The show at the bridge

I am pretty sure that there will be others who will find this photo to be as interesting as I do. I found it at Paris Daily Photo.

I defer with great respect to the PDP photographer.  I have been there, I have seen that, I have wanted to get a photograph.  I am not worthy.  This is a great photograph.

He says in the post:

"Not far from Notre Dame Cathedral, on the Ile de la Cité, there is a little bridge that is used by roller skaters to train."

He does not mention that the in training roller skaters gladly collect "donations" from the crowd that gathers every evening to watch the "training".

Just business in the City of Lights.

I have been there, I have seen that.

Happy Mothers' Day to TOPWLH

TOPWLH bracketed herself for Mothers' Day, having brunch with her dafter AND her mother. The dafter is a most excellent child and actually the mother is pretty swell too. And TOPWLH. I went for a bicycle ride.

Here in Minnesota we have firmly established that fishing opener occurs the day before Mothers' Day. This means that when I rode past the various lakes on the northern route that there were lots more people in the parks than there were last week and most of them were fishing. Here is an image of Sucker Lake, the usual northernmost point of the 8 lakes tour.People are fishing.

It rained yesterday, really rained which meant that today was the long ride. The long ride took me to places beyond the normal beaten path which enabled me to get a photo of the last or at least nearly last unpictured of the Minnesota Rocks sculptures.This one is at Vadnais Heights City Hall. It seems to me that this one has a bit more elaborate staging than most of the others. For example, the city has ringed the limestone sculpture with nice granite benches, two of which are visible in the photo.

Yesterday in the Giro Christian Vande Velde added himself to the list of Americans who have ever held the leader's jersey in one of the Grand Tours when his Slipstream team won the team time trial and team leader David Millar slipped off the back of the team at the finish to allow Vande Velde to be first across the line. Despite his quite Dutchy sort of name, Vande Velde is an American, born in Illinois. But it is after all, the tour of Italy and today in the first road stage the first five finishers were all Italians and one of them, fourth place finisher Franco Pellizotti of Team Liquigas, gained enough time to take over the lead in the general classification and the Maglia Rosa by a single second over the American.

In French football yesterday, Paris Saint Germain gained a point in the standings by securing a tie at home against Saint Etienne. Relegation rivals Lens and Toulouse were both on the road and both lost as PSG edged up to 16th overall and out of the relegation zone with one game remaining. PSG, RC Lens, and Toulouse FC are all major clubs in France and one of them going down is nearly as shocking a result for this season as last year's relegation of Nantes.

Wireless photos

Ms. Wireless gave me access to her picture folder yesterday so that I could use her picture of TOPWLH at Harry's New York Bar.

I saw all of her pictures at around the time that they were taken. Looking at them again yesterday and today from with the perspective of time I am struck by what a good eye she has.

Here are some of her Paris pictures that deserve another look.

This is from Eglise de la Madeleine. Clearly visible in the distance is the Obélisque at the Place de la Concorde. The obelisk appears to loom in front of the National Assembly facade. The National Assembly meets at Palais Bourbon which is actually across the Seine. Also visible is the even more distant dome at Invalides.This is a view of Place Vendome, with Napoleon's column framed against a blue sky.The awnings on the left of the photo are the Ritz Hotel. This is where the paparazzi where gathered when Dodi and Di and left from the back entrance. They had to scramble to their scooters in order to catch up to the fleeing plutocrats near the Place de la Concorde. The limo took a turn to the right and entered the tunnel at Pont de l'Alma. The rest of the story is well known to all.

This is, I think, a wonderfully composed shot taken from the first outdoor level at the Pantheon. The tower on the right is well known to all. The tower on the left is la Tour Montparnasse, the only rival on the Paris skyline for Eiffel, the only skyscraper in Paris.This is the Place at Eglise St. Eustache, near les Halles.
These are all really nice photos, all deserving of another look.

Morning flurries

TOPWLH has a birthday today. Happy Birthday TOPWLH. Her day got off to a rocky start as there were flurries in the air this morning although no snow has actually stuck to the ground. The same storm deposited more than 2 feet of new snow in parts of northern Minnesota, including Bemidji and Hibbing. No bicycling today, once having ridden in 60 degree weather, I am not riding in 40 degree weather anymore.

Here is TOPWLH pictured in a celebratory mood at Harry's New York Bar in Paris.The story has been posted, I think on her Xanga, about our excursion into Harry's. If the story isn't posted there it is nonetheless one that her family and friends are familiar with. I was looking at Google Earth earlier and found another Harry's Bar story. As the excerpt concludes, the best story belongs to Papa.

