Stephanie and my mom have been visiting France this past week! The days have been long and there’s lots for me to say and I want to do it properly so I will update this weekend after they leave. The days have been rather long so im sleepy 😴 stay tuned to see what this all has to do with jules verne
Update:
My mom and Stephanie left last weekend so now I will do the proper update of their visit to Amiens, aka the stomping grounds and death site of the one and only, Jules Verne.
I had planned a visit to the hortillonnages, or "floating gardens", in Amiens for us, but it ended up raining/drizzling most of the day so we just did the other stuff and hung out. This was also a special day because my family met H for the first time. When worlds collide :0 They got along well, so I was happy :D
Even though I've been aware of it since before moving to Amiens, I've never had a chance to make it out there yet. Where you might be wondering.... why to the house of Jules Verne of course! Where he lived in Amiens is now a museum dedicated to the man, the myth, the legend. If you go around the city, you'll see lots of fun facts about this guy. There's also a clock and playground that are in his steampunk style. Now that I've been to his house, I understand better how it fits into his aesthetic.
The house was very beautiful and I thought they did a good job of making it into a museum. That is, it was still obviously a house but they had good displays and information as well. Tbh I didn't learn that much about him but it was fun to see the house. There's been lots of stuff produced from his works and they had a nice collection of it all (movies, book versions, trinkets, etc). I was trying to remember one fact I read about one of his books being the most translated or something but now I'm trying to fact check that and I'm not sure. Apparently Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea is the most translated French book so I'm just gonna go with that. They made sections sort of in the themes of his books, which I thought was a fun way to organize things.
map floor, notice how I am straddling New York and Paris
~details~ Imagine JV just studying away and writing at that little desk. Now imagine him at the helm of his ship, braving the stormy seas. Now he's being the best host ever for a little tea and coffee moment in the solarium.
RIP Jules Verne (1828-1905), I feel a certain kinship because he died on March 24, ie my birthday 😔 In his family was also 2 sons and 3 daughter like in mine. Except in my family the three girls came first and in his the 2 boys did.
Jules Verne globe
When Aboni and Naoni visited I was trying to show them where these little guys were standing near the canal. It's from the same artists and it's just like, people statues ominously standing in random places. The one standing in the water is funny because I really do think at first glance you think it's a real guy. In the summer people swim out and put clothes on him. As you can see, that's already happened.
Overall I thought it was a fun day and I was fun to show my family where I've been kickin it the past few months. I think it's kinda hard for people to conceptualize where someone lives in relation to other places until they've been on the journey themselves. Like I think my family thinks I live in paris or something but it's quite different and a ways off from paris, ya know?
This is so cute! I love that you had the opportunity to show your fam around— I agree with you that it helps them understand your situation better and what you’re actually talking about so that when you guys have convos now, you don’t have to give so much pretense/explanation. Also I still understand the standing people thing, what does it meannnnnn??
Yeah i wanna see where your fam went
On the edge of my seat here
No JULES VERNE!! I’m calling the police, aka H***, to let them know you are dumping for another man ;P. But I’m excited to see your update! I wanna know what your mom and sis think about France as well as all the things you guys did!