The Louvre and the Eiffel Tower......

Since Pont de Arts was real close to the Louvre we made it our next stop. Upon stepping into the square we saw the iconic pyramids and spent some time walking around taking photos before we went inside.

 

With our fill of photo ops outside we walked around to the entrance. Before connecting the dots and realizing what was happening we knew something was amiss. We were able to walk right up to the entrance - this should've been a dead give away. It turns out that during our half day in Paris the Louvre was closed!!! Sigh. It took a couple minutes to sink in because I know that in all the reading I did beforehand I didn't run across this very important detail! So with this in mind we vowed to return to Paris, someday, to see the Louvre. Although thoroughly disappointed we were determined to enjoy the rest of the day and decided to set off towards the Eiffel Tower that we could see from the Louvre courtyard.

Now I must admit that for some reason, before we embarked on this trip, I had a crazy idea that in all of these locales it would be a challenge to find my way to the landmarks, museums and attractions that I wanted to see. I can tell you that, at least on this trip, nothing could've been further from the truth. In an effort to be organized I had spent time reading about each city we would visit and made a list of things I wanted to seek out. I guess I did this to make the trip seem less daunting (that didn't work at all) and to make sure that I didn't miss or forget anything. For example, when we arrived in Leuven we walked past several sights on my list before we arrived at our hotel to check-in. This kind of thing happened throughout this trip but I never ceased to be amazed and delighted by it. :) So all that to say when this happened yet again in Paris when we easily spied the Eiffel Tower I had to smile.

We set off and walked through numerous gardens, dotted with statues and fountains, were people were walking their dogs, sitting down to picnic lunches and working away on canvases propped up on portable easels.

It was supposed to be a 45 minute walk and halfway there we came upon a group of rickshaws, motorized or not depending on your preference.

I suggested we take one the rest of the way to the Eiffel Tower because it seemed like a crazy, impromptu thing to do. Why not, right? So we chatted up one of the drivers and before we knew it we were ushered into the backseat of one of the motorized variety and then we were off! Immediately thrust into Paris traffic in a rickety rickshaw we noticed that the driver was unfazed by the madness as we marveled, and occasionally cringed, at the number and speed of the cars that swirled around us. At a red light we had our photo taken by another tourist wanting to document this crazy aspect of Paris - I think it's hilarious that we'll be on someone's random 'Paris' scrapbook page. :) We arrived in one piece and before we stepped out of the rickshaw we were already staring up, mouths agape, at the Eiffel Tower.

 

 

It was nothing short of incredible and we spent quite a bit of time just walking around it and taking photos. Sadly, the lines to go up the elevators to the varying levels were impossibly long. We contemplated going up the first level via the stairs but even that line was ridiculous. In the end we didn't go up but we didn't care - it was amazing to look at and I'll tell you now that it was my favorite monument of the trip!

Lunch and Pont de Arts....

In Paris we discovered that they have Chipotle and even though we only had part of one day to spend there we were beyond delighted to  find that it was pretty close to the sights we were planning to see. It goes without saying that the food was delicious and afterwards we felt  fortified  for the big  day ahead. :)

Next we starting walking along the River Seine  and we found our way to Pont de Arts, a pedestrian bridge that has become famous over the years. Someone sometime decided to, with their lover, place a  padlock on the chain-link fence on the bridge to "lock in" their love for all eternity. After reading about Paris online  I wanted to visit the bridge and add a padlock of our own. After all we did celebrate our third wedding anniversary (and seventh anniversary of being together) during this trip; it was an interesting one as we were between space and time flying from  Sydney to London. so before reaching the bridge we bought a padlock from a vendor and  wrote our names on it.

After walking around looking at all the locks we strolled to the middle of bridge to pick out a place for ours. They were incredible thick on this portion of the bridge but alas Timmy found the spot and I did  the honors by snapping the lock onto the fence.

A nice couple from New York City offered to take our picture when they saw us adding our lock to the collection. :)

Now for the criminal part. Tradition  states that to truly "lock in" your  love you must embrace and throw the keys into the river below. We also read that if cops catch you doing this they will  not hesitate to give you a ticket. So both of us looked around, saw  no cops and proceeded to  hug and kiss and simultaneously toss the keys into the river. Silly and romantic. Then Tim  told  me that he felt bad for throwing something into the river. Oh well. :) Next we counted the number of fence sections between the end of the bridge and where our lock is so next time hopefully it will still be there and we will be able to find it.

Notre Dame.....

