No, We Have not Been Raptured

 Ah, dear readers, too long have I ignored you!  Many of you were probably wondering what had happened to us.  Were they still in Europe?  Or did they go somewhere else?  Were they raptured?  If so, can I have their car? 


No, my friends, we were not taken up into the heavens.  The rapture is not until tomorrow, although I doubt very seriously that it will affect me anyway. I don't think Catholics get raptured, and I'm pretty sure bad ones certainly don't.  Secular Jews?  Not a prayer.  I think everyone can count on Zoë's blog to continue without interruption.  The closest thing to being taken up into the heavens that has happened to us was our ascent of the Eiffel Tower.  

View from the Eiffel Tower.

"But wait!"you might say, "the Eiffel Tower is not in Spain!"  And you would be right to raise this doubt, for as schoolchildren all across America can tell you, it is in London, and has a big clock on it.  Sadly, they would be wrong.  Now, the faithful among you will have by now deduced that we have recently traveled to Paris, while the more cynical might suspect that we really were just in King's Dominion, a Virginia theme park where they have a 1/4 sized replica of the Eiffel Tower.  As proof that we were in the genuine Eiffel Tower, I offer the photo on the right, taken from atop.  As you can see, there is not a roller coaster, parking lot, or cotton candy stand anywhere in sight.  Only buildings and smog, as one might expect from one of the world's most beautiful cities.


Now, if ascending the Eiffel Tower is anything like the rapture, all those faithful souls are in for a rude awakening.  Because ascending the Eiffel Tower is sheer hell.  You wait in line for 2.5 hours to get a ticket, then 45 minutes to get an elevator to the lower level, and then another 45 minutes for the elevator to the top level.  But we had to do it.  Zoë and I had been before, but this was the Kid's first time in Paris, and we couldn't NOT take him to the Eiffel Tower. In the end, Zoë enjoyed this the most, since it gave her a chance to really find out just how arthritic her toes had become over the years.  See how her smile just glows in this picture of her that I took on the elevator ride to the top?  

Don't worry, she was smiling on the inside.

 Luckily, the rest of our time in Paris was nothing whatsoever like our afternoon at the Eiffel Tower.   One highlight was the time we spent with Helen, a friend of mine from H.S. with whom I had recently reconnected via Facebook.  Hi Helen!  Another was Versailles, which we visited on a gorgeous Saturday.  We were taken away by the Petite Trianon, its adjoining gardens, and Marie Antoinette's little hamlet.  We loved the Musée de Cluny, and we found the Sainte Chapelle to be one of those rapturous spaces that is so beautiful that you never want to leave it. The Louvre was wonderful in its overwhelming splendor.  We threw ourselves into the Mona Lisa mosh pit, but preferred by another Leanardo portrait out in the hall that was going unnoticed by the crowds.  We ate very well, at prices similar to those charged in Madrid, and particularly enjoyed the patisserie.  Breakfast every day consisted of treats from the pastry and bread shop on the ground floor of the apartment building where we had rented our tiny but stylish one-bedroom.  Just a few blocks from the Louvre. 


The surprise treat, however, was the Musée de la Musique.  We figured the Kid would enjoy this place, but were surprised to find out that we all loved it.  Five floors take you through the history of western music since 1500, and another gives you a very quick look at nonwestern music.  Each floor features collections of gorgeous musical instruments, but what makes the place really worth the trip is the audio guide, included in the admission.  Not only does it give you the explanations that one usually gets in museum audio guides, but it also gives you musical selections performed on the instruments in the cases.  The whole museum comes to life as you stroll around listening to a harpsichord here, a lute there.  You get rapturous selections from operas in front of dioramas of famous opera houses, and pieces by great composers in front of exhibits dedicated to them.  We kind of had to rush through, but Santiago made us promise that one day we would return to Paris with enough time to listen to each and every single selection in the entire museum.  I said yes, but secretly thought that might be an Eiffel Tower experience all over again.


There was one other Eiffel Tower experience, but I will have to leave it to Zoë to tell you about it.  Only she and the Kid suffered through it, while I gave a lecture at the "Centre Alexandre Koyré de l'École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales et le Centre National de Recherche Scientifique." Some of you may know it better as the Centre Alexandre Koyré of the EHESS/CNRS.  Zoë and the Kid decided to push the physical limits of tourism, to their great regret, while I shared ideas with a rapt group of historians.


Those of you who'd like to know more about our time in Paris can poke around my Ricardo's Paris Google Map.  As for those of you expecting to get raptured tomorrow, wear comfy shoes.