ARCHITECT'S FAILURES

  Each trip to Europe I like to visit some past architect's failure and this year was no different. Joy & I took a day trip from Paris by train to see what remains of the tallest cathedral in France.  The cathedral of Beauvais is the one that defined how high one could build these monuments in the 1300's.  the sketches on the right show Beavais , with it's 450' high nave, about half of which is still standing, albiet with some help with a lot of heavy timber bracing. You see the little ant in the middle? That's a person.  The cathedral on the left is Amiens, built in 1220, which is one of the more successful churches and all still standing.

 

 They have been able to do some restoration on the main entry, which is really on the side of the transept.
All of the building to the left of this has collapsed a couple of times. No mention of how many miserable lives were lost.

On the left you see some timber bracing that was installed in the 20th century.

WINE SHOPPING

I do my wine buying at "Ye Olde Wine Shop" in Graton. It's a bustling little place taking up about an entire city block. One has to be careful not to get run over by the forklifts running around but the place smells good.  One of the perks of working in wine country is the accessability of of places like this. I have done design work for the winery over the years so I get an employee discount. Therefore, every couple of months I have to pick up a few cases of cabernet & Zinfandel, maybe a few Reisling from the Mosel Valley during our hot summers. I made my own wine for 25 years but it got to the point where I could buy really good wine for less than it cost me to make. But that's not the point, right? One must learn to be self sufficient, right?  I am proud that over the years I have taught about 15 people how to make wine. Some of them (Like Dodson) even won " best of Show" of the amatuer group (non-commercial).

ARTISTE IN MONTMARTE
You will occasionally find me at a sidewalk cafe in Paris sketching the inhabitants and environs.
However, I'm gearing up for a Tuscany Spring , one of my favorite haunts.

SOCIALIZED MEDICINE
   With all the brauhau about the cost of medicare & such, I would like to relate some of my experiences with medical emergencies in Europe.  A few years ago we visited a medievil town in France called Danard.  We had a nice lunch at a Pizza place on the terrace but our waitress had a bad case of the snuffles & we didn't like the sight of that. Anyway, we traveled on and found ourselves in Brugge, Belgium and I wasn't feeling so great. We had a room on the 3rd floor of a small hotel just a block from the main Kirk (Church) and square. But I developed such a profound coughing fit that I began to see large bruises on the outside of my stomach. Here we were, in a small hotel with restuarant & bar with 26 local Belgian  beers on tap!! and I was too ill to drink any of them. Time to get professional help. Our concierge reccommended a doctor who I called and was able to see us  that afternoon.  We walked over about two blocks , found the doctor's office and waited for about one half an hour before she could see us. Joy was having similar problems, but fortunately less.  There was a waiting room, an examining room & probably a small office. She looked younger than my daughters but did a quick examination of us both, gave us about five different prescriptions , different for each of us.  When finished, we asked how to pay for all this, and she said she could charge it, but it would cost a lot of paperwork, but if we paid cash , it would cost 30 Euros each.  Really!! We laid 60 E on her and boogied to the farmacia, next door to our hotel.  We loaded up on all these drugs, paid about 40 E. each, and began our treatments. In a few days, we both were feeling fine & able to search out Belgian chocalats, Belgian waffles (hard to find) and began tasting some Belgian beers, even visiting/tramping around in  a 300 year old brewery. Viva la Belgique!

EUROPE MUSINGS

MYSTERY BRIDGES
OK, so your confronted with this apparation and wonder how in hell does this thing work? We think it's a bridge. We finally find a elephone number to call and within minutes, this whole damn thing rocks and lifts the roadway up over our heads so we can pass under it. 

 The next one was just as weird. When closed, the pendulums are straight up in the air. The photo shows it starting to open by pivoting on the pylons. when open, all are horizontal. I never did find out how it started to open, as the roadway had to have some gismo that lifted it up a couple of feet first.

 

The next bridge was just as daunting and it blocked our access to our mooring for the night. We found a number to call the Port Kommandant, who ran out of his boat, across the bridge , and pushed the right button to raise it. This one had two large steel tubes across the top, that when turned, coiled the steel cable up and raised the pedestrian deck.

Brugge pedestrian bridge

I was accosted on the streets of Ghent by a small group of videoites who wanted to know if I could identify any European countries. I did pretty good, even started in on the Balkans. Good thing she didn't want me to identify any North-East States in US.

We picked up our boat in Niewport, Belgium, stayed a day to shop for supplies )Foof & wine).
Here you see Joy & Medina enjoying dinner in the mess hall.

 Here is our "Le Boat" moored behind he Opera house in Ghent, within walking distance of old town center.