What We Did on Our Honeymoon
Daniel Emberley, October/November 1997
Thanks to everyone for their best wishes for Michael’s and my commitment
ceremony. The celebration went very well - the worst I’ve heard is that some
people couldn’t hear everything that was said. Most of my friends would say that
was a blessing right there where I’m concerned <grin>. Many folks have expressed
curiosity about our honeymoon. If you’re interested here’s the full text. Feel
free to reed or trash. Thanks again to all for your support, it means a lot to
both of us.
Apologies for spelling: am too lazy to look things up. You should have heard
what we did to the pronunciation!
Wednesday, 10/15
An uneventful flight from Dulles (okay, plane was three hours late arriving at the gate at Dulles) got us into Heathrow around 8:30AM Greenwich, 2:30AM EST. Scorning the bus ride that British Airways had arranged for us due to rush hour traffic, we hopped onto the Piccadilly Line and surfaced at Russell Square. Lugged our bags to the hotel, checked them in, and tried to find something to do that would a. keep us busy until hotel check in and b. keep us awake. Walked downtown, checking out Gray’s Inn, the outside of St. Paul’s Cathedral, and the Monument. The Monument is by Christopher Wren, in honor of the Great Fire of London. Walked the steps to the top - were exhausted, but rewarded with an incredible view of the City (Not the city, the City. Look at a map.) On descent were happy to discover that yes, they DO give out diplomas, or at least certificates, for braving the steps up and down. Finally. made our way to the Tower, our original aim. Joined a tour with a Beefeater, checked out the jewels, Traitor’s Gate. the ravens, the White Tower, and the whole town that lives under royal warrant within the Tower’s walls. Walked past the old London Wall, with its varied layers of brick and stone constructed by the Romans. Took the underground back to our hotel, the Tavistock, which is the least expensive hotel option British Airways offers. Is an Art Deco gem that at one point seems to have been used as a dormitory for the University of London. Room nothing to write about, formica furniture left behind sometime before 1972, but clean, and almost had water pressure. Jet lagged; foot sore, but psyched to be in London, we collapsed.
Thursday, 10/16
Started the day with breakfast at the Tavistock: tea and toast, butter and jam.
Ended up with the same thing every day, a nice low fat breakfast! Then a major
walk: Green Park. Buckingham Palace, Belgravia, Eaton Place (hello, Rose and the
crew from “Upstairs. Downstairs”), Harrod’s (loved the food halls and Egyptian
Escalator, of course, and found a copy of the Hong Kong version of Monopoly. Had
to pay for the first time (but certainly not the last) for a bathroom. On to
South Kensington: Brompton Oratory, and a major visit to the Victoria and Albert
Museum. Michael discovered the work of Hogarth in a special show of prints of
‘The Rake’s Progress’’, and we strolled the cast galleries and Frank Lloyd
Wright’s office for Edgar Kaufman. We had tea in their cafe; Michael noted that
it took a number of utensils and dishes to serve. We decided to keep track for
the rest of the week in an informal “tea cozy contest”. Afternoon in Kensington
Gardens, only to discover that Kensington Palace was closed for the month of
October. Wandered through Hyde Park and Marble Arch, checked out the evening
shopping in the department stores on Oxford Street and caught Disney’s
“Hercules”. The Brit’s seem to be about a month behind us on Hollywood releases.
Obviously, nobody had told them that Herc was a flop, they showed about 30
minutes of commercials before the feature, which definitely made the experience
worthwhile. I guess if the nation makes you pay for TV and only offers you BBC,
you may as welt catch your ads at the movies (at $12/ticket)!
Friday, 10/17
At breakfast Michael noted that only three utensils were used, probably the minimum possible. Checked out Smithfield Market, the Victorian and current meat wholesale market, on a walk over to the Barbican and Museum of London. Discovered we both really liked it, spent several hours checking out the history of the city from pre-Roman times to today. They had a special exhibit of royal fashion. Underground to Westminster, where we walked around the Houses of Parliament, into Westminster Abbey, 10 Downing Street, Trafalgar Square, Leicester Square (found several all-you-can-eat Indian and Chinese buffets - satisfied dinner for several subsequent evenings), Soho, Chinatown, Carnaby Street (hello, Mary Quant!), Piccadilly Circus, and the Tottenham Court Road back to the hotel.
