Not a Trip Report - France
Oct 11th, 2012, 03:51 PM
#221
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Welcome to the neighborhood, Sam! I think you'll love it here, and there are great neighborhood resources for newcomers.
Wasn't that just a stunning game?? The pitching...the suspense...the last-minute turnaround by Werth!!! Who could ask for more? I just hope they sustain it tomorrow!
Wasn't that just a stunning game?? The pitching...the suspense...the last-minute turnaround by Werth!!! Who could ask for more? I just hope they sustain it tomorrow!
Oct 12th, 2012, 06:23 AM
#224
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FINALLY getting a chance to catch up a bit- work has been nuts.
I love your report, St.Cirq, (and, of course, runningtab's occasional commentaries.). I like your writing style and sense of humor. And it's nice to read a (non) trip report focused on a mission.
P.S. I was driving home last night when Werth hit his home run. As I was waving my arms around cheering, I saw other drivers looking at me like I was crazy. How could they not be listing to The Fan? ;-)
I love your report, St.Cirq, (and, of course, runningtab's occasional commentaries.). I like your writing style and sense of humor. And it's nice to read a (non) trip report focused on a mission.
P.S. I was driving home last night when Werth hit his home run. As I was waving my arms around cheering, I saw other drivers looking at me like I was crazy. How could they not be listing to The Fan? ;-)
Oct 12th, 2012, 07:26 AM
#225
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Yes, Michael. The bed was, to my eye anyway, pretty much a perfect square. There was nothing to suggest upon looking at it that it wasn't made up, or intended to be slept in, the way any normal bed would be, with the pillows propped up against the "headboard" (back of the couch, with the couch arms extending out a bit)...
Anyway, coming back soon with next installment...
Anyway, coming back soon with next installment...
Oct 12th, 2012, 08:34 AM
#226
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Apple-pie bed? Cool!!! What is one? Got video?
BTW re roundabouts – I grew up just outside of DC, and I’m now a full-time resident, but I learned only a couple of years go, overhearing a wise man on the metro, why those roundabouts were put there. I thought maybe L’Enfant tossed them into the plan for aesthetic effect, an embellishment, like the swirls and curls the elite dressed up their signatures with back in the day.
Far from it. Maybe everyone already knows this, but the roundabouts were for defensive purposes, giving you a line of fire against threats coming from any or all of several streets. Impossible to pull that off were there only a grid. Quite clever, wot?
BTW re roundabouts – I grew up just outside of DC, and I’m now a full-time resident, but I learned only a couple of years go, overhearing a wise man on the metro, why those roundabouts were put there. I thought maybe L’Enfant tossed them into the plan for aesthetic effect, an embellishment, like the swirls and curls the elite dressed up their signatures with back in the day.
Far from it. Maybe everyone already knows this, but the roundabouts were for defensive purposes, giving you a line of fire against threats coming from any or all of several streets. Impossible to pull that off were there only a grid. Quite clever, wot?
Oct 12th, 2012, 10:04 AM
#229
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We were just talking about this with a neighbor a few weeks ago. Well, legend has it that it's because Pierre l'Enfant, who laid out the city, had a grudge against Chief Justice John Jay...but most historians think it's because the letters I and J were nearly indistinguishable in the 18th Century, and Pierre thought it would result in confusion.
OK, back to writing...
OK, back to writing...
Oct 12th, 2012, 01:04 PM
#230
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We wake up horizontal in our strange bed in La Rochelle, feeling remarkably refreshed given the middle-of-the-night thrashings and bewilderment. The little coffee plugs that fit in the coffee maker produce a good-enough cuppa, and SO, upon venturing downstairs, finds a box full of day-old (or so it seems - you spend enough time here and you get to know a day-old anything) - croissants and pains au chocolat. It's all we need before venturing out to explore La Rochelle. It's a glorious day, once again, and we have...a map!...which runningtab got at the train station last night.
