In Iceland. Again.

Waiting for our flight. Sigh. If we can't be in Paris I want to be home!

Last mango in Paris

Last night.

Good night all

Good night all.  We're off to pack and we're gone in the morning.  I'll probably be posting this from the Iceland Air Lounge tomorrow.

Eiffel Tower

Well we did it.   Touristy but fun.  Here are some pics.

Carolyn got a little apprehensive as we got close to the elevator.

It's a long way to the top - 2 elevators.  Once you get to the second level you've got to catch another elevator (more waiting in line) to the "summit".

But we made it.  900 feet above Paris.

Pretty impressive views.

Here's the square where we saw the rugby team return.  With the telephoto on our poor little camera cranked.

It was high.

When we were back on the ground Carolyn seemed to be glad she did it!  Or she was glad it was over.  Which one wasn't clear to me.

Spent the rest of the day in the park on Champs du Mars (the big causeway leading up to the Eiffel tower) watching the world go by.  All in all a fun day.  We're prepping for our anniversary dinner now.  Still not sure where we're going but we'll figure that out.  As I said a few more status updates on the blog but probably not much more.  See you all soon.

Last Day

It's our last day and our Anniversary.  I woke up a bit melancholy.  Paris is a hard city to leave.  It's hard to decide what to do for a last day.  We still haven't gone up in the Eiffel tower.  We might do that. Then again, just putting together a picnic and sitting in a Paris park is appealing.

Once again we are torn.  It'll be great to see you all again but, as I said, Paris is hard to leave for reasons that are hard to describe.  Well there's no choice in the matter at the moment.  We have to get back to work and our lives.  I'll probably post one more time this evening with something of substance and then one or two of those "we're at the airport" kinds of posts.  Thanks for joining us and we'll see you all soon.

Trip Recap

Would we do them again?

• Haarlem - If we were in the area. Wonderful people and a safe clean town.
• Brugge - You have to do this once in your life as an adult but once is enough.
• Honfleur - Once was enough.
• St Emilion - Once (for half a day) is enough.
• San Sebastian - I think in this city once is enough but we'd like to go back to the area with friends that better understand the culture
• Sarlat - We will go back to the Dordogne.  Maybe not Sarlat (though I highly recommend going there) but definitely the Dordogne.  Best food and sights of the trip.
• Amboise - Worth the stay for the B&B (and owners) alone.  The town and surroundings deserve a day. If we were in the area I'd stay again.
• Paris - Of course we'll be back.  It's always hard to leave Paris!

Walk

We walked today.  A lot.  Up to the Eiffel tower and then all the way to Isle Saint Louis.  Took us all day but we had fun.  Tomorrow is our 28th anniversary.  Don't know for sure what we're doing yet.  We may end up on Isle Saint Louis at that great restaurant we found last time we were here (see photo).  Or there's an Italian place just around the corner that's excellent (we ate there last night).  We'll see.  In the mean time here are a few pics from our walk.

No Madame

Hey JZ.  Madame wasn't at the tavern today.  Sorry we tried.

Galette Complet

John D eat your heart out.

Ring Scam Count:8

So we added two more ring cons before noon today. Brings the total to 8. I know it doesn't seem like much but we got 2 "do you speak English" (if you say yes they tell you about a relative in some distant land that's dying and they just need a few euros for plane fare) and 4 of the "I'm deaf and I want to go to school" cons (same as in the US). Overall a productive morning.  Fran quietly snapped this pick of one of the guys palming a ring (in his right hand).

Ring Scam Count:6

I mentioned the ring con a few posts back.  Today before noon 5 different people tried it on us (bringing the total count to 6 including the one yesterday).  It got to the point Carolyn started laughing every time someone offered her a ring they "found" on the ground.  They moved away quickly when she laughed.  Any bets on how many we'll see by the time we leave on Saturday?

Serendipitous Event of the Trip (New Zealand 8, France 7)

So I've been planning to have a serendipitous event this trip and I finally got to cross it off our list.  We were leaving the Louvre and debating which way to head.  Fran wanted to go to the Latin Quarter to buy a scarf (she bought one there a few years ago).  I hate the Latin Quarter because it's soooooo touristy.   I hate walking through it.  My first visit, and the realization it's a tourist trap, ruined it for me.  I used to imagine smoky jazz clubs filled with the next Ernest Hemmingways brooding over their wine.  Then I went there and all my fantasy's were crushed.  Bad food and lots of souvenir shops.

Any way I talked Fran into heading back to the rue Cler.  As we're heading out of theLouvre grounds (by that big egyptian obelisk whose name I can never remember) we saw a ton of people walking around with French flags.  There was pop music blaring.  We got to the square and it was jammed with people.  A stage had been set up - we thought oh boy a free concert!

Then we started looking around and realized it was the home coming celebration for the French Rugby team from the Rugby World Cup!

That's the stage by my head.

