PARIS - freedom fries and paté pies!

My first day in Paris I struggled to organize myself in the metro. Eventually I got from Section 3 to Section 1 and went to the Quai Branly Museum.

A real shrunk head -

After, i Metro'd over to a canal and visited this giant monument of clever design - 

No not the tourist lond-boat. . . this!

*bike locks dominate this nearby bridge*

The only two guys with beards i saw in Paris -

Then a couple dozen bombers, jets, and large transport planes did a practice flyby of the Triumph Arc. In a few days it would be the Victory Day (Bastille Day) celebration in Paris.

 

Lastly, the sunset happens at 9:50 and twilight lasts till 11pm?!?!?! France is great

DAY 2!

Palace of Versailles

 

I chose wiser and ate better than the senseless consumer of the Homer Menu -

*pate, veggies, wine, and creme-fresh dessert atop my windowsill*

And now for something old and amazing - the entrance pieces to a lost Babylonian Palace:

 

 

*Sumerian mother nursing. . . alien child?*

(Master Crafters)

*the Owl watches over the Greek pottery*

DUCKS and SWASTIKAS

*All in one case: the only representations of a Black man, woman, and 2 donkeys (not a politically correct arrangement of pottery*)

(these plates are so detailed I'd like to jump in and live there!)

*the famous CODE of HAMMURABI*

 

 *Then off to Brussels (Belgium)*

I visited the Museum of Comics (Brussels is the home of Tin Tin and . . . good food!)

Especially Brussels's Mussels!

 

 A rare and truly Belgian sport was played here at the Grand Place

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xe2ExlkurU8&feature=youtu.be)

So, we know that ping pong came from tennis. US Football (no feet involved) came from European Futból (lots of feet, but not so much of a hand-job here). And that originally soccer was a training tool for military soldiers in China (the equivalent is happening right now in Florences' piazzas aka "Calcio Storico" = Historic football . . . sort of like Shrovetide in England with punching and kicking allowed and no rules) . . . and Australian Aboriginals played soccer just for fun too.

Well i witness the origins of tennis here in Brussels - and after 2 hours of watching i still didn't believe it true.
Balle Pelote! It was fun. Lots of yelling. . . but from the players at the ref, not the crowd . . . 

With 6 times more players on each side than singles tennis and played on a uneven cobblestone plaza; it gets intense. Similar to baseball and hand-ball from Miama (Jai Alai) combined. In this open court they hit homerun balls into the audience a lot. But i lost interest after the ambulance arrived and all the players gathered around a tourist who need medical attention. Put a damper on my afternoon. All fun and games till someone gets hurt, then its just games.

Goodbye Brussels - i salute your Tin Tin shorts and tacky graffiti