The Rimes Times

Today is officially my last full day in Paris.  Tomorrow I will be heading home and bringing all my goodies with me.

I have lots of photos to share still, so I’ll have to keep posting as I get time.  But for now, here’s a few snapshots of my last week in Paris:

Au Revoir!

This has been a big week, HUGE in fact, because I got to go to GIVERNY!  The home of Monet.  The gardens! The pond! The bridges!  It was fantastico!

Wanna see some pictures?

waterlilies!

Willows! and waterlilies!

There were a lot of waterlilies.  OH!  Great story about Monet.  So, he had all these gardens, but only after a few years of actually selling some art (he was quite poor for a very long time) and eventually, he had 6 gardeners to help take care of nearly 5 acres of plants and pond.  One gardener had the arduous task of keeping the pond up.  His particular job was to make sure that, every morning before sunrise, the waterlilies were clean.  Monet lived on a dirt road, and the dust from the road would coat the lilies, so this guys job was to go out in a little boat and dunk all the waterlilies so that by the time Monet got out there, the waterlilies were nice and clean.  Cool huh?

There were a bunch of cool stories about Monet.  You know that dirt road? So, after another couple of years, he made a little more money, and decided that the dirt road had to go (it was interfering with his waterlilies). He offered to pay half of the paving if the city would pave his portion of the road.  So, for a very long few years, there was a mile and half of paved road in front of Monet’s garden, but the rest of the road was still dirt.

Across the street was Monet’s house and gardens.  His house is BEAUTIFUL.  It’s long and skinny and absolutely lovely.  The rooms are all painted with a particular theme of colors in mind that show off the particular art that is housed in that room.  The sitting room was two shades of blue to show off his Japanese prints (he had a lot of them), the hallways were lavender with green trim (no art in the halls), his study was bright and cheerful (his own paintings) and the kitchen! Oh the kitchen! It was stunning.  The dining room was yellow.  I mean YELLOW and it was absolutely stunning! The blue Japanese prints on the walls were shown off excellently with the yellow walls and chairs.  And hiding in a corner of his dining room? The Great Wave.  It’s tiny and I can’t believe I found it, but there it was.  The kitchen was blue tile and again, just as beautiful with more Japanese prints.

Wanna see pictures?  Too bad, they wouldn’t let us.  But I did get some postcards of the kitchen and dining room, so you’ll have to ask me to see those

But, here’s the porch just outside the kitchen and dining room.

As we wandered through town, we came across a little something fun.  Ben-this one’s for you.

That’s sand.   The guy who lived in this house:

Made this:

Isn’t that awesome!  I especially like the little dog peeking out from under the table.

It was a great day, I only got a little sunburned, and was completely exhausted at the end of the trip, but it was totally worth it.  I absolutely loved Giverny.

The last couple of days we haven’t been able to take pictures in the museums, so there are few photos to share.  We went to the Musee de Picasso (no photos) which was ok, I’m not a big Picasso fan, so there wasn’t too much there that was exciting.

We also went to the Musee Marmotton Monet: again no pictures.  But that was a nice museum with some of Monet’s smaller works.  None of his giant waterlilies, but some other rather nice pieces. We saw Impression Sunrise, a rather unassuming little piece, but very interesting when you get to see it up close.  I think I am totally in love with the Willows.  Monet painted his willow trees in a variety of lights and times.  They are very peaceful trees.

Went on a canal boat ride on Sunday.  We sailed down the Saint Martin Canal which was created by a Napoleon for drinking water, but it quickly became polluted, so now it is used as a water source for Paris for washing the streets and watering plants in the gardens.

We went through 4 sets of locks to take us down the canal.  That was fun for the first two times.  It was a slow process taking more than 15 minutes to get through each set.

We sailed under the Bastille (which is no longer standing-it was demolished during one of the many Revolutions) where the canal was dug under the fortress.  Voltaire was held there as well as the Marques de Sade and the Man in the Iron Mask.

While we sailed through the tunnel, they showed a movie about the Bastille on the wall as we sailed past.  It was interesting.  It was in both French and English, so we listened as we went under these great big holes in the ceiling (ventilation?) It was about 2000 meters through the whole thing.

We did some shopping around town, and this was the busiest part of Paris that we have seen so far.  There were people everywhere.  There was a lot of music and dancing on corners, as well as lots of tourists and local Parisians.

