Play vs. work . . . hmmmmmm.

I guess it's time to start on the accounting forms I've been avoiding this weekend! I've been having fun sorting and posting some of our photos from the Paris trip and learning more about putting pictures on Panoramio for Google Earth consideration. I also started an HTML version of the Paris Walks I began working on about 1981. You can check it out here. It's only a start, I wanted to play with some formatting ideas. I called it a "treasure hunt," because Lee used those words when we were looking for street numbers, and it made sense. It was fun.

This is Lee walking down the Rue St. Victor. It's quiet, and pretty, and there's a raised sidewalk because one side of the street is way higher than the other. We found a shop that had an antique train in the window. Cool! It's fun re-living the experience of being in Paris with Google Earth and the photos. I also got it together to upload a photo of Astoria and one of Corona (California) to Panoramio. It's easy, it's just more logins and passwords to remember.



Here's a mini Panoramio so you can see just where the picture at the top of the blog post was taken. More fun: you can drag the Panoramio map to see more of Paris, but there will be no additional photo icons. When you code Panoramio to appear in your web page or blog, it only shows the photos from the original square you insert into the page. Be aware - the map will also move when you click on a small square to see that photo. You may have to drag it back to continue to look at the original map frame.

And now I have some serious accounting to take care of so I can get the material to my accountant so he can do his thing. Wish I could have somebody do my part, too! I don't mind the normal accounting. I don't like the part where you have to get details for the forms. It's too hard to figure out! On the other hand, if I wait till Monday . . . ?????? Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. I'm on the verge of needing a new keyboard because this one is giving out. Maybe it will break and give me an excuse. :-p Or maybe I'll finish the book I bought at the airport. It's called Merde, Actually, by Stephen Clarke, and it's funny. About an English guy opening a tea room in Paris, but more about his messed up love life. It does shed some light on cultural things. We couldn't figure out why one of the waiters yanked the cloth napkins off the table we sat at and brought paper ones instead. Well, we did have an idea about it and it turns out we were half right. It seems you do NOT sit at a cafe table and order coffee when the table has CLEARLY been set for lunch already (a more expensive meal). Duh. Well, in this case the waiter was reasonably nice about it, but he was abrupt and probably a little ticked. Americans! What are they thinking???

Oct 14, Part 19 - Lamarck and the entrance to the Jardin des Plantes, Paris

Near the paleontology museum was a map of the entire Jardin des Plantes. The "You are Here" marker is the red thing in the lower right. We had entered the park in the upper left and walked through to that point. Unfortunately, I didn't get the legend, but I found a map online that has one. You can see it here if you'd like.

Now we're walking toward the entrance, which for us is the exit.

This is the time line. We're at the beginning, which is 4569 million years ago, and the icons are small invertebrates or more likely one-celled animals and plants. I didn't take time to read it.

Here's a statue to Lamarck. There are dates with various interests, achievements, career changes, or whatever you want to call them. Lamarck believed that evolution was a reality and proceeded in accordance with natural laws. He did much of his work on plants and animals here in the Jardin and his statue has the most prominent location. If you click on the photo you can read the base. Here's more about Lamarck.

This is the base of Lamarck's statue with the Museum of Natural History in the background. What a beautiful setting. I was lucky to get any pictures at all in the dim light.

This woman was putting her shiny phone or PDA back in her pocket. I don't know what she was announcing or protesting or commenting on there, but the sign says: "KAEFER WANNER 25 ans. de service." I looked up the name. It seems to be a multinational company that makes insulation.

And here is Lamarck himself, atop the pedestal where the Kaefer Wanner lady is sitting.

Another pretty vista of the Natural History Museum with purple flowers and trees in the foreground. Nice! The central path through the garden begins just at the left.

I like the gold-painted tips on the fence. They look festive and so French, or at least so not Astoria. And the whale poster. I'll bet they have some great progams here. Another poster was about sea turtles.

Go to Part 20

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Oct 14, Part 20 - Along the Seine in Plein Air

Reluctantly, we left the beautiful and historic Jardin des Plantes, although we were pretty tired by now and the idea of going back to the hotel and finding dinner somewhere sounded good. In truth, I felt that if I sat down, I'd congeal into one of the sculptures in La Musee de la Sculpture en Plein Air, which is what we were now walking through along the Quai Sant Bernard.

An incipient volunteer tree along the Seine. It looked like a handful of sycamore leaves, actually, it was about a foot tall maybe.

This is the northern half of the Pont Sully, connecting the Ile St Louis to the Right Bank. There were lots of tour boats in the area with lights on and people puttering, getting ready for dinner cruises.

The light is really fading now as we walk along the Seine towards home. Even these goreous leaves are sort of blah in the dim light.

I have no idea what this was about, but it provided interest along the way. There were about 20 of them, mostly in t-shirts and pink lab coats with stuff written on the clothing in crayon or paint. Only the one fellow was made up in a mime face.

Here we are near the Institut du Monde Arabe - the amazing building of Arab culture, which we didn't go in.

This shows some of the celebrated window treatment of the Monde Arabe. Apparently the panels adjust with the intensity of the daylight so the interior stays illuminated to a pre-set quality. Someday I'd like to see it. I didn't realize it, but we were now very near the famous Tour d'Argent (Tower of Silver) restaurant (very posh and expensive), and a small museum of "the table," or cutlery or something like that that I'd been intending to see for a long time just because it sounded unusual. I was really tired and no longer checking the map or my walking tour for interesting stops. It was on the Quai de Tournelle, and we'd turned into the Boulevard St-Germain. The museum would most likely have been closed by now anyway.

The Boulevard is very old and is shaded by lots of well-grown leafy trees. It was almost dark, but the camera adjusted, so it looks like there's more light than there is. It was on our way back, nearly to the hotel that I took this photo in the evening light of St-Nicholas-du-Chardonnet, which we'd visited earlier in the day. We'd come nearly full-circle now.

And just beyond St. Nicholas, the final picture of the day. I love the glowing colors. The boulevard was colorful with plenty to look at, although most of the shops along the way were closed. We'd seen so much this first day. I was excited to be here, excited to have seen all that we'd seen on our walk, but I was losing focus, literally. My eyes, like everything else, were tired. It was time to go back, wind down, get a bite to eat, try to sleep if possible, and plan for tomorrow. My feet were starting to scream at me, and I was trying to tell them, "Come on, one more step, one more step, one more step."

Go to Day 2