Art and Gardens

I like museums and art although I wouldn’t consider myself having more than a very basic knowledge of art or art history. But if you are in Paris, you have to go to the Louvre, right? It’s been on my list for years.

I had a good time there but when we left I felt like I hadn’t really seen much and started thinking about it and realized my problem. I spent the entire time trying to find the big items I wanted to see and didn’t really let myself just wander or truly look at some of the spectacular art they are showing. Low blood sugar was a part of the problem also. If I ever get to go again, I will just have whoever I am with meet me at the door in a few hours so I can wander by myself...and make sure I have eaten enough before I go.

I did love seeing Winged Victory and can’t help but wonder what she looked like with arms and a head.  

Liberty Leading the People was another I was looking for. We did see the Mona Lisa (you have to, right?) but it has never really been a picture I like. I don’t really care who she was or why the smile.

This was outside the Louvre in the Jardin des Tuileries.

We also went to the Orsay museum. Before I went I would have told you I don’t like the Impressionist art. Well, I still probably say that, but I recognized more of it than I thought I would and I actually do like some of it. And it’s vastly more manageable than the Louvre.

I do like Rodin, although we didn't make it into his museum. This is outside the Orangerie museum.

Since the weather was rainy the first part of the trip, we had a little bit of trouble seeing some of the gardens. Luckily, after a rainy Sunday morning, the sun came out and we got over to the Jardin du Luxembourg. It’s really a beautiful place.

We saw at least 3 Statues of Liberty. I've heard there are more.

 

We also got to the Pere Lachaise cemetery. I didn’t care so much to see where some of the famous people are buried but we did see Chopin’s memorial.  It was a nice walk on a Sunday afternoon.

This one could be sad or freaky, depending on how you look at it. I find it very interesting.





Mont St Michel

When we started planning the trip, I was looking for ways to get out of Paris and see more of the country. I mean, what if it ends up being my only trip to France? We ended up deciding on renting an apartment and doing a day trip instead.

Mont St Michel is a little far to truly be a day trip but there are a bunch of people who do it and I knew as soon as I saw that I could, it's where I wanted to go.

It was a long day. We left the apartment around 6:15 am and I got turned around on the street we were supposed to be on so we ended up at the metro station trying to make the connections and be at the tour company meeting spot by 7:00. We made it with only a few minutes to spare, and only because the company was a little late. I am truly terrible at directions.




Anyway, there were 8 of us plus the driver/guide and we traveled in a mini-van. It's about a 4 hour journey. We had about 4 hours to tour the abbey and the village and then we met the driver and rest of the group about 4:00 pm and started the trip back to Paris. A long day, although it was nice to rest our feet during the drive. I wish I had thought to get some pictures of the fields of flowers we passed. Big fields of yellow flowers all along the way. It was a great sight.




I am absolutely happy that I got to go but there were a few things I couldn't control that made the day less than great.

First, we didn't know it was basically spring break for the kids of France. They were out of school and the place was packed with tourists and locals. It's not that big of an island and it was crowded. I just don't like being in crowds like that for a long time. The abbey was really beautiful and I'm glad I got to see it but it wears on me after a time.  Also, we didn't know the guide would take us straight to the abbey (we paid for an unguided tour so we could just wander, but he had all the tickets reserved at the main entrance) and I was hungry. I had planned on being able to eat lunch first. My sister and I always call it "low blood sugar". I really don't enjoy sightseeing when I haven't eaten enough and my energy is lagging.

The other problem was the café we picked for lunch after seeing the abbey. La Mere Poulard. We didn't eat at the main one right as you enter the village, but the café that was up a level near the ramparts. It was a little cold when the wind blew and I was pretty cold the whole time we were eating. The other problem was the service was really, really slow. They didn't seem that busy, but what do I know? It was the one time where the lack of knowing the language and culture was really felt. If I had been in a US café, I would have left and not cared. We waited probably more than an hour. They were actually closing the café for the afternoon when our food came. And it wasn't very good. At least I didn't like it. I tried the traditional omelet. I have to say it was probably the only thing I ate in France I didn't like but it was really bland and tasteless. The chocolate mousse for dessert was very tasty so lunch wasn't a total waste but overall, I would not recommend it.

