Back from Barcelona! (Montmarte)

We are back! And looks like we brought the cold weather with us. This is about like a lot of the weather we in Paris and our last day in France. We had a lot of rain in Barcelona, but at least it was in the low 60s. We got back last night (Friday 7th) about 7:30--about 15 hours or so in transit--a 2 hour layover in Newark.

It was great to get to Barcelona. Now we were in a place where we did not completely have to depend on the kindness of strangers. A lot easier to ask for directions!! (but we still depended greatly on the kindness of many people). Barcelona of course is Catalunya--and it is impressive how much Catalan is in use. This is not just a secondary langauge for these folks--by law all signs must be in Catalan (and also usually in Spanish). So in some ways still a foreign language place for us, but Spanish in such common use that we were never at a disadvantage. In spite of all our travel over the years, this trip was really the first time we have been in a place where we understand so very little of what is going on. That was an education in and of itself! As Leticia will tell you, I am one to ask lots of questions--in France we would always get back a lot more in answers than we could understand. I think I mentioned the sewer tour in Paris and my questions of the guides--after a lot of talk of "melange" (I was wondering about the mixing of rain water and sewer water), the guide asks me if I understand--vou comprenez? A peu, I said. I think you got it, he said....(my best shot at a bilingual french-english joke!).


To bring this record to a close, I am going to post a few photos and the rest of the travelog.

Montmarte was one Paris neighborhood I want to mention. We saw this on our last day in Paris after we abruptly decided to head south, in the morning before heading out on the train to Avignon. A rainy Saturday morning--in the 40s--and yet full of people. But as in so many of the places we went--not just tourists. This is a real neighborhood with real folks going about their business--and thats part of what makes it so interesting. As always full of interesting little parks everywhere.

JJ and a great little street in Montmarte neighborhood in Paris. A cold day--notice the gloves and scarf! Sidewalks are too small--but street is pretty narrow too, so it works out.

Here is a great little park in Montmarte. Not very large at all--but just the right size for neighborhood use. These are all over the place in Paris!

Street in the heart of Montmarte on a cold Saturday morning. Lots of tourist shops to be sure, but also shops selling cloth, hardware, etc--and full of regular folks. And who is that lady in the brown beret that keeps showing up in my photos??

Barcelona day one

Just got into Barcelona yesterday. The first place with a decent internet connection and a US style keyboard. What a difference that makes!

I am not sure we have give a very coherent story since Paris. I did tell you that Avignon was our next stop. About the best medieval city around, I think. As with all the medieval cities the streets are very small and tortous. In one sense that makes it very walkable, but on the other hand most of the sidewalks are very tiny! So it is always a battle with the cars. There are small and large plazas everywhere in this town. Would like to post some pictures here, but I don´t see a way to upload anything on this computer--and it is all self service!

>We found a great little place to stay just inside the old city walls. About 42E. We did 2 nights in Avignon. Main day there was last Sunday. THe weather had definintely turned better--low 60s and sunny. Avignon is the start of Provence--so a way different feel than Paris. Everything looks and feels Mediterranean now---must be because it is!

The coverered market on Sunday in Avignon was a wonderful experience. They apparently have this market everyday. The stalls are formal places with the same shops everyday. I had a great time trying to talk to folks about where their produce or cheese or ham came from, how it was grown etc. My French was starting to come along pretty well--sort of! With english and spanish, their are a whole lot of words you can understand if people talk very slowly and you know what the context is. I had a very interesting conversation with one of the guides in the Paris sewer tour (yes, they have a tour! If you remember, the sewers played a very important part in Victor Hugo´s Les Miserables). You can imagine how that conversation might have gone! Anyway, it is great to see local producers and merchants so active in a town this size.

Monday morning we rented a nice little Fiat from Avis in Avignon. It was a Punto. Don´t know if I have seen this kind of car in the US. It was a diesel and handled very nicely, and got great mileage. It is very easy to rent cars in France based on our experience.

We followed the advice of the sage tourist advisor and decided to just tour the region. The Frecnh are very cognizant of their regions. Provence of course you have heard of. There are subregions as well that they are very tuned into. We were mainly in Provence, but we also skirted the Luberon and the Gard. Producers in each region make a big deal about their cheese or turnips or whatever.

