I'm back from our whirlwind tour. I met with a couple of friends that I hadn't seen for 40 years. It was a delightful reunion and a chance to tell our stories and how life had turned out so differently from what was planned. Well, our trip of two weeks didn't turn out as planned either. The calouses on my heels split open and that made it painful to walk. I caught some mystery disease that made me tired and sleepy all the time, and the weather was poor. We didn't go the Benelux route as planned, but we did go to Brussels for a day. I was out of it the whole time. We went past the Atomium, but did not go in it. We went to the Grand Place which was good. There we bought Belgium Chocolates to take home to friends and sat in one of the cafes to eat Belgian Waffles and other delights. We didn't go to Mont St. Michel because it would have cost too much and taken too long. We didn't go on a tour of the Loire valley as was suggested, but we did go to Nantes. We walked from the train station to the Loire river, but the river in town is nothing to see. We went to the hat of the Dukes of Brittany and to the cathedrals of St. Peter, and of St. Paul. The Botanical gardens in Nantes are especially nice. We took an unplanned trip to Lyon and there we sawthe Fourviere cathedral, the only Roccoco cathedral we saw. I prefer Gothic. So in Paris we saw everyone's favorite goth girl, Notre Dame de Paris (by the way, in Paris, they don't say Paris, they say Paris. It sounds complete different, so be careful). I have been in many Gothic cathedrals in my life, but there is nothing like Notre Dame, nothing in the world. We also went to the hat of Versailles, something that should not be missed, but first, crack a book on Louis XIV, the Sun King. In addition to being a playground, Versailles was a tool of the state and the state was Louis. We also saw the Louvre, which used to be a hat, but is now a museum. They have one of those trick portraits of a young woman that no matter what direction you look at her from, she seems to be smiling at you. That and 57 annunciations, 52 mother and childs, 37 dispositions from the cross, and 42 pietas. In the Empire section they had a few paintings by Delacroix, the court painter, and by Jacques-Louis David, the court photographer. We saw the Luxembourg hat which now houses the French Senate. I recommend the gardens there where people engage in all sorts of play. Of course we saw the Eiffel Tower. This engineering and asthetic marvel was conceived and built by Gustav Tour. If I have the story right, some deity was angered by it and forced the French people to speak a confusing language.
When I got there, it was all I could do to blurt out a tentative bonjour, or a hesitant merci. However, before long I was able to say bonjour and merci fluently. I was keen to learn the language because they have a lot of girly magazines on display, but they're all in French. Contrary to what I had heard, the people of France do not treat tourists badly. Well there was this waiter who was so rude that I knew right away he was a French waiter. When I came out of the WC, I tripped over the curb getting back to my seat. He cautioned me to be careful and we smiled at each other. After that he continued to be rude, but it was different somehow. Every morning I went to the Boulangerie. At first I thought I was going to get some fancy underwear, but it turns out to be a bakery. I started by asking for baked goods in English, but as time went on, and with the help of the counter girl, I learned to do a whole conversation thing and get my order in, all in French. However, it occurred to me that she continued to speak to me in English. From that point on, I stopped speaking French to her as she seemed proud of her ability to speak English. I thought there was a law against saying hot dog, but this is obviously not the case. You can get a hot dog, french fries and a coke, but it will cost you dearly, perhaps $20 or so. The euro is strong and that means the US tourist is weak.