The Chateau at Pierrefonds. Rebuilt after being razed by one of the Louis Kings, probably the 14th. Then in the 19th century, Napoleon III had it rebuilt in the then modern medieval style by Violet-Le-Duc, who was renowned for his architectural renovations at the time.
I really wanted to share the wonderful adventure that was Bastille day in Paris, however, thanks to the Humanoid Urban Dwellers, Bastille day in Paris is no longer a safe party in each of the neighborhoods with dancers, music, food and reverie. NowAdays Bastille day (which by the way is not referred to by name, and is only called a holiday) is limited to the park in front of the Eiffel tower. This area, which is huge, was packed with more than one hundred thousand people. By the time we drove to Paris, navigated to the downtown portion of Paris where we had arranged to park and sleep, and met up with our friends, the ability to travel to the above mentioned area was abysmal. Not only that, but this is when we learned that thanks to the violent nature of the urban dwellers, all the other neighborhood parties are now a thing of the past. Well first things first…We had arranged to take our friend out to dinner, so after learning that his son had taken off with the keys to the parking garage we drove around the block in search of a parking space. To our amazement we did find a spot just down the street and the only down side was that we had to take everything out of the car so nobody would break the windows and we had to be up bright and early to pay for the spot so we wouldn’t get a ticket. During dinner our host suggested that we go to the top of the tour montparnasse for coffee and to catch the firework show from the tallest building in Paris. Although I was hesitant about this plan, I realized that getting to the Tour Eiffel was hopeless and that if we could get to the restaurant on the top floor of Tour MontParnasse this would likely be a runner-up for prime spots to view the festivities, even at a distance. Let me just say that the security guards quickly shut that plan down, so defeated and tired we walked by the the apartment building and tried to catch the show on a big screen projection t.v.. While these were the best seats in the house for the first part of the party, channel 2 decided that shortly in to the fireworks display it was more important to show a rerun of a police detective show vaguely reminiscent of CSI las vegas and cold case files (except in french, and with apparently less of a plot.) Since we had a large dinner and too much champagne by that point, we decided to head back to the apartment on the other side of the building and then call it a night.
In the morning we went over to have breakfast with our host, and then packed up the car for the trip to Belgium. It is at this point that I wanted to start an entirely new blog about the adventures caused or contributed to by my TomTom GPS unit. You see, it was at this point that my asking the TomTom for the quickest way out of Paris started me on a cross town journey right through the middle of Paris. While this may seem trivial to those of you sitting on your couch, try to put yourself in a very stressful driving situation and then Triple it!!! I’ve driven in Manhattan, San Francisco, Nice, and in parts of Italy, so it’s not like I’ve never negotiated big city traffic, it’s just that the intense down town stuff can staRT TO GET TO YOU especially when you don’t know all the rules and people have a strange way of doing things sometimes. So half way through this adventure through Paris, christine asks me why the GPS has decided to take us from one side of Paris to the other side of Paris going right through the middle, when there is a sort of highway that goes around Paris to avoid just this sort of route. While ringing the GPS’s neck seemed like the best emotional resolution at the time, the GPS was also my guiding light and savior when it came to telling me what lane to be in and what to expect around the next bend. A true love/hate relationship I have with my TomTom. At any rate, the Tomtom got me out of town and on my way to belgium. Meanwhile, Christine was looking at the real map and wondering (again) why we were headed toward Lilles. “susan” (the computer voice in the tomtom) likes to pick the route with the fastest speed limit so. . . “OK well maybe we can get off the toll road and have an adventure later on.”
That’s where we took the detour and headed toward Pierre Fonds:
We stopped for a quick bite to eat and and equally quick tour of the castle. Since we were on a schedule we decided that we didn’t have time for the whole tour, and that we would have more fun taking a hike around the castle and then heading back toward Belgium. Since I’m tired and there is more driving before reaching our destination, I’ll leave this post at this point. So until next time I hope you are all well. . .Take care,
-G