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The final excursion of this past weekend was to Caen, Bayeux, and the Normandy beaches... which is all pretty much the same thing.. sort of.. but not at all... I don't know exactly the name of where we were for the most part... we were in a place... where World War II happened, and that is really all that is important. We were most definitely in Bayeux for a time... maybe a bit too much time because it might be the tiniest town in France. However, it was a hotel, a cathedral, a tapestry, shops, eateries, and assorted other things in it as well... and we're off...
This is the first beach we toured. We had a Polish/Dutch/Non-American tour guide. He was difficult to undersand.. and it was incredibly windy and rainy and just generally miserable. It added to the authenticity of the tour. So that was good I suppose. Made you really appreciate what took place on those beaches. Also really makes you want to watch Saving Private Ryan and Band of Brothers at the same time... just to get a sense of the insanity that was going on that day and the days that followed.
This is the National Cemetery that is along the beaches. It is officially US soil.. so it was good to be in America for a bit. They had just had a huge memorial/celebration/gathering for the anniversary of D-Day. Thus, the aesthetics were a bit off.. with construction vehicles everywhere and construction workers taking random things apart... and stuff. But as long as you were facing this way... and tuning out the noice.. everything was good.
One of the memorial buildings in the middle of the cemetery. A great place to get out of the rain.
I was attempting to do something artistic with this rose... then it just kept raining... it's difficult to have a good eye while holding an umbrella and keeping your balance without touching the ground for fear of getting wet. Then that person walked into the frame.. and that building came out of nowhere to the left. O well... just imagine that none of that is there... and think of something inspirational.
I want to say that this is Omaha beach. I'm 84% sure that this is Omaha beach.
This is the US monument that is on Omaha beach. It was apparently nearly torn down because there is a law that says nothing can be built on these beaches... I'm pretty sure that it's going to make it though. It's called "The Three Arms" or something that sounds like that... or is similar to that... did I mention it was windy and that was it incredibly difficult to understand our tour guide sometimes?
This place was bombed for something like 24 or 48 hours straight... which led to this incredibly hilly area with lots of holes in the ground. The Germans were stationed... and the Allied troops scaled the cliffs here on D-Day. Crazy stuff
A better picture of the cliffs the Allied troops had to go up. It apparently took like 20 minutes to make it to the top. I might have completely just made that up. I'm sure if you watch the History Channel long enough that you'll find out for yourself. Consider it your homework for your lifetime.
This is not an actual person. However, there apparently was a man during the war that got caught up on this church steeple. Actually 2. Just before he died, A man on the ground saved both their lives when he shot a German soldier before he could shoot the men hanging from the church. Hopefully you followed that terrible pronoun usage. Then Red Buttons (an actual actors name) portrayed this scene in some old movie. Then the city thought it would be a good idea to commemorate this with this mannqeuin. Hollywood makes everything cooler.
The farmers in the town of Bayeux decided it was a good time to go on strike. This was basically just an excuse to parade manure all around the city... and generally just make everyone upset because everything smelled like manure. Thanks Bayeux farmers for everything you do. You're really making a difference in the world.
During the entirely too long 5 hours of free time we had in Bayeux before we left for Oxford the last day, we found this water mill... we were impressed for all of 2 minutes. 4 hours and 58 minutes to go.
Here's another example of something to kill time in Bayeux. The world famous, or France famous, or someone made famous Bayeux Tapestry. 70 meters of pure exhileration. With an audio guide that is all narrated with top-notch musical interludes. Featuring an exactly 16 minute film that is nearly identical to the audio guide. A great way to spend 50 minutes. 4 hours and 2 minutes to go.
All in all, Normandy/Bayeux/Caen was really interesting. I'm not too huge on history but those beaches were quite affecting.
Definitely a once in a lifetime type of an experience.
