For our international trip for 2013 we decided to spend three weeks exploring France. We spent two weeks with an organized tour with Grand Circle Travel and then another five days on our own in an apartment we rented in Paris. Even though the weather did not cooperate, it really was a great trip.
There is much to be learned from experiencing other cultures - and the French culture is very rich indeed. I only wish that I had been able to have these experiences when I was much younger. Throughout American history, the French have had a large impact on the development of our country. One can easily imagine the impact of visiting Paris must have had on Jefferson and Franklin.
I must comment on the food. The French are famous for their cooking for a very good reason. The food is simple and it is very good. The French stay fit by walking a lot. I am afraid that I must now walk more and also eat a bit less.
One of our fellow travellers, Peg Meier, wrote an article about the trip for the Star Tribune newspaper in Minneapolis. This is a link to the article which ran July 8.
Enjoy. And we welcome your feedback.
Gary and Vina
Left home around 9 am
when the Lexus guy came to pick us up and take us to the airport. (It is
another story for another time why the Lexus dealership picked us up.) We flew from
We went through immigration, got
our passports checked and walked for a long way through the maze that was the airport, to find our way to our local flight to Nice. We arrived at Nice around 2:30 p.m.
Thursday. We retrieved our luggage (with
some relief) and found a taxi for the ride to the hotel. Once we got settled in
the hotel, we had our first meeting of our travel group, enjoyed a glass of
wine and got to meet our travel companions.
Our travel guide, Jean Philippe Ruiz was quite enthusiastic.
We joined David and
Karen Schwalm for dinner at a nice restaurant close to the hotel. Even though all four of us were suffering a
bit from jet lag, we had a really nice dinner sitting outside.
We awoke early and had
breakfast in the hotel. We packed up our
stuff (hadn't really unpacked much) set it out for the porters to pick up and
we headed out for a walking tour of Nice lead by Jean
Philippe and a local guide.
The weather was not our
friend, with rain interrupting our walk, but we persevered. Nice is a really interesting place. The
We went back to the
market on the way back to the hotel and bought a large sandwich with tuna,
tomatoes, lettuce on a round French bun which we cut in half and shared for lunch.
We made it back to the
hotel and finally boarded our bus around 2 p.m. for the trip to Arles Arles
We woke up and enjoyed
breakfast on board the Chardonnay. After
breakfast we headed off the ship for a walking tour of the walled part of Arles, the Roman coliseum and ruins
After lunch we boarded
a bus to visit a farm were they raised bulls known for their
aggressiveness. The less aggressive bulls are sent to the slaughterhouse. The bulls are used in the French version of bull fighting where
the bulls are not killed. The matadors
are required to remove small little ribbon-like things from between the horns
of these aggressive bulls.
Since it was raining,
we took the tour of the farm in Land Rovers rather than the normal open air
trucks. Four of us piled into one
truck. Ours was driven by the owner (grandfather) of
the farm. He spoke French and Spanish
but little English, so they asked for Spanish speakers to go with him. Vina and another member of our group served
as translators for the two of us who were not fluent in Spanish. Vina really enjoyed the opportunity to use
her Spanish. This was a family run farm and all of the family - the son and his wife and their kids - took pride in the aggressiveness and longevity of the bulls. Some of the bulls were even commemorated with mounted heads as you can see in the background of the picture. Vina and I had our picture taken with the grandmother and grandfather
-really interesting people. We enjoyed
our visit.
We woke up to another
rainy day. I am sure that we would have
enjoyed our visit to Avignon
A highlight of the day's tour was a visit to the Pope's Palace. During the 1300's, the Popes left the Vatican in Rome and for seven Popes, they were headquartered in Avignon . The wealth of the Church was evident in what they built. They remained in Avignon for around 70 years before returning to Rome .
In the afternoon, we
took a bus to
We went to see the
Cathedrale d'Images which was an amazing multimedia show of the works of French artists projected onto the
walls of old limestone quarry caves. It
was truly amazing and the pictures do not do it justice. You have to experience it to truly understand it.
Got up early this
morning to go on a walk through the town of Viviers Gary
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| Gary making crepes |
That evening we went to
visit a local couple for dinner in their rather extraordinary home. It was an old flour mill (moulin) that had
been converted into a restaurant and bar. It was now being used as their private home. We had a great dinner with our hosts, Odile Bouyon and Gerard Poirier, and after dinner they lead us downstairs to the area that served as
a bar and Gerard proceeded to put on a cabaret show for us. A remarkable and very enjoyable evening.
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| Vina, Gary, Dave and Karen |
Docked in Lyon this morning.
