I'm all museumed out

  My favorite pic at the Marmottan museum in Paris was The Tuileries, by Claude Monet.  It captured the sun and wonderfulness of my walk through the gardens a few days ago.  The Marmottan was my last museum for my trip and I am quite tired out.  It cost 10 euros and I got through it in under 45 mins.  Great paintings by Monet and Berthe Morisot and Gustav Caillebotte.  Special exhibition was Marie Laurencin and she is not really one of my favorites.  When I entered the museum you had to have your bags looked into.  "Vous avez beaucoup de sacs", said the guard (You have a lot of bags).  Sigh...just call me the bag lady.

Getting ready to go home.  Calling the taxi, checking in for the flight.  Not too enthusiastic about leaving except to get a REST.  And my pocketbook needs a rest too.  Blow out final dinner tonight.  I might get ALL the courses.  For some reason, I always like what other people order better than what I order.  OK, sometimes, I just order and I don't really know WHAT I am ordering.  My friend keeps telling me they have a really good whatever at le Mouton blanc, where we are going tonight.

I love it when the weather forecast is WRONG.  It was supposed to be raining and cold for the rest of the week, but today there has been rather a lot of sun and NO rain as of yet.  I even got my Vitamin D bath.
15 minutes a day.  I sat on a bench after our big lunch and before I entered the museum.

The best things about Paris

Here is what I love about it...the architecture, the iron work, the scupltures, the chestnut yoghurt made by La Fermiere, the buses, the flower shops!  Today I visited a more obscure museum, the Jacquemart-Andre, thinking I could avoid the crowds.  I was wrong.  Mrs. Jacquemart and her husband, Mr. Andre, collected art and made a gorgeous home with outrageously high ceilings, just filled with art and fabulous furnishings.  It was to create an oasis away from the "foule" (the crowds).  Unfortunately now the crowds are IN the house.
Exhibition of Eugene Boudin, who influenced Monet and who was influenced by Jongkind.  A big rainstorm came so I went into the cafe there and had a $7 Diet Coke (Coca Cola light).

Then I traversed Paris by foot and metro to go visit a previous love of mine.  We spoke rapid-fire French for an hour and it was very pleasant.

Then it got really cold, but SUNNY at last.  Walking, walking, walking...had a croque monsieur at a cafe overlooking the bronze flame sculpture over the tunnel where Princess Diana was killed.  Walking around the traffic circle, I managed to find the bus to get home.  I adore the buses in Paris.  At the bus stop they say how long you will have to wait for the bus.  Then you get on and put your ticket "dans le trou" (in the hole).  Then there is a digital sign telling you what is the next stop and how many minutes it will be until the end of the line.  All this and scenery too!

Notes from Paris

Staying up so late, I can hardly think!  It was still sunny at 9 PM.  Walking so much.  No busses today due to "Manif pour tous".  A manifestation which wasn't REALLY for all, as it was against gay marriage and any form of child rearing by gays (adoption or assisted births).  I was rather astounded to learn that one of the ring leaders with the very odd name of Frigide Barjot, received DEATH THREATS because she wasn't right wing enough.  I came upone this MANIF by accident and went up on a hill in the Passy Cemetery to view it from afar.  I know Manet and Berthe Morisot were buried in that cemetery but I didn't have the patience to LOOK for them.  Many thousands of people were demonstrating on French mother's day.  10 abreast walking down a broad avenue with horns, bells, drums and songs and signs.  Quite FESTIVE for a bunch of heterosexuals!  There were four different groups, I think.  The colors were pink and blue (for girls and boys).  The flags and sweatshirts had a picture of a nuclear family, man, woman and two children.

Up and down the 16th arrondissement today.  Visited home of Honore de Balzac (all in French) and visited address where I lived with an old countess with no money in my students days 46 years ago.

And ate a dynamite mousse au chocolat.  Have accomplished all of my food goals except for losing weight.
According to the scale in the apartment, I have lost 15 pounds in one week, but I know it is WAY off.

It is not easy to use a French keyboard

Finally got online but it is not fun due to French keyboard.  Letters are in the wrong place and punctuation is tres complique.

