June 6, 2013: Des Moines, the way the Rich and Famous do It

It all started on Tuesday, when I got a routine question:  could I be in a meeting in Des Moines on Thursday?  Sure.  It's a 3-hour drive so I figured there'd be an overnight, but I can do that.  I realized this would be different when they told me whom to contact to get added to the manifest and requested my weight.  That's when I started to get excited.

The trip took off from Charles B. Wheeler Airport, also known in these parts as The Downtown Airport, and known everywhere else as MKC.  I'd never flown out of this one before but my Dad had, as a business traveler in the 1960s, which made it a special destination for me.  It was an easy trip, only 6 miles from the office and I got there with some time to play tourist and get some pictures.  Below is the view of the skyline from the tarmac.

Before my colleagues arrived I had the copilot snap this shot of me at the door of the plane.

Wheels up was at 10:30 AM, as scheduled.  I had sent the pdf of my itinerary to a fellow airplane geek and he had looked up the tail number.  He identified the Beechcraft model number and suggested that I might want to bring foam earplugs in case the cabin was noisy.  I brought my Bose phones and was sitting with them clipped around my neck, turned off, like a good little Sheeple, and realized I was waiting for the captain to turn off the Fasten Seat Belt sign to turn them on.    I turned them on.

I settled back and watched podcasts for the flight, which was less than an hour, then discreetly tucked my camera into my computer bag so I wouldn't walk into the client meeting looking like a tourist.  The meeting went well and our team  was pleased with the company's interest in our proposal. 

We got back in time to leave 15 minutes earlier than scheduled.  No problem- they could do that.  Goodbye, Des Moines.  I watched the clouds and the cornfields and listened to classic rock music.

 

And hello, Kansas City.

I drove back to work, checked my e-mails again, changed into Spandex and headed out to the local corporate athletic events, where I finished the 800 meter faster than last year (4:29) but not faster than the boss (2:15).  Always good to let the boss win.

Paris- Introduction

Ron and I had both been to Paris before, but not together.  I had visited Paris only once, in 1977, and he had been there on business a little earlier.  With our tenth wedding anniversary approaching, we decided that this was a good destination to see together.  We redeemed an insane number of airline miles to get to Paris in Business Class and with only one stop (for half the miles we would have had to change planes in Chicago AND Miami), but it made a major difference in the quality of the trip.

May 17: Arrival in Paris

We're always a bit dazed when we get off a transatlantic flight since we rarely get any sleep.  Fortunately, it didn't take too much wandering around to find the station for the suburban train into town, get tickets and figure out what Metro stop we needed. 

Our hotel, the Courtyard Boulogne-Billancourt, was too far from central Paris to walk, but we enjoyed living in an area with a lot of residents and local businesses.  Our walk to and from the Metro every day led us past some good grocery stores, several pharmacies and a wonderful bakery.  It also meant that we could book a reward stay on Marriott points. 

May 18: Notre Dame

Notre Dame celebrates its 850th anniversary in 2013.  We joke that wherever we go, they seem to cover the most beautiful cathedrals in the world in scaffolding just before we visit.  This time, Notre Dame had been extensively restored and was uncovered in all its glory.

As we got out of the Metro on our first full day in Paris, we were treated to the sight of a large food market. 

Plenty of wonderful French cheese.  We enjoyed every molecule of cholesterol.

We also noticed that booksellers had set up their wares near the Cathedral, which we've seen in a lot of cities in Europe.

A couple of interesting things happened in the two days after we visited the Cathedral.  The following day a very conservative writer committed suicide in front of the altar, in protest against what he considered to be a deterioration in moral values in the country.  The day after that, a militant advocate for women's rights and gay rights bared her breasts in front of the same altar to advocate her positions.  Both were unfortunate desecrations of a holy place, but cathedrals have always attracted the tourists, the mendicants, the pickpockets, the merchants, the pilgrims, and the occasional fanatic with an agenda.  Some things don't change over the centuries.

The Memorial to the French citizens who were deported to the concentration camps in World War 2 is tucked quietly away behind Notre Dame.  A few guidebooks are starting to mention it.  This is a picture of the outside;  they ask that you not share pictures of the inside on the Internet.  It's well worth a sobering visit after Notre Dame.

Ile St. Louis is connected to Ile de la Cite, where Notre Dame is located, by a small bridge.  We spent the rest of the day exploring the area.

May 19: The Louvre

The Louvre is always at the top of the must-see list for visitors to Paris and, since we loved art, we decided to make a visit.  In some ways, the Louvre is a victim of its own success.  A few hundred million other people wanted to be there that day, too. 

Exterior entrance at the famous I.M. Pei pyramid.

