March 2008 - Posts
I completed the swap of the water heater yesterday, and with minimal complication. I did have to do a touch more plumbing than I wanted, but in the end it worked out fine. I got a hand getting the old one out, which wouldn't have happened without help -- there is a considerable amount of sedimentation in there. The only bad part was that I took a spill on our basement stairs, leaving rather nasty bruises on my behind and on my right tricep. Bowling in tournament should be interesting today.
I'm thinking like this, not like this. I guess I am in a wierd mood.
This week I am scrambling to get what I need to replace our water heater which is popping and hissing and dripping water on the basement floor. Last night I picked up a replacement, but it is sitting in the garage until I have time to get it down to the basement and disconnect the old one, make the necessary plumbing adjustments, and hook up the new. Fun. I look forward to having hot water (on a consistent basis), but I don't look forward to the install. Hopefully I won't manage to break anything in the process (fat chance).
Now that I am home, I can say that I enjoyed the trip, even though there were moments when I wasn't so sure about it all. The return trip was fairly uneventful, but I did get the pleasure of an extra customs search at Detroit Metro upon returning. Nothing too serious, just a quick rifling through my bags, adding 15 extra minutes of time spent in airports, planes, trains, buses, and cars yesterday (a grand total of just over 12 hours doing those things -- yay). I got to watch 2 movies and tear through about 250 pages of a book on the return flight, so that's good, I guess... 
This morning I woke up around 2:30 and couldn't get back to sleep -- so much for a quick return to my normal schedule. Tonight I am forcing myself to stay up later so I get back on track. I was about 2/3rds awake all day today -- not particularly good! Hopefully tomorrow I can start to get back to normal...
Today we were going to meet up early and head to the Louvre, but I overslept (shocking!).
Still we left close to 9 AM, and took the metro to the musée du Louvre. Initially, intimidating. It is just huge. We decided to try to get to the Mona Lisa as early as possible to try to avoid the crowds, but it was already packed when we got there. I have to say, after seeing so many pictures and learning so much about it, I was a bit underwhelmed, but it was cool to see it. You can't even get close to it, so the details are hard to appreciate in person. However, the other paintings by Da Vinci were wonderful, and we could get up close to those. We spent a fair amount of time looking at the Italian paintings and the large-format paintings, of which there are an astounding number. The religious iconography is ever-present and the influence of the Catholic Church on the artwork from the middle ages on is impossible to ignore.
We stopped and got some lunch, then looked at the Objects of Art collection from the Renaissance. Reliquaries, chalices, crowns, swords, and more little medals, plates, and tapestries than I could believe. All beautiful and amazingly preserved. We then moved to the French paintings and went through them in chronological reverse order (oops). Still, very cool. Finally we wrapped up by going through the sculpture areas and my mind was blown. Michaelangelo's Slaves are just amazing. I never would have guessed that I would be so moved by his work. Venus de Milo was similar to the Mona Lisa in that I have seen so many pictures and learned so much about it that it's impact was somehow diminished -- but it is an amazing piece of art, and certainly just beautiful. The other Roman, Etruscan, and Greek sculptures were really quite amazing to me -- I could have spent hours poring over just those halls. Seeing the busts of the Roman emperors that were preserved from the time of Christ and shortly thereafter awoke in me many memories of hours of translating Latin prose, and all of the Roman histories. Perhaps I need to go to Italy next...
After the Louvre, we wandered for a bit heading over toward Notre-Dame, stopping to peruse the booksellers' wares along the Seine and visiting some flower shops looking for trinkets and souvenirs. We finally made it to the cathedral and took some snapshots, and proceeded inside. I don't have a lot to say about the Cathedral other than the fact that it is beautiful, and I was in awe. If you are a Catholic (and probably even if not), you owe it to yourself to visit this place if you ever get to Paris. I was speechless and felt moved to spend some quiet time sitting and taking it all in, reflecting and praying. Perhaps founded and built on wealth that exemplifies all that was wrong with the church during a very clouded time in the history of society, but a beautiful and moving homage at the same time. I was very happy that we took the time to visit -- truly a highlight of my week.
After leaving the cathedral, we picked up some souvenirs at the tourist-trap souvenir shops nearby and caught a train back to the hotel. We were tired, so we took a break and rested for a couple hours at the hotel.
For dinner, we decided to wander across the Parc de la Villette again to Avenue Corentin Cariou to find somewhere to eat, and ended up at a chain restaurant called "Buffalo Bill's." We obviously were a little tired of being away from home... I had a buffalo 'meal' and Geoff had a mixed plate that had hot wings and ribs. It was good, if not very French. At least we didn't go to McDonald's 
Today, we tried our best to wrap everything up at the customer site, and I think we are leaving things as solid as we can. Some things didn't work out the way we'd hoped, but we accomplished what we set out to do. Now it is up to the customer to decide if it is satisfactory.
But you probably don't care about that... on with the good stuff...
All week Thierry has been insisting that Geoff and I visit his home in the countryside and share a meal with his family. We were able to talk him in to driving us back in to Paris after dinner, so we could sight-see on Saturday, so we agreed. He lives in a small country town called Panilleuse, which is about an hour northwest of Paris, in Normandy. Unfortunately, traffic was terrible, and it took us several hours to get there. The highlight of the trip out had to be the fact that we were trying to get the GPS to give us directions that didn't take the highway, so we could avoid the traffic. No matter what we did, the GPS would basically say "Turn around" in French. After a few minutes, I found it immensely amusing and Geoff had to shut her off before I hurt my sides laughing.
Eventually, we made it to Vernon where Thierry had to make an emergency stop at the Monoprix to get a fresh loaf of bread. He showed us a little bit of the town and the old village with houses that are several hundred years old (cool!). We finally arrived in his village and settled in for a lovely meal. He and his wife really outdid themselves!
We started with some appetizers and a lovely Champagne. Thierry filled his wife in on all of the activities of the week, and the mischief we were causing (never a dull moment!). I noted with some amusement that he had the Starsky and Hutch DVD collection -- some things cross all cultural boundaries... (Huggy Bear!)
We then migrated to the dining room, and they proceeded to treat us to a wonderful meal and some great conversation. Their English is a lot better than our French, so we stuck with English (but Thierry had a lot of fun trying to get me to properly pronouce things in French). I felt like I was a judge on Iron Chef. We started with a salad plate of smoked-duck with cherry tomatoes and quail eggs. From there we had some kind of braised meat that was incredibly tender and flavorful. Then, they broke out the Camembert. I've had Camembert in the states on a number of occasions, but I *swear* it was better eating it in a village in Normandy -- perhaps it was the ambience. Finally, a chocolate mousse and Thierry broke out the Calvados -- another Normandy specialty. Of course, a little cafe to wrap up the evening and I was ready for a nap.
Unfortunately, we still had an hour drive back to Paris, and it was nearing midnight. So, we quickly said our thank-yous ('merci's, as it were) and headed out. As we drove away from Panilleuse, Thierry had a brainstorm (a dangerous thing!) and we turned and took a different way. He was taking us to nearby village -- Giverny. To those of you having a hard time placing why that might sound familiar, it was the hometown of impressionist painter Claude Monet (one of my favorites!). Of course, it was 12:15 AM, dark and raining, but I got a picture of the cafe where Monet and his compatriots hung out at the turn of the century, and I saw his house. We obviously didn't get to go in or tour his gardens, but hey -- I was there! Thanks, Thierry!
The drive back to Paris was less eventful -- traffic was much better -- and I sat in the front seat and chatted with Thierry while Geoff nodded off in the back. We finally settled in back at the hotel a little after 1 AM. Phew -- what an evening!