If indeed I did stay in
Pontoise, 
I certainly did not know it was a haven for the earliest developments of Impressionism.
This is because the first and oldest Impressionist, Camille Pissaro, lived here and attracted a younger generation of painters like
Claude Monet, Vincent van Gogh, Paul Cézanne, Paul Gauguin, Charles-François Daubigny, Gustave Caillebotte, Gustave Loiseau,
Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Frédéric Bazille, all of whom wanted to paint outdoors in natural light and learn from Pissaro.
Work at the same time upon sky, water, branches, ground, keeping everything going on and equal basis and unceasingly rework until you have got it. Paint generously and unhesitatingly, for it is best not to lose the first impression. —Camille Pissaro
Tomorrow my Eurail pass would end, and I was eager to invade England before my pass or England expired. So, I followed the usual trail of Gothic Cathedrals and Romanesque Castles from Paris to Calais — about 230 miles north. Is there an unwritten law in France that every town must have its own Gothic Cathedral?
Something important occurred in Boulogne. I know since I underlined Boulogne on my Europa map.
I wonder what it was? Perhaps I stopped to roam around the
beach like Manet 
once did.
Or perhaps I heard about its fabulous herring catches, and stopped to chase after
a red one. 
Perhaps I wanted to see where Napoleon planned to invade England with 200,000 troops,
but instead, he only managed a 53 meter erection.
Multipy 53 by 39 inches and you have what Monty Pythoners would call a quintessential case of Biggus Dickus.
However, without this guy's massive ego, indirectly proportional to his mass, there would have been no Germany, no Hitler, no Israel, no Al-Qaeda.
Should we thank him for all that?
History, someone said — maybe me — follows the law of action and even greater reaction.
Should this be amended to read the law of erection and even greater re-erection?
| Khufu Pyramid | 146.5 meters |
| Washington Monument | 169+ meters |
| Chrysler | 319 meters |
| Eiffel Tower | 324 meters |
| Empire State | 381 meters |
| Trump Tower | 423 meters |
| Petronus Towers | 452 meters |
| Taipei 101 | 509 meters |
| One World Trade Center | 1776 feet |
| Burj-Khalifa | 828 meters |
From Calais to Dover, the
English Channel
is about 22 miles.
I took the ferry and slept most of the way.
According to my
passport stamp, 
I entered England at Dover
and slept the rest of the way to London missing both the
White Cliffs
and
Canterbury.
Nowadays, I would have invaded the United Kingdom on a high speed train via the
Chunnel Tunnel.
Invasions to and from England are now a lot easier and faster.
Last year, more than 18 million Frenchmen and Englishmen invaded each other, and the number continues to rise.
Why can't we all just stay home and erect a monument to ourselves?
Sometime during this day, I made it to Letterstone Road, 3.3 miles from Victoria Station...
Knock-Knock...
Hello, Ms. Fraenkel, it's Laura's friend from Tennessee.
