Postscript to Five Countries in Seven Days

Well, as of tomorrow, I will have been home for four weeks. I continue to have delightful flashbacks of my trip and the wonderful people I met along the way. When I was a little girl, my father used to tell me, “You always have to have the last word!” Well, Dad, here is my last word on this trip which took me to five countries in seven weeks.

Daycare center from the top of the Cinema Museum.

I continue to play the game, “what was I doing two weeks ago”-or whatever date comes to mind. On Sundays I remember going to the Restaurant Fournaise with Pascale, Yves, and their friends, as we channeled Renoir and the Luncheon of the Boating Party. On Sundays I think of how "Serendipity" was with me when I met Mimi, who teaches English and German, in St. Pair sur Mer.  Saturdays I revisit the three hour train trip from Paris to Granville when Nicole and Jacques met me at the train station for my ten day stay at their home. My visit to Luxembourg and Expo and the cinema museum in Torino come back; etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.   

Many have asked me what I missed most when I was away, and at first I said, “Nothing.” But in the nearly four weeks since my return, I now know that there were definitely things I DID miss. Some will be obvious to you, and perhaps some things will surprise you.

Of course, I missed my children! Communicating via email and text is not the same as an in-person visit or live telephone conversation with either of them! I had thought about Skype, but actual laptop accessibility was erratic, and my Blackberry was my primary electronic source. I missed my siblings and friends as well. I have to admit, however, that I was really pretty busy while I was gone, so I was never homesick. (I do not think I have ever been “homesick”, but that is a conversation for another time!)

Entertaining my friends is higher on my radar screen than I realized. Cooking and especially baking-except the one apple cake I made in St. Pair sur Mer-are things I really enjoy. I certainly LOVED everyone who hosted and cooked for me!!! The wonderful hospitality was such a rare and special pleasure. I have described the huge frying pans of sautéed zucchini and potatoes which Cinzia prepared. Renee’s wonderful cooking was always such a treat! I so enjoyed Babs’ and Alf’s wonderful German cooking! Etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.   

And when I did start to cook in my kitchen, I could not wait to buy some apples and make some apple delicacies, as I had so enjoyed the apple desserts in France. Mimi made an apple crumble, which she may have inherited from her time in the UK. My daughter Melissa is quite sick of apple crisp, truth be known!

I missed going to the movies, NPR, car radios, but not so much cars and certainly not Boston driving! Because I did not want my suitcase to weigh more than fifteen kilo, I did practically no shopping until the day before I left. So while I do not consider myself a “shopper”, I missed shopping; I opted not to look so as not to be tempted! This was true of all shops including the markets, which I really enjoy in foreign countries. (I do like to grocery shop here as well.)

Since I have been home, I have also had time to reflect more on what I really learned when I was away. The following doesn’t fall into the obvious or the factual. These are some things I realized through conversations or observations.

I heard different perspectives on many different points. (And how broad is that generalization!) I never felt that I was disliked because I am an American. On the contrary, there is still clearly a feeling of gratitude for what our forces and our country did during World War II. I was very impressed by Mimi’s student how asked about 9/11 or the recent hurricane. Probably everyone I met had a much more in-depth knowledge of our political environment than I did. (I am trying to improve this.)  

There are some things which Europeans just care differently about! I forget exactly the context, but someone said people in her country just don’t care as much about cleaning. By that she meant it was not the priority it might be in the US. Leaving breakfast dishes in the sink, for example, might not matter to many.

Speaking of caring, I felt that the people I met really cared about me and my well being. While I had known Marcel and Nicole and Gloria and Pascale and Yves before this trip, everyone else that I met was a new friend. People consistently went out of their way for me; there is a caring for others-certainly NOT just me!. Babs met me at the train station in Stuttgart. I was delighted at Steve’s meeting me at the Prague Airport. (I might still be trying to find my way!) Cinzia was so kind when my first words to her were, “I think I have lost my cell-phone.” Immediately upon getting to her house, she got on the computer to try to find the phone number of the place where I thought I had lost it. Mimi was very generous in her hospitality with wonderful meals, a ride to the market, and taking me around Granville. Clearly there are many more examples, but it was like everyone I met on my trip was “looking after me”! I am MOST appreciative of this still!

For gala events such as a night at the Vienna Opera House, the “natives” were inclined to get very dressed up; one could tell who the visitors were by their far more casual dress. We tourists saw that they viewed this as a statement of how important this event was for them. Similarly the audience did not need to be reminded to “turn off your mobiles”. There was a real respect for the performance. People were not talking during the performance.

