The church in Marnay sur Seine

No one uses this church anymore. No Sunday mass, just the occasional wedding or christening. To go in you must ask for the skeleton key from the barkeeper next door, which he is happy to give. It was originally built in the 1150s and was kept by monks who lived in what is now Camac, where I am staying. Does that make me a nun?

Not really because my bedroom is in a building built 800 years later in the 1950s to house guests of Frank Tenot and Daniel Filipacchi who used the place to record their famous radio show Salut les copains. Then they started this little publishing side project, you may have heard of it. So I like to think Count Basie or Petula Clark slept in my room. Anyway, there is this beautiful church across the street from me that is much much older than the good 'ol USA.
There are several different sets of numberings on the pews.This amazing fresco work only remains inside one arch. It looks ancient, I would imagine middle ages.I am obsessed with renderings of fierce beasts drawn only from imagination.

Lisboa, day 1: Castles and rain

I visited the Castelo de S. Jorge yesterday soon after arriving in Lisbon. I have loved medieval times since we had to build a model of a castle in 3rd grade, yet I probably would have been a scullery maid back then and lived to 24. Life was rough.

This hilltop has been used by kings and rulers since the 12th century, but there is an archaeological site from the Iron Age on the site as well. The day I visited there were 50,000 Portuguese cub scouts tramping around and I noticed a large condom dispenser outside the bathroom area. Really? Are there condom machines at the Statue of Liberty? I guess there should be.I also walked around a lot of central Lisbon and waited out a rainstorm in the Chiado with lots of other tourists.

Tenement Museum

Today I visited the Tenement Museum on the Lower East Side. I had never been there before. We went through "The Moores" tour, which highlights how a family of Irish immigrants that really lived there might have lived in 1869. I was impressed with the place. The building was built in 1867 but has not been lived in since 1935, so it is really crazy in there, you can really see how people lived, and how New York has continually reinvented itself. Our guide talked about how back in the 1860s there was a strong anti-immigrant sentiment and even a news organization and politicans that spread the ill will to the masses. Imagine that.