Right Brain Feed

Musee d'Orsay across the Tuileries I spent Sunday of my last day (of this trip) in Musee d'Orsay. I think this museum might just be my favorite. If you like impressionist art, even just a tad, this place will blow your socks off. I also go gaga over Art Nouveau, and they had some nice pieces of that too. Living in Paris main page

Chartres cathedral I tacked on two extra days to the trip, so I could enjoy the weekend here. I do admit, I'm ready to go back to Austin, but mostly because I'm tired of eating out, and I really miss Sarah. I escaped to Chartres Cathedral (hour train ride outside Paris) for a day. It ended up being a really nice day. Chartres is the best preserved medieval cathedral in Europe, with much of it's original 13th century stained glass still intact. It's larger that Notre Dame in Paris, with over 175 stained glass panels! Most of the panels are story telling panels, telling stories from the Bible through pictures. The stained glass at Chartres really is mind blowing. I really need to come back with my other camera, and get some shots of the glass. Mental note to self: also bring binoculars next time. Malcolm Miller is a Brit who gives tours of the cathedral, he does an excellent job. He's devoted his life to studying the cathedral and gives a very entertaining tour. He ...

I had dinner with people 4 nights in a row, it gave me a case of the social butterflu. I had dinner with two HRC Federal Club members from Australia (one of them is dual US citizen, that's where the HRC connection came in). They had a nice little one bedroom in the Marais, in an old building. The door into the complex was one of those monstrous doors that used to be the carriage entrance. All of the apartments open out onto the courtyard. You really are at the mercy of your neighbors when everything backs onto a courtyard, the noise just bounces around. (I play attention to stuff like this, since we'll be apartment shopping next month). They made a nice dinner, with some monstrous asparagus that musta been on steriods. They were really funny, and we polished off plenty of wine. As I left, I mentioned that I probably drank too much, to which one of them replied, "We're Australian. If you don't go home drunk, we haven't done our job." I had dinner with Jenin...

The Louvre peeking thru the trees in Tuileries. One thing that has been really nice on this trip is that I stayed in the same place as we did in February right next to the Louvre, and both workers at the coffee bar recognized me, and also remembered that I drink cafe creme in the morning. One of them even asked where Sarah was. That doesn't happen in the states. A guy at a restaurant Sarah and I went to twice in February recognized me, and asked where Sarah was. It was also nice that I knew where the grocery store was, and was mentally prepared for it to be closed on Sunday. We're so used to the 24-7 convenience in the states that it's quite odd to find everything closed early, and closed on Sunday. Living in Paris main page

poppies in Jardin du Luxembourg I arrived on Sunday morning at CDG, after a lovely full flight. To try and fight off jetlag, and force myself on Paris time, I spent a few hours walking, including walking thru Jardin du Luxembourg. Spring has definitely hit Paris, while it's still chilly, the trees, grass, and flowers are beautiful. I grabbed a Jambon et Fromage Crepe, and wandered thru the Latin quarter. The pre-Haussman Paris thrives here, with crooked little streets, and buildings wedged in every which way. Very up close and personal, tiny little sidewalks mean I'm always playing "chicken" with pedestrians coming at me. They usually win. :-) This is in stark contrast to the ordered elegance of rue de Rivoli, with several blocks of virtually identical buildings lined up on one side, flanked by the gold tipped fence of the Tuileries on the other. My hotel is on rue de Rivoli, a block from the Louvre. At the end of my walk, jet lag caught me, I could not keep my eyes o...

We're lucky that my employer gives us the same rights and benefits as married straight couples. While the US government does withhold benefits from same sex couples (for instance, taxing domestic partner medical benefits and not allowing survivor rights on social security), usually it equates to $$ out of my pocket. I guess that's why what's happening right now with my foreign assignment is so unsettling. The French government won't recognize Sarah as a dependent of mine, and thus she can't be included on my worker permit. Typically when a worker permit is done to go work in France, the spouse and children are included on the worker permit, and all the paperwork is included in one thick stack. So they won't let us do that. Sarah has to file for a visitor visa separately, and we're struggling to make all the timing work. Right now it looks like there will be timing problems for us. Which finally brings me to my "No Soup For You" title. In trying to ...