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Europe Trip 2004
Part I

The trip at a glance:

Countries visited: France, Italy
Cities stayed in: Paris, Nice, Florence, Rome
Approximate miles per day walked: 15
Most touristy city: Florence
Most mullet-sighted city: Rome
Best bakery: Paris
Number of trains taken: five
Worst train station: Milan, Florence (tie)
Approximate miles traveled: a lot
Cheapest dinner: Paris, 18 Euro
Priciest dinner: Rome, 34 Euro
Best museum: D'Orsay and Louvre (tie)
Worst foreign keyboard: France
Best dessert: Tiramisu, Rome
Worst dessert: Tiramisu, Northwest Airlines
Best fruit: Strawberries, Nice
Worst fruit: "Fruit cocktail" 3rd rate Delmonte mixed fruit dish, Restaurant, Paris
Most frustrating excursion: Pere Lachaise cemetery, Paris
Most crowded street: Champs Elysees, Paris

The first thing I want to say about this trip is that you could call it the "Dan Brown Experience."  Dan Brown, author of The Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons, likes to include a lot of bits of trivia and conspiracy-esque theories into his books.  We had both read The Da Vinci Code and wanted to see the locations talked about in the Paris.  We also brought along a copy of Angels and Demons, but didn't know it would end up being a reference guide for visiting many spots in Rome.  Aimee read it first while in Paris and made me put down the other book I was reading (the very good Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay) and read Angels before we got to Rome.  If anyone out there plans on going to Paris, read Da Vinci first and if you head to Rome, read Angels and Demons.  Of course not everything in these books is real, but Brown provides some insight to the artwork and architecture to a lot of the churches in Rome.  It might not be as educational as an art history book, but it's more entertaining.  So, in our journey when we visit a Dan Brown location, I'll most likely link the picture in a separate window so as not to spoil anything for those who haven't read the books.

Of course the entire trip wasn't an excuse to see the locations in the book.  We saw many other sites.  Emphasis on MANY.  We saw tons of stuff.  Our 500+ photos can attest to this.  So let's get started on the good stuff..

Notre Dame on the left, Aimee on the right

Paris.  Six nights at a hotel called Michelet Odeon.  It was a pretty good location, right next to the Luxembourg Gardens.  When staying in Paris, it's impossible to find a hotel close to everything because the city is so spread out.  You sort of have to pick a location as base camp and go from there.  Our location could be considered in the Luxembourg/Latin Quarter (why are there more than four Quarters in Paris?), which is an excellent spot for affordable restaurants.  The hotel was pretty reasonable, not as cheap as a hostel, but not too bad.  I would recommend it to anyone looking for a two-star hotel in Paris.

We also saved money by avoiding the 9€ hotel breakfast and opting for croissants and pain chocolat from a bakery called "Gargantua" a few blocks away near the Seine.  A few times we brought the food down to the banks and enjoyed breakfast right in front of Notre Dame.  Hard to beat that.

The Gargantua at night

Notre Dame sunset

 

A television on the floor? Brilliant! Go with it!

Our first museum stop was the modern art-oriented Pompidou Center.  The Pompidou's exterior was amazing.  However, if you ever decide to go in the morning, make sure you go the line in the rear of the building.  The extremely long line in the front of the building is actually for the public library.  We waited in this line for a couple minutes before we realized that a) it was moving slower than a three-toed sloth and b) there was a sign for "musee entrance" and an arrow pointing around back.  I saw an extremely long line and automatically figured it was for the musuem, but Aimee spotted the musuem sign and put two and two together.  The line for the musuem was MUCH shorter.  Apparently the library (which is on the first two floors of the same building) had a long line because they screen everyone for security.  

Outside the Pompidou

That's a watt of art

The Pompidou had some neat things but I think we were too anxious to see everything in the city (it was the first day) that we couldn't slow down and really enjoy it at a relaxed pace.  They had some Jackson Polluck, Van Gogh, Kandinsky and Warhol as well as some really bizarre pieces that were fun to see.

Even though it was the first day, we weren't too jet-lagged.  I guess technically it was the second day since we arrived in the morning the previous day.  The day we arrived we took a short nap and explored the gardens nearby and Rue Mouffetard.  Our internal clocks didn't get too messed up but we did take a few naps early on (and later on in the trip)- whether this was due to jet lag or just being exhausted is up for debate.