Younger people were most respectful of older people. The students all called Mimi “Miss”, as in “Good morning, Miss”. People talked with me. Xavier on the train from Munich to Paris was probably some thirty-five years younger than I, and we happily compared notes on our travels. On an earlier trip, I had met Marie on the train to Metz; we are still in touch, but unfortunately we could not meet this trip. Pascale and Yves’ friends were very polite, and we also spoke, as their English is much better than my French! It is so pleasant to be included in a conversation.
Well, that does bring this blog to an end. Thanks for traveling with me! I'll let you know when I am leaving again....

Restaurant Fournaise: Location of the Luncheon of the Boating Party

Just before Pascale and Yves visited Boston, I had read Susan Vreeland's Luncheon of the Boating Party. It is a historical novel about Renoir and his painting by the same title. As an avowed "Francophile", it had certainly captured my imagination! While it gets mixed reviews by Amazon readers, I loved the story of the people in this famous painting. So you can imagine my delight when I realized that the restaurant where it was painted is still in operation! I DEFINITELY  wanted to visit the Restaurant Fournaise! Luckily it is probably not five minutes from Pascale and Yves' home!
Before we went to lunch, Pascale and I took a good walk through the wonderful park near their home. We were joined by many runners and walkers. In this park thirteen French Resistance workers were shot, and there is a memorial to them. There is also an American cemetery there as well.

Pascale and Olivier

Our reservation was for 1:30; three of Pascale and Yves' friends were coming as well, including Olivier and Anna whom I had met on Friday night. Once again the weather was VERY co-operative! We selected an outside table near the river, and the whole event-food, company, ambiance-DEFINITELY met my expectations! I had a wonderful veloute (sort of a cream topping) pumpkin soup garnished with purple potato chips and bacon to start. This was followed by lamb shank with carrots and tasty chocolate dessert! Of course, we had a nice white wine and French bread to add to this "channeling of Renoir"!~
THANK YOU, Pascale and Yves!!!really nothing of great interest to this group!

And so another trip comes to an end....I certainly have many wonderful memories of everyone I saw and everything I did....Many thanks to each of you who helped to make this a truly memorable journey!

Paris and Suresnes....

The Ryanair flight was short and sweet, except for our landing in Beauvais (for my first time) which was with a  BANG~really a thud. What did I want for about $15? Plus my luggage cost and internet fee and yaddah yaddah yaddah-still very cheap!
And I was on to see my friends Pascale and Yves, who live in Surenes, just outside of Paris. I had met them several years ago when they stayed at my house with Yves' two lovely daughters. They now live just outside of Paris in a very charming home in a quiet neighborhood. Pascale was in a play on Friday night, so I had to take the Metro and walk to the theater. Luckily they had just finished when I arrived. They were starting to wonder if I would make it! So with about eight of their friends and the director, we went to have a drink and a bite nearby. Most of them  had been in the play. It was fun, in spite of the fact that I could not understand much of the discussion. It was about 2AM when we got back to their home.

Saturday morning I went to the market in Surenes with Pascale, and Yves watched the rugby semi-finals. (Sound familiar?) France did win! After lunch we went into Paris and parked in the garage at the Hotel de Ville. We walked around; Pascale wanted to buy some boots, as did many others, so she decied to give up. We walked around the Marais and went into an art gallery of an artist whom Pascale likes. It was a spectacular fall day! We ate a falafel sandwich as we walked back to the car with the intention of going to a movie (silent with animation), but we were really too late. So we just watched "Harvey Milk" with French titles, which none of us had seen. It was a very relaxing day!

Short FUN Time in Turin/Torino!

So it was good bye to Gloria and my delightful stay with her in Alessandria! I am so appreciative of her very generous hospitality-especially with such a busy schedule and life style! Hope to see her in Boston one of these days-or at least Miami!
So with my last train ticket for this extended trip in hand, I was off to Torino. Cinzia had offered to host me for another great chapter in my couch surfing experiences. www.couchsurfing.org When I arrived, I checked my suitcase at the train station. 

Frankly I knew nothing about this grand old city, until I looked around on the internet, especially www.Tripadvisor.com The number one spot on that site is Mole Antonelliana, home to http://www.museonazionaledelcinema.it The Mole (pronounced Molay) houses the fascinating National Cinema Museum,  and it was originally intended to be a synagogue. The building was gutted and is a fascinating museum about the history of cinema, especially Italian cinema, but also much was about Hollywood films (with Italian "voice-overs"). But first I went up in the elevator to see Torino from highest vantage point in the city. In the busy season, the reports said long waits, but now there was no wait. Then I started to wander around this amazingly interesting museum! The "temple" is the location where you can view clips of old movies projected onto two different large screens, where you can lounge in these wonderfully comfortable chaise lounges with built-in head phones.