Originally posted by "Dorseyland" on Google Earth.

Harry's New York Bar on Rue Daunou had Ernest Hemingway as a regular (one wonders which Paris bars did not). Its website says the place was founded in 1911 and is "the birthplace of the brilliant Bloody Mary", but the best story belongs to Papa.

In 1950 Ernest told A. E. Hotchner, his later biographer, that an "ex-pug" used to come in with his pet lion, which was well-behaved except that he sometimes shit on the floor. The owner, Harry, would tell the owner to get out and never return, but he kept coming back.

"Realising it was do or die for poor Harry's business, this time when the lion let go, I went over, picked up the pug, who had been a welterweight, carried him outside and threw him in the street. Then I came back and grabbed the lion's mane and hustled him out of here. Out on the sidewalk the lion gave me a look, but he went quietly."

Hemingway reckoned that if he was "getting that aggressive with lions, time had come to put my juice into a book instead". The result was "A Farewell to Arms".

The Gates of Hell

It was a very November day today. It started dark, got wet and windy, stayed dark, proceeded through a gray period, got darker, and has just recently gotten really dark. It wasn't really too cold, but it never dried out. It was always dark and raw. It was November. But it wasn't really nasty enough to consider today to be the gates of hell.

The post caption refers to more artwork. Because it got a mention yesterday I today include my picture of the bronze copy of la Porte de l'Enfer from the garden at the Musée Rodin. The museum itself refers to this work as Rodin's monumental masterpiece. At least 10 of what today are considered to be individual works by Rodin, including both yesterday's Thinker and le Baiser (The Kiss), were originally conceived as elements of this work. The Kiss was removed after Rodin realized that the state of pure happiness portrayed in that sculpture did not really fit in with the rest of the composition of this work. However, the Thinker remains, set into the upper panel.

I had to wait for the photo as most photographers were getting a companion photographed with the work (for scale I assume). As I waited the Italian lady standing next to me breathed, "Bellisima". I speak less Italian than French but I know that word and I offered for comparison the English words, "Beautiful, indeed."

Rodin began the work on a commission in 1880 with a scheduled delivery date of 1885. He never finished, and would continue to work on and off on this project for 37 years, until his death in 1917.

The plaster original was restored in 1917 and is displayed at the Musée d'Orsay in Paris. A series of plaster casts illustrating the development of the work is on view at Rodin's workshop in Meudon. Also in 1917, a model was used to make the original three bronze casts of which this is one. The others are at the Rodin Museum in Philadelphia and the National Museum of Western Art in Tokyo.

Subsequent bronzes have been distributed by the Musée Rodin to a number of locations, including Zurich, Stanford University, and the Rodin Gallery in Seoul, Korea.

Le Penseur

I see that there is now an accepted protocol which allows me to take inspiration from someone else's blog for details about my own post.

OK, I noticed that Legend had a photo of her office including a bronze of "The Thinker" by Auguste Rodin.

Le Penseur was modelled in 1880-1882 for la Porte de l'Enfer (The Gates of Hell), and exhibited in its original size (height 71.5 cm, about 28 inches) in Copenhagen in 1888. It was enlarged in 1902. The statue was the first work by Rodin to be erected in a public place. It was inaugurated in front of the Pantheon on 21 April 1906 during an intense political and social crises which turned this sculpture into a socialist symbol. In 1922, using as a pretext that the statue created an obstacle during ceremonies, it was transported, with its pedestal, to the garden of the Hôtel Biron which had by then become the Musée Rodin. It was photographed in that garden in May 2006 with the Babe for scale.

The dome visible over the shrubbery is the Eglise du Dome, the tomb of Napoleon, located across the street from the museum grounds.

In Friday night Ligue 2 football, Nantes used a second half goal from Czech international Marek Heinz to forge a 1-1 tie with Angers. Angers is only about 50 miles upriver from Nantes which perhaps facilitated the large turnout of 31,370, a new high for a single game attendance for Ligue 2 this year. With a game starting a half an hour earlier, homestanding Le Havre had set the bar high with 2-0 victory over Châteauroux. Last week's 4-0 loss for Nantes comes back to haunt them as this week's results place the two teams equal on points but with Le Havre assuming first place in the general classification on goal differential.

The Nantes-Angers clash of neighbors is small potatoes, however, when compared to the news from the drawing for the 7th round of la Coupe de France. La Coupe is open to every organized football team in France, including all teams playing in the three levels of professional leagues but also all of the teams in the various descending classifications of amateur football. The lowest level of amateur teams begin play in the first round and as the rounds go on teams from higher classifications are gradually added to the mix. As long as you keep winning you keep playing making it theoretically possible for the most lowly side of butchers and shopkeepers to reach the finals in Paris against, perhaps, one of the giants of French football.