Saturday. 10/18
Checked out the church of St. Pancras, a wonderful Greek Revival church with two
porches based on the Erectheum, Continued up past Euston Station to Camden Town,
where we enjoyed the crafts market and leather goods <ahem>. Up the old Regent’s
Canal through the Zoo and Regent’s Park. In St. John’s Wood we went to the
Saatchi Collection of contemporary art. Saatchi is housed in a former auto
assembly/repair shop, and was showing trendy German art of the past ten years.
For this we had an art market? Back downtown by way of the old Beatles’
recording studio on Abbey Road (Elgar used it too. but I don’t think that’s why
there was a line of camera-toting tourists) and a double-decker bus to Baker
Street. Caught the underground over to the home of Victorian artist Frederic
Leighton. who created a Moorish fantasy in the then-suburb of Holland Park. Up
the Kensington High Street, through Notting Hill and down through the Portobello
Road, just in time to see the antique and junk dealers close up their stands.
Sunday, 10/19
Caught BritRail from Vauxhall out to Hampton Court,
Cardinal Woolsey and Henry VIII’s palace up the Thames. The palace is in great
condition, with the largest extant medieval kitchens, fine state rooms, and
excellent gardens. Got lost and found in the hedge maze. Very cool. Michael
clocked tea in the cafe/garden at five utensils. Back to Vauxhall, watched
balloonists over the city, then crossed the bridge over to the Tate Gallery of
British Art. HATED ITI What a disappointment. Perhaps the collection will be
more enjoyable, and shown better. when they get their new building opened over
in Southwark. For now they’ve had to be so selective that we ended up not
enjoying most of what they had chosen to hang. Put up the David Hockneys, please
Walked to the Tube via Chelsea and the King’s Road, another disappointment.
Perhaps we needed to be twenty years younger, or drunk, or both?
Monday, 10/20
A cold and cloudy day to take in the work of Inigo Jones, the architect who
brought Classicism to England under the Stuarts. Checked out Cleopatra’s Needle
on the Embankment on our way to Jones’ Banqueting House, all that is left of
Whitehall Palace. Incredible interpretation of the fall of Charles I via the
Rubens paintings on the ceiling. Saw the changing of the guard at Horse Guards.
Caught the Docklands Light Railway through the Docklands. This was the major
wharf area of the city from Victorian times until the Thames Barrier was built
at Woolwich in the 1970’s, essentially closing the river to major shipping, The
abandoned docks were then developed into a Maggie Thatcher white-collar boom
town, most famously at Olympia & York’s Canary Wharf, for almost a decade the
tallest building in Europe. DLR gives an aerial view of all the developments,
including the building bombed this year by the IRA and still under plastic. The
railway leaves you at the Thames across from Greenwich. There’s a pedestrian
tunnel there that’s the last of those built 100 years ago to take workers to the
docks under the Thames. Less spooky than we feared; well lit and frequently
used. Made the river crossing a quick walk to Greenwich, where we saw the
MaritIme Museum, Observatory Grounds, Royal Naval Academy’s Painted Room and
Chapel (wonderful Baroque structures), and crafts market. The Queen’s House in
Greenwich is another Inigo Jones masterpiece, with incredible interiors and
views through the grounds to the city. Took a Thames ferry upriver to Charing
Cross. A short walk through Seven Dials took us to an all-you-can eat Indian
buffet off Leicester Square.
