Final Conclusions

I realize that I ended my last entry on a very negative note, so, for that reason and because some friends have requested a final "goodbye" entry, I've decided to do one here.

Our flight home from Berlin to Minneapolis was pretty uneventful for the most part, but not particularly pleasant. We had to get up really early (about 5:30 am) to get going, and it turned out that both the Berlin-Paris and the Paris-Minneapolis flights were delayed...the second one by about an hour. I didn't enjoy the 8.5 hour Paris-Minneapolis flight, in particular. First of all, I got selected for a random security screening before they'd let me on the plane. Kerry didn't. Also, in my seat, I didn't really have room to type, but I did get some stuff done on my syllabus for Comp 2. Plus, the TV screens were hard to see, I managed to spill a soda on both me and Kerry, and I also cut my wrist on the seat pocket in front of me, of all things. And I didn't sleep much. I did manage to watch most of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, which I have always intended to see, but, honestly, it sort of bored me. Maybe because I was so sleepy. There were some beautiful scenes in it, to be sure, but there are other animated films that I like much better.

When we got to Minneapolis, we were told at customs that my name came up as a security flag.  But, fortunately, they let us through. "You're going to go home today," said the agent. Praise Jesus. I had had enough of flying and other countries at this point. That is why, after Kerry left to game, I went to dinner at Applebee's with Maureen, it was SO NICE to have free refills on water and iced tea, with lemon in both, and ICE!!!  Plus the waitress was great--nice and smiley. What a concept!  I think in the future I'm going to start tipping more. The customer service in the USA is much better than what we'd get in either China or Europe.

After dinner, I fell asleep pretty early. But I'm still waxing philosophical on this whole journey. I think it's given me a deeper appreciation for other cultures. I think that, for the rest of my life, I'll be comparing and contrasting the United States to other countries, or comparing other countries to each other. So the Fulbright experience has indeed broadened my global perspectives. Plus I am also happy that it seems to have given Kerry some direction: he seems to want to be an ESOL teacher now. I also think I want to travel more in the future. Not now, because I'm a bit burned out on travelling. But I would go to Ireland, Prague, and Paris again, for sure....maybe not Berlin. And, of course, I would go to China again, especially since we know so many people there now. It'll be interesting to see if I do teach there again next year. I have been invited back to SISU next summer, but we'll see if that comes to fruition. Regardless, though, I will want to travel more in the future. I can't stay at home in Minnesota for the rest of my life. So I will always make time for travel. The new perspectives I've gained have been invaluable.

So, goodbye, blog readers. I hope you enjoy what I've written. And happy travels to you!

Day 330: Berlin, Day 5--Reichstag and Good Riddance to Germany

The day started out okay today. I got us checked in online, and we have window-middle seats for both our flights home tomorrow. But, again, we got off to a very late start because I think we're just ready to leave this country. It's not completely Germany's fault. We've seen some great things and some people have been really nice here. But today we just had some bad experiences--particularly the last one--that made me very glad that I'm leaving Germany.

We walked to the Reichstag to begin things, the German house of Parliament. It's a beautiful building that someone managed to survive World War II. For many years it just sat there, but today it's very active and is a symbol of Germany's democratic government. Online, we had tried to get tickets to see the dome on top. We made a last-ditch effort today, but it didn't work. The gentleman at security said that we could get a ticket for tomorrow if we went to a certain line, but clearly that's not going to work for us.

So we decided to get a couple more souvenirs, and then we went to our usual food stand to get things to eat and drink. I wanted to try German potato salad, in particular. I ordered a currywurst and two bratwurst. He gave me two currywurst and one bratwurst. And no roll with the currywurst...he did give it to me when I asked for it, though. Of course, we had to sit outside and contend with bees. I AM SO SICK OF EATING WITH BEES. We had to do this in Paris and Germany both. Kerry has killed at least four of them; he's very quick and doesn't mind slamming them down with his baseball camp. I freak out and run away, particularly because I think they chase after me because I often wear cologne. So he is now a serial bee killer.

We went back to the mall, but through a different route, so we saw some things we don't normally see. We got some groceries for dinner tonight: water, soda, hummus, cheese. But then we went to treat ourselves to ice cream. There's this one place in the mall, called Al Teatro, that always seems to be closed whenever we go, but today they were open. And, honestly, it was the worst experience we had in Germany. The guy selling the ice cream to us was INCREDIBLY rude to us. I picked up something, and then he tried to hurry Kerry along: "What? Finis?"  (I think he may have been French.) He kept chastising us for not knowing "the rules." At one point, Kerry moved a bit to the right, near another woman ordering, and the man said to him, "No! You stay there! She goes here!" Then when Kerry tried to pay, he places the money on the counter. The man said, "No! You put it on the tray!" When Kerry did, he said, "Have a nice day," but we were speechless at this point. Then when we tried to sit down, he said, "No! You cannot sit here!" I thought this was absurd; I noticed a sign that said you have to pay more to eat there. So I confronted him and asked, "What if we pay more to eat here?" He said, "No! You can't!" And then showed us a sign. Just out of curiosity, I stuck around to see how he treated other people. He seemed to be nicer to others, BUT I will say that he didn't seem to let ANYONE sit down to eat. What an incredible asshole. Was this the rude French behavior I thought we would get in Paris? It's a shame it had to happen here in Berlin.

And after that, we just wanted to go back to the hotel, even though it was still early. I think we're both over Berlin. I think we're both over travelling. We just want to go home.

Cheers and goodbye to Europe.

Close-up of the front detail.

Reichstag

Day 329: Berlin, Day 4--Day Trip to Potsdam (New Palace)

The day began with Kerry and me deciding to try the breakfast buffet here at our hotel. The verdict is that it's better than the one in Paris. I like the room, in particular, because it's less cramped. I also love the fact that the had lots of salmon and brie cheese! However, the bacon looked gross and the eggs weren't particularly tasty. Still, most of the food was good. I had three glasses of OJ....just carbing out all around today.

After breakfast, we departed for a long trip to Potsdam, Germany, partly because my late grandmother, Anna Ackerman, is from there. (At least, I'm quite sure she was.) So...it was a way of paying tribute to my German ancestors, in a sense. Kerry and I took the subway...it was a bit of a long ride....and then take a bus to the New Palace, an 18th century palace, owned by Friedrich II. Apparently, he didn't spend a lot of time there, but he had quite opulent occurrences, such as dances, fireworks, and musical showcases there. (This is according to the brief film we saw in the Visitor Center.) Speaking of the Visitor Center, I noticed that both the ticket seller in the Visitor Center and one of the tickets women in the Information area in the subway station weren't particularly pleasant to us. No smiles, just stern looks. I saw this from the guards at the New Palace, too, actually. So it's inaccurate to say that "everyone is friendly" here. It's usually the older people who are more stern.

