Days 3 and 4

To do...
Call J, propose Martigues and Cassis
Call kids, make sure they are ok
Transfer money from savings to checking
Figure out what to do

Aix-en-Provence. I'm two days behind on the journal; I have to keep it up to date.

Day Three in Paris, breakfast at 8, then we went (It's taking a minute to remember) all together to the towerr of the Notre Dame Cathedral. It was a lot of waiting in line (not bad) plus a lot of climbing stairs. I wasn't out of breath and my heart wasn't pounding but I did wonder if my legs were going to give. The first climb up the winding spiral stairs lead us to a gallery where we read about Hugo's description of the Cathedral through his famous novel. We waited at the gallery for a while, and frankly, I didn't know what was going on. Finally, people moved back to the winding staircase and climbed forever to the roof. I am a fan of the rooftop views of Paris. I am an even bigger fan of the elevator. People like to climb to the top of the cathedral for the view, to see the gargoiles up close, and to check out the belfry. Well the bellfry was closed, and the gargoiles looked eroded. Also, there was a whole bunch of anti-suicide net blocking the view, so I don't think I will do that climb again. But now I can say I've been to the top of the Sacre Coeur, the Arc de Triomphe, the Grande Arche de la Defense, and the Catetral de Notre Dame de Paris. Is there anything else? The Eiffel Tour, I guess. More on that later.

After that, J took a student to call her family, while I took the rest of the group to the Sainte Chapelle. She caught up with us after security. I should say that the Sainte Chappelle is in the courtyard of the Palais de Justice, so we have to go through that kind of security before even buying tickets. We finally got in, and waited in the ticket line. When we got to the window, the ticket lady told us to go to the entrance and ask if we could be let in as a group. So then we waited for them to regulate the amount of people inside, which is to say they made us wait outside until they were tired of us. and then they let us in.

The bottom floor of the Sainte Chappelle is painted with a pattern of the fleur de lys and a well-organized night sky. There is a gift shop down there, where the cashier shushes people every five minutes. The upstairs is where the King and the ultra in croud heard mass and watched the king put away his crown. It's mostly stained glass windows, and when it's sunny, it must be amazing. On the balcony there are some relief carvings of creation, the flood, the exile from eden, cain and abel, etc. After that, we took off for the Monoprix, where we divided the group into three groups; meat and bread, fruits and desserts, drinks. Me and J took care of cheese, knives, napkins. After that we metroed it to the Jardin des Tuilleries,and we ate on a bench in the shade of the "forest."

French people of the past enjoyed nature, but they also liked to show their dominance of it by squaring it off; the "forest' is a set of trees in perfect rank and file alighnment; the stars of the Ste. Chappelle are organized the same way, and any formal french garden in france shows this same snap-to-grid mentality.

Anyway, the picnic was a success; actually, we had too much meat and cheese. We could have used more fruit. We saw an escaped parakeet slumming it with a flock of pigeons. Afterwards we split into groups. I took my group to see the Jardin du Carrousel, the Pyramide (we took a picture from a distance because it was hot) and then we went underground to take the leftovers of the picnic back to the hotel.

After 10 personal minutes, we went back underground and came up at Metro St. Paul. We walked through the Jewish quarter and the Marais to the Picasso Museum, which was pretty cool. After the man died, his family donated the residence and a fat load of his works to the french government (rather than pay the death taxes). Some of the works were amazing and informative; it's a shame that the kids didn't know more about his life.

Maybe it's not realistic to think that the kids are going to research Paris. Maybe I just have to be more of a tour guide.

Anyway, afterwards, we walked back through the Marais to the Place des Voges, which used to be the Place Royale, and so it was and still is a fancy park. We sat at a cafe but got up when we saw the price of ice cream. We ended up getting cones (I always get pear sorbet) and then sitting in the park playing your girlfriend/your boyfriend for a good 40 minutes before going back to the hotel. Me, I was assinged the next woman in a red dress. She came by after a few mintues, an 60+ year old, white haired woman with a red polkadot moomoo.

We went back to the hotel for some personal time. I stopped at the pharmacy to buy some 6� floss, and then back to my refrigerated room to search for a restaurant. I had to retrace my steps back to that pharmacy, where I had left my guide book; he had already locked up, rolled out the security bars, and turned off the lights, but I knocked on the glass and he passed me my guide book through the grate. On the way back I found a pleasant residential street, one street of houses in an enourmous neighborhood of apartment complexes and train station.

Anyway, after an hour on the phone with J and recommended restaurants, we decided just to go back to Bastille/Rue de Lappe/rue de la roclette and told them: eat, something substantial, and something different. They did! Some went to Italian restaurant, others went to Corsican restaurant; me and J went to a Cuban restaurant. I had picadillo, which I couldn't remember what it was, but I rememberd that it was typical. J had skewered swordfish and prawns. As an entree we shared some fried cod balls. yum.