Tuesday, 10/21
British Airways included a bus tour of London in our package. We used it to review where we’d been, and also as transport across the river. Made a quick stop to check out the interior of St. Paut’s. then on to Southwark This neighborhood had been an independent entity under the Archbishops of Winchester in the Middle Ages, and is famous for its Elizabethan prostitutes, Shakespearean theater, Victorian factories and redevelopment in the last few decades as London rediscovers its river. Walked around Southwark Cathedral, one of the oldest and largest in London, and once parish church of John Harvard, who gave a little land and money to a school in colonial Massachusetts. Hays Wharf has been redeveloped into a successful office and galleria. Passed the ruins of Winchester Palace, and the reconstructed Golden Horde, ship of Sir Francis Drake. Just down a wharf/river walk is the reconstructed Globe Theater, where we toured the facility and tried out the view from the galleries and pit. Building has the first thatched roof built in London proper since the Great Fire in the 1700’s, complete with sprinklers peeping up through the thatch. Caught the tour bus up to Trafalgar Square and the National Gallery of Art, where we did the “grand tour” of the best art of the west since 1200. An incredible collection, where Michael got to check out a few more Hogarths. His favorite series was “Marriage a la Mode”. Had tea, four utensils used.
Wednesday, 10/22
Morning in Lincoln's Inn Fields for the Sir John Soane House. Soane invented the
Daniel Emberley school of decorating (“if you can bang a nail in it, hang a
picture on it”). He was the 18th century architect of the Bank of England and
Dulwich Picture Gallery, the first building built specifically to house a public
art collection. To our delight, Soane had bought and hung on folding panels
Hogarth’s original oils of “The Rake’s Progress” and “The Election’’. From there
to the British Museum, tracking down the Rosetta Stone, Elgin Marbles, Lewes
chessmen, and other great British plunder. Caught the Underground out to
Osterley Park. This bad been built as an Elizabethan country house, then
modified by Robert Adam in the 1700’s. Perhaps our favorite home of the whole
trip. thank you, National Trust. The rooms inspired us for the new bedroom on
Seaton place. Wonderful gardens. In size, large enough to be grand and small
enough to imagine a family living there and throwing decadent Evelyn Waugh
parties in the Roaring ‘20s. Osterley’s tea room came in at four pieces, but we
gave them extra credit for serving tea in the former stables.
Thursday. 10/23
Spent the morning doing laundry and a post office run in the neighborhood. In
the afternoon, on to Highgate. Passed the spot where Dick Whittington and his
cat heard the bells of St. Mary-Le-Bow calling him back to London, where he
became head of the draper’s guild and one of the more famous mayors of the
medieval city. Great view, would have called us back even without the bells.
Uphill through Highgate Cemetery, as famous for its state of ivy-covered decay
as for its rosters of the notable dead. Across Parliament Hill and Hampstead
Heath, with more great views of the city, ending up at Kenwood. another great
Robert-Adam-designed country house. Picked up some pastries in the scenic
village of Hampstead (Bethesda as done by Laura Ashley), then prowled the hills
of the town. Toured 2 Willow Road, built by Modern Brit architect (as in, that’s
why you’ve never heard of him) Erno Goldfinger, with the estate of his wife,
heiress to the Cross & Blackwell pickle fortune. A very cool house, but a very
bad architect. with a large responsibility for the uglier concrete highrises
built in London after WWII. Ah, if only he had lived in the apartments he built!
Great private collection of the Hampstead school of modern artists (Moore,
Hepworth, surrealists). Rested in the Elizabethan gardens of Fenton House. On
the way home shopped on the Tottenham Court Road. Liked Terence Conran’s store
Habitat, but went crazy at Heal’s, a houseware department store with the most
progressive design we’ve ever scene. We took notes of the furniture/ideas we
want to duplicate here.
Friday, 10/24
A fast early walk through Covent Garden, where we cased the tombs of theater
greats at St. Paul’s Covent Garden (Inigo Jones, again), and the stores in the
Rousse-ified former flower market. Tipped our hat to Eliza Doolittle, went
shopping at the Doc Martens Store. Michael was very disappointed (and Dan
confirmed his opinion) with the “Planet Hollywood” style of retail - the very
antithesis of what Doc Martens originally stood for. Back to the hotel, where we
checked out and caught the bus to Heathrow. Very nice duty free shopping,
including a convenient Harrod’s presence. An uneventful trip across the Channel.
getting from Charles de Gaulle by bus to the Garnier Opera House, then on to our
hotel in the Place d’ltalie, the Campanile Gobelins. Turned out to be similar to
a high rise Holiday Inn: clean, new, pleasant, inexpensive, with great water
pressure and an all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet with food worth eating.
