Impressions de Sugar Ray & The Regular Joe Stilt Walker

Magical People, can you smell that?! That's the smell of a number one hit from 1999! - Mark McGrath

The other night Josh and I met up with some friends at Epcot to take advantage of the Eat to the Beat! Concert Series. Sugar Ray! Takes me back to high school & the days when I actually knew the words to a few songs. That quote above gave us the giggles and they kept us entertained for the whole performance. McGrath wove his way through the crowd hugging people and taking cellphones out of peoples' eager hands to talk to their friends. I hugged Josh's arm tighter every time he got close to us. I think it's neat to see famous people up close... but not too close!

After we said goodbye to our friends we walked over to the Palais du Cinema in the France Pavillion and watched Impressions de France, a panoramic movie starring scenes of the country. A large part of it lets the viewer take in the sights without offering any explanation about what or where they are, but we recognized nearly all of the scenes from our time there, it sort of felt like we were in on the secret! It was nice to see those sights again and realize we were there not too long ago!

Now our adventures look a little more tropical.  

 With a record of 91 yesterday I think we might have a few pool days left! Here's Josh enjoying the sun and the breeze.

I saw this sight out of the bindery window, caught my breath, and ran for the camera! As regular Disney World goers, costumed stilt walkers are not too unusual, but this is a rare specimen. I call it the Regular Joe Stilt Walker! I've seen him a few times now and through bits of conversation that floated through my open windows I have gathered that he is getting ready for a Disney audition. Alas, the Regular Joe Stilt Walker nears extinction.

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggety-Jig

We're back in Orlando! I touched down about a week after Josh and had an overwhelming sense of home. It was a fantastic three months, and it's wonderful to be back! I still have plenty of adventures to share as well as bindery related news over on the Boom Box blog. Josh is also working on illustrations that mirror our travels that he'll be turning into a poster series in the coming months! You can see his progress here. In the meantime here's a sort of summary of the people and places we've seen over the past couple months!

Josh & Amy take in Mont Saint Michel

Amy & I get stuck in a nook and then we all get swallowed up by the architecture at Chambord

Again at Chambord, a sculpture exhibit inside the castle

Plenty of time spent at Disneyland Paris! 

Camille peeks out through a door in Alice's Labrynth & I am what I eat!

Josh & Kevin in front of the Eiffel Tower and Greg & me on the first floor

Kevin in Monet's Garden at Giverny

Camille, Amanda, & Lisa in the Tuileries snacking on Laduree pastries after touring a French packaging show - ah what a wonderful day!

Lisa, Paul, & Mary in London at the practice of the Queen's birthday parade

Dad & Lena at a Berlin cafe

Andrew, Cindy, me, & Mom on the Cape for Carpe Diem Piano Camp

Martha, Mom, me, Bill, and Gigi in Worcester

Safety lesson in an amazing Carnegie Library in Pittsburgh, one of at least twelve that mom and I visited during our Carnegie Bonanza of 2010

My brother got married! Isn't Stacy lovely?

Josh took this pic of the four Feeneys :) back in Ohio again

Spent the week in Chillicothe holding the fort down with this handsome pup, Marlo, and his cat brother, Mr. Big!

Camouflaged in the Square

 On Friday afternoon, after a fun day of shopping, Amy and I met up with Josh in front of the Catacombs. I moseyed over to Square Georges Lamarque near Cimetiere du Montparnasse, while the two of them moseyed down a dank dark stairway to view their fill of bones!

I had about an hour to read my book in the fresh air. As you can tell from the photo, I fit right in with my surroundings! It was a bit chilly and started to sprinkle only as soon as I put my book away and headed back to meet Josh and Amy.

See those tables near the center of this photo? They are ping-pong tables! We've spotted quite a few in parks and I've been delighted to witness couples bringing tidy leather bags with their matching paddles and balls so they can play a quick competitive game. I feel a slight kinship with them, as I happen to own my own paddle from the couple of times I joined ping-pong night at the Nazzaro Center with my North End friends in Boston!

