智游城

标题: Tour de France [打印本页]

作者: SUIM 时间: 2010-10-26 12:01
标题: Tour de France
(Intro)
Hope you don't mind me write in English first, as SoGou online Chinese input is so slow tonight. If I put it off any longer, this will never happen.

I've promised to report back so at least this way I didn't break my promise.

(Day 1)
I've got an opportunity to visit several places in France last month. Originally, I only planned on visiting Toulouse in south France, attending some meetings for two weeks. Right about two weeks before departure, I got invited to give some talks in Paris. This new development pushed my boss (read: wife) over the edge and made the decision to join me in the Tour de France, along with our young boys, 5 and 7.

As my tickets have been booked ahead of time by the company, they had to get their own ticket at which point not possible to match mine. Besides, they don't want to miss too many school days. So I took off by myself first, made all the connections all barely in time and got in Toulouse airport with no surprises 6 hours ahead of them.

At Avis rental car counter, however, I got my first of many surprises. "I am sorry Sir but we do not have automatic for you. This is Europe." said the pleasant clerk behind the counter. As a veteran traveler who's been to Europe several times before, I wasn't really surprised. "I understand you mostly drive sticks here but I've made specific arrangement in my reservation and it showed automatic". "I am sorry sir", the young lad explained that this is not what's said in their system. Upon my persistent demands, he looked up all reservations here and there, amongst partners and finally offered me a choice: take an automatic BMW, with an extra 1,100 euros, on top of my original reservation which was about 400, for two weeks. That, was a surprise and not something I've prepared for. I can try but our management sure won't like me paying over 200 euros a day for rental car, even it's my project money. Besides, as a all frugal, dragon blood type consumers, I won't take the bait, not the first one anyway.

I put him on hold and went to check other rental car companies nearby and found one with 900 euros for two weeks. It's not the best solution but considering the circumstances, I took it. After all, I had planned on driving to Paris, as I was going to visit two different companies there.

With help of my Garmin, it didn't give me too much trouble finding my home for the next few days. Novotel belongs to a large hotel chain (Accor) in Europe and is considered somewhat better amongst its fleet, probably similar to Hilton in class in Hilton chains, price-wise anyway! I've booked a room for four people so when I saw the size of the room, I was surprised. It is well known, generally speaking, that European style rooms are small, in comparison to those in the States. But still! The maid was nice enough to have laid out all the beds for us, one queen size, one full size sofa bed. I put down my two pieces of luggage and sat on the bed and looked around. It wasn't that I was that tired, but rather, i HAD to sit down! There is no place for me to stand, after I put down my suitcases (one carryon, one 26"). It IS that small. As I've said before, I've been to Europe before, Italy, Spain, and Germany. But I guess this is yet another level, French level to be exact, that you literally do not have room to keep your suitcases open. Great!

With disappointment, I did remember to check all beds to make sure there's no bed bugs to bring home with. All beds are exceptionally clean, to be fair, even comparing to high end hotels in the US. The bathroom is separate from the toilet, which is exceptionally compact in size. I imagined for a few seconds what would happen when above average size folks from where I live (deep south) showed up here, and chuckled at myself for my stupidity, as I just noticed a phone sitting conveniently next to me. Doh! I am in Europe.

作者: SUIM 时间: 2010-10-26 12:12
I washed up and headed out early, in hope to check out areas nearby and maybe hit a store or two to grab something before picking up my VIPs. Driving is not too bad, I guess, considering that I had driven in New York city and Washington DC before. Indeed the streets are narrow but not something I couldn't handle. Oh, did I forget to mention I bought the insurance for the rental car that no matter what happens, I am not responsible for any damage?

作者: SUIM 时间: 2010-10-26 12:28
I didn't get very far as a couple of stores on my GPS are apparently wrongly marked. There are alot of smallish grocery stores and fast food chains like McDonald and Subways I can recognize but no place to park, or I don't know if I can park, as those French markings looked rather intimidating. I opted not to try something stupid on the first day. Besides, I didn't know how long it usually takes to deal with French police when something came up, which is not good from pure planning point of view. Also, I am not sure which direction to start once my car got towed away. All options considered, it's best I pick up VIPs first. So off I went.

Even though my French is rather limited, I know at least two words more than most people. Besides, my GPS is English spoken (with an attitude sometimes if I may add --"reeee calculating"), and I can read signs, especially those with big airplanes so no surprises there. Parking is very close to terminal and after a few minutes, VIPs showed up, with two running around like buzzy bees all over the place and boss dragging a carryon, tired but alert looking. They were very happy to see me standing in the corner secreting taping them. The poor wife ran to the bathroom as soon as I took over her backpack.