Croissants. cold cuts, pate, yogur, cereal, fresh fruit, and an International
Herald Tribune gratis each morning. We approved. Also, free Cartoon Network, in
English! Sky News. Rupert Murdoch’s version of CNN, came and went, sometimes on
the same cycle through the stations. When received, it offered continuous
coverage of the Louise Woodward trial in Cambridge, the ONLY American news we
got. Odd to see the courthouse on TV in Paris, I used to work across the
street. The hotel’s neighborhood is well off the tourist track, with a pleasant
middle-class movie/department store/supermarket/shopping complex across the
street.
Saturday, 10/25
Okay. I caught a cold, which started surfacing on the flight and was full-blown by this morning. AAARGH! Never one to let a little physical reality interfere with the fact that we were In Paris, we caught the Metro up to the Ile de Ia Cite to check out the windows at La Chapelle. Walked around the outside of Notre Dame having our first experience of gypsy beggars (uggh). A pleasant stroll on the Ile St. Louis where we got our first (but certainly not last) tastes of glacee and pastry. Across the Seine and south via the funky modern Arab Institute, ancient Roman Arene du Lutece. and the street market on the Rue Mouffetard. I was bushed at this point, so Michael got me back to the hotel for a nap, and he took a walk around the neighborhood, getting as far afield as the Jardin du Luxembourg. Together we headed up to the Arc de Triomphe in the Place Charles de Gaulle taking in the fabulous views from the top. An ice cream on the Champs Elysees, then a stroll down it as far as the Place de Ia Concorde, which apparently pedestrians don’t cross at street level (so, who knew?).
Sunday, 10/26
Place Bastille and the new Opera House there, the Marais, Place des Vosges,
ending at the Carnavalet. This is the museum of the history of Paris. I think we
had such a great time at the Museum of London that we were let down by the
Carnavalet. The collection is superior; housed in palaces once lived in by
Madame de Sevigne, with rooms and artifacts from all ages of Paris from the
Romans forward. The interpretation, though, is inferior. More a lot of stuff
hung in a room and less explanation of how society worked and why. Perhaps if
we’d bought the English-language catalogue we would have had a better
experience. Cheered ourselves up at a cafe. then the escalators at the Pompidou.
The Center is closed for much needed maintenance. but we were able to enjoy the
view from the top of the escalator bay and the reconstructed studio of sculptor
Constantin Brancusi below. Sat by the Tingley/Nikki de St. Phalle
fountain/sculpture in the Place Stravinsky. and checked out the Fountain of the
Innocents. Las Halles was the main food market of Paris; it was replaced in the
early 1960’s by a major shopping mall complex anchored by a Toys-R-Us.
Unimpressed, despite some cool public sculpture, we went into St. Eustache.
where we were blown away by the Gothic beauty of the church. South through the
Palais Royale to check out Dan Buren’s column sculpture (Michael unimpressed,
Dan loved it - maybe you have to have seen other Buren?) and Cardinal
Richelieu’s former digs, then through the Jardin de Tuilleries. one of the most
beautiful parks we’ve ever seen, thank you, Le Notre. Ended at the Orangerie’s
fine collection of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist canvases, including
Monet’s waterlilies downstairs.
