J'aime Paris encore

brightening the days of metro wanderers. 

indeed this is the good stuff. 

Parisian Anecdote

Saint Chapelle

 My favorite chapel in Paris. 640 squared meters of 13th century glass depicting 1,113 biblical scenes. It's a happy place.

Carcassonne

Tonight we're staying somewhere quite medieval. It's also quite quiet and quite off-season, hence the unusual amount of free bloggy time (city shut down at about 9). But this is our view from our terrace, so we're quite content.

Then we made it to Lourdes

Since we only just left today, I'm still unpacking what went down in Lourdes. Hence, this post won't dive into much. But don't worry everyone's intentions made it (four pages woop woop). Written down, soaked in Lourdes water, inserted into the prayer box at the Grotto, candles lit for them, and all of that crazy good Catholic stuff.

Southern France and Lourdes

On our way down to Lourdes we stopped in Poitiers, France, which charmed us for the 18 hours we gave her.

Poitiers farmers market. Naturally, being in Europe, it's in front of a 10th century church.

Look. Ariel's halo. So holy.

The Cutest Man Alive happens to live in Poitiers, France and we were fortunate enough to meet him. TCMA makes umbrellas every day as he has done for decades. But don't fret, TCMA makes modern umbrellas too, as he would be proud to show you.

Textures



Lourdes

So this should provide a decent impression of the French web cafe from where I sent my Lourdes prayer request email. As you can see, it wasn't just the dodgy keyboard that kept my email short.

 

Lourdes

if anyone has prayer requests to be lifted during our pilgrimage to lourdes send em on in- amb0505@gmail.com

J'aime Paris.

Notre Dame and her buttresses. Also the metal glittering the bridge-railing is a bizarre tradition. Italians claim Federico Moccia's novel "I Want You" inspired the practice. Like its hero and heroine, Parisians and visitor couples write their names on a padlock, attach it to a bridge, and throw the key into the river. Permanence of love and whatnot.

Big Ben. Parliament.

Test run with mobile blogging

bedroom mirror

beyond ecstatic about a new device to record the viaggi. goodbye iphone shots and stills from flip footage.

California

ariel and i spent a month getting to know california 

yosemite

half dome. 

this whoa-man climber alex honnold free climbed it once. 

http://vimeo.com/11687754

*if you're a hostel-type looking to visit yosemite, meet people from varied and colorful nooks and peaks of the world, yosemite bug rustic mountain resort is your place.

sequoias in mariposa grove

normal-sized deer. big trees. 

grizzly giant

faithful couple

san diego and socal

              

açai bowls delicious

the channel islands

*tiny itsy weeny stick thing at the top on the left is ariel

one should expect a multitude of shadow shots in this..eh..eesh. blog. still not into the word. solo traveling (or in this case solo hiking) means no help taking pictures. and i'm not technosavvy enough to do the self-timer thing. 

rothko scape

route 1 roadtrip

dramatic back shot of ariel I

dramatic back shot of ariel II (napa)

red woods at muir woods (north of san francisco)

*there is a difference between red woods and sequoias but i can't explain it here. an easy google. 

back in san fran

our daily wakeup: walk through the exercising asian senior citizens to mass at st. peter and paul 

japanese tea garden in golden gate park