We staayed 2 nights in Vaisson La Romain, a little place that started out as a celtic village and became a roman town, and is now a center for agricultural activity in its own little region. It was reputed to have one of the best street markets in Provence, and it lived up to its reputation. Towns this size (maybe 8k?) have market days one or two days a week--just like Guatemalan highland towns! I think I might have described some of what we saw--a mix of flea market and epicurean delights. This is obviously a social occaision for the town as well. ANd everyone was more than happy to explain just how and where there stuff was made. We got a five minute exegesis on tomatoe juice that we understood maybe 1/4 of. But that was some of the best tomatoe juice I have every had. Last seasons obviously, but still great.

From Vaisson we headed south, taking in several more hill towns. Probably don´t need to see any more of those!
Leticia decided she wanted to see the famed Marseille--so we drove there in the late afternoon. Got to the old port and had some great buolliabaise (sp??)--thats what you have to do in Marseille! Could not find a room however! Some kind of a big convention going on. We drove back to Arles--all of Rick Steve´s budget places locked up tight (it was now 1130PM). Fortunately, there were some freeway type motels on the edge of town--had to try three before getting a room though! So lesson learned is get a hotel early! (so planning can help, Rhonda!). We are not traveling completely without reseervations--we did have our room reserved here in Barcelona, which was wise indeed because we are now in Semana Santa (holy week)--THE spring break week for Europe.

I will pick up the travelogue in Arles next time. We are going to finish up our trip here in Barcelona. It is well worth a week--maybe even two. We have already walked the famous Ramblas. This is a great city, but I think Paris is still number one in terms of pedestrian scale.

More tomorrow--unless dancing or something gets in the way!

Somewhere in the South of France

We are just about to leave Vaisson la Romaine to head to points further south;

Not sure where I left off in the last blog. On Saturday morning we went to the Champs Elysee 5sp?). Still cold and drizzly but lots of people out for a walk--and not just tourists. Biggest sidewalks I have ever seen--and full of life! We then hopped the Metro over to Montmarte--the tallest hill in Paris--but couldn't see much because of the rain. But what a neighborhood--jam packe with people. They were there for local flea markets, for artists, for souvenirs, you name it. So again--a touristy neighborhood to be sure, but also full of locals going about their visit. Lots of winding streets, and lots of little parks and plazas. A delightful place. A 300 sqft loft will cost you 500k! As in the Marais, it is not just the rich who live there, so must be lots of renters and perhaps people who have held their property for a long time. Gentrification must be an issue.

We then packed up and heqded to Avignon on the TGV, which I described in the last post. We spent two nights there. Avignon as you may remember was the seat of the Papacy for a while in the middle ages. It is sort of like a medieval Antigua--but with a more modern and sprawiling city outside the ancient walls. Real estate is sold is intra or extramuros. Obviously very tight and walkable inside the walls. After the fall of the Romans, things went south in this part of the world and people basically lived in forts, with walls around their cities. Avignon is on a plain, and was a fairly large city. Yesterday we visited several of the so-called hill towns; The smaller cities in this period took refuge on hill tops--often with walls as well. Very tight and quant streets of cobble stone--but very little usable public space versus Avignon on the plain. Would be interesting to see how that pattern has played out over time in terms of town character (or social capital to use the technical term).

I need to describe the market--but I am running out of time. The Avignon sunday covered market was wonderful, but even better was the market here. Anybody and everybody was here. This is definitely not just a tourist market. Think of it as a fancified Guatemalan altiplano market---just way way more expensive. People hauled in stuff from all over to sell, but there was also an abundance of local and regional produce and foodstuffs. We bought way to much stuff, so we had to forgo a few meals so we could eqt qll the great stuff we bought!). What would happen if a Walmart went in here??? Most of the food we are buying here, at the outdoor markets or supermarkets (super is a relative term) is more expensive than what were are used to paying in the US. Perhaps it would be better to pay a bit more in return for vibrant towns and cities. Vaisson is just 5k people--and it is alive!!! Not sure how many towns of that size in Texas could say that. Most of them are in decline.