  

 

When we finally got done with lunch we didn't really have time to see the rest of the village so I only got to see what we walked through to get to the abbey.

All in all, not the day trip I was hoping for although the views walking to the island were really fantastic in spite of everything. I would recommend it to anyone wanting to go. Just maybe plan a little better than we did... or have enough snacks with you.

Trip to Paris

I went to Paris for 10 days. I got home Saturday so I'm still dealing with jet lag. Tiredness aside, it was a fun trip. This was my first trip to France.

This time I went with a friend of mine instead of my sister. I missed traveling with my sis, but I had fun and did a few things I might not have if I'd been with her. Of course, the flip side of that is I probably missed out on a few things she would have done so I guess it all works out.


Except for one day, we spent the entire trip in the city, and we still didn't get to see everything there is to see there. I hate to think about the people that only get 2-3 days there.

We rented a tiny little apartment in the 3rd arrondissement. It was near a metro station and a good area to be able to walk around also.

My co-workers keep asking me what my favorite part was and it's been really hard to decide. In fact, I still really haven't made up my mind.

I did really love the gargoyles though. :)

We walked the stairs at the Eiffel Tower. We didn't go all the way to the top, but the views were pretty good all the same.

Another thing I liked was the Bastille Market. We went on a rainy Sunday morning and bought some fresh fruit. We stopped at a crepe stand and watched them make crepes for a while before we ordered our own. 

I have so many ideas for crepes now, I kind of can't wait to make some. This one was ham and cheese and egg in a buckwheat crepe.  Yum!!!

I have to start going through my pictures now to decide what the best are. I'm going to have another picture book printed up. I've decided I like doing that better than trying to scrapbook my own.

Nice Spring Weekend

Last Friday I attended the funeral of my uncle. I didn’t know him very well, but he did give me my first real job. The summer after I graduated from high school my mom got him to hire me to work at his fruit stand on Highway 89. I spent the summer selling (mostly) locally grown fruits and vegetables to people who stopped along Utah’s famous “Fruit Way”. I don’t know if it’s that famous but a lot of people still buy fruit along the side of the road during the summer.

Man, I was young. I was ready to go to college and grow up and get on with life. I still remember some of the songs that played on the radio that summer. The station was set to country music, which up to that time I had not listed to. It’s funny how I can look back at parts of my life and recall a soundtrack to go along with the memories. Or how a certain song will come on the radio and I can vividly remember driving in my car in a totally different time and place and remember singing along to that exact song.  

Anyway, going to the funeral just reminded me of that summer. I haven’t really thought about it in a long time.  After the funeral my parents and sisters and the nephew not old enough for school went for ice cream. The weather was finally absolutely gorgeous this whole weekend. I did a bunch of spring cleaning and still managed to get outside a little bit to enjoy the sunshine.

Family Shenanigans

So a long time ago my dad bought a picture from a street artist. I’m not sure where. I don’t think he was even married to my mom at the time. I need to ask him. I think he said he paid $50.00 for it. Anyway, it’s never been hung in the house before, not officially anyway. My mom won’t allow it and I don’t blame her. I wouldn’t want it in my house either. When we were kids we used to think it was so cool.  The key is embossed and we used to like touching it and feeling it stand out. It was hidden in the garage for years and then a few years ago dad built a shed in the back corner of the garden and we took it out there for him. He always says he loves that picture but I think it’s mostly to annoy my mom.

Dads favorite picture, Moms headache

When they moved mom was ready to put it in the trash so my sister and I came up with the idea to sneak it out of the shed and home with one of us. We thought we were so funny. It ended up in my garage for a couple months. My mom noticed it wasn’t with any of the trash and told us she better not see it again.

