A Visit to Boa Vista, Cape Verde Islands

Sometimes even Paris is less than perfect.  It's cold and dreary in December and January, so we decided to go to someplace warm and sunny during the Christmas holidays.  The closest such spot was the CapeVerde Islands, 280 miles off the coast of  Senegal, a 5.5 hour plane ride from Paris.  We booked a spot in a resort called RIU Hotel Touareg.  We had both come down with bad chest colds, and we just managed to get ourselves packed and to the plane.

When we first arrived, we saw a lot of desert, hills with dry erosion.  The small town of Rabil, near the airport (with 1 unlighted runway) was clearly not prosperous.

Town of Rabil

Eventually we saw this place in the distance:

We checked in, and I took this shot from our hotel room:

The resort carefully created a oasis in the desert near the ocean (the Atlantic).  It was warm, sunny and an easy spot to do nothing at.  I spent the first day in bed recovering from my cold.  After that, we spent our time, at the pool, having meals, wandering around the complex and walking on the beach.

Chuck at lunch

The adults only salt water pool

Main hotel pool

One of 4 dining halls

Looking out to the ocean (note the waves)  

 We were not supposed to go in the ocean because the sea was really rough, but we did anyway.  Below is a shot of just how much surf there was.

Waves breaking on the beach

We spent one day out with a tour group in a pair of 4x4 trucks to see some remote parts of the island. The tour was given in German by our host Frank.  Other than us, the rest of the tour group were Germans.  However, we could understand most of what Frank said, and our fellow travels were kind enough to speak English when German failed.   First we visited a pottery school in Rabil.

entrance to the school

forms for making pottery

Vases

lots of little turtles

 The school uses an outdoor wood fired kiln, and makes items from pre-molded forms from clay around the town.  They paint bisqued pieces with acrylic paints as they do not have the means to create glazes and fire them.

Candy in Desert

Valley near Rabil

Next we visited the Desert of Viana.  Boa Vista gets only 10 cm of rain a year (about 4 inches), so much of it is parched.  Some sections are large dune areas, in the interior or near the beach, due to wind patterns.  However, there is a valley where there is some green retained from the rains.

Chuck in Desert

View of the desert of Viana

dunes of the Beach of Chaves

We also visited the long coastline of Santa Monica, which has many wonderful views.

The local fauna on the left is a sand crab.  Most are small, but this fellow is big and edible!

Our day ended with a lovely lunch in another very small town.  The food was wonderful, not expensive but our standards, but more so by local ones.  Our host made the whole visit fascinating and as was his motto:  no stress!  Below are Chuck and fellow travelers at lunch, and our host Frank.

On the last day of our stay, I took this parting photo from our room in the early morning:

All in all it was a restful and sunny way to spend a week! 

Une Visite à l'hôtel de ville de Paris (A visit to the City Hall of Paris)

J'ai visité l'hôtel de ville de Paris avec des autres étudiants de Alliance Française. Notre guide, Madame Christianne Dijeaux, parlait très clairement.  Je était très heureuse parce que je pouvais comprendre 60% que elle disait.  Cet blog est en français--je aussi le traduis.

I visited the city hall of Paris with other students from Alliance Francaise.  Our guide, Madame, Christianne Dijeauz, spoke very clearly.  I was glad because I could understand about 60% of what she said.  This blog is in French--I also am translating it.

L'hôtel de ville de Paris

L'hôtel est à le place de Grèves, que était le place des marchands de Paris en les 1300s. Le mot "grèves" signifiait originairement "la place près le bord de la rivière; " aujourd'hui il signifie "strike".   L'hôtel maintenant est le troisième hôtel de ville.  Le premier hôtel construit dans le 16eme siècle, à été incendie en 1789 pendant la révolution française.  Il à été reconstruit, mais il a été incendie encore pendant la Commune en 1870.  Le extérieur de le troisième hôtel était dans le style de la Renaissance; le intérieur était dans le style des 1880s, mais il n'y ont pas des peinture de Impressionnisme.

The city hall is located in the Place de Grèves, which was a place for merchants in Paris in the 1300s.  The word "grèves" originally meant a place near the river bank; today it means strikes (labor strikes).  The city hall now is the 3rd one.  The first constructed in the 16th century, was burned in 1789 during the French Revolution.  It was rebuilt but burned again during the Commune of 1870. The exterior of the 3rd city hall is in a Renaissance style; the interior is in the style of the 1800s, but there are no Impressionist paintings inside.

Nous avons visité quelques salles (pas de toutes des salles):  la salle des Fêtes (pour les grandes réceptions) a été dessiné comme le style de la salle des Miroirs à le Château de Versailles. Le plafond de cet salle dépeint le fête de la musique.  Autre peintures illustrent les provinces de France et leur produits.  Dans le plus dernier photo on regarde l'emblème de la ville de Paris.

