Saturday - Travel Day - All Day Home

Saturday morning was crazy. Everyone trying to pack and get organized - trying to not get in each others' way. Our flight wasn't until 1:35pm but we had to be there about 3 hours early. It took nearly 3 hours to check in and get to our plane. I am so glad that we did this afternoon flight instead of the late morning flight we were first thinking about.

The evidence of the wine that we drank in the apartment.

One last pastry from Boulongerie Julien, across the street.

Waiting for our van pick-up. It ended out that we were waiting on one corner and the van was waiting at a different corner. Oh well - it all worked out.

Our street - a fabulous location. We finally met Fabien on our last day. He helped us get all of our luggage out of the apartment. The elevator was so small that we had to send down each person's luggage one at a time. We put it in and sent the elevator down and Fabien got them out.

Our grocery store

Good-bye Paris. Checking in at Paris was quite a challenge to begin with. We got separated from Jennifer for a while because they put us all into different lines and hers moved more slowly. We flew on a huge double decker airbus. Sharon and Kris were together on the upper level. Jennifer and I were together on the lower level. Air France was very comfortable with plenty of complimentary food and libation. 7 hour flight to JFK. We had a 2 1/2 hour lay over in New York. That was just barely long enough to get through customs and to a different terminal and rechecked in.

Sunset as we arrived into Portland 1 hour early. George and Glenn met us. Glenn and Sharon dropped Kris off and George and I dropped Jennifer off. I went straight to bed.

What a great trip. It will be fun going through our pictures and remembering what a fun time we had. When I was checking in at the Paris airport the ticket agent asked me if I had a good time. When I said "Well, I ate too much and drank too much she said "That's Paris!" When I got home my pedometer was there. The PDX airport had returned it to me. Unfortunately, I have no record of the number of steps and miles we walked all over Paris. Signing off - Barbara

Friday, Excursion Day - Chartres or Dink Day

The was our last day. Sharon and Jennifer felt that they had not had a chance to shop and there were so many places we had been to that they wanted to go back to so we split up.

Sharon and Jennifer stayed in Paris and dinked - they poked around, looked in galleries, found some cool shops, had breakfast, lunch and a cafe break. They had a perfect day and felt that they got to do enough of what they missed before. They wandered all around the Place des Vosges, the Saint Germaine area and the Ile de la Cite.

They had their afternoon break at le Flore en L'Ile for beer.

Kris and I headed out to Chartres. It is about a 1 hour relaxing train ride from Paris.

Once in Chartres we wandered up to the Chartres Cathedral. The main goal here was to walk the labyrinth. Which we did - or tried to do. I was right in the middle of walking it when an obnoxious tour group came through and stood right on the labyrinth while people were trying to walk it. I could not believe that a tour guide would not realize what he was doing. There was plenty of room on the side for them to stand. Other than that it was a great experience.

Our lunch break was Le Serpente . I had the Croquet Monsieur and Kris had the Croquet Madame.

We wandered around the cathedral and the shops close by until the time of our tour of Old Town. Olivia joined us here.

We took a little "train" ride around old town. That was fun. Though it did make it more challenging to take pictures. Luckily we were not going very fast.

Chartres is a very picturesque little town with very narrow streets. They are in the process of renovating it.

Kris and I had our afternoon cafe break at the Chocolaterie. It was finally not too hot for hot chocolate. We split a praline macaron. This was in a cute little open mall. It was fairly close to the train station. We caught the 4pm train and got home about 1/2 hour before Jennifer and Sharon got home.

I think each group was glad of the choice they made. I had missed Chartres the last time I was in Paris and was very glad to do that. I think Kris had a good time as well. Sharon and Jennifer had a chance to poke around which they had missed earlier. Sharon said "a note to self - when planning a vacation - have a free day"

Once both groups got home and had a chance to relax a bit, we went out for our final evening event. We went to another of Hemmingway's favorite haunts, Harry's New York Bar, for drinks. I had the Side Car and the others had the White Lady. They were very good.

We ended the day at Au Pied du Cochon and no we did not have pig's feet as the name would imply. They are also famous for their French Onion Soup, which we did have. Some of us had the Oscar salad as well. Both of which were very good. Our last meal. But all of us are ready to get back to a little more simple fare.

I think all in all we had a fabulous 10 days. We saw a lot of art, ate and drank a lot, and walked a lot. We each have different favorites. The weather cooperated. No rain. And now it is time to head on home. We have to pack and be out of the apartment by 10am. Then we fly home via New York. I hope you all have enjoyed the taste of Paris with the Art-Walk-Eat Travelers.

Thursday - More Eat, Drink, Shop, RELAX

We had breakfast at home this morning. Then walked to where we met our guide for our food tour. Rosemary took us on a private "Taste of Paris" tour. We wander around the Les Halles area. She gave us some history of the the area.

There used to be a market with many small stalls with umbrellas or coverings. Then Napoleon 3rd (I think) had this built. It was there a long time. It was deserted because of rats and whatever.

To bring people back they started building this building in the 1970s and before it was finished they decided that they did not like it.

They are now tearing it down so they can build this new mall/cultural center.

We stopped in several stores. Then we ended the walking portion of the tour at a little wine shop.

