France

Paris

The train to Paris is wonderful! It leaves on time, it is quiet, everyone has a comfortable seat, and it sails along at a zillion miles an hour! Wow!

Since we are going to Paris to pick up the car, we decide to spend a few days here before heading south. We will visit France now, rather than in July, even though the weather may be unsettled. We get very lucky --we get five days of beautiful sunny weather, and even the Parisians comment how unusually warm and wonderful it is!

We hole up in a hotel near the north train station. We plan to move to a more central location, but once we find the bakery, the laundry, the produce market, the metro train stops, etc., we just kind of stay put. Besides the manager is very friendly, and helps us learn French.

We had concluded in Asia that we were just getting too old to learn new languages. Try as we might, we just couldn't really get much beyond a few words of vocabulary. We bought books, listened to tapes, and had people help us with pronunciation. But it seemed that a few hours later whatever we had worked so hard to memorize was long gone. At this point, about the only phrases that we can still say in every language (Japanese, Thai and Chinese Mandarin) are hello and thank you.

But wait! European languages are very different! We quickly learn the rules for pronunciation. We can read the alphabet! We can sound things out! We often can recognize the common roots with English and guess meanings. With the ability to speak and see the words, and quickly learn meanings, we find that we can pick up enough to get around very quickly. Hey, maybe we aren't getting so old after all?

We spend many days in Paris. The parks, the walks, the museums, the cafes, ....

Despite their reputation, we find the French to be quite hospitable. Rarely is anyone curt (okay, the postal worker was). Instead we find a relaxed, comfortable city where people seem to be genuinely enjoying life. Again we draw the comparisons to Asia, where the Chinese seem to be intensely working, shouting, pushing and shoving, at least on the city streets (they are quite generous and kind when you talk with them). Here, people seem content, like the old man on the park bench who mastered the technique of getting chickadees and sparrows to alight on one of his hands, while he feeds them a single grain pinched between the thumb and forefinger of his other hand. He gently moves his arms in the air as if in choreography, at times having three or four birds perched on his hand to receive their seed.

Louvre

Rod has been to the Louvre before, but Fran hasn't. He remembers it as overwhelming. You have to just visit a small portion, or the whole thing begins to be a blur. Of course, ignorance of art history doesn't help any...

Since we spent some time in other museums viewing Renaissance paintings, we decide to first look at the other exhibits. Well, not quite. Fran gets through the door and makes a beeline for the Mona Lisa. While it is a remarkable painting, neither of us can really tell why it is so much more remarkable that the other thousand paintings at the museum. It has its own place at the end of a hallway, and is housed within protective glass. A huge crowd jostles for position in front of it, and a myriad of cameras flash against the glass (yeah, the photographers among you know what those pictures will look like). Among all of the beautiful art, the crowd seems more like it is watching a circus act.

I won't go through the inventory of everything at the museum. You can do that yourself at the Louvre’s online site. http://www.louvre.fr/louvrea.htm

We particularly enjoyed Napoleon’s apartments, and a magnificent series of enormous paintings by Ruben for the Medici family (French and Italian royalty), but really there is just too much to single out anything in particular. Fran wanted to see some Impressionist painters, but those rooms were closed when we visited.

We bought unlimited transit passes for Paris, which allow us to hop on and off any bus, metro train, or suburban train. We end up taking full advantage of this, as we sometimes hop one way and then decide to backtrack again.

Champ des Ellyses

Possibly the most famous street in the world, we find perfect weather, even a bit hot for a stroll. Nice slow walk, enjoying the fountains, the plazas, the parks. Relaxing, calming, romantic, pretty...

Music

Rod keeps looking for music concerts. Ideally, we will find an outdoor concert of world music (e.g. African drums, song and dance). But we haven't found any yet. France has a sizable African immigrant population, so there is good world music, but nothing going on right now. We do stumble across one of the best drummers Rod has ever heard in a park during a walk. We had already walked for hours, and agreed to start heading back. But we could hear the faint drum in the distance and Fran knew without a word that we would veer in that direction. Over a rise, around a bend, and across a field we found the drums. One African was surrounded by several Europeans and another African in a drum circle. The Europeans tried to just lay out a basic beat, and the leader provided all of the interest. Everyone, including all of the other drummers, was really just there to hear the leader. No one attempted to take the lead, because there simply was no point. No one could even come close to picking up what he was doing. We sit in the grass mesmerized. Eventually, the drumming stops and everyone just drifts away...

