sub_divided | Back from France (Reply)

As of yesterday! Harumi, I didn't forget about you. Just didn't have computer access most of the time. Look for an email by noon tomorrow, Japan time.

Suppose I'll repost from twitter, just to have a halfway readable record. I borrowed my brother's BlackBerry for most of these.

65. On the streets in Rouen it's about 30% long blouses under short cotton jackets, 30% trench coats with tights and ballet flats. (11:30 AM Apr 17th)

64. The winner at 40% is jeans + scarves + black leather jackets. (11:32 AM Apr 17th)

63. Also no wonder everyone is thin and tan here, it's FIVE EUROS for 45 minutes of wifi! (11:33 AM Apr 17th)

62. French keyboards swap the "a" and the "q", also the "m" and the ";". And you have to hit shift to put in a period. It's driving me crazy. (11:36 AM Apr 17th)

61. Wish I'd dieted before coming here like I'd planned... (11:38 AM Apr 17th)

60. How did Bernt Capra get rid of all the tourists at Mont Saint Michel to film his movie (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mindwalk)? (11:42 AM Apr 17th)

58. itinerary: san malo tonight, more coast tomorrow, paris sunday, lille monday - parents splitting off. dad has wanted to see brughes... (4:13 PM Apr 17th)

57. ...since we watched that comedy with colin ferrel as the hitman IN EXILE in brughes, a shitty tourist town. go figure (4:15 PM Apr 17th)

56. st malo specialties are seafood and crepes. i had mussels, fries, and a crepe for dessert. (4:04 PM Apr 18th)

55. la boule: like the riviera only colder (4:05 PM Apr 18th)

54. Time spent eating / walking / driving yesterday: 3 hrs / 3 hrs / 8 hrs. NO MORE. JE REFUSE. (9:22 AM Apr 19th)

53. in paris, paid respects to mme curie, m hugo. wonder if studying in huge marble building engraved with philosopher's names would be more inspiring... (5:07 PM Apr 19th)

52. ...or intimidating. also saw the building where pasteurization was invented! (5:09 PM Apr 19th)

51. in lille~ the hotel here is AWESOME. free web on TV and the bath/shower room looks like a sweedish sauna. (5:11 PM Apr 19th)

50. whole family to brughes tomorrow, it looks like, since the 20th is dad's bday and he unexpectedly wants to spend it together (5:13 PM Apr 19th)

49. funny pair of lions above the gate to the jardin des plants. [in paris.] mean-looking one on the right gazes hungrily at a bowl with a human foot in it... (5:16 PM Apr 19th)

48. ...healthy-looking one the left cradles a lamb b/t its paws. actually i thought, of course that one is abstaining, it's had enough to eat already! (5:18 PM Apr 19th)

47. they looked like scar and mufasa, a little (5:20 PM Apr 19th)

45. Brother has joined us. Of course i am making him come along to see a certain "solo" artist tonight (upon return from Belgian daytrip). (1:39 AM Apr 20th)

44. He's been to Belium, Switzerland, Scotland, Spain and Basque country already. (1:44 AM Apr 20th)

43. Says Madrid is nice, but subway is not convenient for tourism as major sights are all 20 minutes' walk away. (1:45 AM Apr 20th)

42. We are spending more per night at this hotel than he spent in 3 weeks staying at youth hostels. (1:46 AM Apr 20th)

41. Brughes was full of british tourists. Chicken curry sandwich for lunch was hilariously just chicken salad + curry powder. (9:02 AM Apr 21st)

40. Speaking of Brits, P Doherty solo in Lille was excellent. Approximated setlist for Sabina, will blog when opportunity arises. (9:07 AM Apr 21st)

[EDIT - posted here.]