The New Palace was quite beautiful!!  The Grotto room, in particular, on the ground floor, was exquisite, and the rooms had opulent furniture, colorful designs, and beautiful art. Much of it was done in the Rococo style. Upstairs, though, we had a bit of a different experience. Most of the rooms lacked audio guides, and the guards were rushing us from room to room, even though it was only 4:45 and the palace didn't close until 5:30. This ticked me off. I know Germans are punctual, but damn!  We did have time to marvel at the Marble ballroom...one of the prettiest rooms I've ever seen in my life.

I did complain about the tour to the English-speaking girl who handed out the audio guides at the end. She conversed with her colleagues in German about what I said and also apologized. Soon after we departed, I heard "Hello, hello" behind me. So we went back. There was a blond woman who agreed to "show us the rooms we missed."  To me, this wasn't exactly the point; my point is that we weren't allowed to use the audio guide on most of the upstairs rooms. Still, she "let" us back upstairs (now, keep in mind, the palace wasn't not yet officially closed...it was about 5:15 at this point). So we looked again at some of the rooms. It really didn't provide me anything new to have her let us back up, but I do very much appreciate her gesture of goodwill.

We then took a bus back to the subway station in Potsdam. At the subway station, I had a currywurst and Kerry had a bratwurst. The lady behind the counter was very friendly and smiling, which was nice. But not everyone is nice here, as I have pointed out. And, to add to this, apparently I bumped into a guy getting on the subway. He said something to me which I couldn't understand. "Oh, did he give you a dirty look!" said Kerry. So I'm sure it wasn't anything good. I noticed that on the subway, people were allowed to bring their bicycles! I thought this was very odd since I haven't seen this in Shanghai or Paris. But in Germany, I've noticed that the subway trains tend to be roomier and the seats tend to be more cushy. So maybe they can allow something like this.

We went to a potato restaurant for dinner--called Kartoffelkeller--and we both had schnitzel. Sehr gut!  Mine was covered with "spicy" onions (that weren't spicy) and a cheesy, garlicy sauce. Kerry's had a chicken-stew sauce with cheese on it. We were both also served fried potatoes and a little salad with our meal. It was worthy to note that, all over Germany, we have to SERIOUSLY pay for water: they don't do tap water here, like they do in Paris. It's 7 euros for one bottle of water, 14 if you want two. That's 15 bucks for water, boys and girls. I also had a "Berliner Pilsener" beer, just to say I had a beer in Germany. It was pretty good...for beer.

Then we went to the grocery store for liquid, band-aids, and shavers. We popped in at McCafe for some dessert because I hadn't had quite enough carbs today. :)

Tomorrow is our LAST FULL DAY overseas. We'll see what transpires.

A small part of the Grotto Hall.

Center front of the New Palace.

The bird and spider detail was unique on this room's ceiling.

The majestic Grand Hall.

Another room's lighting and ceiling detail.

Day 328: Berlin, Day 3--More Bus Touring, Block House (steak dinner)

We got off to yet ANOTHER late start today but still managed to do more bus touring, on the same bus we were on yesterday. We rode on the bus until Gendarmenmarkt, which is, according to Google," a square in Berlin and the site of an architectural ensemble including the Konzerthaus and the French and German Churches. In the centre of the square stands a monumental statue of Germany's renowned poet Friedrich Schiller." It was quite beautiful, probably the most beautiful area of Berlin we've seen so far, so we just wanted a closer look at it. There we took some pictures until we saw another bus come by, so we quickly scurried on to it because we thought it would be our last opportunity to catch a bus, since they stop service at 6 pm. on Sunday. Around 5:56 pm, there was a very calm announcement on the audio: "Service stops at 6 pm." Then the bus stopped an people immediately started getting out. Me being ever hopeful, I sat there for a minute, but we decided to head down. The driver was saying, "That's it! Finis!" to us. "Like we couldn't figure that out!" said Kerry.

Since we hadn't spent any money up to this point in the day, we decided to get a steak dinner at the steak place we noticed earlier in Frederichstrasse, called Block House. It had good reviews online. We first walked around a very touristy area: people were selling food and drinks, and there was even a man showcasing wire sculptures of a fire-breathing dragon and a horse. Both of them moved, and the horse even nudged me a bit. We struggled a bit finding the correct subway platform--the Information lady was helpful--but we bought our tickets, got on, and it was only two stops from where we were.

At the station, we kept noticing these two guys all over, one of whom had green hair. I figured out later that I think they were collecting bottles, but we saw them at least three times. It was a bit unsettling. Before going to eat, we stopped at the supermarket in the mall. Oddly enough, we were told we had to wait in line to go inside. As we were waiting, the guy with green hair came up and started loudly talking to a security guy. It was all in German, so we didn't know what was going on. But we decided to return later.

So we went to Block House. We both had steaks with salad and baked potato--both were really good! I had a T-Bone and Kerry had the "Mr. Rumpsteak." Our potatoes were excellent: they came with sour cream, and we were served a lot of herb butter, too. The salads were good, but not amazing: the staff made them at a salad bar before serving them to us. Afterwards we both had vanilla ice cream. Interestingly enough, we paid less for this nice meal than we did for cheeseburgers at a cafe in Paris!!! (85 euro vs. 90 euro)

We made another attempt at the supermarket after dinner. This time there was no line, so we just went in and got some drinks to take home. And we went home after.

Tomorrow we plan to go to Potsdam!

Interesting statue in the town square!

Steak at the Block House!

Berlin Concert House, which we saw after getting off the bus.

Day 327: Berlin, Day 2--Bus Tour (City Sightseeing)

The focus of today was a city bus tour; our company was BEX Sightseeing, the "yellow bus." We walked to Brandenburg Gate and there was a sign pointing to the stand selling the tickets. We bought two-day passes because we figured it might be a good way to get around the city. Today we learned that, while Paris is 105 square km, Berlin is 893, and Shanghai (get this) is 6,300 square km!!  Holy cow!!  Shanghai is about 60 times as large as Paris!  That's incredible.