Notre Dame

Wow. We didn't really fully appreciate Gothic architecture until we saw the Notre Dame in Paris. It invented entirely new construction techniques, in particular the flying buttress to support the heavy dome roof. Fran was fascinated by the gargoyles out on the roof. There are a few weird wicked little creatures looking down on the people below. But the real beauty of Notre Dame is inside. We came back on Sunday to attend a Gregorian mass. We arrived early to hear another beautiful musical prayer service. A single female voice rang through the cathedral, sounding very much like the popular recordings of Enya but without any electronics. For thirty minutes we were treated to the song of prayer, before the mass started.

The mass itself was full of more ritual than we have seen in Catholic masses in the US. It was quite moving. Every action is done with considerable ceremony. There is incense to chase away evil spirits, and it is used liberally as the priest enters with the cross, and especially during the blessing of the Eucharist. The chanting, the song, and the Italian incantations all combine to a melodious drone. Mostly, the building just takes every sound, every sight, and every motion and amplifies it. Fran in particular is moved by the service.

Eiffel Tower

The tower was constructed as a temporary exhibit for the 1889 World's Fair. Many considered it to be very ugly, and it was only allowed because it was temporary. But somehow, it is still there, and the tourist lines are an hour long!

Rod found the tower fascinating because of the engineering and construction. There aren't any complicated, large pieces of metal in the whole tower. Instead, it is just a bolted together collection of simple pieces of angle iron, steel plate, and such. Eiffel was truly an engineering genius, as he devised an enormous structure that barely touches the ground at the four corners, and yet every element is simple in design. It is the combination of all the simple elements just so that makes it strong.

Ascetically, the appeal of the Eiffel tower, other than the spire itself, is that it seems to float above the ground. The first level of the tower is not at ground level, but instead nearly 200 feet up, and the tower seems to rise from it. The lower 200 feet is mostly just open plaza, with the four legs of the tower so far apart that they seem insignificant and it the tower doesn't really seem to start on the ground.

We stand in line for an hour to get tickets, then another line to get on the elevator to the first level, and then another line to get to the top. We get to watch the cityscape change from day to night, as the sun drops and the lights some on. By the time we have waited through the lines to get to the top, it is dark and the city is glowing with lights. We have already been in Paris a few days, so we can pick out many of the sights. But it is a big city and most of it is uncharted territory. To help tourists, signage names all of the major buildings and attractions. Then comes the long line waiting to go back down. But the view was worth it.

Ste Chapelle

Near the Notre Dame, we tour another Gothic masterpiece. We hook up with a great tour guide, enhancing the experience immensely. The chapel, which was the royal chapel, served the purpose of establishing the authority of Louis IX. The main chapel is impressive enough, but upstairs is the royal chapel, in which Louis invited only important guests. The 13th century stained glass forms a curtain around the walls and above the altar. The detail, the colors, and the construction are all breathtaking. Louis IX wanted to establish his own power, so the windows include stories for each of the books of the Old Testament, with the book of Kings moved to the end and followed by one additional window for Louis himself. Also, the altar contains sacred treasures owned by the King (including stunning jewels and supposedly the Crown of Thorns worn by Christ). The whole display is designed to convey the power of Louis --to reach the sacred treasures, one must ascend a small circular staircase up from the altar. Louis IX clearly wanted to communicate that he was to be respected and feared like a God, and he was successful in that.

Conciergerie, and musings on war...