I’ve been doing well hoofing it around town.  The baby is getting bigger and heavier, and this is not exactly the perfect time for a sightseeing tour.  The weather has turned a little warmer as well, so that’s not helping the swollen feet.  However, we have been enjoying the museums and the streets of Paris as much as possible.  I have also been enjoying the nibblies and even tried a falafel yesterday while we were in a Turkish neighborhood.  So yummy!  The crepes are pretty good too

Breakfast is always yummy.  We have baguettes and crescents with orange juice and hot chocolate.  That is what the French eat for breakfast, bread and coffee. I don’t know how I’ll ever go back to cereal after this!

Things have been relatively quiet here at home while Mommy Rimes is away. The trouble with the past two weeks is that I’ve been working my summer job, putting together some resources for a grant project I’m doing with iTunes and the state of Michigan, and trying to be the ultimate single dad. Needless to say, my master plan of being able to finish up several small projects around the house, make frequent trips to the park, and keep up with my e-mail hasn’t been working out too well. That’s alright, because when my life gets this hectic, it actually makes it easier for me to concentrate on what’s really important; family.

Which means last Saturday, when Little Miss R and myself had the whole morning together, we went downtown to the farmer’s market, played with the animal sculptures on display downtown, and had some time to just be silly. Although the pictures are of poor quality, here’s some of our Saturday adventure.

For the past few summers, St. Joseph has played host to an outdoor art display. It all begin with replica carousel horses, but other years have seen bears, cars, boats, and this year we have animals. The theme is Surf ‘n Safari, which is actually quite clever given that we’re on Lake Michigan. The animals are pretty impressive too, with this ostrich being one of Little Miss R’s favorites. You can’t tell from the photo, but this bird is wearing ruby slippers.

We also had time to stop by the Gorilla Putt Putt and play a quick hole of minature golf. If you’re listening St. Joe Today, you should get started on next year’s theme of miniature golf holes. Little Miss R enjoys playing putt putt, even if she holds the club backwards, and uses it more like a shovel than a golf club. We also had a chance to go down to the peir on the mouth of the St. Joseph river, where we saw a man fish a medium sized snapping turtle out of the river…yikes! More pictures below for your enjoyment.

Friday, we traveled to Chartres so we could see the Chartres Cathedral.  Here’s Piggy showing off one of the towers.  This one was not quite as ornate as the other.  I absolutely loved this little town.  It was very quiet and had a nice little square with cafes and shops.  I got some handmade chocolate here.  WOW was it good.

Here’s some of the Kings and Queen’s carved into the columns beside the doors.

We walked around the Cathedral, and here is the back section.

Again, the back of the Cathedral.  Plus a very cool metal dragonfly which I thought was very strange next to this really old (12th century) Cathedral.

One of the Rose windows from the interior of the Cathedral.  It was strange to see all the people milling about inside the church.  They still hold masses and smaller services in the church, so while some people were sitting in pews praying, there were a lot of tourists looking at all the carvings and the labrynth on the floor.

This is the piece of linen believed to have been worn by Mary as she gave birth to Jesus.  It was at one point 5 meters long, and now, this is all that survives.  There is another piece about as big as this that they keep hidden away.  It was given to the church by Charles the Bald and was once sent on tour in order to make the church some money in order to finish construction.

There’s also the rumor that St. Anne’s skull was once here.  St. Anne was Mary’s mother.

I went on a little tour of the crypt while I was here.  It was dark and creepy and they actually hold services in the crypt as well.  There was a well that was built in the 4th century and that a Saint was thrown down by Vikings in 849 when they attacked the Cathedral and burned most of it to the ground.  Vikings weren’t very nice.

We had a little dinner before heading back.  I had a hawaiian pizza (I know, not very Parisian, but with French cheese, and bread, it was MAGNIFICIENT.  Also, my new favorite drink is orangina-an orange juice and sprite mix that is sold in bottles.)

I’ve missed a few days here, but it’s been so very busy here.  On Thursday, we visited Moreau’s Museum, which was also his house.  Then we walked up the Mount of the Martyrs (more on that later).  Friday, we went to the Chartres Cathedral.  And on Saturday we hoofed it around town looking at buildings by Le Corbisier and then Monet and his museum.

