Beautiful, Beautiful, Beautiful

I've still two posts to do on our trip to Germany ... some very funny things happened there and on the way back ... but I'm tired of blogging tonight and want to post what we did today. We eventually got out of the house around 10 (we were tired from our long travel day yesterday). We took the Metro to the Louvre stop, then walked all the way up the Avenue des Champs Elysees, past the Arc de Triomphe to a restaurant in the 17th Arrondissement that Suzie had picked out for lunch. Here's the restaurant and the menu; can you guess what we all had?




(Suzie had the duck salad, my mom and the boys had the steak with bernaise sauce, I had the veal chop. Suzie and my mom split a bottle of wine. Woo-eee. Mine was good, but the steak was about the best I'd ever tasted. Really.)

After lunch, the boys and I climbed to the top of the Arc de Triomphe, 256 steps (so it says). After that, we were tired and took the Metro home.

Before coming, Suzie said that Paris was so great because everywhere you looked it was beautiful. I poo-pooed that, but after being here, I see what she means. So no more words, just pictures.

Luxembourg ... Other than the Cows

Before our cow incident (below) we spent the day in Luxembourg. A nice, clean, modern, wealthy city. We had a very nice day in the old part of the city, and walking around the old city walls. We also had a good visit with Suzie's friend and her family, who were very, very hospitable. The best moment was when we happened in an old church just as someone was practicing singing for a service; the woman's voice was very beautiful, and the accompanying organ sound was large and deep.

A few random pictures follow.

Des Vaches Sauvages de Flaxweiler

Suzie's friend Stacie lives with her husband, a Finn (she is a teacher, he is a translator for the EU), in a village northeast of Luxembourg. It is in the middle of an agricultural area, and there is a working (and wonderfully smelly) farm just at the end of their road. Their house is one of several on a new street, the encroachment of Luxembourgish suburbia into the countryside. It is set on the rise of a small knoll, overlooking a bucolic country scene.



It is a few minutes walk down the street to a dead-end at an enormous barn, where a path to the right takes you eventually out between two fenced-in area where cattle graze. These areas are bounded by fences that we presumed were electric, given that they consisted of three or four strands of narrow wire.

After our day in Luxembourg (which I'll describe below), Suzie and I took a walk with our two boys and Stacie's daughter, who is 6, along the path I described above. As we were headed between the two grazing areas, a group of about 25 cows came walking into the area to our right from a path opposite where we were. They eventually grazed and ambled their way closer to us.

I have a talent that I rarely share, perhaps a remnant of my Iowa youth. I can make a very realistic cow sound (aka a "moo"). (I do a pretty good goat also.) When the boys saw the cows slowing coming toward us, they asked me to do my moo. So I did. The result was hilarious ... about 15 cow heads turned and looked at me all at once, with that dull cow-look that they have. The boys laughed hysterically, so I waited a bit and did it again ... and got the same reaction. So I waited and did it again. It was stupid, I know, but they boys were enjoying it.

About the fourth time, however, I got a different reaction. The cows became agitated, and one or two cows started butting each other with their heads. These were big, big white cows, some with horns. The boys liked that reaction, too, so figuring what the heck, I let out my loudest and longest moo yet.

To our astonishment, this seemed to set one of the biggest, longest-horned cows into a bovine rage. It looked directly at us, and started bucking up and down, throwing its body into the air. Several times, I swear, the cow jumped so high that all of its hooves seemed to be off the ground at once. And it did so with a great deal of grace for an animal so large. After this display, it started running straight toward us, at an increasing gallop, followed by five or six others.

At this point we became extremely concerned. Running right at us was several tons of agitated cow, with the only thing between us and the several tons being three small wires strung between quite ordinary poles. Our amusement went to fear instantaneously. We realized that we could not outrun them; they were coming at us very quickly. We also realized that if they wanted to break through the "fence" (I'm hesitant to call it that, it was so flimsy), nothing would stop them. With a collective yell we all turned and ran as fast as we could. I ran so fast that I ran out of one of my shoes. Finally we looked back and realized that the cows apparently respected the three small wires, because they stopped right before touching them.