She was, of course, also surprised by the sheer size and efficiency of the room as this is her first time visiting Europe. But she was happy. Very happy.

I can tell.

(to be continued)

作者: maomaobiao 时间: 2010-10-26 13:00
本帖最后由 maomaobiao 于 2010-10-26 13:01 编辑

期待更新，更多照片。

虽然英文看着累。呆几天啊？

题目有点标题党的嫌疑。我就说这时候哪来的环法嘛？呵呵

玩的开心点。

作者: SUIM 时间: 2010-10-27 10:29
谢谢鼓励。耐心一点嘛，会明白俺没有哗众取宠标题党的意思，完全滴没有滴。
匆匆记下，有好多错字，海涵了。

作者: SUIM 时间: 2010-10-27 10:42
本帖最后由 SUIM 于 2010-10-27 10:53 编辑

(Mediterranean beach)

The hotel is surprisingly quiet, despite small rooms. It felt like the rooms have better sound isolation. That probably contributed to the late waking up, way past 10 in the morning. It sounded bad but in reality, this is about 3 or 4 in the morning back home. It was a beautiful Sunny day outside. “What do you guys want to go today?” I consulted my boss, to which she shrugged, “I don’t care” was the answer. Well, Barcelona is only 2 hours away, so I suggested we head that direction and that was the plan.

After a quick bite, we were on our way. This is the beauty of having a car at your disposal and having a fearless driver behind the steering wheel. The boys couldn’t care less about where they were, jabbing at each other like usual in the backseats, no difference than we were driving to Disney in Florida or the Smokey’s in the Tennessee. The wife is visibly excited about the differences she found: much smaller cars as if somebody squeezed them, numerous castle-looking or Gaudi type old buildings in the distance poking out from time to time behind bushes and tree lines, rows and rows of grapevines in contiguous vineyards one after another, long lines of newly installed windmill turbines…

The highways are in good shape and well maintained, pretty much smooth cruising all the way till we hit toll stations. The first one was non-eventful. It looked like any of those automated toll collectors in the States, except everything in French. I put in my credit card and it displayed payment amount and waited a few seconds for receipt but nothing came. Then I noticed a green button next to the card slot, presto, a receipt dropped out. Not that hard… until the next one about an hour later. After I put in my credit card, it pushed it right out. I thought I saw a display in amount of the toll but not sure and this time, there is no green button. I looked around, the stop light was green. I am not sure it had been green or just turned green. Am I supposed to go? Did I pay? Nobody around. I pulled ahead and stopped the car by the side and saw a young guy walked by. I tried to talk to him but apparently he didn’t speak English. He pointed to a building a short distance away to which I guess is the office. I walked in and through several layers of windows, finally got the attention of one of the two girls inside. She came over and we started talking, in our own ways, in fact to ourselves, as apparently nobody could understand the other. After about ten minutes, she was clearly frustrated and went to a computer. Then it hit me, “wait!”, I gestured to the best of my ability, “I will be right back”. I just remembered that I had enabled on my iPad, not only a GPS driving app, but also global 3G roaming. With iPad in hand I came back, proudly typed in what I wanted to ask her and Google translator did its magic. In 2 minutes I came out, walking tall and started pondering about climbing Mount Everest.
That feeling didn’t last very long after we spent next half an hour looking for a place to eat. The few restaurants that were open all packed with long waiting lines, in the small town by the toll exit. We ended up going to KFC, which was a nice change anyway. I don’t remember ever taking kids to one before so that was good. The food was actually better than most US fast food chains and tasted pretty decent. Of course the price is better than US junk foods as well, about twice as much if I remember correctly, with drink cup about half of the medium cup you would typically found in the States. But kids were happy and the place was not crowded (actually pretty much empty).

This detour basically put an end to my original plan of going over to Barcelona (if you go there, make sure to visit its Mediterranean beach), so we opted to stop at Nabonne and paid a quick visit to the beach. It was a good decision and we had lots fun in this old town filled with historical landmarks. Here I got my parallel parking tested for the first time in a long while, managed to squeeze in between tightly parked cars, with no more than 6 inches extra space. My wife laughed hysterically for a long time, even after I successfully emerged from the car. I didn’t think it was that funny. Oh well, women!
The sky was brilliantly blue with few clouds here and there. Sunday wasn’t a busy day apparently, neither at tour sites or on the Mediterranean beach we visited. It gave me a surreal feeling as if it were merely a dream at times, until I got power punched unexpectedly from behind by one of the wild goblins.

