Paris: Dancing

No, unfortunately, we didn't attend a cabaret. Next time. It's a must.

But of course I, myself, did some dancing. The wonderful thing about Lindy Hop is that it speaks every language. Of course, a few times there were leaders trying to explain some move or other to me. I nodded politely to their French exclamations and then just tried my best to follow better the next time.   Many times, I did confess "Je ne parle pas le français" (which I learned in my handy-dandy Pimsleur French lessons I practiced with in my car). They were always quite nice and switched to English for me.


Le Caveau de la Huechette

I danced a couple times at Le Caveau de la Huechette, a jazz club in the Latin Quarter, which is filled with Jazz clubs. Le Caveau was just a few minutes' walk from our amazingly located apartment. The band and dance floor are in the basement. The building has a history of being used in wartime and during the revolution, including as a prison and torture chamber, as I understand. It is small, dark and hot. Smokin' hot! Fun dancing there.

There ware quite a few regulars, but once they saw I could dance, I didn't want for partners. It was energetic--a blast! I've never spun so much or so fast as I did there. Once I even got some applause when I spun so fast that my toonies showed!

My first night there, two couples came dressed in vintage clothing, and I was a little intimidated. I thought they'd be first on the dance floor and the last to leave, putting on some great moves. But, no. They just sat there watching. All dressed up and no dance to do.  Here they are:

Here are a couple videos of the bands that played Le Caveau.  I regret I did not take down the bands' names.

I recorded this song because it was one of Annette's faveys when she was little.



Here was the boogie-woogie band that played the other night I went.



It was super crowded the second time and I stayed for just the first set, as it was starting to get dangerous. No Balboa in Paris, apparently!


Dancing on the Seine

Paris has a pretty active swing dance community, and there were several dances in a couple different locations in Paris each week. I chose to dance here, on the banks of the Seine, because again, it was a location that was within walking distance, and it was on the banks. of. the. freaking. Seine.

It was DJ music, and it was pretty good stuff! The dancers were all quite skilled. As I said above, sometimes I didn't quite get something. The language of Lindy is the same, but the dialect is a little different. I had fun.

This was just a section of the area in which we danced. There were hundreds of dancers there. Quite thrilling to dance and to watch.




In the 12 days I was there, I went out dancing 4 or 5 times. I could've gone more often, too!  It was great.  Next time I'm in Paris, I'll dance every night!

England and Ireland. The Final Chapter. Irleand, Part 5: The Cliffs of Moher and Ennis

Ah! Nearly a year after my vacation, and I'm finally getting around to blogging the last chapter. The memories are still fresh and delightful, so I hope that you will enjoy them.

After a breakfast of oatmeal and Bailey's (oh, my, how I love that!), we left the little village of Dingle in our cute, cute little car and headed north.

We crossed the River Shannon on a Ferry. My first car ferry. Pretty cool. It's a good system, and it saved us quite a bit of driving time. It was fun, too!

Here comes the ferry boat!

We stopped in Kilrush for lunch and a bit of roots-searching--Trish found an ancestral address still standing!

I liked the pub with its pub decor.

After lunch we headed straight for the Cliffs of Moher! (Many of these photos were taken by Annette)

One of us thought the cows grazing on the cliffs were just as interesting and beautiful as the views and geology. These cows had some of the best views on the planet!

I had told Annette that I had read stories about people who lie on their stomachs and look straight down at the water, thousands of feet below the sheer cliff top. It was a mistake to tell her! She did it! I immediately had a visceral Mama reaction. Adreniline shot through me and made my knees buckle. I could not look, let alone take a picture of her. Your imaginings will probably be just as vivid.

(Skip the next pic, Mom!)

Here is one guy in the spirit:

Sign? What sign?

The cliffs and the views are spectacular, don't you agree? Definitely a must-see when you go to Ireland.

We drove from the cliffs to the nearby village of Ennis, where we spent our last two nights. The Grey Gables B&B was my least-favorite of all the B&Bs we stayed in but it was perfectly charming. There were only little things and attention to detail lacking.