From relief of the bizarreness of it all, we were all laughing so hard we were crying. But the cow weirdness was not quite over. The remainder of the group, all 25 or so of them, all came up to the fence, and arranged themselves single-file on either side of the leader who had chased us away. They all stuck their cow-heads above the fence, and all looked at us, as if in one gaze. Then, suddenly, there was pushing and shoving among some of the cows ... and in a flash the entire group turned, as one, and sprinted (yes, sprinted these cows did) the entire length of the pasture, all the way to the other side, sounding and looking like a herd of buffalo, the force of their steps transmitted to us through the ground.

We don't know what was with these cows. Perhaps they had just been milked, or perhaps it was cow mating season. But if you are ever in Luxembourg, you may want to consider leaving the cows alone.

Chalons en Champagne and Detours

Our first day out of Paris we drove to Luxembourg. On the way, we got off of the autoroute randomly at a town called Chalons en Champagne (sorry I can't make this make accent marks). This was a pretty, but very down-home, town with half-timbered buildings and what appeared to be a very ancient (somewhat decrepit) church with cool gargoyles. Pictures follow. We found our way to the busiest restaurant in the center of town, and had an inexpensive lunch, which was topped off by wildly delicious black forest cake and chocolate mousse. (The diet has been history so far). We walked around the town for a bit and then got back in the car. On the way north from Metz to Luxembourg we ran into a detour, which seemed to threaten to take us to Brussells, so we exited the expressway and managed to wend our way on very narrow streets through very small villages in a very light but annoying rain. We finally made it to Suzie's friend Stacie's house in a village called Flaxweiler, northeast of Luxembourg.

The next day we toured Luxembourg and met ... THE WILD COWS OF FLAXWEILER.

Back in Paris

We are back in Paris again after what has seemed like a very long trip. We saw a lot and did a lot and had a least one very bizarre thing happen to us. I'm going to break up the excursion into days, just to keep things straight.

I'm dead tired after 8 hours of driving (culminating in excruciating stop-and-go traffic in Paris and weirdness in the parking garage of this building), so I may not get done tonight. But stay tuned....

Off to Luxembourg

We are headed off this morning to Luxembourg and Germany, returning Sunday, which means that there may not be any posts for a few days. Stay tuned....

Rodin and Rifles

Today we experienced clashing museums -- the Rodin museum in the morning, the Museum of the Army in the afternoon. The Rodin museum was interesting, set in a lovely large formal garden. Like most good museums, there was really too much to take in in one visit (at least with the boys along) ... and that was with part of it being closed because too many of the staff were on vacation.

The Army museum, contained in the enormous old severe building called Les Invalides, was a little too much for me: too dark, too much not of interest (how many Napoleonic regimental flags, standards, and banners do you need?), and too glorifying of war (even in this middle-of-the-roaders view). Only the section on WWII put the whole idea of war in any sort of context. Having said that, the boys absolutely loved it ... swords, armor, pistols, cannons, bullets, cannon balls, pikes, rifles, muskets, knives, they thought it all was cool, in part because of the lack of context (no blood, no decomposing bodies). We also visited as a part of that museum Napoleon's tomb, housed in an incredibly overdone interior of an old church, the outside of which, however, has a enormous, beautiful gold dome. A whole lot of walking, we are all done in. I give my 80-year old mother credit for keeping up. She doesn't seem appreciably more tired this evening than I do, which is really sad. Other random thoughts follow.

We have been surprised and impressed with how friendly everyone has been to us. Even my halting attempts at French have always been met with smiles and courtesy, almost without exception. We had lunch at a tiny little half-eat-in, half-take-out place (sandwiches on extremely delicious and fresh baguettes), and the young women behind the counter were all help and smiles.

Maybe for this reason, and maybe because we have our own apartment and thus have to do ordinary things like shopping, Paris seems much less foreign than I imagined it would be. That's nice in a way, and disappointing in a way, too. It also seems much less intimidating than I expected. My son Will said today when he said, "Dad, this is just like a clean San Francisco," and while it's more than that, I understand what he meant.

