Sunday-Tuesday: Paris and Stratford-on-Avon

Sunday, October 8
We took an early morning bus from Oxford, changed to the Tube at Baker Street , and arrived at Waterloo Station more than an hour early for our Eurostar train trip to Paris at 9 am. The train trip was much like one on an airplane in that security and check-in were quite rigorous and we boarded the train only 15 minutes before it left. The seating was only slightly more comfortable than an airliner with wider seats placed too close together to allow for comfortable legroom. The Chunnel train trip wasn't much different from other train trips except for the 20 minutes in the tunnel. The railbed was smooth enough in France to travel at a high rate of speed allowing us to cover the trip in under three hours. We arrived in Paris shortly before 1 pm local time and found our way via Metro to our hotel.

After checking in and freshening up, we headed out in the beautiful Paris sunshine to the Orsay, the museum of art from 1870-1950. Naturally they have a wonderful collection of Impressionist art (almost as good as that of the Art Institute of Chicago, but we didn't mention that fact). The museum itself is a beautiful old Railroad station and attached hotel that were saved from demolition in mid-20th century for conversion to this museum. We spent the better part of the afternoon in the Orsay, then crossed the Seine to the Tuileries Park where we enjoyed strolling with the crowds. After a nice dinner back in the area near our hotel, we walked to the Eiffel Tower to see it all lit up and rode up to the second levelto view the city by night- a very romantic sight.

Monday, October 9
We awoke to a slightly more cloudy day and set off for Notre Dame and areas in the center of the city. Notre Dame is beautifully situated next to the river with spectacular carvings and gargoyles. The windows are very beautiful from inside and the church has a deeply religious feel to it, much different from the national monument feel of Westminster Abbey. It felt much more like the Cathedral in Prague. After viewing the cathedral, we alked back across the river to the left bank and walked into the Latin Quarter to see the area near the Sorbonne, one of the oldest European Universities. Then we crossed back over the Seine to go to Saint Chapelle, the church built by Louis XIII as his private worship center. This is probably the most impressive and beautiful collection of stained glass windows that you could imagine. There are over 1100 different biblical and historical images in the slender, very tall windows of this church.

After catching a quick lunch along the way, we next went to the Louvre and spent the rest of the afternoon there. The museum itself is in a huge palace with the famous pyramid in the front central courtyard. This provides entrance through security to the ticket area and eventually into the museum. We only spent a brief time in the Greek and Egyptian sections before moveing through 17th Century French art over the the Northern European - German and Dutch artists. We didn't even scratch the surface and missed the Mona Lisa but this visit whet our appetite for future visits to the museum. We had a brief but wonderful trip to Par

is, our first and came away with the impression that this is a city we'd really like to return to in the future. The people were very friendly and gracious, the food is wonderful, and the sights are amazing. We made our way back to Oxford, arriving there tired but with many fine memories of our brief trip to Paris.

Tuesday, October 10

We left in the midmorning for Stratford-on-Avon, probably only 50 miles or so from Oxford. This is a very charming town with much of interest, especially relative to Shakespeare. We visited the Anne Hathaway cottage, where Shakespeare's wife ahd grown up. This charming cottage is the canonical version of an English cottage and its image appears on many items. We then traveled to the Mary Arden House, the home of Shakespeare's mother's family. Both of these homes were of 14th century timber frame construction with stick and wattle walls. Interestingly, they were originally large open structures without fireplaces and chimneys, where fires were built in the center of the rooms. Later, fireplaces and chimneys were added and this allowed them to add a second floor to the house with sleeping space above. We then rode back into town to visit the Shakespeare museum and birthplace. His father had been a middle-class craftsman and business person and Shakespeare had received a standard, good schooling, but he went off on his own after marrying at 18 and developed the theatre company in London. He returned to Stratford after gaining considerable fame and fortune and lived to 52 years; what amazing accomplishments he had in his relatively short life. This visit really made Wm. Shakespeare a lot more real for both of us.

We finished the day by meeting up with Barbara and Doug for a performance of Julius Caesar at the Royal Shakespeare Company theatre. We sat in the front row and heard and saw everything extremely well. The company has great actors and we were able to follow the familiar story very well. The blood came very close to splattering us in the gory parts and we were almost showered by actors spit as they enunciated each word extremely carefully. What an experience. We retrned to Oxford late this night by train.