After breakfast we took a bus tour of the city. The weather started out overcast, then turned
to rain and, as we returned to the ship, to partly sunny.
On our tour we visited
the cathedral on the hill where we spent about half an hour before heading down
to walk around the old city. Like so
many of the churches we have visited in Europe ,
it reflected the wealth of the church.
The view from the top of the hill was quite impressive.
The walk through the
old part of Lyon included "secret
passages" called something that sounds like "trouble" in
French. The outside looks like a regular
door but when you open it, it leads to a hallway between the buildings that can lead to another street with staircases
leading to apartments. Very interesting.
We also visited a silk
screening shop where they made some very nice scarves and other silk
items. Interesting to see them printing the different colors and designs on the silk fabric.
After lunch on the ship, we rested, caught up on email and wrote in this journal. Then it was time to get ready for an
afternoon cocktail reception at 4:45 pm.
Life is good.
We enjoyed a hosted
cocktail reception because this is our third Grand Circle Inner Circle
We awoke to overcast
skies and light rain again. Our ship was restricted from continuing up the Saone River
Our adventure this
morning was to visit the local outdoor market.
Gary
In the afternoon,
Then we headed to a
winery run by Etienne and Mireille Blanc - an enthusiastic couple. They took us into the vineyard where they
explained the grape growing process.
This was followed by a tour to their cellar where we tasted four
different Beaujolais wines - one white and
three different reds. Gary
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| Beaujolais countryside |
The weather had turned
nice and even sunny for our visit to Beaujolais .
We went back to the
ship for the Captain's farewell dinner which was a bit fancier than our other
meals with several courses including roast beef and baked Alaska
We were supposed to
have sailed to
We came back to the
ship for lunch. After lunch was free
time to explore more of Lyon or do whatever we
wanted. We walked around the town and
visited the shops on a sunny day. We stopped at a sidewalk cafe to have a Perrier
and people watch. The French certainly
know how to do some things very well!
We returned to the
ship, freshened up and sat on the sun deck before going down to the library to
enjoy some wine with fellow travelers.
Because of the ship's
being (nicely) stuck in Lyon , GCT offered us an open
bar before dinner. The cocktail hour was
followed by dinner.
We packed our suitcases
in preparation for leaving the ship in the morning.
We got up early (6 am),
finished packing, had breakfast onboard for one last time, and boarded the bus
with all of our luggage for the drive to Paris Saone River
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| Hotel Dieu |
Along the way we
stopped at Beaune, one of the main towns of the Côte d'Or region. We were in the Burgundy region of France
Lunch was on our
own. We joined Dave and Karen at a
quaint French restaurant for an enjoyable lunch. We boarded the bus to continue our trip north
to Paris
Dinner in Paris
We returned to the
hotel and went searching for lunch. Gary
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| Hall of Mirrors |
We arrived back at the
hotel tired but enriched by the activities of the day. We headed out to find another brasserie for
dinner. We had a really good but simple
dinner.
Today we got up early
and went to visit the home of Monet in Giverny which is about an hours drive
outside of Paris Gary
That evening we boarded
another bus for the short trip to the Champs-Eleysees and a nice restaurant for a farewell dinner with the entire group.
Today we were on our
own to explore Paris Paris
We enjoyed a light
lunch at the museum, and then visited the Flemish paintings before leaving the
museum. We walked toward the Notre Dame
cathedral. We stopped and enjoyed a
sweet treat and then went to visit the 850 year old cathedral.
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| Inside Notre Dame Cathedral |
Today we visited the
Musee d'Orsee. We took the city bus to
get there. By now we are old hands in
riding the public transport to get around.
We walk over a bridge with padlocks with the names of lovers written on
them, locked to the screens on the sides.
There are hundreds of them. The D'O
is another one of the many museums in
I did take some shots of the Eiffel Tower at night.
The 
In the afternoon we took
the underground train to the Arc de Triomphe. Today
was Armistice Day in
After visiting the Arc,
we took a walk down the Champs Élysées past all the nice stores and tons of
people.
We were treated to a departure drink that evening by Jean
Philippe before we headed to the bistro Lionois for dinner with Dave and
Karen. The rest of the group were headed home early the
next morning.
We got up, had
breakfast at the hotel, said farewell to Jean
Philippe and checked out of the hotel. We got a taxi
to take us to the apartment we had rented and had seen only in pictures. It was located in what we might call an alley
off of a major street and right close to the Rue Cler - a pedestrian street
with lots of shops and restaurants. You
entered the building through a green door, then through another security door
and then up a small circular stairway to the second floor (which the French
call the first floor because the ground floor is level 0).