Time went by rather quickly when you had fun. We got back to Toulouse in total darkness and bought our dinner from roadside restaurants and crashed to bed shortly afterward.

(to be continued)

作者: lisa 时间: 2010-10-27 11:02
是游记？

作者: wl23th 时间: 2010-10-27 11:20
- -老外 or 。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。复制的？？？

作者: luckypanda 时间: 2010-10-27 12:32

- -老外 or 。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。复制的？？？
wl23th 发表于 2010-10-26 22:20

是楼主SUIM自己写的啦

作者: luckypanda 时间: 2010-10-27 12:35
来个真人秀吧，不愿意正面出镜，侧脸也OK。实在不行的话，再退一步，来个背影。。。。。[s:167]

作者: maomaobiao 时间: 2010-10-27 21:19
照片都不错。

还挺逗的呢，和加油站的法国mm没挑个情什么的？

作者: SUIM 时间: 2010-10-28 08:51

来个真人秀吧，不愿意正面出镜，侧脸也OK。实在不行的话，再退一步，来个背影。。。。。 ...
luckypanda 发表于 2010-10-27 12:35

既然姊姊点到了，那就先来一张插个队吧，恭敬不如从命呗，谁让俺石心眼呢。。。

作者: maomaobiao 时间: 2010-10-28 09:09
WSN，我猜你肯定和人家正面合影了吧？

作者: SUIM 时间: 2010-10-29 08:48

WSN，我猜你肯定和人家正面合影了吧？
maomaobiao 发表于 2010-10-28 09:09

孤陋寡闻，ＷＳＮ？
真人不说假话，没有。。。来得及。

作者: SUIM 时间: 2010-10-29 08:53
本帖最后由 SUIM 于 2010-10-29 09:02 编辑

LASTE DISCLAIMER: all writings are copyrighted by SUIM. Nonprofit redistributions are allowed on the condition that original site (zhiyoucheng.com) and author must be credited.
迟到的声明：如有转发，请注明出自智游城的ＳＵＩＭ。转发仅限非商业用途。照片版权所有违者必究！

当然了有想要高分辨率的，可以ＭＳＧ。
－－－
(Driving over)
Wife and kids went to various places the next two days while I went on my own business at meetings. They had fun taking a cruise on the old canal, wondered around the city, in and out of different stores and parks. Toulouse is the 5th largest city in France, so it has its fair share of hustling and bustling and homeless people, and of course, dog poops. They seem like everywhere for some reason. It might be that we walked mostly instead of driving, as besides parking, driving in narrow alleys is not very enjoyable even to me. There’s a big university in town, which might explain why there seemed to have young kids out at night all the time, just hanging, by the river bank, outside restaurants, outside metro stations, bus stations, or just a light post. Lots people are smoking, as if every girl smokes too! It is worth mentioning that a lot of them are in very nice shape, especially considering where I came from (hint: obese capital of the States). I guess smoking probably helps quite a bit. Then again, walking from everywhere to everywhere won’t hurt either. My wife said at the end of the trip, that the amount of walk we did in France in a week is probably more than 10 years worth in the States. European cities reminded me a lot of upcoming Chinese cities or maybe it should be the other way around. You can tell that China got more influence from Europe than United States. The most obvious to me is the hotel rooms, the setup from the toiletry to amenity especially the slippers. I’ve never seen any hotels in the States offering slippers and I’ve traveled to probably 40 out of the 50 including Alaska and Hawaii. And this walking is yet another example. A lot of people relies on public transportation at both places, and you just carry your grocery bags around and catch a sub and such. Most people in the States would be driving to the supermarket and loaded it up the cart, push to your car in the parking lot and unloading from your garage. No wonder we are fat!
I digress. The next stop is Paris. I’ve heard interesting things before I headed over. At the meeting, one guy told me that he’d be heading over to Paris as well, not something planned. What happened was that he was in Paris 6 months ago and got his luggage stolen on the train. It was like a movie scene. Some guy accidently dropped his carried bag and money went all out and over. You probably know that the paper notes in euro are 5 and up, so 1 and 2 euros are all coins (not sure about 5 now come to think of it). People started grabbing or helping, and there was chaos for a few minutes. When it’s all said and done, he noticed the briefcase that was on the rack just above his head is now gone. It has his computers, passport and money etc. He immediately reported to the conductor and they looked over the videos and saw the guy(s) who did it. Yes you guessed it, it was a setup. But they didn’t stop the train and seal and search everybody. The surprise came a day earlier that Paris police actually found his stuff and wanted him to go over and identify and pick them up. Mental note to self: be careful!
Then there is another development prior to my scheduled departure. My host in Paris politely reminded me that most people in France, such as those live in Toulouse, never drive to Paris. They always fly. That got me worried. Well, I plan on leaving the next day and it’s kind of late to buy tickets, especially 4 of them. How about trains? Hmm, that can be arranged easily for 4 people but it’ll take about the same amount of time than driving. Adding up the transfer time to and from the station, it’s not worth the trouble. I prefer driving to flying but with family with me, in a strange place, I am not very comfortable, mainly because of safety. After much back and forth, I decided to drive. The last straw that tipped over the scale was the planned national strike. More on that late.
The actual driving (da tour) is not bad at all. The weather was perfect. The road was nice and smooth, with very little traffic until we hit outskirts of Paris. The signs are well placed and marked, better than a lot of places in the States (by the way, don’t try to drive in Hawaii). After hitting 3 tolls within 2 hours, I began to understand why the French don’t drive. The toll alone is more than the cost of a plane ticket! And the gas prices! Easily four times to that in the States.