39. Loudest cheers of the night came when PD lit a cigarette on stage - about a dozen French college students in the audience followed suit. (9:12 AM Apr 21st)

38. My brother saw it as bad role modeling and didn't approve, Sabina called it French people being French. (9:14 AM Apr 21st)

37. There are statues of babies with bat wings and tails in Lille. One rides a dinosaur. They're about 30 feet high. It's very strange. (9:17 AM Apr 21st)

36. But everything is big in Lille. The town center by the train station has Parisian looking buildings but they're ten stories high. (9:21 AM Apr 21st)

29. One more hour on the train to Lyon. Halfway through Petals of Blood which is very very good. (3:01 PM Apr 21st)

28. Philip Pullman could learn a few things about anti-Christian fiction writing from Ngugi wa Thiong'o. (3:02 PM Apr 21st)

26. J'aime Lyon. Beaucoup des etudients et beaucoup des parcs. Les temps sont toujours beaux et tout le monde est genial. (6:07 AM Apr 23rd)

22. Lyon zoological garden. Sand cats would be the perfect compact ADORABLE cats for zoos if they didn't spend the whole day burrowed underground (8:23 AM Apr 23rd)

20. So glad I read I, Claudius before coming to Lyon. In the archaeological museum reading epitaphs to members of prominent Lyonaise families... (9:27 AM Apr 24th)

19. ...who happen to share names with members of the Imperial family. (9:28 AM Apr 24th)

18. Seriously the girls are all named Claudia or Julia. (9:29 AM Apr 24th)

17. Imperial and other cults gave way to Christianity "the purest and most generous of the mystery-based universalist religions" (9:37 AM Apr 24th)

16. French museums use the word "treasure" for coins and precious metals. "This treasure found 1992 during construction around Croix-Rousse." (10:00 AM Apr 24st)

14. Annacy is lobbying for the 2018 Olympics. It looks like an Olympic village already. (7:56 AM Apr 26th)

13. From above, the town looks empty. Then you go into an alley and come out where all the stalls are up for Sunday market. (8:00 AM Apr 26th)

12. Took a paddle boat out onto the lake at Annacy. Very pretty. But the boat kept tilting to one side alarmingly. (8:03 AM Apr 26th)

11. Tried foie gras last night. In Peruge. With a fruit reduction. It was delicious in a sickening way. (8:05 AM Apr 26th)

10. In the Forez mountians - Bike Country between St Etienne and Clermont-Ferrand. Damp and cold, SPECTACULAR views. Love Ambert train sta ... (7:29 AM Apr 27th)

9. ...Gare du Ambert which has dandelion fields, an empty skate park, and the cleanest portable toilet I've ever seen. (7:32 AM Apr 27th)

8. According to the guide book young people leave this region to cook traditional French food in Parisian restaurants. (7:46 AM Apr 27th)

7. No wonder they put a temple on top of Puy de Dome, by the time supplicants hiked up, in the thin air, they were probably light headed and... (10:48 AM Apr 27th)

6. ...seeing visions! (Just kidding. It was so the peasants at the foot of the volcano could tremble before the might of the Roman Empire.) (10:50 AM Apr 27th)

5. From mefi: "How did that pig get on the roof? The swine flew!" (6:26 AM Apr 28th)

4. Speaking of flying we are flying back to the US tomorrow against advice of the EU. And I'm filing for unemployment first thing. Sigh. (6:28 AM Apr 28th)

3. Also a massive radio hit in France ♫ http://blip.fm/~59siw (about 4 hours ago from Blip.fm)

2. And this ♫ http://blip.fm/~59u9d (about 3 hours ago from Blip.fm)

1. Home! East->West jetlag so much nicer than the other kind.

I try to be funny on twitter - which sometimes means being negative - but really I had a great, great time. Trips to Europe are eye-opening - so many things start to make sense. Like seeing a Gothic cathedral with flying monkey gargoyles and thinking about L. Frank Baum, or learning that the youth hostels where you can stay for almost nothing don't provide towels so that must have been what Douglas Adams was talking about. Or driving through Burgundy and thinking "oh so this is where the Suikoden III designers got Chisa village," XD. (The French countryside is amazing. I don't think I will ever get tired of gazing at fields on hills. In the US, we have fields, and we have hills, but we don't have fields on hills, let alone on the sides of mountains. Also, BRIGHT yellow mustard fields under cloudy gray skies. So pretty.)

Looks like this weekend is going to be a grrrrrrreat time - music festival at the Meadowlands and