Considering its popularity, the lines to get in weren't too bad.  Once we got in, though, we found the Louvre bewildering to navigate, with too few posted maps, and the AudioGuides (set up on small tablet computers) hard to read.  They showed icons of art works, but they were so small you couldn't see what you were looking at.  A couple of friendly American tourists showed us how to get to the screen where you just punch in the number by the artwork to get the description, which helped. 

We did have a nice lunch in the restaurant, although it was the most expensive meal on our trip.  Here's Ron, anticipating his meal of steak tartare, which the waiter thoughtfully reminded him was raw beef when he ordered it.  He said it was delicious.

Here's an example of the hordes- this, of course, is the famous Venus de Milo.  The crowd around the Mona Lisa was worse.

Finally, we decided to leave.  Except we couldn't find the way out.  The signs pointing to the Exit were all directing us to emergency exits- a valid purpose, but not if you want to leave without setting off all kinds of alarms.  When we did get to the Pyramid where we'd entered, the escalators up to the ground floor were blocked by silent guards.  There was a large spiral staircase up, but Ron found it a bit intimidating.  The only people allowed onto the elevator were displaying handicapped IDs, which Ron didn't have.  We were told that the closing of the escalators had something to do with the fact that it was raining.  Ummm,  OK.  Finally, after I got a bit dramatic and told a guard in French that we just wanted to escape, she showed us escalators behind us, which led out of the building. 

We've visited most of the major museums in Europe and we're pretty tolerant of crowds of tourists- heck, we're tourists, too- but we found the Louvre too chaotic to allow appreciation of their impressive collection.

May 20: Musee D'Orsay

Ron is a great fan of Impressionist art and I've learned enough from him and from our visits to other European museums to share his love of this type of painting.  In Paris, the Musee d'Orsay is the place to see the best collection of Impressionist art.  On-line reviewed warned about long waiting lines, so I purchased and printed out tickets the night before on-line.  I'm not sure it helped; we still had to wait outside for over an hour to get in.

Statues on plaza outside the Museum.  These were meant to symbolize various civilizations, with France at the left.  The rest were bare-breasted.  We were amused because in Kansas, a single bare-breasted statue in a park caused a huge uproar.  Here, they're part of the scenery.

The Museum started out as a railroad station, which is easy to imagine from this view.

The D'Orsay was better-organized and not quite as crowded as the Louvre, but we found that the best of the Impressionist paintings were in a room with an inflexible traffic pattern (one door in, one door out, with the herd moving in one direction around the perimeter) that didn't really allow contemplation of the works.  We found what we were looking for a couple of days later, when we went to a wonderful exhibit of Slovenian impressionists at Le Petit Palais.

May 21: Chartres and a Rumble with the Transit Cops

We had a VERY full day today.  We took the train to Chartres and the  cathedral was everything we expected; the stained glass windows had  been recently restored and were some of the most beautiful we'd ever  seen.  Most had been restored, and the contrast between the restored windows and those that hadn't been cleaned was dramatic.

Our Lady of the Pillar

Sometimes you walk to a spot in a cathedral or church that you know has a special significance.   This was the altar of Our Lady of the Pillar.  The Madonna and child statue was commissioned in 1508 as a black wooden copy of the 13th century silver Madonna that once stood on the main altar.  The pillar on which it stands does date from the 13th century.

One of the detailed carvings around the sanctuary.

We were a bit disgruntled when they shooed us out for 20  minutes so they could change things around for a group of pilgrims  coming in, and then found that they'd blocked off some areas, but we  continued to enjoy the place.  Then the organ started.  And the choir  sang "Panis Angelicus".  Then the pilgrims started to arrive- thousands of them, who had walked from Paris (over 50 miles away) in  cold rain.  They included parents, children, a lot of Boy Scouts, many carrying banners.  It was amazing.  This is one of the reasons we  travel.  We encounter things that we would have gone out of our way to  see, but had no idea they were there, and just happen to be in the  right place at the right time.

The pilgrims start to arrive.

More, singing hymns, wait patiently to get in.  We read later that the Cathedral couldn't hold them all.  You can see the weather they endured during their walk from Paris.

Here is a link to one blog created by a person on the pilgrimage.  Please note that I don't agree with all the beliefs expressed on that site, but it does provide a vivid description of the pilgrimage and links to other blogs and pictures.

View of the Cathedral from the train.

We left in a  happy glow, and decided to visit Napoleon's tomb on the way back to the hotel.  It was only a diversion a few stops off another line.  As we changed trains, we encountered transit police making a random ticket check.  I'd thrown mine away so I gave them a new one.  Wrong answer.  Very wrong.  A ticket that hadn't been stamped by a machine as you went through a turnstile was a sign you might have gotten in, say, by slipping in behind someone without paying;  I had to pay a fine of about 50 dollars.  No way out of it, of course.  We had almost zero cash so I handed over my Visa.  It didn't work.  Did I have another card?  No.  Did Ron have a card or cash?  My husband the pickpocket magnet?  Heck, no.  I patiently explained that due to the high incidence of pickpockets we carried only one card and little cash.  Well, they'd have to call the police. OK, fine.  We waited and after awhile they told us we could go.  I  suspect the police were not interested.  Big sigh of relief.