A giant jumbotron was showing highlights of the season.  Now a year and a half ago I wouldn't have cared.  But as some of you know Kelsey (my daughter) started playing Rugby for Central.  I've learned a lot about the game (so I can watch).  Recall when we stayed in Sarlat we met a couple from New Zealand that helped us out around the town.  What I didn't mention was he is a huge All Black (the NZ Rugby team) fan.  We chatted a bit about Rugby and how we both agreed that NZ and France were the ones that would make it into the world cup.  New Zealand has just dominated this season.  Long story short NZ was pegged to crush France (they'd met during the regular season and beat them like 56 to 20).  NZ did win the world cup but only by 1 point.  It was a great match (we actually watch part of it when we were in Spain).

Anyway we got to wave French flags and join the celebration for the French team along with ten thousand of our French friends.  Again I've said it before but it's these kinds of things that make travel really fun.

 

Guess Where We Went Today!

Can you guess?  Huh can ya?

That's right we finally made it to the Louvre.  Got to see the Mona behind 6 inches of bullet proof glass.  Stayed mostly with the Italian masters ("The Brothers").  Took us about 3 hours just to see that and we skipped a lot.  We peeked at a couple of other things (venus etc) just cause we were there.  Overall I have to agree with others that say the Orsay is higher impact.  Still I'm glad we did it.

A few other shots around the museum.  Honestly the most fascinating bits are the are the architecture of the place itself.

This is the entry (the glass pyramid).

Just one of the halls.  As you can see we were with about ten thousand of our best friends.

From inside the pyramid looking out onto the old entrance.

Restaurant Rant: Au Pied de Fouet 6 = "F"

So John Z sent us to this place:

The food was quite good (again not in the great category but very high up there).

I had the chicken (with mashed potatoes)

Fran had a steak with mashed potatoes (steak was a touch tough but quite tasty)

Desert for me was a well rounded cheese duo.

Fran had the Desert du Jour (a tart with coconut, chocolate and nuts).

Some exceptional coffee.  There was also wine (which was excellent).

My rant?  We'd barely finished our coffee when a group of three people came in.  The gal running the place basically asked us how soon we were leaving cause she wanted our table.  Now I'm used to folks trying to turn tables in the US but it's never happened to me in Europe before.  To be honest even though I think this place had really good food I'm put off enough that I won't go back.  I don't mean to sound like a petulant American but come on - we had barely taken the last sip of our coffee.  So the food gets a solid "B" and maybe even a "B+" but the service is a definite "F" for what amounts to a failing grade overall.  Maybe it was a fluke - I don't know but I do know there are too many restaurants in Paris that get a B+ for food and also have C's or B's for service.  There's a business lesson in here somewhere I think.

 

Two Canadians in Paris

The drive from Amboise to Orly Airport (south of Paris) where we dropped off the car was pretty uneventful.  We stopped for gas etc.  I only broke one traffic law (I ran a red light - they had a red light in the middle of a round about - who puts red lights in the round about?)

Once we hit Orly it got interesting.  Jeeves is programmed to guide you where he thinks roads are.  Most of Orly is under construction.  Where Jeeves thought there were roads there was construction.  Where there were roads Jeeves was convinced we were driving on the runway.  He threw his first tantrum of the trip.  We had driven a lot without him (in the Dordogne) so we knew it was possible to navigate without the aid of a machine.  Shutting him up was a different issue.  Damn near had to disconnect the car battery.

I knew the rental car return was at the west terminal.  Finding where to return the car was a challange.  We drove around Orly (the same loop it seemed) for about 20  minutes.  We kept going past row after row of Jersey barrier.  We finally noticed a break in one of the barriers that a car went through - so for no particularly good reason I followed.  Sure enough behind the unmarked break in the Jersey barrier was the rental car return.

Once the car was checked out we grabbed a cab and were off to Paris.  Cab's are expensive in Paris.  They are worth every penny cause there's no way I'd drive in this traffic.  Our cabbie's version of Jeeves got us to within about a block of the hotel.  His version tried to send him down a pedestrian street so he let us off a block or so away from the hotel.  No biggie - it was close enough.

After we checked in (as I said the hotel is "quaint", meaning small and we got a suite) we took a long walk down the Seine and found a place John Z recommended for dinner.  On the way we were targeted by a con man.  The con is they walk in front of you and pretend to find a ring on the ground (they drop it).  They ask you if it's yours and when you say no they show you a mark that proves it's pure gold. They then offer to sell it to you at a discount.  The ring will of course turn your finger green.  Our guy was a bit more aggressive than I've seen in the past and I had to pretty rudely tell him to go away.  He wasn't pleased but I was drawing too much attention to him so he left.  We found the place John had recommended but was way too early so we walked back to our hotel.  We're going to the Louvre tomorrow afternoon so we'll go to dinner there then.

We are staying in an area that's popular with the Rick Steves crowd (Carolyn got the hotel from his book).  Rue Cler.  It's a very cute neighborhood not far from the Eiffel tower.  That said, we saw (and I'm not exaggerating) five people walking around this two square block area of Paris with their Rick Steve's Paris travel guides out trying to find their hotel.  It reminded me of our first trip to Europe (we took Trav and Kels).  We were in Bacharach Germany in a hotel dining room and every person (including us at the time) had a Rick Steve's guide.