We hauled our luggage
up the small staircase and, because the apartment was still being cleaned, left our luggage in the apartment and went to explore the neighborhood. We walked
over to the Eiffel
Tower
We hauled our luggage
up the small staircase and, because the apartment was still being cleaned, left our luggage in the apartment and went to explore the neighborhood. We walked
over to the
We had booked a gourmet cooking class for that evening over on the right bank of the Seine . We decided to leave a little early and try to
take the Metro to get there. We discovered the Metro station close to us, Ecole
Militaire, and after changing trains once, successfully found our way to our
destination. The cooking school was
great and we both enjoyed being actively involved in the preparation of the
meal. We ate the results of our efforts with great pleasure. We have the recipes if anyone would like them.
We then found our way back
using the Metro and didn't even get lost!
We crashed for the
night in our little apartment.
We woke up and fixed
some instant coffee. We then set out exploring. We walked to the Rodin museum. We walked past the
The Rodin museum had a
very large collection of Rodin's work. We started by visiting "The Thinker" which was in the garden. We then spent the next few hours touring the
museum and gardens. It was fascinating because they had the clay workups and plaster casts of his work. Amazing talent.
After leaving the
museum, we had lunch at a local brasserie.
Gary
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| Napoleon's Tomb |
We made our way back to
the apartment where we collapsed after doing all of that walking. We opened a bottle of the Beaujolais wine Gary purchased in Beaujolais before heading
out for dinner at the corner bistro.
For desert
We slept well.
Got up this morning and
had some cereal we bought at the local store (along with milk and orange juice)
for breakfast. We decided that we wanted
to visit the Musee de l'Orangerie located in the Tuileries garden. We again took the Metro and found our way. It featured a panorama by Monet and several
neo-impressionist artists. Photos
weren't allowed.
We caught bus 72 for a
ride back to the Eiffel Tower where we purchased tickets for a future boat
ride on the Seine . We then walked from the Eiffel Tower
Had a nice dinner at
the corner bistro, came back to the apartment and retired for the night.
Mother's Day.
Woke up and fixed
ourselves some eggs and ham, fruit salad and croissant for breakfast. Decided to go exploring.
We headed out in the
direction of Notre Dame. We got on the RER train but we got on going in the
wrong direction and started heading out of 
We walked all around
the outside of the Notre Dame cathedral and took lots of pictures of the
architecture. There was a bread baking
exposition going on at the church and we bought ourselves a small pizza which we enjoyed while
listening to the bells toll. (Play the video).
After doing some
souvenir shopping, we started to walk toward St. Chappell church. We got lost several times but enjoyed seeing
things "up close and personal.” We
ran into a street market selling pet supplies, pets (mainly birds) and
flowers. We found the church but decided
not to go inside.
We started to try to
figure out how we were going to get back home.
We ended up walking all about this island in the middle of the Seine . Finally we
stopped at a sidewalk cafe for a tea and coke to rest and try and figure out
which bus, subway or train we needed to take to get back home. We finally decided to go back to where we
started and retrace our steps. We walked
from the southern end of the island to the northern end and caught the RER back
to the station closest to our apartment.
We left at 10 a.m. and returned at 4:30 p.m.
Back at the apartment, we opened a bottle of
wine and watched Meet the Press on CNBC.
For dinner we went to a
bistro and enjoyed a nice dinner. Everywhere we ate, we were surrounded by English speakers. Since the tables were always very close together, conversations between tables would usually ensue.
Our last day in France
We slept in a little later than usual, had some coffee and started to pack some things up. After a breakfast of cereal and fruit, we decided to head out one more time. We had earlier purchased tickets for a boat ride along the
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| Notre Dame from the river |
We returned to the boat
pier and started to walk back to the apartment and in search of lunch and some
souvenir gifts to take home.
We stopped at a
sidewalk crepe cafe and got some fresh crepes for lunch. Vina had ham and cheese and
We went back to the
apartment where we finished eating our crepes and started to get serious about
packing for the trip home tomorrow.
Although we have really
enjoyed ourselves for the past three weeks, we were ready to head home.
We headed to our
favorite bistro, Bistro Bouquet, for our last French dinner. Vina had a lamb shank and Gary
Today lasted 33 hours
for us as we gained 9 hours flying home.
We get up early -- 5 am Tuesday (8 pm Monday night Arizona
We had an uneventful
flight (the best kind) to Minneapolis where we
make a connection for our Phoenix
We arrived at Sky Harbor
It took about 18 1/2
hours of travel time from leaving the French apartment to opening our Tempe
