My favorite ice cream shop in Paris. 

I have now been at home since Saturday evening and am beginning to catch up with everything in the way of mail, shopping, laundry, etc. Now if I could just get this apartment straightened up a bit so it is presentable but that is an on-going project vacation or no vacation. Yuck! My photo files are now much bigger as a result of this latest journey and it will take me awhile to get things sorted out there so that I can post some new photos at my photo website.
Since one of my strong interests is trains (mainline and urban transit) I spent considerable time at various railway stations in Paris and also took photos of trains in Rouen, Chartres, and Dijon as well as historical places in those cities. Today I must get busy and return to a normal schedule and get back into my gym routine before I do anything else. I also need to cut back on my food intake as my weight (around the middle anyway) has been creeping up once again and I fear I have undone much of what I accomplished at the gym last year.

Winding down

After nearly two weeks in the Paris region my vacation is winding down. Friday, the 20th, will be my last day here. It has been a great time but I am tired, tired of walking that is and my back is aching at times. I will need another vacation when I get home. Ha! Anyway, day trips via train to Rouen, Dijon, Chartres, and Versailles added to the activities. Almost booked a day trip to London via Eurostar today when I was in Gare du Nord but I disovered that the weekday RT fare is considerably higher than the weekend. Darn, why didn't I investigate that last weekend? It is about a two hour journey each direction so by leaving on the first train of the morning from Paris, I could have had a full day in Central London. Oh well, the next time I will know if I should ever return this way.

The opera at the Bastille on Wednesday was excellent. Catherine Nagelstad sang a superb Salome in one of the most thrilling operatic performances I have ever heard.

Also heard a very nice organ recital at Eglise de Madeleine on Sunday and a very nice program of Mozart's music at Notre Dame on Tuesday evening. Then this morning I encountered a bonus of sorts. I happened to wander into St. Germain des Prix church and found someone practicing on that organ so I got to hear that organ for the first time.

Well, that will about do it form here. I will have a ton of photos to sort through when I get home and hope to be able to post some to my other website at www.irving2004.net. I have taken so many that I even had to buy a fourth memory card today to keep myself going.

Notes from afar

Here I am on day five of my vacation in Paris with five more to go. Activities have included a concert of music of Mozart, Vivaldi and Schubert at Iglese de Madeleine, Mass at Notre Dame and two days trips out of town via train. The first was a return to Rouen northwest of Paris via standard Co-rail equipped train. This was my second time to that city. The second journey was via TGV to Dijon, southeast of Paris and that was my first visit to that city. This afternoon I will attend an organ recital at Iglese de Madeleine and Tuesday night I will return to Notre Dame for another concert of music of Mozart and then go to the Opera Bastille on Wednesday night for Strauss' "Salome" with Catherine Naglestad and Chris Merritt in the leading roles.

Except for returning to the Eiffel Tower and to Versailles I have done everything I wanted to do on this trip. The Eiffel Tower is doable any day but Versailles will have to wait until at least Tuesday as they are closed on Mondays.

Westfield (again)

Westfield Construction Site 

Please note here that the dome (wrapped in white plastic) rests on stilts as it awaits contruction of the new Westfield Center around it. In this early photo the old Emporium Office spaces facing Market Street had not yet been removed. A later photo would have shown simply the rear of the Market Street facade.

Emporium - NOT

Why is it I keep hearing people refer to the newly expanded Westfield Mall as a remodeled Emporium. It is not. Sure, the front facade on Market Stret was retained as was the dome but everything else is brand new and I have at least one picture in my files to prove that and show you what the site looked like during early stages of construction when there was no there, there.

Interior of Westfield Shopping Mall 

There are days and then there are days...

Why, with all of this news about pedophiles and child molesters do I suddenly hear the old song "Thank Heaven for Little Girls" as sung by Maurice Chevalier when he was of advanced years? Hopefully my mind is tying together things which are unrelated here but still...

As for Rep. Tom Foley, what an idiot!?!?!?!?!? What did he think he was doing? As a gay man I must condemn his actions just as much as anyone else. When you are in the public trust in Congress this is unconsciosnable that this would be done by anyone. My biggest regret however, is that this person's actions might give the extreme right and other unstable types, excuses for attacking gay people in general and Tom Foley is NOT representative of Gay America however I doubt that Jerry Foulwell and others will be convinced otherwise.

This is enough to drive a man to drinking and that is what I did tonight as I said good-bye to some friends at my local watering hole. Good-bye because I will soon be leaving for Paris for ten days. I have not been there since September 2001 and really look forward to this journey.

I am still marveling over the newly expanded Westfield SF Shopping Center and returned today to buy some things at Bristol Farms Grocery. Their deli counters (yes plural) are to die for. At least they provide me with an additional reason to go downtown and pig out. Ha!

Guess I will go out again later tonight as I want check in with Kiyo. I said good-bye to Savio earlier tonight but still need to see a few other people before my departure.

Hopefully the world will not fall apart during the next two weeks, nor the next five months either, so I can complete my scheduled vacation journeys.