We also saw some of the ugliest Americans (and American behavior) I've seen in all my years a traveling.  Some quotes - "They all smoke.  It's disgusting.  They're all going to get cancer and there'll be a national health crisis" (this is from a women at least 75 pounds overweight and I'm being conservative), "Why don't the restaurants open earlier", and I kid you not "Why don't more of them speak English".

Fran and I have started punctuating our sentences with "eh?" and pretending we're Canadian.

Made it to Paris!

We are here! Lost of stories but I haven't figured out Internet yet. Our room is "quaint".

Amboise

So Amboise is cute but small - a day (or even a half day) is plenty.  I didn't know this when we planned the trip but it's also the (supposedly) final resting place of Leonardo DiVinci.  He retired here 3 years before his death.

This is the "old" part of town.  It's only a few blocks long.  There's a street perpendicular to this one about a block past the bell tower.  The Chateau is on that street.  Surrounding the Chateau are a bunch of restaurants.  We only tried two but they were both in the good but not great category.

This is Amboise, the Loire river and valley from the Chateau.

This is the front lawn of Leonardo's house (which is now a museum).  It has replicas of a bunch of his inventions (you've seen them: the rotating bridge, the flying machine - which you can see on the right side of the picture below - etc).  So my thought was "Genius my ass, if he was so smart with a lawn like this why didn't he invent the riding mower?"

Here's the Chateau (I think I'm castled out - all I kept hearing was blah blah blah King this did this.  Blah blah blah 1504 Francois the blah blah blah).  It was pretty but I like the medieval stuff.

Well that's it for Amboise.  Ta ta from the Ramparts of Chateau Amboise.  See you all in Paris!

 

Au Charme Rabelaisien

The B&B

Our room

Out our window.

The hostess/owner (Sylvie) could be the nicest and happiest person I ever met.  If you come here stay with these folks.

Made Amboise

It was a breeze to get here.  Jeeves came though again!  We've pretty much learned how to use the French toll roads which are great.  I'm convinced toll roads are the way to go for smooth and quiet highways.  It's a rude awakening for those in the northwest (back east it's just an accepted fact of life) but I really don't see alternatives w/o significantly raising taxes.

Only funny incident: we were going through an automated toll booth and the toll was like 3.10 euros.  Smallest we had was a 20 euro bill.  So I put it in and out comes 16.90 euro in coins.  I guess the machines can't dispense paper bills.  For future reference in this story the euro coins have about twice the weight of American coins.  I'm at the automated booth trying to scoop out about 30 coins.  Had to open the door because the return change slot is about a foot off the road. Fortunately there wasn't any line behind me.  I gathered my handfuls of coins and passed them to Carolyn.  Without thinking about it she put them in her purse.  We get to Amboise and decide to walk around town a bit (a brief side trip to this story: Amboise is where Leonardo Di Vinci retired).  Carolyn starts complaining that her purse strap is cutting into her shoulder and then we realize what's happening.  She has (and I'm not exaggerating) two pounds of coins in her purse.  We got an ice cream cone and paid in nickels which not only remedied the purse strap issue but raised our spirits as well.

We're staying in a great B&B (Au Charme Rabelaisien).  Our room is HUGE and parking and breakfast (well the French version of said meal) are included.  I'll post some pictures later (I'm too lazy to download them from the camera).

Off to the Loire Valley

I think we've come to the conclusion that we like to be on the move.  Several friends prefer to stop for long periods in the same place.  We (I) get restless.  The thought of renting a villa and getting to know an area well has some emotional appeal but when we actually do something like it (like our 5 days in San Sebastian), even with daily side trips, it's just not enough stimulation.  Paris seems to be the exception to this.  Live and learn.

The Dordogne has been great.  Just enough time to see some sights but not enough to get bored.  We want more and we'll be back, not to Sarlat (which, don't get me wrong is great), but to some other small town in the area for more great food and sites.

We're off to Amboise and the Loire Valley in a few minutes.  We'll check in soon.

 

14 Phrases

14 Phrases I will know how to speak in the primary language of any country I visit:

Hello/Goodbye

Please/thank you

Where is...

…a bathroom

…a good restaurant

I would like...

…this/that

…water/wine/beer

Check please

How much?

Help, I need...

…police

…a doctor

Do you speak English?

 

Busy few days

We've spent the last two days cruising around the Dordogne region of France.  This has become one of our favorite regions of France.  We visited some of the cro-magnon sites staring at cro-magnon art (Lascaux II/Grotte de Font-deGaume), touring a few towns (La Roque-Gageac/Beynac), and seeing a few Castles (Chateau de Castelnaud/ Chateau de Beynac).  Whew…my legs are actually tired we walked so much.  Here are a few pictures.

Chateau de Castelnaud

Because in my heart I'm a 12 year old.

La Roque-Gageac and the Dordogne river.

More from La-Roque - these buildings actually blend into the cliffs

The Dordogne valley and river from Beynac

Bye for now (from the rampart of Chateau de Castlenaud)

 

Le Car for Trav

Trav - you wanted to know what my car looked like.  Honestly not much different than my car at home!