Paris Sights, July 31

Back in Paris again and we spent the day wandering through a few eclectic Parisiene neighborhoods. We spent the morning in Montmartre, at the Sacre Coeur Basilica and wandering through Montmartre's bohemian streets, ending at the Moulin Rouge. The Place du Tertre is still filled with street artists as it was in Van Gogh's and Renoir's day. I bought a small oil painting of the Restaurant Mere Catherine (the oldest bistro in Montmarte) from one of the artists.

We bought a baguette sandwich from one of the boulangeries and had a picnic in the park, under the shelter of trees as it began to gently rain. From Montmartre we took the metro to the Marais neighborhood, the haunt of the old aristocracy and now home to the Jewish quarter of Paris. We passed a number of small boutique clothing stores along the way, but I didn't see anything that really caught my eye (Monday is going to be our shopping blitz day, although I'm not sure where we'll put anything else).

On our way back to the hotel we stopped at the street market and bought fresh fruits and vegetables, some Camembert cheese and a baguette of French bread and are planning to have a picnic in our room (the weather is a little threatening right now). Afterwards, we're hoping to take a stroll through the Rue Cler neighborhood, buy a gelato along the way and enjoy the Parisiene way of life.

Bike Tour Day 6, July 30

We took our last bike ride early this morning through the countryside outside Amboise. It was a beautiful 13-mile ride, but very hilly. I feel a little soreness/tiredness in my legs when walking around (especially climbing stairs), but when I get on the bike, my weariness goes away. I wonder how long it will take for my legs to feel normal again.

The rest of the day was fairly boring. Backroads bussed us back to the St. Pierre de Corps train station where we caught a high-speed TGV train to Paris. Once we hit the train station in Paris, Rich and I expertly navigated the Metro system to get to our hotel. We still had to lug our bags up and down stairs, but we seem to have figured out the best way to do this. We checked into our hotel and then immediately set out for a laundromat, as we had an entire week's worth of dirty clothes to wash. The only good thing about spending half the afternoon in a laundromat is that we discovered a street market just a few blocks from our hotel.

We spent the evening at the Eiffel Tower. I had made reservations for the elevator ride at 8:00, which meant we didn't have to stand in line waiting to buy tickets (although we did have to stand in line for the elevators, which was almost as long). The Eiffel Tower is impressive and when you're at the top you're 900 feet above the ground, with a 360 degree view of Paris. There were so many people though it was claustrophobic! I can't say it was one of my favorite memories, but at least I can say I did it.

Bike Tour Day 5, July 29

Today was our last full day of riding and I can honestly say both Rich and I are sad to see it end. We started our day off with a short ride to Clos Luce, the last home of Leonardo da Vinci and the place where he died. We were able to tour his bedroom and study and gardens. There was also a room filled with models of his flying machines and war implements (the first tank design, etc.). It was all very fascinating.

From Clos Luce, we rode @ 14 miles to a winery for a wine tasting, a tour of the wine caves, and a picnic lunch. Rich and I both agree that the Backroads picnic lunches are our favorite. Today we had 3 different kinds of salads, 3 different kinds of cheeses, crusty French bread, and a French pastry filled with either sausage or spinach and leeks. For dessert, we had a delicious apple tart and macarons. I'm still eating WAY too much food. Even 3-4 hours of bike riding a day isn't enough to work off all the calories. After lunch we took a beautiful 15-mile ride through the rolling countryside filled with vineyards. I think it was one of my favorite rides all week.

Tonight we're having our farewell dinner and then we have an optional 13 mile ride tomorrow morning. Rich and I are thinking we'd like to take the bikes out one more time.

Bike Tour Day 4, July 28

It's hard to believe we've already completed 4 days of our cycling trip! Today was a long day, although the total mileage (36) wasn't any more than other days, but our lunch and sightseeing stops took longer than on previous days.

We first visited a private chateau for a wine tasting and lunch (the owner of the chateau also gave us a lesson in wine production). From there, we rode to the Loire valley's most famous chateau, the Chateau de Chenonceau, and had an hour-long guided tour through the chateau. By the time we finished wandering around the chateau and gardens it was 5:00 and we still had another 9 miles to ride to get to our hotel. After a few wrong turns along the way and my insistence that we walk our bikes the last .5 mile to our hotel because we were in the middle of rush hour traffic and it was scarier than hell trying to navigate the narrow streets with bumber-to-bumper cars, we finally arrived at our hotel @ 6:30, sore and weary.