We had our tastings there: bread, cheese, wine, cherries, quince paste, a fresh mint chocolate dessert. That was interesting.

cheese and quince paste

bread - she told us how you could pick a good baguette.

fresh mint and chocolate cake.

After our tour we went for lunch at the Creperie Beaubourg near the Pompidou. We all had savory crepes and wine.

After this Kris stayed home and got some much needed rest. Jennifer, Sharon and I headed off to the left bank for an afternoon in the 6th arondissment or the Saint Germaine area.

There are these bicycle stands all over the city. You rent them from one place and can drop them off at any other stand. The first 1/2 hour is free and so a lot of people rent for 29 minutes and then wait a few minutes and then get another for another 29 minutes.

Along the outside fence of the Luxembourg garden is an feminist art installation of photographs. This is one titled Moscow. "An Orthodox Mona Lisa" at Weaver's Cathedral 2005

No shortage of views of the Eiffel Tower.

We went to Jardin du Luxembourg, a very manicured garden.

We went to Un Dimanche for hot chocolate. It was hidden away in a side alley. We were lucky we found it.

Unfortunately, I had the same problem I had at Angelina's a few days ago. I don't want hot chocolate when I am hot and tired. I hear it was a delicious drinking chocolate. So I had a red peach sorbet which was very refreshing. Someday maybe I will go back to both Angelina's and Un Dimanche for hot chocolate in the morning and compare.

We walked home over one of the bridges of locks (not its proper name). Apparently when couples get married they buy a lock and attach it to the fence of the bridge and then throw the key into the Seine. Profess undying love and that they are locked together. The city tried to remove them and there was such an outcry that they left them alone.

We had to make a quick stop at the Louvre to go to the gift shop. Sharon needed a Louvre book. Then we had to hurry home, get Kris and head out again to get to the concert we were going to at La Sainte Chappelle. We made it just in time.

We went to a concert at La Sainte Chappelle. I was blown away. It is a small chapel but it is entirely in stained glass. Not an impressive place from the outside.

We heard Handel's Sarabande, Mozart's Sarabande and Vivaldi's 4 Seasons performed by Bertrand Cervera and Company. It was an hour concert. I am so glad we went.

After that we came home to relax with some wine and cheese. We needed a break from the fabulous 3 hour dinners. :-).

Wednesday - Montmartre And More Modern Art

Our usual routine seems to be to leave the apartment around 9:00am to go for breakfast. This morning we were back to breakfast at our local cafe where we had been before. One big reason is that we knew it had good rest rooms.

I will miss the fresh squeezed orange juice.

Every where we went we saw cafes with their "patio" chairs facing away from the restaurant. Set up for people watching.

This is a huge piece of art in one of the metro stations. There is quite a variety at the metro stations. Some seem very old and do not have any art but the newer ones have shops or art. You do have to pay attention to where you want to go and which line, even with the exits or the Sortie. One metro stop had 8 exits. We have not always chosen the best exit.

We took a walking tour of the Village of Montmartre. We started near the bottom of the hill and wound our way up through narrow cobbled streets. Our guide was wonderful. He pointed out the homes of Van Gogh, Picasso, Toulouse Lautrec, and Renoir. He had stories about them all.

The Moulan Galette.

All the way up to Sacre-Coeur. I got a better photo of the Sacre-Coeur later.

We were at the highest point in Paris.

It was time for a lunch break at the Le Cremaillerie. We had the Renoir Formule but there were 3 choices within that.

This is my caramel custard dessert. I am trying to not bore you all with too many food pictures. We all took pictures of all of our courses and our wines for every meal. Salad or entre, main course or plat, dessert and coffee and of course wine.

The restaurant was in the artist square. So we wander around there after lunch. Fun to watch artists paint and sell there wares.

We took the funicular down from Montmartre

One last view of Sacre-C0eur

Of course there is always a little shopping.

We made a brief stop at the Trocadero on our way to the cruise. We wanted to get the Eiffel Tower from a different perspective. We thought we were going to a cafe to sit and rest but it was closed for renovations

You can barely make out the Monument to Peace in the background under the Eiffel Tower.

There was a rally going on in front of the Freedom Flame. We were not sure what it was about.

Next was our champagne cruise on the Seine. It was fun to pass by all the places we have been to. And it was a beautiful day.

We had 3 different champagnes. Our guide told us about the process of making champagne and about the 3 types we had. There were maybe 15 of us on the tour.

After the cruise we got the metro over to our next stop - dinner.

Dinner at the Bistroy les Papilles. WoW. I think that was our longest meal - 2 1/2 hours or so. But we have been lucky lately with having delicious meals. This place served only one fix price formule.

We started with a zucchini soup. It was interesting and very tasty. The waiter first set down this bowl with a clump of zucchini, crutons, cheese, bacon and creme. We all thought "this is soup??" Then he brought a bowl of zucchini soup to ladle on top of the clump of zucchini.

I guess they probably do not want to give out the recipe.

Then came a big dish of potatoes and baked cod. Even I liked the cod. The potatoes were especially tasty as well.

Then the cheese course followed by a heavenly dessert of pears, ice cream and whipped cream. Of course there was wine. We opted to not follow it with coffee since it was 11pm and we all wanted to crash.

We headed straight home after that. And we did not go for many more modern art. We just ran out of time.