How cool. On Sept. 25th we flew into Paris for a long weekend, to meet Ran's brother, Dan and his wife Janet...and we found them hangin out of the rented apartment's balcony, within view of the Eiffel Tower. It was really an exciting beginning to a couple weeks of traveling and adventure with them. We found out from the apartment owner a few days before arriving that one of the two showers was not working. It ended up being a non-issue that took off 200 euros from our bill and made the whole setup a pretty excellent deal for the 4 nights we were there.
We started our first day with the over-priced but effective "Hop on, Hop off" bus tour of the city. It's a great way to get the lay of the land and recognize the massive undertaking you are up against, in trying to see Paris during one long weekend. We decided to hop off that first day at the Notre Dame cathedral. We toured this incredible church, which began construction in 1163 and was the largest cathedral in France at the beginning of the 13th century. I had read recently about the use of stained glass windows way back when and how it amazed folks.
They had just started getting used to being inside these huge stone churches, when building techniques in the 13th century starting allowing for much larger window expanses as well. Churches all around Europe suddenly went from being dark and cold, to having the overwhelming beauty and warmth the sun could provide. Then when they started using stained glass windows, the bright kaleidoscope of colors left people awestruck. They had never seen anything like it. I could understand what they felt there. Randi took note of the colored light coming into the altar of one of the side chapels and we got a nice picture of that. That first night there, to celebrate just being together, we went through a few (x2) bottles of wine. When in Paris...drink wine? It's almost a catchy phrase. Anyway, it seemed like the right thing to do. We stayed up late, catching up on lost time and even recounting how each couple had first met.
We woke up to what would be a constant pattern of beautiful weather the whole time they we in town...mostly sunny and in the low to mid 70s. We decided to take a short walk to the d'Orsay Museum and after a few long miles, we were there. It felt like Dan and I were in the winning 'school of thought' for once but it didn't seem to work out that way. We did see a little slice of Paris on the walk. By accident we walked right by Sarkozy's pad, their White House, the Elysee Palace. There were picket signs and posters outside of the place. I think they were saying something like "we need organization" and "somebody needs to make a decision for once" and "smoke em if ya got em" and then just "wine and cheese, wine and cheese"...but those are just guesses on my part. Then on the last block of this walk we were shown the ol' ring scam, twice!, as described in the book of Rick Steves. It's all part of the culture there.
The d'Orsay proved to be almost the preferred collection of art over the Lourve, with everything shown from 'Whistler's Mother' to 'Mother's Whistler' (please make private inquires to me to see this stunning masterpiece).
Their collection of Van Gogh paintings was awesome. Here's one that looks like there a giant chicken in the middle of the painting, next to the house. Doesn't anybody see that! It was amazing to be so close to them, that you actually could not only see the vivid colors but see the heavy application of paint he used. Dan and I were surprised that these well known pieces were not behind glass and were within arms length...we could actually touch them, if we weren't the kind of art lovers we are. 
Our keen interest in the collections there was obvious to everyone, as we received many nods and smiles, when we started the tour with Janet's new 5-way Ipod splitter in use. We had to shuffle our feet collectively, to stay in step with each other. And I knew going into it that we would need at least a 40 foot cord for Randi, so she could move at her typical pace through a museum without dislodging the ear pieces from the rest of us. She's very thorough in a museum. She once spent over 20 minutes standing in front of Lincoln's stovepipe hat...true :) The 5-way trend didn't last long but it was fun.
That night we went to the Montmarte area to see the Sacré-Cœur Basilica, walk around the area and have dinner. 
The basilica didn't allow photography inside but I had a misfire and got this shot of the magnificent dome there. The basilica is located at the highest point in the city and there were hordes of people with their annoying cameras taking pictures of the panoramic view from just outside the church. From there we strolled back through the crowded streets and found a cozy little 
restaurant just off the main drag. The girls enjoyed some fondue for dinner, as we were serenaded by kind of a grumpy Spanish guitarist workin at the Butte En Vigne French restaurant. He wouldn't even look at us, after I took this picture of him.
The following day we took on the monumental task of touring Versailles. We took the train there and briefly questioned where it was when arriving at the stop but were happy we didn't question some Frenchman with "où est le Palace ?"...as it was kinda hard to miss. The ultra-grand Palace and grounds were massive. French royalty lived there starting around 1660 and things went pretty well, until that whole French Revolution thing started. After you see the amount of over the top and dare I say, absurd opulence of the place, you can't hardly blame the people for revolting after you walk through there. The Kings and Queens thought of themselves as Gods. There was a nice story about Louis XIV having multiple servants that would wake him up in the morning...the Royal Wakeup, if you will...and he had a nurse who would kiss him and change his sweaty shirt everyday. I'm not makin that up...why would I make up that stupid sh*t. They said when they first built the Palace, the town there was just a small village way out in the country of Paris. I think the commoners might have taken notice to the difference between their lifestyle and shacks that they lived in, to the royal wakeup atmosphere and their buildings made of gold. This pic is of us in the ridiculously large garden area behind the main palace at Versailles.
We had a beautiful little royal lunch at a restaurant right there in the royal gardens. As the day went on, we continued to walk farther out into the royal maze, for what seemed like miles. It was a beautiful day and we were there to see it all. We searched deep into the maze for the incredible water fountain show advertised but only found kind of a single spout, straight up kind of a thing, on the lake there...but it shot water up real high! 
So we went on our way to see the last piece that we didn't see yet, the "The Queen's hamlet", built for Marie Antoinette, when the whole 'Park of Versailles' that we were in, started to close. That was fine, as it was very comfortable weather for a long hike. But the fact all the bathrooms were even closed and we were miles from civilization, started to make the whole thing have a feel of a royal nightmare. But we found our way back out of the maze...like mice, following the scent of cheese and wine.We went to the Louvre of all places the following day. We made great time getting out of the apartment and didn't have a minute to spare for our 2:15pm guided tour. Ya gotta get up pretty early in the morning, to beat us out of bed.
We enjoyed having the guided tour, so we could have someone give us a nice short and concise tour of the Lourve. Our guide was a shorter, hard to hear, kinda gal and she was a tricky one. She tried to ditch us a few times, darting around corners, hiding behind sculptors and finally in an all out sprint to the finish...we never even said goodbye. But it was good. Obviously, the place is amazing. I'm like an art connoisseur now. Here's my favorite work of art at the Lourve. :)From there we all flew back to Toulouse to try to rest and work a little, before we all would take another long weekend in the French Rivera and Provence. It's a tough gig.
