Ding Dong the wicked witch is dead!

We've been working on a bathroom remodel since the dawn of time, in an earlier post, I noted that we've been having a little trouble making progress on it. We had to bite the bullet and hire out the finishing details. It has to be done before we move to Paris in July. Sarah "ran herd" on workers while I was on business in Paris, and "voila!". I can't decide which I like better, how nicely it turned out, or the massive weight lifted off my shoulders.


New dual vanities with raised center section. Tile tub surround reflected in mirror.

Favorite Museum

Musee d'Orsay across the Tuileries

I spent Sunday of my last day (of this trip) in Musee d'Orsay. I think this museum might just be my favorite. If you like impressionist art, even just a tad, this place will blow your socks off. I also go gaga over Art Nouveau, and they had some nice pieces of that too.

Outside Chartres

quelle heure est-il ????

North Porch of Chartres

North porch of Chartres


Ouch, that's my tail you're stepping on!

The detail on carving here was amazing. Freshly restored North Porch.

Escape to Chartres

Chartres cathedral

I tacked on two extra days to the trip, so I could enjoy the weekend here. I do admit, I'm ready to go back to Austin, but mostly because I'm tired of eating out, and I really miss Sarah. I escaped to Chartres Cathedral (hour train ride outside Paris) for a day. It ended up being a really nice day. Chartres is the best preserved medieval cathedral in Europe, with much of it's original 13th century stained glass still intact. It's larger that Notre Dame in Paris, with over 175 stained glass panels! Most of the panels are story telling panels, telling stories from the Bible through pictures. The stained glass at Chartres really is mind blowing. I really need to come back with my other camera, and get some shots of the glass. Mental note to self: also bring binoculars next time.

Malcolm Miller is a Brit who gives tours of the cathedral, he does an excellent job. He's devoted his life to studying the cathedral and gives a very entertaining tour. He helps bring the glass panels alive by explaining each scene.The medieval "advertising" is interesting. At the bottom of each panel are scenes showing local craftsmen at work. If it shows guys baking bread, it means that particular glass panel was sponsored ($$) by the local bakers. If you go to Chartres, definitely go on his tour.

I also had a nice leisurely lunch at a sidewalk cafe looking up at the cathedral. Pinch me, I'm moving to France!!! I guess part of the reason it was such a wonderful day is because Sarah and I visited here 9 years ago, and I remember the day being a tough one. It was a grungy grey cold day, and we struggled all day to stay warm. Today was a much easier and more relaxing trip.

Social butterflu

I had dinner with people 4 nights in a row, it gave me a case of the social butterflu.

I had dinner with two HRC Federal Club members from Australia (one of them is dual US citizen, that's where the HRC connection came in). They had a nice little one bedroom in the Marais, in an old building. The door into the complex was one of those monstrous doors that used to be the carriage entrance. All of the apartments open out onto the courtyard. You really are at the mercy of your neighbors when everything backs onto a courtyard, the noise just bounces around. (I play attention to stuff like this, since we'll be apartment shopping next month). They made a nice dinner, with some monstrous asparagus that musta been on steriods. They were really funny, and we polished off plenty of wine. As I left, I mentioned that I probably drank too much, to which one of them replied, "We're Australian. If you don't go home drunk, we haven't done our job."

I had dinner with Jeninne and Chris the night after that. They are two really sweet people from San Francisco that have escaped to France. They have a killer apartment, on Ile de la Cite, directly on the Seine looking across at Hotel de Ville, and a peek at Notre Dame's Towers out the backside of the apartment. The gay mayor of Paris is always doing something on the plaza in front of Hotel de Ville. Last February, there was a huge igloo with ice skating, this time, a bunch of tents housing a bakery exhibition. Jeninne and Chris get to look out across the water and watch the show.

The next night was dinner with Casey and Benjamin, who are on vacation here from Austin. They were having fun, but struggling with the food. The french have a completely different scale for how cooked beef is. The high end seems to be what Americans would call "Medium", and the low end of the scale says "mooooooo" at you. Benjamin had ended up with something too far down the scale. We went to Polidor, which has been open since 1845. Pretty odd to go to a restaurant that's been open since before the US Civil war. It definitely looks well worn.

The last night was dinner with the local GLBT employee group from my company. Just a few showed, but it was good food, and definitely good company.

Fitting into the neighborhood

The Louvre peeking thru the trees in Tuileries. 

One thing that has been really nice on this trip is that I stayed in the same place as we did in February right next to the Louvre, and both workers at the coffee bar recognized me, and also remembered that I drink cafe creme in the morning. One of them even asked where Sarah was. That doesn't happen in the states. A guy at a restaurant Sarah and I went to twice in February recognized me, and asked where Sarah was. It was also nice that I knew where the grocery store was, and was mentally prepared for it to be closed on Sunday. We're so used to the 24-7 convenience in the states that it's quite odd to find everything closed early, and closed on Sunday.

Jet Lagged in Paris

poppies in Jardin du Luxembourg

I arrived on Sunday morning at CDG, after a lovely full flight. To try and fight off jetlag, and force myself on Paris time, I spent a few hours walking, including walking thru Jardin du Luxembourg. Spring has definitely hit Paris, while it's still chilly, the trees, grass, and flowers are beautiful. I grabbed a Jambon et Fromage Crepe, and wandered thru the Latin quarter. The pre-Haussman Paris thrives here, with crooked little streets, and buildings wedged in every which way. Very up close and personal, tiny little sidewalks mean I'm always playing "chicken" with pedestrians coming at me. They usually win. :-)
This is in stark contrast to the ordered elegance of rue de Rivoli, with several blocks of virtually identical buildings lined up on one side, flanked by the gold tipped fence of the Tuileries on the other. My hotel is on rue de Rivoli, a block from the Louvre. At the end of my walk, jet lag caught me, I could not keep my eyes open, so I slept for a while.

No Soup for You!

We're lucky that my employer gives us the same rights and benefits as married straight couples. While the US government does withhold benefits from same sex couples (for instance, taxing domestic partner medical benefits and not allowing survivor rights on social security), usually it equates to $$ out of my pocket.

I guess that's why what's happening right now with my foreign assignment is so unsettling. The French government won't recognize Sarah as a dependent of mine, and thus she can't be included on my worker permit. Typically when a worker permit is done to go work in France, the spouse and children are included on the worker permit, and all the paperwork is included in one thick stack. So they won't let us do that. Sarah has to file for a visitor visa separately, and we're struggling to make all the timing work. Right now it looks like there will be timing problems for us.

Which finally brings me to my "No Soup For You" title. In trying to figure out the timing (and the requirement to have a Paris address before Sarah can file for her visitor visa), it would be nice to call the French Consulate in Houston and ask some questions. My employer called, and was told "We do not answer questions about Visas on the phone". So a native French speaker from my company called and asked in French. Same response. Email in French to the Consulate was like sending it to /dev/null. So, if I have a question about the Visa process, I have to drive 4 hours to the nearest Consulate, get my question answered, and drive home? How unreasonable is that? "No Soup For You!"