Books

I did a lot of reading in Paris. This is a picture of all the books I bought in Paris. (A couple were brought from the US.) It is funny, since I got on the plane to come home I've hardly read at all. Seems that it is something that I mostly do when I am alone and if I home other things get substituted into my time. I found an English bookstore that I just loved, I went to 4 or 5 others before I found my favorite. It was perfect, centrally located, small enough to not be overwhelming and still be cozy, big enough that no one was looking over your shoulder, that I could get lost in it, and to have a great selection. I loved it and would go there whenever I was stressed, or homesick, out of a books, or just feeling like indulging myself. Here are the lists roughly grouped by author. Most often the purpose of the reading I did was comfort/enjoyment reading, so it is easy to see what I find most comforting/enjoyable to read...Georgette Heyer, Elizabeth Peters, and Jane Austen are very prominent along with lots of fun fiction books. I did love the two non-fiction books I bought, but I found that I just don't move through non-fiction like I do fiction, regardless of how fascinating I find it. Also they were both big fat books, so it just takes longer.

Books Elen Brought from the USA:
The Laughter of Dead Kings - Elizabeth Peters (the latest Vicky Bliss novel...this occupied the plane on the way over.)
The Camelot Caper - Elizabeth Peters
The Book of Mormon (in French)
Various grammar books we won't mention in detail

Books Elen Bought and Read in Paris:
The Phantom of the Opera - Gaston Leroux (highly recommended)
Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
Lady Susan - Jane Austen (first read in Paris, bought at cute little bookstore in the Marais, very fun)
Persuasion - Jane Austen
Mansfield Park - Jane Austen (first read in Paris liked it much more than I expected)
Northanger Abbey - Jane Austen (also first read in Paris, decided I should read the Mysteries of Udlopho to see if I get more of the humor)
The Etiquette of an English Tea - Bought at Kensington Palace gift shop
Pistols for Two - Georgette Heyer
The Reluctant Widow - Georgette Heyer bought in London first time read! Highly recommended for Heyer fans.
Cotillion - Georgette Heyer was going to save for the plane home, but didn't last that long. Loved it!
The Toll Gate - Georgette Heyer
Angles and Demons - Dan Brown (not recommended - also not pictured since it did not make the 2nd trans-Atlantic crossing)
Borrower of the Night - Elizabeth Peters
Josephine - the Rose of Martinique - Andrea Stuart - HIGHLY RECOMMENDED fascinating!
Twilight - Stephenie Meyer
New Moon - Stephenie Meyer
Eclipse - Stephenie Meyer (I succumbed to the Twilight series after seeing the movie in Brussels. Had a blast with the books, still haven read the last one)

Books Elen Bought in Paris and Didn't/Hasn't Finish:
Eldest - Christopher Paolini - I got to the climax and just got tired of reading and still haven't finished it. I'm just having a hard time getting psyched to read a battle scene.
The Hunchback of Notre Dame - Victor Hugo - started right after the Phantom and it was just too wordy and slow moving and I was a little tired of reading. Maybe will finish someday.
The Moonstone - Wilkie Collins - picked it because it was one of the cheap Penguin Classics, started right before coming home. Have liked it a lot so far, but haven't picked it up again yet...was still in stages of dire warnings, so verdict is yet to be decided upon.
Duplicate Death - Georgette Heyer - am saving to have a nice time with sometime.
The Seven Ages of Paris - Alistair Horne so far I am really impressed and interested by this book, but just haven't got through the bulk of it.
Dracula - Bram Stoker...another that was just too wordy for my mental state at the time. It would be interesting to finish sometime.
Cool Illumination book from the Cluny Museum gift shop, I've looked at it and plan to enjoy it more.

Books Elen Bought in Paris and Has Not/Did Not Read:
La Sainte Bible - a too little too late institute effort, but I do now own a French Bible...maybe will come in handy someday...but if not I struggle with the English Bible sufficiently as is.
Death in the Stocks - Georgette Heyer, bought an an awesome used bookstore by the Eiffel Tower, didn't own a copy yet.
The Hollow Hills - Mary Stewart also from aforementioned used bookstore, second book in her King Arthur trilogy, haven't started yet.
Contes des Fees - two books of fairly tales in French that I just bought to have.
Around the World in Eighty Days - Jules Verne there are just certain authors that the French love and name lots of things after, and Jules Verne is one of them, sounds interesting, so we'll see.
Le Magicien d'Oz - The Wizard of Oz in French

Books Elen Really Wanted to Buy, but Resisted:
There were lots of books that I wanted to buy, but resisted, most notably I REALLY wanted to buy more of the books in The Three Musketeers series, but they were just too expensive. All English books in Paris were expensive, but these were exceptionally expensive, so I'll just have to buy them online sometime.

Notre Dame and Chartres

Chartres Cathedral

They are totally jousting in the middle. Jousting! I love it.

I had better pictures of the frieze, but in the middle of this one is a scene of Christ ascending into heaven. If you look closely you see his feet hanging down as the rest is going up. It makes sense, but it just tickles my funny bone to no end.

The shapes that made up the windows were absolutely incredible. Here are some examples, there were a ton of different ones, I was astounded.

There was a whole other series of windows up higher.

Ok, this isn't an amazing picture, but it is the best one I have to attempt to illustrate the height of the cathedral. So if I was standing by the pillar on the left, my head would be about where the light spot in the center of that stain on the stone is. Also keep in mind that the picture doesn't even really get in the top of the thing.

Here are two pictures of the outside and the buttresses, again not the best pictures to truly give the scope, but you can see how beautiful and how complex...particularly complex when you consider the similar picture of Notre Dame lower down.

Notre-Dame de Paris

Good view of the tourists...bless them. :)


For Christmas the cathedral had an incredible light display of the section of the stone frieze that depicted the Christmas story. The scenes are carved in stone and painted, but as the cathedral is dim you normally don't see them extremely well. It was all dark, and they would light up one figure at a time, moving from one figure to another until the entire scene was lit, and then they would start on the next scene. It was really fun because it made the medieval purpose of teaching scripture stories through images more real and viable. (I have wondered before how they made head or tail of anything, and how most people were able to even see the images since they didn't have glasses) Singling out the images was great because it made you notice things that you would have missed otherwise. I also really liked it because it increased the sense I had of reading the scene, I don't think that our modern eyes are used to the post-renaissance perspective, and it is difficult to follow the and appreciate the complex, crowded, layered medieval formatting.






Check out the doors!

View from across the river from the Ile de St. Louis. The back is beautifully proportioned with stunningly clean and simple lines.

This view literally stopped me in my tracks...despite below freezing temperatures it was simply breathtaking.

Malmison

Château de Malmaison

Napoleon's Library


Josephine's Bedroom


Napoleon's Bedroom

Thanksgiving in Brussels

Dinner included rotisserie chicken, mashed yams, mashed potatoes, gravy, carrots in a marmalade glaze, hummus, brie, bread, and pudding. Yummy.

I don't have a picture with everyone, but we had 3 Americans, 1 Portuguese, 1 Frenchman, 2 Germans, 1 Brit, and 1 Bulgarian (if I remember right).

...and no Thanksgiving would be complete without hand trukeys.

Oostende, Belgium

That's right a HSM and also a Zac Efron calendars on the streets of Oostende, Belgium. If it had been in Flemish I might have had to buy it...so I guess it was good it wasn't.



Band #1...oh so politically incorrect in the USA, and you have to totally admire the tights and the pants.

Band #2, they were out in force for the Christmas festivities. Really fun atmosphere.