More Chateaux!

1) Chateau de Vincennes
2) Robert on battlement overlooking Chateau
3) More view of Chateau

4) Back in town, fountain in front of the Comedie Francaise

Allo! Allo!

It’s us (yet again!) – you’d think I’d get tired of this, wouldn’t you? But TOO BAD; I don’t! (Hi, Mom! Miss you and love you!)

I think our sleep banks must be overdrawn, because we’ve been sleeping like we NEVER do at home! (R says that’s what holidays are all about, but I tend to disagree…) Got up around 8:30 to another beautiful day. (We are SO lucky to have this incredible weather!) Breakfast (would you believe that we are almost finished with our first jar of jam? At home, that would take us YEARS! Must be the croissants…) and showers (GREAT shower here; great water pressure and plenty of hot water) and then out by about 9:30 a.m. and heading to the Chateau de Vincennes.

We actually went through the Bois de Vincennes last spring when we were here, but didn’t have time enough to visit the Chateau … so…We took the RER to Gare du Nord where we caught the No. 46 bus which wound its way around the Canal Saint Martin and headed east out of town. Passed some beautiful buildings; one in particular that R wants to know more about, but naturally all of our guidebooks stop at the Paris border! Finally made our way through the park and to the Chateau. It’s quite something. Served as a royal residence two times through the years, as well as military barracks and prison! Did the tour (LOTS of steps; and WHY are they ALWAYS UP??) then headed back to town. To be honest, it is no where near as splendid as Versailles or even the Louvre, but a very good history of how it was built and easy to defend.

From there, we decided to take the metro back into town and head to Monoprix on Avenue de l’Opera to pick up a few groceries (if it seems we’re always doing that, it’s probably because we are – besides, remember that you have to schlep back to the flat what you buy, which makes multiple small loads make sense!) Did a nice shopping (although I’m sure that the folks who work there must have thought I was NUTS, because I’m so weird about laundry detergent! There was detergent left in the flat, but it has a VERY strong perfume smell; really sets my allergies off! So here I am opening bottles of laundry detergent and smelling …) Fortunately for us, the bus stop is right outside the door of Monoprix and it’s a straight shot (albeit circuitous) back to the flat.

Got everything unpacked and put away and then made bresaola salad’s with rocket lettuce and parmesan for lunch; GREAT, but will now need to head back to our Italian deli for more! At this point, we discovered that our outgoing email system through Caltech wasn’t working! R managed to find a work-around, but it feels so odd, after days of being so close to everyone, to suddenly find that you can receive but you can’t send out!! R also decided to start making spaghetti sauce. I wanted to see if I could find some French hair products that I use, so I headed out for a walk down to Cluny and along Blvd. St. Germaine. Did find the products at a salon; and yes, they are cheaper than they are in the U.S., although with the exchange rate, they’re pretty close! (Also found a 4-pack of Magnum Classics – Katy, they’re GREAT!) Got back to a terrific smelling flat – whew! All that garlic and basil! Yum! Too bad we were eating left-overs tonight! BTOR; but even better the second time around!

After dinner we decided that, because today is Wednesday, we would go to the Louvre, which is open until 10 p.m. Nice bus ride – it gets dark around 5-ish, and everything looks so lovely all lit up! Planned to head to the middle-eastern collection, but were waylayed by a dance performance! It was amazing! Watched a group of ballet dancers doing modern dance in several of the court yards around the sculpture! Interesting music; even more interesting costumes and props – fascinating performance. We’re not sure if it was a “real” performance or a practice; could have been either, as there were professional lights and taping going on. At any rate, by the time that was over, we decided that middle-eastern art would be rather anticlimactic after that, so we came home and here we are in for the night!!

Take care all, and, a demain!

Love,
m