The final days ....

This last blog entry will cover our final two days in France and will only be text for now. I’ll add pictures when we return to the States.

Saturday was our last day in Paris and we spent the day enjoying the city. Our first destination was the France history museum which was only a few blocks from our apartment. It’s a great, but overlooked, museum. Lots of interesting things to see – and for you cat loving blog readers, there were some neat old cat themed pub & restaurant signs.

Our second stop was to St. Chapelle. While Notre Dame is known for its over-the-top grandeur. St. Chapelle is known for its over-the-top loveliness. It’s quite simply one of the prettiest churches I’ve seen and I’ve seen my fair share of churches.

After St. Chapelle our intent was to visit the Orsay Museum – but we spent so much time window shopping along the streets of the Seine, that we didn’t get to the Orsay in time. C’est la vie. We just spent a bit more time window shopping and then headed home to pack.

Sunday brought COLD weather and our departure from Paris. We weren’t able to rent our apartment for our entire trip so we booked a hotel near the airport for our final day. Nevertheless, we were quite adventurous. We took a shuttle to our hotel, checked in and headed right back out again….. Straight to Disneyland Paris!

Getting to Disney was an adventure itself involving a shuttle from hotel to airport, catching a bus from the airport to Disney, and then walking to the park. Disney Pairs is a blast. It’s a smaller park than California and Florida - but it’s just as fun. Most of the rides are in French – which seems odd to those of us used to the same rides in English. Some of storylines behind the rides are also different – most notably Pirates of the Caribbean & Haunted Mansion. But, that seemed to make the day more fun. Of course, the hot, mulled wine they serve at Disney Paris didn’t hurt either. J

I only have a few minutes before we leave for the airport so I’ll sign off for now. Check back in a day or so for a final update and more pictures.

See you all soon!Bill, Janet, & Jen

Oh My Aching Feet!

Friday was The Louvre. It's immense. It's size is somewhere around 555,000 square feet and it's filled to the gills with art. We saw nearly all of it in one day. Oh, how our feet hurt! The thing about the Louvre, besides the fabulous works of art, is the sheer beauty of the building itself. It's gourgous - so if you get tired of paintings, sculptures, and the like - you just have to look up or down to find murals, gilded architecture, or detailed marble designs. There are also strategically placed couches and chairs for the weary. Here are photos for your enjoyment....

Do you see that little square in the center of the large crowd? Yes? Look closely. That's the Mona Lisa. The crowd is what you have to get through to see her. It's a lot of fuss for an old woman. Especially when you can see a handfull of equally impressive DaVinci paintings one floor up - completely crowd free. I found the crowd reaction far more interesting than the painting - of which I only got a glimpse.

The French transportation strike presses on

Imagine narrow, winding medieval streets. Add in a gazillion cars filled with people all trying to get through the same intersection at the same time. Throw in a couple thousand taxis, motorcycles, vespas, bicycles, and even a few brave rollerbladers and you have a French transportation strike. But for us, it’s all just an interesting experience because we walk.

Strikes are nothing new to Bill and Jen. There were strikes nearly every day of our trip to Rome a few years ago. And Jen experienced a baggage handlers strike in Belgium a number of years before that. In our minds, travel in Europe and strikes of some sort just go hand-in-hand. It's all good by us though, walking just makes room for more pastries.

Alright – on to our day. On Thursday, we headed out to the mother of all Paris tourist spots - Notre Dame. We did the usual tour – walked around and admired the sights. Then we climbed the stairs to the upper level to enjoy the view and chat with the gargoyles.

After Notre Dame we hoofed it to the Museum of the Middle Ages. Jen was particularly looking forward to this museum as it houses the famous “Lady with a Unicorn” tapestries. http://arthistory.heindorffhus.dk/frame-TapestryUnicornLady.htm

Honestly, they were more impressive than I’d have thought. Well worth the visit!

Finally, we ended the day with a boat tour along the Seine. Well, actually, we ended the day drinking wine and eating wonderful French food, but you don’t need all the details. Do you?

Loire Valley Tour

Tonight, you get a report from guest blogger Bill. Be kind to him. It's his first time. :-)

This is Bill - I've not got the creative writing bug that Jen has so I'm just going to post a few pictures from the day, and let Jen fill in the details when she is awake.


On Wednesday we took a day trip to see a couple of Chateau's on in the Loire valley with Sabine - a private tour guide. She picked us up at 7:30AM for a ~12 hour round trip, the first 1.5 hours of which were through the Metro strike inspired Parisian traffic.

Our first stop was Chenonceau - a Chateau built as a three story bridge across a river. It was first the home of the kings mistress, but following his death his wife - Catherine de Medici - promptly kicked her out and moved in herself.




Our second stop was Chambord - a much larger Chataeu used as a hunting cabin by the French elite. Well a cabin with 440 rooms and 365 fireplaces and a central double staircase designed by Leonardo de Vinci .....


Jen will be back next time with our trip to Notre Dame and the the Museum of the Middle ages.

Stairs, stairs, and more stairs ...

There are 284 steps from street level to the top of the The Arc de Triumphe. We climbed them all. Earlier in the day we climbed the steps leading to Sacre-Coure. I didn't count the number of steps - but I'd guess there a couple hundred or so. Tuesday was a day of stairs.... and then some.