I've heard people who have visited Paris rave about Le Metro, and now I understand why. So far we have found it to be completely efficient and easy to use. The longest we've ever waited for a train has been 2 minutes. The only negative is that it is hard to get an overall sense of the city while using the Metro, as you seem to disappear from one part of the city and simply pop up in another part, with no context of travel.

One of my favorite moments was when Suzie (who, sad to say, had a terrible night last night ... she couldn't sleep and was up repeatedly) was sitting by herself on a bench at the Army museum, looking very weary. I asked her to come see some Medieval armor (which was cool), and she just said, "I just don't care about this stuff." To which I replied, now you know how the kids felt in the Rodin museum.

Lastly, a weird aspect of our apartment is that it is in a 8 story building that is shaped in a large "U." It's been very windy since we arrived, and was hot the first day, so we left the windows open at night. In the middle of the night we were shaken out of sleep by what sounded like a huge explosion outside on the street. We sat bolt upright in bed wondering what was going on, when a second loud explosion occurred. By this time we were concerned, but when the third "explosion" happened we realized that they had been caused by a series of slamming interior doors, caused by a wicked cross wind. The windows have mostly been shut since then.

Too Tired

I just accidentally deleted an entire post I had just drafted, with uploaded pictures to boot. We're all out of adrenaline, especially Andrew, who didn't sleep a minute on the plane. So here's the 10-second version of today: Took the Metro to the Latin Quarter; had an excellent lunch; walked to and toured Notre Dame; had ice cream; took the Metro home; drafted blog; uploaded pictures; deleted the whole thing. Here are the pictures. More tomorrow. The boys are agitating for the Tour Eiffel ... enough dark old churches, we want to go high!

First Day Pictures

We just got back from a very pleasant walk around the neighborhood. The apartment is about 150 yards from the Seine, and there is a pedestrian walkway right at the end of our street that takes you over to an island in the Seine that has a park and a museum on it and, in the area we were, no cars. Lots of people and dogs and kids enjoying a Sunday stroll.

Here are some pictures.



Suzie trying to find out where the shuttle is. We are about to meet Mr. Three Cell (see post below). (Clicking on an image will bring up a slightly larger image.)



Our apartment is in a very beautiful, green, modern area. This is a picture out the kitchen window:

This is a view out the bedroom, and a picture of a park across the street.

Qwerty Oh Qwerty Where Art Thou?

I had heard, but forgotten, that keyboards aren't universal. The one I'm using now is not a standard "querty" keyboard. The A is where the Q should be, the Q is where the A should be, the comma is where the M should be, and most weirdly, the period is where the comma should be, but you have to shift to make it. I reset the computer settings to make it think that it's dealing with a regular qwerty keyboard, but now I have to actually remember where all the keys are.

We Made It

We had a completely uneventful trip (plane on time, no hassles) except for a couple of things. First, my mom, with the bionic knee, set off the alarms at security and so had to undergo a complete personalized screening. When we arrived in Paris, the French family staying in our house had arranged for a shuttle to meet us at the airport. It was about 30 minutes late, and when it showed up, the driver was a guy who had three cell phones (one with an earpiece and two freestanding) and seemed to talk on all three at once. After picking us up, he went to another terminal to pick up another passenger, only to be confronted by machine-gun toting army officers, who had apparently evacuated the terminal because of a bomb threat ("I don't think so," Mr. Three-Cell advised us). So he parks the van and wanders off for 20 minutes, after which he returned, drove to another terminal, got into an argument with a security officer there, and finally, finally drove us to our apartment, talking on one one or more cell phones the whole time (and listening, I should add, to a French station playing exclusively American country music; very surreal). After getting to the airport at 11 am, we finally made it home by 1:45, even though the drive was 20 minutes.

Then another bizarre thing happened. Three of us (me, Suzie, and Will) got on the elevator and pushed the button for the 5th floor, where the apartment is located. The elevator door opened up on the opposite side into a hallway that was pitch dark. So we went back down to the first floor. But there, the elevator also opened on the other side, and while we could hear the other two of our party (my mom and Andrew), we couldn't see them. It was like an elevator out of the Twilight Zone, dispatching people to a netherworld where only their voices could be heard. We finally noticed that there were two buttons for "1" (each on the appropriate side) and finally all got together again, but it took a lot longer than it should have.

