Paris II

Yes, the food in Paris is very good. Stuff that face Kina!

We did manage to find a Fussball in Paris. Hooray! But it was a Barcelona ball. Boo!

Ooooohhh! TGV. The world's fastest passenger train! 150mph is slow for this bad boy. Makes the US "train system" look pretty ridiculous. As one commentator put it, we have a system Bulgaria would be ashamed of.

The ads for english courses were pretty funny. "How to speak Wall Street english." You can learn to say: "Fraud is good", "Taxpayers are suckers", and "Where's my bonus?"

New Paris eyeware fashion replaces Jackie-O sunglasses.

What a beautiful city.

Cathedral Saint Chapelle. I estimated between 10-20,000 pieces of stained glass telling over 1,000 biblical stories.

Can I get into Heaven with these guys? They look like fun!

Here's on version of Rodin's Thinker.

And here are some other models! I like the hole in the knee.

The Musee Rodin's garden and house have so many masterpieces. I was so excited to see the Gates of Hell which I saw in New York city as a kid. Probably the first piece of art I really "got". Here is an especially nice figure.

Oh, if only Rodin had seen Aidan, the sculpture we would have had! By the way, Aidan is busy proving that his head is bigger than this flower.

Paris! (Part I)

Our first big European trip to, where else, Paris! We went for 6 days and had a wonderful time. Our room was on the fourth floor of a wonderful little hotel and we could see Notre Dame out our window. (This shot is not out our window, but still!)

Speaking of cathedrals, here's one painted by van Gogh hanging in the Musee D'Orsay. I think this is my all-time favorite painting. Really beautiful and exquisitely sad. Nothing like seeing it in person.

Musee D'Orsay. Fantastic museum built in the middle of an old train station.

This was one of Aidan's favorite paintings. Ok, so he was a little bored in the museum but we got him interested in a few works and he liked Monet. He also like the idea that the paintings were made up of (millions of?) colored dots. Aidan can do dots.

Another glorius van Gogh.

Vive la France!

I loved this Degas. It was wonderful to see the focus on the orchestra in the foreground with the ballet dancers in the back (and just their legs). The juxtaposition of black and pink, old (well older) men playing and tiny little girls dancing is fascinating.

Another beautiful painting. I can't remember the painter or the title (help Kim?) but just wonderful.

Another Monet and another Aidan favorite. Mine too.