The Conciergerie was once a royal palace, but later became the offices of the government administrators. As these administrators gained power, criminals were brought to the adjacent Palace of Justice, and incarcerated in the dungeons of the Conciergerie. Just after the French Revolution, it was used to torture the "enemies of the revolution". As we travel the world, so much history begins to come alive. We read about the French revolution, and knew that the republic was on and off again a few times over a century before becoming a stable democracy. Indeed, very few democracies were created out of whole cloth like the US, without periodic interruption by coups, revolutions, or invasions. The chaotic process such as we see in South America today is the norm, requiring decades or even centuries to establish a lasting democracy.

One thing that we have been struck with is the violent history of Europe. It is one thing to study it in school, and see the borders of countries changing over time. It is quite another to see the bloody paintings of one conquest after another, glorifying war, and the monuments to battles and war heroes. As we tour palaces and castles, we read about the bounty and the slaves they took from the vanquished areas. Huge fortunes are amassed from exploiting the defeated enemies, and then the fortunes are spent to fund the next war. Later, we will even come across a monument in Rome celebrating the sacking of Jerusalem and the casting of the Jews to the corners of the world (including creation of the Rome Ghetto, currently the place on earth with the longest unbroken residence of Jews since they were brought to Rome as slaves). We find this all quite troubling.

Perhaps this is why there is quite a gulf between European and American thinking on war right now. There is a very fundamental difference on the approach to fighting terrorism, for example. America believes that war is one tool that must be used against the terrorists. The difference of opinion in Europe is striking. Most believe that Europe has moved beyond war due to its horrific past, that the futility of war has been repeatedly demonstrated, and that violence only creates more violence. They see commonality between the Israeli strategy in Palestine, and the American strategy dealing with terrorists. I think many Americans would agree that Israeli war making in Palestine is counterproductive, creating new zealots with every attack. Many Europeans feel the same about war in general, including the current American war on terrorism. (Bush's alarmist statements are worrisome here, because he sounds very scared without knowing what to do. In trying to whip up global support for the war on terrorism, his rhetoric is backfiring here, as people get scared of what Bush will do next. Europe learned how to deal with terrorists a couple of decades ago and believes it generally has it under control, and sees the current American angst as stemming from inexperience.)

This also explains the reluctance of Europe to resolve the conflicts in Bosnia, for example, and the great mismatch in spending on national defense between American and other members of NATO. Behind the loose coalitions, for example in the Gulf War, lies a very fundamental difference. America believes that war is regrettably one tool of foreign policy to be used when all else fails, while Europe believes that war is not a solution but instead creates more problems. This difference is striking in editorial opinions in major newspapers and in statements from government officials (not just some vocal liberal minority). America needs to realize that increasingly as it goes to war it will go it alone, as our allies lean on other methods such as the World Court and the International Criminal Court, all of which the US has blocked.

Versailles, Chartres

Versailles

The Chateau of Versailles is one of the more famous places in France. Just outside of Paris, it was greatly expanded by King Louis XIV. The whole place is designed to demonstrate the power of the King. The building is still in good repair; however, the furnishings were ransacked in the French Revolution and sold at auction, so most of the rooms are empty today.

Louis XIV went to great lengths to show his power. Our tour guide did a great job of explaining the processes. The King controlled all power. For example, it was not possible even for a shopkeeper in a distant city to expand without a permit signed by the King. This created a system of patronage. Each little district had a nobleman who knew how to get favors from the King and for a fee would take on such matters. He would then connect to other middlemen through an elaborate hierarchy eventually reaching a courtier of the King. Everyone got paid along the way. The system was much like lobbyists today. The King didn't have to pay for any of them, and had literally thousands of courtiers seeing to the country’s business. The King controlled the influence of each courtier through elaborate rituals. For example, every day the courtiers in favor were allowed (and expected) to attend the rising of the King, and his retiring. They would wait for hours for the privilege of standing to see him pass. The King let it be known who was in favor by arranging who was allowed in, and in what order. Rooms were constructed so that outsiders could see who was getting the favor of the King and who wasn't, and those who fell from favor were quickly without their source of income.

