The past 5 weeks have rolled by in a haze of drywall dust and paint fumes for Brian and I, as we have been diligently renovating our guest room in anticipation of even bigger home renovations this Fall. It's been a steep learning curve for us (well, Brian's curve is up sharply, while mine has remained pretty flat as I accidentally hammer through windows, paint on the wrong side of the tape, etc.), but I think the end is finally in sight. We tore down a wall, installed new flooring, removed two windows and replaced another, built a closet, repainted the walls, rewired everything, installed new lighting, and re-did drywall on one wall and the ceiling. We're down to the wire, as Brian starts back to work in a week, and I'll then be leaving for Michigan to take intensive graduate courses in epidemiology for 3 weeks.
But despite the ongoing home renovations, we did manage to take a fantastic 2-week trip to France and Switzerland at the end of May, which was a really nice finale to our whole round-the-world adventure. Our trip started off well, with a kind resident of the housing project near the bus stop bringing us bottles of water as we waited in the heat for the bus to arrive, and then we got on our way, flying first to Atlanta, where we saw rapper Chris Brown (yes, the one who beat up Rihanna) and his posse in the airport, and then on to lovely Paris! When we arrived at the airport, I discovered that my ATM card wouldn't work over there, and it turned out Brian had decided to not bring an ATM card or any cash (I guess he was planning on washing a lot of dishes??!), so we had some significant money hurdles to get worked out in our severely jetlagged state upon arrival. With everything eventually finally cleared up, we made our way to My Hotel Le Marais to drop off our stuff (this pic is the view out our window), and from there we headed out on foot to explore Notre Dame (impressive, but kinda cheesy with trinket machines next to the prayer alters), fight off numerous crazy gypsies, see the crypt (not all that exciting), and tour Saint Chappelle (which has nice huge stained glass windows, but is currently undergoing renovation). We stopped to consume a giant mint chocolate chip meringue (almost the size of my head - see pic) before having our first of many VERY expensive meals out during our time in Europe.
 Notre Dame |  Huge Meringue |
We started out the next day by taking a very cliche stroll down Les Champs Elysees (I sang the whole way), stopping along the way to buy a couple of French music CDs at the giant Virgin multimedia store and to pick up some Pain du Chocolate (a flaky pastry filled with chocolate) - yum! We eventually made it to the L'Arc de Triomphe, and climbed the 280 steps to the top for a fantastic view of the 12 boulevards that converge at the circle. After enjoying the view, we decided to head over to the other famous Paris landmark, the Eiffel tower. We walked underneath (see pic), but chose not to go up due to the long lines. We walked up through Trocadero Park, where we were able to get a nice view of the tower framed by the beautiful trees blooming in the springtime (see pic). Afterward, we decided to go ahead and head to one more Paris icon - the Louvre, which was open late that night. Neither of us are huge art fans, so we made our way through the masses of children and tourists to hit the high points - the Venus de Milo, the Mona Lisa (which is actually pretty small), and the Code of Hammurabi (Brian's favorite), then decided to hightail it out of there in search for some dinner. While walking through the St. Eustache area, we stumbled upon a FANTASTIC walking street - Montorgueil - which is lined with cute local restaurants and shops bustling with locals. We indulged in some crepes and Normandy cider before walking onward towards our hotel.