So the bus came along soon enough--a yellow hop-on, hop-off one. We managed to find a couple seats at the top. In the first seat I located, the audio wouldn't work, of course, so we found some other places closer to the back. We ended up going through the complete ride once, and then we went through it again about 2/3 of the way through and got off at the Checkpoint Charlie stop. Over the course of the ride, here are some of the things we saw:

• Brandenburg Gate (obviously)
• Victory Column
• Charlottenburg Palace
• Antiques Street
• KaDeWe (department store)
• Philharmonie
• Postdamer Platz
• Checkpoint Charlie

We were on the bus about 3.5 hours. Berlin's a big city. One thing that's difficult about a bus tour is that it's REALLY HARD to get good pictures because the bus is constantly moving. But, it definitely did save my feet.

At one point, a woman behind me started saying "Monsieur" in French...I think she was just trying to close a window, but I wasn't sure what was going on. "Is there a problem?" I said to her in English. "Je ne comprends pas, monsieur," she replied. I figured out that she couldn't understand what I was saying. "D'accord. Pas de probleme. Je parle un peu de francais," I answered. (Ok. No problem. I speak a little French.) She seemed to relax and everything was fine.

Once we got off at Checkpoint Charlie, we walked around a bit (Steves is right...there's not a ton to see here, and it's VERY touristy). Then we popped into KFC for dinner. Our cashier, Jonas, asked us where we were from. We said we were from America, and he wanted to know what state. He told us that he's been to Florida--including Disney World. "Enjoy your stay in Germany," he said. Wow! Nice guy!  It is worthy to note that the KFC here is not the complete garbage that they serve in USA KFCs, where you get overheated chicken and fries. The chicken was fresh, and even the mashed potatoes tasted real...not processed. The price was right, too: 21 euros (we are trying to save money!). But we also got some soft-serve at McDonald's afterwards.

We decided to take the subway home. Turns out we were about 1 minute from one, and the stop nearest our hotel (Frederichstrasse) was only three stops away. When we got to this station, it went right down to the subway platform, and we had to buy our ticket right there, and then validate it at this machine. 1.70 euro per ticket. We didn't have to put it in a machine, as we did in Shanghai or Paris. The seats on the subway were very comfortable and even cushy, and it was not crowded at all for 7 pm on a Saturday. Amazing!

We popped into the grocery store for some water and cheese--the cheese is great here. Then we went back to the hotel.

An interesting day, but I sort of wish we accomplished more. I think we're going to take a day trip to Potsdam on Monday. Berlin's interesting, but it's definitely--so far--the least beautiful of the four places we've been.

Modern Berlin mural, seen from the bus.

The goddess atop the Victory Column.

Checkpoint Charlie.

Me and Kerry--selfie on the bus!

"Stop Wars" written on the side of a derelict building.

Day 326: Berlin, Day 1--Brandenburg Gate, Pariser Platz, Memorial to Murdered Jews, Memorial to Homosexuals Persecuted under Nazism

We got up kind of late today, but we did manage to do some sightseeing on our first full day in Berlin. We got much more accomplished than on our first day in Prague, when we were so tired from the flight delay and (still) sick that we pretty much just slept in all day.

I began by trying to get us an online reservation to visit the famous dome at Reichstag, but there were no available reservations. So our future plans are just to admire it from afar. Alas. When we finally got going, we walked about 15 minutes to the Brandenburg Gate, which is, according to Rick Steves, "the last survivor . . . of the 14 original gates in Berlin's old city wall." It represents the former division between east and west, and has great social and political importance to Germany. It's a beautiful gate, too: a chariot on top (won back from Napoleon, who initially placed it in Le Louvre) and classical architecture all over (including a beautiful Athena statue on one side). Near the gate, there's the Room of Silence, where people can go to meditate "on the cost of freedom," as Steves puts it. It's a very small room where people just go and sit. It was kind of nice, actually: it was deliberately created to be non-denominational. As we were leaving, the receptionist kept speaking to us in German, even though I said, "Ich vehrstehe nicht." Kerry figured out that she wanted to know if we could hear the music that was playing outside in the room, just from her gestures to her ears.

On the way to the Gate from our hotel, Pariser Platz is located: it's a square with a lot of people milling around, vendors, and more moden buildings. On the other side of the Gate, there's a beautiful park called Tiegarten, bisected down the middle, leading to a Victory Column (the walk was too long, so we didn't go see it). Instead, at Steves's suggestion, we looked at Pariser Platz some more. It includes the US Embassy, the DZ Bank Building (with modern architecture in the lobby...although the guard wouldn't let us in), and the Hotel Adlon, where the movie Grand Hotel was shot!

Next we headed to the Memorial of the Murdered Jews in Europe. It's quite a display: many different "coffin-shaped pillars" (Steeves) of all sizes--some standing lying down, but as you get further back in the labyrinth, some are standing up. It's easy to get lost in them. Maybe that is part of the point: maybe you're supposed to feel lost like the Jews did in the concentration camps. We also explored their "Information Center," which turned out to be a small museum.  It took us awhile to get in; we had to get in a line and go through security. But it was free!  One thing that was interesting: as one information guy was making announcements, he said to the entire crowd, in English, "Do all of you speak English?" Everyone nodded. It's so interesting to note that English is sort of the "default" language in most places we go here, not German.

Once we got in, first we saw, on a wall, a short history of Nazi occupation. This led to pictures of six individuals who died in the Holocaust, and then to a room with letters from people who were saying goodbye to their loved ones. One that impacted me the most read, "Dear father! I am saying goodbye to you before I die. We would so love to live, but they won't let us and we will die. I am so scared of this death, because the small children are thrown alive into the pit. Goodbye forever. I kiss you tenderly. Yours J." That was from a twelve-year-old girl. We also saw histories of families destroyed, and one dark room described histories of individual people one by one (on audio), some of them only 10 or 20 years old. It was a moving tribute. It was interesting to me how much Germany was willing to acknowledge the past of the Holocaust and not bury it.

This was also true with the next memorial we saw across the street, the Memorial to Homosexuals Persecuted under Nazism. It's a 3-D concrete hexahedron building that has a window, through which one may see a movie playing on loop of male and female homosexuals kissing. Someone had placed a rose in front of the screen. We saw many people stop there, which surprised us. One gay couple stopped. However, when one family went by it, I heard a little girl ask her father, "What's that?" "You don't need to know about that," he replied. It made me a bit sad.

