I want to tell you about our trip to France and Germany. We had a fantastic time. I had figured that we would have a good time because the four of us would be together; and that part was very nice. But I hadn’t realized we’d enjoy Paris as much as we did – the museums and food and atmosphere were wonderful. Also, we had a very nice time with Robert’s relatives in Germany. And it was really good to see where Lisa is living and going to school. If you want to know more details of our trip, read on.
Robert and I arrived in Paris the morning of Dec. 18 after a short flight to San Francisco and then a 10 and a half hour flight to Paris (it is hard to be on a plane that long!). Lisa met us at our hotel and spoke in French at the registration desk to get us settled in. Our room was very small, very clean, and newly refurbished in a Southwestern theme (that is – the orange and aquas of Arizona!)
We walked along the crowded sidewalks five minutes to Lisa’s apartment. She lives on the second floor of a building that could use some renovation, but it is a nice, cozy apartment. It is along a busy city street, but her building is set back from the street and is very quiet. We then walked to the near-by metro (subway) stop about two blocks away – passing four lingerie stores on the way (there are many lingerie stores all over Paris)! Lisa’s neighborhood has many small shops – several fresh fruit stands, many shoe stores, fashionable clothing shops, a great bakery where she gets her baguettes, and a grocery store nearby. Her metro stop is on the line that goes to her school so she doesn’t need to change trains. Everything is very convenient for city living.
We saw Lisa’s main school building. Her school is the Political Science school, where she takes courses in International Relations (her major) and French. There is not a real “campus”; rather, classes are held in several buildings in town. Robert and I looked around as Lisa had a short class that evening. Then we walked around the neighborhood of St. Germain-des-Pres looking over several cafes; every restaurant has its menu posted along the sidewalk (I think it is a law) so we could choose where to go. We finally decided on a café called Paul’s, where we had salmon crepes, omelets, and fantastically rich hot chocolate.
The next day Lisa had classes so Robert and I were on our own. We pulled out some ancient memories of French and managed to eat lunch in a café – we weren’t entirely sure what we’d ordered until it arrived, but it was good and the small china cup of espresso was a nice French contrast with the ubiquitous paper-cups-to-go of the Seattle area. We had a great book about being a tourist in Paris (Rick Steve’s Paris book) which we used throughout the trip. On this day we took the metro to the Marais neighborhood, one of Paris’s oldest, and followed the book’s tour of the area. We saw the outside of an old mansion, the apartment where Victor Hugo once lived, and a nice park. We spent over an hour in a free, picturesque museum learning about some of the very long history of Paris. We enjoyed the metro trip back to Lisa’s apartment – there was a good string group playing classical music in one station so we stayed and listened for a while. Another station had a South American group playing (musicians playing on the metro is a very common occurrence in Paris. They often play accordions!). We bought some salmon at a fresh seafood market and then cooked a nice supper in Lisa’s kitchen, which is small but works well.
Saturday Robert and I again slept until noon – we had lots of problems with jet lag for the first week – while Lisa went to the airport to meet Laura. After an afternoon of talking, in the evening we all went into the center of Paris and walked around Notre Dame (impressive) and then walked the Latin Quarter finding a nice French restaurant to eat at (with excellent chocolate mousse for dessert!)
Sunday we had our typical late start to the day and then went to the Louvre. There was no line to get in (amazing). We followed the path outlined by our tour book and managed to see about one-fourth of the museum, which took four hours including a break for lunch. We saw many old “classic” statues, mostly of naked Romans and Greeks. I loved the Venus de Milo statue. We saw lots of Renaissance paintings, including the Mona Lisa (a small painting, with lots of people looking at it). By the end: I felt virtuous for having engaged in such a cultured activity; our feet were aching; and we had some good memories of impressive art work.