Two post-scripts:  Napoleon's tomb is part of a 10-dollar package deal with the military museum; it was 5 PM so we decided to go another day.  We picked up groceries on the way back to the hotel.  The Visa worked  just fine.

I should also add that we never met any of the legendary nasty Parisians on this trip.   People were nice and they were helpful.  The transit police were polite and they were doing their job.  I was in the wrong.  Still, I'm glad I avoided paying a fine!

May 22: Pere Lachaise Cemetary and Les Invalides- the thrill of the hunt

We finally got sunny weather today.  We went to Pere Lachaise cemetery, where Jim Morrison, Edith Piaf, Marcel Proust and all kinds of luminaries are buried.  It was opened in 1803 and Napoleon declared that all citizens should be able to be buried there, regardless of religion.  Some of the graves have crumbled over time, and the ones that were not bought in perpetuity were exhumed, with the remains carefully moved to an ossuary, and new graves built on the site.  True to Napoleon's intentions, we saw recent interments that were Middle Eastern, Asian and Jewish along with Christian burial sites.  It was a wonderful mix of graves and mausoleums stuck together in a random mix of times and styles.

Ron at the grave of Abelard and Heloise.

We did visit Jim Morrison's grave, which had a lot of people around it.    If you look closely, the botom line of the inscription is in Greek and translates as "By his own demons".

 

What I really wanted to see, though, was the grave of Marie Sophie Germain, who did a lot of groundwork for proving Fermat's last theorem.  It was a challenge.  She wasn't on the map and the hustlers who will lead you straight to Oscar Wilde hadn't heard of her.

Finally, I found the administrative office and asked a helpful civil servant.  He looked her up on his computer and gave me a map.  It still took some wandering- the graves are so close together and hers was obscured by a tree- but I found her.  It made my whole day!

At one point I was out running in a small park near the hotel and found myself singing along to a song on my iPod celebrating Napoleon's defeat in the War of 1812 ("Alexander der große, der große große Held, der schlug den Napoleon im offnen Feld..")   Oops.  Maybe not a good song to sing in Paris.  We did want to see Napoleon's tomb, though, so we headed over to Les Invalides on the Metro.

The church in front of the building housing Napoleon's tomb, suitably grandiose.  Interestingly, the twisted pillars reminded me very much of the ones inside the church in Vienna where he married Marie-Louise.

Napoleon's tomb, which contains several nested coffins.  No inscriptions at all.  They're not needed. 

From there we visited the nearby military museum.  It was interesting but the collection wasn't as exhaustive as the one in Brussels.  It was OK, though- we'd had a very productive day! 

May 23: Two Champagne Makers and a Cathedral

Ron and I, despite years of traveling in Europe, are still too chicken to actually drive there, so we booked a day tour to Reims Cathedral, which happens to be in the Champagne region, so the tour included visits to Mumm's and to Moet et Chandon (with cellar tours and a sample glass of the product in each place).  Fine with us!

It was another day of mostly bad weather, so it was good to be in the bus or indoors most of the time.  We were able to relax and watch the scenery while the driver dealt with rush-hour traffic in and out of Paris and maneuvered the large bus into parking spaces. 



The bright yellow sections are the flowers of the canola plants.



Outside of Reims Cathedral

We'd toured Mumm's on the way to the Cathedral; on the way back we stopped at Moet et Chandon, which turned out to be the better of the two, mostly because of the wonderful guide we had.  He'd been raised in the region, was passionate about the history of the company and the whole subject of Champagne making, and was able to answer the very detailed questions of one of the tour group members.  In the early years during a war with Prussia, the owner found that Prussian soldiers had broken in and were helping themselves to the merchandise.  He wisely decided that if he let them enjoy the product he'd turn them into customers.  It was a good decision; after the war, sales of  Champagne to Prussia increased substantially.

 Part of their display of medallions of monarchies to whom they supply Champagne; the one in the middle is from the Vatican.

A monument to Dom Perignon, the monk who founded the Champagne-making process.  Dom Perignon is now part of Moet et Chandon, which in turn was absorbed into the LVMH group.  There is very little family involvement in the business anymore.

May 24: Le Petit Palais, farewell to Paris

I've been watching downloaded news podcasts in French for a couple of years,  and it was pure serendipity that I saw an item about a temporary exhibit of Slovenian Impressionist painters at Le Petit Palais.  We love Impressionist paintings but had no idea there was a group of them in Slovenia.

