Rainy Day in Sunny Paree

dear erik,

i'm going to attempt more pictures.  the wireless here is a little wonky (at least, i'm hoping it's the wireless and not my little netbook.)  megan and i have just come home from the louvre - it's pouring rain and we're sitting on the couch having tea and typing.  all very civilized...

this is my 'room' in the new paris apartment.  it's really lovely, and it's nice to have our own spaces to retire to at the end of the day.

the dining room.  there's also a living room and a little kitchen.  we have a clothes washer - 4 hour cycle, which Almost gets your clothes dry.  :o)

i was thinking of mom and dad in (germany?)  i can't remember for sure where it was, but i remember them talking about hearing the billy joel song 'allentown'.  this morning we had breakfast at cafe hugo down the street and they were playing 'california dreamin'.  trippy.

today we went to the louvre and notre dame.  we didn't have too long at the louvre, because we spent a long time just walking around the streets looking at paris, which is beautiful.  unfortunately we seem to have brought the british weather with us. 

as for the louvre, we plan to go back, but it's clearly the kind of place where you could go every day for a month and barely make a dent.  seriously - the place is frickin' EPIC. 

the wireless isn't letting me upload any more pictures at the moment.  hopefully i'll be able to load some tomorrow.  it was wonderful to see notre dame - i can't figure out how to turn off the flash on my camera (sad, but true) so i couldn't take any pictures, but megan took some for both of us.  it's really exquisitely beautiful.

i always get weirdly emotional in cathedrals/churches.  i'm sure that recently it's partly missing mom, but i've always been that way.  i can't figure out if it's some kind of spiritual thing, like the idea that there's a larger purpose to everything, that there's a reason for everything, that Someone has a Plan?  or maybe it's because the people who created the building had that belief, and that emotion lingers in the place itself? 

i think as far as the great cathedrals, i also find it so moving that people used to (maybe still) have the belief that they were creating something beautiful to last forever that would change people's lives by representing the glory of the eternal.  i dunno.  at any rate, it was pretty emotional being in there.  truly beautiful.

it's supposed to rain again tomorrow, but it's a good excuse to spend lots of time in museums.  i think tomorrow we're going to do the musee d'orsay, because on thursdays they're open at night.  we're taking babs' reccomendation (thank you babs!) and having a meal there - the restaurant looks amazing!  (we like to do a lot of our planning around where and when we're going to eat.  for real - it's a big thing.)

all right.  the screen has taken to flashing and doing weird jaggedy things.  time to sign off. 

sending love - mer