For a change of pace we rushed off to an extremely crowded shopping-entertainment area called Forum des Halles where we finally located the movie theater we wanted to go to. The movie we saw was in English (of course!) with French subtitles, called “Bend It Like Beckham” (to be released in the U.S. in March). It was an excellent movie about a teenage girl in England who wants to play soccer and must sort out how to do that while maintaining peace with her traditional Indian parents; both girls’ soccer and an Indian wedding are joyfully portrayed. We heartily recommend the movie to everyone.
We took the metro back towards Lisa’s apartment and wandered the festive streets (white Christmas lights were twinkling overhead) as Laura searched the small restaurants for Asian food. She brought her food to Lisa’s favorite café where I had a great Curry chicken salad and we had chocolate dessert crepes.
Monday we followed our guide book on a walk through the Montmartre area. Walking is a great way to see Paris; with walking and taking the metro, one can cover the entire city. Our first stop in Montmartre was the large church of Sacre Couer on the hilltop overlooking Paris. Montmartre has a Bohemian atmosphere; many artists have lived in this area, including Picasso and Matisse (we saw their apartment building). The real Moulin Rouge (that the movie was based on) is here, along with other Moulin (which are windmills – used in olden days to process grapes for wine). We went to the Pompidou center for several hours in the evening. The modern art there was fascinating. I think it is fun to see strange works of art (like Jackson Pollock’s splattered paint and Calder’s mobiles), and we also saw early twentieth century works by Picasso and others. It is an intriguing, very large “inside out” building; the infrastructure of heat ducts, stairways, etc. are all visible on the outside of the building.
The next day we spent a couple hours doing laundry and grocery shopping before visiting the Luxembourg gardens, taking a nice stroll in the brief sunshine and watching the toy sailboats on the pond. Nearby is the Pantheon, now a national monument; that was a nice change of pace from the art museums. Built around 1740, it has alternated between cathedral and symbol of the French Republic: cathedral under Louis XV, monument during the Revolution, cathedral under Napoleon, monument under Phillipe d’Orleans, cathedral under Napoleon III, and the monument until the present day. It was a fun way to learn a little about French history. The center part of the building was blocked off because parts of the ceiling are falling down. But we could see the nice long Foucault pendulum swinging there (the kind that knocks over pins as the Earth turns, thereby proving that the Earth rotates on its axis). A dramatic guide spoke in French about the various large paintings on the wall (Lisa followed the talk, Robert and I understood a few random phrases). Laura skipped the tour and instead wandered the crypt below, where some famous folks are buried. Next we split forces according to generations to do a bit of souvenir shopping. Back at the apartment that afternoon we made our favorite Kitchen Sink Cookies (oatmeal, peanut butter, chocolate chip cookies) in Lisa’s kitchen, preparing them for Christmas day dessert.
On Christmas morning Robert and I walked to the Montparnasse Cemetery (near Lisa’s apartment) and saw the graves of Jean Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir, and also the statue “The Kiss” that we have a copy of at home. Then we gathered in Lisa’s apartment to cook a feast. Lisa and Laura did most of the cooking. We ate in the early afternoon so that we could get to a late afternoon concert. We’d seen a poster advertising the concert and had purchased tickets. The concert was held in a church built hundreds of years ago, attached to a monastery from the 1200’s. There were seven musicians (harpsichord, cello, bass, viola, and three violins). They were fantastic! We heard Pachelbel’s Canon and other works; the main event was Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. The applause was so encouraging that they came back out twice for encores! Very enjoyable.
Afterwards, we walked around Paris on Christmas evening, enjoying the happy crowds and the lights. We stopped to watch the ice-skaters in front of the Hotel de Ville (the city hall). We went past an area of outdoor stands, like arts and crafts stands, and then stopped for hot chocolate at a smoky café (all Paris cafes are smoky!). We had enjoyed a relaxed Christmas together in an exotic setting!
Thursday it was off to the Musée d’Orsay for impressionism. It was very impressive! Monet, Manet, Renoir, Van Gogh, etc. We went out for supper that evening with Lisa’s good friend Lelia and her parents (who were in Paris visiting her). Lelia is a University of Chicago student who Lisa is getting to know this year. Everyone ordered salmon – which comes from the North Sea and is as common in Paris, it seems, as it is here in Tacoma.
