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 14 (You don't have to read any of the words! You can just look at the pictures. There will be no test.) :
SUNDAY May 14
Oscar Wilde: "I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train."
On
our way to the neighborhood métro station, we came across the Sunday
morning street market and its various colors, scents, languages and products.
We could have dawdled for an hour or so, but we were on our way to Saint-Sulpice
for first mass and to tour the organ loft during second mass.
Eglise
Saint-Sulpice is a famous Parisian church in the Luxembourg Quarter. It is
only slightly smaller than Notre-Dame and thus the second largest church in
Paris.
Gramma
was wowed by the morning mass. Just loved it.
I'm an unwashed heathen: I find the presence of the Eugène Delacroix mural (Jacob Wrestling the Angel) nearby more fascinating than a catholic pontificating in Latin and French.
As someone who has sat through two previous masses (once here and once at St-Eustache), it was another event in a foreign tongue to stand-and-sit-stand-and-sit-stand-and-sit through until it was time to scamper up the steps to the organ loft.
There is nothing quite like watching the later mass from above, in the organ loft.
Nothing
like listening to Daniel Roth play this famous organ while your hand is on
one of the 6,588 pipes, and the resonance vibrates your insides.
The 1862 Grand-Orgue of Saint-Sulpice is one of only three "100 stop" organs in all of Europe. The sound and musical effects achieved in this instrument are almost unparalleled in pipe organ world.
But, wait! There's more in Saint-Sulpice! The gnomon!
At left is the obelisk
of Henry Sully (1680-1728) and Pierre-Charles Lemonnier (1715-1799)'s gnomon/sundial.
The sundial uses a brass "meridian" line on the floor of the transept.
Each
day at noon (Paris "true" time) a sunspot crosses the meridian through
an opening in the upper right part of the window in the south transept.
On December 21, the winter solstice, the sunspot crosses a line on Jean-Nicolas Servandoni (1695-1766)'s obelisk in the north transept.
On June 21, the summer solstice, the sunspot falls on a plaque in the south transept.
On
the equinoxes, the sunspot appears on a plaque behind the door of the altar
rail.
The gnomon was specifically built to determine the date of Easter (Catholics decreed Easter should be celebrated at the full moon that follows the spring equinox, but never at Passover).* In the 1700s the Cassinis of the Paris Observatory put the sundial to better use. They used it to calculate that the oblique angle of the axis of the earth diminished by 45 seconds each century. Today's technology has shown it to be 46.85 seconds.
*It quite bugs me that
protestant churches celebrate Easter, not at Passover, but at a time set by
the Catholic Church based on astronomy because the Catholic Church refused
to ever allow Easter to coincide with a Jewish religious observance. Jesus'
birthday being celebrated on December 25th instead of in April is just stupid,
but this Easter business is anti-Semitic. It really bugs me.
Fortunately, going outside to feed pigeons was enough to smooth my ruffled feathers.
Here
I am getting a picture of the Travel
Bug Hitchhiker at the Fountain of the Four Bishops in front of the church
at Place Saint-Sulpice.
Visconti's
Fountain of the Four Bishops: Built
in 1844, it is decorated with statues of Bossuet, Fénelon, Massillon
and Fléchier, who were all bishops and writers.
Place Saint-Sulpice is surrounded by chestnut trees, all of which were blooming spectacularly.
Life
on the Subway: Please note that this violinist (one of many musicians to be
found in métro stations) is playing a violin that has no body. It only
had the hourglass outline; no hourglass front and back plates. As violinists,
the twins were captivated.
I found the métro station ads fascinating; an integral part of the
métro experience. This particular billboard at left said that at its
store one could find things that were perfect for one's home: 
the
plant which is cut out of this photo of the billboard looks exactly like the
hairstyles of the couple in the bath.
We four Weises love using the métro. Gramma never did.
Alan
and I have eaten Mother's Day dinner at Jardin Notre Dame every five years
since 1991. But this year it was not to be. We had lunch there instead. I've
always thought it was a lovely Mother's Day treat. Gramma agreed. The same
people are running it. They've
remembered us before, but if they did this time, they didn't show it.
After
our pleasant lunch, we walked down the block to Shakespeare and Company. We
looked for George among the tomes, but couldn't find him. Then Gramma called
to me from outside next to the Wallace fountain. She pointed to a third story
window and asked "Is that George?"
It was. He waved at us.
I waved and beamed at him. I called the girls over to look up at the 91-year-old
white-haired man sticking his head out the window. And that's when it happened.
The only thing that could get me to once again mount the crazy steep stairs
up to the second floor. These are stairs only in the academic sense: they
really are more of a permanent ladder. 
I
am Madame Vertigo.
Anyway, the only thing that would get me up there once again happened: George waved us on up to see him. We'd been up there before for Sunday tea and knew how to reach the private apartments. George said we had the look of people who had been here before and knew him, hence the invitation. He was very sweet, hugged the girls, and gave them a copy of his booklet of writings by various "angels in disguise" who had stayed at Shakespeare and Company. (See a picture of George and read his (short) The Rag & Bone Shop of the Heart)
Shakespeare and Company first opened its doors in 1951. For over fifty years, the bookshop has housed numerous writers and hosted readings by published and unpublished authors. Upon entering, you will find yourself in a place Henry Miller described as "A wonderland of books."
After
we bid George a fond farewell, fearing perhaps we may never see him again,
we walked to the Petit Pont to get Alan's Mother's Day present to me. It was
something I've wanted for at least five years: a portrait of my daughters
drawn by an artist sitting beside the Seine.
The twins were not impressed by the artist's skill. Looking at the finished portrait, they said out of his earshot: "We look the same!" They failed to see the irony of their statement.
We felt the artist captured the unique aura of "Miss Lips" and the individual impish twinkle of "Monkey Girl."
My parents' gift to me for my 2007 birthday (the 40th anniversary of my birth) was getting the portrait matted and framed under glass.
While
the twins sat for the portrait which made it seem like they look alike, Gramma
took pictures of the outside of Notre Dame. Pictured at left is Eugène
Viollet-le-Duc's restoration of the gallery of kings. (see
our visit to the original remains)
At right: Nikki knew she
was correct. She said that this Châtelet bus stop across from the Sarah
Bernhardt Café was not the one to get us to the Les Halles quarter.
So she sat on the bench with Dingaling and waited for us to discover her genius.
We got on a bus going the wrong direction, but her correctness was eventually
recognized, though not with all the fanfare she felt it deserved.
Les
Halles produce stores have sidewalk fruity wares that are artistic displays.
We decided we should get a photo of Dingaling going bananas inside. The purveyors/artisans
would frown upon such flippant photo taking among their wares. I told the
twins it would take stealth to get a photo of him banana shopping. After we
exited the store I clarified for them that stealth meant not shouting out
"Did you get it, Mommy?!" and "Can we put him on the oranges
next?!"
Dingaling
didn't think much of that high falutin' silly Stravinsky fountain nearby.
(The Stravinsky Fountain {also called the Fontaine des automates}, features
works by Jean Tinguely and Niki de Saint-Phalle.) Course he didn't seem
to think much of the inside-out Pompidou Centre that it was next to either.
Gramma tended to agree with him on both counts.
Kilory
and I, of course, think that different is good sometimes and enjoyed both
for what they were: weird and colorful.
After
the Stravinsky Fountain, which Kilory has called the Lip Fountain since 2001,
we walked to Saint Eustache. There was so much restoration going on at the
church we couldn't find a way in, but that's not why we went anyway. The girls
have been waiting since 2001 to climb the head statue beside it. And so they
did.
And home we went.
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.
