at home
who could look him up online and find out WHERE he was from.
Brownwood, Texas.
It wouldn't be good to take him right back to Johnson County, Texas after
someone took the time to get him to Paris! We wouldn't be returning to Parc
Monceau to put in our State quarter until May 16. I felt bad that he'd go
right back into the same cache after days in our hotel room. So
I decided we'd show him a good time before putting him back.
April
28 - April 30, 2006 | May
1 - 3, 2006 | May 4 - 5, 2006 | May
6 - 7, 2006 | May 8 - 9, 2006
May
10 -11, 2006 |
May 12, 2006 | May
13, 2006 | Mother's
Day, May 14, 2006 | May
15, 2006 | May
16 -17, 2006
European
Hitchhikers We Picked Up '06 | Europe
2006 Archive | Newsletter Archive
We hope you enjoy your visit.