Bumping slowly down the stairs to the ground floor of the AppartCity building, I get a glimpse of the kinds of people who stay in these places, as they are heading out for the day like us: students, Eastern Europeans, Israelis, middle-aged families traveling together and consulting maps; young professionals with small rollaboards and computer bags and cell phones. Seems about right - it's close to the city center, reasonably priced, secured at night, and, if you can figure out how the bed's made, a good deal.
The map tells me we need to go down the main road to the train station, which we know already, turn right on the Avenue Charles de Gaulle, and we'll soon be at the Vieux Port, which seems the right place to begin our exploration as it's the one reference point we have in common - the only place, really, in the area that SO remembers from an otherwise ill-fated trip 18 or more years ago. We want to start from common ground, so the Vieux Port it is.
La Rochelle, and I'm guessing other similar-size cities in France, has municipal parking lots strategically placed around town (they didn't have these the last time I was here). Even better, as you approach them, they have illuminated signs that tell you whether the lot is open and how many spots are available in it. How convenient! We pull into the enormous portside lot called St-Jean d’Acre and find a handicap spot close to the quai (we did this all over France, btw, without any sort of sticker or anything, and encountered no problems – perhaps dumb luck, though).
I may not have complained much on the spot, but I will here, if you don’t mind – have I mentioned that cobblestones on crutches are a b*tch??? Particularly old, uneven ones. Particularly ones that go for blocks and blocks at a time with no flat terrain to escape to. Particularly when 10,000 people seem to have chosen to walk, and bicycle, the same hellish cobblestoned landscape you’ve chosen, at the same time…many of them racing after runaway children and careening around with strollers or bustling along hurriedly ten abreast with friends and colleagues, or just meandering obliviously around. We barely get through the massive old gates marking the entry to the old port area when I have to stop and determine what my limitations here are likely to be. Significant, I think.
In addition to the sea of cobblestones and unyielding crowds, some dopey urban designer has roped off the inner part of the endlessly long quai with enormous iron grommets, and looped nautical ropes through them that hang about 5 inches off the ground. How many malicious little twists like this does it take before a handicapped person gets really PO’d at the world? More than I will experience, I’m sure, but seriously, once I get over that damn rope fence, I’m not going anywhere right now but the absolutely closest café – The Café Leffe (http://www.qype.co.uk/place/239275-C...ochelle/photos). And it’s only when I’ve huffed and puffed my way over to a seat and parked myself and my crutches that I see what I couldn’t see while staring at cobblestones – the magnificent harbor of La Rochelle. Yachts, cruise ships, sailboats as far as the eye can see, an effulgent sun reflecting brilliantly off the water, a flawless sky, the two ancient towers tall and imposing at either end of the port. And humanity everywhere, loading onto tour boats, milling around, filling the myriad cafés and restaurants that seem to stretch to the horizon, bustling around the quaiside candy and trinket and ticket booths. Yes, we’ll settle in here and begin to enjoy our vacation.
We order two Leffes from the charming waiter and contemplate the menu. We’re going to splurge and have a restaurant meal. And of course it’s going to be seafood. Runningtab wants mussels à la provençal and frites, and I’m going to have a bowl of fish soup with all the trimmings (croutons, shredded gruyère, aïoli, and rouille). When these arrive, we’re glad we didn’t order an appetizer, as both are gigantic! And ever so good! And, on a whim, runningtab checks to see if there’s wifi here, and there is, so we can get caught up on a few things. We while away more than an hour, enjoying our meal and the sun and the lapping of the water and the babble of passersby.