The teams of Ligue 2 enter the draw for the first time in round 7 and the draw was held earlier this week. Nantes has drawn amateur side FC Vertou as its opponent. What makes this big news is that Vertou is a Nantes suburb. Vertou plays in the amateur Ligue de l'Atlantique, the District de Loire, where it currently occupies fourth place. Vertou being accorded what even its own website calls the privilege to host Nantes is akin to the Dundas Dukes being named to host a game against the Minnesota Twins, a game that is not an exhibition, but a game that is a real contest on the road to an important trophy. The Vertou players are being given the opportunity to live a dream.

Vertou has drawn the role of host. The side plays its home games at several different sites around their town, none of which are equipped to handle all of the Vertou supporters who are likely to turn out for such an event to say nothing of the 31,000 who attended tonight's game in Nantes and might be expected to also show up for the first foray of this season by Nantes into la Coupe de France. Indeed, the main field in Vertou visible on Google Earch is only about 10km from the Nantes stadium, perhaps not even as much as a 15km drive. No doubt most of the Vertou supporters are also Nantes supporters, fans of the local side on the weekend but also supporters of the major league team in the big stadium just up the road.

Vertou as the host has the option of naming the field where the game is to be played. In connection with this the following announcement was made today:

Sous réserve de l'accord de la Fédération Française de Football, le FC Nantes et Vertou se sont entendus pour évoluer au Stade de la Beaujoire à l'occasion du 7ème tour de la Coupe de France.

Subject to approval of the French Football Association the game will be played in Nantes at Stade de la Beaujoire, the Nantes home stadium. It is as though the Dundas Dukes have been granted the right to be the home team against the Minnesota Twins at the Metrodome in a game which might lead to one or the other of them qualifying to play in the World Series.

Allez Nantes! Allez Vertou!

74 percent chance

Regular readers may wonder where I have been. Sunday: rain. Monday: rain. Tuesday: rain. Wednesday: rain. Thursday: rain.

Today there was only a 74 percent chance of rain. In fact, it sprinkled as I walked out to the parking lot after work. But I got home and the streets were dry. It was not actually raining. I gave it a try.

The ride was punctuated not by rain but by an emphatic period at the end: dark, dark, completely dark. It was totally completely dark at 6:45. But I was in the house. It was not a long ride but it was ride.

Uh, it was too dark to get a photo.

Ms. Wireless was over on Wednesday and we watched France v. Lithuania in a Euro 2008 qualifier. With the big doings in Paris for the rugby World Cup the usual venue, Stade de France, was not available for this game so they played it in Nantes. It was a chance for me to get a look at what Ms. Wireless has called "a really nice stadium." And it looked really nice, a full oval with about half of the seats under cover. The pitch looked fantastic. It is clearly a big league stadium, obviously not appropriate for Ligue 2. France won 2-0 as Thierry Henry scored both goals to surpass current Fédération Française de Football President Michel Platini as the all time leading goal scorer for the French national team. In an interesting coincidence, and as noted on a sign waved by a fan in the crowd during the celebration, and as translated for me by my guide, M. Henry also scored his very first professional goal in Nantes.

Today FC Nantes took the same field as Ligue 2 action resumed. Nantes hosted Troyes. Troyes is interesting as it is a team which was also in Ligue 1 last season, finishing 18th to Nantes' 20th. Troyes, Sedan and Nantes were the relegated teams. Troyes was in 4th place coming into today's game, obviously needing a win to get back into the promotion zone of the general classification.

Nicolas Goussé opened the scoring for Nantes in the 21st minute. The game seemed to turn against Nantes in the 45th minute when Harlington Shereni was given a straight red card for elbowing the Troyes captain, Gael Sanz. However, the Nantes website characterized the foul as "une grossière simulation" which I think means that Nantes supporters believe that a more astute referee might have noticed that the Troyes player was acting and that no contact had occurred. Entering the second half a player short but leading 1-0, defense was obviously the priority. In the 69th minute a foul on the same Gael Sanz produced a yellow card and a free kick opportunity for Nantes just 22 meters away from goal. Troyes marked poorly and defender Jean-Jacques Pierre, forward on the free kick, notched the second goal for the Canaries. Justice was eventually served when Sanz received another yellow in the 89th minute resulting in the second expulsion of the match. The final whistle saw the teams playing 10 a side.

Nantes improves its hold on first place in the table with second place Le Havre off until Monday night.

