Day 14

Well, all good things must come to and end! What a great trip this was - a great time with the Leamans and really nice to meet some fantastic people along the way! Concerts and teaching were successful and the sightseeing

Alas, we have made our way back to the states. I sit in the Charlotte airport writing this final blog entry. Trip this morning to the airport was easy via the train. No problems getting on and the flight was smooth. The only small snag is that our Columbia flight is now delayed. Just got to make this one more leg before getting home to see the family.

Thanks for taking time to check out my blog about the trip. It has been fun sharing my experiences and memories with you...

Adios and au revoir!

Day 13

Our last full day in Paris and we are on a mission to see as many things as we can.

We started early with the Louvre Art Museum. I knew that this place was big, but I wasn't prepared with just HOW big it is! We stayed for over 2 hours and only saw the Italian Paintings, Italian Sculptures, and Greek Sculptures. You could spend a week in there an not see everything. But we did see some of the more important pieces, such as the Mona Lisa and the Venus of Milo. I was really taken aback by the different levels of texture even the ancient Greeks were able to capture in their stone sculptures. That just doesn't come through in photographs.

Next we had a quick lunch before heading over to the Notre Dame Cathedral. As with the other Cathedrals, you stand there awe-struck that people lacking the technology we have available today were able to achieve such architectural masterpieces! Here are a few pics...

After that, we did a little shopping and then hopped on the Metro and headed to the Arc de Triomphe. Great experience, although we opted not to go up on the Arc. We had seen so many sights from above that we didn't feel we needed another 9 Euro view. It really does dwarf the Arc in Barcelona and is very beautiful. On a side note, almost every "major" monument that we saw these two weeks was under some kind of construction. Apparently France has a major campaign going on to do restoration work on their monuments....go figure!

We walked the Champs-Elysees for a while and were totally worn out! Check out this cool futuristic car in the Peugot dealership!

So, we hopped on the metro back toward the hotel. Once there, we looked for a place for dinner, and then went to the hotel for a little rest. Had a nice dinner and walk down to the Bastille, then back to the hotel to pack up and get ready to leave. Headed back home in the morning!

Day 12

This was our concert day is Paris. Brianna had an oboe lesson this morning, so she and Cliff left pretty early to get on the outskirts of Paris. I had a nice leisurely morning in the hotel room posting blogs and reading. We met Jean-Paul, who brought the marimba to Paris, at the Selmer place and then went out for lunch. What a great guy - really opened up to us the way things are in Europe with concertizing and performing.

Because of the nasty weather and the strike going on with Metro workers, we had a pretty small crowd, but overall, I feel like it was our best performance!

Dinner at the Buffalo Grill, then a good night's sleep.

Last full day in Paris tomorrow....lots to see and do!

Day 11

Off we go to Paris!

But first, on the way to the train this morning, Philippe was kind enough to take us to the famous Strasbourg Cathedral for a quick tour. This Cathedral was stunning. Construction on it was begun in 1176 and it took over 350 years to build! The architecture is late-gothic and it is just as beautiful on the inside as the outside. Some of the pics aren't great as it is hard to get good photos in this low-light environment.

Next we boarded the bullet train for our 2-1/2 hour ride to Paris. Another comfortable, great ride -- we need more of these in the US. It is much better than air travel!

After arriving in Paris, we had the rest of the day/night to just hang out and sightsee. Our first stop was the Sacre Cour, a cathedral in the Monmartre district. This cathedral is much more modern, but still quite impressive. It was an incredibly steep climb up the stairs, but the view from the top was amazing. You could see the entire skyline of Paris! The only bad part was this was the first day it has rained on us since we left the States :-(.

We had a so-so dinner in the district, then looked around some of the art vendors, and of course walked down to the Moulin Rouge.

We had decided to just head back to the hotel and get some rest, but once there, changed our mind and decided to go to the Eiffel Tower. Yep, we went all the way to the top! Fantastic views of the city especially at night as things begin to light up. They lit the tower while we were going up, and as we were leaving they started the dazzling light show that looks like millions of flash bulbs going off at random times. Great night!

Off to bed. Concert tomorrow at the Selmer factory.

Day 10

Concert and masterclass in Strasbourg today. But first...

Tour of the Kronenbourg Beer Museum! Philippe set up this tour of the museum for us at around 11:00 am. It was very cool to learn how the different varieties of beers were made. We were able to see the underground barrels where the beer was aged before the switch over to stainless steel containers. And of course at the end of the tour, we were able to have samples! My favorite was their version of a "white" beer.

Then, a quick lunch at the conservatory cafeteria (nifty idea, huh?). They serve gormet dishes such as the Risotto that Brianna and I had, steaks and other very yummy meals. Then we headed off to our masterclass. Two pairs of students played for us. The first duo played three of the Braxton Blake etudes, which Cliff and I later played on the concert. The second pair played the Yuyama Divertimento. All of the students were very good. Here are some pics from the masterclass.