Our apartment is in a beautiful area. We had a snack and are about to go out exploring.

How to Post Comments

To post comments, you can either click on the post heading (here "How to Post Comments") or (although this is counterintuitive) you can also click on the link that says "no comment" (or "1 comment" if one comment has been posted). Doing either will take you to a page where you can post a comment. The envelope icon doesn't have anything to do with posting comments.

The Jet Lag Diet -- Arrrrggghhh

Suzie and I are following the "Jet Lag Diet" supposedly developed by the Argonne National Laboratory to ameliorate the effects of jet lag. It involves a day of "feasting" (high protein breakfast and lunch, high carbo dinner) followed by a day of fasting (no more than 400-700 calories a day), then feasting, then fasting on the travel day, and beginning a "feast" day at the time it's breakfast time at your destination city. You're also supposed to drink no caffeine, but I would rather have jet lag than do that, so I'm hoping it'll work even without that part.

The feast day yesterday was great.

The fast day today was OK until about 3 in the afternoon. Half of a 250-calorie protein bar for breakfast and the other half for lunch isn't much. I lapped up a bowl of Raisin Bran the first thing when I got home from work, but that seems to have had an effect for about 45 minutes. I'm thinking I'll enjoy the feast day tomorrow more than the first one. (I've already planned lunch, a big steak, bean, and cheese burrito. Yum yum.)

I also think I've figured out part of why the diet works: By the third feast day, you'll be so hungry that staying up and eating will seem like a better idea than taking a nap.

I'm skeptical of the whole thing, but we'll see.

Coming Soon -- Paris

We leave next Saturday for three weeks in Paris. I hope to use this blog to share some news and pictures while we are gone. Watch this space for more....and feel free to pose comments if you like. I'll also try to upload photos to my Yahoo photo site, http://photos.yahoo.com/ssshupe.

A Little Less Wild

For years the parcel behind our house has been vacant. We came to think of it as ours, even though we knew it wasn't, and knew that someday it would get built on. That's now happened. Although mostly I think that people should be able to do whatever they want to do with their property, and although I don't begrudge the new owner the right to build on a parcel he paid a lot of money for ... still, it's a little sad that what was an open meadow, where deer, wild turkeys, and even the rare coyotes lived, will be turned into another house. Little by little, the world becomes a little less wild.

REM's Around the Sun

As a REM fan/fanatic since 1982, the last few offerings since the departure of drummer Bill Berry have been disappointing. Up seemed like an odd experiment that went sideways (too much techo-instrumentation and overly restrained Stipe vocals). Reveal was better, with stronger songwriting and a more let-it-rip feel. I was wondering where the band would go with its latest CD, Around the Sun.

For the first few listens, I confess to being disappointed. But the album is growing on me. The band seems finally to have melded together its more subtile post-Bill Berry sound with its more traditional style. The result is a slightly new style of sound that contains the best of the old and the new, with ample doses of acoustic guitars and vocal harmonies. The pleasure of this album are subtile; they take some time to appreciate.

Most encouraging is the stronger songwriting. Despite some weak tracks, there are seven or eight solid, pleasing songs on the album. Leaving New York is a big, easy opening to the album. The Outsiders tells of the ramifications of an unexpected, unknown revelation. Final Straw expresses heartfelt anger ("Who died and lifted you up to perfection....") at an unjustified betrayal. I Wanted to Be Wrong is a beautiful, quiet, understated protest song. Boy in the Well is about ... well, I'm not sure, but I like it. Aftermath is a song about hope and living after (here's that word again) betrayal. The Ascent of Man is musically interesting, with strong Stipe vocals. Around the Sun is, like the first track, a big, easy ending to the album.

Around the Sun shows that REM still has a great deal of creativity left in them. They are also a better live band. I recently saw them at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley, CA, and they put on a great show, combining new numbers with old. The highlight was a kick-ass rendition of These Days that showed they can still rock rock rock.

Check out the new REM album.