Holiday Post - France

[eagle_riley]

I have spent the day inside our hotel in Athens, holed up with an annoying headcold and due to that, ears that barely survived the descent from 30,000 feet.

So I took the day off to start writing some memories of my trip through Europe. The first is of Paris, and my first encounter with a non-human race.

Comments

[gryff_lionheart]

glad to read that you are having an enjoyable and interesting time of it. Stereotypes aside, the mix of people when you travel is quite an eyeopener both positive and negative.
hope you are feeling over the cold soon, i know it is restricted in some countries but if your nose/sinuses are still blocked for the next flight get yourself some sudafed if possible to save your ears some agony.
safe onward journey!

[eagle_riley]

I should have put an addendum to the front of this post: "I have been reading too much by Jeremy Clarkson lately" :)

I met some wonderful people while in France, in restaurants, on the streets, at the sites. It is a shame that there are so many providing that negative eyeopener.

Cheers for the advice, the next flight is the one home so I'll probably get something to knock me out for most of it considering my failed sleeping attempts the last time I was on a plane for more than eight hours :) Mum has been throwing tablets at me for the flight that I have strictly refused to use...I'm giving in this time :)

[azahru]

Decongestants are more important than sleeping pills for ear pain. When I was in the USA I sobbed with pain from ears that felt like they would rupture, some mild decongestants for two days before next flight didn't feel a whisper of pain. I'd worry about you actually doing ear damage if you just took sleeping pill. During a flight you can also be saved by putting eucalyptus on a hanky and sniffing, vaporub or tigerbalm probably work as well.

[fred_bear]

Listen to the Liz, she speaks much wisdom. Try and get some pseudoephedrine and if you can't get that then phenylephrine in tablet form of a degongestant nasal spray. I'm sure the pharmacist will be able to help you out.

[kingtheseus]

"Les Noces de Cana", history

There are at least three major paintings of the Last Supper in the Louvre, one of them a copy of the famous Da Vinci mural in Milan (the mural but not the oil painting was featured in the Da Vinci Code).

I think, though, you are talking about ‘Les noces de Cana’ by Veronese, “The Wedding at Cana’. This depicts the wedding where Jesus performs his first miracle, turning water into wine.

I remember it from my own trip to Paris many years ago. It is breathtaking.

http://www.factum-arte.com/eng/conservacion/cana/default.asp

[silvermoon_wolf]

To be fair, you met Parisians, not the French. Over the summer hols I had an enlightening conversation with two lovely french people that I will admit has gone a long way to removing my previous prejudices.

Or perhaps narrowing the prejudices to just the Parisians would be more accurate a statement. It seems not even the French like them very much.