It's been a while since I've been this weary and rumpled, overwhelmed with entertainment and brisk exercise.
My goal is to get this blog up to date over the next 48 hours. Ah-- it just feels so good to be scrubbed and clean again-- but the last three and a half days in France have been amazing. Everyone should try to do Paris in three and a half days. Doing Paris in three and a half days should have been one of the mythological challenges set for Hercules.
What has been the moral of those three and a half days for me? Well, that "Paris" is synonymous with "walking"-- we averaged over ten miles a day, every day--
Well, I shouldn't talk about France yet, no. We're shuttling back to last Thursday. Right. Wow, that seems like a long time ago.
That would have been my second field trip day. We were going to see A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Courtyard Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon (Shakespeare's birthplace!), an hour and a half bus ride from Oxford.
Along the way, we stopped at a country estate called Baddesley Clinton, the home of the Ferrers family. This house is connected to Jane Austen somehow beyond the fact it is picturesque, and grand in a quaint way, and looks like it escaped from one of her novels; forgive me if the only tie I can make at this point in time is obvious: Ferrers (real world), Ferrars (Sense and Sensibility).
In the meantime, this is a house with a MOAT, people, a MOAT.
This is a cool angle of the house from inside the courtyard.
This is the house's exterior. 
It was a speed stop, Baddesley Clinton. It wasn't very crowded, and our bus barely fit in the parking lot. After an hour, we were back on our way to Stratford-upon-Avon. We arrived in the mid afternoon and had until 7:15, when the play began, to amuse ourselves.And... I feel this picture is self-eplanatory, yes? Everyone wound up walking to the same place: a museum-shrine that the town has made of Shakespeare's birthplace.
Yes. That is right; this, this is the house and the garden where the famous playwright William Shakespeare was born. We walked upon the same cobbledy flagstones as he did. Volunteers in period garb were in each of the five or six rooms we walked through and spoke about various aspects of the century and their impact on the man.
Yes. That is right; this, this is the house and the garden where the famous playwright William Shakespeare was born. We walked upon the same cobbledy flagstones as he did. Volunteers in period garb were in each of the five or six rooms we walked through and spoke about various aspects of the century and their impact on the man.It was a suitable way to spend the afternoon before going to attend one of his plays.
We went to a tea room and cafe, a couple of us, after the tour before walking to the theatre. The play had a modernity to it that surprised me-- Shakespeare has ever been a difficult read for me-- the actors playing Hermia and Lysander, Helena and Demetrius, were actually in contemporary clothing. The fairies, Oberon and Titiania were all wild looking and not particularly period or contemporary. The humor was very accessible and had me laughing until I literally cried.
We went to a tea room and cafe, a couple of us, after the tour before walking to the theatre. The play had a modernity to it that surprised me-- Shakespeare has ever been a difficult read for me-- the actors playing Hermia and Lysander, Helena and Demetrius, were actually in contemporary clothing. The fairies, Oberon and Titiania were all wild looking and not particularly period or contemporary. The humor was very accessible and had me laughing until I literally cried. May I just say that when I read the play as a freshman in high school (given I was young) it had not that effect. I watched the movie with Mickey Rooney that same year, and it also failed to make me laugh.
We're going to see King Lear this Thursday; we'll see how that one goes. I've actually never read that particular play.