I don’t have pictures of all of these now, but I’ll try to post as we go along.

First, Moreau

He was pretty cool because he painted unicorns and sphynxes during the time when everyone else was painting portraits of kings and important people.  I liked his unconventional-ness.

Then, We walked up the biggest hill in Paris, I’d like to call it a mountain.  In fact it’s name is translated as Mount of the Martyr.  So St. Denis was forced to walk up this mountain on his way to be beheaded.  Pretty sad huh?  At the bottom of the Big Enormous Hill is the Notre Dame de Lorettes, a church dedicated to the Lorettes (or Easy Women) of the town.  A place for them to save their souls.  Piggy stopped here to see the church.  It really wasn’t an impressive building, but we had already hiked up the bottom of the mountain and we were tired.

Then, we saw George Sands’ place of residence (she was a writer who liked to wear pants and got permission from the Paris government to do so) and across the courtyard was Fredrick Chopin’s residence (he was a famous composer).  The great part of this story was that they were at one time “companions” if you know what I mean.  So they took turns running across the courtyard to each other’s house in the evenings.  Fun huh?

(As a side note, today-Monday- we saw the place where Chopin died.  He sort of passed out on the street.  Sad story, but there’s a lot of history of death and destruction here in Paris.)

A little further up the hill was a place to rest and get a drink.  Some guy (sorry, I don’t remember his name) decided Parisians needed clean water to drink and installed fountains along the streets.  Piggy stopped for a refreshing drink before we continued up the hill (did I mention is was a REALLY BIG HILL?)

Another break and we saw the Metro station entrance.  It was originally designed by an architect named by Hector Guimard (can’t believe I knew that!).

(You can see the belly is getting a bit bigger.  Baby R2 has been jumping around a bit more too-very exciting)

Up another small hill and we saw Picasso’s place apartment as he completed Damesoilles de’Avignon. A tiny little place with a great view down the hill.

I didn’t get a picture of the down hill part.  I was a bit winded and just forgot!

I got a few shots of interesting streets going down.  Plus a windmill from Moulin De La Galettes which is not the original Moulin-that one was down the street a little ways.  Then we had to climb the hill again.

At the top was a really big church.  I didn’t see the really big church because by then I had to go to the bathroom and take a little break from climbng up really big hills.  Jen and I eventually took the Metro back down the hill (thank goodness for trains), but we were at the highest point in Paris-Montmarte.  Jen had her portrait done by a really bad portrait artist, but he drew a really cute generic person with Jen’s glasses.   I think if we run out of money, we shall do portraits for unsuspecting tourists as well. We could at least make a few bucks.

PS. Happy Father’s Day to Ben and my dad! I know I didn’t call, but it’s expensive to call! So, I figure you all would like a little toy instead   Love you!

I know it’s a bit late, but with all the walking I’ve been doing, I can’t believe I’m still awake.  So, without further ado, here’s the Louvre!

No really! That’s a model of the Louvre when it was first built in 1100.  It was a castle. And it had a beautiful, quiant little town around it with farmland.  I could hardly believe it after having been there myself in the current century.  PS. Can you spot Piggy?

And here is Jen with Piggy in front of the excavated castle walls.  That’s the original Louvre.  I think this was my favorite part of the whole museum.

Here’s an aerial view of what remains of the original Louvre.  Only two of the four sections is original. The rest has been rebuilt and added onto over 7oo years.  The main portion of the Louvre was finished during Napoleon III’s reign and it now looks mostly like it did in the 19th century.

Now, it’s a monstrosity of architecture. But way fun to admire!

I probably walked up about 38 thousand stairs while in the Louvre on Wednesday.  No kidding.  There are very few elevators, and I felt bad using them seeing as I had two perfectly good legs.  So, I resisted until the end when I was on the 3rd floor of the museum at the end of the day.  And the floors are not just a floor.  The ceilings are gargantuan, which means that I probably actually climbed 6-7 flights of stairs from floor one (it starts at floor 0) to get up to Napoleon’s apartments.

A couple of the rooms in Napoleon’s apartments.  Piggy set off the alarm in this one, so we had to gather up and move on fast!

That’s Napoleon’s bed.  Cool huh?  Piggy couldn’t get closer to the bed, and I figured I had already set off one alarm, we had better not chance it.  Especially since the guards here were constantly circling like cultures.

