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Just walking to the train

Spooky Spider

I was going to let Tonka out on Sunday night and I did the normal scan for spider webs outside the door because I've walked through quite a few webs in our backyard. I noticed a spider on the bottom of the eve of the dinning room bay window. Our sliding glass door is right under it, so its protected from the rain and stuff. Well Heather was in the basement with me and I told her to come look at this "black spider with a red dot on its back". Of course she didn't believe me and thought I was only kidding her.
You'd think after I killed the copperhead snake in our backyard and had asked her to identify it that she'd realize that I look to her as my personal Steve Irwin. (well steve before he went swimming with the sting ray, of course) She grew up with the complete collection of Autobahn books, so she can identify at least the dangerous things in our backyard. She still has a hard time with poison ivy, but other things she's pretty good with.
HB come over and freaked out a bit, as she knew it was a black widow spider. Thankfully we were safely standing on the other side of our trusty Pella sliding glass door with double pane glass. She ran upstairs and came back down with a whole slew of Google images of black widow spiders. It appears we have a male spider as our "pet", which I guess is a good thing considering it won't be having a little family.
I called Reston Zoo to see if they'd be interested in capturing it. If I don't hear from them today then I'll be calling our good friends at Connor's to come take care of things.
Its always fun in a wooded backyard!

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Racin' Brady

This kid loves to run around like a race car. Its a good thing our home's floorplan accomidates a built in race track for his little Fred Flintsone feet to run to his heart's content. This little episode occured the other day some time around lunch time and includes the essential "peel out" at the beginning and a very good lock up of his wheels when he encouters a red light.

Paris - Day 7 (Monday)

We tried to get an early start to the day, even though most shops don't open until after lunch at 2PM. We made our way down to Les Halles in the morning to stroll through the streets and then into the Pompidou Center at 10:30. We had another croissant almond to start the day, it was excellent.

The exhibits at the Pompidou didn't disappoint, they were some really odd modern art exhibits. Some of which HB and I made it through pretty quickly. I think the best was one of a piece of standard 1/2 inch plywood, maybe 2 feet square, painted white, but not painted that well. It was finished off with a large nail hammered into the center. The piece was really moving and I left wondering if the artist had driven that nail all the way through or merely enough to hold it there, I hope that's what he was going for.
One exhibit was a collection of hard drives by the French company Lacie. If you have never seen their drives, they are unlike the typical boring gray case. They have one series that looks like really large LEGOs that can be stacked on top of one another. We went through 2 of the 3 exhibits before we had to catch up with Chuck and Coryn.
They had been hanging out in a cafe a few blocks away and we decided to meet up at the famous falafel place, L'As du Falafel, located a few blocks from the Pompidou. Every guide book we had mentioned this place and one said it is a favorite place of Lenny Kravitz when he's in town. The place was very good and service was fast. It started to rain while we ate, and unlike every other eating place in Paris, we couldn't stick around there and wait it out. So we took off for some more shopping, hoping to stay dry darting in to shops that looked interesting.

We came across a tea shop that had a back door that opened to a court yard. When I saw it I thought it really captured how inside this big city, there wer still the simple things. The small concierge door, the rose bush that had flourished only as a result of someone's daily love, the cobblestone walk and the lonely umbrella, still wet from the rain that had just stopped. The sun had replaced the clouds in the time it took us to walk through the shop. It was a great shot.
We walked back towards our apartment and looked at a few shops along the way ending up at the market that was down the street from us at the Bastille. It wasn't the typical one that is there 3 days a week, this one was only there a few days a month. There was a spice guy, a few Russian booths, cured meats, candy, and of course a cheese booth. We went through it just to see what was going on, but didn't buy anything.