In order to see Paris but avoid taking the car anywhere near the city center we stayed well outside in a suburb called Massey. Waking bright and early we were soon out the door and boarding the train that would take us into the city for a quick, one day, Paris excursion!

After twenty minutes we arrived at our stop and climbing the stairs from the underground platform we emerged into Paris! At the time I could scarcely believe that we were there and honestly, I still cannot believe that I've been to Paris. Well, things became real rather quickly as we were walking along taking it all in when we happened upon Notre Dame. I hadn't spent a great deal of time reading about Paris because our time there was limited to part of one day so it was a nice surprise to happen upon a such an amazing landmark!

Next stop Paris.....

The last day of my conference we had a couple sessions in the morning topped off with a box lunch perfect for two. :) Rain had started earlier in the day with no end in sight so we ate our lunch at the conference center, I said goodbye to some of the people I had met during the week and we set off for Paris! This time we had a French SIM card for my phone so we had GPS for directions and we were soon headed for our hotel near  Paris Orly airport (south of the city). After driving a few hours, thankfully without incident, we arrived at our hotel,  checked in and grabbed a late  dinner. I can't tell you how much less stressful this drive was compared to when we were driving to La Rochelle!

European Behavioral Pharmacology Society......

I had no  idea how I was going to make it through the conference; I have zero talent when running on absolutely NO sleep. So  I decided to set some goals because the thought of the twelve hour day  seemed beyond daunting and without end. With that in mind I concentrated on each session - just get  through this session and then you can walk  around/eat something/drink espresso or whatever.  I have to admit that that  helped. So  I focused on taking notes so I could remember what was said and it also helped to keep me awake. I drank espresso and munched on cookies during breaks which helped some  too. My only problem came when I sat down to the Plenary Lecture, right after lunch, in an auditorium with chairs that were  too comfortable. I had one of those nodding off and then waking up immediately moments but I'm proud to say that I didn't fall asleep during any other time that day at the conference!! The sessions were interesting and they ticked by one by one. Then we were  at the poster  session; two hours standing in  front of my poster waiting for people to  come and talk to  me. But I figured this would be good because there was no way I could fall asleep standing up, right? I'm happy to say that several students and professors stopped by to chat and they were  genuinely interested and impressed with our current data. I couldn't help but feel a little bit  proud. :) And somehow, magically, the two hours was  up and Tim came to get me. I was terribly pleased as to how well the day went considering everything. And I think it's hilaroius that I went to the first day of a brain research conference without my brain. :)

After  Tim picked me  up we walked around to see some of La Rochelle, get a drink and have some dinner. The following day was much the same but I was a little more coherent as I was finally able to sleep after
going so  many hours without. I enjoyed the sessions even more, probably because I now had part of my brain on board, and again Tim and I spent  a lovely evening wandering around looking at the plethora of  yachts before  getting a drink and then dinner. The last day of the  conference we checked out of our room Tim dropped me off and went to see the La Rochelle Aquarium. He said there were large sharks there but was nice enough to not  take  pictures of them. :) Then, all of a sudden, our time in La  Rochelle was  up. I wish we had had more time because I felt like I didn't really see it but alas the conference kept me busy and the rest of the time we were taking meals or sleeping like rocks. :)

Hitting the road to La Rochelle.....

Our final day in Leuven Tim went off to class  and I packed up our bags  and checked out of our room. Soon after Tim  came striding into the hotel lobby  and  we were strapping on  our packs to make the trek across  town to the train  station. We  purchased our tickets at a well hidden  ticket  counter and  then boarded the train to Brussels (about 20 minutes). We arrived at the airport and found our way to the Europcar car where we completed the paperwork, declined the GPS because we had detailed directions to our destination and were given the  keys to a  black Peugeot. After some time searching in the parking garage we  found our vehicle, snapped a couple photos, piled our bags into the trunk and took a breath for here we  embarked on a portion of the trip where we were driving ourselves through unfamiliar territory.

