We are home with a little help from our friends

We've are back in Philly.  A warm welcome awaited us as Joyce met us at the airport and brought some dinner and breakfast goodies so we could crash upon arrival to our place.  The lights were on and a great bowl of fruit awaited us thanks to Anna and David, who had been looking after the plants and the mail.  Jim picked up his steel guitar from Richard's house today and Miguel arrived last night with car and cat so all is now complete. We are still trying to find things since we had only lived in the new place 2 months when we left it for 3 months.  It is almost like starting anew!

We spent the last two days of our journey walking around London.  We thought we would simply be winding down but instead we ended up going to the theater and catching Bob Dylan's art exhibit at Halcyon Galleries.

London is in a festive mode and it was crowded.

We managed to take a long bus ride from Hyde Park which was popular because of the Winter Wonderland Village featuring Christmas markets, food and rides.

Our bus went by Selfridges,

the store featured in the the BBC program about the owner of the store (and which I enjoyed)

The #30 bus took us to Dalston Junction station near the Alcorn theater in north east London.  As we looked for the theater we ran into a beautiful fox walking in the alley off  Ramstead Street.  An amazing sight in the city!

 The play was about the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and I found it well acted and in a beautifully intimate setting.

A trip to the National Galleries (I don't know why the blue rooster, but it was noticeable!)

and the Courtland Institute Galleries was squeezed in between Fish and Chips in Soho and St. James Park, among other places.








Three months was a long time to be away and we are looking forward to walking around without the bags.

I must say I think I will miss communicating with all of you on a weekly basis and hearing from you.  So the challenge on the journey that is about to begin is to figure out a way to keep in touch with all.











Hope you have a festive holiday season and that 2014 bring you joy and peace.  I am specially grateful for a new addition to our family as my nephew Nik and his wife Amy welcomed Isabella Charlotte Focht into this world on December 6.  Born at home in their apartment in Zurich she is already loved by folks in New Zeland, London, Salt Lake City, Maryland, Philadelphia and New York, to mention a few.

STAY IN TOUCH, PLEASE : )

Almost home

Last Tuesday we took a bus from Swanage, a coastal town in southwest England, at 9:30 AM and after a short ferry ride over Poole harbor, a train ride from Bournemouth to London, a tube ride (subway in London) to St. Pancras International train station and a 2 and 1/2 hour train ride that took us under the English channel, we ended up in Paris at 8 PM.  A short ride on the M4 underground (subway in Paris) took us to 53 rue Montmartre and the apartment where Miguel and his lovely girlfriend, Tama, were waiting for us with wine and cheese!  If the sentence seems long, imagine how we felt about the trip. Nevertheless, it was great to be with Miguel and Tama and Paris was, as always, a welcome sight.

We spent a good part of our first full day in Paris at the Musee D'Orsay, a museum with an unparalleled collection of Impressionist paintings.  We could walk there from the apartment on rue Montmartre, which is not in the Montmartre neighborhood but on the 2nd arrondisement.

Paris is divided into 20 administrative districts called arronidisements.  The apartment was near the Louvre and the Seine and surrounded by fun cafes, boutiques and fun things to see and do, even in winter and with little sun.

After the museum we explored the neighborhood of Montmartre located in the 18th arrondisement of Paris and had lunch at a lovely cafe by a park which features artists and their renditions of Paris life and scenery.

A stop for coffee takes a new meaning in Paris.

We ended up having dinner at an ungodly hour, for Jim and I , 9 PM, and packing for our trip to Le Mont Saint-Michel which took us out of the city for the next 2 days.

It is difficult to describe Le Mont Saint-Michel, a place of pilgrimage in southern Normandy.  More explicitly, what was a chapel on a rocky outcrop in the sea in the 8th century became a village with an amazing abbey on the top and managed to resist invasion by the English during the One Hundred Years War.    That should give you an idea of the fortification side of things there,  But it does not provide a glimpse of the inside of this amazing place.  Though quite a tourist attraction with all the usual souvenir shops and overpriced restaurants, the ramparts, nooks and crannies and the magnificent abbey are worth a visit.

We stayed overnight on le Mont Saint-Michel and, although the famous 14 foot tides did not happen at this time of the year, it was a special place to spend the night.

   

According to the information office,  the structural composition of the town on the island follows the feudal model of God on top, then houses and stores surrounded by protective walls.

We rented a car in Paris for this trip.  Driving through Normandy was nice when we took time to explore some of the villages off the main highways.  Otherwise, the train ride is much nicer than driving as the trains go through villages and remote areas of interest.  At times on the highway we felt we might be driving in the USA.  Gas and rest stops looked pretty much like the ones at home.  AND, driving back into Paris on a Friday night at 7PM is not for the faint of heart.

Because of a malfunctioning boiler in the apartment above ours on 53 rue Montmartre, and a subsequent leak, we had to move on Friday night to a new apartment, this time at 227 rue la Fayette on the 10th arrondisement. The move was done quickly and we were installed in a beautiful 2 bedroom apartment for the last 2 nights in Paris.
Jim and I spent the last day in Paris back in Montmartre where we found the last remaining working vineyard in Paris, as well as the Moulin de la Galette,a mill that has been around since the 17th century and appears in many of the Impressionists paintings.  

Unfortunately, my camera's battery died and I only have one more photo from Montmartre and that is of the 4 of us taken by Maurice, one of the owners of Au Visage Lepic, a small and wonderful restaurant that gives merit to Paris' reputation as a gastronomical mecca. 

We are bound to London for 2 days and home.  Will probably send one last blog with final thoughts and close this line of communication for good. It has been fun but it can't compete, as I see it, with the personal touch.