Senlis

On our way home from Paris last weekend, we ventured off the beaten path as we often do.

North of Paris and in the Chantilly Forest is the little town of Senlis.

Every house was of this same stone.

Every street looked just like this - cobblestone. Every one.

It has a nice Notre Dame cathedral.

Built between 1153 and 1191.

Senlis became a royal city in the year 981 under the ownership of Hugh Capet who became King of France (from 987-996). In the 3rd century, a defensive wall of 7 meters high (that's nearly 23 feet) was built and remained in use until the 13th century. About half of this wall still exists today.

Senlis. A nice little French town.

Metro Madness

It's called the subway in New York, the underground in London, the metro in Paris and the place to give away your wallet in Rome.

All large cities have them, I guess, and it's really the only way to get around. They are impossible to avoid.

Those named above are the only ones I've been on and I'm a long way from mastering the art of subway trains - navigation is hard enough, but getting on and off is my biggest challenge.

A few of the subway stations have two sets of doors. One to keep you from falling off the train and another to keep you from falling on the tracks. From the time the doors open, there is a 15 second mad rush for passengers to disembark and for you to embark. That may seem like a long time, but the "disembarkers" go first, of course (standard elevator etiquette), and the "embarkers" simply make their own way leaving women and children in their wake.

When we were in Paris last weekend, we had a little embarking incident.

When we're with Ross, we rely on him to tell us when to get on and off because he knows where he's taking us. We just follow him as if we don't have brains of our own. It's pretty easy :)

So, last weekend we were headed somewhere unknown to us. Ross jumps on the train and we end up way down at another door behind about 10 other embarkers. When the doors open, Winslow (our dog) is eager to board and once he gets the chance, he's on!

On this busy Saturday afternoon, at a station with double doors, there were quite a few "disembarkers" at our door so we waited patiently . . . but not Winslow. He's on!

Now Winslow is on and Jim and I are still behind the other "embarkers". Suddenly the doors close! Both sets of doors. Jim is stuck in the train door and I'm stuck in the platform door. Stuck, as in we cannot move.

I panicked. Screaming "Oh my God!". If you can picture this . . . it was not pretty.

The doors would NOT open! They just kept squeezing me tighter. Naturally, I was sure we would not survive what my imagination had conjured up.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity and for whatever reason, the doors mercifully opened. I survived and so did Jim, but I was pretty sure my foot was broken and I've got this war wound that is swollen, hurts like hell and will probably only get worse before it gets better :)

Later, when we found Ross, I asked if he'd seen what happened. He said "No, but I thought I heard somebody screaming."

Americans in Paris

We helped Ross celebrate his birthday this past weekend with cake . . .

and some open air market shopping.

There is a bakery on nearly every corner in Paris. Ross lives over the one pictured above and it is the only bakery we've seen with this kind of line outside. The word has gotten around I guess, because they do make the best bread I have ever eaten.

It was a nice birthday weekend!

Joyeux Anniversaire!

I've scheduled this blogpost to post in my absence because at this moment we are headed to Paris to celebrate Ross's 23rd birthday!

Happy Birthday, Ross . . . et beaucoup plus!

If I had a . . .

nickel for every time I've heard this song, I'd have a lot of nickels.

"If I Had a Hammer"

As Ellen Degeneres said . . . that song must have been written for people without hammers.

Written by folk songwriters Pete Seeger and Lee Hays this song was in support of the American civil rights movement and first performed in 1949. It wasn't so well received then (imagine that), but shot up the charts to the Top 10 when Peter, Paul and Mary performed it in 1962.

We took our hammer to Paris a few weeks ago and left it. Since then it seems every time we turn around we need a hammer.

Naturally, this Top 10 hit came to mind. We've been using lines from the lyrics to describe all the things we could do and all the times we could do it, if only we hadn't left our hammer in Paris.

Like, we could hammer in the morning.

We could hammer in the evening.

We could hammer all OVER this land.

I googled dumbest song lyrics and frighteningly, this one did not make the list which tells me one thing . . . there are a lot of dumb and probably wealthy songwriters out there.

Muskrat Love did make the list. What a classic. Written by Willis Alan Ramsey (whoever that is) and performed in 1976 by the Captain and Tennille , it also made the Top 10.

It's hard to believe, but I think this song is, in fact, dumber than If I Had a Hammer.

"Nibblin' on bacon, chewin' on cheese

. . . and they shimmy, Sam is so skinny . . .

And they whirled and they twirled and they tango . . . "

Regrettably, this is all from memory.

I think Jim plans to go by the hardware store this evening and we will again be hammer-owners.

There will be so many things we can do now. And Lord KNOWS what we could do if we had a bell.