more Paris, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, and home!!!

In our last few days in Paris, Rachael and I visited the Cathedral of Saint-Etienne-du-Mont, which was extremely lovely, and I took a lot of pictures.

The Cathedral is especially noteworthy, from my point of view, because it is where Blaise Pascal is buried, and, from Mom's point of view, because it had a little box where offerings could be made under the patronage of St. Therese.

From Paris we flew to Singapore for three days.  On our first real expedition in Singapore, we got on the top of a double-decker bus in order to get to the Little India neighborhood, but my navigating efforts failed, and we ended up in Chinatown instead.  A very friendly Chinese-Singaporean woman helped us find it.  The Chinese community in Singapore is gearing up for the Chinese New Year, and there were decorations for that all over.

Slightly to our surprise, McDonald's is trying to cash in on the Chinese New Year fever by pushing a seasonal "Prosperity Burger," which I did not try.

Rachael and I visited the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple in Chinatown and, frankly, found it quite off-putting.  The temple was full of shiny Buddhist bling in a way that seemed irreverent, perhaps partly because it is only a few years old, so all the gold shiny things haven't had a chance to become charmingly worn.  Anyway, it seemed painfully materialistic to me, and deepened my resolve never to become a Buddhist.  I didn't take any pictures.  However, before we left, I took a picture of a Buddha statue on sale in a store with a swastika on its chest.  It was nice to see a swastika functioning as a symbol of something good instead of evil.

Later that day Rachael and I took a walk by the Singapore River.

This building is commonly referred to as the "Durian building."

And, speaking of durian fruit, we saw lots of them all over Singapore, although I didn't try it.  Our hotel even had a durian policy:

The most exciting thing about Singapore, we decided, was the culinary aspect.  We eventually did make it to Little India and had a lot of delicious pratas (more commonly spelled "parathas", which are discs of fried dough, sort of like pancakes); to the glitzy shopping district and had some delicious dumplings; and to the Middle Eastern neighborhood for some delicious "Murtabaks", which are kind of like pratas stuffed with meat.  Also, we went to a fancy tea house for delicious tea and scones.

 Last but not least, on our way from Sinapore to Sydney, we had a layover in Kuala Lumpur (in Malaysia).  I wasn't expecting to encounter anything bloggable there, but lo and behold, in the middle of the airport there was a Jungle Walk, where you can leave the indoor area and walk around inside some real jungle with plants and tropical birds and a waterfall. It was hard to take a picture that really conveyed the jungleness properly, but I did my best.  (Rachael says I look crazed in this photo; I think she looks beautiful.)

Bonjour from McDonalds!

Hi everyone! Rachael and I are in a McDonald's in Paris taking advantage of the free wifi to do some internet tasks.  Rachael is having a Sprite (in lieu of orange juice, which was unfortunately "indisponible") and I had a McTimber sandwich.  There is a rivalry in French McDonalds's between the McFarmer and the McTimber sandwich, and I've made my choice.

More francophilically, Rachael and I have been doing a lot of exploring and investigating.  Yesterday we went to the Museum of the Middle Ages and saw The Lady and the Unicorn tapestries, which were quite something, although I didn't get any pictures of them.

Also, a few days back, we finally saw Proust's apartment in the museum dedicated to the history of Paris.  We tried to go there last time we were in Paris, but the part of the museum with Proust's apartment was closed off.  Then we went there with Rachael's sister, brother-in-law and friend Ainslie over the weekend, but it was closed off again!  But I asked the museum attendants when the exhibit would be reopened, and they said we could see it if we came back on Tuesday, which we did.  Even then we had to wait an extra hour.  Here I am, in front of the bed upon which world literature reached its apex.

We've also been enjoying and photographing lots of French food in pretty cafes.  Voila:

And we've been seeing some of the sights as well.  Here we are touristing in front of the Cathedral of Notre Dame:

A major highlight of our trip was a trip on New Year's Eve with Rachael's sister, brother-in-law and friend to the top of the hill with the Cathedral of Sacre Coeur.  It was really wonderful to ring in the new year with so many friendly Parisians.  As we were leaving a drunken Italian was wishing us all "bonne Anee!" and when he found out I was American he kissed me on the cheek and said "Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" I'm not sure what he was thanking America for (the cotton gin? Louis Armstrong? The laugh track? ...), but it was very sweet in any case.

Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of that evening.  But I did get a picture of a cute French car we saw parked on the street:

Happy Epiphany!