That evening we ended up going to a Greek restaurant in St. Michel. It was ultra touristy, but we had decided to go thinking it would be fun. Heather and I went to a similar place the last time we were in Paris, but we must have had more wine in us, because this place wasn't doing it for us. They had a single woman dancing non-stop in the middle of the restaurant, and the expression on her face made it evident that she wanted to be elsewhere. So here is our official Paris travel tip: No touristy Greek. :)

Paris - Day 6 (Sunday)

Heather was feeling a bit better this morning so we were both really happy. There was a light sprinkle of rain when I woke up, but it only lasted about 30 minutes and then the sun came out. We decided to make the trek out to Versailles, thinking that even if the rains were to return, we'd be able to do the indoor tours. I think on Sunday most of the pattisaries are closed, so the one we found open had a line out the door and around the corner. With our pain au chocolat in hand, we made our way to the RER for the long trip out to Versailles. Chuck and Coryn met up with us on the same train.
It was a great day to be out there, the sun was shining and the sky was filled with puffy white clouds. The wind was a bit strong, in fact we saw some fairly large branches from trees on the ground during or walks through the streets. We decided to do a guided tour of the King's apartments. Heather convinced me it would be better than the standard audioguides we've been doing, and she was right. Our guide was very good and the tour was nearly 2 hours long. The guides use a wireless system where they have a microphone that transmits to a wireless receiver we all wear, with a single ear piece. It a great system because you don't have to huddle in each room and can hear him clearly. During our tour the clouds collected and soon it was raining hard with the same high winds. We felt bad for the people who were caught out in the gardens with very little warning of the storm which came in quickly. By the time we finished our tour the weather had cleared up again.
One of the rooms we visited on the self guided tour had the worlds largest canvas painting. It covers the entire ceiling of the room its housed in and is very impressive. In the same room is an equally impressive fireplace. One that used logs that measured about 10 feet in length. Ever since I saw the movie Citizen Kane, I've loved huge fireplaces, the type you can walk into and you empty the ashes using a snow shovel. One day... one day. :)
We made sure to visit the famous Hall of Mirrors, which is currently finishing up a 3 year renovation project to clean and restore the artwork and mirrors, but also to do some modernizing to make it safer for visitors. Unfortunately this work requires the floor to be covered and a lot of hall was obscured with other construction pieces, so we'll have to come back sometime to see it again. We made our way out into the gardens where we spent the remaining time at Versailles. Once we descended off the upper terrace the wind wasn't as bad, and the sun warmed us up quickly. We walked down to the Grand Canal where you can rent row boats for a romantic afternoon. We opted for a more economical nap on the lush green grass instead. It didn't take long for both Heather and I to snooze off for a quick nap with our fellow tourist friends around. As I lay there entering into the lazy trance, I listened to the sounds around us: the laughs of a little garcon as he played with his papa in the grass, the crunch of the small white stone gravel as people rode bikes by or walked. This is the same gravel that is in all Parisian parks, leaving a light powdering of dust on your shoes that you must wipe clean each evening.
After a lot of walking through the gardens we decided to head back towards the train station and catch dinner at one of the restaurants. On the way out I got the following picture of a new gate they are building that is a replica of the the gate that separated the main courtyard from the noble courtyard. Nobility could ride their carriages through these gates, but everyone else had to walk. There is a third courtyard even further up that was the Royal courtyard which was reserved for only the royal family's use.
We found an Italian restaurant that we all agreed looked good, and we were not disappointed. From my pizza to Heather's carbonara, everything was really good. As we finished up our dinner a lady we had seen at the chataux came in with her little pug. She ordered a glass of wine to warm up as her little dog strolled around the restaurant and greeted each of the diners. He was a smaller pug about the size of Otis and was very friendly (like all pugs).
We said our goodbyes to everyone and then started off for the train station. The temperature had dropped during our meal, so we briskly walked to catch our train at about 10:50. It was a quiet ride home and we opt'ed against getting off at the Tour Eiffel, which we'll do tonight instead.

Paris - Day 5 (Saturday)

HB woke up with a really bad gastro illness this morning, so our day's options were very limited. We had planned to go to Versailles, but we decided it wouldn't be a good place if HB needed to quickly make it to a bathroom. We settled on just going over to the Luxembourg gardens to sit and watch the people and day go by. Some how she was able to make it over there, but then wasn't feeling well so we just grabbed a few chairs. Chuck and Coryn were able to walk to the park from their apartment. As soon as we all got there, Chuck and I went shopping for a little lunch. We found a little market and bought some ham, cheese, Perrier and soda, a few raspberries, and a few baguettes. We got a special baguette with olives in it that was really good.

