I have always heard the following: 1. Paris is such a beautiful city and 2. the French are rude. Tonight we went to Sacre Coeur. We were only there a few minutes (long enough for me to very quietly crow about identifying the story in the stained glass windows as Joan of Arc) when clergy entered and started a service, so we sat down for half an hour to participate. From Sacre Couer we had a great view out over the city, but it's a really unattractive view. I'm sure the buildings themselves are lovely, but the city as a unit is really not. Especially since we just came from beautiful Luzern with its lake and mountains (and cable cars and church bells and cow bells).
AND we had three experiences with Parisians and they were all soooo positive. The first was when we were on a rather rough, loud metro car and two men moved so we could sit down together. Then we had a problem with our metro tickets. (I'd already had one problem with my tickets and just jumped the turnstile but no one was in that station.) The ticket machine wouldn't take our tickets that should have still been valid and the machine to purchase tickets was refusing both our credit cards and would only accept coins, which we didn't have. A very nice (and handsome) young man came and walked us through the machine and when he couldn't make it work either, he traded me bills for coins and then walked through the gate with us and gave us directions. We would have been completely stuck without him. And then when the Coordinatrix bought a crepe for her late dinner near our hotel, the guy serving her struck up a conversation with us and was so friendly. I love the Parisians!
Tomorrow is Bastille Day. In Paris! We already did a little celebrating at the Bastille monument where bands were playing and performers were twirling fire and playing in drum lines. I still miss Italy, but Paris is making a pretty good impression so far.
Here are some pictures from the past few days. One day I'll catch up with where we've been, what we've been doing, and with whom we've been traveling.
This is the view from our cable car, which traveled 10,000 feet up to the top of Mt. Titlis in Switzerland. I'll write about our trip up there later, but isn't it beautiful? (Much prettier than Paris.)
These are some of the paintings in the Mill Bridge. The paintings are from the 17th or 18th century (I need to do some fact checking, but there's no time!) and each one includes a skeleton (mEmento mori). There's a chapel in the middle of the bridge and it was built to protect the city from floods. Families have volunteered to care for the chapel and fill it with fresh flowers for the last 500 years.
This is not the Mill Bridge. But it's similar. It's further down the Reuss River (yards further, not miles further) and the water tower is original but the actual bridge burned up about 15 years ago. This is the rebuilt version.
My favorite treats in Liechtenstein. Breads shaped like animals. Wacky animals.
A view from the bridge in Innsbruck (very close to where we did laundry).
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7 comments:
Well done, MBC!
I thought Sacre Coeur was the lamest of Parisian cathedrals. Also, I couldn't believe how DIRTY Paris was. And graffitied. But at least I didn't see any tatooed cleavage, which is more than I can say for Southern California.
We liked St. Denis. Including the crypt. But it's in a sketchy neighborhood and I told my little sister to make sure she went during daylight hours. So you too.
I want some bread animals.
Amen to the bread animals. Also, I should have warned you about the fact that Paris wasn't that pretty and that the people really were polite to us and didn't hate us as Americans. Though, the smell is what turned me off of Paris. Thanks for letting me live vicariously through you on your many adventures through Europe and a bit of Asia!
No one ever ever EVER moved over for me in Japan, in super-polite-and-self-effacing Japan, even when I rode a train for about an hour standing up and carrying a six-year-old. I may have to revise my opinions about the French.
Send me bread animals.
You look great in my . . . ahem . . . Mom's . . . jacket.
SCS--Where'd you get a 6-yr-old in Japan? They hand those out at the shrines? And thank goodness I pried that jacket out of your paws, because Switzerland was COLD!
The Paris people were all very nice to me, too. SO kind in giving directions. And patient. Sacre Couer was under construction when I went, so my favorite thing was seeing the outside, and counting all the stairs we climbed. (I think we were the only 5 in the entire group of 200 who ventured to that cathedral.)
How awesome you are in PARIS for Bastille Day!!
And I wonder when they say beautiful if they mean the architecture. Or when it's night and you see lots of lights instead of the odd conglomeration that the city is.
It looks so beauitful there--I miss it!
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