On the way back we saw where Slunch Kelley gets lunch.

We also checked out St. Sulpice Cathedral, a location in Da Vinci Code.  Spoilers- Click here to see some pictures of items mentioned in the book.

The next day we checked out the Louvre- a much different art museum.  The Louvre is gigantic.  I think I read somewhere that if you wanted to go through and look at every piece of artwork, it would take you five weeks.  

Aimee Louvres to navigate

They have a very wide range of artwork.  Some very famous paintings and sculptures including..

Aimee in front of Winged Victory of Samothrace...

..and me obviously not very impressed by the Mona Lisa.  Who did Da Vinci think he was, anyway?  They didn't even have the Internet back then.  

The headphones around my neck were part of an "audio guide" that we each got for a little extra.  Some pieces had a number on them that you could punch into the guide and it played someone talking about it.  They were pretty nice to have except the display on Aimee's broke- it looked as though it would if someone dunked it repeatedly underwater.  But to our surprise, it still worked when you punched a number into it.  The Louvre was the only museum that we got audioguides, but I would recommend getting them in the future.

Here is a picture of another Da Vinci Code structure from the Louvre that doesn't need an explaination if you've read the book.

Paul Bunyan's lost luggage found on the Champs Elysees

The same day we visited the Louvre we trekked along Champs Elysees to the Arc de Triumph and then the Eiffel Tower.

The Champs Elysees was a little bit of a challenge for us to navigate.  Aimee and I are relatively fast walkers and the street was filled with a lot of slowy slow slows.  Not only that, Parisians don't seem to believe in accommodating anyone in the way of making room on the sidewalk.  They could be the only ones coming at you from the other direction taking up the middle of the sidwalk and they won't budge if they see a pair of people coming towards them.  This is much different than, say, walking around in Iowa where people will give you a polite berth (most of the time).  

I have a theory about this: Parisians hate tourists.  They know that stupid Americans will make way for you (because we are actually considerate towards other people, unless you are Iraqi, in which case it's hoody box-stand time).  When they see someone dressed Americany or with a camera hanging around their neck, they know that they can keep walking straight at you and you'll move before they will.  It's sort of a French version of chicken (poulet).  

I don't think the French were particularly rude, I just think they were inconsiderate.  This might be said about most big cities around the world, but I don't know.  Apparently they are getting better in the "rude" department compared to decades past- an Australian couple we met at a restaurant in Florence said that back in the 70s they were worse.  The husband said he asked a porter on a train if they could use a fold-down seat for his polio-inflicted mother-in-law.  The porter didn't even turn to acknowledge him.  The husband pulled out a $5 bill and the porter "spoke the best English you've ever heard."

While at the Arc de Triumph I decided to reshoot my high school senior pictures.

After checking out the Arc, we continued on to the Eiffel Tower.  It was very impressive.  Just like the one at Disney World!

Trying to use a computer in Paris was a new experience.  And by new experience, I mean pain in the neck.  Instead of our "QWERTY" keyboard, they had an "AZERTY" keyboard.  Apparently the French love the letter Q so much they need it somewhere they can't miss it.  Also, notice the number row.  See how on our American keyboards the numbers are on the bottom and symbols on the top?  On the French keyboard, if you want to hit a number on the top row, you have to hold down shift.  Yes, this makes total sense!  On the planet Crazy!  (Note: only my friend Mark's typing could possily be improved by this keyboard).

Aimee had some problems using the computer.  She typed a long email to her brother, then went to click "send" on the mouse.  Unfortunately when she grabbed the mouse, she hit an extra mouse button sitting on the left side of the mouse and it jumped to a different page, erasing her message.  Frustrated, she pecked out the email again on the foreign keyboard.  Attempting to send it again, she hit the mouse button AGAIN accidentally which erased her email for a second time.  She was very frustrated at this point, especially because of the little clock in the corner of the Internet Cafe computer counting down the minutes- only a couple left at this point.  She was going to give up emailing her brother but I grabbed the keyboard and wrote the quickest email ever, listing the highlights and telling him to "write back!!!"

Stay tuned for Part II with graves, graves, and more graves.  If you love graves, you'll love Part II.

copyright 2003 andy langager