We visited a few rooms (but not all).  The hall of Festivals (for large receptions), was designed in the style of the hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles.  The ceiling depicts music festivals. Other painting illustrate the provinces of France and her products.  In the last photo you can see the emblem of the city of Paris.

La salle des Fêtes

La Plafond de la Salle des Fêtes

Les provinces de France et leur produits

L'emblème de la ville de Paris

L'escalier d'honneur

 Voila l'escalier d'honneur--il y a 2 escaliers, une pour l'Assembée nationale et une pour le le sénat.  Mais le le sénat se réunit dans le Palais du Luxembourg.  Le dôme de l'escalier illustrent à gauche.

Here are the stairs of honor--there are 2 stairways, one of the national assembly and one for the senate.  But the Senate meets in the Luxembourg Palace.  The dome of the stairway is illustrated on the left.

Nous visitions aussi le salon de Bertrand.  On regard le plafond du salon de Bertrand et aussi les fenêtres du salon.

We also visited the room of Bertrand.  You can see the ceiling of the room and also the windows.

 Dans le photo de la salle de Jean-Paul Laurens, on regarde la peinture que Louis XVI recevait la clé de la ville de le maire de Paris.  Aussi on regarde un tôt oeuvre du Rodin.  

In the photo of the room of Jean-Paul Laurens, you can see a painting in which Louis XVI received the key to the city from the mayor of Paris.  Also you can see an early sculpture of Rodin.

Voila un vue de la salle d'Arcades:
Here's a view of the hall of arcades: 

On peu aussi voire la cour du bâtiment:
You can also see the courtyard of the building:

Cet visite m'enseignait beaucoup!
This visit taught me a lot!

A December Visit to Prague

Prague in December is quite lovely, cold but sunny, at least for the few days I visited.  I went to Prague to give a talk in the Linguistics department at Charles University.  However, I arrived early enough the day before and had time in the mornings to see a bit more of Prague (it's my third visit!).

December begins Christmas Market in Prague, and I saw the one in old Town Square.  Here's one of the main churches in the late afternoon light.

The Square was massed with people wandering about enjoying all the food and small objects for sale at huts all around the Square.  Of course there was a giant tree.  I tried a kind of hot almond flavored liquor that tasted yummy and from which the liquor had burned off.  I also bought some cards in a nearby shop.

I happened to see a concert listed for the first evening I was there; I decided to take a chance in attending it.  Good choice because it turned out to be a wonderful evening.  First of all the location, the Chapel of Mirrors, dating from the 16th century and created by Italian architects, is a stunning hall.  The organ in the left hand picture came from a  church that was destroyed, while the organ in the right hand-picture is the original organ.  As the pictures show, there is a great deal of marble, painted ceilings and sculptured figures.  The chapel (no longer used as such) is in a building that houses an observatory, which was used by Tycho Brahe and (his assistant) Johannes Kepler and visited by Galileo.  Alas, I did not get to see the observatory! A side benefit for the concert was the astounding acoustics of the hall.

The concert was more than I expected, a series of short classical pieces for organ, flute, singing by two talented opera trained singers, accompanied either on organ or piano, and sometimes by flute. I could have listened to any one of the performers for a whole evening.

The next day I visited this monument, to the victims of communism, 1948-1989.  The numbers of victims is quite astonishing, and this monument in its simplicity speaks to their loss.  The sculptor is the famous Czech artist Olbram Zoubek. 

On my last day during my morning walk around the river,  I took these photos of a view down the river, and the kind of sculpture you find on buildings around Prague.

Late Fall in Paris

Fall can be a stunningly lovely time in Paris.With fall comes fall flowers, such as these in the Jardin Du Luxembourg:

Then, the trees begin to loose more of their leaves.  The colors are charming, and give you a sense of the dying of the season.

Pierre Roche's L'Effort Statue in Autumn

It's now late November, and the leaves are disappearing with all the endless rain.  

Yet fall leaves can decorate the otherwise dreary back wall of a city building.

In Paris in the fall, it rains.  But this year more than most.  The Seine is rather high and looking muddy too:

Many rainy days have made the Jardin du Luxembourg muddy too.  During some of my walks I have had to be careful not to go sliding in the mud!

It is quite possible to enjoy even cloudy days.  Here's Chuck sitting in Parc Montsouris in the very south of Paris.  This time of fall is on the chilly side!

And there was an almost garbage str--ke (it's bad luck to say the word, I think)!  Fortunately it didn't really happen (whew), but garbage piled up for a day:

November 21st is Beaujolais Nouveau Day in France.  Here's the scene at  the BN Party at Alliance Francais where I take French classes.  Not a wild party, but tasty food and the new wine.

Now there is the sense of the winter Holidays coming, with lights on the streets near our apartment (Rue de Rennes towards the tower of Montparnasse),

and Xmas trees in shop windows, like this one in a nearby bakery, as well as the decorations in the window of a restaurant on our block.

We are going to miss the main week of Xmas in Paris as we are going to the Cape Verde Islands off the  coast of Senegal to find the sun and some warmer weather.