I will try to post some pictures of the markets etc in the next post. On to Marseille!

Provence no Problem

We have been in Provence since Saturday. We came down on the super fast TGV express from Paris. The cold drizzly weather was getting to us--although it looks like it might have warmed up there by now. We woke up to a glorius mediterranean morning--and we are going to stay in this area probably the rest of this week. I stopped in the Tourist Office this morning to pick up some info. I had kind of scouted out some ideas of places to go--really wanting to go everywhere. A few places in this are then maybe over to the Cannes area. The tourist agent rolled her eyes and said something about you americans wanting to see everything but take in nothing--or words to that effect. She was absolutely right of course! Maybe she was my buddhist guru for the day! So we slowed right down--and I will bring you up to date on where we are now, but first need to pick up the story from where we left off. These french keyboard have just a few letters different than ours--so there may be typos or I just hit a Q where the a is supposed to be; (or a ; insteqd of a .)

I am really taken with the Paris transit system. I believe it is likely the best in the world. It is actuqlly severql different systems layered together. There is the Paris Metro itself--just q short walk from most places to a stop, and then there is the suburban RER which you can ride with the same ticket inside Paris. And integrated right into this is the national rail system, including the super sleek high speed TGV.

This is the regular Paris metro. All are very clean--this is one of the older models. And they are always full of people. Even on Saturdays! (or maybe all of Paris was on their way to the Champs Eysee with us).

This is the suburban RER system. We rode this particular one down to Versaille. The regular metro is 1.3 euro or so per ride. A longer trip on the RER is about 6E.

One Thursday (I think) we went to the famed Luxembourg gardens (must have been the say day we did St Chapell--and yes, Chris, we did note the music and were tempted to go back, but that drizzly cold put a damper on that!). As you all know, I am very interested in civic space, and on this trip I am beginning to form something like an 'ecology of civic space'. These folks over here don't get everything right, but there is so much to learn here about hoz w spaces can be put together that maxize human ecology--i.e., interaction;

The sun came out the pm this picture was taken--but look at all the people out! Note the moveable chairs. They are everywhere! (that lqdy in the brown beret keeps showing up in my photos).

For awhile I was thinking that Paris had it all just about right except for parks and green space. But the more I looked around, the more parks I started to notice--they fill every little nook and cranny. And notice that in this picture the ground is all gravel--a park doesn't necessarily have to have grass to be a good park (but it helps, and this park has lots of great grass elsewhere). I will post some more pictures of great urban spaces next--but I better get up to bed now. This is about the best hotel so far. We are in the small town of Vaisson la Romaine--supposed to be on of the better open air markets in Provence, so gotta get enough sleep to enjoy that. And we are slowing down. We will stay here tomorrow night as well. First place we hqve had internet service right in the hotel.

A quick note

This cyber cafe is about to close--so just a quick note. The weather took a turn for the better on Thursday. We went to Saint Chappell in the AM and Luxembourg Gardens in the PM--the sun was out and it was glorius! Definitely one of the best urban parks in the world. More on that later.
We knew there was rain forecast for today but thought it wouldn't be that bad. We took the train to Versaille--cold and rainy all day. So didn't take in the gardens at all--was what I really wanted to see! THe palace was a real palace, however, so interesting to see. One very interesting thing about Paris is that all the monuments and old buildings are all ancien regime! There is not much at all about the Revolution, at least not in any of the guidebooks we have.

I'll post more details and photos in a day or two. This is turning out to be a fun way to keep in touch. As Jen said--way better that postcards!

Equinox in Paris--but no spring yet!

Might be about time for an update--there may actually be folks hanging on our every word! (maybe not...).

Sunday we went to a local ward of our church. A good chance to meet some authentic locals. The ward was quite diverse--the Bishop an African. We met members from Peru, Bolivia, Pakistan, the Congo--and maybe even a few frenchies as well.

