Travels with Diane, Etc.

Where to start? Where to start?
I guess at the beginning. Good flights. Too much food. and great company.

Wonderful friends/travelling companions

Us

Then: Paris.
Did these inveterate travellers pause? Not for an instant, though we had been conscious for nearly 24 hours. Taxi to our Air B&B, settling in, and back on the street. (In a totally non-prostitute sense...)
Because we were in PARIS! It was a beautiful day (The only one while we were there, as fate would have it) and where else would one go on a beautiful day in Paris? La Tour d'Eiffel!
See how French I am?!

The sheer immensity. Even majesty!
The crowds.
The heights.
Okay, I'm not so good with the heights. But when in Paris . . .

Then because they obviously didn't know we were coming and had scheduled a concert that we weren't invited to, the outside of the Beautiful Paris Opera.
Sigh.

The next day, The Louvre.
Where we spent the requisite two weeks--less one week, six days and 20 hours.
Yes we did the Louvre in only four hours. My advice? Take longer . . .

Venus says 'Hi!"

You know, I thought it would be bigger

Baby hands!!!

Okay, this is definitely NOT what I see when I look up at my ceilings . . .

From there, Notre Dame Cathedral.
In a word? Magnificent.

All I could think was: Who washes THAT window?

The next day, The Catacombes! Dun-dun-duuuuun! After a looooong three hour wait (a word of advice--buy your admission tickets in a group. Online.) in cold wind, we were nearly ready to just take up residence with the other dead bodies.

The nearly-dead.

The truly dead.

Then we warmed up by doing the Champs-Elysees from the Arc de Triomphe to the obelisk (with its attendant 'French Eye' and who thought this was a good idea?) Couple of pictures of Eglise de Madeleine, then groceries, then back to the apartment.

See what I mean?

Now THAT'S a church!

Picked up our car, stopped off at Versailles and the new Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saint temple (Ummm wow. And wow.) Then back to the apartment for our last night in Paris.

Dozens of gi-normous rooms. A hundred galleries. His own church. But no bowling alley.

Okay, there were several pools, so the absence of a bowling alley is forgiven.

Missed the open house by days. Days! *sob*

Off on our roadtrip. And a stop at Euro-Disney.
Did I feel guilty for being there without a single one of my grandkids?
Nope.

This is me: Squeeeeeeeeee!

If you stand just right, the lamps inside look like eyes.
True story.

My hero!

First night, Chateau Bellfontaine in Bayeux. A genuine old chateau. And we stayed in it!
Can anyone say: Yow?

Then the Bayeux tapestry. Which really has to be seen to be believed.
Now that would cover one huge wall! Or all of the seven dwarves beds at once. Or . . . well, you really have to see it . . .

Then out to Juno for a lot of tears and some pictures of the Normandy Beach Canadian graveyard.
Then on to a couple of museums . . .

Gorgeous. Peaceful. Everything a cemetery should be.

Then some really big guns . . .

Smile!

On to Mont St. Michel, rising like a man-made mountain out of the sea.

Scenes inside . . .

. . . And out.

And in and out . . .

Stairways great . . .

. . . And small.

Then to Tour and the chateaus: Villandry

Usse (Sleeping Beauty)

And Azay-le-Rideau. Again on the water. I wonder what their basement looks like . . .

Lascaux. This time to see the cave drawings. I loved this one. Well, I love them all, but for some reason, this one especially. I guess because I never learned to draw.
Because the cave itself is off limits (pollution) to human interlopers, it has been painstakingly recreated. I couldn't see the difference. Can you see the difference?

Stopped for a photo-op at Carcassonne. Sooo much more impressive than my picture shows.

Then on to Avignon.

Something we want to re-create in our home town. Doable. Right?

Palais des Papes

The famous Avignon half-a-bridge.

View from the famous bridge.
Everybody! "Sur la pont d'Avignon . . ."

A gate latch. I don't know about you, but my gate latches don't look anything like this...

And I'll pick it up there on Friday.
See you then!