I did get lots of pictures of art work, but I figured that could wait til later, since all my other pictures have been of art work.  I thought it would be fun to see how everyone lived in the 19th century.

OH! And out the window of Napoleon’s bedroom, we saw this.

Doesn’t look like much, but if I do this…

That’s right, a  Subway sub in France is 2 Euros and 90 cents.  There are no $5 footlong commercials here

Well, I’m off to bed, I climbed a HUGE hill today and will post about it later. The Louvre was great, I’m looking forward to going back later and seeing the pyramid all lit up at night.  But it doesn’t get dark until after 10 here, so I’m waiting for Saturday when we don’t have to get up early to meet Jeff to take a 5 mile walk uphill.

Goodnight!

oh. You’re still here?

Did you want to see something else?

You’re disappointed I didn’t show you some art from the Louvre?

Are you sure?

Ok, here’s one more.

There, are you happy now? Piggy did get to see her.  We didn’t stand in line, so that’s as close as I could get.

PS. Happy anniversary Ben!

It’s our 5th wedding anniversary today, and to celebrate Nicole gets to tour through Paris; the city of Love, seeing fabulous art, and partaking in the best of European cuisine

I get to eat a couple of hot dogs and go work 8 hours at the book store.

Not one to be bitter, I went out this past Monday and did something I’ve been meaning to do for about a year now. At last year’s Krasl artfair Nicole wanted a nice piece of outdoor art. Our financial situation at the time was not great, so we settled on a small decorative outdoor metal scultpture. We took it home, Nicole eager to hang her pretty spider out in the garden. I took one look at the hanger, decided it needed to be adjusted, and promptloy broke the metal rod from the sculpture, making it useless.

Now I tried to solder it back on, but it wouldn’t take, and thus it lay on the kitchen counter for almost a year. As a small token of “I should have had this done earlier” I took the sculpture to a small welding shop this week, and now it hangs from the front porch, ready to dazzle visitors with our art savvy

P.S. Please pardon the quality of the image…our point and click digital camera is on death’s door

We hopped on the Metro at Les Gobelins (Go-Ba-Lon NOT Goblin-silly Americans!) and took the train to Louvre stop.  We almost lost one of our members when he didn’t make it onto the subway before the doors closed.  But he caught up with us at the Louvre, and he totally gets the award for not giving up!

Then it was off to Musee D’Orsay! It used to be a train station.  See?

Piggy didn’t make it into the picture.  I was up on a covered walkway, and it had teeny tiny windows between steel beams to take this picture, so Piggy sat this one out.

Here’s Piggy with Berthe Morisot on “The Balcony” by Eduard Manet.  This one was my unexpected favorite of the pieces we saw.  It is truly much more colorful than in any of the pictures I have every seen of it.  There is actually purple and blue in the girls’ dresses that can’t be picked up by the cameras.  It’s quite stunning.  And Piggy liked it too.

Then there was the Van Gogh room.  Piggy wanted to visit the “Bedroom at Arles” and take a little nap, but there was much too much to keep looking at, so he just sat a minute in Vincent’s chair.  This is one of my favorite artists.  He paints so deliciously and juicy.  The bright colors always make me happy.  Too bad he didn’t have a very happy life.

Piggy and I stopped on the terrace to grab a quick bite to eat and take in the Seine and the view of Paris.  The Louvre is to the right of the picture, but you’ll get to see that later!

I’m off to see more art!  Enjoy your day!

Piggy and I arrived safely in Paris yesterday. This is Piggy Pie in the window of our hotel room.

Piggy would have liked to get a picture in the Yellow Van and our hour and half trip into Paris from the airport, but I was too terrified by the driving to get out my camera.

After a short nap and some sustenance (a cheese sandwich-yum!) we took a walk down Rue de Muffetard (pronounced Moof-tar).  A beautiful street with incredible buildings.  We walked about and found some yummy places to stop for dinner.

We ate beef in burgundy sauce with green beans and carrots for dinner. Piggy tried some rice and liked it.  I had a salad with goat cheese before this.  Wow, what a dinner.  I spent my entire day’s allowance on dinner, but I figured it was worth it to have at least one nice meal while here!

I’d love to stay and chat, but I need to go find some lunch now! Then it’s off to Musee D-Orsay.