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Archive for March, 2011

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22 Mars : journée repos dans la forêt

Friday, March 25th, 2011

Après plusieurs jours à parcourir les musées et beaucoup de kilomètres, nous décidons de prendre une journée de repos : pas de voiture, un peu de marche parmi les trails du parc de Withrow Spring, de la lecture et un peu de blog. Depuis le départ, nous n’avons quasiment pas eu une seule journée sans avoir une grosse activité ou beaucoup bouger, et après les nombreuses journées riches de ces derniers jours, nous avons vraiment eu tous les deux l’envie de nous reposer. Malgré le temps nuageux, nous profitons donc de la journée pour relaxer nos esprits et nos corps.

Demain nous devrions reprendre les visites avec Eureka Spring puis nous partirons vers le sud du côté de Little Rock (célèbre notamment pour avoir eu comme résident Bill Clinton).

Posted in Arkansas FR | No Comments »

Memphis, Tennessee

Friday, March 25th, 2011

March 18th-21st

We booked a motel in downtown Memphis so that we could take advantage of the nightlife. Beale Street in Memphis is famous for its Blues clubs and other live music venues. It’s closed to traffic over the weekend and feels a lot like Bourbon Street in New Orleans. Since we arrived late Friday afternoon, we took a walk down Main Street and along the waterfront before going to Beale Street for some BBQ cooking and some live music. All of the bars had something going on, and there were a couple of outdoor stages. We listened to some “Catfish Blues” while we were eating our BBQ ribs and catfish, then enjoyed some music in the park where there was a small Arts and Crafts festival, and then ended the evening in a beer garden style place with an outdoor stage. We had to try the “Big Ass Beers” which Fabien does not recommend. He had a killer headache all day Saturday. French guys…

On Saturday we visited Sun Studios which was the recording studio who first recorded Elvis and other stars like Johnny Cash, B.B. King and even some U2 (the Rattle and Hum album.) The tour was great, with a lot of musical interludes. We got to hear some of the original recordings and see the original recording equipment and I had my picture taken with the same microphone that Elvis used. Yes, this was the cheesy part of the day.

On Saturday afternoon we went to the Civil Rights Museum. Martin Luther King was assassinated at the Lorraine Hotel in Memphis. Now the hotel and the building (from where he was shot) have been turned into a very moving and informative museum. In fact, we stayed the whole afternoon learning about the Civil Rights movement and didn’t even get to the second building. It’s difficult to express the emotion I felt while there, but what is amazing and (almost unbelievable) is that all of this happened just over 50 years ago in our country. We did get to come back on Sunday to finish the museum and learn more about the assassination and the controversy (conspiracy theories) surround King’s death. There was also a nice exhibit honoring Civil Rights heroes around the world, including South Africa, Eastern Europe and Tibet. The battle is not over, but what happened in the U.S. and in other countries serves as an example of how determination and non-violent protest can change the world.

Saturday night, we went to an NBA game – the Memphis Grizzlies against the Indiana Pacers. Fabien has been dreaming of seeing a professional basketball game, and it was a good one. The Grizzlies one easily and the atmosphere was great. We stopped for a beer at the same beer garden as the night before taking the trolley back to the hotel. We had actually tried to take the trolley the night before, but it had stopped running at 11pm so we took a bus instead (with the help of a friendly waiter who was heading the same direction as us.) The trolley runs later on Saturday nights, but ours was a little bit confusing as it turned around at the stop we were getting on. We weren’t the only ones who were confused. After about a 20 minute wait our trolley pulled up to about 20 feet from the stop and people got off. There was a local guy at the stop with us waiting for the same trolley. When we asked him if that was the trolley he said yeah, but it will come to the stop- the driver was taking a break. So we waited a few minutes and I commented that it would be funny if the trolley left while we were standing there and low and behold that’s exactly what it did. Our buddy at the stop took off running after it, with us and another guy behind. Finally the driver let us on and the turnaround point. He had been waiting for passengers but no one had got on. We all had side-splitting laugh about how we had almost missed the trolley and we made some new Memphis friends. When we got off the trolley at the hotel, Fabien and I were planning to pick up a little fast food since we hadn’t eaten dinner. It was almost midnight so I wasn’t surprised when the Burger King dining room was closed- only the drive-through was open. We were on foot (since BK was next to our hotel), so we tried to order from the drive-through. They refused to serve us because we weren’t in a car.