But I'm gettting ahead of myself. We got up nice and early on Tuesday. Bill and Jen headed over to the local pastry shop and picked up a collection of fabulous French breakfast treats. I know what you're all thinking... tough life eating French pastries for breakfast, but we needed the extra fuel for all of those steps that were to come later in the day. Really, we did!

Right. So after breakfast, we jumped on the Metro and headed over to Montmarte which is the artsy / bohemian section of Paris. Montmarte is a grab bag of everything.. shops selling crappy tourist stuff, a HUGE cathedral (Sacre-Coure), starving artists, scam artists, restaurants galore, and sex shops. It's also where you'll find the famous Moulin Rouge.

It's getting late, my eyes are heavy, and I want to get this post off to you all - so I'll cut the story short. After a full day of Montmart touring we hussled over to the Arc de Triumphe, climbed the stairs to the top and enjoyed another view of Paris at night.

Oh, and before I sign off for the night - I want to tell you how much we enjoy your blog comments. We gather 'round the computer each night to read them. It's a nightly ritual we all look forward to!

I'm leaving you with this video of the view from the Eiffel Tower. I'm trying it as an experiment which may, or may not work. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. G'night all!

It Sure is an "Eye Full"

Monday was an easy day. In fact, we slept 14 hours and then laid around the apartment for a couple of hours. Janet watched a pair of young, Parisian lovers take 15 minutes to say goodbye to each other as the shops began to open. It was a nice morning. Later in the day, we jumped on the Metro to the Tour Eiffel (Eiffel Tower to you Americans). On the way, we stopped for crepes & a panini from a street vendor. A warm chocolate crepes is fantastic on a cold, windy day!

Here are pictures of a Sunset of Paris from the Tower and a Cold Eveningin Paris

P.S. Michelle, the title of this blog is for you! :-)

... It was the worst of times.

And so we headed home; tired and ready for some dinner. Our plan was to make some pasta, have a bit of wine, and then sleep. Oh, how we were looking forward to some sleep. Well, as they say, the best laid plans ….. Up the three flights of stairs we went, four grocery sacks in hand to the apartment door. Bill, our “keeper of the keys”, inserted the key, turned the lock, and gave a merry little shove (it’s a heavy door with a tight fit). Nothing happened. Another shove. Still nothing. Hmm… “Let’s try a different key”…. still no success.

“There must be a trick to this”, we decided, “some special French way of opening doors”. Jen gives it a try; and then Janet; back to Bill again. “Stubborn door”, we thought. “Maybe we need to be more forceful”?

A few more serious shoves with heavy shoulder action applied. Next came a few well placed kicks. Nothing… not even a budge. We keep at it for about 20 minutes, all trying different tactics because - what else are we going to do? We left the cell phone in the apartment (along with every thing else we owned). And, for some unknown reason the phrase - “Say, can you help me? I’m a tourist from a foreign land. Our apartment door seems to be jammed and we’ve no way to get in” - nevercame up in Jen’s French review.

Admitting defeat, we decided to go for help. With some level of foresight, Bill grabbed our landlord’s phone number before we left on our grocery adventure. So, we leave Janet and the groceries on the stairway and head out into the wet Parisian night, looking for a phone. (The building is very safe and she did have water, bread, stinky cheese, and some coke to keep her sustained).

After a few unsuccessful knocks on neighboring doors, Bill and Jen step outside. We stop and look around. There’s a café across the street. “Do we ask someone for a phone?” “Look” Bill says, “There’s a public phone” so we head over to it and wait in the rain until it’s free.

“OK, where do we put the coins?” “Damn. It only takes phone cards. We need a tabac shop.” “Over there – there’s a Tabac shop…” so we head down the street.

Jen’s feeling pretty nervous because obviously she’s going to have to do all the talking… in French. But these are desperate times, so we go in and talk with the Tabac man. He’s a nice man and between Jen’s French and his bit of English, we manage to buy a phone card and head back to the phone. Number dialed… and get voice mail. “Shit!” Jen’s leaves an incoherent and desperate phone message. However, we have some hope; Lei provided an emergency phone number in her message. We call back to get the number – get about half of them and have to call back again. Just as we’re writing down the missing numbers Lei answers the phone. She’ll be by in about 10 minutes. HURRAY – we’re saved!

We head back to the apartment and Janet. While we wait for Lei to arrive, some neighbors pass by. We chat and explain our situation. They try to help out – using the same shoulder shoving techniques. The friggin’ door, really won’t open and, hearing that our landlord is coming, they leave us to our wait with a friendly offer for some tea. Still, we feel justified – at least we know the door is stuck and there isn’t some crazy French trick to getting it open.

Finally, Lei arrives. She goes through various attempts to open the door…. “Merde! Fuck! The damn door is stuck.” A few phone calls later she tells us the handyman is coming. But since he lives some distance, it’ll be an hour or more before he arrives. But, being French and all, she proposes that we head to the café below for some wine – on her tab.

And this is how, on our first night in Paris with only a few hours of sleep between us, we ended up at a café drinking wine, eating cheese and laughing about the day’s events.

All in all, it was a great experience – certainly not during the actual locking out portion – but in retrospect, and with some wine in our systems, it was really quite a laugh. Oh, and in case you’re wondering. The handyman had to kick in the door and replace the lock. We didn’t participate in this part of the story. We were too busy enjoying our wine.