《《背影》》

作者: maomaobiao 时间: 2010-10-29 12:22

孤陋寡闻，ＷＳＮ？
真人不说假话，没有。。。来得及。
SUIM 发表于 2010-10-29 08:48

WSN = 猥琐男 or 猥琐女

“没有。。。来得及” what a shame, dude

作者: maomaobiao 时间: 2010-10-29 12:29
一家四口旅行，真爽啊。

巴黎的情况也挺夸张的嘛，快赶上中国了。哈哈

作者: luckypanda 时间: 2010-10-30 09:49

既然姊姊点到了，那就先来一张插个队吧，恭敬不如从命呗，谁让俺石心眼呢。。。
...
SUIM 发表于 2010-10-27 19:51

太没诚意鸟～

来张真人兽嘛。。。。。。

作者: SUIM 时间: 2010-10-31 06:19

WSN = 猥琐男 or 猥琐女

“没有。。。来得及” what a shame, dude
maomaobiao 发表于 2010-10-29 12:22

这是传说中的新新人类词汇？俺用ＩＮＴＥＲＮＥＴ快２０年了，还是第一次听说呢。你该不是９０后吧？

那你要孩子可够早的

ｊｕｓｔｋ／ｄ

作者: SUIM 时间: 2010-10-31 06:53
It took about 7 hours driving over, with stops here and there. It's about to get dark when we first saw the Eiffel tower from the highway. My wife was really excited and so were the kids. I think to the kids, France equals the tower. Driving into Paris, it gave me the strange impression of that I am driving in New Orleans. I think you will agree with me, by simply taking a look at the pictures we took. Of course, the big difference is not the colors of the skin, rather than the size of the rear end. Chances of seeing a slim figure is as high as not getting drunk on Bourbon street at night. Come to think of it, it makes perfect sense, as Louisiana was part of France until not too long ago.

We go to the hotel just before the darkness swallowed the differences between those old trees and old buildings. Our hotel is right in the middle of Paris, few minutes walk to Notre Dame, Seine river, and the Louvre amongst other tourist attractions. There is a parking garage about 5 minutes from the hotel and the hotel manager strongly advised parking my car there during my stay and use public transportation. This is the same advice I got from my host so I followed with no resistance. The exit of the garage seemed rather strangely oriented, away from the entrance which has about quarter of a mile drive to begin with. So I opted to walk back to the entrance I came in with. A bit scary using the narrow sideway against traffic but at least this way it's shorter and I won't get lost in the rapid falling darkness.

The hotel room is supposedly big, from what I heard when I made the reservation and we were pleasantly surprised by how big it is. It has a queen size bed, two double beds and a small kitchenette area, dining table and still plenty place to walk around, even with all suitcases opened. This is rather relaxing after our cell block experience in Toulouse. I would say this is about the suite room size in the States, probably even larger than Hilton's two room suites. There are tons of restaurants just outside the hotel doorway, from Mom and Pop stores, to bakeries, to fast food like McDonald's, and sit down restaurants and bars. Nobody wants to sit down for another hour or two, so we ordered some takeouts from roadside setups, Chinese, and Lebanese I think. Some said there is bad restaurants in Paris. I don't know yet, at least these are eatable to me. Kids didn't like them very much, however. Then again, they didn't like the food at one of the highly recommended restaurants in Toulouse neither. And I thought that was pretty good.