We made our way via the metro on Friday morning to see Napoleon’s Tomb and Les Invalides. After waiting in a slow line for getting tickets, we went under the large domed building to see Napolean’s red marble tomb. It is in a very impressive setting, with all of the battles he won named in gold and marble on the floor. Part of Les Invalides is still in use as a military hospital. We visited the part that is a museum, specifically the part that is a military museum of World War II. The displays were done very well, particularly highlighting France’s role in the war. Back at Lisa’s apartment we made a tofu supper. Friday evening Lisa and Laura went out with Lelia to a Parisian dance club, and had a good time and good exercise dancing into the wee hours.
On Saturday we walked along the famous, very crowded Champs Elysées boulevard, stopping at a picturesque bakery for pastries. We walked around and under the Arc de Triomphe, and saw the Obelisk from a distance. In the late afternoon we met our friends the Rupps for coffee. They were our neighbors in Canton, and Cindy Rupp was good friends with Laura. When they got our Christmas letter the day before we left for Paris they realized they’d be there at the same time, so they called and we arranged a meeting. They recently moved to Indiana so it is unlikely we will see them in Ohio again; it was fun to talk over old times in Paris!
Sunday we got up early and somehow managed to take our suitcases on the metro to the Gare du Nord train station to catch the Thalys train from Paris to Cologne, Germany (in German it’s known as Köln). Our tickets had been purchased months before by Claudia, our German relative (Robert’s second cousin). The four-hour train ride was smooth; we played cards, and read. In Cologne we were met by Achim (another second cousin). Robert and I had last seen Achim 22 years earlier when he was 15 years old. Good thing he had seen a recent photo of us so he could recognize us on the train platform! We walked around the very old cathedral of Cologne (one of the few buildings in the area left standing after World War II). After a good meal in a Thai restaurant we went to a history museum that showed many of the Roman artifacts (mosaics, pottery, glassware, etc.) that had been in this city when it was a Roman trading outpost, called “Colonia,” meaning colony.
Achim drove us along the crowded highways for an hour to get to the home of Claudia and Holger, where we would be staying, in the small town of Schwerze. They had purchased and renovated this home recently – it was very large! The four of us had two bedrooms and a bathroom on the third floor. Claudia and Holger and their three children (aged 3, 5, and 8) stayed in rooms on the second floor.
We had earlier written Claudia to mention that we were mostly vegetarian, and she said “no problem” since she was too. She told us that they had prepared a traditional German meal for us and it was vegetarian. Given the amount of sausage eaten in Germany, we figured that statement had to be wrong. However, she was right! We had a wonderful home-made tomato soup, and then a traditional casserole of cheese and cabbage and potatoes (that would usually have sausage in it, too). Everything was delicious.
All the German relatives over age 10 speak English. It is a required school subject for everyone from age 10 until the end of high school; the amazing thing is that everyone remembers the language – the sixty-year olds, the middle-aged folks, everyone! So our only problem was to communicate with the three young children in the house. I think they found it odd that we didn’t know how to speak (German), but the 8 year-old Sophie was very patient trying to learn a bit of English and understand us.
Monday we went to see the radio station where Holger works as news director. It is a public radio station, and Claudia also does freelance writing and reporting on cultural events for them. It was neat to be in the room with the radio announcer (being careful to be very quiet)! We did not know how very important time is in the radio business: every song, every commercial, and every DJ comment is timed to the second. Then Gerhard (Robert’s mother’s cousin’s husband) and his son Achim both drove the four of us to the old town of Münster, about an hour away. That is where the large university is that many relatives attended. We saw their old-looking city hall, which was rebuilt after WWII (when it had been destroyed) to look exactly as it had for hundreds of years. The Treaty of Westphalia that ended the Thirty Years’ War was signed there in 1648; we saw the actual room where the treaty was signed!