We walked back to the hotel after that. But first we stopped for some food. I had my second currywurst of the day: the first I imbibed right before we got to the Brandenburg Gate. And, of course, I needed water. We walked back to the mall we briefly went to last night: went to the grocery store for snacks and more water. (Sadly, our hotel room has no fridge, so our big bottles of water will get warm!)  We stopped at the McCafe: Kerry had some cake; I had a Sprite slushie (just because).

It wasn't very warm today, so that helped. Nothing like the heinous 95 degree weather in Paris, only about high 70s today. We plan to do a bus tour tomorrow.

Brandenburg Gate

Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe

The most moving letter inside the memorial information center.

Hotel Adlon

Memorial to Homosexuals Persecuted under Nazism 

Day 325: Another Travel Day--Paris to Berlin

Today was pretty much a travel day, so we didn't see a lot of exciting sights or anything. We got up at 10 am and were out the door by 12 noon. When I said goodbye to the desk clerk, he seemed much nicer to us. He called a cab for us, and he even helped us carry our backs out and shook our hands. Nice! We also left a gift for the maid: a small jar of peanuts and 20 euros. I hope she gets it okay.

It took about 45 minutes to get to the airport. When we got there, it turned out that we had to go to a kiosk and get our own baggage tags and THEN go into a line to drop our bags. That's kind of a new one; there was no real explanation for this. We were directed into a self-weigh bag area. My bag was a bit overweight at first, but we put some of the books into my carry-on, and then everything was okay.

Security wasn't bad at all! Pretty quick, actually, even for Kerry, who normally has all kinds of issues with his CPAP, battery chargers, and computer slowing him down. Immediately, we noticed that our flight had been delayed 15 minutes: tragic foreshadowing #2...we suspected another trial like we had in Ireland, with the four-hour delay. So we went to a French restaurant for lunch: I had a caesar salad (with breaded chicken and bacon) and Kerry had a cheeseburger and fries. I'm so sick of fries; I couldn't stomach anything with fries. However, we both managed to stomach two chocolate mousse desserts, which were SCRUMPTIOUS.

At that point we headed to our gate, but it really didn't look like anything was going on. So we looked online....to discover the flight had been delayed not 15 minutes, but TWO HOURS. Damn. During this time, we decided to go over our finances for the trip a bit, and see what we have left in our bank accounts. We've really been spending too much in Europe, which isn't a shock to me, even though I've tried to be careful. I feel a bit disappointed, but it's hard to do Europe--Paris especially--on a budget.

We discovered--again, via the Internet--not by any announcement in the airport--that they changed the gates on us twice (from F52 to F56 to F55). Finally, we boarded. But when we did, they made us sit on the plane for another hour. They served us water to compensate, which I declined. The flight was fine once we were up in the air: from take off to touch down it was only about 1 hour, 15 minutes. The woman in front of me was annoying: she pushed her carry on UNDER her seat (taking away my leg room), not in front of her, and she took about a million pictures of the landing, sticking her chubby fingers in my window view. Sometimes people act worse than children.

We had to take a bus to the terminal. I was surprised how OLD the Berlin-Tegel airport looked. Fortunately, it took us right to baggage claim, and then we went to the taxi area. The taxi manager pushed us aside for a few moments, but he managed to find us a taxi guy. In the middle of the ride, he "claimed" he forgot to turn his meter on. However, at the end of the ride, he said, "Normally, a ride like this is 22 euros." So that's what we paid him. It was better than the 50 euros we paid this morning.

The woman who checked us in was very nice and even said she could give us info about the Hop On, Hop Off Bus Tour. (Later, when we went back for info, the guy behind the counter said he'd "never heard of it.") So we went back to our room for a bit. It's a bigger room than what we had in Pairs, but no refigerator, and the air conditioning is lousy. We decided to walk to a nearby McDonald's for dinner; it was in the train station area. There's also a Dunkin Donuts there and a Burger King. All the comforts of home. :) 

When we got back, we noticed that the TV did have a couple English stations, including a music station and CNN. Phew! Also, we noticed that some of the commercials are VERY sexual, showing women with no tops on, and almost no bottoms. Oh my.

More tomorrow....

Chocolate mousse in the airport!  Magnifique!

Day 324: Laundry part 2, Le Louvre part 2...and Some Great Food

We began the day by going to SRS Laverie and doing some laundry. We had only one load to do, so it wasn't as difficult as last week. And the people we ran into there were pleasant....everyone said "Bonjour." Most of the French we met were very nice! Afterwards, we went to La Placette, which is the same place we went to last time and liked a lot. In fact, this time was even better. We got the same food we did last time: I got the tartare and Kerry got the coquillettes de "mamie" jambon et fromage (pasta with ham and cheese). They were really nice to us; we even got ice with our drinks and ketchup and mayo with the fries. We also split a caesar salad, which had chicken on it again...SO amazing!

Afterwards, we went back to the hotel, put our laundry away, and did a bit of packing and sorting. Then we rested a bit before heading back out...to Le Louvre. (On the way to the subway, we stopped in at the bagel place, Bagelstein, to thank them for providing us with such good food while we were here! The woman thanked us. It was nice to give a compliment!) We figured Le Louvre was worth a second trip because there's so much there. And it did not disappoint! This time we focused on Egyptian Art: I haven't seen so many treasures from ancient Egypt in my life! There were statues, tombs, sarcophagi, pottery, and, of course, plenty of animals...including CATS!!  This, of course, made Kerry exceptionally happy. Near the end we sort of ran out of time and zoomed through the last few rooms as they were closing. Still, on the way out, I managed to glance at some medieval art....and even work my way back to Cimabue's The Madonna and Child in Majesty Surrounded by Angels (one of favorites) and, incredibly enough, I got to say goodbye to Mona. When I entered the room, there were only 50 people this time, unlike the 200 I witnessed on the last occasion. Kerry and I started going one way toward what we thought was an exit, but it turned out we had do bypass Mona again...so I was able to get one more look!  Even while the museum was ostensibly closing, 15 people were still gathered around her. Amazing.