Rich and I are definitely starting to feel fatigue in our legs. My bike riding is getting much better though. I now have the balance where I can signal fairly well when turning and I'm actually enjoying the hill climbs (I can't believe I really said that). I haven't quite mastered the trick of being able to drink from my water bottle while riding, though. I tried it the other day and almost fell off my bike as I was trying to put the water bottle back in its holder without taking my eyes off the road.

One other thing that's come of this bike trip - I swear to God Rich and I now have permanent cable grease mark tattoos on our legs. Mine are primarily on the back of my right calf, but Rich seems to get them everywhere (those are his legs in the picture, by the way).

Bike Tour Day 3, July 27

Each day of our bike tour seems to get better and better. Today we rode 34 miles (the basic option) and toured the Chateau de Villandry, which is my favorite chateau so far. Although the interior of the chateau was beautiful, the gardens were absolutely stunning! (The picture I've posted doesn't do the gardens justice) We had a Backroads picnic lunch (a feast in itself) at the Chateau de Sache, which is home to the Honore de Balzac museum. (That's Matt, one of our guides, as our chef for the day)

Rich and I chose to ride the basic route today (which was a loop back to the hotel) as I had booked a 3:00 massage at the spa here at the hotel. We finished lunch @ 1:30 and then started our 12 mile ride back to the hotel. We had to stop quite often along the way to check our directions (lots of turns, etc.) and we ended up having to really book it to get back to the hotel in time, but I made it with a few minutes to spare (I had to leave Rich behind a few miles from the hotel).

Today's route was a little hillier than yesterday (especially the last 12 miles, with 2 pretty steep hills) and my legs were almost done in by the time I reached the bottom of the hill up to the chateau. I haven't walked a hill yet and I wasn't about to start, so I forced myself to keep going. By the time I saw Rich after my massage, he told me he ended up walking part way up. I think his legs are a little tired, but other than that, he's doing great!

Tomorrow we ride to a manor home in Amboise where we'll spend 2 nights. Let's hope there isn't a long hill up to the hotel!

Bike Tour Day 2, July 26

Well, I have to say that day 2 of our Loire Valley bike trip was even better than day 1. Each day we have 3 different route options to choose from: a short option, typically 15 - 25 miles, the basic option, typically 25 -35 miles, or a long option, 35+ miles. Today, Rich and I did the long option, 44 miles of rolling hills. This was the longest ride he's ever done (usually his butt starts hurting @ mile 20 or 25), but he felt fine today. Either the seats on these bikes are radically different than what he's been riding at home, or he finally has his bottom conditioned to the riding (much as I'd like to think it's the latter, my hunch is that it's the former). At least it's working and he seems happy to be riding.

We rode through some beautiful country today and saw 2 chateaux, the Chateau d'Usse, also nicknamed the "Sleeping Beauty" castle (it's the first picture above) and Chateau d'Azay-le-Rideau. As I mentioned before, this is rolling countryside and the hills seemed to get harder and harder as the day wore on. It got VERY warm today, so I'm thinking that might have had something to do with it. The bad part, however, is that we ended our ride with a .5 mile climb to the chateau where we're staying tonight and tomorrow (although these chateaux are gorgeous, they always seem to have been built on the top of a hill - go figure). Just so you can see how hard we're "roughing" it, I've included a picture of the Chateau d'Artigny, our current home away from home.

Bike Tour Day 1, July 25

What an absolutely awesome day we had!! We met Backroads at the train station this morning (we did make it to the correct train station) and bussed from there to a small town called Crissay-sur-Manse, where we had a wonderful lunch sitting out among the vineyards. After lunch, we got our bikes outfitted and our helmets fitted and one of our guides helped us put our pedals on our bikes (it looks like we're the only ones who brought our own pedals). After loading up on some snack food (as if we really needed it), we were on our way for our first 17 mile warmup ride. The countryside is beautiful - vineyards and sunflower fields - and the terrain is gently rolling hills, very similar to what we've been riding at home.

There are 25 people in our tour group and we have 2 guides, a young Frenchman (Alex) and a young, newly married Englishman (Matt). Most of the couples seem to be in the 40 - 60 age group from all over the US (and one ex-pat couple currently living in Geneva). We've already met some very nice people. No one seems to be hard core riders and everyone's riding at a pretty leisurely pace.

Our lodging for the night, the Chateau de Marcay, is absolutely over-the-top! Our bedroom here is larger than our bedroom at home and could easily fit 4 of the hotel rooms we've been staying in within its walls. Dinner tonight was a 5-course, 3 hour affair and absolutely delicious. (If they keep feeding us this way, we'll be eating way more calories than what we'll be burning on our rides.)

Take a look at the pictures I've posted. You'll see that Rich is still smiling. No sore bum yet!

