Paris, Esposende and Porto, Portugal June 8 to June 26

Arrived in Paris at 5 in the morning--the flight was uneventful, managed to sleep a bit as we had an extra seat between us.  We are in the same time zone as SA so other than missing Sheryl and Neil and a night's sleep, we are fine.  Le Bus Direct left us at the Arc de Tromphe 1 1/2 hours later and we walked to our place.  George won as he saw the Eiffel Tower first.  We are in the mezzanine of a very old apartment--it is comfortable but definitely needs some TLC.  It is beyond its glory days.  It is a very large apartment with high ceilings and lots of windows.  We have a lovely balcony which looks out on many chimney pots and Sacre-Coeur.  The hosts are delightful if a tad eccentric. The husband talked and talked, mostly in French, George is amazing in his ability to carry on a conversation with him.  I find I can generally follow the conversation.  They have another guest who is here from California learning French.  (He is from China and is a computer nerd.)  We had some breakfast and then George organized his stuff and I went to bed.

After showers and a nap for me, we were off.  Paris is so wonderful.  We walked for miles seeing the sights and enjoying the bustle that is part of this city.  We walked down Champs-Elysees and stopped to ride on the Roue de Paris which gave us views of the icons.  We took chairs at the pond in Jardin des Tuileries and watched life go by--many tourists.  Paris is the most visited destination in the world.  We continued past the Grand Palais and Petit Palais, stopped in the courtyard of the Louvre where there is a new exhibit which is called the magic of trompe l'oeil (trick of the eye).  Muralist J. Jones has cast a spell over the Glass Pyramid which appears to make it disappear.  George took a great photo.  We walked along the Seine which is currently high as there was flooding before we arrived.  We stopped in the Petit Palais for bathroom break and poked around at the exhibits just before closing time.  We enjoyed a sit in the park in the shade--it had been hot and very sunny day.  We were tired.  When our heads hit the pillow, we were out for the next 10 hours.

Day 2 began slowly--breakfast was bread and jam and coffee.  As we were getting ready to leave our balcony, we spied our hostess below on another balcony and she was smoking a cigar and proceeded to throw the butt over the balcony!

Park Monceau provided a photo shoot for George.  We wandered around and relaxed.  There were many exercisers and nannies and small children enjoying the park as well.  There was a delightful carousel with unusual animals and bikes and train cars--each make a sound.  The carousel man went around showing the children to push a button and the noise would start.  I heard him say "ooo la la" to one who was extremely excited to be on a motorcycle that made the noise of one.  We had coffee and then went to the Musee Jacquemart Andre--what a lovely surprise, there was an impressionist exhibit as well as the regular ones.  There were also a few Madonna and baby paintings--one showed the baby swaddled so tightly that it looked like a mummy with red feet and a baby face.  We chatted with an American in the cafe who is visiting for a month.  Oh, we went to the second floor of a fav on Champs Elysees to watch people for awhile.  We walked and walked to get home.  A lovely day.

Today, our last in Paris for a couple of weeks, we wandered down Champs Elsysee, toward the Jardin des Tuileries and sat and watched the ducks play.  It began to rain so we enjoyed the light rain while thinking about Woody Allen's movie, "Midnight in Paris".  The Eiffel Tower has a pink and white soccer ball hanging in the middle.  The EuroCup Football tournament in happening in France with some games played here in Paris and other cities.  We had a lovely lunch in the Garden of the Petit Palais and took more time to check out the paintings and sculptures.  It truly is a magnificent building.  Then we wandered on home to relax, read and have drinks with our hosts in their parlour.  We had crepes for dinner.  We are seeing a different part of Paris this time.  Now we are packing and will leave here at 6:00 am to get the bus to Orly airport.  The bus picked us up at Champs Elysee and travelled around the round about and then right past the Eiffel tower on our way.  On  our flight to Portugal,  we were sitting right behind Business Class and as soon as we were airborne, about 6 Portuguese women rushed beyond the curtain.  It put me in mind of that old Wayne and Schuster sketch about the party happening in first class.

Here is my toe story:  As we were getting ready to leave for the airport, a monster thing fell out of the closet and right on my big toe.  It hurt very much and turned very purple and was throbbing a bit during the walking, busing and on our airplane but was lots better by the following morning.  Yay.