Really old tomb

It rained most of the day today, no bicycling.

I just don't know what I was thinking yesterday. I like those Paris cemetery pictures so much that I completely blanked on the really, really old tomb that I have pictures of.

The Dolmen de la Madeleine at Gennes in the Loire Valley:Dolmens are megaliths generally considered to have been tombs, constructed with several large stones supporting a "capstone". They were erected by pre-Celtic people in Brittany and also in Britain before recorded history, making them quite literally pre-historic. This construction stands without pretension, without fences, without tour guides, without interpretive assistance, in an open field at the edge of a small town near the Loire. Dolmens of this sort are dated to between 4000 and 4800 B.C., nearly 7,000 years ago. These are way older than the Pyramids (constructed about 2600 B.C.), slightly older than Stonehenge (standing stones erected about 2200 B.C. but other parts of the site are older, perhaps 4000 B.C.), older than the Great Wall (500 B.C.), older than just about anything man made still in existence on the face of the planet.

Babe for scale.

What Alice said

Alice said: Un peu sombre pour démarrer le mois et la semaine, n'est-il pas? Alice also provided this translation: A little somber start for this month and this week, isn't it?

But here you go, this is one of my traveling companions at Cimetière du Montparnasse in 2006. Simone de Beauvoir and Jean Paul Sartre are buried next to each other beneath this single marker just inside the gate.I missed two more days to rain in September, the last two. It was also a weekend and it was very disappointing to lose an entire weekend but there really just wasn't any way. It rained a couple of times on Saturday and the wind blew hard. Sunday it rained all pretty much all day. Today the forecast was for the rain to go away and I suppose we should be happy that it did. However, the promised clearing never occurred, it was still overcast and felt like rain when I got in a ride after work today.

FC Nantes burst out to a 0-2 lead by the half at Grenoble tonight and coasted in to a 0-3 victory. Mamadou Bagayoko scored first in the 29th minute and then completed the scoring early in the second half. Nicolas Gousse got the other goal in the 39th minute. FC Nantes returns to first in the table. Next up is Thursday at home against last place Gueugnon. As we all know, my French is rudimentary but I think the game gets an early start, 6:15, and a special reduced admission, 3 euros. By the way, in the big game at Nantes on Friday night, Fiji 38, Wales 34, Fiji advances to the quarterfinals against South Africa, a team I believe is usually referred to as the Springboks. New Zealand (the All Blacks), Australia, England, France, Argentina and Scotland also remain alive as the knockout round begins.

And to close, here is a scene from 2004 and Le Cimetière du Père-Lachaise.That is a dedicated fan at the grave of Jim Morrison. This spot even gets a scene in the movie we saw last weekend (2 Days in Paris). Americans of a certain age are fascinated by this spot. Elsewhere in the same cemetery the grave of Edith Piaf seems to have a very similar attraction for the French.

Rest day

Very heavy rain moved through at about 3pm creating a rest day.

This also allowed me to catch up on le Tour.

Right now I think my prediction for the finish is the exact same prediction that I made before the race began. The three favorites to me look to be Evans, Leipheimer and Klöden. Evans is currently the best placed on GC off a good performance in the Alps, he is a strong time trial rider and his team is without the distraction of also having to prepare to help McEwen in the sprints. Klöden is a strong time trial rider, looks to be riding through the injury and rides for one of the very best teams, a team which will be looking for redemption for itself and for its injured team leader, Vinokourov. Leipheimer has always said that his best chances will come in the Pyrenees, that those mountains suit his style better than the Alps. He is a strong time trial rider, riding for a team which suddenly looks to have multiple contenders for the lead. Popovych, Gusev and Hincapie are all strong support riders, Popovych's results to this point good enough that he probably is still harboring GC thoughts for himself. Leipheimer is the team leader but even he must be impressed by the emergence of Contador. In an interview with VeloNews, no less a source than CSC's Dave Zabriskie says Contador is the man to beat. Discovery looks very strong.

And what of Rasmussen? He is sure to lose time in the time trial. He must limit his losses and try to gain more time in the Pyrenees. However, he is now a marked man, the other contenders will not let him go in a breakaway with lesser riders as they did the first day in the Alps. If Rasmussen goes now everyone who considers himself a contender must go with him. It will be very difficult for Rasmussen to have another day where he gains big time.

My choice now is my choice before the race began, Cadel Evans. Evans is currently fourth but only the extra seconds in time bonus awarded to Valverde for the finish after Galibier boost Valverde into second overall. Mayo is third but leads Evans by only two seconds. If Rasmussen falters in the race against the clock, Evans seems best positioned to assume the lead. It is now too close to call, but my choice is Evans.

