Bonjour et Bonsoir

On day two in Paris, Stacie and I slept in a bit. We did stay up until after midnight despite getting up around 3AM the day before. So we hit the streets at about 11AM. The first thing we did was grab some coffee. The second thing we did was grab another crepe from our new favorite place.

Hello, new friend.

After that our goal for the day was to go see the famous Pere Lachaise cemetery where the likes of Oscar Wilde, Jim Morrison and Frederic Chopin are buried, among others. It was a nice little train ride to get there, and it turned out to be a huge, amazingly beautiful place.

Random Graves

Stacie checking out Oscar Wilde's grave

Up-close of Wilde's grave - a lotta post life kisses for that man

Jim Morrison's grave

Ferederic Chopin's grave

After visting Pere Lachaise, we decided to make our way by train to la Basilique du Sacre Coeur, another famous cathedral in Paris. We were told from Pere Lachaise to take the blue line to the Blanche stop because that would put you out right by the Moulin Rouge. And it literally did. This is the first thing you see when you pop out from the subway:

Right around the corner from here is a place called Cafe le deux Moulins where it was recommended that we grab a bite to eat. So, we went inside and quickly realized that we were in an over priced touristy joint. Our desire to get up and leave gave way to our hunger and it's desire to sit for a bit, though so we stayed. But I'd recommend going somewhere else.

Next we had to walk up a massive hill to get to the Sacre Coeur. I did not realize this was the case until about half way up the hill at which point I had removed my jacket and was half way to just getting completely naked to cool off. It was a hike.

This really doesn't do the walk justice but it was really steep. I promise. I am not a wuss. You shut up.

There are actually two windmills at the top of this hill. Thus all the deux moulins stuff. Here is one of them.

Le Can Can at the top of Le Hill Hill

Our first glimpse of the great cathedral.

La Basilique du Sacre Coeur

The view back towards downtown Paris. Once again, this doesn't do the view justice.

Tons of people around, but we were still nervous about attempting too much French, so we took a pic of ourselves. :)

After visiting the Sacre Coeur, we decided our next stop would be the Eiffel Tower. We wanted to sit at her feet and watch the sun set while her lights came on. So, we trained back as close as we could get and began to walk.

This is really the only picture from the walk, but it's very French as you can see.

Along the way to the tower, we stopped into a wine shop and purchased a bottle of wine. Having no glasses, we asked if we might buy a couple of those off of the gentleman as well, and he obliged. Starting to feel hungry once again from all of the walking, we also stopped into a bread shop and got a delicious little loaf of bread and then in a little grocery store for some fruit. Then it was just a bit farther, and we found the perfect little spot to watch the sun go down and enjoy our feast.

Bonsoir

The Setting Sun of Paris

Stacie wanting to wear the Eiffel Tower like a hat.

We found some American's who were kind enough to take several pictures of us until we got the lighting right.

Not one to make the evening simply about relaxing, Stacie hustled this man for two of his mini Eiffel Towers for less than the price of one and then took his picture against his will. It was fun to watch.

We began to get pretty cold after the sun went down, so we packed up and started walking for the nearest train - which as it turns out wasn't that near. Along the way, Stacie got some great pictures of the Eiffel Tower.

I love the detail on this one. It's like you can see every piece of metal.

This was a bridge over the Seine as we walked to the train.

Finally! The warmth of a train station!

See how happy and content I am now. Stacie was, too.

Another great day in Paris. I was really starting to like this little town.

The Most Interesting Thing I Learned This Week: Expounding on Nikola Tesla

The two or three of you that have been visiting Come and Blog It for some time now may know that I have always had a fascination with Nikola Tesla and his amazing inventions. Not only was he creating things that we still use today, but he was way ahead of his time doing most of his work in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

Nikola Tesla at about age 40

Most of the time the most interesting thing I learn in a week I just come across by chance, but part of writing about something interesting on a weekly basis may mean you have to go digging for just the right piece of info. I don't want to pull from things I've learned in the past - to me that would be cheating. I want to learn at least one new interesting thing every week. This week was a pretty busy work week that seemed to gobble up all of my attention and not produce anything to interesting, so I decided to think about what I found interesting. That led me to do a little digging on Tesla. There is way too much information on this man to list it all so if you want a quick overview of his life, check the video at the bottom of this post.