Much of the Chateau is designed to accommodate this process, including a progression of waiting rooms, each more selective than the previous. Also, the King's life was very much a public life. He had very little private time. While dressing, eating, attending chapel, and so forth, he was on public display. Courtiers were expected to always be in attendance. About ten thousand courtiers lived in the Chateau (some in rooms the size of closets), each jockeying to gain the King's favor.

The Hall of Mirrors is built along the entire back of the Chateau, so that visitors get the impression of a very large hall. To see the King, they walk the length of the Chateau on one side, through a series of impressive rooms, and then turn and face the very long Hall of Mirrors, which is full of paintings of great victories of the King, to further emphasize his power. A visiting King from Italy once remarked that the Hall must be a mile long (it isn't, but it certainly had the desired effect!).

A very formal garden and lake extends out from the back terraces of the Chateau. The King could watch on the lake while his private Navy sailed up and down (it is a big lake!).

Chartres

After visiting Versailles, we began to drive out towards the Loire Valley. We happened past Chartres, and saw a big Gothic building on a hill, so we stopped. We had to park at the base of the hill and try to wind our way up the narrow streets to find it. Eventually we did, and it was well worth it. We were at the Chartres Notre Dame.

We had visited the Paris Notre Dame earlier this week, and were not quite prepared for Chartres. After seeing one magnificent Gothic cathedral, we just didn't expect to find another one of the same magnitude. The Chartres Notre Dame is.

We arrived late in the day, so the cathedral was nearly empty. We were able to explore its quiet and magnificence in solitude. Fran began to really think deeply about what brings people to create such monuments to their Gods. After the shrines of Japan, the Wats of Thailand, and the temples of China, the cathedrals of France are part of a larger picture of man's need to reach out to his God. While the holy books of most religions include cautions against building false idols to worship, there is a human need to connect to God in this way.

After visiting the Notre Dame, as we descend the hill we poke through narrow cobblestone alleys on our way down. The buildings are all stone, and the streets just 5-8 feet wide. But this is not an old town recreated for tourists, but instead is still an active part of the city. We peek in the windows of one charming looking place. Inside are candlelit tables with fresh linens and flowers, with couples having a nice meal and sipping wine. The walls are stone, and the ceiling is low, seemingly carved from stone and buttressed with stone arches and heavy wooden beams. A large open fireplace heats the rooms. It looks like a mythical medieval movie set, but in fact is a current restaurant. We walk on down the hill and drive on, later regretting that we hadn't gone in for dinner...

Loire Valley

The initial Kings, even before settling on Paris as the capital, began establishing homes in the Loire Valley area. First just a couple, then a few more. Eventually, wealthy nobility also built homes there.

Well, "homes" probably isn’t the right word. These are palatial chateaus. You can really only see a couple each day unless you run straight through them, and there are 40-50. We just picked three to visit: two built by Kings, and one private. All of the royal chateaus were pilfered during the French Revolution, so we included the private one since it is one of few that is still furnished.

Chateau De Chambord

The biggest is Chateau De Chambord, built by King Francis I. It includes some typical French structures of that time, such as the surrounding wall and four watch towers. However, Francis I was also fascinated with Italian architecture, so the Chateau includes some Italian features, such as a grand circular stairway. The stairway was designed by Leonardo da Vinci and is a double helix - pretty far thinking for his time. Two people can climb the entwined stairs, circling each other but never meeting. It also includes major architectural features of cathedrals of the time, since they were the grandest buildings of all, including a layout of a great cross.

The feel of the Chateau Chambord is of massive stone, even cave like. Without any furnishings, it is quite hollow. The weather when we visited was quite windy and rainy, which further made it seem like a cold, dark sterile place. I'm sure that on hot days the cool temperature of the stone walls would be more appreciated!

When King Louis XIV took over, he wanted it to be even more pretentious, so he remodeled. Rather than occupy the secluded, private suite of Francis I, he built large, central public rooms for his apartment. Neither King actually spent much time at the Chateau --it was used as a vacation house during hunting season.

Chateau De Chenonceau

The second visit was to Chenonceau. This Chateau is built out over a river. In fact, it was built on top of the foundation of an old mill. It looks somewhat like a multi-story covered bridge, spanning the river through a tower and then five arches.