Leaving was kind of tough. For some reason, they close the easy access point to the Metro station that we came in on, so we had to take a different route. Once we got to what we thought was our departure point, we got on the train......only to realize that we got on Line 7 by mistake!  Oops!  It was okay though...we just rode it to the next stop (Chatelet) that had a transfer to Line 1. A lot of walking to get to the Line 1, but we eventually made it. Kerry was hungry, so we thought about stopping at Subway on the way home. However, they were closed, so we decided to stop at the pizza place across the street instead. I'm so glad we did! We got two four-cheese pizzas with pepperoni for only 26 euros....AND THEY WERE SO GOOD! I am going to miss the cheese here, for sure...especially the goat cheese.

On the whole, it was a good last day. Goodbye, Paris. Goodbye, Mona Lisa.

An Egyptian cat and her kittens.

Inside the Louvre's glass pyramid.

An Egyptian Sphinx.

Another stunning painting.

Pallas Athena.

One final selfie with Mona Lisa.

Day 323: Paris, Day 13: Le Musee d'Orsay, part 2

Today we decided to go to the Musee d'Orsay and check out some of the things we had missed before. It's such a huge museum and worth a 2nd trip. So we went, even though the weather report predicted a 97 degree day. We took the Metro Line 1 to Tuilerries and walked to the museum. Unlike last time, this time we noticed two huge lines. We looked at the biggest one and then asked one woman in charge, "Is this the end of the line?" Another person mentioned that she had a Paris Museum Paris, and the woman in charge indicate that Museum Pass folks were to go to another, shorter line. Phew! However, the shorter line was still pretty long, at it took at least 20 minutes to go through the security line in the hot sun. We hydrated constantly, wiped sweat off ourselves, and tried not to move too much.

Eventually, we made it in the air-conditioned museum. We stayed mainly on the main floor (floor 0) and then near the end made our way up to look at some French sculptures.  Here's some of what we saw:

• Daumier, Celebrites de Juste Milieu (Celebrities of the Happy Medium)--a series of satirical statues
• Millet, Les Glaneuses (The Gleaners)--he had many paintings of peasant women
• Gerome, Deux Paysannes Italiennes et Un Enfant
• Sellier, Portrait de Napolitiane
• Rousseau, Une Avenue, Foret de I'sle-Adam
• Bonheur, Labourage Niverais (cows)
• Jacque, Moutons au Paturage
• Breton, Le Rappel des Glaneuses
• Manet, Olympia
• Courbet, including L'Atelier du Peintre (which we had a heck of a time finding...it wasn't where Rick Steves said it would be....)
• Cabanel, Thamar
• Nouy, Ramses dans son Harem
• Motte, La Fiancee de Belus
• Cabanel, Mort de Francesca de Rimini et de Paolo Malatesta
• Glaize, Les Femmes Gauloises
• Chenavard, Divina Tragedia ("the destruction of the Greek Pantheon," Kerry said)
• Baader, Le Remords
• Lehoux, Saint Laurent
• Bazille, Reunion de Famille
• Tissot, Jeune Femme en Veste Rouge
• Models of Paris and the Paris Opera House
• Many works by Toulouse-Lautrec (I learned he died at age 36 of syphillis...)
• Beraud, Une Soiree
• Many sculptures from Rodin, including another manifestation of his Gates of Hell
• Sculpture by Gerome, Tangara

By the end of the tour around the museum, I was hurting, exhausted, and dehydrated. My hip hurt, my ankle hurt, my back hurt, and I was sweating....with no water. They began to usher us like cows out of the museum around 5:45. The moment we got out, there was a man selling bottles of water for 1 euro each. We bought two bottles, and I immediately chugged 1/2 of one right away, so Kerry had to go buy another.

I was just hurting, hurting, hurting, so I hobbled home via the Subway....we took the Concorde station back. We stopped at a bagel placewe both like that's been serving us good desserts. I got a bagel with salmon and cream cheese; Kerry got one with pastrami. I also got curry cole slaw; Kerry got chips. It was a good (relatively cheap) dinner for Paris: about 25 euros.

Right now I'm just trying to relax. We plan to do laundry and then go to Le Louvre late tomorrow.

Day 322: Paris, Day 12: Italian Food, Le Tour Eiffel

We began the day with a nice Italian meal early on. There's a place called Caffe Caesar near L'Arc de Triomphe. The people in there were pretty nice; online it says it's a family-run business. It was nice to be able to eat inside with no one smoking. We had a 1/2 bottle of Bourdeaux red wine; with this, I had the spaghetti Bolognese and Kerry had some lasagna. It was pretty good, although I wish my spaghetti had had more parm cheese and Kerry's portion could have been larger. We split a green salad with parmesan cheese and walnuts with the entrees; that was pretty tasty, too. They're very big on vinaigrette dressings here in Paris, so it came with balsamic vinaigrette and some olive oil, which we also had with the bread that they served. For dessert, I had something called the coupe amarena: amarena cherries, vanilla ice cream, and whipped cream. It was pretty sweet, but also yummy; I like cherries a lot (being from Michigan, of course). Kerry had the warm chocolate cake. Even though it was pricey (about 69 euros overall), we really didn't spend much yesterday at all, so things even themselves out. We ran into a couple looking at their menu outside as we were leaving. "Try it--it was really good," I told them. They went inside.

Afterwards, we took Le Metro Line 6 (a first for us) to the stop of the Eiffel Tower: Bir-Hakeim, named after a French war battle. Then we walked to the tower. Soooo many souvenir places along the way. Many of them entailed African men just sitting on the ground selling statues of the Eiffel Tower. We did cave and bought two fans from one of them. Once we got to the Tower area, we noticed there were two lines: one for people without tickets, and one for people with tickets. Since we had our printed-out ticket, we got in the "people with tickets" line. It wasn't nearly as bad as we thought it would be and we got through very quickly. It was about 3 pm by this point and our "time" for the Eiffel Tower wasn't until 5:30 pm. They told us not go get in line for our time "until 5 minutes before." So we hung out for a bit and looked around. One thing that surprised me is that there were beautiful ponds, with ducks, around--lots of nature. And, of course, a lot of restaurants and things to eat. It sort of reminded me of a fair atmosphere. Not many places to sit, though; most people just plopped themselves on the ground. However, me being me, I needed a bench, so I managed to grab a seat next to a smelly Asian woman...fortunately, she left pretty soon. So we did a lot of waiting around. Both of us visiting the souvenir shop separately; we saved the bench seat for each other. My back got to hurt after awhile with no support, so I eventually stood up. It helped that they had free WiFi there. Right before our time to depart, I tried to go to the toilets, but there was a HUGE line that had all genders mixed in. But then a security guy decided to let just the women into the women's room on the right, leaving all of us guys stranded. I couldn't wait, so I just left. I figured I'd go later.

