Day 4 - Hanging with the Hunchback and the Guy Without an Ear

Hey Team,

Wanted to take a second and tell everyone thanks so much for checking in and leaving your comments.  It'd be worth it even if I was the only one reading it, but it's kinda cool knowing yall are experiencing this with me as a go.  I appreciate the support.

Busy day today, especially for one that got off to kind of a late start (left the hotel around 10) due to a technical issue concerning an audio tour I was trying to download for the day.  I actually got up around 6 (woke up and couldn't go back to sleep is a better description) and did the blog for yesterday.

While I was waiting I did my first traditional backpacker ritual, "The washing of dirty clothes in the sink."  Since I only have one bag, I either do this, or test whether nudity is allowed only on the beaches here in France.  After giving it some serious consideration, I went with the former.

After leaving, I hit the metro and went to the world famous Notre Dame Cathedral on Ile de la Cite, which is in the center of Paris. Essentially, this is where Paris started.  The Cathedral location used to be a Roman Temple to Jupiter before being razed and built as the Pinnacle of Christendom in France, among other things.  It is probably the most famous Gothic structure in the world.

I made my way in, and was blown away by what I saw.  Before I got there, I thought, "Great, a really nice church", but once I got in, no exaggeration, I think it is the most powerful and beautiful building I've ever been in.  Maybe I'll say that 10 more times on this trip, but it was awesome.  I just kind of stood there open jawed for a few minutes.  Really cool moment for me.

These pictures don't do it justice, but I'll post them anyway.  The sheer size of this thing is unlike any church I've ever seen.  The architects did a good job of making you feel small compared to God, which was the point, of course.

First creative picture of the trip.  I thought this silhouette of the statues was cool against the stained glass.

More shots of the knave of the church.  This is a real estate agent's dream.  High ceilings and an open floor plan.  As soon as you get past the electric bills, you're golden.

Here is the shot from outside. Quick little word of advice for all you future travelers:  Even with a Texas drawl, Parisians do not think it's cute when you walk up and call one of their most enduring national symbols No-ter Dame.  The Fighting Irish would not be pleased.

This a shot of one of the doors into Notre Dame.  The dude holding his head is St. Denis, the patron saint of Paris.  In 250 AD while trying to convert the locals to Christianity, he ticked off the ruling Romans and they had him put to death.  According to legend, after the beheading, Denis got up, picked up his newly detached noggin', and walked away, finding a different place to die instead. This accomplished two important things:  It aided in converting the Paris region and subsequently France to Christianity, and it also made for a cool new costume to wear at Halloween.

Took the tour to the bell tower.  No Hunchback, but I did find this guy here just hanging out.  Someone said he is the most photographed Gargoyle in the world.  As I assume is the case with most snooty French model types, he totally blew me off when I tried to get his autograph.

Here's me atop the Bell Tower with my new bud.  We instantly hit it off, because as you can see, he too is freakishly double jointed.

This is a shot from the top of the Bell Tower.  You can see the Eiffel Tower on the left and of course the River Seine below as well.  In my opinion, these were way better views of Paris than from the Eiffel Tower the other day.

Here is the back of the church.  If you look at the structures right below the dome you will see the famous Flying Buttresses which supported the building.  This allowed the architects to do away with completely solid walls to support the weight and instead include the beautiful stained glass, which helped create an ethereal effect provided by the light that now illuminated the inside of the church.



From here I continued walking around the city center.  A little farther down the river I came to the next really famous Gothic Church, Sainte-Chapelle.  Whereas Notre Dame took over 200 years to be completed, this one was knocked out in 6 years.  This church was finished in 1248 and housed the supposed Crown of Thorns from Christ's crucification.  This will mean more after the pictures, but the King of France paid over twice as much for the Crown than he did for this entire church.  Crazy! I could describe the church but I'll let the pictures do the talking. . ..

There are 15 of these and they cover 6,500 square feet, almost 4 times the size of my townhome!  Each little square has a different scene from the Bible.  There are 1,100 different panes in all.

My guess is the Holy Fathers had a strict "No ball playing in the house" policy.  Bummer.

This is the back end of the church.  It has the same Rose shaped stained glass that Notre Dame has.









From here I went to Musee d'Orsay, which houses the greatest collection of Impressionist painting in the world.  I do not claim to be an art connoisseur, but Impressionism has always been my favorite.  I've been to Chicago a few times and I always go to the Art Institute there to look at their displays.  I was as excited to go to this museum as I will be the Louvre (which is a lot by the way).

Not the most symmetric picture but this was the inside of the museum.  I thought it was great and I really saw the connection between the paintings it housed and the building itself.  For me Impressionist painting is about lighter colors that kinda pop off the canvas and I thought the building did the same.








Auguste Renoir has always been my favorite painter, but below is my favorite painting of the day.  It's by Vincent van Gogh, who actually is probably more a post Impressionist, but either way, I went by this one and it really caught my eye.  Art and girls:  You can't always explain what it is about them that you like, but regardless, you know you do.



