Paris and the Loire Valley

On Wednesday the 26^th Cynthia and I were dropped off by Kelly at the Denver airport, bright and early, for an 8:30 AM flight to North Carolina. We had lunch in Charlotte, and then caught the flight to France. As usual, we slept little, but after an uneventful flight, arrived in Paris at 7 AM. We caught the Rossibus into town, and then had to wait a while to find a cab to our hotel.

Our hotel was La Manufacture, named after the drapery and tapestry company that previously had been in this area. The lady at the front desk was very friendly and helpful. Our room was fine, although small.

We had resolved to stay up as long as we reasonably could, so we headed off for the Chapel Saint Chapelle, famous for 13^th century stained glass, telling the entire bible story. This chapel was built by King Louis IX, later Saint Louis. The stained glass is currently being restored, but most of it was visible. Impressive, especially given the area of stained glass. It would have been nice to have binoculars to look at the upper stained glass, which was hard to see. There was also impressive stone carvings.  The chapel is part of a government building complex, so we had to go through security.

Bridge over the River Seine

We were getting tired, so we stopped for lunch. After lunch, we decided to go to the Middle Ages Museum, sometimes called the Cluny Museum, where we saw more stained glass, but smaller panels close up. There were also many statues, tapestries, and other objects from the Middle Ages. However, Cynthia was starting to fade, so we left without seeing the entire museum, and and took the bus back to our hotel.

We went to bed around 7 PM.  We had been up for 30 hours.  Richard woke up and saw 9:30 on his watch.  He saw light outside, not realizing that the sun sets very late this far north, and figured that it was 9:30 AM the next day, so we took showers and started to pack.   Cynthia was complaining about her bloodshot eyes.  It turned out that it was really 9:30 PM, so we went back to bed. He learned that the time on his iPhone does not say AM or PM, assuming that one must know which is which.  But this is not a good assumption for a jet lagged tourist. His watch does say AM or PM, but in tiny letters.

Friday morning we woke up at 9 AM, and went out for a substantial breakfast. Then we went to a supermarket to get some food to eat lunch on the train, but that meant that we left the hotel later than we intended. We took a taxi to the Gare Montparnasse, where we rushed around and had to ask for directions to find our train.  We boarded the train with 15 minutes to spare. The TGV is the Tren de Grand Vitesse, the high speed train. At some points we could see that the train was going much faster than cars on the nearby highway.

We were picked up in Angers by our French neighbor, Jean-Marie, and taken to our delightful house in the small town of Brissac-Quince.  This is the house that Richard exchanged for his house in Boulder.  We will be here about three weeks.

More Colorado Springs

Friday, we started our day with a little hiking around the Garden of the Gods, a famous park with spectacular rock formations. This is of course very popular, but still worth doing. This park was donated to the city by the family of a prominent citizen, around 1910.

We stopped at McDonalds to use their WIFI to check email and post to the blog. Looking at Trip Advisor, one of the recommended restaurants was Bird Dog BBQ. This was out of the way, but very good food. We both had the daily special, the Brisket Sandwich. Unlike many barbeque restaurants, the meat was not marinated in barbeque sauce; you could choose your own sauce from the table.

On the drive, we were both somewhat amazed at how large Colorado Springs has become; it was seemingly endless housing developments.

We then headed out to the Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame, which was Cynthia's idea. Most of the museum consisted of glass cases containing photos, text, and objects, related to famous rodeo people. There were also bronze sculptures, saddles, and other displays. Although Cynthia and I have been to some rodeos, we are certainly not steeped in rodeo history, so almost all the museum was new information for us. The museum is surprisingly large. Ultimately, we suffered from burnout, leaving after more than 2 hours. Although it was somewhat interesting, I felt that it was primarily of interest to rodeo aficionados.

Contrary to Richard, I thought that the Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame was stunning. The glass cases have individual photos of famous riders, pieces of their personal equipment, and the reasons why they are in the Hall of Fame. The displays were grouped by rodeo events; ie calf roping, bulldogging, bullriding and such. There is a room devoted to Chris LeDoux, his music, and his rodeo accomplishments. If you know nothing about rodeos, you will come away in awe of the athleticism, danger, and brute power on display at a rodeo. Very nice bronze sculptures, usually of a bucking horse, are displayed throughout; the 2D art is forgettable. Your next winning bar bet: Deer Trail Colorado held the first ever rodeo. Cynthia.