There were a lot of kids running around the main fountain with their wooden sail boats, giving them a push into the strong wind and then running around to tend to them. I cannot wait to bring Sophia and Brady back to do the same one day. After a few hours the wind started to kick up a bit more and the clouds were doing their daily swirl above us, so we decided to head back to Jussieu and let Heather lay down on Chuck and Coryn's sofa for a bit more rest.
The three of us went over to anohter part that is right next to Chuck and Coryn's called Jardin Des Plantes. Its a great park with a zoo and a lot of trees from all over the world that were planted from the 1700-1800's. Very impressive trees and park. They had an exhibit on potatoes which I learned came from Peru, and now there are over 4000 different types of potatoes. :) There was also a nice rose garden, but most of the roses were a few weeks past their peak. I found one that was still hanging on.

We ended the day watching a few episodes of the British version of the show "The Office". I was surprised at how closely the US version has followed their plots. It was still a lot of fun to watch because the British version is a lot more mature in the humor, and has things that would never fly in the US. I got HB home after some chicken noodle soup and get her in bed with hopes that the worse was behind us.

Paris - Day 4 (Friday)

Yesterday morning we started our day by heading over to BHV (Bazar de l'Hôtel de Ville) to do a little shopping before meeting up with Chuck and Coryn. Heather had asked me what type of store BHV compared to and I had a hard time coming up with one. It has a bit of everything, unlike any store in the US. Take for example the first floor. In the front are cosmetics, much like a department store in the US, but then as you venture further back you come across bathroom fixtures like shower heads and faucets. Another section carries paper products and pens. In the lower floor, or floor 0, holds the hardware, power tools and a small selection of lumber. Its another example of the economic use of space that Coryn has noticed.

A search for the toilette brought us to the 5th floor which also has one of Paris' few self serve cafeterias. Since it was near 12, we decided to grab lunch before heading to the Musee d'Orsay. The sitting area has a nice view of the city which we enjoyed as we ate our salads, bread with cheese and a nice glass of red wine.

Our quickest route to the musee was to walk to the other side of the river and catch the RER for one stop. This took us over Ile de la Cite and in front of Notre Dame and then into St. Michel. We came across Shakespeare and Company bookstore which is a little English bookstore that has been a part of Paris for over 50 years. Its now run by the original owner's daughter and had a lot of life when we stopped by. Its a very old building and the rooms inside reflect the budget a small independent bookstore spends on renovation and upkeep. This is not your big box Barnes and Noble with a Starbucks built in, but it was so very inviting to browse through the shelves of books looking for a dusty treasure.

We met up with Chuck and Coryn and spent a few hours going through the collections. The Musee is so different from the Louvre, but just as interesting. The 5th floor where all the impressionistic works are displayed was very crowded. We've been renting the audioguide devices at each of the museums and it really adds to the experience being able to hear how the work was received and other comments about each of the works. There was a very interesting exhibit of photographs that I enjoyed. some of the earliest photos showed daily life scenes from the 1890s. I've always loved to study those and see the details of what people wore when caught candidly on the street, they are so different than the posed photographs that became popular. There was a cafe on the top floor with an outdoor terrace with a great view of the city. the clouds were swirling around Sacre Cour in the distance. It looked like it was going to storm, but the rain didn't fall that day. We've been checking the weather report every chance we get to see if the rain will finally fall, but so far we've been lucky with only a few sprinkles that don't last much more than about 20-30 minutes.

We finished up in the Musee and decided to head back to St. Michel to look around and visit some shops. This is an area of Paris that Chuck knows pretty well so he led us through the small pedestrian streets, filled with shops and cafes. This street holds a restaurant/cafe that has been there since the 1685. Places like this just emphasize how short our counties history really is. We bought a small music box for Brady in the toy store here in the foreground. He loves to play with Sophia's jewelry boxes and watch the music play. Now he'll be able to o the same. I can just see him now, laying on his belly watching the cylinder go around. He'll most likely try and touch it too much, so I had better get him a backup one too :)

We finished up the day, as the rain started to fall, in a small little French restaurant (Collation, 17 Rue Gregoire De Tours). Isabelle greeted us on the street to explain the menu and to convince us her's was the best restaurant on the street. We sat inside the small restaurant of about 8 tables and had a wonderful dinner that lasted 3 bottles and about 3 1/2 hours. We talked with Isabelle a lot through the night about her visits to the US and her ultimate goal of opening a french restaurant in LA one day. She was amazed at how much people would pay for a good French meal in LA, even though it was so easy to prepare. We exchanged emails with her in hopes that we can one day visit her restaurant in LA.