Italy - France 2001 (3)

Bon soir! I just walked for ages to find this place, a 24 hr. internet spot just up a bit from the Louvre. It's 11pm and the kids are sleeping so here I am...Unfortunately I won't be the Gertrude Stein that I would so like to be because I only have the option of using these blasted funky keyboards::: in a place as big as this and with so many nationalities here using it, you'd think::::: notice that the colon is in the place of my comma:: sorry.

Well, where did I leave off.. oh yeah; a rushed account of Normandy.. well, that was basically it. The coolest part was the big holes in the ground that looked to me like the wounds of the air raids fromabove.. but as Ted suggested, it could have been where they hid.. I enjoyed the idea that I may actually be standing where they were blowing up the earth at random.

Where we are staying, the Intercontinental on Rue Rivoli...under Wolff... hint hint.. just kidding, but anyway, the majority of the guests are loud; demanding americans.. it's kind of a drag. It's no wonder the concierge is normally ticked off.

Back to the beach... the question is this... the barracks that I saw at Omaha Beach were extensive tos ay the least... but these barracks sat atop huge cliffs... why the Americans' success at surmounting such cliffs and domintating is such a heroic feat in the history of the war... ahem, history buff?.. oh my question: Why did they have such a big chillin' spot, a place they didn't expect to be hit, so decked out with the right equipment with which to battle the enemy? Precautionary? Well then, smart thinking Germs! But, why? In their barracks by the way, I climbed around in their underground portals and checked out their living situation. A little damp for my liking.

Well, the letter M key is really throwing me for a backspace!

We went from d-day to Paris. An unpleasant change. I was quite liking the foggy beaches and the horse hotel... and the horse hotel's server. Eye Candy. ;) Don't get me wrong, Paris is great but the Wolff's have been here 5 times prior, each, and so their day consists soley of shopping. I go along gladly and help out with the kids... of course. It's fun to carry baby Charlotte in the baby bjorn in front of me and get all these pitiful looks from people who think I'm too young. And it's fun taking compliments on her too! But, the shopping thing just ain't me. I am itching to be a subtle tourist and I know that when they leave, I'll be on the next train cause I can't afford or tolerate being here too much longer, especially on my own. I see so many girls and guys livin' and laughin' it up with each other; goin to bars at 10p when I'm goin to bed and I think to myself... where the hell are my friends and why have they not taken me up on the invite to come play for awhile. You just have to budget for a trip like this... and it's ok to do it after the trip has already happened! Oh well. I know you all have work, bills, other trips.. I'm just trying to make the idea of it seem super feasible, cause it really is! Look at me. Broke and livin' it down in Paris. What's my point again? Oh yeah, shoppin'... well, what's worse than the shoppin in lieu of site seeing is that they are quite unimpressed with much of the art all about.. sculptures don't even turn their heads... not that there is anything really wrong with that but I never want to be unimpressed. I always want my eyes to be as wide as they have been here in Europe and I always want my head to turn at mock speed when I pass random art in a window or plaza.

While I'm flailing along about appreciating art, I should mention that I went to the Picasso museum today... while the others waited in a nearby park. It was great! That dude was creative in so many ways. He tried it all... sculpture in bronze and wood, painting, multimedia, photos, sketching, and more, plus in this museum were some of his own private collection from friends: Cezanne, Matisse, and other names I forget. I want to come home (wherever that is) and try some of the stuff he did with random pieces of material pasted about to create his own version of a cool guitar (common image in his works)or a figure in the nude, of course. Books are my absolute weakness! I have the heaviest pack in the world and that's after sending some stuff home with the Wolfe's and yet what do I do::: buybooks. I bought a book on Picasso by Gertrude Stein, the Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller and an anthology by Anais Ninn. Those two go hand in hand of course. And only three pages in and I know why Tropic ofCancer was banned in the US and UK for some time.

The book I'm reading right now is The Agony and the Ecstacy by Irving Stone... the fictional biography of Michaelangelo that was highly recommended to me by Tim and Susan Wolfe and I do definitely know why! It is the best book I've read in a long time and I'm only on the 250th page or so of 800. I further recommend it to all of you, especially those who have been to Italy or plan to go! I feel intimate with Michaelangelo now, and especially because when it describes him crossing the Ponte Santa Trinita to get to the Piazza Santo Spirito I can imagine every step he took as I took those exact steps at least twice when I was there. I am overly anxious for the rewarding part of the book when Stone talks about my Michaelangelo releasing David.

Well, we still have two days here before the fam strands me all alone in the city of light! Then I'll see the stuff I so want to see before bailing for good to climb in Fontainbleu and then do whatever. I think I changed my mind about where to go next. Climbing is for me too, Doug H, something I do because I love to be with friends, doing something that feels good to my body, mind, spirit. If I have to take a break from it because to do otherwise would take the fun from it then so be it.. I am, not giving up on climbing all together, in fact, I plan to contact an older Italian that bought Susan and I beers after a climb in the Dolomites and see if he'll meet me in Finale, Italy...and then I'll still meet Doug in Nice if he's down with it... but the in between plan is to go from Fontainbleu to Interlakin in Switzerland to Finale to the Verdon to Madrid to Lagos (S. Portugal) and backto Nice to meet Doug and go to Sardegna. I'm sure any of that will change and due to the time left, I will not stay long in each place. Just enough to taste them all and know I didn't leave without knowing where to return.

I am only asking once more... who is coming to travel with me?