Following the class, we had a short rehearsal in our performance space, then the concert. It went quite well, considering I had not touched an instrument in 5 days! There were a few extra nerves for me on this one, as the percussion professor from the school, Emmanuel Sejourne was there. He is quite well known for his performing and percussion compositions.

After the concert, we headed back to Philippe's home and then out to dinner at a Thai restaurant. A little ice cream, wine, and a few games of football and we were off to bed.

Tomorrow we head to Paris!

Day 9

Pique-nique in Barr.

Ok, so this was the best experience to date. The village of Barr has a yearly picnic at the local winery. We were told we were invited with Philippe’s family. Ok, sounds like fun, huh.

This was incredible. Many of the town’s residents descend on the winery for a full afternoon of eating, socializing, singing and sampling the wine from the vineyard. Did I forget to tell you the name of the vineyard…sorry…Domain Hering! Surely these folks are at least distant relatives of mine! They were very excited to hear that I am also a Herring! We had a great time. Philippe and his wife brought many tasty things to eat, plus we had a healthy sampling of the vineyard’s Rhubarb wine, a white wine, a red wine, and finally their Champagne. Then there was a wine tasting, with a contest to see who could guess the year and region of the wine. Philippe guessed 1982 from the Alcase (where we are) region. He was off by one year, it was a 1981! He has an unbelievable knowledge of wine.

It is traditional that the villagers wear hats to the pique-nique, so Philippe's wife Clementine made these up for us!

Me playing the hurdy-gurdy!

The head wine-maker, and possibly my long, long, long lost cousin, Jean-Daniel.

Another one of the highlights of the day was the impromtu jam session I had with Philppe’s son. The crowd seemed to like it too!

At the end of the day we ascended the mountain into the vineyard and stopped in on the monument to Eduard Hering…pretty cool. It was a grueling walk up the mountain, but totally worth it for the breathtaking views!

Afteward, we returned to the house, had a light dinner, more wine (a very sweet late-harvest wine from this region), played more foosball and finally turned in for the night. What an unbelievable day it was! The French certainly know how to live, eat and drink!

Tomorrow our concert in Strasbourg….

Day 8

Today was our Travel Day from Barcelona to France. We got up very early, took a cab ride (and got taken for a ride) to the train station then took the train to the airport.

Trying to board was very interesting as the folks from EasyJet were not thrilled with the amount of carry-on luggage we had. Each person was to only have 1, and we all had two. Pretty tricky when you have alto sax, soprano sax, oboe, a stick bag and two laptops! Anyway, we fast talked out way into it and were able to board.

We flew over the Mediterreanan Sea, and also over the Swiss Alps into Basel, Switzerland. After a little difficulty at the airport, we located Philippe, loaded things in he car as he wisked us into France.

On the way to his town of Barr, we stopped at a castle that was built no later than the 12^th century. We took some great photos of the castle itself and the views of the countryside from within. So far, this was one of the highlights of the trip. This nice red FERRARI was parked on the side of the street as you walked up to enter the castle!

We returned to Philippe’s house where we had great beer, a wonderful dinner of roasted Guinea Foul, bread, vegetables and exceptional wine! Philippe is a true wine expert and has many, many bottles cellared at his house.

We had a great evening of socializing and playing foosball!

Tomorrow we have the Pique-nique with the town of Barr....

Day 7

More sightseeing in Barcelona.

We started out this day headed toward

Barcelona Beach and made a few stops. The fist was in a park, the Parc de la Ciutadella - kind of like central park. Very, very beautiful. The central feature was an incredible fountain with many sculptures around and a gilded horse and chariot sculpture at the top.

While we were in the park, we stumbled across a Brazilian street samba group - I was really surprised to see this in Barcelona....little did I know what waited at the beach!

Immediately outside the park was a wonderful garden that was close to the Barcelona Parliment facility. Check out the pink flowers.

As we were walking toward the beach and marina area, we stumbled across this gelato shop. Man does it look good! We had some later, just not from here.

As we got closer to the marina area, we began hearing music that sounded like Brazilian Samba. So, we started following the sound. We came across some kind of festival that featured Samba bands with dancers. We hung out for a while and watched and listened to their music. Very cool, indeed.

Then we had lunch at a Turkish cafe - we had sandwiches that resembled greek gyros. Quite tasty! Next on the the beach area. The marina was packed with multi-million dollar boats that were really special. The beach area was absolutely packed! Very cool to look out into the Mediterranean Sea. Naked men and topless women were not uncommon....just like home...ok, maybe not. There were also incredible sand sculptures right next to the boardwalk. This two-headed dragon was my favorite. We really wanted to take the cable car, but the line was too long and we ended up not having enough time to do it. Oh well, maybe next time I'm in Barcelona!

Tomorrow is a travel day. We fly to Basel, Switzerland, where Philippe will pick us up an wisk us away to Strasbourg, France.

Au revoir!