(the Louvre)

The next morning, I got up early and went on with my business. It was the national strike day which is common these days, and my host had suggested me keep the car in the garage and take the metro to get outside Paris, where he'd pick me up and drive me to his company. Most of the metro was not on strike so that would be the best option, as the strike would usually block certain streets and makes driving difficult even with GPS, since lots cars would be cramped into fewer streets inside Paris.

By the time I got back to my hotel, it was already dark outside, as we had to change our schedule a little bit due to new development the next day. Basically we push two days' schedule into one. I was rather tired when I got back to the room. There was food on the table, obviously for me but nobody in the room. As we did not enable our phones, I had no idea of where they were, although my wife emailed me earlier that day mentioned a show at night in Notre Dame. I went to the front desk and learned that they asked about the direction to a local market. Feeling nervous, I went out and followed the direction but after 20 minutes, I gave up and came back. There weren't back yet! Now my stomach started to tighten. It's dark outside and what are they doing?! After checking with the front desk again, I realized that I misunderstood the direction the first time, in part because I was in a hurry. The clerk's poor English did not help the case either. Anyway, I went back and searched again and found nobody. When I got back to the hotel, I heard the kids shouting and running towards me. "Dad, where did you go?!" WHERE DID I GO? It's probably a good idea to skip the rest of the story about where the miscommunication started and where it ended. It's suffice to say that nobody was really thrilled about what happened but we agreed on this should not happen again. So much for the nightshow at Notre Dame. Apparently, the kids kept their biological clocks rather well, and had been sleeping till past 10am ever since they got to France. By the time they finished breakfast/lunch, it was almost noon time so they just walked over to visit nearby sites including the world heritage Notre Dame (remember that movie?). I had no idea what Notre Dame means until shortly before I came here. I knew the name in Chinese. I knew the word Notre Dame in terms of university name. But these never got associated until now. I saw the pictures they took, which brought back some memories from the movie I saw when I was a kid. But I was not in the mood to have a late night tour at this hour so we called it the day.

Like clock work, the kids did not wake up until 10 after again. It's a good thing we had decided against buying the museum pass as many on the Internet suggested. It might be a great idea if you are on a tight schedule to visit Paris for a day or two, and can follow the routine. It's not practical for us, especially when the parents (that's us) want the kids to get enough sleep every day. Anyway, what's the plan for today? Hmmmm.. how about the Louvre? Sure, why not. So off we went.

It took about 10 minutes walking to get to the museum entrance from our hotel, with stops here and there to take pictures, while kids running around to chase pigeons or play newly invented games from their creative minds. After spending some time taking pictures of everybody and combinations imaginable, it hit me that one of the reasons they said to buy the pass is because you don't have to wait in long times to get into the Louvre. LONG LINES? I looked around. Yup, there is one alright and it is rather long. So it's best we start standing in line sooner than late. The wife stood there while I walked around with kids snapping pictures of buildings and kids and Louis the XIV and his horse etc etc. While I was walking over after 10 minutes, I noticed the angry wife staring at me from the entrance. Uh oh. What did I do now? "where did you go?!" was the dangerous greeting. Apparently my assumption was wrong. This line was not to buy the tickets, but rather to enter the glass pyramid which serves as the entrance to the museum ticket windows down below!

作者: maomaobiao 时间: 2010-10-31 07:54

这是传说中的新新人类词汇？俺用ＩＮＴＥＲＮＥＴ快２０年了，还是第一次听说呢。你该不是９０后吧？ ...
SUIM 发表于 2010-10-31 06:19

严格的说，我连80后都不算。哈哈

顶你的连载，老兄你送了这么多不错的片片，来而不往非礼也，俺也献丑奉上今天早上照的一张小照片

[attach]840[/attach]。

作者: maomaobiao 时间: 2010-10-31 07:57

It took about 7 hours driving over, with stops here and there. It's about to get dark when we first ...
SUIM 发表于 2010-10-31 06:53

卢浮宫里应该不能照相吧？可惜了，期待期待...

作者: SUIM 时间: 2010-10-31 08:51
卢浮宫可以照的，后续会有的

先来一张大厅的（忘了是哪一个馆了）

多谢分享！great picture, nice bokeh. looks like a telephoto lens (nikon?) at 2.8? 70-200? i recently switched away from pentax and haven't found a lens as good as the old gem 70-210 F.

