Kyriad Vernon Saint-Marcel

... tired army faced a well-rested, well-armed, supremely confident army up to 10 times as numerous, and bent on revenge for their defeats at Crécy and Poitiers. But the English who had tried to avoid battle, now had no choice but to fight.

Whether by design or chance the battlefield was very narrow, about 7-800 yards wide between two forests around the villages of Azincourt on one side and Tramécourt on the other. It had rained hard during the night, so the field ...

... of Auvers-sur-Oise. It was the final home of Vincent van Gogh. Here he painted: The Church at Auvers; Wheat Field with Crows; Daubigny's Garden and Thatched Cottages by a Hill... to mention a few. He stayed in an upper room at the Ravoux Inn... where he died in July of 1890 at age 37. Sad to say... this ended our Adventures in Europe...

Yesterday I started my day by heading out to Versailles palace (in the rain, but apparently the weather is not going to improve for the rest of the week, so on I trundle). Invested in another umbrella as my one from Zurich couldn't handle the wind in Venice and London and broke, and went to the palace. It's a really incredible place with the most amazing rooms and silver objects d'art and furnature etc etc etc. I walked through the gardens in the rain and after 15mins ...

Thursday Glenna went to school and Maryann, Edith and Julie went to Lancel purse shopping, Just looking. They stopped at the new Alliedd Metals office and the view is pretty spectacular. The address is also pretty spectacular. Right over the Disney store on the Champs-Elysees. Off to Le Souffle for lunch http://msglaze.typepad.com/paris/2006/0 1/le_souffl.html and to meet Glenna, with one quick ...

... working with beans, milk and egg whites. (Yolks also turn out to be verboten.) I really enjoy French food, but find that after two weeks of indulgence my digestive system essentially shuts down. (If our area of Prague was dubbed, "The Land of Bad Food", France might be similarly titled, "The Land with No Fiber.") Having our own apartments for most of our stay here has been of great value. It has allowed ...

... but the view was awesome. I found that you could really appreciate the size of the Eiffel Tower for the top of the Arc because you can see it in comparison to all of the other buildings. We watched all of the traffic in the traffic circle for a bit... apparently an accident happens on average every 12 minutes because it is so massive and so busy with about 12 connecting roads. Apprently no insurance company will insure a car while on this traffic circle... crazy!!! After that, we ...

... surprised to see the long lines for not only to the Hotel de Ville (?) but also the other buildings in the sqaure, but Marie explained to me that these buildings because they are offices used by the government or are public are normally closed to visitors/tourists during the week, and they open up for "visitation" on the weekends, so all the tourists were here to see these buildings while they could. After a few minutes of looking around then ...

... course. They were filled with a range of different things, from just cheese to anchovies and olives to ham to chicken to tomatoes. I ended up ordering a smoked salmon and goat cheese feuillete and with it I ordered a strawberry custard tart. For both treats I paid the same amount that I had paid for that damn Orangina at that cafe-go figure! So finally, I had found lunch, but now I needed something to drink. So I walked furthur up the street in the direction of the ...

... swanky modern place called 'Libresens'. Had champaign for 4euros a glass (UP 8E) and then I had a beef flank and em had a potatoery dish. Then em shopped a little-bought a cute bag from Benneton then we walked across to the Arch. Saw a bit of the glittering Eiffel Tower, waving goodbye to us and then we Metroed back to Bastille. Bought some drinks and me a Hoegarden then we retired at about midnight-tired from all the walking and the cold.

... rained most the time I was in Paris.) I don't know what overcame me, but I decided to feed the pigeons. As soon as a few crumbs were on the ground, more pigeons and tons of sparrow came to join me. So I enjoyed feeding them for quite awhile. The sparrows were quite ...