So, what fancy new info did I learn about Tesla this week? Glad you asked.

First, Tesla theorized in the late 1800s that he could send sound AND images from one place to another without wires. Think about that - he was theorizing that he could essentially send a Youtube video from one place to another without wires. Before 1900. It was in 1900 in Paris when the first public exhibition of a movie with sound took place. Now I'm sort of kidding when I say he was thinking about movies - but essentially he was saying he could transmit more than just sound, such as with radio, over the airwaves. This blew people's minds (since transmitting sound was still extremely new) and is about when people started calling him insane. Yet here I am sending images and sound to you without wires.

And secondly, I knew that he was building a tower on Long Island that would test his theories of transmitting over long distances, but I always thought he just ran out of money. What actually happened is that he had a silent partner financing the project - J.P. Morgan. He also had a secret plan. He believed that his tower at some point would be able to send wireless electricity to the world for free. Upon discovery of the secret plan, Morgan pulled the plug and kept Tesla from getting any other investors. Morgan was not about to give out electricity unless he could charge for it. The tower was never built and was dismantled for scrap in World War I.Tesla did some truly amazing things - and his mind was strange and worked in ways we don't understand. Yet, for all he did, most of us think of Ben Franklin or Thomas Edison when we think of electricity. The truth is that Tesla is the reason we have a world that is lit up as it is today.

For more info on an interesting man check out this video:

The Most Interesting Thing I Learned This Week: My Grandmother Wore Combat Boots

This week started out pretty slowly as far as interesting things go, but towards the end of the week things really picked up. I learned some interesting facts about Chicago while watching a video at Navy Pier - yes I was at Navy Pier this week. Why was I at Navy Pier you ask? Good question. My mom and her sister, my Aunt Molly, came to visit Stacie and I towards the end of the week. Navy Pier was one of the destinations they wanted to check out, so we made it happen.

I also learned - from my aunt - that kids are using ring tones in classrooms that teachers can't hear. They're called mosquito ring tones. Click on the link and try it out. I could hear it to a certain point, but not all of them. I know they were producing a sound, though, because my cute black lab, Bradie, was trying to figure out where the sound was coming from. As it says in the article, the sound was originally developed to repel teens. Shopkeepers would pump the tones in front of their stores to prevent loitering while leaving adult patrons none the worse for wear.

But the most interesting thing that I learned this week has to be that my grandmother, Loais Williams (Loais Ball at the time), worked at a Consolidated Aircraft Company plant outside of Fort Worth, TX, wiring B-24 Liberators for our involvement in World War II. I always knew she studied to become a nurse with the Navy, but as it turns out prior to that she was wiring B-24's to make money to go to nursing school. She was able to get into a nursing program that was paid for due to a nurses shortage as it turns out, but the fact that she was doing that to make money is pretty awesome.

I can't even wire a toaster, and there she was wiring up a bomber.

I found the picture below on a Navy archive site. This is the facility in Ft. Worth that my grandmother worked at, so it's very possible she worked in this very building getting these babies ready to go.

The WWII generation was just in a class all by themselves. They got their hands dirty, and they got stuff done to keep their country safe and hopefully make a better life for their children and grandchildren. And for that I say thank you - particularly to my grandmother. Who probably didn't wear combat boots, but it would have been super cool if she had.

A Future Where I Could See Paris in the Spring

We grabbed the train from London to Paris bright and early on Monday morning. Well, it was early. Not so bright. We took the 5.30AM train. I tried my best to stay awake for the entire trip, and I was doing well until we went into the Chunnel. It was dark. I had my iPod on. And I woke up in Paris.

Our first stop in Paris

Me struggling to get bags off the train - I was still sleepy I think.

The first stop was our hotel, but that wasn't very far from our second stop - Notre Dame.

We really just stumbled upon Notre Dame - I mean we knew it was there, but we didn't really plan on going here right off the bat. We were headed somewhere, just not here. But we figured since we practically tripped over it, we should at least go inside and take a look around.

Inside Notre Dame - a forbidden picture - except everyone was taking pictures.

Cool picture from outside Notre Dame

After a visit to the cathedral, we continued on our way to what was our true destination for this, our first day in Paris.

Crossing the Seine.