Admittedly, I was nervous because we were about to  drive  diagonally across the whole  of  France relying solely  on  Google Maps directions for guidance. After exiting the airport  we followed the directions  without incident for a few  hours and were feeling pretty good. Soon we crossed over  from Belgium to France and after a bit were  approaching Paris. The directions  were sending us around as  to avoid the chaos of the big city. Then  all of a sudden the traffic  slowed to a crawl and then a complete stop. We were nearing our exit and figured if we could just get there we could keep on and arrive late but that wouldn't be too bad. The first hour passed and we had barely inched  forward. The second hour passed and we were still sitting there. We saw multiple truckers who had given up, pulled over to the shoulder and settled in for the night. I couldn't blame them. Traffic  finally crept up on our exit and we were  relieved until we  realized that it had been closed by a handful of motorcycle cops that we haphazardly telling people to move over out of the exit lane. There was no indication, in the previous 2+ hours that this section of road would be closed and there was no direction as to  a detour route. As traffic started to pick up again we thought we could figure our way around the city using a recently  purchased road map along with our original directions. Taking the most intuitive route (we thought) we were dumped directly into Paris and the drama began. The understatement of the century is that Paris is poorly organized, signed and completely full of  circular  roads  that will suck you in and get you hopelessly lost. Nothing is laid out on a grid and the roads are filled with vehicles driving bumper to bumper and turning, I kid you not, at random around corners, through lanes of traffic whenever suits
them. It is no exaggeration when I tell you that we were lost in Paris for  more than two  hours. About to lose hope completely I said, "Honey, I'm lost and cannot see where we are on the map". As soon as the words were out of my mouth I spotted a sign that, on the map, appeared to connect to a road that would put us on the road we needed to continue on to La Rochelle. After that we stopped or  fuel, a  bathroom,  a drink and an opportunity to take a  breath and gather ourselves  back together. I cannot tell you how uncomfortable  those two hours were being continually  turned around and seeing the number of the road we were on in several locations on the map. SIGH.

From there  we were  able to find the road that took us  most of the way to La Rochelle.  But realize that being stuck in traffic and the drama of being lost in Paris wasted almost five hours! At this point it was approaching midnight as we still had to drive across a  large  chunk of France  to La  Rochelle which is  situated on the west coast. With my conference starting at 8am that same morning  Tim made me put my seat back and try to sleep. Under normal circumstances I have trouble sleeping in cars but after all the craziness I was only able  to doze for a few minutes here and there.  Not too long after that we had to pull over so Tim could rest as well; being the driver he had the worst of the last five hours. An  hour later we  started  on the road  again and Tim  drove us the rest of the way to  La  Rochelle. I  tried  to rest because I had a  twelve  hour day ahead of me thinking and talking about neuroscience  but alas I was  too wound  up to sleep. At 6am we arrived in La Rochelle completely exhausted and terrorized by the previous day's chaos. After checking in we dragged our  bags into, let  me just say, the most uninspired hotel room of our entire trip. But at this point we didn't care.  I was  trying to pull myself  together so I could face a  long day at the conference.  It  was  then, when checking over the conference details, I saw that I was  to present my poster at the poster session  at the end of the day.  Perfect. This realization made me want to cry but I couldn't - I was too tired. :) Again I tried  to lay down and rest for an hour but  still couldn't sleep so  I got up,  showered and gathered my purse. Timmy drove me to the conference where  I registered and slipped into the first talk of the day.

Leuven Walkabout.....

To sum up our time in Leuven I wanted to include a few photos taken randomly around town. I loved our time there even though I couldn't speak a word of Flemish!

M Leuven.....

Later on, with a  bee in my bonnet, I decided  to visit the local museum, M Leuven, to see their contemporary collections.

I enjoy modern art while usually not understanding much of it. :) M Leuven was no exception. The Ugo Rondinone exhibit was a interesting mix of sculpture interspersed with stained glass.

The  multitudes of small bid sculptures made me feel like I was trespassing by getting  too close to the artwork - I read  later that that was the  idea. Needless to say  I tread softly until I was  able to leave the gallery.

What I encountered next were  wax sculptures that were eerily realistic and the accompanying masses of earth in each of the galleries tremendously imposing and severe.

 

A second and very different portion of this exhibition was an interesting  piece of semi interactive  art. All alone  I approached the gallery and peaked around the corner  to see  a massive concrete box suspended 2.5 feet above the floor. I  read the sign and had  to  smile, "You can crawl under the volume to view the artwork".  Well, ok. Why not? And what do  you know? Inside that intimidating structure  was papered  with childrens' drawings  of the sun. From  the outside the  volume gave the impression of  something very dark  and cold  but inside it was bright and "sunny". Interesting mix. :)

 

After  crawling out from under the concrete structure I found my way  across the rooftop balcony to the next gallery that housed a  collection by Ilse D'Hollander. I hadn't  seen anything from this particular artist previously but the simple combinations of varying color and  shapes  made  for  a  collection  that evoked calm.