Pause and reflect

There's nothing better than zombie watching at sidewalk café in Paris.
 

A travel journal, part 1

We're doing something a little bit different this week! As we do every couple of years, we took a group of students to Europe over spring break. When we get home from our trips, I usually do a series of cartoons to recap the trip and smile at some of the things we experienced. Because of some unfortunate events, I wasn't able to get to those cartoons until just recently. So here are some highlights. I hope you enjoy!

PARIS

It rained in Paris. Not that unusual for spring, but it rained hard. One day, after visiting the Louvre we were supposed to go to dinner at a restaurant about a mile away. Our guide went back and forth on whether we should take the Metro and get out of the rain or walk. She chose to have us walk. Not only was it a downpour, there was thunder and lightning! We were soaked by the time we got there. The quote in the cartoon is almost verbatim.

The next day we were scheduled for a bus tour of the city, stopping at some of the sights for a photo opportunity. But because of the rain, many of our stops were just drive-bys. We circled the Arch de Triomphe several times, but only one side of the bus had any sort of view. 

Luckily it cleared up in time for the Seine River cruise and the Eiffel Tower, but the morning was disappointing.

Now I can't complain too much because, yes, we were in Paris! A little more sunshine would have been nice, though.

Join us tomorrow for part 2!

This is the best photo I got of the Arch de Triomphe this trip. 
 

 

Another cheesy cartoon

For some reason I seem to have a lot of zombie cartoons set in France. I'm sure there's some deep explanation for why that is.
 

There's no place like the temple

One of the main purposes of our trip was to go through the Paris Temple. We were not disappointed.

The people there were so kind, helpful and friendly to us. They made us feel welcome — and wanted!

The temple uses different flowers as motifs throughout the building: hollyhocks, cornflowers, lilacs and lilies. The flowers are reflected in the decor, including the stained glass windows that seem to be everywhere!

The gardens and courtyard — which feature a statue of the Christus — are beautiful, peaceful and full of many of the same flowers featured in the temple. It is welcoming, and invites you to linger longer. It is harmonious with the temple and the surrounding environment.

Not far from the temple is the Palace of Versailles, with its Hall of Mirrors and amazing gardens that stretch as far as the eye can see. It truly is magnificent. The temple, on the other hand, has a beauty that is eternal...and it feels like coming home.

The primitive church

We ran into two wonderful sisters at the Paris Temple Visitors Center: Sis. Kleinman and Sis. Montalvo. They were excited to hear Mme B's missionary stories — stories that happened before either of them were born...making Mme B (in their eyes) an historical artifact!

An important travel tip

We stayed in a suburb south of Paris,  Vélizy-Villacoublay. We chose it because it's close to the Paris Temple, it's not far from the tourist sites, it came at a really good rate AND it has air conditioning!

Not far from where we stayed is a giant supermarket, Auchan. It's kind of like the European equivalent of Walmart. We went shopping there one night — and I got into trouble!

When you buy fruits or vegetables at Auchan (as I learned the hard way), you are supposed to bag your produce, weigh the bag on a special scale, print out a sticker and place the sticker on the bag for ease at checkout.

I held up an entire line of Saturday night shoppers because I didn't know about the whole sticker thing — and I got chewed out for that! (Not to mention the dirty looks from the shoppers behind me!).

I ran the bag back to produce, found a scale, but I couldn't figure out how to print out the sticker! Instead, I grabbed my phone and took a photo and ran back to the checkout line. The checkout gal rolled her eyes at me, made up a price, and sent me on my way.

That's not the way we do it at our local Safeway back home!

Editor's note: Ask about getting a shopping cart. It was almost as embarrassing!

I want you to show me the way

We were on vacation most of July — we left on the Fourth and got back just in time for Pioneer Day.

As I usually do, I took my sketchbook along so that I can share some of the highlights of our trip.

When we arrived in Paris, our driver assured us he knew exactly where we were going when we showed him the address.

"Don't you want to write it down or plug it into your GPS?" we asked.

"No, I have a great memory."

Eighty euros later, we pull off to the side of the road.

"I don't get it," he said. "The hotel should be right here! Let me see that address again."

So we show it to him. He hems and haws (in French), and then says, "We're almost there!"

Back onto the freeway we go. Another forty euros later he pulls off the freeway again.

"I had the right address — I just had the wrong city!"

Lesson learned. From that point on, we only took Uber.

Paris

Regular readers know that Paris is a place near and dear to us. Every two years we take a group of students to Europe, and each trip ends with a magical night in Paris. The highlight is an evening cruise on the Seine and a nighttime visit to the Eiffel Tower.

Along with many others, our hearts were broken upon hearing news of the attacks. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the people of Paris, the people of France.

Trip Scrapbook No. 6

It's always fun to see the students — and chaperones — experience a new culture.

Especially the food.

Coming back home, we had just a little glitch in Customs.

All in all it was a great trip, with a lot of amazing experiences. But as they say, there's no place like home!

Trip Scrapbook No. 5

We had a couple of exciting adventures when we got to Paris.

Ever since we were in Germany (home of the Volkswagen), a couple of kids had been playing Slug Bug. Well, the boy saw a Beetle, and slugged the girl.

Out of nowhere, this big (and drunk) guy got right up in the boy's face: "They may do it in Spain! They may do it in Italy! They may do it in Germany! But in France, we DO NOT HIT GIRLS!"

We were able to shoo him away before anything bad happened, but it was a surprise to everyone! I think they moved on from that game and on to something else from there.

 

The next adventure was on the subway. We told our kids several times to hurry onto the car; the doors close very quickly at this stop. We lined up; the subway train came. The doors opened...and one girl hesitated. The door closed on her arm, and she had to pull it out and get back onto the platform.

She had the presence of mind to get on the next train, and our group was reunited again.

Retiring, part 2

After graduating from West Point, he served in the Army in Public Affairs. He has two stories that he likes to share:

His peers double dog dared him to put an exploding cigar on his colonel's desk. Succumbing to peer pressure, he did. Later that day, there was an explosion heard in the colonel's office -- two explosions, actually. One from the cigar, and one from the colonel. Luckily, the colonel had a good sense of humor!

While stationed in Germany, he and his buddy thought it would be cool to travel around Europe. As war and history buffs, they thought it would be cool to travel to Paris and see the Bastille. They got to where their map of Paris said it should be...but there was no Bastille! Finally he gathered the courage to ask a gendarme where they could find it. "It was here," replied the gendarme. "Before the storming of the Bastille, in which it was destroyed!" Oops! They'd forgotten that part of the story!