Bayeux to Tours, July 24

Our bicycle tour starts tomorrow and today we had to travel from Bayeux in the Normandy region to Tours in the Loire valley (@ 3 hours). We were up early this morning and at the corner laundromat by 7:00. By 11:00, we had finished our laundry, had breakfast, toured the Bayeux Cathedral and saw the Bayeux Tapestry, a 1,000-year old work of art depicting the story of William the Conqueror and the Battle of Hastings in 1066. We then checked out of our hotel and started our journey south to Tours.

Tours is a fairly large city and the information we had received about our hotel indicated it was a 10-minute walk to the train station, where we had to return our car and where we would meet our Backgrounds group in the morning. What we discovered when we tried to return our car is that this was the WRONG train station! The train station we needed was OUTSIDE Tours, @ 3-4 miles away.

We finally got the car returned (that's another story in itself) and Rich and I made our way back to the hotel (after 1.5 hours and a number of wrong turns later). Tonight's agenda is to repack our bags (we've bought a few things along the way) and rest up for our first bike ride tomorrow.

Bayeux/D-Day Beaches, July 23

Today was a very sobering day. After driving @ 1.5 hours from Mont St. Michel to Bayeux and the Normandy coastline, we spent the remainder of the day and most of the evening hours exploring the D-Day beaches and museums. Although I had learned about the D-Day landings in my high school history class (I know, that was forever ago!) and had even seen Saving Private Ryan and other WWII movies, none of the above really prepared me for the impact of actually being on Omaha Beach. From the beach vantage point, looking up at the cliffs where the Germans had their bunkers and guns positioned, it was amazing there were any American survivors on that June day in 1944.

The beach today is very quiet and peaceful, with families playing in the sand and surf and men and women of all ages sunbathing. It's such a stark contrast to the bloodshed and violence that occurred on this same beach 66 years ago.

We were able to tour the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial, an impressive tribute to the American men and women who died in service to their country. The visitor's center was OUTSTANDING. I was on the verge of tears the entire time we were there and it made me so proud of the American men and women who risked their lives during that war and those who continue to risk their lives today in Iraq and Afghanistan. What I don't understand is why, as a species, we don't seem to learn from the past.

All in all, it was a very thought-provoking day and certainly quite different from the previous two weeks of vacation. We ended our evening appropriately with dinner at a beachfront restaurant overlooking Omaha Beach.

Amboise to Mont St. Michel, July 22

Although we had a 3.5 hour drive from Amboise in the Loire valley to Mont St. Michel on the Normandy coast, we were able to do a fair amount of sightseeing today. Neither Rich nor I were overly "awed" by Amboise, but it does make a nice homebase to see the chateaux in the area. (We'll be returning here during our bike trip for a couple of nights)

After breakfast this morning we drove to the chateau in Cheverny and toured it. The interior was beautifully furnished with fresh flowers in every room (both of which I guess is unusual for chateaux in this area), and the grounds were immaculately maintained, but I think it looks a little stark without any landscaping around the front of the chateau.

We left Cheverny @ 11:00 and drove to Mont St. Michel, stopping for a picnic lunch along the way (having picked up a baguette of French bread, some Camembert cheese and fresh peaches at an "Autogrill" type market). After checking into our B&B, we walked to Mont St. Michel (@ 2 miles). It felt good to be out of the car and, since we hadn't been walking much the last few days, we thought this would be a good break. Mont. St. Michel is a very picturesque island abbey with an awe-inspiring skyline (I think Rich must have taken more than 50 photos!). We were able to take a nocturnal tour of the abbey (with mood lighting and live music) and then stopped for dinner at a small restaurant on the island. By the time we finished dinner, it was after 9:30 and we still had the 2-mile walk back to the B&B! We were able to watch the sun set as we walked, making it a very nice way to end the day.

Beynac to Amboise, July 21

Today was another travel day, but with no fun excursions along the way. Shortly after we left Beynac, I started feeling sick, so Rich just drove straight to Amboise (4.5 hour drive), while I tried to sleep. Once we checked into the hotel, I slept some more. I finally started feeling better @ 6:00 PM and we wandered around the town a little and had dinner at a little Italian restaurant (remind me not to do that again while in France!).

One interesting thing of note is that for the last few days we've been seeing cornfields everywhere (I'd think we were in the midwest if the terrain was flatter). What we discovered the other day is that the corn isn't being grown for human consumption, but for geese! The Dordogne area is famous for their foie gras and this is what they force feed the poor geese before they slaughter them.

