June 12, 2004
PARIS
Well... This is the end of the trip. Time to go home. I sleep at the airport tonight. Can't wait to see family and friends!
June 10, 2004
Colmar
visited freiburg-Germany and then drove to Colmar. Less busy than Strasbourg and i reconnand both.
June 09, 2004
Oups!
No more minutes on my Italian phone card, and of course, they don't take
my credit card... it is Italy, after all...
So I will have to post text messages, and hunt internet cafes...
What a bummer? I just spent one hour in a cafe just to find at the very
end that MY visa card is not accepted for online renewals...
Oh well? only a few days left. Today is Wednesday, right?
Strasbourg
After dinner. It was about 22h00 when this picture was taken. Days are long
here!
Strasbourg
Nice city. Quite full of tourist though...
It's very warm (32 d) and I had a defective air conditioner that stopped
during the night! I was upgraded to their best room this morning. Nice!
I am leaving tomorrow for Paris (well...3 days to get back...no rush!) so
today is a kind of 'day off'. I'm visiting the Laundromat...not many
tourists here!
Hi to the people I know in Ireland. It was nice meeting you!
June 07, 2004
Champagne
Moët & Chandon sells 25,000,000 liters of champane...
Most of it is stored in these alcoves, amongst the 28 kilometers of underground galleries they dug in the chalk mountain. That's about 1,000,000 bottles per kilometer, or about 1,000 for each meter...lots of champagne.
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The Champagne region: beautiful, and of course there is champagne everywhere!
So tonight I'm sleeping in an old house (250 years) in a charming little village called Avize. It took my GPS to get here from Épernay...
Here's a picture of the front.
By the way, this is the Pearson Whitaker house...a champagne producer...
June 06, 2004
Guess what...
I am now in Paris. Just for fun, I turned on my cel phone. Sure enough,
there was a signal. From Bouyg. I try GPRS... it works !!
So, I tought I would not be able to connect during this last week, but
there will be no problem! (well...so far). That tells me a lot about cel
phone communication in America: it's crap compared to Europe! One system,
one standard, and competitive prices.
So I will post soon. Bye for now!
June 05, 2004
Michelangelo (again!)
The dome was one thing, but the pieta is simply stunning! But I will try
to find pictures of the other three versions so you too can appreciate the
sculptors evolution.
Michelangelo
Michelangelo was the architect for the dome of St-Peters cathedral (George
was in Paris today si I was able to get in...)
June 04, 2004
Rome
St-Peters cathedral dome, by Michelangelo.
Most tourists will never see the dome in full. The architects and
politicians who oversaw the completion of the church kind of forgot the
original idea... But the dome is clearly visible if you lean out of the
windows in the Musei Vaticani galleries. Too bad most of us walk like
drones, our camera bouncing on our belly...
Rome
When we entered the Sisteen Chapel, it was empty... of course except for
the incredible, recently restored, paintings by Michelangelo and others. We
went back later, walking through to go to St-Peters cathedral, and it took
us us a while to get through because it was so crowded!
We stayed there for one hour...AWE!
By the way... we didn't get in at St-Peters because Bush was visiting the
Pope. I guess there were so many policemen and soldiers that there was no
place left for tourists...
A head of state who needs so much security should stay home. He's a bad
tourist...! Think about it.
June 03, 2004
Rome
Only superlatives again... But I have to go to bet now 'cause we have to be
at the Sisteen chapel at 06h55!!
June 02, 2004
Bye bye...
Our last evening in Acquapendente! Already? Yes, sadly...
We are going to Rome tomorrow. There was of course an excellent dinner tonight, with tiramisu for dessert. Menoume!
A bit of crying here and there...
Here's a picture of Laura, one of the owners, and Tatiana, who works here. Of course Laura also works... Thanks to all of you at Agriturismo Buonumore. What an incredible feast!
Thanks to everyone who sent graduation congrats.
Merci à Aline et Suzanne pour le cadeau et à tous pour les encouragements.
Tuscania
Inside a medieval church in Tuscania (no...I don't remember the name of
that church...)
Drawing
Today is the last day of class. The final critique...in my case it also
marks my last class. This is it: I am now a professional artist!
So here are a few of the drawings I'm particularly happy with. They will
always refresh my memory of this very particular trip.
Drawing in the crypt in Acquapendente
June 01, 2004
Sienna
The cathedral in Sienna is nicer than the one in Florence, or anywhere else
we went, actually.
Sienna
Yesterday we visited Sienna. Beautiful city with lots of art and history.
Here's a picture of the surrounding region.