Monday, 10/27
Having skirted the Louvre yesterday. we figured was time to give it the full
treatment. Entering through I. M. P’s Pyramid, cased the Egyptian, Assyrian
(Code of Hammurabi), and French sculpture collections. I covered French and
Northern European painting, while Michael gave the ancient collections an
extensive view. Got back together for Islamic and Greek, hitting the Winged
Victory and Venus de Milo, and Italian painting, actually getting up close to
Mona, something I didn’t think was possible. Felt sorry for the Titians being
ignored on either side of her. Found a whole gallery of masterpieces by David,
and the apartments of Emperor Louis-Phillipe, still in their original splendor
after a century of use by the Ministry of Finance. What is it about Treasury
departments that results in great architecture? Couldn’t have anything to do
with holding the purse-strings, could it? Finally. found ourselves in the new
shopping mall under the Louvre, with an excellent food court, and great view of
the medieval foundations recently excavated around the base of the building, now
incorporated into the mall. Shopped on the Rue de Rivoli, walked along the Seine
by the Grand and Petit Palais, and past the Pont d’Alma. Seeing a crowd gathered
on the embankment around Bartholdi’s model for the flame of the Statue of
Liberty, and knowing that that could not be that big a draw, we hit ourselves on
the heads in recognition and joined the crowd to pay tribute to Princess Diana,
who had died there a few weeks before. Checked out the Art Deco magnificence of
the Trocadero Palace and across the Seine to the Tour Eiffel, where we postponed
going to the top given the long lines. Down the esplanade of the Champ de Mars
to the Ecole Militaire, where we caught the Metro back to Place d’ltalie.
Discovered Parisian supermarket shopping at the Champion SuperMarche, which we
found in the mall across the street.
Tuesday, 10/28
Decided to get out of town, so caught a RER train southwest to Versailles.
The palace is magnificent, but crowds so great (tour groups of Japanese,
Chinese, Americans, English, Italians) that we really couldn’t enjoy it. I
wonder it anyone can? What do you do with a place that demands great attention,
but is so popular that no one can spend more than a few minutes in any one room?
Then again, maybe the whole Louis XIV thing is so over the top that we wouldn’t
like it even if we had the place to ourselves. Seemed to be more than one gilded
cupid too many, if you know what I mean. Had a pleasant picnic and stroll in the
gardens, which were beautiful even this late in the season and with most of the
fountains off. Wandered up to the Grand Trianon, checked out the gardens
and palace. Found this much more sympatico, perhaps due to crowds, perhaps
because the Rococo appealed to us more than the Baroque? Over to the Petit
Trianon, which we like best of all - maybe Empire is our style? Caught the train
back through the Parisian suburbs to town, and spent the evening checking out
the mall across the street. Anchored by a branch of the grand magasin
(department store to us Yanks) Printemps, we were pleased by the whole
experience. Department stores in Paris remain what they once were in the U.S.
Not only do they sell clothing for women and men, but have large children’s,
housewares, toy, book, music, and even art supply departments. I had forgotten
why I used to like department stores in the first place, and why I so rarely go
to them now. The coup of the day was finding the Casino cafeteria in the mall,
which serves very good, standard Parisian fare at reasonable prices. Best of
all. if you have a good pointing finger and can cough out a “s’il vous plait”
you needn’t speak much French.
Wednesday, 10/29
Made a quick and respectful trip into St. Francis Xavier near the Invalides,
then on to see the Dome and Church, the two churches joined at the altar so that
the king could attend the same service as his retired troops but not actually be
in the same building with them. The complex includes the Musee des
Plans-Reliefs, a collection of models of French towns and fortifications that
had been classified secret until a few decades ago. The models themselves are
amazing, and well displayed in a recently renovated wing of the building. On to
the Musee des Egouts de Paris, or Sewer Museum. This is one of the best museums
of civil engineering we’ve ever seen. Physically in active sewer mains of Paris
by the Seine, the museum covers how cities grow, live and die by the ways they
provide fresh water and dispose of the aftermath. Galleries either are the sewer
mains or are in them, raised above the rushing effluent on steel grids. The
stench was not so bad, aIthough as we caught it on future days walking on the
streets we realized we had a souvenir in the new sensitivity of our noses. From
the sewers to the trains, as we covered the national art collection from
1850-1910 at the Musee DOrsay. We agreed that the adaptation of the train
station to galleries is interesting but overall not well done. Some incredible
Art Nouveau furniture. I loved the academic/salon art of the I 880’s. Michael
hated it. but we both enjoyed the models of the Opera by Gamier. Dan’s view:
Impressionist mastershlock, but great collection of paintings by Bazille, and of
course Whistler’s mom. Michael’s view: loved Cezanne’s still lives and van
Gogh’s self-portraits. Walked along the book stalls on the Seine, got into Notre
Dame and quickly into its crypt, and walked back north by way of the Hotel de
Ville. Had our second department store exposure at the BHV, which in addition to
the departments we found at Printemps is rightly famous for its home repair
section in the basement. Picture the most complete Home Depot ever seen in the
basement of Marshall Fields, and all next door to city hall downtown, and you’ve
got the picture. Amazing. Stopped by the Tour St. Jacques. where Pascal
experimented with physics, on our way home.
