So Happy Together

Well, this is terribly embarrassing...I can't believe that I have taken over a month to write a new blog! At the same time, I have more than one excuse: firstly, and most significantly impeding my progress, was the fact that our computer broke down completely a few days into September. We are thankful though, because we would be needing a new one soon anyway, which we bought and commissioned my parents to bring when they arrived in Paris this past Monday (Sept. 28). Secondly, we had our very good friends, Rob and Robin Schannep, visiting us for a week at the beginning of September. We had a marvelous time with our dear friends, even through various sickness and "plague" that seemed to strike them during their visit. They were quite the troopers, and have assured us that they loved seeing Paris. We of course LOVED having them here and showing them the sights!! Mostly we just had a great time being back together with some dear friends. The funny thing is that when we first saw each other, we all felt that it couldn't have been four months since we'd last been together. Rather, it was like old times, them coming to our place for dinner or a night out, except we now happen to live in Paris.

I wanted to share some photos from our adventures with the Schanneps...

Introducing (drum roll please): Rob and Robin!!! Aren't they so cute?

The Schanneps arrived on Andrew's 23rd birthday, so we went out to "our" restaurant in the Latin Quarter for a delicious supper of hot goat cheese salad, duck confit, and creme brulee! When the waiter (our buddy Zidan) brought in the creme brulee, he turned out ALL the lights in the restaurant in order to sing to Andrew. Well, he started in a terrible key, and ended up singing a rather shaky solo of "Joyeaux Anniversaire" until the entirety of the restaurant joined in for the last verse!!

Celebrating Ange's 23rd birthday!! What a perfect day to entertain our dear friends from America!!! I actually love the way this photo turned out, but when we took it I was being very silly and making "princess hands"...

We left the restaurant "tres contents" (very happy) and full of delicious food and fond memories. It started raining outside before we left the restaurant, and the streets shone more brightly than usual as we walked home through Paris. That's what rain and friendship in one of the most beautiful cities on earth will do to you!

After a visit to Disneyland to see Cinderella, and a day to themselves in Paris to explore the Louvre and the Champs-Elysees, the Schanneps joined up with us for more artistic adventures. The first Sunday of each month in Paris offers free admission to many of the museums around the city. So after celebrating the Divine Liturgy at La Sainte Trinite, and then enjoying a take-away lunch with our legs dangling over the walls of the Seine, we made our way to the Musee D'Orsay, the famous impressionist museum of Paris.

I loved seeing the Monets, while Robin's favorite artist is Van Gogh. It's so incredible not only to think that he couldn't make it big with his paintings, but that Claude Monet's art was actually despised during his lifetime. Makes you think about the changing of time...I wonder what Monet's critics would say if they saw the modern art at the Gugenheim museum.



The Musee D'Orsay is housed in what used to be the Gare D'Orsay--a train station. When the station went out of use, there were question about what was to be done with it, or if it should just be torn down. Around that time, Orson Wells was filming a movie in Paris, and ran out of money for shooting on the locations he had chosen. Desperate as to how he could go about continuing the film, he looked out his window and saw the abandoned Gare D'Orsay. Nothing could be more perfect for his film, so he shot the entirety of the rest of the film in various parts of the train station. The time that he took in the process allowed for the station to be "salvaged" by its fans, and was later converted into a museum to house Paris' famous impressionist art, among other beautiful collections.



I think this is a beautiful setting for a museum, especially because of the natural lighting.

We also paid a visit to the Musee Rodin, to view the sculptor's beautiful works, among them his famous "Thinker," as well as the "Gates of Hell" (from Dante's Inferno), and "The Kiss," which I think was my favorite of all his sculptures.

The original "Thinker" is actually a very small figure who sits atop the "Gates of Hell," possibly as a representation of Dante himself, and/or his narrator. After creating the "Gates of Hell," Rodin was inspired to make his "Thinker" its own work on a more grand scale.

We also took a day to explore the Ile de la Cite, to see the Notre Dame, and the Ile St. Louis, to get gelato and Berthillon ice cream! Robin and I discovered a beautiful flower market, all housed in various covered green stalls. The boys and girls split up for an evening too, so that we could have some good "tete-a-tete" talks. We also walked around the Eiffel Tower, where we tried to take one of these photos....

We can never seem to get it right!! It was very bright outside, so we were already all laughing because we couldn't see! Then, we just couldn't get a good photo of the four of us...of course our friends are very photogenic, and apparently Andrew and I are very photo-challenged. We took SO many photos, and I'm sure everyone around us thought we were crazy the way we were all laughing so hard. But we finally got one that, well, sort of turned out okay.

So, that's it about adventures for the present. We were sad to see our friends go, but of course seeing them in the first place made it completely worth while!! We miss them dearly, and miss you all, too. Things are getting busy again, what with my parents arriving the same day that Andrew returned from a long weekend in London to visit a friend there. More about all of that soon. For now, thanks for letting me share with you, and I promise to do more of that in the near future now that we've got a computer again! Shout-out to Theresa and my Aunt Judy, who I hear have sorely missed my musings! :-) Thanks again for taking an interest, but more so for your support and prayers.