Saturday

This morning we went an took a long breakfast at Cafe Michel, partially long because we were relaxed, partially because our waiter disappeared and it's hard to leave without paying... And the French find it rude to bring you the check (l'addition) without having it requested, because that could be precieved as rushing the guests.

After breakfast we walked by the American Consulate, which amusingly follows French protocol of being closed on weekends and for at least an hour and a half at lunch during the week. We just wanted to find it and it is right near Gallia so it wasn't out of the way.

After a quick break we started back on our way. We went to the cathedral (closed for lunch) and then to a mall where we picked up some household stuffs like trash bags and laundry detergent. We eventually returned home and took a break because that had been a long walk. I did some reading finished my first full book (I finished another but only had left myself a chapter and epilogue) and we then made it to the cathedral.

It was beautiful inside, with mote ornate carvings on the pulpit than some new churches have in their entirety... The organ looked like it was just suspended between to pillars, stuck on the wall with God's word as glue. The stained glass was old and not as ornate or detailed as at other churches but the sheer quantity still merits credit seeing how they had little in technology.

But out of everything the astrological clock was the hands down most impressive part. The dates on the clock that is there now state 1837-1842 which makes me believe that this machine took five years to build. There is a dial that stands at person level and is perhaps 6 feet in diameter. Around the outer ring are the months, and the next ring lists the days of the month, then the applicable saint's day. Now because of the church's habit of moving less known saints or even demoteing someone from sainthood, the saints days were wrong, but it still had today as September 12th. It also marked the hour of the rise and set of the sun on what was a large clockface inside those other circles I mentioned.

Above this clockface there was a character for the day. Saturday, so named for Saturn (Chronos from Greek mythology) had a man in a charriot throwing a baby toward his mouth. Others had their related mythological namesakes.

Each day, other than Sundays and holy feasts, the clock goes through the procession of the apostles at 12:30.

Most impressive though are two sets of machinery to the left and right of the largest clockface with the days and whatnot. There is a piece of machinery which correctly assigns the holy days of the catholic church that do not fall on the same day each year, and has done so accurately since it's creation. That one is on the left. On the right is a collection of gears that predicts lunar and solar eclipses. Correctly. There are pages necessary to predict a solar eclipse, but this set of gears correctly predicted last august's local solar eclipse. All without electricity, this whole thing is run by the same type of weights as the Grandfather Clock in the living room.

It also has the location of the planets in regard to the astrological signs and a star map (a globe stationed in front of the whole clock) which can also show you what you would see were you to go out tonight and look at the stars.

Needless to say I was impressed.

After the cathedral we went to Frog in Bar to watch Man City beat Arsenal, 4-1. At the end of the game they listed Chelsea as tied with Stoke but the game wasn't over and Chelsea won late on. Still atop the table.