And here we are in Porto, our driver was waiting to take us to Esposende.  We have to explore while we wait for our room to be ready.  We are living across the street from the sea--the place has some beautiful paintings which I plan to admire again.  Had a delightful walk around town on Monday--also Magnum ice cream bars.  Esposende is a sleeping little place with many coffee shops and squares.  Here is an example of how Portugal works.  We went to the tourist info--there were four people sitting at the desk looking at computer screens not noticing us.  We looked around, picked up a few brochures and used an electronic info thing.  Finally, we asked our questions re:  getting to the market, what is happening this week and getting to Porto on Sunday.  The man was helpful and as we were leaving they all got up and left as well.  It was lunch time and I think they had been waiting for us to go so they could have lunch.

Raining today so that means a chance to paint.  The paintings here are lovely so I wanted to attempt at least one.  I remember when we were here before, that I loved the paintings.

The Football game for the EurpCup between Portugal and Iceland is being shown on a large screen outdoors this evening.  We had our dinner at the restaurant that sponsored this event.  It was fun to be there with all the Portuguese people although they are pretty calm fans.  After the game, George read in an English newspaper that tying the game with Portugal was probably the best thing that happened to Iceland since the 1200s.

What a sleepy, lazy day we had today--it was rainy so we stayed in and I painted and George did stuff with the computer.  By 17h00, the sun was shining and we were walking beside the Atlantic Ocean and sitting on the Dunes.  Thursday was market day in Barcelos (Barcellosh) so we got on the bus and  I said Bom Dia (good morning) and helped with paying the driver and then instead of saying Obrogata I repeated Bom Dia.  Hummmmm guess I need to practice more.  Anyway, at the market, I wanted to buy a purse for my not-bought-yet Ipad.  George had checked the sizes so I figured my purse needed to be about 12 ins. deep so it would fit.  So I was off to find a measuring instrument.  I found a lady who was selling ribbon and fabric and only spoke Portuguese.  I tried to explain what I needed.  The fellow behind me spoke English and French and his wife spoke French and Portuguese so he told his wife and the wife told the lady and she sold me the ribbon for 30 euro cents and I bought my bag.  It rained again and the tarps that covered the market stalls were heavy with water and they were many spills.  We saw many rooster statues which are the symbol of Portugal.

We watched the Poland/Germany soccer game in a restaurant in the evening.  I think I could get into watching soccer.  This afternoon we walked on the beach and enjoyed sitting on the dunes.  The sky was blue, blue, blue and the sun was shining.  Some swimmers were doing para/kite surfing which was wonderful to watch.  I know it is not in the cards for me.

We stopped for coffee at one of the many small cafes.  The owner didn't speak English but did speak French so George ordered coffee for him and port for me.

I had some colour added and had some length removed from my hair.  The hairdresser didn't speak English but seemed to understand English.  It is amazing how much communication happens with gestures.  As usual, my hair will be fine in about two weeks.  We will have another beach/pool day--George skipped stones into the Atlantic Ocean.  We had Magnums which in our minds are equal to being in Portugal because that is the first place we ever had the yummy ice cream on a stick.

We went to the square to have dinner and to watch the next Portuguese football game.  Poor old Ronaldo had a few great shots on goal but once he was off side and the other time he hit the goal post. Needless to say, the fans and us were disappointed with a 0 to 0 tie.

And on to Porto--we took the bus from Esposende and all was well until we arrived here.  George and I were that last two on the bus and then the driver stopped and motioned for us to get out.  He had been grouchy with everyone since leaving Esposende and this trip was to end at the bus depot not in the middle of the street.  Anyway, at first we couldn't get a cab to stop and then a fellow came from the bar and showed us where to get a cab.  Our place is in the best location--right on the Douro River and in the middle of where John  the Baptist Day celebrations will happen on June 23rd.    Our hostess came over to tell us how to use the washing machine--turns out it doesn't work so she offered to do our laundry--we have hardly any clean clothes because we were counting on doing it here.  So we went to her place--she lives behind this building--and filled her washer.  She said she would dry it and it would be ready tomorrow.  We thought it would be done today so we even put our pjs in--Oh My.