Now, we've found ourselves at the Louvre. We knew the Louvre was close to where we were headed, but once again it was not our final destination. In fact, we didn't even go inside of the museum on this, our first day in Paris, but we had to take some pictures.

Courtyard of The Louvre

Hanging out by The Louvre

Stacie at The Louvre

Now we've finally reached our original destination! On our first day in Paris.

That's right! There's an Apple Store beneath the Louvre! Why are we at the Apple Store you ask...? Well, we may or may not have had a little mishap with the foreign electricity and may or may not have fried Stacie's power cord for her computer. So, for the next 3 hours, we waited for someone to confirm what we already new and get us a new power cord - a more Euro-friendly version this time.

After our time in the Apple Store, we headed back to the river. We had heard that a great thing to do right when you get to Paris (after you purchase a new power cord, of course) is to take a river boat tour through the city.

Our boating company of choice.

We didn't really have any info on particular boat tours so we just headed to Pont Neuf and got in line for one. We were not disappointed. It was a beautiful day and the ride through the city really helped us to get our bearings.

Cool bridge

My first brush with Tour Eiffel

I liked to take pictures of the French flag waving when we came across them. This was the first one we saw.

Lots of barely dressed men sunbathing. This seemed pretty European to me.

After our boat trip, we headed back towards our hotel as we were pretty exhausted for the day. On our way we stopped in what we thought was a little garden in the 6th Arr. As we would later discover Jardin du Luxembourg is pretty large actually. We strolled in here, sat down and began to people watch. I pulled out our book on how to speak French in hopes to try and gain some bit of confidence in my ability to tell someone that I had no idea how to speak French. As I read, Stacie napped and soaked up some sun. It was a really nice afternoon.

Jardin du Luxembourg

After relaxing in the garden for a bit, we headed back to the hotel for a little nap before dinner. Dinner time happens pretty late in Paris which actually worked well for us because we eat pretty late at home a lot of the time. After watching Le Juste Prix, and immediately becoming hooked on the show, we eventually pried ourselves off the bed and headed out for dinner. We really just wandered until we found something interesting. We came across this great little outdoor cafe where we had a waiter named Jean-Pierre. How perfect is that for the first French person we actually met?

We had a nice time dining there and talking to Jean-Pierre. He praised Stacie for her wonderful French and insisted that I should keep practicing. However by the end of the evening I did manage to squeeze out, "Vous etes tres gentil." That means "you are very nice."

After a long, relaxing dinner we decided to just wander the streets of Paris. After a bit we came upon this fantastic creperie which would pretty much become our home base for breakfast.

Around the corner from the creperie, we stumbled upon a movie theater. It was 11PM, and a show was just beginning. So, we bought a ticket and sat down to watch Alice and hoped our French would be good enough to get us through.

As it turned out, the entire thing was in English with French subtitles. I still give us an A+ for going out on a limb and trying to watch a movie in a foreign country.

After the movie, these two weary travelers made our way back to our hotel and fell fast asleep until about 10 the next morning. What a great first day in The City of Lights!

The Most Interesting Thing I Learned This Week: Meet Chip Taylor

I'm willing to bet only a few of you have ever heard of Chip Taylor. But I'm also willing to bet that every one of you has heard at least one song written by Chip Taylor. Chip Taylor has written and performed many songs, and I've had the pleasure of watching him play live at The Granada Theater in Dallas, Texas. But the one song of his that I'm certain you know is "Wild Thing."

That's right. Wild Thing. Da da. Da da da. You make my heart sing. You make everything...groovy.

He also wrote "Angel of the Morning" made famous by several artists, most recently a version of it by Shaggy.

Chip Taylor - The Wild Thing himself

Something I came across this week that I wasn't aware of before is that Chip Taylor is just a stage name. His real name is James Wesley Voight, and he is the brother of Jon Voight - the actor not the previous owner of George Costanza's car.


By being Jon Voight's brother that also makes him Angelina Jolie's uncle.

Jon Voight with his daughter and Chip Taylor's neice

I'm sure my brother has been aware of all of this for years. He always seems to know these crazy little connections, but I just learned of it this week and thought I'd share it with you fine people.


Food, science, technology - now celebrities and music. You folks are going to be deep, well-rounded wells of completely random information before I'm done with you.