The museum, as its name implies is housed in a former palace, and much of it still has the high, gilded ceilings with paintings at the very top.  It's built around a pretty courtyard with a garden.  After the chaos and lines of the Louvre and the Musee D'Orsay, this was a breath of fresh air.    No lines, no waiting, and an admission charge only for the temporary exhibit, which we were happy to pay.  There was plenty of peace and space to contemplate the paintings- up close to see the brush strokes, then backing up so you could watch the picture emerge.  We loved this museum.

"The Sower" by Ivan Grohar

Same painting, close-up of brush strokes

Relaxing in one of the permanent exhibition areas.

At 2 PM, we started on the long trek to our next destination- the Hilton at Charles DeGaulle Airport.   We took the Metro to the Marriott, where we'd checked out in the AM, got our bags, then  took the Metro to the station where we caught the suburban line to the airport.  We were 3 hours in transit, but we'd expected that, and saved ourselves about $70 over the cost of a taxi to CDG.  Ron relaxed in the room and I went for a swim in the pool, then we both enjoyed drinks and hors d'oeuvres in the Executive Lounge. 

May 25: The Long Trip Home

The trip to the airport was pretty easy starting from our base at the Hilton.  We had a leisurely breakfast, took the shuttle to T2 and, thanks to access to the Priority Lines, were soon airside.  The flight left on time and landed early after many good in-flight movies on demand and lots of excellent wine and cheese.  We were able to get onto an earlier flight from DFW to MCI and got home at 9 PM- which was 4 AM Paris time.  Oh, well.  It was a good trip home.

Jonathan and Diana's Wedding- Friday, April 26

I took Friday off from work but it sure didn’t feel like a vacation day.  At 9 I drove over to the florist and picked up the flowers for 8 bouquets, 15 boutonnieres and 4 corsages.  I wasn’t sure how to time the work but when I saw how much of the car was filled up by flowers and greens I realized immediately that it would be better to get the bouquets finished before we left for Des Moines to cut down on what we had to bring with us. 

Umm, what am I supposed to do with all these flowers?

To add to the insanity, Ron realized the night before that he’d misplaced his wallet.  There were no unauthorized charges on the credit cards so we figured it really was just lost, but Friday morning he went over to the DMV with his passport and birth certificate and got another one before we set out for Des Moines.  It took forever to load the car and Ron said it smelled like a funeral parlor.

As we got closer to Des Moines, things started to look better and better,  With 8 bouquets put together and loosely wired, and 6 boutonnieres made, the remaining work looked manageable, especially since my sister had volunteered to help.  I got on USAirways’ site with trepidation to check the status of the flight carrying 2 siblings, their spouses and my parents, and found it was on-time.  What a miracle! Not only that- they’d given my brother 2 upgrades which he promptly let my parents use.  By the time we arrived, they’d set up their own “hospitality suite” and were visiting together.

I headed over to the rehearsal after a visit to the Fitness Center, to learn about the Unity candle part of the ceremony.

Ron and I were hosting the rehearsal dinner and as we added out-of-town family members and loved ones, the guest list swelled to over 60, plus about 10 children.  I had visited the place only once and had chosen the food from an on-line menu but it was just what I’d wanted- a pleasant, unstructured evening with kid-friendly food stations and a lot of visiting back and forth between tables as the families got to know each other. 

Ron told me later that the little kids had found that the sandwich wraps had been sliced into cross-sections held together by large toothpicks with colored frills at the ends, and they’d started taking the toothpicks out of the sandwiches on the tray to use as toys.  Kids will turn anything into toys!

Jonathan and Diana's Wedding: April 27, The Big Day

Saturday morning I woke way too early but got in a good workout before the day got too hectic.  At 9 my sister, mother and I unloaded the flowers, ribbons and tools from the car and got to work.  The bouquets still looked beautiful, thank heaven- all they needed was wrapping with ribbon.  I finished the boutonnieres, gave up on Velcro for the wrist corsages, and made nosegays instead.  When all else fails, improvise.  One hour before the ceremony we finished, made ourselves pretty, and headed to the church with our finished products.

Before the ceremony.





Jonathan and some of his groomsmen.

Lighting the Unity candle, with Diana's mother.

Here comes the bride!.

 Jonathan and his pastor, a close friend from college.

This picture needs no caption. 

Husband and wife!

The flowers came out OK.

Diana's bouquet.

 With my parents.

 With Diana's parents.

With Ron and me.

Entering the reception.

First dance.
 

Post-script:  Jonathan and Diana passed through KC on their way back home from the honeymoon a few days later and we had lunch together near my office.  It was wonderful to see them, and to see the love between the two of them.  We wish them many happy years together.