Finally Photos

In deference to all the promises it seemed I was going to break about adding photos and stories to the blog, I decided today was a better day than never to get started. I am going through the last few series of blogs and adding photos to them. Woohoo for you (and me)! Below is a list of the blogs that now have photos attached to them, browse at your leisure.

Champadouze - My weekend with the Champanules April 30-May 1, 2006

Nancy - Two days in Nancy with Alice and Isabelle February

Taize (the experience) and Taize (the basics) - My five days at the Taize community monastery with the Aumonerie April 18 - 23, 2006

Besides that I have spent the day doing a variety of tasks on the computer. In my search for photos I discovered the following two which I realized I never told you about. There was an Artist-in-Residence at Chanzy when I was there and she worked with a group that called themselves Flashmob. In a burst of artistic something or other (and a good way to get kids out of class) they organized an event where everyone would open their umbrellas at the same time in the school courtyard. I took pictures from my bathroom window of that particuler event.

They filmed it from above so that they could see the wave function of people using visual clues to open their umbrellas. I think that might have made a good integrated project for a math class too. Anyway, the following Friday they "flashmobbed" again, except with paper airplanes. The students all received airplanes and wrote a funny, serious, or other type of message inside. At the same time they through the planes in the air, and then read the message they randomly received. It was a pretty cool deal. Anyway, these are the pictures of those two events.

My last day in Paris strolling on the Seine May 2, 2006 is posted below. I thought you might enjoy these final images of a year overwhelmingly full of beautiful and breathtaking memories. Obviously the Eiffel Tower is a common focal point in pictures of Paris, but this picture was taken especially for Caroline who loved the tower and the golden horse towers that serve as picturesque columns at the end of one of the bridges that spans the Seine.

Less breathtaking than monumental is the side of the statue to the right. It is a monument for General Lafayette, the French and American patriot who helped saved the US during the Revolutionary War. I thought it was particularly appropriate because of where I'll be spending my summer - the town being named after him and all.

And finally we arrive at the gorgeous Tuilleries Gardens. I have tons of photos of this park (where I happened to have lunch last Tuesday). But this is a picture of a place I spent a few minutes sketching as well and that I wanted to serve as a comparison image. The most memorable part of that day though was lying down in the Garden, right near the entrance to the Louvre and within vision of the obelisk of the Place de Concorde and the Arc de Triomphe and taking a nap. It was warm, sunny, calm, and a wonderful place to dream.