So our time came to go up in the tower. When we got there, the 5 pm folks were still lined up, and it was 5:15 by this time. "Wait until 5:30," one woman told me. So, slowly, a queue for the 5:30 line formed. One old woman and her family tried to push in ahead of us from the right (she wouldn't go to the back of the line when told), but we kept cutting in front of her. We learned how to be pushy in Shanghai! Eventually, we made it through ANOTHER security line and then got to go into a huge elevator that took us to the 2nd floor. We walked all around and took pictures, so that was fun. However, it was also quite hot and VERY crowded there. The views were beautiful, though: you could see the Champs-Elysees and the Hotel des Invalides, in particular. People were playing in a fountain in this hot, 94 degree day, and I got to watch them through a telescope (even though the telescope cost 1 euro for just a 1 minute view). Eventually, we decided to walk down to the 1st floor. It was a bit of a hike, but we did get there. Here the view wasn't as great because everything was blocked with wires...but you could definitely see some things closer up. And on this platform they had such things as information about the structure and Parisian movies...so that was kind of cool. They also had a very expensive restaurant on this floor (well, in Paris, very expensive is kind of redundant), but it was too much for us. We took an elevator down to the ground floor and exited.

We bought some hot dogs for dinner, along with one Coke Zero that we shared (5 euro for one...yes I'm still complaining about the prices!). The hot dogs were more like huge french baguettes with two hot dogs in the each...and some ketchup. They were bigger than we anticipated...and actually pretty good. We sat on a bench to eat them and fed the pigeons baguette bread. Very Parisian. Before going home, we noticed that Line 6 was having delays; we couldn't believe it. The Metro trains here don't seem to be NEARLY as reliable as the ones in Shanghai, which were ALWAYS on time and fast. So we walked back, thinking we'd have to take an Uber. We stopped at a souvenir place first: Kerry and I miscommunicated and somehow the cashier shortchanged us 5 euro. We were miffed about this. Oddly enough, I noticed that the girl at the hot dog stand also shortchanged us 1 euro. Deliberate? Food for thought..pun intended. I don't know, but it was weird that both of these incidents happened the same day. Fortunately, when we got to Line 6, the subway train actually came pretty quickly, and we had no problems getting home. As usual, before going back to the room, we stopped at "our" convenience store for water and soda.

Tomorrow we plan to use our two-day museum passes and go back to the Musee d'Orsay.

Italian food in Paris

C'est moi a le tour Eiffel

One of the wonders of the world

The grounds around the tower

That view!

Day 321: Paris, Day ll--Quiet Day

Today we had a very low-key, quiet day: not much to report. We slept in quite late, just lazed around, and I worked on my article for my sabbatical report. I think part of the reason we did this is that we're just a bit museum-ed out. And in general, I think two weeks was too much time to spend in Paris; I sort of wish we'd spent more time in Ireland and Prague. Also, not many places in Paris have air conditioning, and the temperatures have been in the 90s here. Monday will be about 94; Tuesday is supposed to be about 96. So staying inside afforded us the option of enjoying air conditioning.

Eventually, though, we ventured outside. Most of the cafes in Paris were closed since it was Sunday night, but we did go to a little quickie-food joint near L'Arc de Triomphe called "L'Arc Food." They have a nice variety; most of their stuff is under 10 euros: burgers, tacos, paninis, crepes, etc. Kerry and I both got paninis for dinner: I had one with mozzarella and smoked salmon; Kerry's had mozzarella and ground meat. We both had Nutella crepes for dessert. We sat near a cute British-Indian family outdoors. The boy had a cute British accent. :)   We also were troubled by bees again; Kerry managed to kill another one. I'm very worried that I'm going to get stung by one here and have stopped wearing cologne as a result.

It helped that the weather wasn't as blisteringly hot as I thought it might be, only in the mid-80s. It's supposed to be worse tomorrow, when we're supposed to go to the Eiffel Tower. I hope that goes well!

Day 320: Paris, Day 10--Le Centre Pompidou, Bear's Den

We began today in a very boring way: getting subs at the Subway that's like a block or so from us. They wouldn't give us fountain drinks because there was no ice. "Too hot!" said the man behind the counter. As a result, we had to pay more (??) for bottled drinks...no combos. The French, for the most part, don't really understand the concepts of either ice or air conditioning.  It's a bit frustrating. We took the sandwiches back to our room to eat them, but the maid was working on our room, so we went down to the breakfast area to dine. There was a worker down there; I thought he was going to kick us out, but I explained to him that the maid was cleaning our room. He was very nice; he asked if we were from Canada, but I replied, "Les Etats-Unis."

After eating, we were off to Le Centre Pompidou. It's a modern art museum somewhat near the Hotel de Ville. We noticed a lot of rainbow flags around the city. It turns out that the Gay Games are going on in Paris right now...and we didn't even know about it! However, I must admit that I don't quite know what they are, who participates, or what the activities are. All I know is that they started August 4, and I think they go on until August 10.

Anyway, back to the museum: there were beautiful, colorful sculptures on the outside, and the architecture of the building is very modern as well. There's what looks like a long tube on the outside for people to travel in. The line to get in was not long. The ticket prices were 14 euro per person; we also bought two-day museum passes for our last two days, when we plan to see the Orsay and Louvre again. Then we went to the 6th floor, where they had Galleries 1 and 2. Only Gallery 1 was open. A lot of furniture and pottery there, which didn't interest me much, but the paintings did, as well as the films, such as a 19th century silent film of a woman dancing; Louis Valtat's Con de Massif Fleuri dans un Jardin de Provence (which had a cat and a snake); some works by Matisse and Picasso; some provocative propaganda posters; and some furniture and a car that had been in a silent film. We picked up a couple small souvenir things, and then we went to the Modern art. There we saw more Matisse, Picasso, Leger (whom I really like), de la Serna's Europe, van Velde's Neige, the Blue works by Miro...and, my favorite, Kandinsky!!  Afterwards, we headed to the Contemporary Art, which was either feast or famine. I was incredibly impressed by this "Magasin de Ben" constructed by an artist named simply "Ben," which had words written all over it. It was done very much in a mixed-medium, collage style and quite impressive to look at. Other cool/notable works included Jitish Kallat, Baggage Claim; gender-bending photography by artists such as Jurgen Klauke and Urs Luthi; a very odd film called Painter by Paul McCarthy, which involved the protagonist diving into a bag of excrement;  Peter Buggenhout's The Blind Leading the Blind #58 (which is like a chaotic series of sculptures and projections, impossible to describe); the colorful work of Gerhard Richter; Annette Messager's Les Piques (dolls being impaled on broom handles); and the Grand Tableau Antifascite Collectif, which reminded me of Picasso's Guernica, and was apparently held by police for 25 years; as well as much of the work of Jean-Jacques Lebel. On the whole, though, I did prefer the Modern Art collection. Some of the contemporary pieces--particularly the minimalist ones--just left me cold.

