I took one last train trip before leaving Paris – to Auvers-sur-Oise, the tiny town about 20 miles from Paris where Vincent Van Gogh lived and painted a few months before finally shooting himself. I missed the daily train from Paris, so I took the RER (suburban train) to Pontoise and then a bus from… [Read more…]
August 9, 2009
I was dying to take a train trip during my last week in Paris, and one of the two destinations I had in mind was Giverny – home of Claude Monet. It’s very popular with tourists, and the directions are pretty clear-cut: Take the Rouen-bound train from Gare St. Lazare to Vernon. Then take a… [Read more…]
August 1, 2009
The last week in Paris was so full. I had a few things on my list that I really wanted to do before I left, several of which will have to wait till “next time.” But I did want to write about a few of them before I closed up my little blog – three… [Read more…]
July 20, 2009
One of the joys of being here in Paris has been the anonymity. I know virtually no one here. At the height of my popularity, when Joe, Mary, and my friend Sylvie were in town, I knew three people – out of two million. I carry identification and the phone numbers of local people who… [Read more…]
July 18, 2009
Everything I am doing feels like it has an explanation point after it now. It’s hard to believe I’ll be home this time next week (for one day, before leaving for Colorado to visit my parents). Very hard to believe I’ve been here for six weeks. Joe and Mary returned last week from Togo and… [Read more…]
July 14, 2009
It was easy when my children were small to feel like everything held a certain unity, easy to feel that I “willed one thing” as Soren Kierkegaard suggests is crucial to the spiritual life. I wanted to raise my children well. Everything in my day could be understood within that context. What time we woke… [Read more…]
July 11, 2009
I posted this garden report in my Gainesville blog: There is a wonderful demonstration garden right in the center of Paris in front of the l’Hotel de Ville, a 15th century municipal building. The closest space we have like this is Gainesville I think is City Hall, a plain 1960s building surrounded by concrete and… [Read more…]
July 10, 2009
This morning, I went to the Pompidou Center to see “the largest collection of modern art in the world.” It was finished in 1977 and is “inside out,” with all the structural elements – piping for water, electric, climate control, and fire prevention – on the outside of the building in plain view. Most Parisians… [Read more…]
July 9, 2009
I woke up early after a bad night of sleep, and the last hour (in which I had forced myself to try to go back to sleep until daylight) was filled with mini-nightmares. I was driven up a steep mountain and the only way down was via an amusement park “drop ride,” I realized at… [Read more…]
July 7, 2009
I am taking fewer classes for just this week, hoping to have some time to visit some of the museums and other sites of Paris. Time is running out… I’ve taken several excursions since my last day of class on Friday (I have only two this week, on Tuesday and Thursday afternoon), I have hiked… [Read more…]
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August 25, 2009
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