 Arc de Triomphe |  View from Arc |
 Eiffel Inside |  Eiffel Tower |
 Louvre |  Louvre |
Throughout our time in France, we found that our elementary knowledge of French (I had 5 years in school, and Brian went through a phase where he was obsessed with the PBS series "French in Action") was essentially useless. Even when we knew exactly what we were supposed to be saying, the discrepancy between our accents and theirs was just too much for us to be intelligible. This was most problematic at the metro ticket windows, where we often had to resort to finger counting and animated map pointing to describe where we needed to go. On the third day of our trip, after another ticket dance, we boarded the metro to Montmartre, an artists community high on a hill in the north of Paris. We embarked on a self-guided walking tour, seeing the Moulin Rouge, the Cafe des Deux Moulins (from the movie Amelie), one of Van Gogh's houses, the Man in the Wall sculpture (see pic), the last vineyard in Paris (see pic), and numerous sidewalk painters. We ended our tour at the magnificent Sacre Coeur, and then had lunch at a cute macrobiotic vegetarian sidewalk cafe (see pic of Brian). After walking through Montmartre, we decided to tackle a request from my grandmother to visit the huge luxury department store Printemps and get her a small bottle of Paris perfume. We definitely looked like we just fell off the turnip truck as we walked through the fancy perfume department in our stinky backpacker clothes, but we did manage to buy a small apple-shaped bottle of "Nina" by Nina Ricci and make a hasty exit, since we wanted to make it to the Paris Sewer Museum before it closed. After two hours of searching, we finally gave up trying to find the museum (it turns out the entrance is through a manhole on the ground!) - at least this gives me a reason to have to come back to Paris. :) But instead we headed over to the Musee de Orsay, which contains a nice collection of impressionist art. The museum was currently undergoing renovation (seems to be a theme), but we still were able to see some nice paintings by Monet, Manet, and Renoir.
 Moulin Rouge |  Man in the Wall |
 The only vineyard |  Art Stands |
 Sacre Coeur |  Brian at Cafe |
 Printemps |  Musee d'Orsay |
Our final day in Paris was another busy one. We got up early to get to the Catacombs at opening time, only to find that they were closed due to flooding. :( (Another excuse to return to Paris one day!) So instead we took a stroll through the nearby Montparnasse Cemetery, where we saw the graves of composer Saint-Saens (see pic), the Citroen family, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Poincare. From there, we stopped to pick up a "baguette de tradition" to snack on, and continued on for a walk through the Jardin du Luxembourg (see pic), where we saw a bunch of men enjoying a game of boules (similar to bocce ball) and a group of mimes practicing their craft. After leaving the garden, we went inside the Pantheon, where we observed Foucault's Pendulum (a big hit with Brian) and saw Marie Curie's tomb in the crypt underneath. That afternoon we toured the Arts et Metiers Museum, full of lots of interesting mechanical items, and then on a whim, I decided to drag Brian back up to Montmartre to purchase a kitty painting I had seen the day before. So 2 hours later, the kitty canvas was finally in my hands! (It was quite a sight to see me lugging this painting on and off the trains in Switzerland, but I'm happy to say that the picture now has a nice spot on the wall in our newly renovated guest room.) But even after that escapade, the day was not yet over. We rushed back to Montparnasse to arrive at Tour Montparnasse (a viewing platform on the top of a giant skyscraper) just in time to catch the last lift up at 11pm - and we got to the top just in time to see the Eiffel Tower do its extra-special night twinkle, which it only does for 5 minutes on the hour from sunset to 1am (see pic). Awesome way to end our time in Paris!! :)
 Montparnasse Cemetery |  Saint-Saens |
 Jardin du Luxembourg |  Foucault's Pendulum |
 Marie Curie |  Eiffel twinkling |
After turning in the rental car on the French side of the Geneva airport after a long day of driving, we hopped on a Swiss train around Lake Geneva (see pic at right) and continued eastward until we reached Gstaad, a small posh town in the Swiss Alps. Unfortunately we visited during the off-season (between winter skiing and summer hiking) so we were limited in the number of lifts and trails open, but at least the crowds were minimal. We never caught a glimpse of Roman Polanski, but apparently he's been hiding out in one of the chalets here. :)
After a couple days in Gstaad, we once again boarded the train and headed south to Zermatt, home of the famous Matterhorn. Unfortunately the weather had taken a turn for the worse, and we arrived in the rain with no sign of the giant mountain obscured by the clouds. So we put off our hiking plans and instead spent the afternoon at the Matterhorn Museum (see pic), learning about the history of climbing attempts on the mountain, and then went across the street to the climbers cemetery (see pic) for a sobering look at how many lives have been claimed by the 14,700-ft peak. It was while walking through the cemetery that we heard a car crash - an awfully strange occurrence for this supposedly pedestrian-friendly "car-free town". It turns out that "car-free" is a bit of a misnomer, as vehicles were actually everywhere - little electric taxis (see pic), construction vehicles, delivery vehicles, everything but tourist rental cars. We actually came closer to getting hit crossing the road here than in any other town we visited, which is pretty ironic.
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