Explore the World

Explore the world and discover yourself. Extend self through travel, conversation and thought.

07-12 Sarlat, Rocamadour, Figeac and Bouziès (Saturday, July 12, 2014)

2014/07/12
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Modified: 2014/12/20
07-12 14;00 L'Hospitalet - restaurant Le Belvedere

  Overview Sarlat – starting point Rocamadour – town build on a cliff L’Hospitalet – hamlet of Rocamadour Hotel restaurant Le Belvedere – our lunch stop Figeac – decipher of Rosetta stone – Jean-François Champollion – was born here Cabrerets – site of Pech Merle cave Bouziès – tow path carved in stone river bank Hotel Les Falaises – our destination Le Chemin de Halage – towpath Saturday, July 12 Hour by Hour [15 vs. 9] [Initially recorded SUN, 2014-07-13 04:26 EST = 10:26 here in Bouziès]     IMAGE 02 IMAGE 03 TEXT 01 TEXT 02 TEXT 03     10:51 – We are ready to depart Hotel Le Madrigal (50 Avenue de…

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07-11 Uzerche to Montignac and to Sarlat (Friday, July 11, 2014)

2014/07/11
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Modified: 2014/12/20
07-11 16;02 Lascaux II

July 11, Friday Hour by Hour [16 vs. 8] We woke up around 10am in Uzerche Started driving to Montignac.  Our car is OK.  It was parked in a super-narrow spot, but somehow – no scratches on the sides. 12:00 We paid toll €3.10 cash   IMAGE 02 IMAGE 03 TEXT 01 TEXT 02 TEXT 03   13:32 We bought tickets (MC €19.80)  for a 15:30 English tour for Lascoux II cave   Touristy Tricks: to make you to stop in the city, tickets are ONLY sold in Office de Tourisme de Montignac.  There are NO tickets at the caves. Montignac has one main street (Rue du 4-Septembre), and caves are a little over…

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07-10 Beaugency to Uzerche (Thursday, July 10, 2014)

2014/07/10
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Modified: 2014/12/20
07-10 20;21 Uzerch - befind main church

Thursday, July 10 2014 [17 vs. 7]   Wake up in Beaugency Our room had a bath – Lira took an extended  bath in the morning.  While I am recording our adventures from previous days. 11:49 InterMarche, where credit cards are not working again (€22 cash) Lira washed all the fruits for the road Returned back to the hotel – we forget an umbrella on a wardrobe   IMAGE 01 IMAGE 03 TEXT 01 13:10 – Château de Chambord – view from D33 – Route de la Commission TEXT 03   13:30 We reached Château de Chambord.  Parking here is prohibitive €4 – big mistake on their part!  Rain and lack of free parking is…

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07-09 From Paris to Beaugency [bo:zhensi:] (Wednesday, July 09, 2014)

2014/07/09
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Modified: 2014/12/20
07-09 16;38 Beaugency - main street

[18 vs. 6]  Overview: Rent a car to drive away from Paris 11:03 Hide apartment key in the mini-safe by the entrance door Metro trip to North train station (Gare du Nord) 12:00 Rent a car with automatic transmission (Enterprise Rent-A-Car) at Gare du Nord (€601 – AmEx) for 17 days till Saturday, July 26.   How can they give such a nice cars to regular people?   IMAGE 01 TEXT 01 First moments with a brand new car.  This is 2014 VW Passat diesel with automatic transmission.  Just the right amount of car.   Brand new car -odometer shows 12km – Black 2014 Volkswagen Passat – 4 doors – very nice   IMAGE…

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07-07 Paris – Père Lachaise and Saint Denis (July 7-8, 2014)

2014/07/07
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Modified: 2014/12/20
07-07 14;19 Isadora Duncan

It is shaping up  to be a very unusual trip to Paris.  We focused our attention on famous Paris cemeteries (Montparnasse and Père Lachaise), and Saint-Denis is in essence a cemetery for French kings.  It is definitely not your typical touristy Paris. Monday, July 7 – Père Lachaise Cemetery Tuesday, July 8 – Basilique royale de Saint-Denis   Monday, July 7 2014 Hour-by-hour [20 vs. 4]  [original draft written on 7/10 THUR at 10:05 in Beaugency] Apparently we are waking up a little bit earlier every morning.  Yesterday camera smashed against kitchen floor around 12 noon. Today – Monday – first pictures about our electrical problems. 10:53 Electrical problem – one of the fuses…

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07-05 Paris – View from a sharp angle (July 5-6, 2014)

2014/07/05
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Modified: 2014/12/20
07-05 12;43 Entrance to our appartment