A chicken with feathered legs, held up for inspection.

Saturday morning we slept in, and started our morning with “Ranch Day” at the state park. Rangers and volunteers had demonstrations and activities related to ranching, for the benefit of us city folks. We learned about chickens, saw a dye demonstration, and learned a great deal about the brands used in ranching.  Branding is not obsolete, and we were told that if we are ever invited to participate or watch a branding, that we should be sure to do so, as it is quite a big deal.  The calf is roped, branded, innoculated, castrated, and tagged, a hard day for the calf.  Cynthia says to enjoy your hamburgers!   Richard is thinking about making a New Age brand, suitable for Boulder. Rather than a Lazy L brand, perhaps a Flying Buddha brand. ;-)

Our next stop was “Old Colorado City”, the original territorial capital of Colorado. We saw the log building which was part of the territorial capital. We visited art galleries, and walked by many souvenir shops. We looked at miniature city scenes in one shop, walked through the farmer's market, and generally took in the area. We had a light lunch at a tapas restaurant, and finished our visit by going to the Agia Sophia coffee shop and bookstore. Downstairs, it looked like any coffee shop. Upstairs, it was a bookstore of religious books from the Russian and Greek Orthodox tradition. The name of the coffeeshop is a play on the famous church in Constantinople (Istanbul) , the Hagia Sophia.

We then visited the money museum, which had a special exhibit on money and the Civil War. The Union printed paper money to cover the cost of the war, while the confederate money, promising cotton after the end of the war, suffered from extreme inflation. As in most aspects of the conflict, the Confederates had disadvantages in the field of money, including poor tax collection and a lack of engraving facilities.

We went to church, had a quick dinner in the camper, and then went to square dancing at the park, which was part of Ranch Day. A good time was had by all at the dance, young and old.

A very full Saturday, but very enjoyable.

Sunday morning we went to the May Museum of the Tropics, a bug museum. A lot of bugs in glass cases, including some spectacular ones, but not very much text or context. An amateur collection, but still impressive. A reminder of the difference between a professionally curated museum and an amateur museum.

On the way home, we stopped in Falcon for Richard to visit his Firebird sculpture, which he had not seen since it was installed in 2009. It looked about the same as when it was installed, so that is good.

The drive home was uneventful. We are now looking forward to France, while Richard needs to get ready for the Loveland Sculpture Invitational show in August.

Exploring Colorado Springs

Like the native New Yorker who has never been to the Statue of Liberty, we live close to the town of Colorado Springs, but have never explored it. We decided to make a short trip to see the sights and visit the museums.

Our first stop was the Western Museum of Mining and Industry. The museum had several large working steam engines, as well as working models of stamp mills, dredges, and other equipment. I am of course always a fan of machinery. We were invited to try our hand at gold panning, but only turned up fool's gold. We had our photo taken with two of the burros in residence.

Cynthia especially liked the old photos of life outside the mines, including the town and the home. There were photos of baseball teams, 4^th of July parades, a schoolhouse and schoolchildren, and a woman who took in laundry and told fortunes. Life was hard, but the immigrants came anyway, looking for a better life.

Our next stop was at Cheyenne Mountain State Park, near Fort Carson, south of Colorado Springs. Cynthia and I did some light hiking, under heavy overcast, on an unseasonably cool day.

We slept in on Thursday. Our first stop was to the Visitor Bureau. Besides the usual brochures and maps, we learned about an historical conference related to massacres. Cynthia called about the conference, and learned that it was full. We might be able to get in if there is a no-show, however.

We headed to the Fine Arts Museum. The upper floor was closed for an installation, but there was quite a bit on the lower floor. Perhaps the most impressive part of their collection was of New Mexico popular religious art, including crucifixes.

After a light picnic, we went to the Pioneer museum, which is a better than usual local historical museum, in the old courthouse. We learned a lot about the hospitals and sanitariums which cared for the people suffering from tuberculosis. The courtroom looked like it came right out of Perry Mason.

Steampunk art - Bonemaking machine

Our final stop was at the Cottonwood Center for the Arts, where many artists have galleries. We saw an exhibit which included many “steampunk” artworks. The photo of Cyntia and I is with a bonemaking machine.