Later in the day we packed up and left the 19eme Arrondisment (you should hear me pronounce that now!). We moved to the much trendier Le Marais neighborhood--much closer to everything. Our hotel in the 19eme was ok--quite clean. And it was great to be able to compare a neighborhood much farther out. But it was going to take me an hour to get where I needed to be for my presentation--only 1/2 hr from LeMarais.

We found a great little hotel--Hotel Sully--only 55E, right on Rue St. Antoine--the Marais main drag. That is pretty cheap for this neighborhood! It is not super fancy by any means, but it is clean and does the job. Oh--and did I mention the free exercise room? (well, ok--its 5 flights of stairs--but think of what we are getting for free!). Our room is toward the back, so we are not bothered by the street noise at all.

The Hotel Sully, while a little dive of sorts, is right next to a 16th century structure called the HOtel Sully, which is adjacent to Place de Voges, a very wonderful square--which also has the house of Victor Hugo. We hung around there Sunday PM, enjoying all kinds of live street music--from Texas Swing to Chamber. We capped off the night with a fance dinner at Ma Borgogne--a burgundian restaurant. Some good hearty frech fare.

Monday morning turned WAY colder. I had to buy a hat and a scarf (see photo below). My presentation was at the International Energy Agency (but the meeting was run by the OECD, the people who contracted me). It was a UN kind of meeting, with delegates from the participating countries sitting around a very large oval table, with their hangers on behind them. I was one of about 4 presenters. I problably should have been a little more staid in my presentation, but you know me! Mostly this was people reading bullets, or the delegates making very long very boring statements. I really had to stay alert to see if they were asking my a question (and I did get a few).

Tuesday we wandered around several neighborhoods (see photos below). Tuesday night we hooked up with my niece Amy, who lives here, and her brother Tim, who just happened to be in town visiting. We had a great meal at a small Le Marais restaurant--8-12! Paris restaruants just make you want to talk, I guess!

Today was still pretty doggone cold! So we spent the day in the Lourve. I am definitely not a big museum hound--if its 2 dimensional, I might rather see it in a book! We actually did just over 5 hours there. Quite a bit for me. The sculptures are something else--you can't see that in a book. We saw very little of the whole museum--that would take days!

Looks like tomorrow we might start to get a break in the weather. I keep thinking I am just about ready to head south, but Paris beckons. It is great to be under no pressure, and just be able to walk around and soak things up. I am really starting to get a feel for the city.

Everyone walks of course. Not very many obese people in evidence here. I can assure you that these folks eat enough to get obese! They burn it all off. I wish we had brought a pedometer--I am sure we are well over 10k steps a day--maybe even 20. I am not worried about gaining any weight on this trip.
Amy told me that she spends only 55E a month for an unlimited pass on the Metro (and that includes the busses)! Wow! Could you imagine only spending that much a month on transporation! I know we spend over 1k/month in Houston. If we didn't have to spend that--we could afford a lot more house.

LeMarais is very much a tourist district--you see tourists everywhere. But you see everybody else as well. Schoolkinds, workaday folks etc. This is a very very dense neighborhood. I would wager not many places in the US come close--maybe some areas in Manhattan. One thing about density is that it doesn't seem to matter where you go--its all interesting (properly designed of course). The 18eme is not a tourist area --but very interesting anyway: a commercial district at just about every corner, with lots of quaint restaraurants.



This is Rue de Cler, a pretty upscale area not far from the Eiffle Tower. Great restaurants and stores everywhere. There are folks living in the floors above the ground floor.



This is Rue St. Antoine--our neighborhood! Le Marais was once a marsh--and thats what Marais means. It is a very old neighborhood with lots of very small and fascinating streets. Our place is just a block from here.

Yeah--its cold! Last night at Chez Janou. Check my hat out. This morning a fellow walked up and started asking me directions in French--guess I look like a local with my hat and scarf!

Here is Leticia with Amy and Tim. A great time at a great restaurant! And how wild is that running into family in Paris?

We appreciate all the comments--keep em coming!

First full day in Paris (fully awake, that is)

Our first real full day in Paris. Only half jet lagged now. We are changing to another hotel--right in the hip section of Marais.
A lot of walking today. The Notre Dame is all it is cracked up to be. We will try to post more of the wondeful places we see as we have time.