Saturday, July 5 – Boulevard Saint-Germain Sunday, July 6,   – Montparnasse   Saturday, July 5, 2014  Overview   11:00 First wake up in Paris.  Slow start.  It is 5AM in America. 12:49 Start the first walk.  Search for several  vegan cafes and  juice bars around Avenue Parmentier and  boulevard de Voltaire.   They all turned out to be closed.     This quiet street explodes with action, when every door turns into a restaurant or a bar Very intricate and symbolic Weathervane on Rue des Saints-Pères View from our apartment in Paris: many streets were decorated with 32 national banners representing 32 World Cup countries   14:00 – 15:45 Lunch at Gentle Gourmet Café (24 Boulevard de…

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07-04 First Steps in Paris (Friday, July 4, 2014)

2014/07/04
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Modified: 2014/12/20
07-04 21;43 brasserie Les Grandes Marches

What is the point of describing your latest adventures abroad?  It is different language, different money and different people and traditions. But most importantly, it is different brain cell that have to do all the processing for you, and that what makes this experience so unusual and so different.  Overview Thursday, July 3 – Depart from Boston to Paris Friday, July 4 – First steps in Paris       Thursday, July 3 2014   Last day at work – Last preparations and thoughts My paper Notebook is wrapped.  Flight check-in is done.  I ordered taxi for 7PM.  Now I need to get out from work at a reasonable time (2PM), arrive home around 4PM, cut the…

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Why flags are lowered today? – May 15, 2012

2012/05/15
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Modified: 2012/05/15
Flags-Fly-Low-2012-04-16

May 15, 2012 – USA – President’s Executive order. Why flags are at half mast today? US President announced this day to be the Peace Officers Memorial day, and all are recommended to lower their flags – both businesses and personal. On the election year it is all about gestures.    A few months away from the election day, this gesture means an excellent campaign vehicle. All citizens as-the-one demonstrate their obedience to the central power, and future compliance on the election day. 3 previous years no one cared to mark May 15 as anything special.  Watch and learn.  Excellent, excellent election trick.  And absolutely free for the incumbent.

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Number 17 – Estonia – First Soviet Republic to Jump into Euro-Zone

2011/05/27
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Modified: 2011/05/25
Euro-Zone

Euro-zone experiment  is 12-years old today. It grew from original 11 countries to now 17. The latest edition is Estonia. It is tiny, but it is first from former Soviet Republics. N Euro Zone Country Date Entered 1 Austria 1999-01-01 2 Belgium 1999-01-01 3 Finland 1999-01-01 4 France 1999-01-01 5 Germany 1999-01-01 6 Ireland 1999-01-01 7 Italy 1999-01-01 8 Luxembourg 1999-01-01 9 Netherlands 1999-01-01 10 Portugal 1999-01-01 11 Spain 1999-01-01 12 Greece 2001-01-01 13 Slovenia 2007-01-01 14 Cyprus 2008-01-01 15 Malta 2008-01-01 16 Slovakia 2009-01-01 17 Estonia 2011-01-01 The experiment is growing despite tremendous difficulties. National Governments have to give up one of the potent tools at their disposal – printing…

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Никита Михалков Выступил с Манифестом Новой Партии

2010/10/26
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Modified: 2010/11/09
Никита Михалков Выступил с Манифестом Новой Партии

Да прочтет, кто умеет читать.  Мне уже позвонили, и я только начинаю читать открытое письмо Никиты Михилкова. Первое.  Начало очень взвешено и публицистически интересно. Второе – он имеет достаточно веса, чтобы брость гирю на весы Истории и России. Сейчас дошел до раздела “Наши избиратели” (избиратели с маленькой буквы).  Слишком открыто, слишком нагишом, но … ХОРОШО.  Так и должно быть.  Вот – наши, а остальные – сами понимаете, не наши.  Все, кто работает своим трудом, имеет что-то за душой (кроме цепей), гордится свои трудом, историей и достижениями России – те консерваторы.  Остальные – грабь награбленное. http://www.polit.ru/kino/2010/10/26/manifest.html Раздел – Что Делать – это программа партии – сила и мощь государства российского,  гражданское общество,…

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Письмо СВОИМ – Что нового в Новом Учебном Году?

2010/09/17
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Modified: 2017/09/24
Petition for Relative

Искуство обстоятельного письма теряется по многим причинам.  И одна из них – это неэффективность.  Письмо – это общение один на один.  А мы все закручены в спираль, а мы все накалены до предела.  И как можно в таких условиях удержать в голове, что уже сказано, а что было бы еще интересно обсудить. Поэтому прибегаю к такому необычному способу написания письма, как ПИСЬМО с КОММЕНТАРИЯМИ.  Только очень узкому кругу людей такое письмо будет интересно, но зато все СВОИ сразу узнают, что произошло за лето и осень 2010.  Отлично. По алфавиту начинаю c …   Вера и Боря & Co.  Мы встречались в марте у Наташи в New Jersey.  Ели, пили, играли в…

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