My parents just had the porch on their new house turned into a sun room and my dad’s desk got moved out there so we figured it was time to hang up his picture. We had the grandkids keep watch while I snuck it into the house. Unfortunately, we didn’t have any wire to hang it so we stole a piece of yarn. The whole thing was a riot to us, of course. The yarn stretched and the picture didn’t even fit where we tried to hang it so we ended up just setting it on dad’s printer.

This ended up on FB

Anyway, the kids thought it was hilarious and we thought it was funny and I told my dad to smile and I took a picture and put it on Facebook. And my mom walked in and out of the sunroom at least 6 different times and never even noticed which really made the kids laugh.

Mom never did see it that night. We went home and she turned off all the lights and locked the doors, oblivious to the whole thing. Of course the next morning while I was at work, I got a voicemail from her telling me to tell my sister (yeah, that’s right, Amy got blamed, not me) that she had 24 hours to get that picture out of her house.  I understand it now has a place of honor in my sister’s garage. I say better her than me.

We get that painting out every few years and do something with it just to tease my mom. It’s a fun family activity.

The Weekend

It was a beautiful weekend. Saturday morning I got up early to go walking. I was wearing a fleece pullover and fleece pants and had my earmuffs with me because I thought it might be a little chilly that early. Oh my gosh, that canyon wind was cold! It took my breath away. I froze the first part of my walk but once I got a couple blocks south and out of the wind I was fine. Then as I was headed back it was getting lighter and warmer but I hit that section with the breeze and it was cold again. I should say it was invigorating. And the cold wind definitely gave me motivation to walk faster and get out of it.

I had my niece for a sleepover Saturday night. Sunday afternoon we ended up walking along the Ogden River parkway. We packed a lunch and were outside for a couple hours. Stupid me didn’t even think about sunscreen and I am burnt. My arms are pink and the front and back of my neck is burnt into the shape of my v-neck t-shirt. I didn’t plan to be outdoors that long but I won’t make that mistake again. We had fun though. My niece threw rocks into the river and played at the playground. She was so tired by the time we got back to the car.

Reading Mary Stewart

I’ve become a huge fan of Mary Stewart in the last couple of years. I swear that I would have read her books when I was a teenager, but I don’t remember any of them and usually I can pick up on and remember the details if I have read a book before.  I read a ton of gothics by Jill Tattersall, Phyllis Whitney, Barbara Michaels (aka Elizabeth Peters), Dorothy Eden, Madeline Brent, M.M. Kaye, etc. Maybe I was just too busy with the other authors to pick up Mary Stewart. I know her  Arthur/Merlin series never appealed to me so maybe I just wrote her off completely.

I recently read Madam, Will You Talk? and I absolutely adored it. As soon as Charity and Richard met, I knew it was going to be a great book.

I’ve found, so far, that MS heroines are not the fainting doormats that some of the gothic heroines are. They may not be super girl, but they are smart and capable and deal with whatever mess they find themselves in.  I deplore insta-love (or usually more aptly insta-lust) in most books but for some reason in the gothic/romantic suspense genres I just let it go and I can deal with it pretty well. I kind of just know it’s supposed to be there and I can suspend my disbelief and just pretend that life will be good for them even if they get married after they’ve known each other for 13 days (I’m looking at you, Charity and Richard).

I also love the fact that they are dated and the slang and manners and attitudes towards a lot of things are different. It doesn’t bother me. I expect it to be different from now. That’s one of the reasons I’m reading the book in the first place. It may not be right and I may not agree with it, but that doesn’t detract from the story.

Anyway, I’ve amassed a collection of her books and I’m looking forward to whichever one I decide to read next.

So far my favorites have been: Madam, Will You Talk?, Airs Above the Ground, and Nine Coaches Waiting.