The big days coming up now look to be Saturday and Sunday. Saturday is the a 54 km time trial which includes a category 4 climb. This is obviously a stage critical for all of the current leaders and contenders. Sunday is the first day in the Pyrenees, an extremely difficult day of climbing. The stage begins with a category 2 climb but the real test begins three hours later with a beyond category climb, a descent, and almost immediately the beyond category climb to Plateau de Beille, 16 km at an average gradient of nearly 8 percent, for a mountaintop finish. This is the most difficult summit finish of the Tour and the stage winner could well be the overall winner of the race the following Sunday in Paris.

I love the Tour. Here is the site of the conclusion of the race:As photographed by me from the top of this:That's The Babe and The Guide in the foreground.

Thinking about fresh berries

It was cool, only about 75, intermittently but mostly cloudy and windy. I did not come across anything that struck my fancy for a photo. I spent most of the ride thinking about two things: this morning's stage in the TdF and fresh blueberries. I do not have a photo of fresh blueberries but I do have a photo of some pretty nice fresh produce.That's the market at Noirmoutier on the Ile de Noirmoutier, France. That is the island that is reached by a causeway which is available only at low tide. I have a picture of that somewhere too but I didn't spend any time on my ride thinking about that so that picture does not make today's cut.

The stage was interesting, more exciting than Wiggins predicted but in significant ways Wiggins was also correct. The race at the front with the German kid taking the yellow was inspiring and fun but he is no more a threat to hold the jersey by the end of next week than Cancellara was to hold it at the end of today.

If you watched you know the kid, Gerdemann, was seriously knackered at the end of a category 1 climb, a climb on which he lost 2 minutes to all of the heads of state (one of the squares on the Paul and Phil Tour de France Bingo game and something Phil is certain to say soon although I don't believe he has said it yet). The team leaders rode together, participating in the first sorting out of the race. None of them risked anything. They rode together saving strength for a much harder stage coming tomorrow. Tomorrow has not one category 1 to finish the stage, but three. And once Gerdemann puts on the yellow jersey he just isn't going to be allowed to go out on a breakaway and get a five minute headstart over the heads of state up that last climb. Nope, he will have to try to ride with them tomorrow. With a rest day coming up on Monday, good luck to the kid, his time in yellow may be short.

But it was good entertainment, congratulations to Gerdemann. And as an aside, if Gerdemann suffers tomorrow and is unable to produce anything resembling today's effort, that will be a good thing, a very good thing for the sport, as it will indicate that perhaps, just perhaps, he is riding clean.

Opera Garnier

A photo taken on my morning walk.As the girl said, out the door, around the corner, and, boom, the Opera. I was standing in the middle of what would be in a couple of hours a very busy street. As I took my morning walk it was quiet and tranquil. And beautiful.

Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré

Frenchman wins bicycle race in France.

Christophe Moreau of the Ag2r team (ahh zhay deux err) today crossed the finish line in Annecy in a group with the other contenders to retain his lead and capture one of the last major prep races for next month's 94th Tour de France.

Alexander Vinokourov of the Astana team was perhaps the strongest rider in the race and in fact was the winner of the final stage. But Vinokourov deliberately let seven minutes escape on the midweek climb of the legendary Mont Ventoux, won by Moreau. Vinokourov, who was in the lead at that point, elected to let the stage leaders go to save his strength for le Tour.

In other cycling news Iban Mayo and Leonardo Piepoli of Saunier Duval and Alessandro Petacchi of Milram, the points classification winner, were reported to have returned "non-negative" test results for banned substances at the Giro d'Italia. Mayo has subsequently been cleared but Piepoli and Petacchi remain under suspicion. Piepoli confirmed that he takes the drug in question, salbutamol, but averred that he takes it for asthma, the commonly prescribed use. Other sources report that salbutamol is commonly taken as a masking agent for EPO.

Today is Fathers' Day and here is a photo of the two people who constitute my validation as a Father.This photo was taken in our house on Seminary, probably when Wireless was 3 or so. They are sitting in the baby rocking chair. Isn't Wireless sweet?

The Babe and I got out early enough for our ride to avoid the heat of the day which is now building and promises to be oppressive. We left about 8:30 when the weather sites predicted a 39 percent chance of a thunderstorm by 10. 39? Where do they come up with these things? It did not rain but the weather was unsettled enough that it completely changed two times while we were out and we ended up riding into a head wind on the way home.

