Voyage à la région haute normandie

Yesterday, D and I day-tripped a few hours west of Paris. First stop was Rouen, where Joan of Arc was burnt at the stake here:
Behind this was a really cool Japanese-looking church, of which I didn't get a good enough picture to post. But it was really cool, because usually all the churches in western Europe look the exact same. We also checked out a small Joan of Arc museum, located in a cold dungeon close to the site she was burnt. Of course, the little musée was completely outfitted with numerous scenes of the requisite eerie wax figures used throughout the entirety of European museum life. So I hurried through there, and am still unclear about the whole story of Joan of Arc. Oh well.

We also found a little playground secluded by huge green trees next to the Musée des Beaux Arts, so of course I had to stop off there. I left my backpack on the bench and was up checking out the playground, and saw another guy come into the area, so, completely oblivious to the implications, just commented nonchalantly to D that someone else was there. D silently turned and walked straight the bench where I had left my backpack, and curious as to why he was such a poor sport and had left me enjoying the playground by myself, I followed him. It was then that D explained that the guy was holding a beer and was walking toward my bag, then stopped when D reached it first and walked away. It was also then that I realized what an idiot I was. This was the first time I've ever had a little theft scare in the whole of my travels. Hopefully I won't be that oblivious again, and luckily D had the great sense to keep an eye on my bag, or I would have been out my apartment keys, my Navigo, both of our passports, and the kicker, our lunch for the day!

We wandered around the city in the frigid fog for a few hours, then caught a train another hour west to Le Havre. We found another cool church - this modern church was basically a hollowed out tower, probably forty stories high, and the entire walls were covered in stained glass. It was really beautiful, but of course my camera allowed me no decent pictures to post. After that, we walked down to the coast, as this was the main reason for our excursion:
La plage, of course! Nevermind the awkward plethora of odd-shaped rocks and the mid 40's temperatures, it was so refreshing to get to the edge of the country and listen to the waves. In case you desire an image of the sunset without my silly face obstructing, here's another shot:

Oops.

So I disappeared off the face of the blog-planet for over a month. Apologies.

Since my last post, I went to Disneyland Paris, went to Strasbourg, and discovered Parisian Christmas. I also helped a good friend (yes, I do occasionally stray from my solitary life with D) to scurry around Paris and do everything she wanted to do all at once before she quit France and returned for good to Boston. The talk of December for R was a Parisian discotheque with our Italian and Indian friends. After braving the freezing cold and then climbing five flights of stairs to meet at R's apt before, I don't think it can surprise anyone that all four of us sheepishly admitted that the allure of cookies and wine in a Parisian apartment instead of flashing lights, awkward dancing, and a 20€ cover charge was too much to stand.

So the discotheque never happened. I did have my lost-Sara moment that evening though, as N and I took the same night bus to place de la concorde, at which point I was supposed to connect to a different one. I couldn't find it though, and ended up walking along the Champs Elysees at 3:30 am desperately seeking a cab. It was actually really cool - still plenty of people around so as to feel safe, but comparatively deserted. The Eiffel Tower was completely dark save a red light at the top for the planes to see.

Returned home to Colorado for two weeks, still dislike United Airlines and am torn on my status about Air Canada. The first flight was great, the second - the flight attendants were rather rude. One accosted D as we were boarding, claiming that he absolutely HAD to show his boarding pass getting on the plane (I mean, literally stepping onto the plane), as this apparently is a new "pro-cess" developed during our four hour layover in Toronto. I have never once had to show my boarding pass on the plane, but I guess those Canadians are sticklers for fake "pro-cesses."

Also, the little screen on my seat was completely worthless - nothing would work. They kept restarting it, but eventually it was just annoying, so I didn't watch much. Later, when my on demand TV screen just completely froze, I called the flight attendants via the little button, and no one showed up for THIRTY MINUTES! Then, a flight attendant stops by and says "Can I get you to turn off that call button?" I told her that actually, I had pushed it for a reason, my screen was completely frozen and I was wondering if she could turn it of b/c I had asked another attendant and she hadn't done it, and the new woman responds, "First of all, you don't know that she didn't do it. Secondly, I've been very busy. We've been coming through with water." I told her, that, yes, someone had come by with water an hour earlier and that was the lady I had asked. She continued to argue, at which point I think I may have been affected by the hour of a frozen screen burned into my eyes and two (TWO) crying babies directly to our left in the aisle, so I asked the flight attendant why she was getting an attitude with me, all I wanted was for the screen to be turned off b/c it had been malfunctioning the entire time, and couldn't she please just turn it off? (I know you are all rolling your eyes, wondering if perhaps it was ME with the attitude, but I promise you, I was well-behaved up until this point.) She disappeared at that, and five minutes later a DIFFERENT f.a. showed up to try to turn the screen off herself. She looked surprised that, wow, I must have been right, b/c she couldn't turn the screen off either. Really. I must have been the talk of the plane. The same plane in which some drunk Greek guy kept bothering people before takeoff, and the same flight attendants had to deal with him. Priorities, people.

So anyway my trip home was pretty good and I'm glad it snowed, even if it may have caused some driving difficulties for some. I'm selfish that way I guess.

Also, I love my Navigo. Anybody who's ever used those little paper tickets in the Paris metro has to understand my love for this magnetic masterpiece. It's the small things in life....