As you can see from the sky in today's picture, the weather hasn't been great and it rained fairly steadily the entire drive north. I guess it matched the way I was feeling! Tomorrow we're off for Mont St. Michel, but hope to visit at least one chateau before we leave the Loire valley. We'll be back again on Sunday to start our bike tour.

Dordogne River Valley, July 20

Our first taste of the Dordogne region was at breakfast this morning, where our charming hostess Francoise served us homemade breads, jams, and rice pudding along with an omelette, fresh strawberries and orange juice. I think I'm eating more for breakfast here than I normally eat at home for breakfast and lunch combined.

The more we travel, the more I'm convinced of how small a world it is. We had breakfast this morning with a young couple from Portland who not only live close to where I grew up, but who are also biking their way through an area of France (the Dordogne valley, as opposed to the Loire valley where we'll be biking). They're doing it on their own, however, without the assistance of a support van, and had some interesting stories to tell.

After breakfast we drove to Sarlat for a quick visit, to see the city sights we hadn't been able to see last night and to do a little shopping in the stores that hadn't been open. We spent the afternoon paddling/floating down the Dordogne river in a canoe. It was a very relaxing and lazy way to see some of the chateaux and castles in this area. This is obviously a very favorite pastime as there were a flotilla of canoes floating down the river! We stopped at one small town, La Roque-Gageac, on our way downriver and wandered through its quaint alleyways. We also visited the Chateau du Beynac after our river trip (high on a hill above the town).

Tomorrow we're on our way to the Loire valley for a brief stop before heading to Normandy.

Carcassonne to Beynac, July 19

Although today was a travel day, from Carcassonne northwest to Beynac in the Dordogne region, the total point-to-point travel time was less than 3.5 hours. We made a few detours along the way and saw some amazing sights, not least of which were 25,000 year old prehistoric cave paintings.

We were able to connect Carcassonne and Beynac by traveling through the Lot River Valley, a beautiful area and home of Le Grotte du Pech Merle, where we saw fantastic cave paintings of mammoth, bison, and horses. Usually you need reservations for these prehistoric cave tours and I had tried to make reservations for another cave before we left and was told they were sold out, so I wasn't optimistic that we were going to be able to see the paintings at Pech Merle. The cave is @ an hour detour off the autoroute and is in an area that isn't as widely traveled as the other cave we had wanted to visit. Much to our surprise we were able to get tickets immediately for a tour. It was definitely worth the hour detour!

On our way back to the autoroute we stopped at a little town called St. Cirq Lapopie, which is built on a ledge overlooking the Lot River. Awesome views and a cute, quaint town. Wish we had had time to make the hike down to the Lot River, but by this time it was 3:30 and we still had at least an hour's drive to go.

After checking into our B&B outside Beynac, we drove into Sarlat and spent the evening there. I wish I could say we spent it sightseeing, but a good 1.5 hours were spent inside a laundromat. By the time we finished our laundry it was 9:00, both of us were starving, but neither one of us wanted anything very heavy, so we decided on crepes for dessert at an outdoor cafe in Sarlat. What a very French way to end our day!

Arles to Carcassonne, July 18

Another travel day...but with some sightseeing thrown in. Today we drove from Arles in Provence southwest to Carcassonne in the Languedoc region of France. On the way we made a detour to an area called Pont du Gard to see and walk across a perfectly preserved Roman aqueduct from the 1st century A.D. To me, these were true architectural wonders; each arch was built without the use of cement to hold the stones in place.

It took us @ 3 hours to drive from Pont du Gard to Carcassonne and we arrived with plenty of time to explore the nooks and crannies of this small town's claim to fame: a walled fortress city right out of the middle ages with towers, turrets, and cobblestones. We had dinner at a restaurant inside la Cite (which is what they call the fortress area) and were then able to walk around and take pictures of the town lit up at night.

Take a look at these pictures and see if you don't agree that it looks like it came right out of a fairy tale.

Arles, July 17

Today was a little more laid back than some of our other sightseeing days. We had a delicious breakfast on the terrace this morning and met a very nice couple from the other Vancouver (B.C.) and discovered we were both Rick Steves' "disciples." They described a trip they had taken last year to Spain and it made me realize that Rich has never been to Spain and maybe that should be our next European destination.

After breakfast we headed into the town of Arles to wander through their open air market and then see the sights of this ancient Roman town. The market was HUGE, seemingly going on and on for blocks. Not only did we see the requisite flowers, spices, cheeses, breads, and meats, but also linens of all kinds, clothes, shoes, and even mattresses! (I still like the Antibes market better).

We then made our way to the city's ancient history museum where they had descriptions of their Roman ruins and models of what the buildings looked like in Riman times. We wandered to the ruins themselves: the circus maximus, forum (of which there's only one column left, and the square is now occupied by numerous cafes), the arena (not as big as Rome's colosseum, but built along the same lines and in better condition), and the classical theatre.

