And Now for Something Completely Different!

In every large foreign city we visit, there is at least one major cathedral or church that Joe must see. In small towns, we sniff out the local church, stop in, and he photographs. My belief is that my husband has the largest collection of church photographs in the world. And what's more, he could look at any picture at random and tell you exactly what church in what city we are visiting. So our personal travel agenda seems to be organized around visiting famous -- or obscure -- churches hither and yon. This works for us because usually I don't have my own agenda; I'm happy to sit on a square and people watch, I like churches well enough, and have no sense of direction so I prolly couldn't find another attraction on my own. 

When there is something I need to do, I just make mention of it and Himself figures out how to get there and where it fits into the schedule. That's how we came to visit Lilla Hyttnäs on our first  trip to Scandinavia.

When we decided to go to Paris, I had nothing to add to the agenda at first. God knows there were enough churches and the regular attractions to more than fill the agenda. Then one day I was at home with the radio on in the background and I just knew where I absolutely needed to go. Dear Emily, our cousin/travel agent seemed astonished but was her usual obliging self and therefore for Tuesday night we had tickets for dinner and the show. 

Two Metro rides later we had arrived at the seediest neighborhood we'd ever seen!

The Moulin Rouge did not disappoint. It was huge and there were big Toulouse-Lautrec pictures on the walls. The tables were each lit by tiny red lamps. There was no seat that did not have a great view of the stage. Since we'd arranged to have dinner, we were seated at a table for four in the seats with the best view. The dinner was delicious, the ambiance was tantalizing, the service efficient, and the two Canadian travelers who joined us at showtime were delightful. Of course, photographs of the show were not permitted (and they wouldn't be suitable for publication on this blog!), but trust me when I tell you that it was a most memorable evening and near the very end when the can-can dance began, I was absolutely enthralled!