Today we decided to avoid the crowds and stay away from the heavy tourist's sights. Jim went out around noon for our daily baguette and came home with sushi and pastries! What a lunch, could anything be better? After lunch we headed for the Pantheon, a place we wanted to see, not huge on the tourist circuit, but it's close to our apartment.
Well, no one told us (I guess there were signs out but they were in French so that wouldn't help us) that the Pantheon started an art exhibition yesterday and was filled with people looking at this artist's work. We knew something was up when we didn't have to pay admission. We walked into this glorious building, full of history and beautiful artwork only to be met by these huge, ghastly, oversized, hanging, "pantyhose" filled with tiny styrofoam balls! They were everywhere! We tried to appreciate this new art style, but were a little disappointed by it all.
We had come to see the Frescoes, Foucault's pendulum and the final resting place for many of France's VIP's. Finally to get away from the crowd I made Jim climb the 210 steps up to the top of the Pantheon's dome to get a view of the city. We could see Paris in every direction. It was wonderful. After we climbed down, we found thecrypt and the tombs of those buried there: Voltaire, both Curie's, Rousseau, Victor Hugo, Emile Zola, Descartes and others. On our way home we felt that we needed to sit down and discuss what we had just seen --any reason at all for a delicious crepe!
I am sure all of you are wondering what our Parisian apartment looks like. Imagine an IKEA poster child and that's what we have. Our apartment is about 162 sq ft. In that 162 sq ft we have a futon couch, a queen size bed, a wardrobe armoire, a microwave, dishwasher, refrig, table and 4 chairs. There is also a bathroom with a shower, washer/dryer combo that we have finally figured out (spoke too soon, I just turned Jim's white church shirt pink though I had nothing red in the wash and it was on cold!), a hot water heater hanging from the ceiling, a sink and toilet. I would be fairly certain to say that Jim and I are much larger (I especially with my German
heritage and Jim with his Viking heritage) than the normal French person. The beauty of all this is that I can sit at the kitchen table, reach down into the refrig, put my dishes in the sink and almost load the washer without ever moving! The frig only has 2 shelves and one tiny freezer space, but I have my ice cube tray always full and frozen (an ice cube tray the size of the miniature ones in the states cost 7 euros!) This is why we shop every day. There is literally no room in the refrigerator for more than 2 or 3 days of food.
The bathroom is a hoot! Imagine a shower stall that is pie shaped-about 24" x 24". The door slides open to about 15 inches. Sooooooooo.....if one should drop something one has to position one's self in such a way that they can bend over and pick it up. Always make sure that anything else that has dropped is picked up at the same time. To get out of the shower, the doors slide open to their full 15" width and we carefully slide out sideways. But we have hot water, our own bathroom and this is our home for the next four weeks!
The picture above shows OUR view when we look out our window--a nice apartment building. The picture to the left shows THEIR view looking at our building! Our apartment is the one with the two orange curtains on the fourth floor. ( We have to keep the curtains closed during the day when we're gone because the windows are open, and there are no screen, and what else would keep the pigeons out?!
There are two grocery stores nearby. All fruits and vegetables must be weighed and tagged by you BEFORE you check out (discovered that the first day). We figured out milk; blue top is 2% and the red top is whole milk (just like USA?). Usually we stand there, looking at the food and try and figure out what's what. Our longest debate occurred over the soup aisle. We just wanted chicken broth but couldn't figure out which was which. The pictures all looked like golden broth but none had a picture of a chicken or the word poule! Looking at the fresh meat just about did me in. There were skinned rabbits lying stretched out and plucked pigeons but the heads were still on. I quit looking after that and decided I would just eat pastries while here!
We head off tomorrow to go to Church. I am certain that if we can't find our LDS one, there are plenty of other churches that would work just fine. We are hoping to take the Metro and we will see if I can convince Jim that real men do wear PINK! Until later........................... Print this post
2 comments:
Oh, *holding sides* that entry was very entertaining to me! Maybe after such a crappy day, it doesn't take much to make me smile!
I think those pantyhose scultures are amazing! What a neat concept. But then, I suppose they are very distracting when one is hoping to see frescos in all their un-obstructed view! Hey, you mentioned a pendulum (eek, that spelling doesn't look right)...is that the one that was in the Amazing Race, last season? Remember they were sent to Notre Dame Cathedral, and I seem to remember a place with a pend.
Maybe I'll make crepes sometime soon. Hey...when K is here! So, you need to email you what you all eat with them. Get me away from jam and whipped cream for once!
The Panyhose reminded me of cheese-making. Don't they suspend balls of cheese like that? Well that is too funny, and very confusing at the same time. I can only imagine how funny you two must look in the grocery store. Do you ever see people giggling as they walk past you?
Oh and Dad, you probably looked so spiffy at church. I bet you fit right in!
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