Saturday Snapshot

To participate in the Saturday Snapshot meme post a photo that you (or a friend or family member) have taken then leave a direct link to your post on Alyce's blog At Home With Books.Photos can be old or new, and be of any subject as long as they are clean and appropriate for all eyes to see. how much detail you give in the caption is entirely up to you. Please don't post random photos that you find online.

This week's picture comes from a freezing but beautiful tour of the old French town of Briancon in the Alps. We spent a week here and it was just one fabulous day after another, excepting the day it snowed and we couldn't go anywhere because of the ice. It all melted the next day so it turned out fine. I've never been so at peace and calm in one place for so long, the whole experience was absolutely incredible.

And yet another week of two pictures, because I couldn't pass up this one. This is a view from the front yard of the house in the mountains, which features the beautiful ancient town of Briancon with it's fortifications. If you're ever thinking about a trip to the Alps, I can't recommend this little town enough. It's the most beautiful place I've been to date, and unlike some Parisians (please forgive me and let me back into your town!) everyone I met there was very nice and understanding of language difficulties, and the younger folks were more than willing to try out their English to help you along.

I know I sound like a tourists advertisement, and I have a French market to get to, so I'll wrap it up by telling you that the castle like building you see is the Collegiale cathedrale which doesn't look like much from the outside due to fortifications and such, but inside it is all marble and paintings and colors and gold. Well worth the trip.

Saturday Snapshot

To participate in the Saturday Snapshot meme post a photo that you (or a friend or family member) have taken then leave a direct link to your post on Alyce's blog At Home With Books.Photos can be old or new, and be of any subject as long as they are clean and appropriate for all eyes to see. how much detail you give in the caption is entirely up to you. Please don't post random photos that you find online.

This week was a tough choice. I've been so many places and gotten so many wonderful days worth of shots, it wasn't easy to pick just one. So I decided to narrow it down to two.

They come from the same location, just facing different directions. I probably should have done my research concerning the locks on the bridge by Notre Dame de Paris, but if I had to guess by the names written on them with little hearts I'd say it's something that's supposed to keep couples together forever.

Just across the bridge on the island by Notre Dame, something about the light and water called to me. Water's been calling to me a lot these days, my pictures have been a bit obsessed with it. Anyway, it's a beautiful little boat house/restaurant with an adorable black lab on the deck somewhere, let's call him Waldo, I'll think of a prize if you can find him.

Lazy excuses

I know it's been nearly a week since you've heard from me, and I'm sure it's torn some worlds apart, but don't worry. I'll be gone for yet another week as we head to the Alps and I'm without internet, but all the while I'll be collecting little stories, pictures and tidbits to give you all as a reward for your patience.

Once November hits, my goal is not only to complete NaNoWriMo, but to post in the blog at least once a day. Oh yes, a post a day plus however many words I need to write a story. Got any ideas for me?

Saturday Snapshot

To participate in the Saturday Snapshot meme post a photo that you (or a friend or family member) have taken then leave a direct link to your post on Alyce's blog At Home With Books. Photos can be old or new, and be of any subject as long as they are clean and appropriate for all eyes to see. how much detail you give in the caption is entirely up to you. Please don't post random photos that you find online.

Today's photo comes from yesterday's traipse along the Champs Elysees because it was a beautiful day, and hey, why not. I started at the Arch de Triomphe and meandered my way down the rue, pausing to take a postcard writing break in one of the lovely little parks that litter the way as you approach the Jardins de Tuileries. As I crossed the street to the Place de la Concorde at the end of the way, these fountains caught my eye with their gold detailing against the dark metal. Apparently, this was the fountain that can be seen in the movie The Devil Wears Prada, in the scene where Anne Hathaway's character decides she's done with the fashion industry and tosses her phone into the fountain.

How DVDs have ruined Disney

This doesn't have much to do with France in particular. It's just a plea to bring back for some purposes the trusty old VHS.

Perhaps I'm just prejudiced because I grew up in a VHS household, and some of my best and earliest memories are accompanied by the whirring sound of a tape being played, rewound, or fast-forwarded. It's not that I spent my entire childhood planted in front of the TV watching movies, I was practicing for my future.

With Lumiere I rehearsed the kickline from Beauty and the Beast in that eternal classic song, "Be Our Guest". About twelve years later, there I was onstage doing it. Michael Flatley and my little brother had tap-off show downs during Riverdance and Lord of the Dance. I learned my love of Celtic music, singing, and dancing from those same shows. The Tin Soldier convinced me that I wanted to be a ballerina. Without The Snow Queen, I never would have learned to perfect my icy glare when I performed the title role, forcing my father to guess who I was before I would say hello to him when he came home from work.

But back to the original purpose of the story.

Yesterday in lieu of wandering off to visit the wonderful sites of Paris, I was asked to keep watch over the three-year-old daughter of my host family. What's the best way to entertain children? Disney.