Next challenge is using the restroom. You know the ones in French cafés…at the back of the building, down a teensy, dark spiral staircase...I can get up the steps into the interior of the café, and there I lean my crutches against a wall and pick my way, holding onto tables and chair backs, to the stairway at the back. Then use the handrails to flop down the staircase – oncoming traffic be damned! The door marked Dames is locked, so I wait. And wait and wait and wait some more…really, about 10 minutes. I knock on the door, and a deep voice says “Attendez! J’arrive!.” OK…I wait some more. Again “J’arrive!” and more waiting. Finally, I simply can’t wait anymore, so I go into the men’s stall. When I come out and go to the sink, there’s a middle-aged man standing there in rags with a backpack and a couple of paper bags…homeless, I’m guessing…and he wags a finger at me and points to the men’s stall and says “Ca, c’est pour les hommes, Madame!” Excuuuuuuse me? WTF? One of those truly special travel moments…
Fortified with good food and great scenery, we go back to the parking lot, where we have one of those moments where I forget that I have a body of knowledge about France that not everyone else does, and I’m not really paying attention until runningtab has maneuvered the car in front of a barrier that leads up to a huge loading dock…and is about to stick the parking card we got upon entering the lot into it. Oooops! We really don’t want to ride a freighter to Malaysia…let’s turn around and head to that big SORTIE sign over there instead, shall we? Yes, and we’re off to explore some more of the city…
Bumping slowly down the stairs to the ground floor of the AppartCity building, I get a glimpse of the kinds of people who stay in these places, as they are heading out for the day like us: students, Eastern Europeans, Israelis, middle-aged families traveling together and consulting maps; young professionals with small rollaboards and computer bags and cell phones. Seems about right - it's close to the city center, reasonably priced, secured at night, and, if you can figure out how the bed's made, a good deal.
The map tells me we need to go down the main road to the train station, which we know already, turn right on the Avenue Charles de Gaulle, and we'll soon be at the Vieux Port, which seems the right place to begin our exploration as it's the one reference point we have in common - the only place, really, in the area that SO remembers from an otherwise ill-fated trip 18 or more years ago. We want to start from common ground, so the Vieux Port it is.
La Rochelle, and I'm guessing other similar-size cities in France, has municipal parking lots strategically placed around town (they didn't have these the last time I was here). Even better, as you approach them, they have illuminated signs that tell you whether the lot is open and how many spots are available in it. How convenient! We pull into the enormous portside lot called St-Jean d’Acre and find a handicap spot close to the quai (we did this all over France, btw, without any sort of sticker or anything, and encountered no problems – perhaps dumb luck, though).
I may not have complained much on the spot, but I will here, if you don’t mind – have I mentioned that cobblestones on crutches are a b*tch??? Particularly old, uneven ones. Particularly ones that go for blocks and blocks at a time with no flat terrain to escape to. Particularly when 10,000 people seem to have chosen to walk, and bicycle, the same hellish cobblestoned landscape you’ve chosen, at the same time…many of them racing after runaway children and careening around with strollers or bustling along hurriedly ten abreast with friends and colleagues, or just meandering obliviously around. We barely get through the massive old gates marking the entry to the old port area when I have to stop and determine what my limitations here are likely to be. Significant, I think.
In addition to the sea of cobblestones and unyielding crowds, some dopey urban designer has roped off the inner part of the endlessly long quai with enormous iron grommets, and looped nautical ropes through them that hang about 5 inches off the ground. How many malicious little twists like this does it take before a handicapped person gets really PO’d at the world? More than I will experience, I’m sure, but seriously, once I get over that damn rope fence, I’m not going anywhere right now but the absolutely closest café – The Café Leffe (http://www.qype.co.uk/place/239275-C...ochelle/photos). And it’s only when I’ve huffed and puffed my way over to a seat and parked myself and my crutches that I see what I couldn’t see while staring at cobblestones – the magnificent harbor of La Rochelle. Yachts, cruise ships, sailboats as far as the eye can see, an effulgent sun reflecting brilliantly off the water, a flawless sky, the two ancient towers tall and imposing at either end of the port. And humanity everywhere, loading onto tour boats, milling around, filling the myriad cafés and restaurants that seem to stretch to the horizon, bustling around the quaiside candy and trinket and ticket booths. Yes, we’ll settle in here and begin to enjoy our vacation.