We also started out in a direction away from the eight lakes. The first weather change convinced us to turn back and try to make it to at least Owasso.It was so uncertain when we started that we decided to get the corn picture at the very beginning of the ride, just to make sure that we got the photo.The corn looks good, doesn't it? Babe included for scale.

I dared the weather gods

And they were totally up to the challenge. In the face of mounting evidence that it was going to rain, including a brief episode when it actually rained, I geared up and rode out into the gathering gloom.

Hah, sneered the rain god. And sent pouring rain to drive me back inside. I got in almost 3 miles. This does not include even a crossing of Snelling. I got up to Snelling and had the green light but I also had already felt one sprinkle so I turned and headed towards Larpenteur. On the westward leg along Larpenteur I could see the northeastern sky and I could see two places where there clearly was rain falling. I hammered for home but it started to sprinkle pretty hard while I was on Fairview. I got onto my street before it was really raining and as I pulled up to the garage the thunder gods sent the first roll of boomers.

I didn't get wet, I was back in the house before the rain got started. But as I stood in the living room removing my helmet and gloves the downpour let loose.

I stood up to the rain gods and they slapped me right back into my place. But it was fun trying.

Here are my impressions of the Giro: Italians take that race way more seriously than the riders from the other cycling nations. McEwen, Hincapie, Cancellara, and many other non-Italians rode the first week or week and a half as training for the big race to come later this summer. The Italians mostly stayed the course, taking 7 of the top 9 General Classification placings and 14 of the top 19. And won most of the other prizes. Winner of the points and 8 of the top 10, winner of the mountains and 7 of the top 10, loser only of the best young rider to Luxembourger Schleck, who also got 2nd on GC.

The effect of drugs on the race? Hard to tell with the Italians. Garzelli, Savoldelli, Simoni, Cunego, Bruseghin and Pellizotti, all Italians, all top 12, all had at least one bad day. DiLuca, the winner, did not. He won with what every commentator conceded was a weak team.

But the worst smelling result is Schleck. 21 years old, in his first grand tour, riding for the team of Barney Riis, the team of Ivan Basso, the team of Tyler Hamilton, younger brother of a journeyman rider who has suddenly started to have improved results, young Schleck never had a weak day, always rode with the leaders, never had a problem. It smells bad amigos, it smells bad. Endurance sports are usually sports where maturity and strength are rewarded, youthful enthusiasm is usually not. Even Lance Armstrong did not leap onto the podium in his first Tour. Armstrong struggled in his first appearances, it was not until after the bout with cancer that he suddenly had the strength to always ride at the front. For the good of the sport Schleck must prove to be a prodigy and back it up by riding well in the race to Paris. Any other result will smell very bad indeed.These are the hedges and shrubbery from the formal garden at Chateau de Villandry. Google Earth has updated the photo layer for western France and the Chateau and grounds are readily identifiable. Farther west Olonnne sur Mer is now not quite the high resolution that all of the USA is but the resolution is very, very much improved. You can now clearly make out the buildings where the world traveller lived and taught and you can make out the E. Leclerc up at the corner traffic circle. Chartres is upgraded to medium resolution, the Cathedral is now discernable although it is still a bit bleary. Just east of town the resolution upgrades to high leading me to believe that Chartres soon will be high resolution. Alice's town of Arradon on the coast is very clear. The hotel next to the Frankfurt airport is very high resolution.

Puddles

Both yesterday and today had extended periods when it was pretty nice. Both days those periods occurred when I was cooped up on the fourth floor of a lowertown office building. By 4pm both days the wind came up and clouds moved in. And both days it eventually rained pretty hard. No ride again today.

The rain is doing very well by the corn. There are very distinct green rows visible when I drive past in my car. Perhaps tomorrow I will get over there on my bicycle and I can share.The last France picture was Parc Monceau while it was lightly raining. This picture was taken later on that day in a more famous park. The puddles remain from the morning rain. An interesting tidbit is that the guide is visibly in this picture. That is her shadow in the left foreground. She holds the universal photographer's pose and snaps her parental units casually acting as though being in the Tuileries on a sunny day in May is no big deal.

Correct choice

I often say you make the decision based on the best information you have available at the time you have to decide. Then you live with the consequences knowing that you did the best you could in making the decision.

So I did not want to go. The morning's fuss over the race had the effect of heightening my interest and I found myself wanting to stay and watch. But the sky was absolutely clear, absolutely gorgeous blue. The temperature passed through the 60 barrier and I found myself knowing that I would be sorry if I did not ride. I got on my bike and rode out.

Really, really nice ride. It was 71 as I pulled back into the garage. And low and behold, it rained in Indianapolis. They are on a rain delay on lap 113. So I saw almost 40 laps before I went and I will see the last 87. So I made the right decision.

