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This blog is about our extensive tour of France.  The tour was supposed to take five and a half months.  We spent a lot of time over a couple of years planning and finalizing the itinerary and getting the required long term visa.  A little over three months into the tour we received word that our condo in Las Vegas had flooded due to a leak in the unit above ours.  So we had to cut our tour short. 

The tour included two weeks in Paris where Mary took French classes and we wandered the city as part of the classes.  We then picked up a car and drove to Lille in the far north of France, just a few miles from the Belgian border.  From there we spent the next few months traveling counterclockwise around the perimeter of France.  We found out about the condo flood just before our scheduled our cruise of the Canal du Midi.  We decided to finish the cruise and then, from Narbonne (end of the cruise), we headed back to Paris for our flight home.  

Highlights included gorgeous scenery on the Alabaster Coast, two nights in Mont Saint Michel, many World War I and II memorials and cemeteries, visits to many Les Plus Beaux Villages de France (Most Beautiful Villages in France), a few weeks in the Dordogne area and the cruise on the Canal du Midi. 

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More (category) Albums:  Photos, not in the blog, that fit a certain category. 

    Abstracts

    Art

    Brittany

    Buildings and Architecture

    Carousels

    Castles and Chateaux

    Churches and Cathedrals

    Coastline

    Countryside

    Flowers and Gardens

    Markets and Shops

    Northern France

    Stained Glass

    Towns and Villages

    World War II

   

(Videos are under construction.)

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March 18/19 – Flight to France

There has been a slowdown in TSA and elimination of TSA Pre-check in some airports and security lines are reported to be very long.  Our flight to San Francisco isn’t scheduled to leave until 11:00 but we decided to get to the airport very early in case lines are long.  So, our UBER pickup was scheduled for 6:30.

The trip to the airport was quick.  Check-in was quick. And, happily, the security lines were short and Pre-check was operating.  That put us at the lounge about 8:00.  So we have a lot of time to wait. 

We had good views of the Las Vegas and the strip…

and The Sphere as we flew out.

Flying into SFO we could see the salt flats in the South Bay.  We’ve never seen them quite so colorful. 

We had a couple of hours at SFO and spent it in the lounge.  Then it was on to the plane for the long flight to Paris.  Mary had a nap and watched one, Paul watched movies.

Once at the Charles De Gaule our luggage came out fairly quickly, and, at Border Control, we got diverted to a short line so we got through Immigration quickly.  Then we found a taxi and headed into Paris. 

Some art that we drove past.  Could find no information on it.  

The drive also took us right by the Arc de Triomphe. 

We were at our hotel, Le A, by about 9:30am. 

Our room has a small balcony.  The view from our balcony.

We spent the morning working.  The hotel offered tea and light snacks from 4:00 to 6:00 so we decided on hot chocolate and pastries for an early dinner.

Then it was to be.  Paul was asleep with five minutes of hitting the bed.  Mary stayed up until about 8:00pm.    

March 20 - 22 – Recovering and some Wandering

We slept in really late on Friday morning.  Paul slept from 7:00pm the previous night until 11:00 this morning.  Mary was more like 9:00pm to 9:30 this morning.  We headed out around noon to find some lunch.  There are a lot of cafés and restaurants in the area, and we are only a couple of blocks from the Champs-Élysées. 

We tried out a nearby café that had an adjacent patisserie.  After lunch we checked out the display cases of pastries.  They looked yummy be we refrained from buying anything.

And another, nearby sandwich and pastry shop.

It is spring in Paris.  Trees flowering, daffodils blooming and trees leafing out.  It is cool but sunny and lovely.

After lunch we went shopping for new luggage for Mary.  The handle on her light weight, but very cheap, luggage was broken and wouldn’t retract.  That made it impossible to deal with so new luggage it was.  We found a Samsonite shop about four blocks away and found an acceptable piece.  And it fit everything when she checked it out when we got back to the hotel.  That was the big highlight of the day.

Dinner tonight was an Italian restaurant.  The chicken parmesan was excellent. 

And the fish carafe of water was most unusual.

Some random photos as we walked the streets.

Anything for a tip

On Saturday we both still slept in, but not quite as late as the day before.  But late enough to miss breakfast again.  For lunch we wandered around until we found a restaurant with some interesting offerings.  Mary had a very good crispy chicken Caesar salad.  Paul had a noodle dish.

Late this afternoon we were treated a serenade outside our window...a trumpet version of La Vie en Rose. 

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La Vie en Rose Serenade
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Sunday, we set our alarms so we wouldn’t sleep the morning away.  We were even up in time for breakfast at the hotel.  It was a continental breakfast buffet but we found out later that they would also do omelets.  Maybe tomorrow. 