Tuesday Dec. 31 was spent helping Claudia and Holger prepare for the party that evening. In Germany they call this day “Sylvester”, and it is common to have family parties in the evening, called Sylvester Celebrations. There were about thirty relatives at the party! We’d met about a third of them before, and were really glad to meet the new folks now. Everyone was a descendent of Robert’s Grandmother Gertrude Belemann Uhlmann or of her brother Walter Belemann or her other brother. The food was terrific – trout from a nearby lake and many vegetable dishes (in our honor!). Cousins Martin and Achim played piano (Martin teaches music and can play most anything) while people sang. Lisa and Laura did much of the singing since he played many English language songs. There was dancing in the back room – with pop music on the CD boom box and many folks from age 2 to 62 moving in and out of the room to take turns dancing. At midnight everyone held up a glass of champagne to toast the new year, and fireworks were set off outside. The party kept going until about 3:00, though the little tykes were asleep before that.
The new year started with a slow day as everyone recovered from the late night. We all pitched in for the post-party clean up. We went to the neighbor’s house to be friendly – a retired couple lives there in their newly built house in the style of a fancy, old hunting lodge/castle. A bit strange, but they were nice and gave us chocolates to take away. On January 2 we went to the nearby medium-sized city of Dortmund to look for Birkentstock shoes. I like Birkentstock shoes though they are very expensive. I figured they’d be cheaper in Germany since that is where they are made. They were cheaper, but the store did not carry the wide size that I need, a bit disappointing. It was fun to be in the shopping area in Dortmund. It was rather like a large mall, except it wasn’t a mall but had outdoor pedestrian-only streets and many small stores.
In the afternoon Claudia took the four of us to Achim and his wife Sandra’s apartment in Hagen. They served us a wonderful creamy broccoli soup. We said our goodbyes and drove three minutes to the train station. We took the half-hour train ride to Cologne, then walked around the train station and bought lunch while waiting for the next train. The four-hour train ride back to Paris was fine.
We had put off seeing the Eiffel Tower on our earlier days in Paris because rain was forecast every day (though it seldom rained). We decided that we would go to it Friday morning unless it was storming. It was only raining lightly, so we stood in line for half an hour and went up (Lisa and Laura walked!). There are good views at the 400 foot high platform, and then we went to the 900 foot area near the top. It was impressive, but by then it was very windy and rainy, so we didn’t stay outside long to look around. We had Asian fast-food for a late lunch. For supper we went to a fancy seafood restaurant near Lisa’s apartment.
Saturday January 5th Paris had a snowstorm, the first one in several years! The flakes were big and wet and beautiful, and about two inches accumulated on the city sidewalks. Lisa and I ventured out to the Rodin sculpture museum and had inspiring looks at his famous statues in his old mansion. The outdoor statues were snow-covered and thus hard to see, including his famous The Thinker statue. Robert and Laura went to see the Catacombs where the bones of six million people were moved from old cemeteries so that the land could be re-used for other purposes. A macabre place.
For our final meal in France we made our way back to Paul’s, where we’d eaten on our first day in Paris. The food was good, and the hot chocolate was superb! The next morning Lisa and Laura came to our hotel with Laura’s luggage. We bade farewell to Lisa and took our taxi to the airport.
Then our difficult airport adventures began. The line for United Airlines was VERY long. The snow of the previous day had resulted in three cancelled United flights (out of the typical five that fly daily), and those flights were taking off this day, along with all the regular United flights to the U.S. So they were very backed up and behind schedule. We finally checked in, leaving our luggage sitting there because the conveyor belts were broken at the moment. Eventually our flight was called for boarding, and we waited an hour on the plane as the luggage continued to be loaded – the baggage handlers were on a strike so supervisors were loading!
We took off four hours late and had an uneventful flight to Washington D.C. Of course by the time we landed our next flight had departed long before. So we found a shuttle to a nearby hotel and got six hours of sleep before having to get up early for our flight to Seattle. Robert and I had to miss work on Monday, but that turned out fine since we arrived home mid-afternoon and then had the rest of the day to unpack, read mail, and pet the cat.