Our laundry is back but they used a very strong detergent--it will take a few days to air it out.  We had a lovely walk over the bridge to the other side of the river.  Watched some of the England/Slovakia game.

We had a good day today (Tuesday).  We used the Teleferico de Gaia (read cable car)  to get to the top of the second bridge and then walked over the bridge and toured around  on the other side of the river.  We went to a fancy McDonald’s, used to be called the Imperial café.  One of our traditions is to go to the big M in a new city.  We bought some hammers for Festa de Sao Joao (Festival of St. John) celebration.  This is the Mad Midsummer Party where people party all night on the 23 of June.  In the past people would hit others on the head with a large leek or a large smelly garlic stem, these days you can buy a plastic hammer that squeaks. Supposedly, the hit is to show that you like the hittee.  We also made  Baloeiros which are like hot air balloons made out of tissue paper.   Cotton is soaked with paraffin and lit to make the air hot inside and it floats.  The tradition is to make a wish  before letting it go.  If it catches on fire, it is necessary to stomp on it.   It was serendipitous as we just happened to walk by the place when the construction was happening.   We will attend some of the party but will not be up all night as we are geysers.   The day after is a holiday and there will be a regatta of barcos rabeirs, the wooden, flat bottomed boats that were traditionally used to transport wine from Douro Valley to the port houses.  We have been invited to our hostess’s for dinner which will include grilled sardines.

We had a tour of Sandeman which is a port house down the street from us.  The symbol is a person dressed in black that resembles Zorro.  Our guide wore this costume and she looked great.  We had a port tasting with our group and chatted with some fellows--two from Czech Republic who are studying computer science in Portugal and the other is a nurse from the Philippines who works in Cambridge--just started and he gets 9 weeks of holidays.  Then we had a delicious lunch at Taylor's another port house.  We had the best table on the balcony overlooking Porto and the Douro River.  To get there we walked up a few skinny, winding rabbit warrens.  In the evening, we went out to buy a basil plant as a hostess gift.  These plants are everywhere and are part of the celebration.  When you bounce your hand on the top, it smells lovely.  On seeing me carry it, a lady stopped us to tell us about the festival--most we already knew but she was being kind.

Well, Porto really knows how to do a party.  This festival is one of the best I have ever been part of--wow!  We strolled around in the day time but really things only got under way after 20h00.  We went to our hostess's courtyard which is just behind where we live.  There were many people there.  We wore our Ronaldo shirts and took our hammers.  Also, a basil plant which is a symbol of good health, luck and fortune and some dark chocolate which goes well with port.  We could converse with some of the friends there--one fellow and George discussed football/soccer for a long while.  The food was tasty--highlights were the sardines and a yummy cake.  There was also a cake which had the symbols of the festival-hammers, basil plant and St. John. (Sao Joao).  We also took our baloerios--one of the guests had one that floated really nicely.  It is the same idea as hot air balloons--lighting the paraffin soaked cotton puts hot air into the balloon part and it floats very high.  The men at the party were really keen to get the baloerios to float.  I am afraid mine had to be stomped because it just wouldn't go up.  All evening we saw hundreds in the sky floating away.

The fireworks were the best I have ever seen anywhere.  They had five barges in the river that were spouting the lights and the bridge had one that looked like a water fall running down one side.  The street in front of our building was so crowded and it is two hours since the fireworks ended and people are still trying to get to the bridge to return to the other side.  They are singing and clapping just outside our window and probably will be for another hour.

The hammer thing was a blast.  A lady stood on the opposite side of our street and was selling plastic hammers.  She started with three bags full and by the fireworks, she had about six left.  People just tap who ever is near them on the head.  We also saw some garlic stems in the crowd which were used instead of hammers.  The crowd was estimated to be 200,000 and I think they are all passing past our window.  It is 2h00.  Oh, what a night!

Friday, today, is a holiday here and also for us.  Yay, we had a great sleep-in and when we looked out the window, we were surprised how clean everything was.  Seems the cleaners have been through.  There is one blue baloeiro stuck in the tree nearby.  We will have a quite day and then watch the regatta.

Portugal will play Croatia today (25), we will don our Ronaldo shirts and join the crew at the Square near City Hall.  It has been a wonderful week.

And so to Paris, arriving at 19h00 June 26.