We went to the train station today to buy our tickets for the super fast train to Paris. From afar the station looks modern with wild graphics on the outside.

But inside you see that's its an old building with a glass facade.

The train goes 150 mph so we'll be in Paris in two hours. Wish there were such a thing between Mobile and Birmingham or Mobile and Atlanta. The infrastructure here is far advanced of what we have in the U.S. They are spending their money at home instead of funding a vast military.

We picked up a sandwich at the fast food restaurant. We've seen McDonalds (long line) and Burger King, but they have a low profile, just tucked away in old buildings. The restaurant we went to was not a chain. The food was ready in 5 minutes, and was very good. This is what the inside looked like.
Everyone was sitting outside because the weather is so pleasant.

Then we had dinner at an authentic Alsatian place -- incredibly old world and quaint. The food was pot roast with potatoes and carrots (kind of heavy), a think pizza-like crust with cheese and bacon, and a nice tomato and mozarella salad.

Back:

Front:

These places are everywhere.

Lastly, after dinner, about 9 o'clock, we went to a park and let Pau play for a while. After dark. Totally safe. We see homeless people now and then, but there seems to be no threatening underclass.

We drove out of town today.

The countryside is dotted with many villages and towns, one every few miles down the road. They are all incredibly picturesque and quaint.

 First we had a picnic lunch in a church yard.

Then a visit to a hilltop monastery. 

There is no police presence here. The monastery appeared to be unstaffed. There are few signs prohibiting you. Everyone seems exceedingly civilized. Jeffrey's French is holding up pretty well, and mine is coming back a little.

We stopped in one town to buy water,

And another so Pau could ride the carousel. There are lots of carousels here.

We went to the modern art museum today. It was pretty good. We had a wonderful time, even though we went blown away by the art. The building is really nice -- lots of windows and natural light.

They had at least one example of most of the modern masters, like Van Gogh, Monet, Picasso, etc. I was most impressed by this huge pink fabric piece that hung in space in the grand atrium.

This same artist (a woman, of course) made some other neat pieces like a stiletto heel out of pots and lids.

And a huge heart out of red plastic forks and spoons.

Lunch on the terrace of the museum cafe.

The weather has been perfect -- in the 70s. The town is full of church bells.

We tromped around the city center today trying to get our bearings. There are lots of little streets going every which way -- not laid out in a grid like we're used to. We stopped for coffee and cake at this cute place, one of many.

We visited a 16th century palace. They gave us the senior rate without even asking our age. The doors here tend to be really tall. We asked why and were told simply that it was "le style baroque".

Let me go back to the beginning.
We arrived in Strasbourg at 10 in the morning (3 am Mobile time) after traveling for 17 hours. On John's (our son) advice, I forced myself to stay up all day. I made it until 7:30, then slept for 15 hours-- got up at noon -- feeling fine.

We took a preliminary walk around the district where their apartment is, and I took a few pictures. It's right in the middle of the old center of the city.

The street entrance to their apartment.

Inside, there's a little courtyard and the door to their apartment.

Out in town, the buildings are 500 years old and still in use.

We saw tango dancers in the square.

And lots of old narrow streets -- no cars here.
We stopped in a key shop to get some keys made. They had a rack of old time keys for all these old buildings.

Needless to say, it's real different here.
They even have different words for everything. (Hah!)

A little beat, but we made it.

We had a fifth assignment that none of us had time to even start. The guidelines were to utilize everything we had learned. This included the concepts of creating visual texture, gradation of size and color, flat and glowing colors, repetition of motifs and reversals and tone on tone elements. I took the first couple of weeks after my return to fulfill this assignment. I was able to work a little bigger because I didn't have a time restraint. My result is 80" square.