We order two Leffes from the charming waiter and contemplate the menu. We’re going to splurge and have a restaurant meal. And of course it’s going to be seafood. Runningtab wants mussels à la provençal and frites, and I’m going to have a bowl of fish soup with all the trimmings (croutons, shredded gruyère, aïoli, and rouille). When these arrive, we’re glad we didn’t order an appetizer, as both are gigantic! And ever so good! And, on a whim, runningtab checks to see if there’s wifi here, and there is, so we can get caught up on a few things. We while away more than an hour, enjoying our meal and the sun and the lapping of the water and the babble of passersby.
Next challenge is using the restroom. You know the ones in French cafés…at the back of the building, down a teensy, dark spiral staircase...I can get up the steps into the interior of the café, and there I lean my crutches against a wall and pick my way, holding onto tables and chair backs, to the stairway at the back. Then use the handrails to flop down the staircase – oncoming traffic be damned! The door marked Dames is locked, so I wait. And wait and wait and wait some more…really, about 10 minutes. I knock on the door, and a deep voice says “Attendez! J’arrive!.” OK…I wait some more. Again “J’arrive!” and more waiting. Finally, I simply can’t wait anymore, so I go into the men’s stall. When I come out and go to the sink, there’s a middle-aged man standing there in rags with a backpack and a couple of paper bags…homeless, I’m guessing…and he wags a finger at me and points to the men’s stall and says “Ca, c’est pour les hommes, Madame!” Excuuuuuuse me? WTF? One of those truly special travel moments…
Fortified with good food and great scenery, we go back to the parking lot, where we have one of those moments where I forget that I have a body of knowledge about France that not everyone else does, and I’m not really paying attention until runningtab has maneuvered the car in front of a barrier that leads up to a huge loading dock…and is about to stick the parking card we got upon entering the lot into it. Oooops! We really don’t want to ride a freighter to Malaysia…let’s turn around and head to that big SORTIE sign over there instead, shall we? Yes, and we’re off to explore some more of the city…
Oct 12th, 2012, 01:47 PM
#231
Very entertaining and evocative, StCirq. What I know of La Rochelle is gleaned from watching the Red Bull Cliff Diving contests on TV; it is beautiful.
Bummer about your foot, though. Sound feet on cobblestones can be challenging as it is. Looking forward to more.
Bummer about your foot, though. Sound feet on cobblestones can be challenging as it is. Looking forward to more.
Oct 12th, 2012, 01:54 PM
#232
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<<watching the Red Bull Cliff Diving contests on TV>>
Thanks for the reminder - I'd forgotten all about that. Never been there for it, but it sure looks scary!
http://www.redbull.com/cs/Satellite/...21243035674673
Thanks for the reminder - I'd forgotten all about that. Never been there for it, but it sure looks scary!
http://www.redbull.com/cs/Satellite/...21243035674673
Oct 12th, 2012, 02:22 PM
#233
Sorry, my arthritic fingers and this delicate
notebook are difficult for me so must try slowly.
We stayed in town at a B&B. As I mentioned once before, I love that bridge that takes you to the Ile de Re.
notebook are difficult for me so must try slowly.
We stayed in town at a B&B. As I mentioned once before, I love that bridge that takes you to the Ile de Re.
Oct 12th, 2012, 04:04 PM
#235
You are indeed lucky about not having problems for not having a handicapped sign for the car (American ones are accepted, I will add for the benefit of anyone wondering.) -- the fine is 125€ for parking in a handicapped space without authorization.
Oct 16th, 2012, 01:03 PM
#240
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For running tab,
Wow, there is a You tube video for making Apple pie bed!
Enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zysVI9eI-1E
Wow, there is a You tube video for making Apple pie bed!
Enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zysVI9eI-1E