Around the outside there were various "movie sets" so you could pretend that you were there! My favorite was this Western saloon AFTER the fight!

On the ramp and upstairs there were explanations about special effects, old posters, etc. There was also a display, dedicated to Robert Altman.
It was definitely one of the most interesting museums I have ever seen!

Then I visited the Palazzo Reale, another grand old building filled with artifacts of "days gone by". It included a tour in Italian which I took so I could see another floor. There was information in English in each room to read.
Before I went to meet Cinzia, I retrieved my suitcase  the train station. With the help of various folks along the walk, I found the correct bus, where she was going to meet me. She greeted me with a hug as I got off. However, THAT was when I realized I did not have my phone! We made the five minute walk back to her house, when she got right on the computer to try to find some phone numbers she could call, as I thought I might have left it at a shop at the station. We gave up, and I decided I would go back in the morning to see if I might find it. I met and talked with her delightful children, 17 year old Guilia and 18 year old Ricardo. They both have very heavy and impressive workloads at school with multiple languages, math, history, etc. 
Cinzia prepared a delicious dinner of potatoes, zucchini, and beef scallopini with fruit and cheese for dessert. Her husband Remo would be coming back from his work later. In fact, as we were finishing dinner, Cinzia's phone rang, and someone called to say she had found my phone on the bus! (She had seen me leave it, but I left so quickly she could not give it to me.) We could pick it up at 11 or 11:30 that night, so Cinzia asked Remo to stop by to get it on his way home, as it was very close to their house. Remo arrived about 11:20 with the phone. However, it turned out we were supposed to pick up the phone in the morning, so the father of the girl who called was quite angry!!!
The next morning I visited the Palazzo Castello, which was more of a museum with many paintings as well as pottery and glassware. Cinzia and I met about 1:30 for lunch, which was another delicious slice of pizza. Torino had many small restaurants which sold pizza slices and calzones, which they passed through window storefronts!

Cinzia and Remo, who are serious bikers, had visited the US several years ago. At that time she thought that perhaps Torino could use a bike rental shop, so she opened one! http://www.torinoinbici.com We had a great visit, and I was happy to have met Cinzia and her family! ONE more great couch surfing experience! I headed back to her house for my luggage-except she forgot to tell me about the security system, so, of course, I set it off! She came back-"in a flash"-, on her bike, of course!
When Melissa and I had been in Saint Raphael two years ago, we had met Anna, Bruno, and their son Andreas from Torino. They were, in fact, the folks who helped us pick up the collapsed wall oven for those of you who know that story! Anna had offered to take me to the airport, which gave us a chance to visit briefly over a cup of tea. It was fun to see her. They have a new home in Agay, so they no longer visit Saint Raphael!
I checked in for my 7:05 Ryanair flight two hours in advance; my suitcase weighed about 13 kilos (15 is the limit), so I was okay there! This time they did not even check the weight of the carry-on, which was under 10 kilos anyhow. And I was off to Paris for the final leg of my journey!

"Field Trip" with Gloria

As a result of EXPO, Gloria has a number of new sales leads. Wednesday(October 12) she had appointments to meet with two of them. One in Genoa has a very large successful shop; the other was about an hour away heading towards San Remo, and she did not know much about him. I went along so we could visit, and maybe I could do a little sightseeing while she was on her calls. In Genoa there was nothing around to see, so I sat in the car and worked on my Pavia blog post. When she came out we agreed that we were both hungry-no, starving! She said she knew a perfect place nearby to eat.

Well, she was "right on"! The trattoria we went to has been in this family since 1930!!! Bettina and her husband run this small twelve table restaurant right along the harbor. Gloria requested their delicious, homemade pesto for our "first" on a special type of Genoan pasta called for which is a little like fusilli.The waitress Sarah said that her eighty-four year old grandmother comes in every weekend to make the pasta. For our "second" I had chicken cacciatore with fries, and Gloria had an onion "tart" (I did not get the Italian name for it) with tasty fresh salad. There was plenty of fresh bread and olive oil through out the whole meal. For dessert we had homemade strawberry and vanilla gellato and coffee. For several years in a row they have won the Best Pesto award in a local event. This "oh, SO tasty" meal included a small (50ml?) pitcher of white wine and bottle of water. The bill for this tallied 26 euros. Thanks, Gloria, for taking me to this fantastic place. Thanks also to Bettina and her family for this DELICIOUS meal!

