One time ends and another begins...

The day began with our last wakeup in our little loft bedroom on rue Saint Sauveur and a final walk down rue Montorgueil and ended in our home in Arizona and begins again with the dawn over the mountains we see every morning here.  

There is a time for all things and for us it is now a time for home...

...au revoir...

Here it is, finally, 8 months after we started the Camino, going home to Arizona this morning.  But it is not goodbye en anglais but rather au revoir, until we see Paris again, for surely we shall return....

And the Hegira is not yet over; there is much more to come!

A Night at the Opera

Went to the Paris Opera last night - la Clemenza de Tito by Mozart.  It really is quite a building.  Performance was good too although I have decided that Mozart is really not my favorite.

Time to pack up...one more time

The movers come early Tuesday morning, so it's time to weed out the stuff that won't go back to Virginia and figure what we really need between now and February.  Hopefully everything else fits in 500 pounds of hold baggage.  Time also to burn up the rest of the candles we brought from Germany, finish eating walnuts and drink up the last of the Calvados and Jack...like we said in April when we departed Germany...it's a pilgrimage and you can't take it all with you...

La Vue du Tour

Got to the Eiffel Tower last week and got some good pix.  Had friends visiting from Kentucky and we got back to Normandy beaches. Le Rapier in Bayeux is a wonderful restaurant.

Cold, Wet, Windy... What? This isn't the Camino?

On the road to the beautiful Mont Sainte Michel on the coast. Cold, wet, miserable  weather... We hope tomorrow is better for our DDay beaches tour up north. Tonight we were able to return to the abbey atop MtSteMichel to join the monks and sisters of the monastic community there for their evening prayer of Vespers... Quite a privilege and with our French we were even able to join in some of the prayer.  On to Utah Beach tomorrow early. 

Cemetery Week

Well, this was cemetery week, beginning with our visit to the US war cemetery in Suresnes, continuing with our tour of the St Denis Basilica which has the resting places of the French kings, including Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette (first pix) and ending today with the Cemetere Monparnasse.  For you movie and military history buffs, Major Alfred Dreyfus of "I Accuse!" Fame (the wonderful Mel Ferrer movie about the Dreyfus Affair in which the heroic Jewish Major Dreyfus suffered on Devil's Island after conviction of espionage on faked evidence in anti-Semitic turn of the century France) is buried there in a very simple family grave along with the actress Jean Seberg.  But the best monument is the famous tomb of the Charles Pigeon family - see pix below.

Speak their names and remember... Edit From Nov 2013

Yesterday on Veterans Day we went to the American WW I military cemetery at Suresnes, just west of Paris.  As you see from the pic, you can see the Eiffel Tower from there.  A lovely, peaceful place as are all of the military cemeteries in Europe.  Many of the Soldiers there died at the American Hospital in Paris, and in the influenza epidemic of 1918-19.  Also many civilians' graves are there who supported the force, including Red Cross nurses, ambulance drivers and YMCA staff.  35 years to the day since John's first visit to Paris in 1978.  Many French visitors as well as 11 November is holiday here too.

The view from the hill

Went to the bell tower of Sacre Coeur with friends and climbed the 300 steps. Quite a view...

More Funny ads

HiWe keep seeing funny signs.  Here are two more - the one for jobs from London, the store name from Paris.   

So when do you advertise a "bad job for bad people?"

A Day at the Louvre

After 4 months in Paris we finally got to the Louvre.  For 8 hours - and still did not see all of it.  It was John's first visit since 1978, so a few things had changed... 

But Mona was still there...

Most interesting thing we saw - the brass candlestick hammered from a single piece of copper, with hundreds of designs hammered from the inside out.  See the pix.

Paris Trivia

1. There are toilets at the top of the Arc de Triumph.

2. There are no working elevators to the top of the Arc de Triumph

3. There are about a million steps to the top of the Arc de Triumph (actually 197 in the main spiral staircase and about 50 more in the last two sets of stairs to the top).