Thursday, 10/30
First stop was the Pantheon, where we found the Joan of Arc murals by Puvis de Chauvannes a bit much. Might have enjoyed the crypt of great Frenchmen more if we were more in tune with their history. Although there was a nice discussion of the Radical Republican Gambetta and why he is important, all of which we’ve forgotten, so there you go! Also, for a place of recognition of Frances great, seemed heavily biased towards the political, with few artists, writers, scientists, or other great cultural leaders. Where was Jules Verne? Coco Chanel? Jerry Lewis? I think Washington and London do the same job better in our respective National Portrait Galleries. Nave was taken up by a nice reconstruction of Foucault’s pendulum, which was first set up in that same space. Down the Boulevard St. German, to the Swiss Village. The guide book said this was built by the Swiss government for a turn-of-the-century Worlds Fair, and later moved into by artists and antique shops. Well, they need to do a re-run: the neighborhood has been replaced by I 970s high rises, with the antique shops relocated to their first floors. A disappointment, but a fun one. Braved the line to get upstairs to the top of the Tour Eiffel, then walked up to the Palais de Tokyo, an Art Deco palace from the Exhibition of 1933 that now houses the Museum of Modern Art of the City of Paris. A great collection, with contemporary good (retrospective of Gilbert and George, the Brit Pop artists of the 1980’s) and bad (what does a room with plants growing out of bubble gum on the gallery walls have to do with art?) art. Michael corrects me, he liked the plant room, as piece that showed “nature in your own living room”. Can you imagine Marion Barry budgeting for a museum for great modern art, and benefactors actually giving him a collection for it? I praise Paris if only for that. Not to mention the pastries and walkable streets, of course <smile>. Walked up the fashion centers of the Avenue Montaigne and Matignon to the Galerie Jerome de Nairmont. This private gallery had a small but representative show of contemporary artist Jeff Koons. I love him and hate him, but he drew us to this cool neighborhood, so I can’t complain. No giant billboards of him naked with his Italian porn star wife, but one or two of everything else: advertisement appropriations, basketballs and vacuum cleaners in vitrines, stainless steel casts of the banal, etc. Off down the ‘‘grand avenues” to the Opera Gamier, where we cased the lobby while refusing to line up for rush tickets for ‘Swan Lake’’. Don’t care if it was Nureyev’s choreography. it is a bad idea to wait in line when there is a city to be seen. Finally off to our third and greatest department store event, the Galeries de Lafayette, with its wonderful stained glass dome.
Friday, 10/31, Halloween
The retailers of France have discovered ‘‘Alloween”, but the people haven’t. Had all our cool kids costumes and stuff in the stores, and a fake pumpkin patch by the Tour Eiffel, but we didn’t see anyone in costume all day. Maybe the French will take to it someday; maybe it was all a marketing error. Took the Metro up to Parc La Villette, the former slaughterhouses that have been transformed into a Post-Modern park, science center, and music pavilion. Skipped going into the science and music buildings, but had a blast checking out Bernard Tschumi’s cool red “follies’’ scattered around the grounds. Checked out an impressive Ledoux barrier tax building from the 1780’s. Then down the Canal St. Martin to the Place Republique and a major Metro haul across town to Auteuil. This former suburb has a great collection of Art Nouveau and Deco apartment buildings. It also houses, down a green alley, the Fondation Le Corbusier, where the Modern architect is worshipped in two of his urban villas, one of which is open to the public. Lots of space, much of which could not be put to a practical purpose. Honestly, compared unfavorably to Goldfinger’s 2 Willow Road in London, although I never much liked Carpenter Art Center at Harvard, Le C’s best known work in the U.S., either. Then, across the Seine to Parc Andre Citroen. This was an auto assembly plant that has been reborn as the most beautiful park we saw on our trip. From the Seine the site is crossed by industrial rail yards and surrounded by factories and office buildings. The park is a green oasis in this space. a major grass square in the center surrounded by theme gardens (silver. bamboo, water, scent, etc.), and topped by a large fountain display between two modern glass conservatories. Very cool.
