La Maison

J'aime museums that are in the artist's houses. This is Musee Zadkine, a small museum, in the home of the late Ossip Zadkine. He was Russian, but hung out in France most of the time. After checking out his place, we headed over to Xmen 3 (excellente!) this afternoon, then trekked around the neighborhood a bit. One week left of this bonne journee.

Le Temp

Back from Lyon. A lovely trip. Today we are back in the game. We saw the windows in St. Chappelle, had some lunch in the Marais, and then braved the line at L'Orangerie. #1 son was not happy about that, but we made it through. After we finally got our tickets, we walked downstairs to see the famous waterlilies. Teen Daughter reminded all of us, "Monet really took his time with these." As usual she was right. The two rooms of waterlilies were bright and shimmery and there was a happy vibe there with lots of happy viewers. I liked the Modiglianis and the Matisses too from the Guillaume collection. Paul Guillaume knew how to acquire the art. We can all learn from his example.
p.s. There's extra excitement in town since the Blues are doing so well in the World Cup competition. Yay.

La Parapluie

We spent the weekend here at Etretat, storming the shores of Normandy. It's quite beautiful up there and we spent the first day hiking on these cliffs and laying around on the rocky beaches, eating bread and cheese. Teen Daughter swam and we watched. Our second day was rainy so we headed to ruins in Jumieges which were stunning and then we toured some way old churches in Rouen. We only had one umbrella, which I claimed as my own. Unfortunately, #1 son kept taking it from me and doing Gene Kelly imitations. So I found that frustrating. And I continously asked him to either use the umbrella as rain protection or return it to me.
Tomorrow we're off to Lyon where Husbandman will work and we will play.

Le Mer

Top of the Eiffel Tower this morning. That is a good way to start your day. Then we ate sandwiches and crepes in the Tuileries and then we went to Jeu de Paume for a Cindy Sherman retrospective. The line for the Orangerie was wicked long and I was almost glad. Speaking of long lines, there's a new museum in town that just opened today called Musee De Quai Branley. There was a 2 hour wait to get in so I hope to slip in some time next week. The building is tres tres cool. Poor husbandman had to work in the math compound. Tomorrow we'll head out to Normandie for a few days at the sea.

La Fete

La Fete de Musique is a must for all of us next year. It's like a gigantic free Lotus, with a zillion musicians perched around the Latin Quarter. We heard music of all kinds and when the streets got way too packed we started snaking our way home. #1 heard some band playing Seven Nation Army down the street and took off running. He stopped about 20 feet ahead and yelled back to us, "Come on!" So we all ran to hear that last song. Well worth it. Today Husbandman took kiddos to the Pompidou and to St. Chappelle. I made progress on that which shall not be named and then we walked to this here Pyramid. Tres joli.

Le Mort

We could not find this guy in the Montmartre Cemetery. We looked for him and for Man Ray and for Sartre and for de Beauvoir and for Tristan Tzara. They're all in there, but there's some crowding going on, let me tell you.

Les Livres

Spent a little time checking out the beautiful books at the outdoor poetry market last weekend. And we read some somber poems at the Memorial des Martyrs today. Fooled around at Shakespeare and Co. Books too. Tonight... Le Tour Eiffel. Tomorrow is the Fete De Musique. There will be music everywhere all over the city. And the noise laws are suspended for the night. I guess that's bon, j'espere.

Les Jardins

You know how every few years they have a heat wave in Europe and hundreds of people die? Well yesterday that really made sense. There's no air conditioning here in most places. And when you're on a train that's 100 degrees with no windows, heading out to have tea with some math friends, you can almost imagine yourself as Tom Cruise in Collateral, dead, riding the train into the night. But tea was nice and we walked to Chateaux Seaux which was very beautiful and today's cooler and we're taking a rest. A little shopping for t-shirts because ours ran out. A little walk to Gertrude Stein's house so I could just stand outside and pay homage to Gertrude and Alice. (#1 couldn't understand the point of that). A little Salade Elvira at a cafe. And a long movie with Kirsten Dunst, Marie Antoinette. Walking over here to use the internet, I said to Teen Daughter, "It's weird to not feel like your legs are about to fall off at this time of day." She concurred.

Les Heures

We live two doors down from this place at 52 Rue Vavin. I'm getting all these fotos off the internet. #1 son is taking pictures with the digital. He likes to take them of his own face with interesting buildings in the background, so they're not turning out that great, in my opinion, but he seems thrilled with the results. Today I worked at home for six hours while Husbandman took Les Enfants, o Les Adolescents, to Sacre Coeur and to Musee D'Orsay. I worked on the thing that I have now dubbed, "The thing that shall not be named." And now, the time for vin has come. I'm writing this down... Le meme chose, s'il vous plait. GOT IT!

L' Histoire

This Rue Mouffetard est tres bon. We brought our market lunch to Arrenes Lutece, an open air gladiator arena put in by those Romans way back in the 1st century bc, a little while after they conquered the tribe Parisii, who fished and lived happily on the ile de cite. Then gardens and musee de histoire naturelle.
I need to figure out how to order a second glass of wine. My attempt last night didn't work out. Please advise. S'l vous plait. C'est un catastrophe.

L'Empereur

We came upon this crypt today. And many cool
sculptures in the gardens of the Rodin Museum.
Few more churches and assorted massive buildings. These French get the busy bee builders award, hands down.

Le Cafe

Internet Cafe near the apt. Splendide!
Notre Dame; Picasso Museum; Bread; Cheese; Wine. Lots of walking and regretting now that I never listened to the french tapes I bought in December.

The Scrabble

We be packed. Husbandman and I have different packing styles. I keep pulling stuff out of the suitcases while he keeps walking around putting things in. He relented when I argued with some vehemence that we didn't need to take the Scrabble board to Paris, so I'm compromising on his insistence that we take 52 guide books with us.

The Reasons

We're heading to France tomorrow. I'm not doing great with the packing. I keep having this horrible feeling that no matter how careful I am, something's being left behind.

Maybe I can find some place to blog my dissertation distractions when we get over there. Later, gators.

The Lists

Almost every packing list on the internet says I should bring a sarong with me.

I'm spending more time looking at packing lists than actually packing.

I realize that.

The Trip

In less than a week, we're on a plane to Paris. Instead of packing and planning, I'm leafing thru a book called Team Challenges in search of stupid end of the year activities. Just sent Husbandman out to buy marshmallows, drinking straws and toothpicks so sixer teams can make towers and bridges with their second grade pals on the penultimate day of the school year. He's also buying snax for sixer publishing parties. I have my doubts about these activities. And serious doubts that I can get my act together for this trip once school's out. I'm probably the only person on the planet who is complaining about a European vacation right now. But that's just the way I am. Just ignore me. I'm really annoying the heck out of myself right now. Zut Alors.

The Rocks

FYI: I have a Hot Rock Massage on the agenda today.