Je me debrouille vachement bien en general.  I am doing not badly at figuring things out.  I know how to buy a JETON for my 5 minute shower and how to ask for la note better than laddition?  And how to make a phone call from my room and how to get a wake up call.  It is great being able to walk around at night and feel safe.  I am in a nice neighborhood with an artsy movie theater right across the street.

I had my first CREPE au buerre et sucre on the Rue Mouffetard and it did not disappoint!

Well, time is money so I gotta go...

No, I'm NOT packed yet!

Like Christmas, or cooking dinner....my packing expands to fill all the available time.  Here I am online when I still haven't ironed out my products nor my purse.  Getting ready ahead of time is just a foreign concept to me.  But the lack of being ready colors all of my time with a vague feeling of unease and dread.  People say, "Have a great time!" and I just feel inadequate and worried.  Sigh.....  Here I am spending a LOT of money to go somewhere where it is colder and wetter.

Feel like I am going back into the dark ages.  Having a non-technology vacation.  Just a pencil, pen, yellow marker, black marker and a notebook. 

Saw a great play yesterday called Bootycandy.  About growing up gay and African American.  Most of it was hilarious and inventive, with of course some serious, unpleasant stuff thrown in and the required naked man.  There is always something to shock you at these plays I attend at the Wilma theater in Philadelphia.

Distracted driver

Yup, that's me.  Here are some of the things I do in the car...
- Rummage for hand wipes
- Apply lip gloss
- Remove and replace audio books on CD
- Answer the phone or listen to my voice mail
- Look for napkins or kleenex buried somewhere near the passenger seat
- Get out paper and pen and write a list
- Try to get poorly functioning pen to function

Had to stop for a strawberry shortcake today.  Totally wicked, but by the time I get back in town, strawberries may be DONE!?

Book review: Fodor's Paris 2011.  OK, I KNOW it is 2013, but this is the most up-to-date one in the local libraries.  I borrowed this one from the Vineland Public Library (914.4 Fod). I DID learn quite a bit from it and took five pages of notes.  I think my mother told me to never take a library book on vacation in case you should lose it.  I skipped over a lot of stuff on restaurants and shopping.  I can't afford to shop HERE, so why should I do it in France?  And how much effort do I want to go to to get to a restaurant I can't afford?  I think I am more into the if-I-happen-to-run-into-it sort of voyager.  Many helpful things in this book, like the best days to do this or that and that French people are going to be giving me the once over and that they don't like LOUD Americans. Neither do I!  And info on telephone and the necessity of a lot of polite banter when coming and going.  Book includes a large map.  I am going to miss it, but I might buy a more up-to-date book or perhaps even a DIFFERENT book.

What the hell version is this?

I swear these songs change on Playlist.com.  Now I seem to be listening to a version of Halo on which Beyonce cannot even be heard!  I am deleting it right now.



Didn't really understand the name of my new nail polish for this week, My boyfriend scales walls.  So I couldn't even explain it to my Vietnamese nail technician. I looked it up and it is from the Spiderman collection.  This wasn't really what I had in mind for Paris.  The Guidebook recommended just clear polish but that is too extremely plain for me.  They said that French women don't get French manicures.  Neither do I!  I was really looking for a very pale barely white. 

Just registered for the Cancer prevention study 3.  While I was filling out all of the forms was feeling bad cause my memory is so bad and I had to confess that I actually eat very few fruits and vegetables and that I spend an inordinate amound of time SITTING...reading, at the computer and driving my car.  It was all so depressing that I had to come over to use the Internet and listen to music.  Was not really in the mood for exercising.  Especially because it is so HOT and humid today.

Am all stressed out due to upcoming trip(s).  So many undone things.  I haven't finished even ONE of the four books I was supposed to read before hand.  And I realize I am RUNNING OUT OF TIME, to find things, buy things, prepare things,etc.

Audiobook review: Pimsleur basic French.  Finished listening to these 5 CDs in the car.  It was instructional and amusing.  The conversations were silly and dumb with a great emphasis on eating, drinking and shopping.  I did find them helpful for getting the feel for the language, and even though I am fluent in French, I couldn't always get it right.  The pronunciation is the hardest part.  There was a lot of repetition (sometimes TOO much).  I borrowed these from the Vineland Public Library (448.342 Bas) because it was all CDs and no books, easier for me in the car.  Had a great time laughing about the conversations with a friend on a long drive.