So... the second day in Paris... we took a little trip out to Versailles, home of everything wonderful. I'm a pretty big fan of the movie Marie Antoinette.. which takes place almost entirely at Versailles. I'm not so much a fan of the movie itself... as much as I am the way it looks on the screen. In any event... it was pretty amazing to see the palace itself. While not quite as huge as say... the Louvre, it's still pretty expansive. I would definitely have to recommend getting the audio tour guide... so you're not just looking at a bunch of French words, random elaborate fabrics, paintings, and sculptures.
Here's most of the front of Versailles from a distance. Started out a little bit cloudy... then the sky was beautiful for about 30 minutes... then it rained a bunch. Changing weather patterns are my favorite.
A little bit closer to the entrance now. There's a lot of gold around the entrance. I feel like there probably use to be a lot more, which is sort of ridiculous to think about. I think I'm going to try to bring back into style gold covered buildings... I feel like it's gonna work out.
This picture of the chapel inside Versailles is regrettably a bit off center... but when there's 20-30 people crowding around a roped off entrance trying to take pictures... it's difficult to get the best possible shot. 
This hall had several statues. I have no idea how anyone could possibly have the patience, free time, or talent to take a giant block of rock... and turn into something so detailed. I mean.. I'm sure it's really easy...
Walking into this room was sort of like walking into a 3-dimensional piece of art. Well I guess it was exactly that actually... The edge of the ceiling is actually a 2-D painting made to look like a 3-dimensional ornate molding going all the way around. I had to do a double take... the attention to detail is astounding. O yeah... and there's an incredible giant painting hanging on the wall too... when did rooms like this go out of style? Or am I just not looking in the right places anymore?
One of the many insane paintings on the ceiling in Versailles. This one had a chandelier hanging out of the middle of it.. so I thought it would be a good idea to take a picture of it.
I think this bed was in the king's bedchamber... or something. I don't really think it looks terribly royal... spare the ornate gold trimming and the ridiculous sheets. I don't know who thought that a bed that is like 5 feet off the ground was a good idea... it's also a bit boxy for my taste... all that to say... I don't plan on being the king of France anytime soon... mainly because of this bed.
This is the Hall of Mirrors... which has a lot of significance that I can't exactly recall at the moment. That audio guide really made an impression on me apparently. Someone really needs to take some Windex to those mirrors though... that much I do remember.
Marie Antoinette escaped out of a hidden door in the wall to the left of that bed when the people of France decided that her extravagant lifestyle didn't really line up with their worldview anymore... and thus stormed Versailles. I think I read that in "The History of France: Paraphrased."
This gigantic hall has a painting commemorating every war victory in France's history. They didn't have a painting of any French Fries... I thought that was a pretty big victory for them getting the naming rights for that over the rest of the world... but whatever.
Outside of Versailles are some of the most brilliant gardens I've ever seen. This was also when the sky decided to clear up for a minute. This is also not at all a picture of the gardens...
This cattywhompus (which I just spelled correctly on the first try, thank you Urban Dictionary) picture is actually of some of the gardens outside Versailles. I apparently need to do a better job of lining things up on the screen before snapping a picture.
Here's some more of these gardens right outside Versailles. I wish I had a picture of the map of the gardens... I think you could probably spend days exploring all of this. It just goes on and on and on and on and on...
At this point several things took place, 1) the camera on my battery decided to start to die 2) clouds started to roll in 3) We decided to walk all around the man made lake in the gardens. It's a pretty good walk. But it's definitely worth it.
This is the last picture I took at Versailles since I needed to save some battery for the Normandy beaches. This is before we walked all around that water in the distance there. We also ate some lunch next to the water... that was fairly serene. Versailles probably ranks as one of my favorite things I've seen thus far on the trip... also taking top honors (in no particular order) the Louvre, BBC London, Eiffel Tower, and the train system in Barcelona.
Speaking of funny words like cattywhompus... which, contrary to what Firefox thinks, is spelled correctly.