作者: maomaobiao 时间: 2010-11-2 13:56
本帖最后由 maomaobiao 于 2010-11-2 14:55 编辑

卢浮宫可以照的，后续会有的先来一张大厅的（忘了是哪一个馆了）

多谢分享！great picture, nice bokeh. looks like a telephoto lens (nikon?) at 2.8? 70-200? i recently switched away from pentax and haven't found a lens as good as the old gem 70-210 F
SUIM 发表于 2010-10-31 08:51

卢浮宫怎么还么上来呢？

我还在入门级玩单反，入了alpha门下。这个是套头28-70照的，f好像是4.5还是5.3，anyway 3.5minimum 2.8?什么2.8?那就素天边的浮云 lol

攒钱准备入1.4。 lz 玩Pentax，wowow~~~

作者: SUIM 时间: 2010-11-8 11:43

卢浮宫怎么还么上来呢？

我还在入门级玩单反，入了alpha门下。这个是套头28-70照的，f好像是4.5还是5.3 ...
maomaobiao 发表于 2010-11-2 13:56

不好意思，刚出差回来。
ＳＯＮＹ的相机是不错的，继承了很多美能达的优点。我觉着ＰＥＮＴＡＸ的自动聚焦慢，开始转到ＣＡＮＯＮ上。这里的好多都是它的１７－５５Ｆ２。８因为室内的多

作者: maomaobiao 时间: 2010-11-8 13:59
Pentax转到Canon，哎...

何苦明珠暗投呢？

作者: SUIM 时间: 2010-11-21 21:43
Pentax 聚焦太慢。ＣＡＮＯＮ有些好镜头，我这次用的就挺好，１７－５５２。８。
争取快把剩下的写完，好玩的在后面呢

作者: maomaobiao 时间: 2010-11-21 21:45
哇，我还以为你烂尾了呢

作者: SUIM 时间: 2010-11-22 05:59
本帖最后由 SUIM 于 2010-11-22 06:02 编辑

Louvre is the most visited museum in the world, with tens of thousands of art pieces on display. It averages about 15,000 visitors a day, using proceeds from tickets sold to maintain its operations. Because it’s a huge display, it is often advised to spend a few days or a week if you want to thoroughly check it out. For us uninitiated souls, a day would be more than enough, especially with young kids.

After descending down to the museum below, we stood in the long line to get our tickets right away, although I was not paying attention other than snapping photos of the place. Suddenly, I noticed somebody poking me on the ribs, and it was my wife, walking away from the line and gestured me to follow her, with a mixed expression of alertness, secrecy and excitement. As any good husband would do, I obeyed without any struggle. “This guy”, she pointed to somebody standing not far from us, “got two spare tickets to sell. They bought extra but don’t need them. Half price!” Sure. As if I was born yesterday. I started to walk away back to the line when my wife stopped me. “Listen, alright?” “He asked us to pay him after we get inside.” Hmm, I guess the tricks have been improved since I was born. Consider myself not too dumb while eager to see a new trick (or get fooled, take your pick), I agreed. The guy pulled out two ticket, one with date on it and the other one is blank, gave to us and then proceeded to the entrance. He waved his tickets to the collectors and then went inside. The check point is kind of like a parking garage entrance you found mostly in the US or any toll booths in the world. You just show your tickets and after they casually take a glance, you are good to go. So we got inside, with kids in the front as there is no entrance fee to kids, teachers and students if you have proper ID. The guy turned corner and pulled out a map to examine, and we stopped next to him. My wife paid him, at half price, although we could pay at little as a third, if we don't want the tickets. He then briefly explained to my wife what was the best routine to check the museum, by using the map. Did I mention he is Chinese? So the map is the Chinese version (Louvre has maps in all major languages). While he was doing the guided tour on the map to my wife, I took several pictures, just in case. A few minutes later, he went away and I looked at his back and said to my wife: "Smart guy. Good business". You probably don't know that the locals can buy the tickets at huge discounts or even free (to students and such), and many tickets do not have dates, which means you can in theory, reuse them after a day's visit. With increasing visitors from China these days, it's just a matter of time before somebody's brain starts to take advantage of this. By the way, when the smart guide gave my wife the tips about the museum, there were several Chinese visitors gathered around and closed in on us to listen to the conversation as it was in Mandarin. This reminded me the scene you often see in the train ticket windows or bank teller windows in most of China. They would come very close to you, as if we have been friends for a long long time. We have been in the Sates for so long and have long forgotten the compact living environments we were used to. These visitors are well dressed with somewhat naive curiosity on their face. Needless to say, they must be from the mainland. I have many incidents of hurt-feelings when I first came here, as they could easily spot us even we have the same clothes. I hate to admit but I know I have gained the same super natural ability by now.
Louvre is a huge palace, first as a residence since Phillips II cica 12th century, and by the time of Louis XIV in 17th century moved to Palace de Versailles, it slowly evolved into the museum as we see today. It has 3 wings, which are the three sides of the palaces and you need the tickets to go from one wing to another. Each wing got several floors, 3 if memory serves but could be 4 easily as I wasn’t paying attention, rather just following along and snapping pictures. There are many world famous paintings, including the Mona Lisa, which turned out to be a joke, in my opinion. First of all, the signs are everywhere, just like you are about 200 miles away from Orlando and start to see road signs of Disney everywhere. When you get there, you realized that the room is jam packed with people who just want to take a picture to show that they have ARRIVED. There is a loose parameter set up around the glass-window guarded painting, about 12 feet (4m) away, if not more. I am not sure if the glass on the window is special glass or something but I could swear through the somewhat thick glass nobody would know if it’s real or fake. For all know, they could just put a photograph there and nobody would be able to tell. All but a few were standing there looking at the picture camera-less. I am not sure if they really “know” or just pretending. To me, I don’t see anything special at all. No mystery to me. No shocking mesmerizing sensation, just a girl waiting to be painted and put on a smile, whether or not she’s a guy or pregnant or stole your wallet I could care less. Then again, I am probably no better than a door knob when comes to art appreciation. There!
Other master pieces like Venus of Milo didn’t really get me too excited neither. I am not sure why it was as famous as it is. To me, there are several pieces that are much better and refined, including paintings on ceilings. Some with art sense hinted that it matters which one came earlier and original. Or missing a piece of body parts makes one wonder how it should look. Sounds strange to me. But what do I know. It said so in the guide so that must be true. Right?