There are also many wonderful old buildings all over Genoa (or Genova when in Italy) which I had not seen on Sunday. Here are just two "drive by" examples!
On the way back to Gloria's we stopped at the train station, so I could buy my ticket to Turin (Turino) for the next day. That night we had another excellent meal-albeit only one course!-at a wonderful restaurant in Alessandria.

Pavia on October 11

The destination for my first “field trip” from Alessandria was Pavia with the emphasis on the last syllable. The weather was forecasted to be warmer than yesterday. I had already purchased my train ticket with an 8:17 departure. Gloria had suggested Pavia, and when I looked it up on Virtual Tourist, I got some more specific ideas on why it was worth seeing. Pavia is an incredibly old city, going back to the 600’s according to Wikipedia. There is great variety in the architecture, which, of course, meant seeing some more churches!

Certosa Monastery

Fortunately when I arrived I went into a hotel right across the street from the station. They gave me better directions on how to get to the Monastery by bus and gave me a map of the town. So I walked down the street to the bus station to buy a ticket for Milan, and I would get off at the first stop. (Bus stations, by the way, do have the most vile bathrooms imaginable, in case you have missed this experience recently! At the least they serve a function even if it is like what you would imagine in a third world country.) The very helpful hotel map said that the monastery would close at 11:30. The Monastero Cistercense della Certosa di Pavia is referred to Certosa-WHEW! I walked a kilometer down a peaceful street to see it. I laughed as I asked a little old lady where Certosa was, and she said, "diretto, diretto"; this is what everyone told me as I asked for directions to include Gloria when she explained how to get around Alessandria when I first arrived.) It was an amazing building and looked to be made all of mosaics. On this day it was very quiet with one tour group listening to a monk describing the actual church.  It was so non-commercial that they did not even have a sign for the gift shop. I did find it, but the monk-clerk not only did not seem to understand my usual question ("do you speak English" in pidgin Italian), but I do not think he could hear me. There was one big garden area I could see, but it had only some sad boring begonias in it, so they spend more time making a variety of things to sell-teas, soaps, liqueurs, etc.. The detail of the frescoes and the mosaics were impressive!

My next stop when I was back in town was to buy a pizza slice for lunch, which I enjoying sitting in the sun! I did not see any interesting restaurants around, and I was starved, since tea was all I had had so far! Ponte Coperto, the Covered Bridge, was reconstructed after WWII, when the original 14^th century bridge was destroyed. I walked along the Ticono River to see the bridge in the beautiful sunshiny day!  There were some four other churches I had planned to see for the different styles, and I won’t elaborate, because I am certainly NOT an architectural student! I did end up visiting more than that because I just walked by! The Romanesque S.Pietro in Ciel d’oro (St. Peter in the Golden Sky) is where St. Augustine is buried. The University of Pavia has a definite presence in the city with many old buildings and young students! I walked by a smiling young woman wearing what looked like a crown of mountain laurel and carrying a beautiful, huge bouquet of flowers. She was walking with maybe a professor, followed by what looked like her well-dressed, very pleased parents. I should have stopped to ask what she seemed to be celebrating!

Pavia used to be called the “City of a Hundred Towers”, so I went looking for the Medieval Towers listed on my map, and I found three right in the middle of the campus. The Municipal Museums, founded in the late 14^th century, are large, but unfortunately by the time I found them were closed until 3. They were advertising an exhibit about Montmartre artists to include Lautrec. BUT I was DONE! I had to find my way back to the train, and I got there minutes before to get on the 14:39 which arrived in Alessandria at 5:10. It took twice as long to get back to Alessandria, because it stopped at many small towns where students got off! But it was another very interesting day to get to know more about Italy!

Orientation to Alessandria

Duomo

 Garibaldi Piazza-market was on the left.

View from
the balcony.

Gloria, of course, works full-time, so she will be working while I am here. Today was no different, and I went off to find the train station (statione di tren) and Garibaldi Square. The square was my first stop, as the weekly market was being held. I STILL had no plans to buy anything to add weight to my luggage, but it was fun to look around. It was mostly merchandise like clothing and household goods (all from China, according to Gloria). As I tried to find the train station-which was a challenge-I wandered into the Duomo, where there was a huge funeral mass being said for the Archbishop, it turned out. There had been 6 or so gendarmes outside and some on walkie-talkies, and their presence had aroused my suspicions. I FINALLY did find the station, where I purchased a train ticket to Pavia for the next day and a map of Alessandria to help me get home! Pavia is about an hour away and is supposed to have wonderful variety of architecture, and I will let you know!