| Paris Encore 2006 Meg & Ron Depart - Craig and Marsha See The Queen's Prison and Modern Art 12/29/2006 |
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TRAVEL |
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| Well, we got the kid's off this morning.
Paris-shuttle was scheduled to be here at 9:15 am. Lo and behold, they
were here at 9:15 on the dot. Ron and I schlepped the bags down, while the
pregnant Meg was saying au revoir to Marsha. Ron was indicating that
the driver needed to wait a minute for "le madame" to get down to the car.
this is where life puzzles me. The driver went off on Ron saying that
the agreed time was 9:15 and it was now 9:19 and he was blocking the street
and they should have been waiting at the curb. Of course he was right,
but saying how things should have gone in a crappy attitude only set him up
as an impatient person that was not going to be the beneficiary of Ron's
largesse. I immediately "texted" Ron's cell phone "Dont tip the
prick". This guy had to "vent" his frustration on Ron for the sad situation of waiting for a daughter to say goodbye to her mother and it was NEVER going to change anything that happened up to the point of his anger and bitching, It would affect everything from that moment forward, which the driver had absolute control over Meg and Ron, including their willingness to part with all those "worthless" euros left in their pockets. Pointless! One bites their tongue, and simply acceots that the circumstances were not the best up to this point. I say this, because .... od bless my son-in-law, he DID NOT tip the son of a bitch! He "texted" me around 1:00am Paris time "Didn't. in houston Now". We were awake and showered and sort-of shaved by 10:30am. This was an absolute First for this trip. So we went to 'la Conciergerie' to visit the last place that enemies of the Revolution were kept. It originally was a prison and place of torture for enemies of the king, and that is how the revolutionaries used it. The queen, Marie-Antoinette, was kept in a cell that we photographed from every angle. This place was also used as a kitchen for the Palace and the armies. The circular stairs featured in the photos identify that staircase. This is a very impressive building. There are two towers on the river side of the complex. One was called "The Babbler" from the sounds that came from it when the kings' men performed torture on the enemies of the crown. The ceilings are huge and vaulted. There are MASSIVE fireplaces on the main floor. Then we got some culture! we went to the Georges Pompidou Center to see some modern art. Put the Bob Seger "Old Time Rock and Roll" 45 on the Victrola for background music as I describe their idea of modern art. Ya see... I got the ability to see artistic expression in a lot of things, but half of these cats were scamming Joe Public with the Emporer's New Clothes. If you DON'T appreciate seeing 2 piece of string spun together with the occasional fuzz stuck in, resembling SOFT barbed wire, then you is TOO DANG COUNTRY for your own good. The performance artists were using the display of simple laws of physics, like olive oil flowing over a marble slab, and taking credit for the results that would occur without them. There were film loops, OF CRAP, and a crashed car. There were smudges and streaks and Ten Lizzes - a canvas from the Warhol Factory of various grades of one Polaroid photo of Liz Taylor silk screened on canvas by his lackeys. I suppose I could appreciate it more if it had been done by Andy, but all of his work after 1966 is Highly Suspect by me. There were a few pieces that I really liked, but I just cant seem to recall them. Yes, I am a Conspiracy Theorist in Modern Art. The artists hone their craft and then become Picasso... with unappealing crap! Dali is in another school entirely. He does stuff that is startling, but their is no denying his ability. We decided to make dinner at home this evening. Spaghetti Bolognese, salad and did I mention WINE? Yuppers! I killed off a bottle of Baron Philippe de Rothschild Mouton Cadet 2003 that my son-in-law left behind. Splendid stuff. You look up the retail on Google. Marsha drank her favorite La Santonniere Cotes de Provence.
We had toasted slices of Baguette with a
Tapenade Noir (black olive paste) on it, as a starter. Great meal.
It took about 2 miles of walking to collect all the ingredients. THAT
is why the French are not fat from all this great food! You have to go
to an average of six stores to get all the stuff to make a dinner. It
is worth it. |