The kids were excited to see so many paintings, in part, because they were cool (this is what my 5yr old just typed on my computer so I’ll keep it). Also, I think they found good use of their cameras, as we each have one in our hands. They did take some good photos and the older boy actually made a slide show and presented to his whole class upon his return.

作者: maomaobiao 时间: 2010-11-23 07:56
不错啊，流口水了。

你儿子一人一个DC，真奢侈啊！

作者: SUIM 时间: 2010-11-29 14:57
那些都不是什麽好的ＤＣ，能用而已。毕竟比看孩子的费用少多了

争取这个礼拜写完剩下的。

作者: SUIM 时间: 2010-12-16 12:42
THE TOWER
---
The most famous landmark of France is no doubt the Eiffel tower. We first saw it when we drove into Paris, about 10 miles away on the highway. You could also see it from our hotel downtown and pretty much all nearby areas, as shown in one of the photos taken from the Louvre.

The day we went to the tower was rather windy and chilly. But you can see lots people heading over that direction as soon as you get off the metro. Along side the road to the tower, lined up many paddlers, like any typical tourist attractions around the world, selling cheaply made souvenirs of the tower, key chains, laser cut glass displays, drawings and paintings etc. It is interesting to notice that almost sellers these are middle eastern descents, which is rather interesting, considering everything they are selling are made in China. I can't help thinking they are related, or, being controlled by somebody. Of course, this is an afterthought. At the time, we just wanted to get to the tower and get it over with. And with me snapping pictures left and right. So are the kids.

It is no wonder that the tower is huge when you are closer. The four corners or supports are rather far away, with two of them serves as entrance to the tower. One is for those who want to ride to the top. The other one is for those who want to walk to the second level, which is about 10-story high, in my estimation. I wanted to get to the top but my wife is very afraid of the height, so she wanted to do the climbing. Naturally, kids went her way, leaving me standing in the long line by myself. The line moves pretty fast, and you could get to the ticket window in about 20 minutes. After a few minutes struggle, I gave up the idea of getting to the top by myself, as I wanted to take some pictures of the kids and family. I went over there to join my wife and kids, which was already half way down to the ticket window. When I got close to her, she whispered in my ear that there was a guy selling ticket half price to the top of the tower a few minutes ago.
Asian looking, probably Chinese. Oh my! I wish I had the chance to see another new trick.

The ticket to climb up second level costs 7 euros I think and kids are half price. It's rather reasonable considering it is probably the mostly recognized symbol of tourist traps in the world. It is a great piece of engineering work, however and I have to admit that. Despite the windy conditions of the day and especially the increased intensity right under the tower, I did not feel any movements or vibrations at all! (big surprise huh?! If it does, it probably has clasped long before I got here, a hundred years ago). From a brief read from the ipad, I did learn that they had used the bottom of the tower as a wind tunnel to test aerodynamics of airplanes during the war. So they must know what they were doing. Another interesting fact, discovered by my 7-year old, is that there is a replica of the tower in Las Vegas, at exactly half the height (162m, compared to 324). I've been to Las Vegas and stayed a week there about 20 years ago but wasn't aware of it.