The first evening, we had dinner in a pub. The music was simply a trio: guitar, accordion, and fiddle. And there was a picture of James Joyce, so it was good! An old man sat with us at our table. I watched him sip his drink for a long, long time. Up to his lips again and again, looking like he was sipping it again and again, but the level of the liquid never went down! What kind of Irishman was he, anyway?!

Letting the level of the liquid go down.

After a good night's sleep, Annette and I left Trish in Corofin at the Clare Heritage and Genealogical Research Centre so she could do some more genealogical research. Annette and I continued on, driving through the Burren to the Aillwee Cave.

The Burren is a beautiful area, with rare flora and fauna within its unusual geology:

The Aillwee Cave, that was spectacular! It was not something we had planned on doing. It was a spur-of-the moment find, and what a great one!  As you can read on Wikipedia, the cave was discovered in 1944 by a farmer whose dog chased a rabbit into the cave. He told no-one about the cave until he overheard some academics, in the area in 1973 researching caves, talking about their mission in a local pub. He divulged the location, and the cave has since been excavated and thoroughly commercialized. (This is something different in Ireland than in the US: natural, archeological, and cultural treasures, often on private land, are commercialized in a very haphazard way and often not preserved in a systematic way--or in any way, really).

Anyway, Annette and I paid the requisite Euros to take the tour. It was very cool, literally and figuratively. The formations were quite young and small, but still good examples of stalactites and stalagmites. A highlight for me was when the young tour guide turned off all the lights inside. It is the only time I've experience true total darkness. What an amazing experience!

Enjoying a 99 Flake after exploring the cave.

At the end of the day we had a delightful dinner and trad music at Brogan's. The music was played by a big bunch of folks with all sorts of instruments. So much fun! We enjoyed a delicious dinner--salmon again for me; the Irlsh salmon is fab--and our last Guinness.

I have missed Irish Guinness.

England and Ireland: Ireland. Part 4: The Dingle Peninsula

Dingle, Co. Kerry, Ireland.

(hee-hee! She said Dingle)

What a lovely little town!

Super beautiful drive, too: green hills, green pastures, green sheep. And lots of cows.  You saw the loveliness in my last post.

We checked in to the O'Neill's Bed and Breakfast and met Stephen. We enjoyed a spacious room!
We enjoyed dinner at the Bull's Head just down the street. Salmon again! The best salmon I've had in my life has been on Ireland. YUM!

The next day after oatmeal and Baileys (YUMYUMYUM!), we got in the car and did The Loop around the Dingle Peninsula. Lots of beautiful views, sheep and cows. Annette and I put our feet in the Atlantic Ocean.

Photo by Trish

Photo by Trish

Photo by Trish

Photo by Trish

Photo by Trish

Photo by Trish

Photo by Trish

Photo by Trish

We stopped by a "Celtic Museum," which seemed to be a private collection of the man who lived there. It had some nice artifacts and fossils.

 These dogs were carefully guarding the donky that was in this "pen." Can hardly call it a in, as the fences were pretty delapidated. I guess that's why the dogs took their job so seriously. They kept their eye verrrry closely on their charge. When the donkey started walking, they got up and barked at him.

A walk about town:

Enjoying a 99 Flake. Sooo yummy!

 

 

In the evening, we stopped in at O'Sullivan's for a pint and some trad music. It was very good, but a little pretentious. In most pubs, the musicians just wander in and start playing at a set time. These guys took a long time to set up their equipment, adjusting their amplifiers just so and tuning, testing, and adjusting some more. When they started playing (finally), they were very good, but it didn't feel "trad" to me anymore.

Enjoying a pint at O'Sullivan's (photo by Trish)

You can hear 41 seconds of their music below (no video, just sound).

After a night of many Guiness, there was something really great or funny about this car. I don't remember what it was! Haha!

The next morning, we were up and out again..... on our way to the Cliffs of Moher.

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(I promise, I will finish my vacation blog posts before my next vacation....!)