Fran especially liked Chenonceau because we were able to tour more parts of it, including the cellar, pantry and the KITCHEN. Housed in the lower floor of the tower, the pantry was a huge affair with storage for grains, meats, and vegetables. Supplies are loaded off boats directly through the windows. The servants' rooms and kitchen combine, with large fireplaces and stoves. The kitchen was remodeled in the last century (the twentieth), so now has large natural gas stoves and ovens.

The Chateau also has some historical importance. King Henry II married Catherine de Medici, of a powerful but not royal Italian family. Soon, her superior intellect and excellence in all things (art, hunting, politics, ...) became a threat to the King, so he took on a mistress, Diane de Poiters, with whom he spent his time. The Chateau served as Diane's home, and she created a formal garden on the right side of the river bank. When King Henry II died, Catherine skillfully took over the monarchy, and while her five year old son was nominally King, Catherine in reality ruled France. She promptly remodeled the Chateau, and built a second garden on the left side of the river bank. Today they gardens of Henry II's two women still face each other, on opposing sides of the entry courtyard.

The Chenonceau was also impressive because of the immense tapestries, preserved in many of the rooms. An interesting historical note is that the Chateau spans the river, which served as the dividing line between Nazi-controlled France and the Free Zone during the Second World War --many people entered the Chateau from the occupied side and exited on the Free Side. The recent kitchen remodel was for the International Red Cross, which set up a field hospital here during the war.

Chateau De Cheverny

The third Chateau we visited was Cheverny. A private Chateau, it has served uninterrupted as a residence for a Hurault family since the 13th century. Fully furnished, it gives much more life to the Chateaus than the other barren ones. In fact, since it is still owned by the family, it includes portraits of family members from five hundred years ago, next to wedding photos taken just a few years ago of the latest generation. The Cheverny is fundamentally a hunting lodge, with enormous kennels (there seem to be thousands of dogs), vast expansive grounds (the hunting Chateaus included their own grounds, which today are vast preserved wild land, still rich with game).

The interior is not as opulent as the royal palaces. Sure, the floors are marble, the walls covered with fine leather, and the furniture is all antique treasures. But the purpose of the house is not to establish self-importance, and instead the feel is very comfortable. You could imagine yourself living here...

Even in the privately owned Cheverny Chateau, there is a King's bedroom, built and decorated for the King just in case he comes to visit. Supposedly he did stop in once! Unlike the rest of the house, it is designed quite ostentatiously, with gold leaf, murals depicted great battle scenes, draperies, etc. The murals are a bit weird for a bedroom --several are grotesque battle scenes with decapitated bodies. But then the King does like to continually show off his power...

La Cite Carcassonne

After visiting the chateaus, we began heading south towards the Pyrenees. We happened upon the town of Carcassonne, saw an old fortified castle wall on the top of the hill, and decide to check it out. Good call!

Carcasonne is a very old city, with a crumbling wall around the old city. Today, the area is being restored as a tourist destination, and inside the walls are many wonderful little cafes inside (along with many tacky tourist shops). We enjoyed snooping around the old walls, down the narrow cobblestone roads, and peering into areas that we weren't allowed in. We had a nice French dinner in a little cafe, a wonderful way to cap off the day.

Pyrenees

We headed south to the Pyrenees without a good idea of exactly where to go. Unfortunately, we seemed to find every Tourist Information office to be closed. They seem to just have a couple of hours in the morning and a couple in the afternoon, and sometimes do not show up even during nominal open hours. Also, some offices are helpful, but many don't have any information except about the attractions in the immediate vicinity.

Driving along back roads through France, we pass through village after village. Each is small and dense, with houses abutting each other and crowding the narrow road. The sides of the houses facing the street are boarded up, and essentially no people are visible in the villages. They look desolate, abandoned. We wonder if people just close off the side facing the street? This is quite different from the larger cities in France, which explode with activity and have sidewalk cafes everywhere.

So we just headed towards Ossau valley and the French national park, and hoped to figure it out along the way.