We have spent most of the weekend working on photos and videos from previous trips.  We are very far behind.  But we are trying to stay current on this trip. 

March 23 Through 27 – French Classes and Sightseeing

We are spending the first two weeks of this long tour of France in Paris where Mary is taking two weeks of French classes.  Mornings are classroom and afternoons are emersions with lunch in between.  The emersion part of the classes consists of field trips to various parts of Paris.  Paul may come on a few but for the most part it will be just Mary and Tanguy, her instructor. 

The object of the emersion classes is to visit places of interest and have discussions or read the information.  To try to increase French comprehension. 

When not out on the field trips Paul is staying in the hotel and working on travel items and movies. 

Monday, 03/23 – Musée L’Orangerie.  The building is the former Orangerie (giant greenhouse where they grew fruits year-round for the French kings.).  The museum is the home of the giant waterlily paintings by Monet.  Paul joined us for this trip.

A few other paintings in the museum.

Young Girls at the Piano by Renoir

Flowers in a Blue Vase by Cezanne

The House Bernot by Utrillo

The Houses by Soutine

Fallen Tree by Soutine

The nearby Place de la Concorde

Tuesday, 03/24 – Petit Palais.  This building is only called “Petit” because it is smaller than the Grande Palais just across the street. 

Grande Palais

The interior of The Petit Palais is grand and beautiful.

Some of the ceilings in the Palais.

Some interesting heads (from both sides).

We wandered through the art exhibits.  Sculptures.

And all types of art and artifacts.

Wednesday, 03/25 – Musée Carnavalet.  This is a new museum for us and Paul decided to come along.  The Carnavalet is the museum of Paris and tells much of the history of the city.  A rather grand staircase in the museum... 

and a courtyard.

We primarily visited the section on the French Revolution…but it didn’t seem too conducive for photos so we just took a few photos of other areas. 

The walk from the restaurant to the museum took us through an area with flowering trees and flower beds.

We were near the Place de Vosges with cafés and covered walkways.

Many cafés have lots of flowers...that are not real.

Then we stopped at Carette's for some of their wonderful hot chocolate before going back to the hotel.

They don't skimp on whipped cream.  And this was for a single hot chocolate.

Thursday, 03/26 – Latin Quarter.  We have wandered parts of the Latin Quarter before but Tanguy is helping Mary check out a few places…many that are new to her.  Bouillions were started as simple kitchens to feed workers in the area.  They eventually went out of style but are now making a comeback.  This one is one of the originals and the architecture of the façade is beautiful.

We walked by the front gate of the Sorbonne.  We saw this during a driving tour but Mary got a much better shot today. 

We also wandered by the Pantheon but didn’t go in.

The Eglise Saint Etienne du Mont (Church of Saint Steve of the Mountain/Mount) was new to Mary.  A small but pretty church.

Across from the church was the Lycee (School) of Henri IV.  This is one of the most exclusive schools in France.  It is on the site of a former abbey and the tower if the Tower of Clovis, first king of France.

We also walked past a small part of the old ramparts or city walls. 

It’s a lovely day.  A couple of photos around Paris.

Friday, 03/27 – Montmartre Guided Tour.  Today we picked up a guide in the Montmartre district.  The plan was for Mary to try to understand an entire tour in French.  The guide spoke almost exclusively French during the tour.  Mary understood some and, when she was lost, Tanguy translated. Where we met our guide. 

One of the pretty streets we walked down.  Apparently, there had been discussions about closing the street to traffic but the neighbors were not happy as many of them had cars, as you can see from the photo. 

Mary met Chocolate, the local rabbit in one of the neighborhoods.

And was also some chickens in this “rural” part of Montmartre.

We stopped by the Wall of Love.  They were doing some restoration on it.  The wall has 312 different ways to say “I Love You” in many languages.

Nearby was a small park with beautiful remains of an old wall or building.

Lots of sidewalk cafés in the area. 

But most of the area is just beautiful neighborhoods. 

And we had views of the Eiffel Tower in the distance. 

We also stopped by a vegetable and fruit market and a square that were used in the movie, Amélie.  A French movie from 2001 that was filmed in many locations in Paris.  Mary remembers seeing the film in French.  She was taking French classes at the time.

There was interesting art scattered around the area.

We saw an old mill, now a restaurant,

more flowers,

the Maison Rose restaurant (at the top of this street on the left),

a new small garden, Jardin Junot,

a small vineyard,

and the Au Lapin (rabbit) Agile restaurant.

We followed a tour group down one of the small streets in a pretty neighborhood.  The guide gave a short talk and then started singing.  It appears there are tours where the guides sing.  We ran across this group more than once when the guide was singing. 

We ended in a garden with views of the Sacre Cœur.

Another view of the Sacre Cœur from our walk.  

From there it was time to head back to the hotel.