I sat in front of the playground, where I was aware of two brothers playing together for most of the time. I'd say one was about 12 and the other 7 years old. They took their time on the slides and in the sandbox and then they were having a blast running around with the soccer ball they brought along. I only mention them because of what was soon to follow: the unfortunately familiar sound of the slap-smack of a soccer ball to the face, which was immediately followed by sobbing. For about two seconds I contemplated going over to help, but quickly scrapped the idea when I realized it was doubtful I could communicate with them and big brother had the situation well under control. He hugged his little brother's welted face to his chest and alternated shushing him and kissing him on the top of his head. When the sobbing subsided big brother slung his arm around little brother's shoulders and walked him over to a water spigot where they splashed little brother's face with cold water. A minute later all was well and they were on to their next task of moving all of the sand from one side of the sandbox to the other. It was a quick little happening, but the outcome made my park visit even sweeter.

photo courtesy of Universal Pictures

Speaking of brotherly love, Josh and I went to see Robin des Bois (Robin Hood) last night. It was odd to be watching a movie in France, in which France was an enemy. We also may have missed a couple of lines because there are a few bits in French, that weren't subtitled, due to the French audience! Let's see how many times I can say France or French in a paragraph! Yeesh!

Louvre

Friday before last, Josh and I took advantage of extended hours and discounted/free tickets for our first trip to the Louvre. This photo taken while we were waiting in line for our tickets. We had been in this area before, but I must say it is so incredible to stand underneath that glass pyramid after seeing it in photos for so long!

We took a look at our museum map and couldn't resist trying to tackle the E-ticket pieces during this first visit, but it was easy to get distracted. This statue of Isis really caught my eye with it's contrasting stone.

The Old Fisherman/ Seneca Dying was also truly incredible. I'm not sure what the eyes are made of, but amazing artistry was at work to create that sort of emotion from stone!

Here we arrive at the room at the top of our list! See that frame peeking out over everyone's heads? There she is! Leonardo de Vinci's Mona Lisa.

Such an icon! Josh and I both knew to expect the small size of the painting, so there was little surprise there, but it was really something to see it in person. What I liked about my closer look was really getting to see the sfumato painting technique and how each shade blended into the next.

You can barely see Josh in this shot - thought I'd take a self portrait with this bust while he mapped out our next move!

This is not an uncommon sight in and around the Louvre. The Tuilerie Gardens are full of chalky pebbled walkways that inevitably give ones shoes a nice dusting!

We walked through a long arched hallway of statues, to find The Winged Victory of Samonthrace at the top of a staircase. 

Cy Twombly's ceiling in the Salle des Bronzes. This picture doesn't quite capture the glow that his bright ceiling added to the room of artifacts.

Taken from the room next to Twombly's. You can see several monuments in the hazy distance, as well as a good example of the atmospheric perspective in Paris. It's easy to begin to see things through Impressionist eyes. Even during the day time, from not too great a distance, the Eiffel tower appears to blend into the sky as if it is a piece of it rather than something piercing it.

Venus de Milo, the contrapposto queen!

Sarcophagus of a Married Couple. I don't know if this is the one I remembered from our art history books, but it was exciting to spot this terracotta pair.

We plan on returning, but it was definitely a satisfying first visit! Here's a view of the central area all lit up. After we left we walked around the area for a while before heading back.

An evening tour boat lights up the banks of the Seine. Look at all of the people lounging on the right side.

This was in my collection of proud men on horses from the red car tour post, neat to get a little closer!

Pont-Neuf Metro Station - I love the rainbow of coins spreading across the ceiling!

Some Everyday Things

We are one stop away from Disneyland Paris via RER, but these photos give an idea of how far that is. There is a big air balloon that flies over Disney Village, similar to the one at Downtown Disney in Orlando, but I believe the one here came first. The top is the view from our apartment window, if you enlarge the photo you should be able to see a tiny red-yellow dot above the building on the left. The bottom photo was taken right next to the castle in the park and you can see the tiny red-yellow dot pretty close to center of the photo.

I love their grocery carts here! This one is posing with the cereal brands we're familiar with at home. You can either carry one of those baskets around by itself, or you can load it onto the black cart. Going to purchase tall things? Just put a basket in the bottom! But as the sign in the photo on the right shows, don't put too much weight in the carts! That happens to be the bottled beverage aisle where we find our Coca Cola Light.

Haven't gotten too adventurous with cooking here! Thought it would be fun to try this version of a croque monsier. Didn't have quite the same taste as the one we enjoyed at the Trocadero, but it was still good. :)

When I arrived, Josh had a few staples around like cereal, milk, and sugar. I saw this box and wondered, "Daddy Prime Time?!" Who knows!

 

A funny spot for a door knob! I pass this door whenever I go to meet Josh at work for lunch or dinner.

