Paris, Versailles and More Chairs

Oh god...more chairs! How many do we have? Where are they? Everywhere! Not just some for this function and this room but more than enough for everything TWICE! OCD on chair possession. No matter, eBay has struck again. Six, count 'em, 6 French style chairs with bright red cushions and backs. Dining room additions to displace the wicker bottom and black leather bottomed ones already in that service. At the same time we took Aud to Versailles for her Bee-Day to gawk at the over-the-top furnishings and decorative designs. Up at 7 for coffee, tell Fur-Rr-Ee what is happening today and that she will remain home (maa!) to watch the house in our absence. 4.5 hrs to the Big V, then about 1/2 hr to the Paris spot to pick up the chairs, stuff them in the trusty Avensis-needing-wheel-bearing(s), then home...all using back roads, no toll roads desired. Shit! At LEAST 9 hrs of driving total and maybe 2 or 3 in the bloody castle gawking...we'll be suitable for framing when this "day trip" is over, that's for sure! Oh and a picnique for lunch somewhere.
http://en.chateauversailles.fr/index.php?option=com_cdvhomepage
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And so it was, as we left Maison Blanche we stopped at the Boulangerie downtown for pastries which we gobbled down as I sped towards Bourges and beyond. The trip north thru the Loire Valley, across the Loire was uneventful, then we crossed the Seine and soon into the back up of cars entering the parking lot at Versailles, the castle of the Sun King. One car out, one car let in as the lot was full to the brim. The day was a lovely one, not hot but sunny with puffy clouds all about. Nice. We stretched and took off for the castle cameras in hand ready to see how Life WAS for the Sun King and his court a couple of hundred years ago or so...the origins of the Great French Republic (and Revolution!) laid out before us.
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Inside easily as Kelly had already bought the tickets at the on-line site
and though she (and apparently MOST others) cannot PRINT the damned result of their payment to the system and are thus stuck with only the receipt (don't forget to print it!!!!) and the EMAIL (print it too!) which confirms the purchase but doesn't actually print the tickets from the enclosed link! It was no trouble as they have a window at the Sun King's golden gates at the entrance (far right from the outside) which redeems the resulting papers for actual tickets easily and with a friendly, helpful face as well. Typical French sweet hospitality there!

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I'm NOT going to describe Versailles except to say that ostentation has thus been explored, possibly at the limits of human consumption at the cost of an entire population and those even at the farthest periphery. Perhaps you won't be so struck, perhaps this all appears understandable, perhaps you are unsurprised by man's insatiable greed by now...Wall Street does not inpress? This then will open your eyes to the next level.
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After we set the trusty Tom-Tom to the address given by the seller of the chairs and drove off towards Paris on the horizon. Now I have told you before that MY driving in Paris is NOT A GOOD THING. I am so very careful to look everywhere before I do anything, green lights, red lights, arrows, pointers, signage or the lack of it and then there's the Tom-Tom voice barking out in her ever so calm voice specific directions on top of the other more visceral signals. It is ENOUGH, just ENOUGH...
So as we drive further along, right turns, left turns, merging, off-ramps into the most amazing set of skyscrapers I've ever seen in any city clustered so very close together! Amazing doesn't do it justice! OMG! It's La Défense! It was like the set of Blade Runner, The Director's Cut sans flying taxis and police cars! Amidst this wonderland of glass and steel were our chairs somewhere, oh somewhere. On we drove with my trusty navigator Audrey clarifying our Tom-Toms indications and instructions. I still screwed it up as is my charge as the driver of the Good Ship Teresa-the-Toyota. So around we go with the Tom-Tom resetting us in the proper place, what a technology! A BRAIN when I (just ME!) really needed one! So within a block of the last position we had been before I screwed-the-goose (figuratively not actually) we found the street where our chairs live(d)! Whoopee! So we park in the middle of the street and Audrey and I stand outside and wait for the owner's appearance after she had made the call ("The Voice" makes ALL the calls these days!). He's there, instructs us to park nearer the building, and we go with him to retrieve the 6 chairs.
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Soon we are back at the car, we tie them firmly to the car top rack I built to hold the gates last year and we find ourway out of Paris via Tom-Tom and the famous Periferique (Paris's ring road). Soon into the country I turn over the reins of Teresa to Kelly while I doze in the passenger seat. Audrey soon disappears into the same void as the kilometers melt away towars nightfall. Kelly began to yawn after I woke so soon I watched her drift right in the lane so decided it was time to ask to drive once again until I started departing for the Land of Nod myself. We drove on into the night, the sun disappeared at 8:45 or so, twilight thru little villages, distant blinking lights reminded me of travelling thru the western deserts of the US, forests with the ever present danger of running wildlife, deer, wild pigs, cattle. Verizon, then Issoudun passed, I wasn't dozing yet as I am known to do...but soon we were in Lignieres and the lights of Rue Marechal Joffre were upon us. We unloaded the chairs, untied the rack and put Teresa to sleep for the night.
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The chairs look great in the dining room...she was right...again! Oh, how many do we possess at this time? I think 60 but I might be...low!

The Voice Cometh

As I said before my dearest, no, OUR dearest Audrey "The Voice" is coming to a bedroom down the hall in The Maison Blanche. I followed her progress across the skies of the United Sates and the Atlantic Ocean until the site could no longer post the airplane's position south of Greenland on a map. It gave instead the GPS Coordinates in real time which was helpful when used with Google Earth. A good site it was as much detail was provided, landing times, takeoff schedules etc. Easy to use too.
Here's the link: http://www.flightstats.com/go/FlightTracker/flightTracker.do
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Besides that she was able when on the ground in Atlanta and again in Pittsburgh to email me using her new iPod Touch. Cool as heck! I've never coveted such a piece of technology though I like my little Shuttle iPod a great deal, mostly because it holds enough for me to listen to and the battery life is excellent. Apple did a good thing when they made it.
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We depart for Bourges shortly to pick up The Voice and bring her to the Maison Blanche where she will undoubtedly coo at the decor that has been created in the 2 years since she has been here and tehn take a shower and go to sleep as soon as she can. She has been on the path here since yesterday morning CA time at 3:00am, so well over 24 hours by the time she gets here. 2 stops on Delta plus crossing the pond. Gads.