We headed down to Trier the next day. Trier is about 1/2 hour away and was once the capital of the Western Roman Empire. It was surrounded by a huge stone wall, with a large gate house remaining from nearly 2,000 years ago, called the Porta Nigra. Here are Jimmy and Dana on about the 3rd story, with the walk-platz (pedestrian shopping zone) in the background:
Jimmy and Josh overlooking one of the gateways (where you pour the boiling oil on unwelcome barbarians):
We stopped in the church of Constantine the Great (Ever heard of him? He saw a cross in his dream and converted the whole Roman Empire to Christianity. He built this building in 310 AD as his palace in the capital.) In more modern times, the building was reconstructed as a church and is AMAZINGLY BEAUTIFUL. It differs from the Italian and French churches in that it is Protestant and less gaudy. The colors are subdued with lots of royal blue and navy with white marble.
Down the garden from the palace/church are the Baths of Constantine. We had a good time, climbing through the underground tunnels and chambers.
The kids found a nice window to peek through.
This is what the other side looks like.
The next day we decided to fast forward from Roman times to the middle ages and journeyed over to the Mosel River (where all the Riesling wine in the world comes from) to Cochem Castle. You can see castles like this all up and down the Mosel and Rhine Rivers. Robber knights charged tolls to pass the castles, raising large chains across the river and using cannons in later years to dominate large stretches of the river. They got the full tour.
Like the Germans have done so many times in the past, we loaded up and pushed west into France, arriving in Paris quickly. When you get to Paris, where do you start? The Louvre.
Venus de Milo, Mona Lisa, Winged Victory, mummies and 100,000 other art pieces - 3 hours, man are we good are what?!
This painting was interesting. It is one of dozens depicting the story of David and Goliath. What is cool is that this is Josh one one side:
And Jimmy on the opposite:
Dana really wanted to go to the Moulin Rouge. We had never been. We had a great experience. By pure luck, we wound up with a table in the dead center of the stage, with a perfect view. We had champagne and enjoyed the show. The fact that it was topless didn't seem to matter to the boys, who were obviously enraptured with the expert choreography.
We had reservations, but showed up early, and it paid-off with top-notch seating. Jimmy 4 says, "Whatchu talkin 'bout, Willis?"
We hit a little restaurant that Jena and I had liked before. It was great food, but not fancy. At least, it wasn't fancy UNTIL Jimmy pulled this move out, just for Dad, who loves fancy people who drink with their pinky out. Somewhere in Vegas that day his ears must have been burning as we laughed over this one. Maybe it was the bottle after bottle of French wines we had with every meal (and between a few meals).
Jet-lagged Josh, on the other hand couldn't hold his liquor as well.
This is right across the street from where we ate. The Eifel Tower was lit up blue with yellow stars on the opposite face to symbolize France's 6-month turn at the head of the European Union. It made a spectacular site not even close to being captured here:
We took in the Notre Dame Cathedral, on an island in the Seine River called the Ile de la Cite (Island of the City). If you look closely, you can see the hunchback lurking in he bell tower--maybe not. It is an awe-inspiring piece of architecture, even more impressive as it was constructed starting in 1163 AD. It is steeped in history and we enjoyed the visit.
Jimmy didn't miss a thing. He had this AudioGuide glued to his ear for 2 straight hours. The church's interior is indescribable. The huge Rose windows on the sides are gigantic, intricate stained glass works of art. Numerous artifacts from Christian and western history are housed inside the church. Tombs of famous statesmen, kings, emperors and Popes and martyrs line walls and floors. The undercroft and apses are filled with tombs. This was the site of Napoleon's coronation. We could have stayed for a lot longer.
Sainte-Chapelle, which surprisingly is NOT named after comedian Dave Chapelle, stands tall in the background. Dana got a good pic of Jimmy 4, but I got the picture-in-picture--HA! It was too crowded to get into the church, so...maybe next time.
Speaking of Napoleon, his dead carcass is sitting in the largest coffin ever seen in the center of this chruch, attached to the rear of Les Invalids, the world's greatest war museum...fitting. The Napoleonic wing was closed (tomb was open) but we got to see thousands of swords, suits of armor, spears, etc from medieval time throught the WWII section (Where France won the war and helped the US by beating the Germans, according to them...)
The main street of Paris is the Champs Elysees. At one end, the Arc de Triumph (seen behind Jena) was commissioned by Napoleon and is a monument to the soldiers who died in his wars. Needless to say, this is a busy street, especially on New Year's Eve. So naturally, we ran out into the middle of the street and took pictures!
Speaking of New Year's, here it is. A few bottles of champagne, our family, and a few hundred thousand drunk foreign language speaking friends! No big fireworks, mostly home-launched, and a cool light show on the tower.
Paris DOES have a way of turning even the most hard core right-wing conservatives into hippie, free-love, care-free winos (Ahh, I'm ready to go back...when it is warm and I can lay under the shadow of the tower on the grass and enjoy a $5 bottle of Bordeaux wine):
Proof that Jena and Jeff were there on New Years 2009, too:
All in all it was as much fun as we've had since we've been here. The last time Jimmy and I were in Paris together was August, 1983, with Mom, Dad, and "old" Maw Maw. Hopefully, our young 'uns will have fond memories, too. By time they left, it still seemed like they had just gotten here. We all wish it wasn't so far to travel to see each other. When we get back to America, we'll have to make an effort to spend more time together and take more family trips together.