4. The view is a wow.

Arrival in NYC

Pix coming into New York Harbor at dawn on Tuesday.  Freedom Tower with lit up Chrysler Building on far right. Statue of Liberty is always awe-inspiring.  Passengers were speaking in whispers as we passed her.  

Shipboard Life

Life in mid-Atlantic aboard QM2.  Formal nights are fun followed by floor show and dancing.  There are some GOOD dancers on this ship!  

Afternoon tea at sea

3:30 pm is tea time aboard QM2. One quickly realizes just how civilized this custom is...

Sunny October days at sea

 Last day aboard on Monday 14th and a sunny October afternoon being taken advantage of by the passengers on the Promenade Deck.  New York tomorrow and on to Virginia.

All aboard QM2

Aboard QM2 with Joanna & Ron Clark, heading back to NYC and Virginia.  (We brought our French books!) Pix is Madame in the Golden Lion Pub aboard and waving farewell as we left the dock.

London

In London with inlaws Joanna & Ron.  Went to the Old Vic tonite to see James Earl Jones and Vanessa Redgrave in Much Ado About Nothing.

La rue sous la pluie

One of the things we most love about living in Paris is sitting in a cafe and watching the people.  But we love sitting in a cafe watching the rain too! Pix from a recent rainy afternoon and evening.  

The melody of the subject line is another reason I love French!

Versailles

Got to Versailles Friday with bro and sis in law Ron and Joanna Clark.  A great day.  Pix are the Hall of Mirrors, front of the palace and on the lane to the Trianon palaces. 

Sunset in Paris

Sunset from the Pont Neuf with the Eiffel Tower and the Dome of the Institute de France in the background.

Neat windows in Paris

These are displays in two windows in Paris. Loved the zebra...tres imaginative!

The bakery is in our neighborhood.

Frontier in Paris

Our hot water went out totally yesterday and the part to fix it won't come in until tomorrow.  Who says you can't have a bath with water heated on the stove?  Or have your hubby pour rinse water for your shampoo ladies?

Uh, we thought this pilgrimage thing was over...??

Sunday Bird Market

On Sundays there is a bird market in Paris on the Isle de la Cite near Notre Dame.  We went last week and, aside from the neat varieties of birds, we were most impressed by the huge sacks of various bird seeds and bird food.  Paris... a great place to be a bird...

Wednesday afternoon in the sun

After school Wednesday we walked down the Left Bank of the Seine just enjoying the sunshine.  Got these pix of a portable greenhouse that provides a bit of sylvan tranquility amid the bustle of the quai and the shot of Trish with the Grand Palais and Pont Alexander III in the background.

Paris at Dawn

Had to put friends on train early yesterday and got this pix from Pont Neuf looking towards the east.  

Weekend at the Beach

While Catherine was visiting in early September, we took a road trip to the Brittany seashore at La Boule, on the Bay pf Biscay.  Had a lovely sunny weekend at the end of the tourist season.  Pix is courtesy of Kat...

Night at the Moulin Rouge

Went to the always-spectacular floor show at the Moulin Rouge in the Pigalle district of Paris last night.  As you can probably tell from the pix, the champagne was flowing...

Pix credit to Vielka!

Le autre tour

The other tower ( for those of you who don't parle the Francaise!!) is the Tower Monparnasse which is near our school. Pix are from the 59th floor observation deck and it truly does give a whole new viewpoint on Paris.  The Eiffel Tower and Sacre Cour in the background of the two pix respectively.

Freebies in Paris

Not much in Paris is free. Exceptions are the City of Paris museum in two town houses in the Marais and the Sunday organ concerts at ST Eustache, our parish church.  This week we took advantage of both - see pix.

Paris firemen

When you live here and are on the street early in the morning as we are, going to school, you see something we have never seen before - here or anywhere else: the firemen out running.  They always are in a group, usually young guys led by an older guy. Always in bright blue and red running togs. Maybe it's just the newbie probationary firemen but its great PR!!

Sunday excursion

Met friends for church and lunch at La Madeline followed by famous Paris ice cream on the Ile de la Cite - that's Notre Dame in the background.