[36] Reflections

I am not ready to leave, but I am ready to be back. If you can wrap your head around that, you will understand the contradiction of how I feel right now. I need to be ready to leave to take the Metro from M° Louise Michel to M° Châtelet Les Halles to take the RER B to Charles de Gaulle airport by 13h30. Most of my packing I finished last night, and after a lengthy research on how best to bring bottles of stuff (still a surprise, so I cannot be too specific) back in my suitcases (damn terrorists) without breaking and spilling everywhere, I have decided to put all my socks over them. Sadly my socks are the thin black bamboo trouser type socks, otherwise they would be better protected. I have also put them in plastic freezer bags, just in case. Now, I just need to eat and pack up the last of my clothes which have been drying on the balcony overnight.

At the same time, in my mind, I am dreaming of all the places I could be in Paris right now; places to which I have already been, and places to which I still have yet to be.

And I do not really want to leave yet.

Places to which I have been:
Versailles (technically not in Paris) ***
Le Louvre ***
Les Jardins des Tuileries ***
Le place Vendôme *
Le forum des Halles (shopping and otherwise) **
La Sainte-Chapelle ***
La Conciergerie **
La Galerie et Passage Vivienne **
Le Musée Carnavalet (but not in depth, really only by accident) ***
Le Centre Pompidou (but only the outside) + the Stravinsky fountain**
L'Hotel de Ville**
La cathédrale Notre-Dame + crypte archeologique**
Le vieux quartier juif**
Le Musée national du Moyen Âge, thermes et hôtel de Cluny ****
Le Panthéon ***
L'église Saint-Etienne-du-Mont**
Le rue Mouffetard**
La mosquée de Paris + Hammam**
L'institut du monde arabe ***
Le jardin du Luxembourg****
Le Musée d'Orsay****
L'Arc de Triomphe (one of the best views of the city) ***
Les Champs-Elysées **
La Place de la Concorde **
Le palais Garnier **
Le Canal Saint-Martin ***
La place de la Bastille *
La Bibliothèque Nationale de France, site François-Mitterand ****
La tour Montparnasse **
Le jardin Atlantiques ***
Le Basilique Saint-Denis ****
Le Sacré-Coeur ****
Moulin de la Galette **
Café des Deux-Moulins **
Places des Abbesses **
Le musée de l'Erotisme ***
Le Père-Lachaise ***

Places to which I have yet to be:
Le petit Trianon
L'Union centrale des Arts décoratifs
Le Palais-Royal (du Louvre)
the other Passages of the 2° Arrondissement
Le musée d'Art et d'Histoire du judaïsme
Le muséee Picasso
Le musée de la Chasse et de la Nature
La maison de Nicolas Flamel (Built in 1407, it is the oldest in Paris. Restored in the 18th century, it has an amazing pseudo-gothic facade dating to after its original construction. Nicolas Flamel was a famous academic in the 15th century and he is renown for having invented the philosopher's stone. His initials are on the 2nd and 5 pillars).
Le musée des Arts et Métiers
Le Musée national d'Art Moderne
La maison européenne de la Photographie
La bibliothèque Forney (which I really wanted to see this trip, but never managed)
Le musée de la Curiosité et de la Magie
La place des Vosges
La maison de Victor Hugo
Le Jardin des Plantes
Le palais du Luxembourg
Saint-Germain-des-Prés
Le Musée national Eugène Delacroix
Saint-Suplice
Le Grand Palais
Le Petit Palais, musée des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris
Le parc Monceau
L'église de la Madeleine
Fauchon
Le musée de la Vie romantique
Le musée Gustave-Moreau
Le parc de Bercy
Le bois de Vincennes
Le château de Vincennes
Les Gobelins
Les Catacombes
La prison de la Santé
La musée de la Poste
Le parc André-Citroën
La maison de la Culture du Japon
L'église Saint-Séraphin
La maison de Balzac
Le musée des Monuments français
Le musée Guimet
Le musée Marmottan Monet
Le bois de Boulogne
Le parc de Bagatelle
Le jardin Shakespeare
Le musée de Montmartre
Les Buttes-Chaumont
Le Parc de la Villette
La Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie

[35] At Giverny

Normandy, from what I have seen, is a lush countryside en plein d'air, as they say, and Giverny even more so, only it is is a horticultural heaven hewn out of a sort of pastoral wilderness - if that even makes sense. I arrived in the town of Vernon by the twelve o'clock train from Paris which departed the Gare Saint Lazare from platform 19 at precisely four past. The difference between Italy and France is that French trains are on time and their train stations always have prominently placed clocks displaying the precise time. And yes, these details are important.

From the station at Vernon, I took a navette to the smaller town of Giverny and managed to find my way to the Foundation Claude Monet, where the gardens and house of that Impressionist painter of the first order are preserved. Let me say this: it is not well signed, nothing is evident, and no one seems to care. Fortunately, I am attentive and observant.

