Good Friday (from Marilyn)

As usual, your foreign correspondent Marilyn has filed a much more extensive report on yesterday's activities. Viz:

we had a nice day today. betsy took the day off and chris and carter gave us plenty of time to get going by having early morning haircuts.

we all wanted to see montmartre. today was really interesting, but a madhouse. sacre coeur sits at the top of a very high and steep hill. carter and i went a few minutes before the others and we met up at the funicular which starts part way up the hill. (this is a little bit of a train that runs only up and down the hill.) there was a HUGE crowd, and we were dismayed that we might miss the fun of riding up in the funicular and instead have to walk up a couple hundred steps. but most folks actually didn't seem to be in line for the funicular. so up we went. sacre coeur is the striking white cathedral which sits high on montmartre. (it is contructed of a marvelous self-cleaning white stone and it glows in sunlight.)

the church was not open for visitors, so we only got to enjoy the exterior. which, unlike most churches and cathedrals in paris, is more interesting on the outside. then we wandered the ancient little village which is now and still one of paris' most delightful spots. for 200 years tourism and artists have been crucial to the village. it's one huge and charming art festival.

as we headed to lunch, we discovered why the church had been closed. the thousands of pilgrims who had been waiting at the bottom of the funicular were led
up the steps by the cardinal, who bore a crucifix. thousands of faithful catholics sang, stopped periodically to kneel and pray, and followed the cardinal up the steps, around the top of the hill and into sacre coeur.

we went against the flow and headed a bit downhill to a wryly named little restaurant (on a gentle slope) where we had a very nice lunch. good food and way away from the tourist crowds. lunchtime entertainment consisted of watching a family of five move into an apartment at least 62 steps up the hill. the movers did an impressive job of hauling everything up and doggedly returning for one load after another. after lunch, carter and i parted company with the others again and went a good way back uphill (148 steps), though not the last 75 or so to sacre coeur. if you want to get around paris, you could have no handier, more helpful or more intrepid companion than carter. he is a whiz at reading bus and metro maps and telling me what we need to do to get where we want to go. i pay little attention to what he says and only follow his lead. he could be rented out as a seeing eye dog.

the boys both speak lovely french. they can order, in impeccable french, anything sold in any bakery around. calvin explains exactly what one should say when one bumps into someone else. in lovely french. carter notes that calvin can say it perfectly but never does when he bumps into people. nevertheless i find calvin to also be a charming travel companion. not reading much is a tiny bit of a handicap for calvin. and trying to make sense of signs written in french is awfully hard. ecole militaire is pronounced A-cole mill-E-tear and poor calvin assumes it must begin with A. hotel-de-ville is pronounced O-tell duh V-yuh and he thinks that begins with an O. but calvin is attentive to wonderful details and is pretty careful about keeping track of carter, me and traffic.

betsy and chris went out to dinner on their own and the boys and i dined in this evening. we had a nice meal with everyone pitching in to contribute. and except for breaking the door off the dishwasher, everything went quite well.

it's to for me to rest my weary bones, so good-by from me. though calvin wanted to send a special hello to his good friends nellie and tina. they always gave him lots to eat. carter sends kisses to them too.