Saturday, 11/1, All Saints’ Day
British Air had gotten us tickets on a bus ride of Paris, too. We decided to try
it on our last day, and see if it would be as useful as our London jaunt had
been. Unfortunately, this was sort of a bummer: the kind of tour where they
repeat the same banal facts (“The Eiffel Tower is made of steel and took many
workers to erect’’) in five different languages, then stop for 15 minutes at
each site so you can get your picture taken in front of said object. We bailed
at Notre Dame and checked out the Latin Quarter, the outside of the Roman baths
at the Musee de Cluny, the Church of St. Julien le Pauvre, a modern tapestry
show at the Sorbonne, and the Jardin du Luxembourg (another great). Had another
opportunity to praise the installation of coin-operated, self cleaning toilets
on the streets of Paris, as Michael experienced an urgent need (he made me put
that in here. really!). We walked south past the Observatoire de Paris, where
the Cassini family initiated the first scientific survey of any nation, and
deprived the king of a good chunk of what had been thought to be France (it had
been mapped too many degrees out into the Atlantic), Another Ledoux barrier at
Square Nicolas Ledoux, where we discovered that under our feet were most of the
Peristan bodies which Hausman had uprooted in relocating cemeteries out of the
city center 100 years ago. Parc Montsouris is a lovely park in the blue-collar
neighborhoods (but still good pastry!) in the southern part of the city. The
park flows across a major road into the Cite Universitaire, a neighborhood of
nationel dormitories for students tram foreign countries who come to attend the
universities of Paris. Two more Le Corbusier buildings, both horrible. Fun. From
the southern edge of the city a Metro ride almost to the northern border, where
we climbed the bluffs of Montmarte and entered Sacre Coeur. the church the
French built in expiation of their sins, which had clearly caused their loss in
the Franco-Prussian War. Ya gotta love ‘em! Tourist city, but fun. A walk south
took us back to the Opera Gamier, south on the Rue de Ia Paix to the Place
Vendome, where we checked out the Ritz lobby to complete our homage to the late
Princess of Wales. A farewell walk down the Rue de Rivoli and through the Palais
Royale.
Sunday, 11/2
Up early for the only real problem we had on our whole trip: getting back to the
States. Western Europe was cloaked with fog, and you’d think we Yanks had never
invented radar. British Airways routed us from Paris to pick up a transAtlantic
connection from Heathrow to Duiles, and demonstrated just what a horrible state
bureaucracy they are. Michael said it best: ‘‘You’d think the British would be
used to fog.’’ In any case, our plane was an hour late coming into Paris, then
we sat on the ground for an hour and a half, so we were three hours late out of
Paris. Of course, we missed our connection in Heathrow, and took turns waiting
in line for an hour for an understaffed Brit Air desk to figure out that we
would be on the 4PM flight to Dulles that I had seen with one look at the
monitor. Thank goodness for duty free shopping in Heathrow, which cheered us up
a bit. A pleasant flight on a Boeing 777, which has to be the most comfortable
jet I’ve ever been on. On arrival in Dulles we waited until all the bags had
been picked up before finding the British Air agent with the tote board that
said that we shouldn’t have bothered waiting at all: our bags had never left
London. Given that we were on 4AM Paris time in a 9PM Washington time zone we
filled out our little form, scowled, and took the bus into town. Our bags
arrived at my place only slightly the worse for wear late the next night. Given
everything. we were lucky to have the problems happen at journey’s end, rather
than beginning.
All in all, a fabulous trip! Mjchael’s one word summary of the food of Londoners: “Starch!” Winner of the contest to see who could require the use of the most dishes to serve a simple cup of tea: the Victoria and Albert Museum, with seven. GoaI to eat as many Parisian pastries as possible: met.
