Walking to Work (2006-10-26)

Walking to the bus reminds me of my morning commute in Paris and renews my commitment to venture and work abroad again. In Paris Tuesdays through Thursdays we would awaken in Pigalle. Ryan went to school in Saint-Germain-des-Prés and Jean Claude went to work in Montmartre. I followed Jean Claude out onto Rue André Antoine, smelling the wet cobblestones as the street cleaners washed away the previous day. I heard the sounds of other pedestrian's shoes on the wet cobblestones and an occasional car vibrating along the street. The October air cooled me as I leaned into the steep hill and climbed. One morning in late October I took a photograph of the sunrise in Montmartre. Later on those weekdays I walked back down to Le Chao-Ba-Café for the afternoon sunlight.

On weekends--sometimes long weekends including Friday and Monday--Ryan and I would travel. We visited Montpellier, Nantes and Tours, Chamonix, Berlin, and London. We didn't visit Barcelona or Venice like we had hoped.

Memories and daydreams make me think of "Disappearing Act: How to Escape the Office", chapter 12 of The 4-Hour Workweek. A colleague who also develops software for Geographic information systems is currently in Turkey while his wife teaches. Perhaps I can do the same somewhere while Ryan teaches ESL.

Remembering Le Chao-Ba-Café

Schmap added Chao-Ba to its list of Vietnamese restaurants in Paris and received my permission to use our photograph of le café. Driving to the Seattle office, I miss my morning commute in Paris.

At Musée d'Orsay (2006-12-03)

Before I recommended Versailles, I wrote my friend that I'd recommend Musée d'Orsay. We went there our last day in Paris, and I'm glad we didn't miss it.

In Versailles (2006-11-08)

A friend asked, "If you had three days in Paris and its environs, and had never been there before, what would you go see?" I recommended the places pictured in the photographs quite close to Paris on the map of my geotagged photos--in Paris and Chartres. (I excepted ones idiosyncratic to my visit like M. Berger's salon where I lived or Le Chao-Ba-Café where I worked remotely.) However, since my European travelogue then ended with October 23, 2006, at Château d'Amboise, I wrote that I'd recommend a Paris location from second half of my visit there. My recommendation is Versailles, so I've uploaded these to my Flickr photos. In Versailles we saw these places:

• Château de Versailles (although La Galerie des Glaces was under renovation),
• Château de Versailles park and garden (although the Fountain of Apollo had construction around it),
• Grand Trianon,
• Petit Trianon, and
• Petit hameau.

At Château d'Amboise (2006-10-23)

Our last stop of the day, before riding the TGV back to Paris, was Château d'Amboise. The Flickr photostream contains a photograph of the castle itself.

At Le Close Lucé (2006-10-23)

Le Close Lucé, a Leonardo da Vinci museum (and his onetime house), was inspiring because of the models of Leonardo da Vinci ideas and inventions. I was impressed that, as Wikipedia says, "He conceived of ideas vastly ahead of his own time, notably conceptually inventing the helicopter, a tank, the use of concentrated solar power, the calculator, a rudimentary theory of plate tectonics, the double hull, and many others. Relatively few of his designs were constructed or were feasible during his lifetime; modern scientific approaches to metallurgy and engineering were only in their infancy during the Renaissance."

At Château de Chenonceau (2006-10-23)

After lunch in Tours, the tour group expanded and we rode to Château de Chenonceau.

At Château de Villandry (2006-10-23)

Our second stop was the gardens and castle of Villandry.

At Château Azay-le-Rideau (2006-10-23)

Our tour guide David first drove us and a British couple to Château Azay-le-Rideau.

Touring around Tours, France (2006-10-23)

Our fourth of six rail days took us from Nantes to Tours to Paris. We wanted to take an excursion that would permit us to see the Château de Chambord, but the tour was full by the time the tourist office opened. Instead, Alienor Excursions took us to Azay-le-Rideau, Château de Villandry, Château de Chenonceau, Le Close Lucé (a Leonardo da Vinci museum), and Château d'Amboise.