When we were done, Kerry and I went to the Bear's Dean, a gay bear bar nearby. It was very crowded; in fact, "crowded" is an understatement. Over 100 men just drank and talked on the street outside the bar. The place was so small it could fit only about 10 people inside, really. The bartender was nice. Smiled at us, quickly got us rum and cokes: for 14 euros, not surprisingly. Then the fun part started: we decided to check out the "dance floor" because online it mentioned that they had one. So we start going downstairs and we notice it's pitch black. By the time we get to the bottom, we noticed a TV screen showing a porn...and about 20 guys having sex. That's pretty much all that was going on down there; I wouldn't exactly call that "dancing." It's the same thing that goes on in a gay bathhouse in the US. It wasn't really what we were looking for....so...we left. I guess Paris is waaaaaay more liberal than even I thought. It takes a lot to make me uncomfortable, and that did.

Kerry was hungry, so we decided to find something to eat. We ended up at this place called L'Alsacien, where they served Alsace-style pizza...or, as they called it, flammekueches.  Each one came with creme fraiche, cheese, and other toppings. I had one with meunster and bacon. It smelled awful at first, but it actually tasted pretty good!  The best thing is that each flammekueche was not that expensive; only about 10 euros each. So we got out of there for only 29 euros, which is super cheap compared to most of the meals we've been having.

We had a bit of a problem coming home, as Kerry's phone decided to update just as we were trying to follow the GPS directions. So we stood there on a street corner for about ten minutes before we could get going. And then, about a block away from home, we both encountered a guy whom I think was trying to pick our pockets. He got really close to me and then took off. And then he and Kerry bumped into each other, and then he tried to engage Kerry in conversation. I was just really suspicious of this; he think he was probably trying to distract Kerry to pick his pocket. But all was good and we made it back fine.

Outside the Bear's Den

Day 319: Paris, Day 9--Montrmarte...Sacre-Coeur and Espace Dali

Today we decided to go to Montmarte and see Sacre-Coeur. Interestingly enough, we had to take Line 2 to get there instead of Line 1, which we've been taking 95% of the time during our first week in Paris. It was a brutally hot day; it got up to 95 degrees around 5 pm. Unfortunately, the area around Sacre-Coeur was very touristy, with a lot of souvenir stands. But what amazing views! Sacre-Coeur resembles the Taj Mahal in its stark whiteness. My Frommer's Guide Book says that, when it rains, "it secretes a chalky substance that acts as a fresh coat of paint." The steps all the way up to the top looked pretty intimidating, but fortunately Kerry found a lift that we could take: four the cost of four Metro tickets (7,60 euro total). However, considering the weather, I think it was worth it. Online I noticed that some folks said that it wasn't worth it to go in the cathedral, but I'd have to disagree. It was really beautiful and peaceful. I felt a real sense of serenity there that I didn't feel at Notre-Dame. Perhaps this was due to the fact that a Mass (the 3 pm Mass) was going on while we were there. It was odd to have tourists milling about, taking pictures and buying souvenirs, in the middle of a Catholic Mass. Yet, the areas were kept very separate. Nuns were a major part of the mass; they even dispensed communion to the mass-goers. There are a lot of mosaics in the basilica and on the very top, there's a huge mosaic picture of Jesus. We went to the souvenir shop when we were done; I managed to make some small talk in French with the cashier lady. Leaving, we took in the splendor of the view of the city from the top of the hill; Montmarte is on this big hill....that's why it was helpful to take a lift up there.

Next, we decided to go to the "Espace Dali," which was a small Dali Museum a few blocks away. Again, it was in a very touristy area, with lots of cafes and restaurants, and people doing caricatures. The museum was a bit pricey (12 euros per person), but it was interesting. I was a bit disappointed that a lot of the works were "inspired" by Dali and just "completed by artisans." Still, we saw many drawings and illustrations Dali did, including art inspired by Alice in Wonderland, erotica, and the Bible. I liked that they were showing a copy of the Disney film inspired by Dali that never came to fruition, too. Many of the things we saw were representations of his previous works, such as sculptures of The Persistence of Memory in different forms, or his Lobster Telephone. Near the end, we went through more of a formal gallery area, where it seemed like they were selling Dali lithographs.

Since we had noted earlier an Irish pub that had air conditioning, we decided to go there for dinner. It was called Corcoran's Irish Pub. I enjoyed it because it was quite different from most of the places we've been going to. First of all, we got to eat inside. Secondly, no one was smoking. Thirdly, since I ate bangers and mashed, I didn't have to have french fries (which I'm getting very sick of). Kerry had his usual cheeseburger; he enjoyed it. But it was quite expensive: just for two small diet Cokes and two iced peach teas, they charged us 20 euro alone (that's about 22 bucks, folks). No such thing as free refills here. I really liked that the waitresses spoke perfect English; apparently, one of them told Kerry that she was from Ottawa, Canada. This was a nice break from French.

We took Line 2 home and got home with little trouble, stopping briefly at our local convenience store for more water. The front desk offered to print out our Eiffel Tower tickets for us--we're going Monday, now that the two-day strike is over--so they did so. I think we'll tackle Le Centre Pompidou tomorrow.

Sacre-Coeur

One of Sacre-Coeur's mosaic ceilings

Yes, that's a baguette on her head

Who stole the tarts?