The first sight at the Foundation is the giftshop, some what inaptly named the Atelier Nymphaides (after the famous water lilies of the pond). If you can stop yourself from buying napkins, t-shirts, spoons, gardening gloves, and not least post cards emblazoned with anything Monet, you can make your way out into the gardens. And when I say horticulturalist heaven, I mean this:

(Feel free to click on the photos for a closer look. I don't have photoshop with me, so they are not properly colour-corrected yet)

(The bust of Monet, down an obscured pathway just after you descend from the bus, is a bit of a tourist trap. Since it is impossible to orient oneself without signs, many of us (and yes, I said us) are easily led to believe that is the way to the gardens. In fact it is.....but not the entrance; that path would lead you along the fence outside the gardens, the fence with a bit of a moat and another fence. Not so evident)

Sitting at one end of the pond, watching a duck swim merrily about the lilies, I spoke at length with an American couple from Atlanta ('originally from Boston, but too many people drove Volkswagons in that town, if you know what I mean. Atlanta was just so much more vibrant. It was a boom tozn, you know....') about the merits of travelling abroad as a young adult and of archaeology....since every one, once I tell them I was here on a dig, seems to think I am an archaeologist and it is just too much bother trying to dissuade them. I think the husband had gangrene or something, because his feet were all weird (and in this case, I would permit the wearing of socks with sandals....in fact, I now wonder if all men who wear socks zwith sandals are not afflicted with a similar condition).

This was our view:

The pictures I took of myself in front of the lily pond, though not showing much other than my large head, turned out a lot better than any others persuaded me to let them take of me. Here I am not wearing my ridiculously large sunglasses (and yes, I am completely aware of how ridiculous they look; that was the desired effect).


It was hot (though not as hot as in Italy on the dig, I was quick to remind people) and this little American girl had the right idea. This is the entrance to the lily pond area.

The house of Monet was a divine little country house, all blue and yellow. The Salle à Manger was the typical bright yellow and the kitchen was a beautiful deep blue. We were not allowed to take pictures in the house, though I managed one or two looking out the master bedroom windows looking out into the garden, probably because there are all those famous Japanese prints everywhere and the whole thing is too small and crowded (compared to the Musée d'Orsay) to protect properly; but there were these delightful lilies just by the kitchen window that seemed to match the heirloom Chinese blue and white style ceramics on the shelves. This is the photo I took looking into the house from the porch, and though artistic, is totally unable to capture their beauty through the mottled glass.

So end of story, I went to the local supermarket, bought some brie and a nice half baguette to eat on the train back and ended up talking to a young Swedish couple about environmental sustainability (as many of you know, one of my favourite subjects) and immigration policies.

And now I pack......

[33] TRAINS ON STRIKE...updated

So I get to the station this morning all early like so I can reserve my ticket and be on my way to Ferrara before the day is half over (which is the usual style of travel in Italy, it seems) and the ticket line seems exceptionally long. This is because, as I find out when I try to buy my ticket, the trains are on strike. Now I am at an internet café across the street from the train station and I have theoretically reserved a ticket online for the 11h34 train to Ferrara and I have learned little more about the strike. So far there is nothing in the news about THIS train strike, but there are mentions about several others and serveral possible ones. Train strikes apparently only last about 24-48 hours (boo urns!) and there are often random and sporadic trains that persist despite the strike.

My plan: wait around at the train station and try to take a train to Ferrara. If no train arrives, go back to my hostel and ask for another night. Maybe I will go to the beach like all of the locals....
Another adventure of travelling in Italy (as if I have not had enough train adventures for this trip!!).

A dopo!



An updated:

I booked a ticket for 4€50 online and waited at the platform for the train and got on the train. So the stupid lady at the ticket booth who said there were no tickets was lying....and I understand why because they are on strike and they don't want people taking the train. The train was basically empty and no one even came around to check our tickets, so I arrived in Ferrara without a problem.


At the hostel in Ferrara, which is pretty amazing, by the way, I was told I was sharing my room with a French couple, so I walked into the room and basically said, 'I heard you were French, my name is Laura', in French of course. And then they introduced themselves as Tiphaine and Colas and we went for pizza together at Alice in Wonderland. And then we went to the godawful Garafolo exhibit for free on the last day and laughed at all the horrible paintings about Jesus (they were REALLY bad). And then we had gelati together and several granitas and it was all set.

I have spent the last two days with Tiphane and Colas and it has been very awesome. We rented bikes yesterday and biked along the old city walls (another UNESCO site for Laura!) and went for gelati together. Today we are taking the train to Venice together so they can fly back home to France, and I will stay in Venice one night before going to Bologna and then Milano and then Paris.



Ta ta for now!

PHOTOS!

Well, it is about time! As promised, some photos...

Climbing the Sassi Caveoso in Matera Our hostel was right next to the tower.



Dave in the Sassi


Me in the hostel garden in Matera. Such a gorgeous garden.


Pompeii baby!