J and the kids like restaurants that are crowded. Me, I like restaurants that are empty so they can bust out my food. I don't trust 'the crowd' as they are easily mislead and are often stupid.

Then, straight to the eiffel tower, and the kids by now are mall walking. A s we waited in line, the skys opened up and we got rained on. I pulled out my gilligan hat. We were one of the last few elevators up, and we definatly took the last elevator down. It was late, and I was tired and grouchy. We took the slow 14 to Nation, which was a mistake, as we just missed the last 1 Defense that would have taken us one stop to Gare de Lyon. We walked back to the hotel, exhausted. One kid had asked if they could stop at the trainstation to finish up their phone cards, an idea which made J laugh and which I didn't entertain at all. Yah, ladies, you can go in the middle of the night to a train station unsupervised to use up the rest of your minutes. Are you kidding?

Finally we got home and went to bed. Apparently, all the of the girls stayed up to pack their bags. The next morning, I got up at 8 and had breakfast at 8:30; the rest came at 9. We had a meeting from 10 to 10:45 and then we had 15 minutes to pack. J tried to pawn off some more info sheets, but I was like forget it, if you say 15 minutees, I want to be done in 15 minutes, and I need 15 whole minutes. Then we had time to a) see one site; b) eat lunch; and, c) be back at the hotel at a hard 3pm.

I took my group on metro to the Invalides. From the closest station, there is a shortcut through the veterans' hospital, which the kids didn't understand till later; yes it's actually a veterans' hospital. Then we got our tickets and everyone went into the dome des invalides, where Napoleon's enormous tomb lies. I was bored, so I left them there and went to the Muse� de l'Ordre de la R�sistance. There were contemporary paintings of soldiers in service (all very pro-war propaganda) where the lady was so surprised that she commented on my French. Ok, thanks. There were three wings to that museum, one to the Resistance, which was fine, another to the Deportation (i.e., the french part of the Holocaust) and another to the Free French forces. I didn't see much of that one, because the guard was sleeping, and some uniformed, younger guards winked at me and then snuck up on the sleeping one and took a cellphone picture. Hillarious. After that I went out to meet the kids on the steps of the church.

Lunch in Bacteria Alley. I ordered a sandwich grec frites; and all the kids ordered, and the owner lady sassed us and called me her b�b�. She was funny. I should also say that the service was extremely fast.

We got back to the hotel at 5 minutes to three, but we were disappointed that the other group beat us there. No matter; they hadn't eaten.

Luggage schlepp caravan to train station, circled wagons, waited for our train's platform to show up on the big board. Finally, we schlepped to the train, but we couldn't get on without showing tickets this time--first time ever.

A few hours later, we were in Aix. Unloading our bags was stressful, but we did fine. Then off to our families.

Time for a glass of water.

The kids were a little shocked by how they meet their families in a cattle call and then it's see you next week. My family showed up a few minutes late; V and M. They are pretty cool. D greeted us at the house, we had a glass of pastis, I gave gifts, V and D went to a party. M's friend P showed up, we orderd from the pizza truck and ate the american, way, which is to say "degulasse." Still, we used forks and knives, asked for seconds, served the guest first, and had a salad in between. Afterwards, I had a yeti, which is one of those frozen things that you suck out of a plastic tube. M gave me a Coke flavored one that to remind me of home and make me happy. I should say that it was better than any plastic tube dessert that I ever had back home.

We found some melons in the fridge, we all had a slice. We teased P about his non-girlfriend J. M helped me put on some OFF! and then they left and I went to bed.

Woke up around 8:30 this morning and put away my things, took a shower. Breakfast was toast and some tea. I met C and his girlfriend A. They are very lovey dovey. I gave C a prep sweatshirt and he hugged me; i thought I saw him wipe away a tear. Dude, it's just a sweatshirt! But I am glad that he likes it.

Then M drove V, D, me and the dog to Marseilles. We drove around, bought some fish for lunch, and then came right back home for lunch. It was perfect. I should have taken more pictures. Just like at home, mackeral is cheap. There was also dorade which looks like tilapia to me (but isn't) and all sorts of other things. V bought a kilo of rock fish which were as long as the width of my hand.

We came home, and then lunch: a salmon mousse on top of canned salmon covered with slices of lox. We kept calling it a cake. Then there was the little rock fish, which were floured and pan fried, some tomato salad with a balsalmic dressing, and rice. It was excellent. Dessert was a drumstick and some belgian chocolate.

We had coffee inside afterward, because it was getting too hot for them. Me, I am absolutely not bothered by the heat when I have my shorts n and theree's no stress.

They close up their house when in the afternoon, it keeps the cold air in. Probably in amercia, we'd open everything for the breeze. They all went to the pool, to cool off. Me, I'm on the patio in the heat, ostensibly to write postcards, but also for this entry. More later.