Sign at Corcoran's Irish Pub

Day 318: Paris, Day 8--Low-Key Day

This is going to be a brief blog entry because we really didn't do that much outside. Our main event of the day was doing laundry; we went to the nearby SBS Laverie near our hotel. We did run into a guy named Sam from California; we had an interesting chat with him about travel and his failed attempts at having an Air BNB at his home Apparently, people destroyed it, including his TV; he even showed us pictures. Wow! It took about three hours for us to do laundry--long, hot work on a 90 degree day--and then we decided to have something to eat afterwards. So we went to a cafe called La Placette, the only thing around that was open. (We initially wanted to go to a crepe place, but they were closed.) The waiter didn't really seem to speak much English, but he seemed to understand my French pretty well. We shared a caesar salad, which had chicken in it, much to my surprise--and it had a lot of caesar dressing and a good amount of cheese! Then I got tartare de boeuf and Kerry got coquillettes de mamie (pasta with ham bits). The tartare came with fries again, of course: they LOVE their fries here. I'm also noticing that the French love to give us bread with each meal (here they gave us two baskets without having to ask). And when we ask for a carafe d'eau anywhere, it's always free, and usually comes in a colored container. I'm still not thrilled by all the outdoor eating, which inevitably means outdoor smoking nearby (although we weren't really subjected to that this time). What we were subjected to, though, was a hornet that wouldn't leave us alone until Kerry killed it. I'm so glad he did because I have passed out from bee stings and they are very painful! I remember getting stung once at Nick's house....I hurt all day long. 55 euros for the meal, including a slight tip. (Here, service is included, so we don't really add on that much extra; we just round up a bit.)

Afterwards, we went back to the hotel. Kerry took a nap and I worked on an article for my sabbatical portfolio. Yeah, I know....why am I doing work on my vacation? Well, I don't want to be inundated with everything when I get back. It will just be too much. Later Kerry went to get some water and chocolate, and we just hung out. It was nice to have a low-key day.

I think we will likely go to Sacre-Coeur tomorrow. It's free, so that's one good thing.

Day 317: Paris, Day 7--Musee de l'Orangerie and Le Jardin des Tuileries

Today we did what we thought we were going to do yesterday: we went to the Musee de l'Orangerie and Le Jardin des Tulieries. Line 1 on the Metro had resolved all its issues, fortunately; I stupidly put a used ticket in the machine again. Going to the subway on Line 1, you have to enter the ticket twice. In Paris, you just need the ticket for the entry; you don't need it after that, apparently. This is different from Shanghai.

We got off at the Concorde stop and walked to the museum. It's inside Le Jardin des Tulieries. Today, fortunately, it was open; security wasn't that difficult and our museum pass was easily accepted. The main floor of the museum had Monet's Water Lilies in two separate huge rooms. It's quite the enterprise; I guess it was particularly designed for this building. My favorite part of the expansive painting was the one with the sunset in the first room..stunning! Downstairs, the had an expansive collection of works...almost 200, mostly Impressionist, works from the Jean Walter and Paul Guillaume collection. The artists included Utrillo, Soutine (who really appealed to me), Rousseau, Modigliani, Derain, Laurencin, Matisse, Picasso, and Cezanne. We turned the corner and saw a Gaugin or two and a wall of Renoir. I also developed an appreciation for a a woman painter named Marie Laurencin....I loved her use of pinks, greys, and blues, and her representations of female subjects. We bought some postcards of her work; she was a contemporary of Picasso. We also saw an exhibition of contemporary works from folks influenced by the Monet painting. Some left me cold, but some enthralled me, particularly the ones from Jackson Pollock. I also learned a bit about an American artist named Joan Mitchell today, who apparently worked in France for a bit after being inspired by Impressionism. So all this was good stuff.

Some weird, not-so-good stuff happened at this museum today, though. In the first Monet room, one female guard kept going around the room "shhhhhhhhing" everyone. Why?  I'm not sure what the point of that was. Did conversation interfere with the atmosphere of peace and tranquility Monet was intending to create. Perhaps that's it. Secondly, another woman guard kept telling me and Kerry not to take pictures of one Monet painting in another room. I didn't, and I even offered to show her my camera. Kerry took a picture of it anyway, out of spite. I realize that these people are just doing their job, but sometimes I think they go too far. Finally, I had an incident in a room where we were reading about Water Lilies where a woman said "Excusez-moi" to me, so I'd move. I was apparently blocking her view. So I moved to the left. Then she said, "Monsieur? Monsieur? Monsieur?" I turned around and she started speaking to me in French. She figured out I couldn't understand her, so she said, "You were standing right in front of me while I was reading. That was not very nice of you. You put your small body (small?) in front of me."  I replied, "Sorry, but I'm trying to read, too."  I think she had more to say to me, but I ignored her. My guess is that she was trying to put a "rude American" in his place. The incident also reminded me that the French have VERY different personal space rules than the Chinese. The Chinese push and bump into each other all the time, cut in front of each other in line, and walk in front of each other. Frankly, I'm a bit used to living this way. The French don't even like to have someone sit next to them on the subway. They will always leave a middle seat open between two people; the Chinese, however, don't care.

We bought a couple small items in the boutique, and then we left. Next we walked around Le Jardin des Tulieries. There's a huge fountain in the center, lots of sculptures from the 17th to 19th centuries, especially (in Greek style, usually of Greek Gods), and some pretty flowers. It's more like a park than a garden; lots of places to sit. We also saw ducks and pigeons swimming around in the water. I did hope that it would be more of a "garden" overall, but it was a nice place to hang out. I also noticed that a couple areas had actual fruits and vegetables, like tomatoes and grapes, even.

Then we tried to find the Metro--This time we went to the Tuileries stop. On the way there, I almost got run over by a bicycle, but I managed to avoid it. Then I got bumped into once I got on the subway. Sometimes I get annoyed with the lack of space and time in big cities, especially ones I don't know.

We tried a cafe near our hotel, Le Grand Carnot. The food was okay, but no great shakes. The served bread, fries, and a small salad, which is what all these cafes seem to serve. I had the chicken, and it was fine, but nothing special, and quite a small portion. Kerry felt the same about his burger. We didn't have dessert there; instead, we opted to have desserts from a vegan bakery near L'Arc de Triomphe. We brought it home. I had a cherry-pistachio tart; Kerry had a cookie. Quite good. The Asian woman behind the counter noted, "You're speaking both French and English! How is my English?" We assured her it was fine.

Today was okay, but definitely not one of our best days in Paris. Frankly, I sort of wish we weren't spending 14 days here. Kerry and I both now wish we'd spent more time in Ireland and more time in Prague. Tomorrow shouldn't be too taxing....we are just doing laundry.

A section of Monet's Water Lilies

Detail from Water Lilies

Le Jardin de Tuilleries

One of Le Jardin's many statues