The hills are green! The rains have made the grasses bright green, and with the pines, hemlocks, firs, spruce, oak and maple, it is quite green. We weren't sure exactly where we would want to hike, so when the road first starts to climb the mountains we found a campground for the night. The first half a dozen campgrounds turned out to be trailer parks, with no tents, but we eventually found a convenient if not very pretty place.

We wanted to do some hiking, maybe up a peak or to some lakes. We needed some tips on where to go, and hopefully a good topographic map. Unfortunately we arrived in the area after the tourist office had closed, and the next morning it still hadn't opened at 10 AM when we gave up. The weather for the past couple of days has followed the pattern of clear in the morning, raining in the afternoon, so we wanted to get going. We finally found a map at a sports store and headed out, getting on the trail much later than we hoped.

We walked up from Lac d'Ayous to three upper lakes. The sky had high clouds, which just covered the tops of the mountains, but we didn't get rained on until the end of the day. The lower hike was much like hiking in Oregon, with similar creeks, mountains, and foliage. At the higher points, it was an alpine meadow, with a view to the snowfields on the mountains. Due to the late start and afternoon rain, we had to rush down the mountain a little faster than we wanted to, but it was still a great day. Hiking in the forest is a surefire way to make both of us happy.

We drove on into Spain for the night. The border consisted of ...an abandoned check station. As we will find crossing other European borders, there simply are no border controls in the new European Union. The presumption is that if you were allowed into one EU country than you can travel anywhere. With no borders, common currency, and greatly reduced trade barriers and tariffs, this is a very different Europe than a few years ago. Crossing from one country to another is no more complicated than crossing from one US state to another. Later, we will even miss a border here and there and discover that we are in a new country just when we reach a landmark on the other side! Taken as a whole, Europe has roughly the same size, population, and economy as the US so their hope is that with decreasing trade and financial barriers that they will increase their competitiveness in the global economies.

The Spanish side of the Pyrenees has quite different buildings. They are constructed of rocks. The four sides are just rock wall (sometimes dry, sometimes with mortar), with wooden beam ceilings supporting flat rocks for roofing. Many of the older structures are still standing, a testament to the quality of the rock walls, even though the wooden beams rotted long ago and the roofs caved in. The buildings are generally crowded into tiny, dense villages, as in France, but there are also some solitary buildings or ruins.

We hadn't decided how long to spend in the Pyrenees, but it has been raining every day for a week and looks like it will keep coming. We decide to do a little more car touring, and then head for the French Riviera. It is difficult to not hike longer in the mountains, but the Alps are coming and we do look forward to warm, dry weather on the beach.

French Riviera

It had been rainy and cold since we left Paris four days ago, so we were ready to warm back up.

The French Riviera is many things. You can look at the natural beauty of the seascapes, the water, the beaches and the shores. You can relax and enjoy the sun and warmth. You can enjoy the festive atmosphere of the people on holidays.

We first went to St Tropez. A charming, bustling tourist beach town, it offers nice walks, shops, cafes, and beaches. The boats in the harbor and the designer brands in the shops reveal a certain level of wealth, but the city is comfortable, not pompous or exclusive.

We drive up and down the coastline, but seem to get lost easily. Within the cities, we circle around trying to get off the one-way streets, or trying to find the major roads. Once on the coast highways, we find ourselves unwittingly headed inland and discover a great area. The inland hills are mostly forested. A few areas have large, exclusive homes. The location couldn't be better. The views of the green hills are great, the beach is 20-30 minutes away, and the French Alps for summer hiking or winter skiing are under an hour north. Not too bad...

Nice is a wonderful place. We walk around, have dinner at a sidewalk cafe in the old town, and enjoy the beach. With the warmer weather and the slower pace, we resume our yoga in the morning.

We spend a day in Monaco. It is a little kingdom on the beach, consisting of a few adjacent cities and is known principally for the casino. We skip the casino, but hike up the hill to the top for a view of the exotic gardens, and then down past the castle, down to the harbor, and along the water back in the city.