Headed home after that.  My feet are killing me, and every muscle in both my legs is sore from the walking.  I was pretty tired and ended up crashing for about an hour and a half at the hotel.  Afterwards, I went to get some food at a little cafe near where I'm staying.  I had lamb with broccoli, minty tasting herbs, green beans, and carrots.  Good stuff.

For dessert, I saw this item which was cheese (yogurt looking) and honey essentially.  I was sitting next to these two ladies who were traveling together and they recommended it.  Peggy was from Vancouver, Washington and Beth was my first fellow Texan from Dallas. Lovely ladies both.

As I learned upon eating it, the cheese they use there is a little different than the fat free Kraft original I've been putting down at home for a while.  Nice way to end the evening.  Tomorrow, provided good weather is the Luxembourg Gardens and the Champs Elysees.

Day 3 - Versailles - The Sugar Land of Paris

Hi Team,

Well it's my first full day in Paris.  As it turns out, I was so excited about finally making it to the city, that I decided to immediately leave it the next morning and go to the Palace of Versailles.  It is in the 'burbs which obviously accounts for how these royalty folks could afford and build such a nice house.  Property taxes are probably a killer though.

Overall, it's quite a nice place to live I would think:  Wood parquet floors (no berber carpet to be found, however, not even in the bedrooms, which was a turnoff for me honestly), marble walls, gold inlaid crown molding, and a couple of pictures to hang on the wall.  Not quite as good as my living room shots of Lou Gehrig but passable. Unfortunately, I didn't see an indoor basketball hoop either so I had to take points off for that, but in the end, I could see the appeal.

In all seriousness, this place is huge.  I mean monstrous.  There are 700 rooms in this place.  And I don't mean ones that could be a small study or a closet.  I mean you could park 10 cars in there.  It's no wonder the French people got fired up and beheaded some of these folks.  And I'm only talking about the house right now.

If you go outside, you get to the Gardens with a capital G.  If you walked from the palace to the end of it (or at least what I thought was the end) it would take a solid 10 minutes, and walking the other two cardinal directions would take you probably twice as long.

I took the Metro out from the city center to Versailles around 9 or so in the morning.  It was about a 20-30 train ride.  While I was getting tickets I ran into a couple by the name of Fred and Cheryl Wood from Tuscon who were heading the same way. We started talking and hung out the entire train ride and up to the Palace while waiting in line.  They are wonderful people and I really enjoyed the visit.  Here is a shot of us after we finally got past security:

After that I started my trip inside.  They are constantly doing restorations on the palace.  Here is a shot of the before and after.

This is the backyard.  I spoke to the groundsman and he claims he can mow, weed eat, edge, and blow in an hour, but I'm skeptical.

Obligatory shot of me photoshopped into a picture of Versaille to "prove" I'm there.

To give you an idea of how big the Garden was, this is an absolutely beautiful lake that was on the side of the house that I had no idea was there until I walked up on it.

Me taking a shot of myself in the famous Hall of Mirrors.

This is the Queen's Bedchamber.  19 kids were born here, all in public so as to validate the legitimacy of the heir. Turns out they sell the exact same bed at Ikea for those of you who are interested.

My favorite room in the Palace:  The Hall of Battles which is over 30 paintings of this size in the largest  room in Versailles at 120 meters long.  In it are depictions of all of the famous battles in French History.  This is kind of like their trophy room.  Over a 1500 year period or so, France has won the mythical national championship 35 times.

After a good 6 hours round trip, I headed back to the hotel and rested for a bit.  Grabbed some ice cream and went off to get some food a little later.  I went to this place called Le Camille which was a little cafe in the heart of a section of town called Marais.  It is near the Bastille and St. Paul Cathedral.  I had a rumsteak and more butter with mashed potatoes.  And for dessert this berry thing with a crumbled topping crust.  It was not my famous chocolate taco (you who have been fortunate enough to experience it know what I'm talking about) but it was good nonetheless.

I was seated next to a couple from near Vancouver, Doug and Anne, and we hung out and had dinner together.  This is turning into my favorite part of the trip in the early going.  I get to meet a fair number of people who I'd never meet otherwise and visit.  It's really quite nice.

This is a shot of a typical intersection near the Bastille. Controlled chaos at it's finest.    

And here is a shot of the Bastille.  This is where the famous prison used to be that was stormed by the French common folk in 1789, which is considered the beginning of the French Revolution. 


So that concluded my first full day in Paris.  The only issues I'm having right now is finding enough time to do everything and still get some sleep.  Good problem to have I think and will hit the trail again tomorrow.  Homann out.

Day 2 - Paris Baby!!!

Alright folks, after 23 hours of travel time, consisting of 4 planes, 3 security checkpoints, 2 airlines, 1 being pulled to the side to unpack and check my bag, and 0 delays (Thank God), I arrived at Charles de Gaulle Airport on the northwest side of town around 1:30 PM local time (7 hours ahead of CST).