Sheepish might be the most bizarre word I've come across in awhile. As I started to look for the origin of this ridiculous word... which, yes, I did... I found that it can't even be used to describe something that looks like a sheep... which is dumb. If you wanted to do that, you would say, "It looks sheep-like." Why can't I say it looks sheepish? I would apparently only be saying that is looks "embarrassed" or "meek." I like to think that the tag "-ish" can be added to almost any word to make it describe almost anything you want. Yeah... the picture looks level-ish... I think I feel hungry-ish.... This seems just a little -ish to me... ya know.. basically anything, right? Ok, maybe not... DONE (Linda, 2009)
I feel as if I'm obligated to say that the name of my blog now falls under the category of fallacy. While I did once reside at Canterbury #10, I have in fact moved next door to Canterbury #9.
I apologize if this causes you to doubt the authenticity of this blog or my honesty in anyway. That disclaimer, while entirely unnecessary, has cleared my conscious and thus accomplished its goal.
Anyway, I am now in the midst of the Summer I program with ACU's College of Business Adminisration, fondly referred to by many as COBA. A thrilling time to say the least.
While awaiting the arrival of the COBA students, I apparently became very literary because during this time I've read Blue Like Jazz, the book of John, The Catcher in the Rye, and just recently The Great Gatsby. I essentially just took a high school short course in American Literature, and it was pretty interesting.
So Paris.
It looked about the same as the last time I was there.
I've officially gone over the English channel (once) and under it twice (one of these times is pictures here). We took the Euro tunnel this time. Our coach bus loaded onto a giant hollow train and shot under this giant body of water. I tried to not think too much about the logistics of what was happening... ya know, being under the floor of a body of water... trapped on a train, and still in a bus... whatever.
We stayed at the same hostel as my previous time in Paris. This was the view from the hostel window. Thankfully I didn't get to turn around and take a picture of the incredibly creepy piece of artwork hanging over my bed. The face of an old lady... black and white... with triangle shaped hair... just staring blankly into nowhere. It was disconcerting...
Notre Dame apparently thought that she could hide from me behind some trees. Well... looks like she failed. Poor attempt madame.
These French police officers thought it would be a good idea to prepare hours in advance for the arrivval of Obama in Paris. Probably a good idea for them... not the best idea of ours to hang around and wait to see what would happen. An hour of straight disappointment...
Our little group that went to the top of the Eiffel Tower. Notice that is still daylight when our journey began... whoever devised the line system at the bottom of the Eiffel Tower was a fool. You wait in one really long line to get through security... then from there get in another monster line to buy tickets... then from there you get in a pretty short line to get on the first elevator... then you get in line to go up another elevator, and finally.... finally.... you've made it to the top.
I didn't get a lot of great pictures from the top of the Eiffel Tower because my camera has a function on it called "Night Pictures Fail," and I have no idea how to turn it off. It's a real problem. Small digital cameras should just be solar powered because there's little point turning them on at night.
This picture turned out alright though. So maybe I should take back my previous statement. 'Ol Eiffel really is quite brilliant at night.
This sign is alternately offensive to Native Americans, people with certain types of skin disorders causing them to be completely red, aliens, and to those who pickpockets. 
I got really bored in the morning before Versailles... so I took a picture of this flower in the courtyard of our hostel. Enjoy?
Well that is really all there is to tell about Paris. I still knew my way around a bit... good to know my memory doesn't fade too terribly fast. Ate some good food... had some good times... on to Versailles!!!
Welcome to Paris, France. A city full of cathedrals, PDA, leisure... and apparenlty zero children. The custom in France is to take advantage of the wonderful service known as daycare to essentially raise children. This allows time for them to lay around in parks and do pretty much absolutely nothing for a majority of the day. Don't get me wrong... I'm all for hanging out in the outdoors and having a good time, but I just don't know if, at the same time, I could do that and allow someone else to take of my child pretty much all day. But hey... different country... different people... different culture... what can you do? If you can't beat 'em... join 'em, right? The art of leisure and relaxation in Paris is a surprisingly aquired taste. Sometimes you just don't feel like sitting in a restaurant for more than 2 hours. As lovely as the surroundings may be, there's too much to see to just sit and watch the world go by. I suppose I would feel differently if I actually lived there, but I digress. Commense photographs.
