Paris

Sorry I haven't been writing more...(wow, wonder how many times I've opened a post with that...) I've been really tired when I'm not buzzed and have concluded that either I'm drinking too much coffee or not sleeping enough or both.

Spent Sunday in Paris with Val...it was so good to see her again! I didn't realize how much I'd missed her! We spent a lot of time catching up and I'm not sure we gave the proper attention to all the incredible sights around us but oh well, c'est la vie, and living, old friends are more important than the tombs of megalomaniacs anyway.

We hung out a little in Notre Dame, saw Sainte-Chapelle (the chapel in the building where the French kings used to hold court...the upper chamber where only the king and his court were allowed to go is almost completely walled with stain glass and used to contain this big gold chest with one key which the king carried on him at all times where all these relics, such as the crown of thorns encased in crystal and pieces of the true cross, were kept...though I'm a bit sceptic about the crown...I mean, who would think to keep such a thing? Or go find it after Christ rose from the dead? I mean, before it returned to the elements)

and the musee Cluny (lots of middle ages stuff...including these awsome tapestries)

and the Hotel des Invalides, which has this armor museum and Napoleon's tomb...or temple, rather. I was amazed it took such a huge coffin to contain such a little guy, but Val's sister informed us there are actually five, one inside the other, seperated by layers of cement. Apparently Napoleon was in the habit of raiding his enemy's tombs and mutilating their bodies and wanted to make sure the same thing didn't happen to him...he is surrounded by these wall carvings featuring him huge and barechested, draped in a sort of toga, surrounded by his (smaller) loyal subjects gazing on him in rapt admiration, bearing such self-deprecating statements as "My code did more for France than all the former laws combined." If the cement theory doesn't hold much water, I'd say the coffin was built to hold his ego.

Musee de Cluny crossed off the list. Also eating escargot. Little more than a month left...no time to stop!