In exchange for me going to the basketball game, Fabien agreed to go to the Full Gospel Tabernacle Church with me on Sunday morning. Al Green (singer) is the pastor and his service is open to tourists and gospel fans. It’s just up the road from Graceland in West Memphis. We were a little bit hesitant when we got there, but we saw that there were a lot of other visitors. The choir and band are amazing and the service is interesting, if a little bit difficult to follow at times. In fact, several of the visitors were invited on stage to sing and play the guitar, so an impromptu jam session took place in the middle of the sermon which Al sings most of anyway.

We spent Sunday afternoon finishing the Civil Rights and museum and then had a walk along the waterfront which was packed with people enjoying the beautiful weather. On the way back to the hotel we took a detour to do some grocery shopping in a seedier area of town (courteous of our GPS.) There was a meeting of the “rims” club- the guys with their jacked up cars racing in the supermarket parking lot. The police broke it up just before we got there- but we got stuck in the traffic jam with the rims brigade.

Monday, our last morning in Memphis, we visited Graceland, the home of Elvis Presley. I also had to talk Fabien in to this one- it was the most expensive thing we’ve done on this trip so far- but seeing the mansion was great, the interior preserved in its 1970s splendor like Elvis left it and the exhibits were really interesting-not as kitsch as we expected. I really enjoyed Memphis- there are a ton of things to do and we made some lasting trip memories there…but, after 4 days we were exhausted and ready to get some fresh mountain air…in Eureka Springs, Arkansas.

Posted in BIG TRIP 2011, In English, Tennessee | No Comments »

The Great River Road and Clarksdale

Friday, March 25th, 2011
March 18th – March 19th To continue our American music pilgrimage (started in Cajun country), we headed north from Vicksburg towards Memphis with a small stop in Clarksdale, the birthplace of the Blues in the heart of the Mississippi Delta. We ... [Continue reading this entry]

Posted in BIG TRIP 2011, In English, Mississippi | No Comments »

18 – 21 Mars : Memphis

Friday, March 25th, 2011
Il est 17h lorsque nous arrivons sur Memphis ce vendredi soir. L’hôtel est à une distance correcte du centre ville (environ 2 km), nous décidons donc de laisser la voiture au parking et d’aller faire un tour dans le centre. ... [Continue reading this entry]

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Natchez Trace Parkway, Jackson, and Vicksburg, Mississippi

Friday, March 25th, 2011
March 15th – March 17th We survived the rainy night in the tent and were happy to be heading to a Motel 6 in Jackson, the capital of Mississippi. We took the scenic route along the Natchez Trace Parkway, a trail ... [Continue reading this entry]

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Natchez, pearl on the Mississippi River

Monday, March 21st, 2011
March 14th There were looming, grey clouds hanging over us as we had our hot breakfast at the campsite. We drove into Natchez, passing the typical fast-food restaurants and economy motels, but as we crossed the center of town towards the ... [Continue reading this entry]

Posted in BIG TRIP 2011, In English, Mississippi | No Comments »

Baton Rouge, the Louisiana State Capital and road to Mississippi

Monday, March 21st, 2011
March 13th On our way to Natchez, Mississippi, we stopped off in Baton Rouge, the capital of Louisiana. Unfortunately, it was a Sunday and many of the sites were closed. We were planning to visit the Old State Capital, an enormous ... [Continue reading this entry]

Posted in BIG TRIP 2011, In English, Louisiana | No Comments »

17 – 18 Mars : sur la route de Memphis

Monday, March 21st, 2011
En cette belle journée de Jeudi, nous prenons la direction du parc national historique de la bataille de Vicksburg. Cela devient une habitude mais on peut dire que les parcs sont vraiment bien entrenus et extrêmement bien fait. Sur ce ... [Continue reading this entry]

Posted in Mississippi FR, Tennessee FR | No Comments »

Lafayette and Cajun music

Friday, March 18th, 2011
March 11-12th A Boy Scout event invaded the state park for the weekend so we moved into Lafayette to the KOA campground so that we could spend a couple of extra days and hopefully catch some live music. The location next ... [Continue reading this entry]

Posted in BIG TRIP 2011, In English, Louisiana | No Comments »

Cajun country

Thursday, March 17th, 2011
March 10-11th Our morning began with a visit to St. Martinville, a village that lies on the Bayou Teche in the heart of Cajun country. The journey to get there from the park involved following the levee back to a crossroads ... [Continue reading this entry]

Posted in BIG TRIP 2011, In English, Louisiana | No Comments »

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