Church of St. Sulpice

Next stop that day was the Church of St. Sulpice, on the Wrong Side. I think this was another station on the Vinci Municipal Code pilgrimage. Understandably, my wife and friends do not speak to me of such things.

The artistic masterpiece, Delacroix's Jacob's  Struggle with the 
Angel (Angel won by (divine) decision)

The great organ at St. Sulpice

But St. Sulpice's claim to fame is here, and the brass line
that marks the (then) prime meridian, before France lost
yet another war with the Brits; hence, it's Greenwich Time,
not Left Bank Time

On winter solstice, or possibly summer, or maybe the vernal
equinox, the sun comes through a high window and
illuminates this area (the church was built about 1.5 meters
off to the right, by my calculation; or possibly the window was
off, as Wes suggested)

This explains it all; as if...

St. Sulpice, another great Baroque church; if it ain't Baroque,
don't fix it

Happily, there was a statue of Danton nearby

Cimetiere du Pere-Lachaise

So one day, perhaps June 9, we all went out to the Cimetiere du Pere-Lachaise, one of Paris' large and famous cemeteries. I think this may have had something to do with the Vinci Municipal Code or somesuch; or maybe Rickie Stevie. Whatever.

Helpful map of the place, with players' names and locations

Of course, most normal personnes are entombed in little
vaults like so

Somehow, this poor discarded cemetery rose spoke to me...

Tomb of the unknown boy and his dog

But then we found the tomb of Oscar Wilde (with a small
crowd of on-lookers); and, in short, it was the best time I
have ever had in a cemetery, so far

Gertrude Stein

The ever-popular Jim Morrison

Frederic Chopin

Abelard and Heloise; well, a re-creation of
sorts

Rossini...and many, many, many more

Return to Paris

The Grey Wanderer is in Amsterdam, so we jetted there, initially. But our long-time friends, Tawana and Wes, had rented an apartment in Paris and asked if we'd care to join them for a week. We debated this, all the pros and cons and plusses and minuses and costs and benefits and in and outs, from every perspective, at length, for, oh, maybe .05 seconds, and said sure we'll see you June 6th.

Number one for take-off at SFO

Bye for now, City

View from our Razorback friends' apartment,
7me Arr., Rue de Montessuy "Pig" (nyuk,
nyuk, nyuk); first day, severely jet-lagged,
we just promenaded around the Tour area

Next day we walked up-River

Toward the Tuileries and

The Orangerie and a wonderful
exhibit on Debussy, music and arts

Next day we walked up the river again to the d'Orsay and
spent most of the day there; just before leaving the US we
had finally finished all 48 episodes of William Kloss' history
of European art...Courbet, realism, impressionism, neo-
impressionism; so we were totally ready for the Orsay...

Alas, the Orsay too has now gone to the "no fotos!"
policy, although few people seemed to be enforcing
or complying; I think I now have all the pix I want
from the Orsay, so amused myself getting Monet's
Dindons and

This, which I have tentatively re-titled "Our
Lady of the Guillotine"; or possibly the Mona 'Tina

Walking back to Rue de Montessuy...Paris

June 8th was our 44th wedding anniversary--Vicki and me as
well as Tawana and Wes--

And so we celebrated with dinner at the Auberge Nicolas
Flamel, in Paris' oldest house (thanks Rebecca and Rachel)

My seafood appetizer

Vicki's duck

Happy 44th, my love; sorry none of the four of us thought to take a photo!

Bye For Now, California

Our California stay came to a temporary end June 5th, when we flew back to Europe for the summer. Our months in Menlo Park, with Rebecca and Jeremy, caring for grand-daughter Penelope, have been wonderful. We'll be back late in August for more grand-parenting. And, happily, we'll be back in the same location, same apartment, making the removal and return very easy. As a last California treat, for this segment, we spent Sunday in The City, visiting its Legion of Honor museum, not least to get back into the spirit of touring in Europe.

From the Legion of Honor's rather nice location...

We guess the Legion of Honor must be the Louvre's "mini me"

But it has a nice, well-rounded collection,
including this della Robbia

And a couple Theotokopoulos

And a Claude Lorrain

A Peter, Paul, and Rubens

Jordaen's Chubby Baby J

Caravaggio-view of Rodin's Three Shades

And Monet

And Cezanne; and much more; alas, no Bruegel and no
Turner; but there was a Dominichino...

Of course the best thing about California is
13-month-old Penelope, whom we already
miss very much, but whom we'll see again
very shortly in Berlin

Still More Snowmobiling the American West, 2003-2008*

Our longest and most memorable trips were in Wyoming. There were many side trips, in the Wyoming Range south of Jackson, to a hot spring in the Gros Ventres, and to Yellowstone itself. But the best was the Continental Divide Trail, which partially envelopes the Wind River Range. And twice we did this the hard way, starting in Ashton, ID, taking the Grassy Lake Trail some 40 miles to Flagg Ranch, then down through Grand Teton National Park, and over to Moran Junction, WY, to pick up the vast network of trails radiating from the CDT. These and other outings on the CDT were multi-day trips, staying in motels along the way. The years we did the CDT were light snow years, and the snow generally gave out well short of Pinedale. It was still incredible.

Yours truly, before Old Faithful

One of the many thrills of Yellowstone was the bison herds
seemingly everywhere; more than once we encountered a
herd approaching us on the road; the procedure is to pull
to the side, turn off the motor, be still, and let the giant
beasts pass; they herd their young away to the other side
and apparently do not feel threatened by humans not on
foot; it's a little unnerving, at first, having these wild animals
brush past you; but also unforgettable

At the Blind Bull Warming Hut, in the Wyoming Range;
warming huts occur throughout most of the trail systems,
sometimes maintained by the state or county, more often
by the local club

Crossing Grand Teton National Park

For many miles in GTNP, the snow was plowed high above
the road and a snowmobile trail groomed along its top

Dawn outside our motel near Dubois, on the CDT

One of the best things about snowmobiling in Wyoming is
the quality and reliability of the grooming; early morning on
the CDT

Passing--quietly--by a national elk refuge on the Green
River

Green River Lakes with Squaretop in the background

Closer up--a glorious place in any season

*from the Archives of the Sherouse Family Digitization Project