2 Parents 2 Paris

After hanging around Switzerland for a couple days, I decided that it was time to hit the road. As we have some friends of the family in Paris, that was our first destination. First, though, a couple general notes about driving in general.

We rented a car from Europcar for about a week and a half, and although I requested a VW Golf (I thought it would be about the right size), what we got was oh so much more. Imagine, if you will, the ultimate driving machine -- the ultimate conduit between driver and road. Now, make it a station wagon. And have it built in the Czech Republic. Behold: the mighty Skoda.

Fig. 1: The Skoda keeps a cat cool on a hot summer day. What can't a Skoda do?

Power windows, power doors, power mirrors, an adjustable armrest, two (!) glove compartments, and a bucketful of class made this car a pleasure to drive for the nearly 3000 km that I put on it in 11 days. Really, my only complaint was that it had a diesel engine. On the one hand, this was pretty cool as it was a turbo diesel engine with a reasonable amount of pick-up and a PGS-estimated 45 mpg. On the other hand, it meant that we had to find diesel in France. Oddly enough, in Switzerland, the word for "diesel" is "diesel." In France, though, diesel is one of those verboten words that the Acadamie Francaise has made an attempt to expunge from popular use. Thus, you occasionally see signs for diesel or similarly super-diesel or somesuch variant, but much more common is gazole. It took me a little while to figure this one out. Of course, in a way that can only be described as extremely French, there is also gas-oil and gasoil. As the prices for these were generally significantly cheaper than diesel or gazole, I presumed that they were primarily for farm-equipment use. Still, Wikipedia seems to think they are the same thing. But, I digress.

Paris is quite a place. Lots of stuff to see, lots to do. Plenty of cafes, museums, buildings, etc. Although our primary purpose in visiting was to see some friends, we did manage to hit a few of the main sites. First, the Louvre.

Fig. 2: Just outside the Louvre is this awesome sculpture by Roy Lichtenstein. Lichtenstein is one of my favorite artists, and sometimes it's difficult to explain why, but in this case, come on! Just look at it! It rules!

Fig. 3: The Mona Lisa, tactfully displayed in a totally not ridiculous room which was donated by Nippon TV. Who says you can't buy good taste?

Fig. 4: Thunder, Thunder, Thundercats! Hooooooooo!

We also checked out the official Paris Underground tour, which wasn't too bad either. I should note here that there is a very extensive system of caves and tunnels underneath Paris and that the official tour only covers a small part, which includes the public Ossuary. Our friends Laurent and Carole (featured later in this very same post) have been deep into the unofficial parts which sounded way cooler. Maybe next time.

Fig. 5: Stop! This is the empire of death! Pretty cool.

Fig. 6: Basically, the cemeteries in Paris were overflowing and they had to do something with the bodies. So, they dug up the bones, hauled them off in carts in the middle of the night, and artfully stacked them in amusing patterns in the newly christened Public Ossuary. There were a ridiculous number of bones.

Our main reason for visiting Paris was to meet up with some friends of my parents. Olivier knew my father in graduate school back in the day, and he and his wife Sophie live just outside of Paris. After rotting in a Hotel in Paris for a couple of nights, they were kind enough to let us stay with them for our last couple days in town.

Fig. 7: Dad, Olivier, and Sophie chilling.

Through some sort of complicated relationship, Olivier and Sophie know Laurent and Carole, who by a weird coincidence ended up in San Diego for a couple of years and then moved back to Paris. They often came over to our place in San Diego for parties and dinners to it was nice to visit them on their home turf enjoy their hospitality.

Fig. 8: Carole, Laurent. One of these people is a well-respected biological researcher. The other one really enjoyed surfing at La Jolla.

Fig. 9: A small part of Laurent's amazing collection of succulents and cacti.

Finally, I just want to throw in a couple of pictures of the beautiful Parc de Sceaux, which is right around the corner from Olivier and Sophie's house in Sceaux, a suburb of Paris. I just want everyone to see how ridiculously large and grandiose this is. I remind you that this is in the suburbs of Paris and isn't even considered that impressive compared to all the other royal parks and gardens in the area.

Fig. 10: Like 10% of the Parc de Sceaux. It is that huge.

Fig. 11: Mom, Sophie, and Dad enjoy a stroll down one of the many manicured pathways in the gorgeous Parc de Sceaux.

That's it for Paris. Next update: Brittany (with druids)