bonjour

William can be a hard person to be a tourist with... sample quotes from a visit to the Tower of London:

"Well, that's a lot of rocks." (That would be referring to the castle itself)
"They're big and shiny, I guess" (That would be the crown jewels)
"It's really cold."  (Well, yes, it was, I'll give him that)

Oh, and here was his remark on Harrods:

"You know, this all seems excessive."

And Big Ben:

"It's not as big as I thought it would be."

I'm not making these up!  He is just plain hard to impress!

[William would like to interject here and say that it is not that he is hard to impress, but that he just says the first thing that comes to his mind.  Also, that he thinks "that's a lot of rocks" is the only reasonable reaction to the sight of a large castle.  He would also like to reassure my reading audience of 5 people that he is happy to be in London.  But if he wants to tell his side of the story he can start his own blog, so I'll be maintaining that he is a difficult man to impress]

Even William, however, has been wowed by Paris.  We visited the Notre Dame last night, after breathing a sigh of relief for having reached Paris at last (for the Eurostar was brought to its knees by a few inches of snow), so we saw the massive, massively creepy cathedral at its best - on a dark, cloudy and eerie night.  William was flabbergasted.  I will grant you that his reaction was more along the lines of "that must have taken so incredibly long to make!  Why would they do that?  Oh my gosh," than "Oh my, how ethereally beautiful," but at least he was awed, which is rare indeed.

And when we approached the Eiffel Tower, he said - and I quote - "This is so exciting!"  CONGRATULATIONS PARIS!  You have awed the unaweable.

(speaking of the eiffel tower - 704 stairs, people.  I am going to be so sore tomorrow)

In other news: why doesn't Hums have a field trip to Europe?  It should totally be part of the course.  Today I was in the Musee d'Orsay looking at Courbet's painting of himself in his studio - and needless to say I saw oodles of enormous French history paintings throughout our speedy tour of the Louvre - and suddenly I said, "OHH!"  Seriously, out loud in the middle of the museum, and I must have sounded like a prime idiot.  It all clicked and I dragged William over to say "Dr Smith was RIGHT, this IS an important painting - see, he's making this statement-- even the size is a challenge to the old institutions and conventions of art--"

A field trip.  Definitely called for.  Maybe it would also increase enrollment?

Also, I ate 4 meals today and all of them consisted primarily of butter, except for one that was all chocolate.  Ahhhhh paris!