Here is a cemetery in Roseville all decked out for Memorial Day. There is nothing unusual about that. This is a pretty common scene all around the country. If anything, this one looks a bit underdecorated compared to many. And it should. If you look closely you will notice that the front two stones commemorate Coco and Bon Bon and that the engravings on the stones are poodles. This picture is of my bicycle in front of the Roseville Pet Cemetery. Yesterday from Ligue 1: Lyon 3:1 FC Nantes. The season is complete and the next game Nantes plays will be against Ligue 2 opposition.

Speaking of France and tulips, I searched around in my photo folder as I thought I had one that might do justice to the Quincy Street tulip farm. I don't think I succeeded but this is the most tulips I had in one image. This photo is from the gardens at Chateau de Villandry. This Loire chateau is famous for its decorative gardens, but mostly for intricately planted and trimmed hedges. I think they also plant these tulips to provide entertainment early in the growing season before the main attractions completely fill out.This photo was taken during our drive across France in late April 2006.

They are getting ready to re-start that race thing. I think I will go watch. I note Tony Kanaan as the current leader and Ashley Judd's husband running fifth. Milka Duno is out of the race. What happened to her? And what health problem is Jim Nabors recovering from which rendered him unable to sing?

Another rainy day

I admit that the picture was not taken here today. This is Parc Monceau in Paris, described in Lonely Planet as "an English style park". It is located a bit more than a kilometer northeast along Avenue Hoche from Charles de Gaulle Etoile in the 8th arrondissement on the border with the 17th. That would be about three blocks from the Arc de Triomphe.It is relevant today because, just as it was raining that day in Paris, it is raining here today. In fact, we currently have a severe weather warning.

Champions League final from the Olympic Stadium in Athens, AC Milan 2:1 Liverpool. Hand ball on the first goal anyone?

A brief follow-up on the Roland Garros story: While we were wandering seemingly aimlessly through the 16th while using the Galleries Lafayette poster to try to find the tennis stadium, one of the things which confused us was stadium lights which were visible from the Metro. That stadium turned out to be not a tennis stadium but a soccer stadium, Parc des Princes. I have only recently learned that Parc des Princes is the home stadium of Paris-Saint Germain and also that it was the national stadium of France until the construction of Stade de France for the 1998 World Cup, which was won by . . . Bueller? Correct. The home team, France.

A cold day, and then . . .

The weather gadget says 50, Yahoo says 52, the Weather Channel says 53. This is a pretty cold day in comparison to what we have had lately so I was thinking that there would be no ride today. I just went outside to check to be sure that it was really as cold as all the indoor electronic media said it was. It was indeed pretty coolish but the crowning blow was that as I stood in the driveway assessing the situation it started to sprinkle. Cold and then rain? No ride today.

I salute you Nantes even as I read the unsettling news from Beaujoire stadium as originally reported by Reuters and posted at EuroSport:

The last home match for Nantes in Ligue 1 was marred by confusing scenes which symbolised the downfall of the once great club. Their penultimate match of a disastrous season, at home to Toulouse, was heading towards a 0-0 draw when it was abandoned in the 87th minute after hundreds of angry fans had invaded the pitch.

The fans placed the blame for the season squarely on the new owners, displaying a banner that read, "Dassault rends les armes." which Reuters translated as Dassault (the new owner) killed us.

Also, commenting earlier on relegation, Nantes defender Franck Signorino said, "People have fought for decades to make this club one of the greatest in France and now we're going down, I feel ashamed to have taken part in this disaster."

Fabian Barthez has vowed to play on even as he commented on the debacle of a season. "It has been difficult at Nantes because people of the club started rumours, they called journalists to tell them to write wrong things about me. But I did the maximum I could and I still can look at myself in the mirror. Maybe I invested myself too much in the dressing room, I should have concentrated myself on my performances rather than talking to the guys. It wouldn't be a problem for me to play on, I want to start a human adventure. I love France, I love Ligue 1."

Allez Nantes. Follow the link to read the story in French at the team website.

This is the very elegant Place Royale near the center of Nantes.I watched the Louis Vuitton again today and I found it more interesting in a train wreck sort of way. The team sponsored by the rich Americans melted completely down. First the skipper, after meeting with the head of the syndicate, either stepped down or was sacked. In any case, BMW Oracle brought in a new leader for what turned out to be its final appearance. They went out on the water and the Italian Luna Rossa again outclassed the American boat to advance to the challenge round finals. I am trying to keep track here but I admit that I am starting to have some difficulty keeping straight which New Zealander is sailing for which syndicate. *sigh* The travails of the excessively wealthy. I wonder if I won the lottery.

