A Day in the French Countryside

I got up this morning and looked in the mirror to assess the damage done by my recent haircut. While my first thought was What the F*** it's barely even longer than shoulder-length my hair hasn't been this short since I was FOUR I then noticed that it looked good. Like, really good. It occurred to me about eight hours later that I should have waltzed around the flat singing "I feel pretty, oh so pretty" since there's no one around to laugh at me, but alas that chance is lost forever. Anywhoo. We'll see what happens when I wash the straightening goop out of it.

In other news, it is summer. I thus decided to pay a visit to Chantilly so that I could say I'd seen one royal chateau whilst not huddling with miserable dykes under umbrellas. And it was well worth it. The train ride itself was awesome. Just escaping the pollution of the city! And Paris is a relatively unpolluted city. The French countryside reminds me a lot of Northern California. Except in Cali, everything's burnt to a lovely shade of gold only you know cause of the drought it's gonna stay that way, whereas here you know the lush green will thrive when the seven months of rain set in.

So I was looking for the chateau, and naturally headed toward the imposing Baroque palace with the statuary on the roof and Corinthian columns. Only I couldn't find the entrance. And when I did find the entrance, I discovered that this magnificent palace is NOT the chateau, but the STABLES.

I eventually found the chateau by following the shore of the nearest body of water, as I knew it had a moat. I was impressed with the art museum and fell in love with Henri d'Orleans, duc de Condé, who willed the place to the Academie Française and who was quite dashing in an Victorian sort of way (I'm sure he's turning in his grave to be compared to those bloody English), and who also loved BOOKS. I want his library. Really. It's like a small segment of the Beauty and the Beast library come to life.

I was suitably impressed by Foquet's illuminated manuscripts but rather disappointed with Raphael's Three Graces. It's tiny. There was another Raphael that I really liked (perhaps because he stole Mary's face from Leonardo), but the the thrid Raphael was not one of his best. A rather sullen and Not So Holy Baby Jesus is trying to take off his mother's bodice.

Also, Raphael's tendency to make his Marys look like nursery-school teachers is somewhat disturbing.

I wandered about the extensive grounds. I did not walk down the Philosopher's Way, because not even I am that pretentious, and I studiously avoided the temple of Venus cause I think the Goddess of Love has it in for me. The English gardens at Versailles are much nicer, but Marie-Antoinette had much more time on her hands, what with her days being filled with tending to her perfumed flock of sheep--real sheep, not just the court hangers-on.

Tomorrow there will be fireworks.

Fuck fuck FUCK

More political stuff: this one really pissed me off. Bush has decided to appoint someone who does not approve of birth control to the chair of the FDA Reproductive Health Drugs Advisory Committee, and this doesn't require Congressional approval.

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Gacked from antiwar:
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 25
INTERNATIONAL MARCH ON WASHINGTON DC

CALL TO ACTION

MASS MARCH ON WASHINGTON TO SAY:
- Bring the troops home now
- End the occupation of Iraq
- Money for jobs, education & healthcare - Not war

The people in Iraq want the U.S. occupation to end. The U.S. soldiers in Iraq want to come home. On Saturday, October 25, tens of thousands of people in the U.S., joined by delegations from countries around the world, will go back into the streets to demand End the Occupation, Bring the Troops Home Now! Under the banner, "The World Unites Against U.S. Militarism," the demonstration, marching from the Justice Department to the White House to the Pentagon, will also demand an end to the looting and destruction of social programs by the Bush Administration.

The Bush Administration lied to the people, to the Congress, and to the United Nations as it raced to wage war against Iraq. The Bush administration is now carrying out a cover up of its lies and deceptions.

Every day, people are dying as a consequence of this illegal occupation. Every day human misery expands in the drive for world Empire and corporate globalization. Every day, vital social programs that serve and protect working people in the U.S. are being destroyed as the Bush administration cynically manipulates the slogan of the "war on terrorism" to carry out the social transfer of wealth from the bottom to the top. It has served as a public relations ploy for their Robin-Hood-in-reverse politics. Stopping Bush's war abroad and his war at home is a matter of life and death. None of us has the luxury of waiting. The time to act is now.

More info: http://www.internationalanswer.org/campaigns/o25/index.html