On our second visit to Paris, we rented a loft in the 9th Arrondissement which is in the northern part of the city at the base of the Sacre-Coeur. The apartment was decorated by a French artist and, as you can see, it was sparse but tasteful. From here, we explored Paris and, on alternate days, road the high-speed trains to various locales around France. The loft was a perfect home base.
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This trip was a celebration of our 25th wedding anniversary. If you've been paying attention, you know that means Jim had to find a way to come up with 25 roses. Although the lady at the flower shop around the corner spoke little English (and we even less French), we still managed to get what we needed, along with a good bit of information about her life.
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We made a couple of trips up the steep hill to the Sacre-Coeur (which means Sacred Heart). The architecture is impressive and the vantage point can't be beat, at least not in Paris.
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A view of the sunset through the Arc de Triomphe.
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April, of course, is the perfect time of year to visit Paris. There were blooms everywhere. These are roses in the garden at the Musee Rodin with the famous tower in the background.
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I'm thinking this is a pretty good one.
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Our first day trip was to Strasbourg on the Eastern border with Germany. We spent the day strolling around the city and ate lunch on the sidewalk at a brasserie. Our first experience with a French train was one that had the old-fashion compartments that seat four or five people. A very quiet and peaceful way to travel.
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Our southern route through France was supposed to terminate in Avignon. Kathy wanted to see the Meditteranean so we kept going all the way to Marseilles instead. That's not the kind of last-minute decision you can make on an airplane! We had thought that the train to Strasbourg was going pretty fast, but the bullet train to Avignon made it up to 250 MPH or so, passing within a few feet of ongoing trains moving at the same speeds. This can be frightening at first.
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The Chateau Versailles is only a few kilometers outside of Paris. A hurricane in December 1999 destroyed many of the trees in the gardens, but they were still pretty impressive even with newly planted forests. We happened to be there for the "Dancing Waters" which is a few hours several times a year when all the fountains on the grounds are turned on and music is piped all through the place.
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Kathy's feeling a little sensitive here. But seriously, this is Joan of Arc's room in the Castle de Loches, one of the many chateaus in the Loire Valley region. We trained to Tours and then rented a car to travel around the lush countryside.
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We had intended to take a trip into the southwestern part of the country, down around Bordeaux. But we just didn't get to see any mountains on the way to Strasbourg, so we decided to head toward Chambery on the Swiss/Italian border. Once again, when we reached our intended destination, Kathy wasn't happy with the looks of it (or the mountains yet) so we stayed on all the way to a little stop called St. Jean de Maurienne in the French Alps. We were way nervous about getting off here, but that was as close as we could go without crossing into Italy (Milano is only a few kilometers further on) and our train passes were only good in France. As it turns out, the little town was absolutely worth the trip. Surrounded by snow-capped mountains and good German food and beer. What a way to spend a day!
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Our last day trip was to visit the Normandy beaches. As it turns out, we didn't see much of the beaches themselves because it was too cold and windy to get out of the car. We trained to Le Havre and rented a car again for the drive down the coast. The drive took a whole lot longer than we expected, but the many little towns we went through were incredibly interesting. We lunched in a little seaside village where Kathy had broiled skate (delicious) and I had fried fish, which turned out to be fried minnows. Couldn't figure out why they didn't use the bait to catch some real fish rather than serving it to me.
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This was not the most relaxing vacation we ever had, but it was eventful and interesting, not to mention beautiful. Here we're back in Paris for our last night, as the sun sets slowly over the Seine...
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