2017-06-12    Last day in Paris.   Heading home tomorrow morning.

We're going to the Eiffel Tower today.   Got a few pictures from other places the last few days.

2017-06-11   Paris


Versailles


Marais -

When Monica & I went for lunch today, a police car screamed by down the side street in front of us.   Then three police showed up on foot carrying rifles.   They stood around where we were eating, then walked down a different side street.   I got all freaked out inside, like what the hell am I doing here?   Later on we were at another square for supper, sitting at a little table outside when three police walked around the square with their rifles, looking up at the rooftops of all the apartment buildings surrounding the square.   They disappeared after a while too. 

This is getting uncomfortable and I just want to be home where it's safe.    One more day.   Fly home on Tuesday, the 13th. 

(Square of St Catherine's.)

2017-06-10   Paris - Cemetery tour

Jim Morrison's grave

The guide doing our tour said she's been doing it for 3 years,

and there is ALWAYS someone at Jim Morrison's grave.

They have put up an iron fence to keep people out,

as many were visiting regularly to do drugs with Jim and to have sex on his grave.

Oscar Wilde

Oscar Wilde gets a lot of attention too.   They had to enclose his memorial in glass because people kept leaving lipstick prints on the sculpture.  

(Apparently the fats in the lipstick cause the limestone to disintegrate.  Eww.)

There were testicles on this sculpture. 

The guide said they were rubbed so often (for luck), they fell off.

They're now a paperweight in an office for the cemetery.

* * * * *

This guy below has his tomb ready to go.   He isn't even dead yet.

Google  "La Memoire Necropolitaine"

* * * * *

A victim of one of the terrorist attacks, Bernard Verlhac.

He worked for Charlie Hebdo paper as a cartoonist when the cartoon was published about Bin Laden that caused the attack.   Not sure if it was his cartoon or not.

Memorials to the Holocaust

The guide said this one about the Jewish children was put up a little too late.

The kids were pulled right out of their schools.

Other examples of elaborate tombs in this cemetery

2017-06-09  Paris

2017-06-08   


Last day in Wales.   Off to Paris tomorrow.   Taking the train to London and then the Eurostar to Paris.    Going to be an all-day trip.   I think it's about 5 hours just to get to London and almost 3 more to Paris. 

Walked down to where Monica works - Sue's Pantry.  Had a look at some of the shops.  One of them sells Harry Potter boxes.   I don't know whether to get one or not.   It would fit in my suitcase and I could put things inside it. 

My other suitcase is on the way to Deanna's now.   Left Heathrow airport this morning.   Decided to send it home because dragging two suitcases was a bit of a hassle, especially because we're going to be travelling on trains tomorrow.   It was mostly all souvenirs anyway.  Also, KLM charged me $120 for the second suitcase when I left Edmonton, so if I'm going to be charged for it anyway, I might as well spend that money getting it off my hands.

2017-06-07   Pembroke Castle


Went to Pembroke Castle and did a tour, which was great.   Got to hear all the nitty-gritty details about what happened there.   Most of the castles I've been to didn't have tours or audio guides.  I just walked around on my own.   There are almost as many castles in the UK as there are ruins in the hills of Italy.

Henry VII was born in Pembroke Castle.  Found out they're putting up a statue of him on Saturday.  We'll be in Paris so I won't get to see it.

Henry VII

I got talking to a lady who was in the room below this one.

She said she was clairvoyant, and saw a ghost of a woman wearing white,

with a short cape around her shoulders.

Didn't sound like the way they dressed in this period.

I went into that room later.   Didn't see any ghosts.

The ladies gathered in this room to do sewing and embroidery.

The guide said this building is haunted by a monk,

who walks through and looks out the window at the far end. 

(The guide has never seen any ghosts.)

At the end of the above room (top RH) is a doorway where the loo is. 

Underneath is the river that carried everything away.

The Dungeon

This deep hole is where poor Whithorne languished for 7 years.  

When they let him out, he was blind.

Great Hall

Before the castle had been expanded with other towers, this is where the lord lived with his family and all the servants.   (11th century).  They would pull tables to the middle to have their meals, then the tables were moved back against the walls, and everyone would sleep on the floor.   The servants slept here too, where the lord slept.

The floors were covered with rushes, but they were changed only once a year, in the spring.

The rushes were full of nasty things.   When they ate, bits of food would fall down into the rushes, and beer would be slopped on them.   Dogs lived there too, and the way the guide put it, the dogs didn't always go outside to the bathroom.   Then there were the mice and the rats and the flees.  This is what everyone slept on.

Apparently they were afraid of the river water, thinking it was bad for them.   Probably was, since their latrines went straight down into the river.   They collected rain water, but still didn't want to drink that, so made beer.  Everyone included the kids all drank beer.

The guide said they washed their clothes in urine.  Hmmm... would the river water be worse than that?

By the 1200's, I noticed that they must have started using water.   There were basins by the banquet tables where people were expected to wash their hands before and after they ate.

Fireplace.

Kids had to turn the spit when they cooked their food. 

Another kid would hold a pan under the spit collecting the tallow that dripped down.

The tallow was used for candles.