The French Country tour begins

Today I am playing catch up, typing up the blog entry for yesterday and today. I will make them two different entries to keep the file small enough for our country wifi to upload them.

Yesterday, we left the fast paced life of Paris. Obviously we stopped by the Boulangerie for our token pastry breakfast and our "spare pastry" for later in the day. Have I mentioned how good these blessed pastries are? They are honestly the best way to start a day.

Jenn and I in the apartment windows.





Our first stop was Versailles. A "Chateau" not a "Castle" - though I beg to differ because it is definitely palatial. Grandiose. Ornate. Completely and utterly over the top!









My neighbor Miss S. recommended we get a cup of Angelina's cocoa. She said it was "decadent". Again, an understatement. This is what my cup looked like when it was almost empty. Normal cocoa does not coat the cup like that. It was fantastic.


Navigating the gardens.


Our new pose.


Jenn and Gary trying out the new pose.



These pictures were taken in Marie Antoinette's fake village "Hamlet". It is a perfectly designed quaint little village. Interesting she would want to build it.





The pretty flowers outside one of the cottages.


I took this picture to show part of the length of this tunnel.


But then Gary took my camera and composed this perfect engagement photo of Dave and I. ;). He wins on composition.


The water lilies that inspired Monet.





Sitting down is such a nice thing to do. Our feet truly appreciate the break.


The pictures below were taken at Chartres Cathedral. The first one is of the "blue virgin Mary" a famous stained glass window in the cathedral.



The rose window.



The cathedral was rebuilt in the 1200s after a fire. It was originally built in the 800's as a monument where the birthing gown of Mary was placed. It seems that old the buying and selling of important Christian relics was big business back then. The spire in the right is new (from 1200's), the spire on the right survived the fire. The cathedral is a perfect example of gothic style. (if you are wondering what the yellow line is, they are doing some renovation.


This is our bed and breakfast in the Loire Valley. It is very nice, and clean.



The restaurant we ate dinner at. As Gary put it, "Toute êtait parfait!". Seriously, we will all think of that meal with fondness for a long, long, time.


Now we are going to dinner. I'll blog today's adventure when we return. Still going to try and upload the Eiffel tower video, but I may have to what until we are at our next hotel tomorrow.

Bon Soir!

Last day in Paris

Frustration defined: Staying up late to work on the days blog entry (too late considering how early we had to get up the next morning) get the blog entry finished, handing it to Dave to proof read and then hearing him say, "What just happened? The app just turned off and now I can't find the entry." Frustration.

Today, we are driving to our "French Country" vacation spots and I am taking the opportunity to re-type yesterday's blog. Which means I'll post two today.

Yesterday was another great day. Here is what we did....



Waiting to take a ride to the top of the Eiffel Tower.


That is a long way up!


Going up...


On the second level heading for the top...


The elevator ride made me a little wobbly in the knees so I did my best not to look down. Here we are at the tippy-top.





That is A LONG way down! (Makes me feel a little off balance just looking at the photo.)




Back to the second level. From here we enjoyed a long walk down to the ground level.


"Tour guide Gary.). ;). He is awesome.


Crazy firemen climbing the tower. He is passed the second level in this picture.


Eating lunch in the Jardin des Tuileries. The pigeons ate bread off of Gary's shoe.





After lunch we walked up to Musee de l'Orangerie to admire Claude Monet's "Waterlillies". I think this was my favorite part of any Museum we visited. Beautiful!


Jenn and Dave enjoying the one non-nude painting in the gallery. (I'm kidding. There was probably one more, maybe.)


Outside the Opera Garnier.


The Golden statues at the top of the house were a great contrast to the sky. Pretty, huh?


Took the metro to Sacre Couer. Very pretty chapel. A lot of steps to walk in the heat of the day. ;)


We toured the local street markets. Many artist displaying their works. A little too expensive for me to buy any art, but Jenn found an affordable artist who cut her silhouette out for $10 euro.


Here's the final result. Cute.


