The first of the two was quite boring. Just stayed around London and hung out and got everything for the trip ready.
The trip itself:
-36 hours in Geneva
-6 days in France
Geneva is actually a very boring city. It's likely because I was there on Easter weekend and so no one was around, but it seems more or less that Geneva lived up to its nickname: "City of Joylessness." Must be the residue of the Calvinism that held there for a long time. Even, say, the trees were always trimmed to look depressing:
And outside of a clock whose face was constructed of flowers, and the all-famous Lake Geneva and the fountain there, there really isn't a whole lot to the city...it was rather empty and slightly glum. So 36 hours was actually quite enough to get a good feel of Geneva. So it was time to leave for Paris!
Of course, I did go to France already. But the return trip allowed me to see some extra things. For one, I was able to just enjoy Paris for Paris rather than going into "take a picture of this so I can remember it" mode, which is never the right way to enjoy a city (but sadly I fall into that mode rather often). Revisiting the Louvre allowed me to catch more that I didn't see the first time, but the key find this time around was a trip to Monet's house and garden. He had both a typical French, walled-in garden and then a more spacious Japanese garden. They were both stunning in beauty. Here's one favorite photo from that:
It's from the Japanese garden, and I have always liked those "bleeding heart" flowers. I remember my old piano teacher used to have them growing in front of her house. Here's the other that I particularly like:
Th
This one was from the walled-in garden. I had to actually lay down on the ground to get this shot, but it was worth looking especially goofy lying on the ground to take this photo (I mean, imagine seeing someone just randomly lying on the ground at a very touristy location) because I'm really a big fan of this photo. It might actually be my favorite from Paris.
Our tour guide for the Monet thing was pretty awesome because we also got to go through the countryside and see rural France. It's really lovely (and seems like a lot of rich folk move out there for retirement or the like), and we got to stand on what once was a key hill that separates the valley of the Seine and the western Normandy areas. A rather breathtaking view:
Some other Parisian notes:
1. I enjoyed the buskers a whole bunch this time around. Random tuba players, accordion players, jazz combos, and all.
2. The Metro is fine and all, but not when the part that goes overground is right outside the hotel room. Yikes.
3. Boxed wine is a worthy adversary. Next time, I will eat dinner before meeting you again. I will win.
4. Parisians aren't the most friendly, but I found them on the whole slightly more friendly than Londoners.
5. While it's bearable to deal with the language barrier in France, as many of the French at least know some English, it's still a pain. It does, however, yield its moments, as when asking the hotel receptionist a question, his response was "I do not...understand. My English is...dead."
For the next couple of days, I'll be around. And then Friday, I leave for Italy! Part of me is really excited, but part of me knows my time in Europe is beginning to wind down (5.5 weeks from today, I will be coming home!) and I do miss Ohio dearly.
Cheers,
-e.
NP: Brian Eno - Another Green World
This album didn't click with me until recently, and so now I've been exploring Eno and ambient music in general, at least.
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