Despite of the age of the tower, at about 130 years old, it is in very good condition. I would assume they are doing the best they can to preserve its condition with routine maintenance. But that is mostly on minor fixes and would not affect its main structure. That, is the most impressive part. You can feel its craftsmanship and quality when you put down your first step on its stairs. Well, in my case, it was more like my 100th step, when I stopped to catch a breath, after following the kids dashing up. One can tell that it was built to last, with solid, thick iron bars and reinforced joints, as can be seen from the pictures we took. It has no enclosed units, other than restaurants between the levels, which certainly helps to reduce the impact from the typical strong wind going through. The cliche quickly jumped into my mind, "they don't build em like these no more".

We tried to count the number of steps when we climbed up, but often lost counts to new discoveries by the kids or their questions. Fortunately, we can always find the answers on the internet, especially with today's convenience of wireless everywhere. It's about 300 steps between levels, which means we climbed about 10 stories to get to level one. It has a small restaurant, restrooms, a small display room or museum if you will, and a gift shop. The perimeter is nicely fenced in and you can walk around to have a full view of the city of Paris.

Although windy, it was a beautiful day with high visibility, as you can see from the pictures. We found the places we have visited and places we haven't got around to, looking out and reading signs. Napoleon's tomb is probably the most visible one, with its shining, golden top visible from far away. Seine river runs by the foot of the tower and cannot be mistaken. It is of little surprise that most major cities are centered around rivers, for its convenience in old times in terms of both transportation and access to usable water. Thus the art of Feng Shui. Without water, there is no life, although recent discoveries have shown that might not true for non-carbon life forms.

There are many poster boards and signs around the walking path, to illustrate the history of the tower and its structures. This is where the kids found out many interesting facts that later were used in the slides to give "lecture" to the classmates. Knowing that their interests and energy would wane fast, we opted to move to the next level of the tower rather quickly, tackling another 300 steps in between. The little one began to show signs tiredness half way up on this flight, and Mom started to carry him in her arms. The second level has a much better view than the first one, believe or not, as higher altitude helps to bring out more three dimensionality of the structures and details of buildings. Wind had slowed down quite a bit at this level, not sure whether due to geometry of the ground or weather conditions. Although it was a sunny day, at times you would get a few drizzles here and there, probably due to passing clouds. In reality, you can
imagine yourself in the middle of the clouds if you so desire! I once had the experience of driving all the way up the big volcano, Maunakea on Big Island of Hawaii. It was a cereal experience to see clouds slowing moving below you, as you carefully maneuver along the edge of the cliffs.

I ran around all four sides of the walking path and took pictures of Paris, in hope to make a good panoramic. I think I got a very good set and it is just a matter of time to put them together (ha!). Of course, we had folks taking family pictures for us as well and ran into several interesting families. One came from Chongqing of China. The young couple flew directly from China to visit Paris. The husband was carrying a similar camera to mine, but with a big tripod as well. I was very impressed. Another family came from the same city as us and our houses are about 30 minutes away. Small world indeed!

There was a similar setup on the second floor and we had lunch in the restaurant. It is more of a cafe style fast food setup, understandably only for convenience. The selection is about that of a cafe. On the way down, we waited for the lift but the little one changed his mind at the last minute, likely got scared by the loud noise of the lift and steep descend of the boxcar, as we were watching it going up and down along the shaft while waiting. Oh well. More exercise for me to digest those heavy French dishes we've had past few days.

After a quick selection of few souvenirs on the way out, we decided to head over to the Arc for a quick peek, as it's not far from the tower. It is nothing but a big monument in the middle of a big roundabout, at the end of the famous shopping street, Champ Elysee. We strolled onto the Elysee and went to a store, bought small gifts for the boys and headed back to the hotel, as dusk is falling down fast.

作者: foolishdaily 时间: 2010-12-21 17:00
SUIM的照片真不错,看得出来空气很干净,呵呵,我也想出去玩呢,以后打比赛赢了就去

作者: maomaobiao 时间: 2010-12-21 17:16
又更新了，不错啊，顶一个

作者: enenppl 时间: 2010-12-22 10:26
哎啊,英语水平不好,要慢慢查字典了.

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