Where have all the flowers gone?

Catchy title, no?

Yesterday was too hot and too windy and threatening rain. It was 90, I think, and although 90 is marginally doable, 90 at this point in the year is too hot. So today was 59, almost as windy and even more threatening. It never actually rained yesterday and it didn't today either. So I rode my bike.

I rode to the north and there are a couple of spots that I have been waiting for the right combination of blossoms and sunlight to photograph. Particularly there is a double row of flowering crabs at Saint Odila. Well, I waited too long, the flowers are gone.

I was convincing myself that the flowering season is over until I passed these on the way home.The fruit trees may be done flowering but there are plenty of other bushes now coming forward to fill the void. Lilacs are everywhere and there is suddenly a second wave of white flowers. These look like they may have been originally planted as a hedge.

There's a story about yesterday's picture. It was our first trip to France. We have only very, very rudimentary French skills so we were extremely dependent on the Guide. Well, at the time of this trip she was still a college student and she had to go back to Nantes before we had to go back to Roseville. We were on our own in Paris for a few days.

That night I looked up Roland Garros in the Lonely Planet. The Paris Metro is, just as widely advertised, very user friendly so we had no trouble figuring out the appropriate Metro line and stop and the next day we successfully navigated to the neighborhood surrounding the stadium. From that point I learned a valuable lesson. Do not, repeat, do not try to navigate your way in Paris with a Galleries Lafayette map. It is more like a poster than an actual map and it made the few blocks from the Metro to Roland Garros into a much larger adventure than it needed to be.

We wandered down a couple of streets and eventually found ourselves walking along next to a fenced enclosure. Soon we could see that there were tennis courts on the other side of the fence. I expected that soon enough we would come to some sort of main entrance and that then we would either pay an admission and be admitted to the grounds or else we would discover that the club was closed and that the peek we were getting through the fence was as good as we were going to get.

With this in mind I was pretty excited about walking along the fence and having a good view of the courts. Not the stadium, but real courts, the outer courts where most of the French Open is played. A few steps later we heard hitting. Soon we could see someone practicing on one of the courts. Perhaps not professional quality practice, but good players striking the ball with authority. At this point I was completely satisfied with the experience. I had located Roland Garros and I had seen someone playing tennis on one of the outer courts, all without the benefit of the Guide. Pretty good stuff, no?

We kept walking to the corner of the grounds, turned left and walked across the end and left again and started back up the other side. The result of trying to navigate with the Galleries Lafayette map was that we had completely missed the front entrance and were going to have to walk pretty much all the way around the grounds before we got back to the front entrance. So we kept walking.

Halfway up the second long side we could see an access road leading on to the grounds. It had a gate, to be sure, but the gate was standing open. What the heck, the worst that could happen is that I wouldn't be able to speak any French and an exasperated French person would escort me off the grounds, right? So we walked in and wandered about among the outer courts. From inside the fence we could now easily see the people practicing and we could see that we were now approaching the stadium courts. So we walked towards them. We passed Court Suzanne Lenglen and soon arrived at the plaza between Philippe Chartrier and the original stadium, now referred to as Court 1. The original stadium has the names of winners of the tournament on a ring around the outside top. The plaza is Place des Mousquetaires and it has a replica Davis Cup and statues of the Four Musketeers of French tennis, the heroes of the sport who first won the Cup for France and successfully retained the trophy for six straight years at a time when the Davis Cup was a world championship of significance similar to that which is now accorded the World Cup of soccer. Borotra, Bugnon, Cochet and Lacoste, each in bronze in the plaza with their names on the rim of the stadium above and also on the replica Cup memorializing their accomplishment.This shot is from in front of Philippe Chartrier facing towards Court 1 in the background. The statue behind me is Borotra, the Bouncing Basque.

At this point I was way, way pleased with the whole Roland Garros experience. I had gotten in, which I wasn't sure I would be able to do. I had seen all of this stuff and I had been able to do it undisturbed, with no other tourists about.

We were just looking around and the passageway under the stadium to Philippe Chartrier was open. So we started to walk down it. No gate, no fence, no security, no nothing. We walked out the other end of the passageway at court level to an opening onto the court. We walked out and my wife took my picture and that's the story.

Good story, no?

Too hot, too windy, threatening to rain

No ride today. Two days in a row without a ride. It feels a little strange.

This is the red clay of Paris.April 26, 2004, standing on the playing surface at Court Philippe Chartrier at Stade Roland Garros. Neither Wilson nor any of his relatives were present. Nor any fans.