We visited Apple in Paris. It was a largely boring presentation about Final Cut Server, which has little to no relevance to anyone who isn't obsessed with video file organization. Why not an iPhone App presentation for a school that is apparently leading education innovation with this splendid little device? No? Ok? That's fine... I still got to play a guitar for the first time in weeks here, which was pretty much great.
This lovely piece of artwork was hanging in the first hostel we stayed at in Paris. My interpretation goes something like this... on a cold desert night in Antarctica? This Inuit is struggling to stay warm and must find something to remedy this. His shotgun has one round left... and he goes hunting. He comes across a polar bear strolling across the desert. Shoots it in the head. Guts it out. Creates a lovely new jacket for himself. Jumps on his trusty steed fondly known as "Devil Horse" and rides into the night.
The Eiffel Tower made an appearance in Paris. It's odd seeing it walking around the city... it's just sort of there... kind of like a celebrity you see from afar (Nick Lachey...you can run from our bikes... but you can't hide).
I can really only equate seeing Notre Dame and going inside it to jumping into a fairytale popup book. The fact that this place is still standing is amazing.
Our Fat Tire Bike Tour guide really enjoyed using the words "dominate" and "awesome." It became abundantly clear that our bike ride was less a tour and more a fitness routine to her, with the lack of explanations for rather prominent buildings we were passing and the general high rate of speed at which we went through Paris.
This is the building that Jason Bourne was on top of in one of the Bourne movies when he was like, "I told you to come alone..." Then be probably did something awesome... and it was awesome. I like those movies... thanks Universal Studios for sending me a boxset with a DVD that looked like someone took a rake across it... then when I return it... you don't replace it... you just give me my money back. Doesn't the very fact that I bought the boxset imply that I probably wouldn't mind waiting for you to restock the thing? I love getting off topic.
This is a small part of the Louvre in Paris. The sheer amount of artwork/artifacts here is astounding. I don't know if it would be possible to go through and appreciate each piece of art even if you had an entire week to devote to the place. It's crazy.
I couldn't get very close to the Mona Lisa. This was the best shot I could get. So many people want to see this thing. It's really not even that impressive. I was more impressed by several other paintings... some of them are following...
"Liberty Leading the People" by Delacroix is probably my favorite painting that I saw. Mainly because it is on the cover of Coldplay's album... then also because it's just a great work of art. Sort of surreal to actually see it in person... much like many things in the Louvre.
There is a near endless section of the Louvre devoted to Egyptian artifacts and the like. This is an incredibly small portion of that collection.
This is essentially the exact opposite of how me, Preston and Linda felt about the Louvre.
I think this cathedral may have been the inspiration for Aladdin... if it wasn't... it inspired me to be Aladdin. Maybe not, but it was really cool to look at/visit until Lucas deicded to get estranged from the group for multiple hours.
Here is the Arc de Triumph... or something more fancy in French. It's really unfortunate that you have to stand in a long line to buy an overpriced ticket to go into this thing... because that would have been fun. Still neat to see. Everyone from Hitler to Lance Armstrong has been there... what more do you need to know?
Napoleon is in there... or so my $8.50 Euro ticket claims
Jumping infront of Napoleon's tomb for some reason sounded like a great thing do... and thus it was done
So in retrospect... Paris has some good times in it. As long as you don't mind smelly streets, smelly people, and gratuitous amounts of people kissing. Those are really the overwhelmind negatives. The art, history, and culture is really interesting to be immersed in... even for a few days. A really different way of living and seeing the world. Give it a try? Eh... maybe not.
One of the memorial buildings in the middle of the cemetery. A great place to get out of the rain. 
This is not an actual person. However, there apparently was a man during the war that got caught up on this church steeple. Actually 2. Just before he died, A man on the ground saved both their lives when he shot a German soldier before he could shoot the men hanging from the church. Hopefully you followed that terrible pronoun usage. Then Red Buttons (an actual actors name) portrayed this scene in some old movie. Then the city thought it would be a good idea to commemorate this with this mannqeuin. Hollywood makes everything cooler.