Very long and confusing trip through the train station to find our car rental. After working out a bit of a parking problem, we were off. Driving in Paris is an experience I do not have words to describe. After we survived our trip home (kudos to Gary on good driving) we ate a delicious dinner at Tribeca. Then we ended our day where it began...


at the Eiffel Tower. Sunset. A tripod would have been awesome to have at this moment.



Every night they twinkle to lights of the tower every hour on the hour.



Did you know I have the ability to make my tummy look prego? Well, I do. I found tonight it was even easier to do with a loose sweater and five days worth of eating pastries four times a day! :). I know, it's impressive...just one of my many useless talents. ;)


Love.


Walked through the park,


then through the streets of our neighborhood,


past the busy restaurants and bars, to our Paris home.

What a fun filled week in Paris!

On our way to Versailles and beyond today.

Urgh!

Having issues posting daily updates to our blog that have pictures in them. We will try again tomorrow to post. We have had such fun adventures the past two days and really look forward to sharing with you all.

Sorry kids, I'm sure it will work tomorrow.

Much love!
Miss H

-Bloggin' on the go. Bonjour!

4th day in Paris

We have decided the best way to start everyday is to eat a pastry. This mornings pastries may have been the best yet! We jumped on the Metro with our breakfast and headed to Les Catacombes de Paris.






This was such an interesting place to visit. It's purpose was practical, but sad. I thought it might feel dark or morbid to walk through this burial ground, but it didn't. Actually, I'm not sure how I felt. Look it up to learn more about it, it truly is interesting.












After taking the Metro to see Gary's old mission apartment. We walked to buy lunch from the markets on Rue Mouffetard. Then went to eat lunch at the Arene de Lutece ancient Roman ruins.



This was discovered when they were building the subway. It's pretty impressive to find history under history. We visited more of that theme later in the day. Just a couple stops first.



We took the Metro to Place des la Bastille and the Opera House. Then walked to see Victor Hugo's apartment at Place des Vosges.









This is a common sight, people in the park. No blankets, no official picnic, often nothing more than a bag to lean on. It is nice to see people slow down and relax because once we are out in the city it is "Go, go, go".

We walked to a boulangerie for our afternoon pastry hit. Jenn and I both got treats that were not as good as they looked. :(. So we took out the emergency pastry that we purchased with breakfast from our backpack - an almond croissant - and we were once again happy. We now highly recommend carrying an emergency pastry whenever possible.

Next we walked through the crypt archaeologic at Notre Dame. This is another history upon history place in Paris. This Roman community existed long before Notre Dame was built and Notre Dame was built above it. Again look it up for an interesting read.







Next we took the Metro to the Musee D'Orsay. We thoroughly enjoyed this museum! However, no photography was allowed inside, so we have nothing to show you. Sorry, I wish we did, because there were so many great works of art to share. With our legs growing more tired we took the Metro back to Rue Mouffetard for a pre-dinner crepe, shopping, and dinner. The man making our crepe never evenlooked up to see what he was doing. He just sent texts, as you can see in the pic above, and heckled woman passing by. :)









Gary ordered snails. (The French name would leave you to believe they were something tasty, but they are just snails!). Gary ate them, Dave and Jenn tried one, and I hid my eyes from the whole icky scene. I do not eat bugs! :)







Finally, we took a long metro ride to the Eiffel tower, where the line was too long for our tired legs so we walked back to the apartment for a restful evening of journaling and laundry. Please excuse poor writing and typos as I am way too tired to fix them. I've just finished talking via FaceTime with our kiddos - it is a highlight every night - and now I need to go melt into bed. :)

Bon Nuit

-Bloggin' on the go. Bonjour!

Thumbnails

You have probably already figured this out, but I thought I'd mention it for good measure. The app we are using to update the blog only applies thumbnail pictures to our blog. To see a bigger version of the picture you have to click on each pic. A little hassle, but better than bringing the laptop to France. :). Have a happy day!


-Bloggin' on the go. Bonjour!