Long Journey - Long Post

I can remember my first plane trip. I was in college and headed out to visit some friends in San Francisco. It must have been some time in 1977. The plane was at most half full. The seating room wasn't huge, but adequate. Drinks were complementary, and the food wasn't bad. The airline stewards (that's what they used to be called instead of flying waiters/waitresses) were friendly and took the time to get to know you. Things have changed significantly since then. I just don't understand how people with claustrophobia manage on a plane ride. Of course being 6'3" doesn't help. We booked our flights sometime ago and picked out seats that would have some extra leg room (there aren't many). Well the airline switched that all around and we were stuck in the middle of an aisle. Waiting on the tarmac for an extra hour while thunderstorms passed was the beginning of an arduous flight. The air was turbulent, and I was glad that we waited to take off. The plane was packed, and I barely fit into the space allotted to me. Everything is extra, and the food they throw at you is not really edible. All and all things could have been worse, so I paid my 7$ for a glass of wine and bucked it up.

Once we touched down in Paris, I called the taxi service where we had reservations and we found him in no time. Unfortunately, he had to find another passenger. So off he went in search of a Mr. Swartz. 45 minutes later he returned with 2 women and 5 young girls on an EFS tour. We all crammed into the van and soon were off for our destination. They were from Kansas city, in town on a tour throughout France. We all looked pretty tired and soon he dropped us off right in front of our apartment.
Our landlady was happy to see us and had the place looking spiffy. It felt like being at home in our nice little apartment. After unpacking and setting things up, we had a message from Carol to meet on her bridge at 1:00. Another friend Mark is in town and she had planned to meet him there. It was nearly 12 noon, and the few hours of intermittent sleep that we got on the plane just wasn't cutting it. I knew that we had to stay up as long as possible to help adjust to the new time. So off we went to meet Carol.

Carol has claimed a bridge for herself. It really is the Pont St. Philip, but known to us as Carol's bridge. Her face light up as we approached and soon we were catching up on the details of her last two weeks in France. We waited for Mark for about half an hour, and finally figured that he got lost or side tracked. We took a lunch at a cafe near our apartment (the same place we ate our first day here last year). Lunch tasted great, but it was obvious that Keith and I were fading. We decided to take a nap and meet up later at St. Sulpice for a concert at 8:00pm.
The nap rejuvenated us and after a shower to get all that travel gunk off I felt great.

On the way to meet up with Carol, we passed by the Hotel De Ville. They frequently have exhibits on the grounds. They are often very elaborate. Last year they created an entire landscape including a huge pond with water plantings. This one appeared to consist of garden plantings. I took this picture of building/planting materials. I looked so artful to me.

St. Sulpice is still under renovation, but a lot more of the facade is visible (than last year). We waited for Carol outside and soon she appeared with Mark. Apparently, when we left Carol she ran into Mark and spent the afternoon catching up with him. The concert at St. Sulpice, was of an all male choir from the Cathedral of Durham. The program had only one or two pieces that were familiar to me. Their performance was technically very sound, yet as David would say "I was bored to tears". They did not feel the music, engage the audience or even adjust the tempos for the extremely live space. A lot of the music was just a wash of sound. It was difficult to hear many of the fast passages in such a reverberant space. There were many beautiful moments; unfortunately most of them were at the end of pieces. They also featured two pieces on organ, which were stunning - a Bach toccata in F major and a Guilmant Sonata. Overall the performance was well worth the No Charge Fee....
After the concert we stopped into our usual watering hole - The Galway. We didn't stay too late. We met the two new bartenders - Fay and Fiona - both British. We discussed our plans for the next day and called it a night.
Not too bad for day one......