Soon I'll have some more things to share including our trip to the Louvre, Shakespeare and Company book store, Luxembourg Gardens, and our night at the Opera! This week Josh's co-worker Kevin is in town and we've been having a lot of fun together. This weekend, the three of us are planning on heading out to Giverny to see Monet's house and gardens.

Today I'm headed into Paris to meet a new friend! Camille of Papermode is going to meet me at a metro station, we'll have lunch, and then she's going to show me a street full of paper shops! Can't wait!

Our Sunday at the Parks

It's Disneyland Paris! This is a view of the castle from the side after viewing the grisly (but not too scary) dragon underneath. Josh and I just saw the movie "How to Train Your Dragon" on Tuesday in Version Originale (English with French subtitles) so we know that dragons are our friends!

Beautifully themed ticket booth & Gallery alongside/ behind Main Street. They have one of these behind the shops on either side of Main Street. This was heading toward the entrance when a parade was going on - so nice to have a clear exit! We saw glimpses of a parade as well as a stage show and both looked excellent, we'll be back again another day just for those.

Front of le Chateau de la Belle au Bois Dormant, taken from Main Street, USA. Wouldn't be Disneyland without a choo-choo, right? I thought these candied apples would have been fitting next to the Snow White attraction, but these are in the heart of Discoveryland. In general Disneyland is themed to America, so I wondered if the candied apples were something thought of as a typical American snack, but I saw a bunch of them at Auchan (that hypermarket I mentioned a couple posts ago) so they must be the usual around here? We didn't get one (I'm allergic to apples!) but noticed several people having a hard time biting through the candy shell.

Loved the style and colors of these attraction posters. The lights reflected in the glass are from the main entrance turnstiles. 

More posters, thought that the steam coming out of the coffee cup was a nice touch.

And, more posters! These were in that gallery behind the Main Street shops.

The Nautilus was a walk through attraction and was one of my favorites. You walk down a stairway into a dark hallway and have no idea what is coming, whether it's a ride or if there's a big octopus waiting down there for you! To my delight it was a tour of sorts of the watercraft. Filled with treasure, furniture, books, luxurious rugs and musical instruments. about half way through there is a large round window where you can see an octopus is about to attack, or is it? Maybe they're our friends like those dragons ;).

I didn't know what I was looking at in the second photo since I'm used to our bright white mountain in Florida! Space Mountain is an explosion of color & I can't wait to ride it! It looks like you start out shooting through that tube on the right which can be seen in both photos.

The wonderful exterior of Videopolis makes way for a lunch spot! I didn't know what to expect inside, but it's where we took a break for a Fanta, which for the record tasted more like OJ and less like pop as it does in the US. The crazy thing about this place was that it was SO quiet! There were a ton of people in there enjoying their food with their eyes glued to the giant movie screen! We joined them and enjoyed the quiet. They have those old cartoons playing at a couple locations in Disney World, but I've never actually watched one all the way through. We sat through two here, and they were highly enjoyable!

Big Thunder Mountain was on its own island! You board the trains in Frontierland and then you speed down through the cold darkness and zoom up into the light and you're on the mountain! Somehow it felt like it lasted longer than the ride in Florida, probably because we didn't know what was coming next! Josh and I agreed that our favorite part was getting to and from the mountain.

Pirate's Beach, a playground for the kiddos with Skull Rock as a backdrop. Star Tours, oddly located in Disneyland Park with a very different, but awesome facade, was the exact same ride as in FL. We almost tricked ourselves into thinking we were home and had imagined our whole trip. Then the little robot said everything in French, so that was cleared up pretty quickly! Then Spooky Phantom Manor! A very grand entrance... how much should I tell?? Can I say that the stretching room might actually be stretching?!

Another piece of photographic evidence of Josh's great aiming skills, and p.s. we were really there!

We got over to Walt Disney Studios Park at the end of the day and it felt like everything was closing. We'll have to start out there next trip. There was a five minute wait for Rock 'n' Roller Coaster, so I hopped in line and had a thrill! We also did the Armageddon attraction, which except for a spiel by Michael Clarke Duncan was all in French. It really could have been Armageddon for all we knew, and we would have just giggled along with anything that happened.

We've only just scratched the surface, so I'm sure there will be more Disney posts to come! Let us know if you have any specific questions about the parks for us to find out or if there's anything you want a picture of :)

I'm off to do the oh-so-French task of finishing our laundry and then I might go get a haircut, after brushing up on hair salon vocab, of course!