First order of business was to get from the airport to my hotel in the city center.  I won't go into the details here but let's just say my lack of knowledge regarding the French language combined with my superior sense of direction made for a little longer than normal trek than I was hoping.  However, it all worked out in the end and I figured out (the hard way) how to navigate the rail system in town.

I made it to my hotel, Grand Hotel Levique, on Rue Cler, which is about a 10 minute walk from the River Seine.  I'm staying in a single room by myself which looks like this.  Shared bathroom and shower down the hall (which isn't as bad as you'd think).  Kinda like a poor man's Motel 6.

Actually, it's not bad at all and the location is wonderful.  Rue Cler is a very busy street with shops and cafes and fruit stands all up and down it.  Very Frenchish (new word alert!) and I'm very happy with my choice.



After settling in (and recouping for a few minutes from the trip) I decided my first order of business would be food (at a little place called Cafe du Marche) and then on to the Eiffel Tower.

At the restaurant I met an older couple from Denmark who spoke English, and we chatted for quite a while.  They were really nice and it was great just to talk with someone.   This will be the challenge of the trip I believe:  Going long periods of time without somebody needing to tell me it's time to play a round of "The Quiet Game".

Moving on to the Tower, I went close to twilight and went to the second of three levels.  I decided it wasn't that big of a deal to go to the top (save it for another time perhaps).  Lines weren't bad and I made it to my spot within 30 or so minutes.  The second tower is a little under 400 feet high (all the way to the top is 900 ft) and the whole thing weighs over 10,000 tons.  I really lucked out with the weather.  It's a solid 70+ here during the day and a nice 60 or so at night with a breeze.  The views were outstanding and I hung out till after nightfall to see the "City of Light" when it was doing its thing.

Here's a shot of me and if you squint, you can see the dome of Notre Dame Cathedral parallel with my right shoulder.

Here's a shot at dusk of the River Seine.  As you can tell, Paris is essentially a less prettier Houston.

This is a shot after I decided that I didn't need the elevator and would just walk down to the ground level.  Apparently, P90X does not do a good job of preparing one for stair climbing.  For those of you who will get this I did not quote "Bring It!" unquote.

This is from the bottom of the tower looking up.  I just thought it looked cool.  Useless FYI about the Eiffel Tower #3:  There are 336-600 Watt sodium lamps used to illuminate the tower (hence the yellow color)

And this is a shot of The Ol' Girl from a distance.  Quite impressive I think.
















Quite a first day for me.  Paris, French food, Eiffel Tower:  these were all impressive things, but as always seems to be the case, some of the most spectacular events in one's life are also the least expected.  While walking home, I decided to get something to snack on in my room and stopped into a small store, when out of nowhere, fate ran me into this:

Chocolate and Caramel in one cereal!?  I may never leave France.

Day 1 - Houston to Chicago to Boston to. . . still not Paris

Alright folks, it's go time. Day 1 started off with my parents and Granny (yes that's her name) coming by to drop me off at the airport and say they're goodbyes. . .  The whole family has been very supportive of me shirking my responsibilities.  In fact Granny just got back from her own 6 week vacation where she basically covered the entire western half of the US including Alaska.  So she's all for it

Mom just wants me to have fun and enjoy myself and Dad was on board as soon as we promised to do a better job of cleaning out the lint catcher in the dryer while I was gone.  See, everybody wins.

Here's a quick shot of my roommate, Brady (the photographer from the first night) right before I left..  Easy ladies.  First off, let's not lose our focus and remember why we're here:  Me.  Second, he's a little younger than I am, so I've taken him under my wing and taught him everything I know about girls and relationships. . . so he's basically screwed in that arena.  You've been warned.




While these are great pictures, this also speaks to the excitement that I encountered on my first day traveling.  As it turns out I had a flight to Chicago.  Then a flight to Boston.  Followed by a three hour layover followed by my first trip over the Atlantic to . . . Reykjavik, Iceland.  Yes, I decided to splurge and pay the big bucks to be transported overseas by the highly reputable and world renowned IcelandAir.  Word of advice, pay the extra couple of hundred bucks and buy the direct flight.  I flew four different planes and went through security three times.  Not worth it.

Quick thought on how our friends up North approach airplane building.  For one, posture is apparently very important to these folks.  I was actually almost leaning forward when I sat down.  This normally isn't a problem because the seats tilt . . unless you were in my seat which would lean back but then pop right back up because the catch was broken.  So for five hours in the middle of the night when I should be getting some sleep, I got to sit ramrod straight the whole time.  Worst. . . Flight . . Ever (No joke).

At this point I'm working on 2 hours of sleep in the last 24 hours, but it's all going to be worth it because when  we touch down and deboard the plane I will have achieved my goal of stepping foot onto another continent.

                   Mission Accomplished!!!:

Turns out Reykjavik looks a lot like Detroit.  Who knew?.

Day 0 - Houston, TX: The Gear

First post of my new blog covering my trip to Europe which begins tomorrow. I have completed my final round of packing and am ready to go. I'm taking only one bag and a small daypack for after I drop my stuff off at wherever I'm staying. Here is a picture of everything I am bringing (keyboard not included).