Lazy Drunk Man Walk

I am having a considerable difficulty keeping up with my blogging these days.  Too many fun balls tossed into the air at one time.  Right now we have Caroline and Jenny and Basti visiting us.  Yesterday we went on a free walking tour with Martine a retired teacher here in Paris.  She has an interesting story.  A number ofT years ago she had cancer. The doctors started treatment and told her she must stop teaching as she is susceptible to infections.  They gave her a "make work" job of grading papers which she hated.  After the treatment they told her she could continue grading, or retire early, regardless she only had a short time to live.  She said screw this, retired and started guiding people from across the globe. Now the doctors say she will live a long life but sadly by retiring early she has little money.

She took us on an interesting heavily accented tour of  the Port Royal and Luxembourg garden area.  One of the statues we saw represented the 4 phases of the day.  In each statue the man is lounging

around rather helpless, while the woman feeds and nurtures him.  The man in the statue was created by using a real model while the woman is always a representation of the ultimate female.  In the last statue the woman is finally dressed and lays tiredly wrapped around the man's legs.  "Let go to bed, I am so tired", she says, but naked and proud he wants to go out and party.  Shown here is the morning scene.

Below are some photos of our walk through the gardens and the streets of Paris.  You will see one photo of a poem written by a famous French poet.  One night he stole into the tower of a building and got totally drunk.  While up there, he wrote this poem backwards.  The French so loved the piece they plastered it on a wall across from the tower.