She selected that old classic Bambi. I myself have never been a huge fan, the mother dies, humans are horrible to animals, there's fire, and death, and it just doesn't seem like a kids movie. Anyway, she chose it so we popped in the DVD, she also selected the English version so bonus points for her and more difficulty tuning it out for me. The movie rolled along like it should, perhaps with slightly better picture and less fuzzy sound, Bambi's mother got shot and the little girl turned around to explain it to me in French. Just in case I didn't get the gist just from watching, or the fact that it was the English version.

Still bumping along, I'd managed to hold back my tears and I'm still proud of myself. Then came the climax of the movie, young adult Bambi runs away from the hunters and has just heroically saved love interest Faline from a pack of hunting dogs. He runs, jumps a ravine and we hear the bang of a gun as he spasms in midair and then falls unable to stand on the other side of the ravine. At this point, the DVD froze and then took us back to the main menu. Worst place ever to freeze, now this poor little girl thinks Bambi is dead! She won't know the ending! I tried to go fix it, but the little girl just stood up and walked away, humming a song to herself. When I asked if she wanted to see the end, she just gave me a look that told me I was crazy, though that might have been due to my poor attempts at French.

So as far as I can tell, this child thinks that the movie ends with Bambi getting shot by hunters. Bang, he's dead, end of story. While I'm sure it's much more realistic, since when has classic Disney been realistic? I'm disturbed by this outcome and it just proves that we should all go back to VHS. They could never take you back to the menu to make you think it was the beginning, you have to rewind it, and you'd fee the film wasn't run out, and you'd know there was more of the story to be had once your dad got home and fixed it.

And just to prove my point about Disney not being realistic, I give you this.

The Disney photo had to be doctored color-wise to make it fit.

Musee de Cluny

Three days ago, I took a trip to the Musee de Cluny. My goal was to find a cross stitch tapestry that I could do, and it was a trip that had been put off for several days. The day before I'd been sent to the Musee d'Orsay with the grandmother of my host family. It was a lovely museum, but the Impressionists exhibit was closed and therefore, I didn't get to see what I really wanted to. There will be a post coming about that later.

So to the middle ages museum I went. I'm a big fan of all things to do with the middle ages in case you didn't know, King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table and all that jazz. Also, I promised my youngest brother that I would get him a sword and it seemed like the most likely place to get one.

Musee de Cluny is in an old medieval castle that's been somewhat rehabilitated for use. It's probably the coolest old building I've seen in a while except for Mont St. Michel. As a museum, it doesn't have the grandeur and gilt of the Musee d'Orsay or the Louvre, but the stonework in the courtyard alone is probably more intricate than anything on either of those buildings. What really shocked me the most about all of the art and sculpture in this museum was the sheer amount of detail that everything had. Even the tiniest image on a medallion had a complete face and detailed outfit.

I'm not entirely sure what that is, but it blew me away with the sheer amount of detail. To give you a sense of scale, the entire thing from base to highest turret is only about the size of an average wine glass. Every roof tile, every window is drawn in exquisite detail. It's like a church sculpted on top of a cup. It reminded me a bit of Mont St. Michel, although I'm sure many other churches have such a level of intricacy and pointed spires.

Another thing I noticed about the middle ages based on the things displayed in the museum was this: unicorns are everywhere.

In every tapestry, every large sculpture or group painting, I guarantee if you look hard enough, there's a unicorn. The Musee de Cluny is of course the home of the famous tapestry Lady with a Unicorn which I discovered is actually part of a series of tapestries that depict women with unicorns. There was even an actual "unicorn horn" on display, with a description below explaining that it was actually just the tusk of a narwhal that had been given to some king sometime long ago and called a unicorn horn. Still, it was very impressive.

There were also chambers that housed stained glass windows taken from various churches and castles around Paris. Dark rooms with the windows lined up and backlit, spilling their multi-colored pictures onto the floor. Saints, kings, hunts, animals, more unicorns, all are the various subjects depicted in the vibrant windows. The detail in these windows too is absolutely incredible.

The whole museum in itself only took about an hour and a half to get through, and the gift shop didn't have my tapestry. It did have a sword for my brother, but as much as I love him I'm not willing to spend the 111 euros it would take, plus awkward questions in custums, to bring it home. Sorry bud, maybe next time.

Saturday Snapshot

To participate in the Saturday Snapshot meme post a photo that you (or a friend or family member) have taken then leave a direct link to your post on Alyce's blog At Home With Books. photos can be old or new, and be of any subject as long as they are clean and appropriate for all eyes to see. how much detail you give in the caption is entirely up to you. Please don't post random photos that you find online.

This past Wednesday I took a trip to the Musee d'Orsay. Afterwards, I walked to the nearby bridge over the Seine to take a few photos. I don't know what I like about this particular picture so much, but something about how the clouds and the river and the towers of Notre Dame are visible in the background catches my attention.