Everything in the Whole World

That's what I feel like I have to put into each post if I'm going to go so long between posts. Which makes me want to go even longer between posts, because I don't really have the patience to write about everything in the whole world. Well, and sometimes it's the opposite problem, I guess, because I often feel like I don't do anything interesting and have nothing to write about. So I really can't win.

So what have we been up to? Vacations! Chris and I got to go to Paris for a week while Grammy and Grampy (Chris's parents) stayed at our house with the kids. The grandparents held up remarkably well, and fled the house much more slowly and subtly when I got back than I might have done in their position. They report that the kids were very well-behaved and they all had a great time together. Meanwhile, Chris and I were also well-behaved and had a great time together, so it was a win-win-win situation! It was my first time in Paris, visited all the major attractions (the Louvre, Versailles, Arc d'Triomphe, Notre Dame, Musee d'Orsay, Eiffel Tower), and a couple that seemed like they'd be minor that turned out to actually be major (the Orangerie Museum and St. Denis cathedral). The Orangerie seemed like a blip on the Paris museum radar before we showed up -- I'd never heard of it, so I assumed no one else had either, but there turned out to be a huge line when we got there waiting for the museum to reopen because it had apparently filled up. The main awesomenesses within were two oval rooms encircled (enovaled?) by giant Monet water lily paintings. The scale and the colors were enthralling.




The other major minor attraction, St-Denis cathedral, was my favorite. Besides being the oldest dated Gothic cathedral in France (construction began in 1136), it is the burial site of all but three of the kings who ruled France between the 10th century and the revolution. I really only appreciate history if it's really old, and this counts. Some of the stained glass is original, which is crazy if you think about windows surviving for 900 years, and all of it is gorgeous. Since the cathedral is a longish Metro ride out of the city, the tourist count was low, and we were able to experience the space in peace. That made a huge difference, I think. Notre Dame might have been really interesting, but I wouldn't know, because there were 500000 people there and I wasn't interested in sticking around for long. So I highly recommend visiting St. Denis if you happen to be in the neighborhood.




And now the children are insisting that I pay attention to them. Au revoir.