Taking Pictures of Cathedrale Saint-Pierre, Nantes, France (2006-10-22)

That's Ryan in the doorway within the doorway of La Cathedrale.

Riding Bateaux Nantais on L'Erdre (2006-10-21)

We rode one of the Bateaux Nantais up the river Erdre to see many châteaux, including Château de la Gascherie shown above.

Examining Eglise St-Nicolas, Nantes, France (2006-10-20)

We used the third of our six rail days to travel to Nantes for the weekend. Over the weekend we would visit, among others, the following sights: Eglise St-Nicolas on Place Royale (see above), Passage Pommeraye, Musée des Beaux Arts (buying a book on Georges de La Tour; I had previously bought a print of his work at the Metropolitan Museum of Art), Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle, Musée de l'imprimerie, and La Cigale. The latter, according to Découvrir Nantes: Guide touristique, is "One of the most beautiful 'French brasseries' in the world with its most extraordinary 1900s décor (classified as a historical site)."

Viewing Venus de Milo (2006-10-18)

Because of an extra ticket for me, we toured Musée du Louvre for free again, this time with Ryan's class. After famous French painters we viewed the Venus de Milo.

Riding the Paris Métro (2006-09-27/12-04)

In early October we each obtained a Carte orange: Ryan received one from his program and I bought one at the Pigalle station. We ride the Paris Métro nearly every day we're in the city, often line 12. I once remarked to Ryan that some destination was "only 10 minutes away by Métro," and he replied, "Everywhere is only 10 minutes away by Métro!" While that isn't entirely accurate, the subway is fast, and feels safe. Despite my objections to surveillance, I appreciate that there are cameras on every platform, and people everywhere I go. There's little chance of getting lost, either, as inside every station there are maps of the Paris Métro, RER, and bus lines (which RATP also manages). Outside the station are plans de quartier that show the surrounding streets and landmarks. Even without the vous êtes ici circles, it's easy to determine where you are since the streets are well-labeled (in blue signs on buildings at the intersections) and generally short (so there's little doubt which part of the street is near). Who needs a car in this city?

Residents of Berlin or London may wonder why I'd blog about the transit in Paris. If they were to visit Seattle, however, they'd have none of these advantages: there's no subway, buses are slower and require multiple transfers, no maps are posted, etc.

Traveling at High Speed (2006-10-15)

We walked around "the Champs-Élysées of Montpellier" in the Antigone District Sunday morning before riding the TGV back to Paris. Our weekend in Montpellier used two of our six travel days (in 30 calendar days) on our France SaverPass. We chose to see France by rail because I enjoy trains as a romantic way to travel. The TGV speeds along a viaduct over the farms on the French countryside--grade-separated because it travels up to 186 mph. The next weekend we'll see Nantes, and the following weekend we plan to see Chamonix.

Experiencing Student Travel (2006-10-14)

The experience of walking around Montpellier, a university city in southern France, carrying everything in my backpack, was how I imagined the experience of student travel or study abroad would be. We even stayed one night in an Auberge de Jeunesse (with WiFi!). We took a set of photographs of our walk around the city and our trip to the beach.

Eating in Montpellier, France (2006-10-13)

We stopped for lunch and discovered the "plaze" had WiFi. That evening we had dinner Aux Arches de la Chapelle. The Menu des Arches at 11,9 E was delicious, so we went back the next night.

Visiting Chartres, France (2006-10-11)

Ryan's class took a day trip to Chartres, so I accompanied them. We toured La Maison Picassiette, met with our new American friend, had lunch, toured Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Chartres, and returned.

Having Lunch at Sacré Coeur (2006-10-10)

I climbed Montmartre to have lunch in the sunshine in front of the Basilique du Sacré Coeur and to think. The city was hazy from the butte, but many people were enjoying the view and the harp music playing in the public space.