Florida Coalcracker Chronicles: Nancy Fancy Pants in Nancy France

Sunday, June 24, 2018

Nancy Fancy Pants in Nancy France

Nancy Fancy Pants

Look carefully - you can Jupiter aligned with the Moon

Nancy's favorite library

See Moon and Saturn during the light show

From the minute Nancy was hired to teach in Germany - I wanted to take her to Nancy - France. Her birthday is on July 12th - so that was out - we will be in London by then. So since today is our 47th anniversary - I figured this would be a good time. Nancy is about 180 miles west of our home in Darmstadt. So we drove over Saturday morning. We booked an Ibis Hotel downtown and we were set.

Saturday night - we watched a lovely sound and light show at City Hall. City Hall - called "Hotel de Ville" is almost 270 years old. It sits on Stanislas Plaza among several other UNESCO restored buildings. It is really a site to behold. It is a carless downtown - and really very peaceful. After the 11 o'clock show - we got home at midnight - and slept like logs.

Sunday morning at 9 AM - we were up and off to breakfast. Imagine a breakfast of bignets and chocolate eclairs. Next came a trolley ride to the farmers' market. The market included more pastries - and some of the biggest freshest raspberries ever. We ate a liter between us - and not one red stain on our fingers.

Another trolley got us to the Stanislas Plaza. I was already running out of gas - so we found a table in the middle of the square - and had drinks - and just sat an hour.

The light show - 10:45 PM - Nancy City Hall.

Now it was 2 pm - and we took a tour train ride around town. It took 45 minutes - I could sit and listen to the English narrative. The tour let us off at the Opera House. To our luck - there was a matinee at 3 PM. We never were to the opera before - we figured what the heck. We bought 2 nosebleed tickets for 20 euros each.

When the show started - it was hard to see and hear. I went to the box office and complained. They ushered us down to an empty box - like the one Abe Lincoln had at Fords Theatre. It was excellent. We enjoyed the show although we did not understand a word. They sang in Italian - and the video screen showed French captions. The orchestra and the lighting were excellent. The theatre was super ornate - like only the French can do.

The show went from 3 to 6 - we had supper on the plaza right in front of the opera. After supper we walked to our hotel - and got ready for bed. At 10 PM - we got up again - and decided to go to the light show at city hall one more time. Away we went - our tanks were already on empty. The show was great - the crowd was smaller on Sunday night. We walked home in the 60 degree air - and now I am finishing this story.

It is Day 35 of our 70 Day trip to Europe. We made it half way - everything is downhill now. Nancy has one more class to teach in Germany this week. Then it is on to Copenhagen - and finally a month in London.

London is old hat - we have had the same apartment 6 summers. 12A Bedford Place. We have 4 sets of visitors coming to see us. One set includes my youngest grandson - he just turned 2.