This is going to be an exciting blog post, there is much about which to blog, including this interesting character. Friday night we headed to the church of Sacre Coeur, which is on a hill overlooking Paris and a general hang-out spot for locals and tourists alike for this view:
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| Looks like something you would build with wood blocks |
Any crowd in Paris draws street performers like the young man in the first picture. He had an impressive Harlem-Globetrotter soccer act going on. He would stand on the column and juggle the ball with his feet and head, which was kinda cool, but then he started spinning the ball on his hand, basketball style. Then he spun the ball on his nose, transferred the ball to a pen, put the pin on this foot and while the ball was still balancing and spinning, climbed the street lamp and transferred the pen and spinning ball to his mouth. Then he had to figure out how to get down...one-handed.
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| Now what? |
On saturday we wanted to avoid the crowds, so we headed to the Pantheon, a lesser-known sight in Paris, but one that is not lacking in size nor tombs of famous french people.
We read an interesting tidbit about this place: when the architect started it, circa 1850, his ambition was to build a church that rivaled St. Peters basilica in Rome. Not sure, but I don't think he made it. Don't get me wrong, it's big all right, but just not the same. And it's buried in the middle of some Parisian neighborhood instead of the Vatican. But good job thinking big, random frenchman. The main attraction for me is a really cool Faucault Pendulum that tells time while the earth rotates around it.
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| Faucaults Pendulum |
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| Melanie being enlightened. Look for a similar upcoming picture from Rome! |
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| A Pantheon in the Pantheon? Is this "Inception?" How many layers are we in? |
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| Lady Justice or something...we couldn't figure out what the centerpiece sculpture really was. |
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| As he so frequently does, this is a picture of Brannan trying to figure out where we are because, as we learned in Iceland, that is a "Brannan" job |
| As the name "Pantheon" would suggest, this is where the
great Frenchies are commemorated and buried including Voltaire, Dumas,
Victor Hugo, Rousseau, and Braille (no points for guessing what he
invented), and Marie and Pierre Curie. I didn't know Braille was French
or blind, but he was both! Sadly though, the definition of "great" is
sometimes used loosely, and there are some not-so-great french people
buried there as well just because they had political connections. We
didn't take any pictures of the crypt, because that seems tacky - I mean
who wants to see a tomb? Not us! - but the famous people are there. |
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The Opera
That night we got all dolled up and went to the Opera at the Palais Garnier, aka the inspiration for the Phantom of the Opera!
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| Ooooohhhh, Ahhhhhhhh!!! So neat to actually be there! |
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| It looked just like the one in Vegas, but more awe-inspiring |
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| House filling up, approx 10 min before the show |
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| Our awesome seats (that would soon lead to near-bloodshed) |
It is an amazing place just to be in, and the chandelier was even more amazing in person than in the Phantom lore. We were the first people to arrive in our box, which was 12 chairs. Each chair had a corresponding number (apparently), and heaven help the person who didn't understand the unwritten and incomprehensible system, because the ushers would rain holy justice (in French with snooty looks) if they came in and you were interloping on someone else's chair. Yes this happened to us, FYI, even though we had been put in our seats by another usher. There were also some Asians there who understood neither English or French, which led to some hilarious lunacy with the poor, over-stressed type-A ushers.
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| Trying to get into the "Opera" mindset. We might not have been snooty enough in this picture... |
The problem was that one of our seats was at the end of the second row (a great seat), and the other one was at the other end of the next row. No problem, we'll just do the ol' switcheroo with someone, right? Apparently France hasn't heard of the ol' switcheroo, because there was total pandemonium in the box when we tried to suggest it. But first, a cast of characters:
1) The old lady: thinking it completely ridiculous and furious that she couldn't have the best seat in the box, despite the fact it wasn't her assigned seat, sat loudly complaining about how "they" have changed everying,
2) The over-enthousiastic old lady: frenzied by being at the opera, she sat whipping her head around, leaning forward in her chair 10 minutes before the show was to begin, and mumbled to herself constantly,
3) The young "Parisienne:" she had bought
her specific seat,
months in advance, for a
lot of money and wasn't going to have her "strategy" (literally her word) ruined at the last second.
4) The asian: not understanding anything, is upset about any perceived shenanigans but generally ignored because no one could communicate with her.
So, we just wanted to sit together, no matter where it was, but each of the other three weren't going to have their opera ruined by the likes of us, but if they could take our good spot, how much the better. I politely indicated we would trade our good seat, and a crazy eruption of complaints, squawks, bargaining, haranguing, shuffling of chairs, and elbowing happened, none of which made any sense to me. But when the dust settled, Melanie and I were somehow, miraculously next to each other, in the worst seats in the box partially behind a column. Wow, just wow.
I felt like we'd gotten enough for our money by then, and the actual show hadn't even started! We saw Strauss' "Cappricio" and it was kind of a strange opera for our first one. Firstly, Strauss was German, so the opera was written and performed in German, translated into French on a marquee over the stage. This wasn't so good for Melanie, but one doesn't go to the opera to listen to the words. Second, "Cappricio" doesn't really have a plot, but I guess one doesn't go to the opera for the plot, either. It's more of a philosophical piece, questioning whether word or song is more beautiful, and the question never gets answered, despite almost three hours of performance. Unlike the Phantom we saw a few weeks ago, the set was really basic, most of the time it just showed the bare stage with people singing on it, as shown in the picture below. But I guess one doesn't go to the opera for the set or special effects...
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| Curtain Call for the opera |
So to review:
-You don't go to the opera for the words
-you don't go to the opera for the plot
-you don't go to the opera for cool effects or set
Hmmmmmmmm...I guess despite having attended, we feel more cultured but still don't understand why people go. People also attend professional baseball games, sit through soccer games and like it, so to each his own. As for this Beasley Bunch, we were glad to experience it, but have probably attended our first and last opera for a while. Stay tuned, tomorrow we're off to Versailles!
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