Since there wasn't much else in Arles that really interested us, we came back to our B&B @ 5:00 PM and spent the rest of the afternoon in and around the pool on the property. We had the entire place to ourselves and it was so relaxing.

As I'm writing this now from our room, the "mistral" winds seem to be picking up. These are the same winds that supposedly drove the young Vincent van Gogh crazy. Hopefully, they'll just bring us a nice cross breeze through our room.

Antibes to Arles, July 16

Today took us from Antibes on the French Riviera northwest to Arles in Provence. We had a much shorter travel day today than the previous two, which was very nice. A portion of our trip was along tree-shaded rural roads where we saw LOTS of bicyclists. I'm guessing this is probably the kind of roads we'll be traveling on our bicycle tour.

The terrain is changing significantly. Interestingly, our travels are just now taking us through some of France's vineyards. Up until today, we had seen fruit orchards (apricots, peaches, etc.) and sunflower fields, but no vineyards. The countryside is beautiful and the B&B we're staying at for the next two nights is right in the heart of this bucolic setting. It's an old manor house with lots of old-world charm, and is owned and run by two displaced Americans.

We took a detour on our way to Arles to stop at an old medieval town called Les Baux. For those of you who have been to Italy, it reminded us a little of San Gimignano, but without the towers. The chateau/castle ruins at the top of the hill were amazing. This town has been here since the middle ages. It sits high atop a craggy mountain and, in its time, was very well fortified. The chateau/castle was actually built right into the rock. We spent @ 2 hours wandering through the ruins, most of it out in the blistering heat, with the sun radiating off the rocks ("mad dogs and Englishmen, out in the noonday sun" as Rich would say).

It was nice to reach our lodging and kick back and relax.

Nice, July 15

Today we took the train to Nice and wandered around the old town and up Castle Hill (yes, I made Rich climb more hills, but the views were worth it). We spent some time wandering through Nice's open air market (there's more produce, meat, and cheese variety in the Antibes market, but the Nice flower market is AWESOME). Again, these put our farmers' markets to shame. We ate our way through the town, stopping at various street vendors for socca (a chickpea crepe I thought was delicious, but Rich wasn't as enthusiastic about); fresh strawberries with chocolate sauce drizzled over (it was good, but I think the strawberries would have been just as good without anything on them); and a gelato. Not a very nutritious lunch, but we had a simple dinner of cantaloupe and prosciutto (We still didn't eat our veggies, though, did we?) .

We also wandered along the beachfront. Both Nice and Antibes are topless beaches and Rich would have stayed there all day if I'd let him, but I wanted to see the Chagall museum, and he was willing to go with me. We did hit the Antibes beach after dinner. Rich took a quick swim (still very warm at 9:00 at night) and I waded in the water. It was also fun to do a little bit of people watching: from the couple playing air pong (?), to the extended German/Dutch (?) family playing beach volleyball, to the group of young French adults having a barbeque (hot dogs and hamburgers, no less) on a hitachi grill.

I also wanted to mention that last night (July 14), Rich and I were reading in bed @ 10:30 when we heard a large boom and the sky lit up with fireworks. We had a perfect view of the Antibes fireworks from our balcony!

Antibes, July 14

Bastille Day! There were flags and banners hung in the terrace dining room when we came down for breakfast this morning, but that's about all we've seen so far to indicate it's Bastille Day (France's 4ht of July). We're hoping to see some fireworks tonight.

We spent the entire day exploring old town Antibes and it's open air market and hiking to Cap d'Antibes. Our farmers' markets are nothing compared to this! We saw lots of fresh produce, cheese, meats, and flowers. There was even a stand devoted entirely to spices of all kinds. I think there must have been at least 10 different kinds of pepper. Rich and I are planning to stop here for some picnic supplies Friday morning before we leave Antibes for our drive to Arles, in Provence.

It's been very hot here today (I think 87 degrees) and our hike to Cap d'Antibe was along the beaches and coastline with very little shade. We first walked to the church and lighthouse at the top of the Notre Dame hill. From here, we could see from Nice to Cannes with the Alps behind(although the mountains were a little hazy). We then walked down the hill to the beach at la Garoupe and walked the 2-mile path along the coast (did I mention we were in the sun the entire way?). We each had a small bottle of water with us and it wasn't nearly enough! The views, however, were gorgeous and worth the sweat-drenched clothes and parched throats.

I'm sure Rich is ready for more tomorrow!

Chamonix to Antibes, July 13

Not much to comment on today, as we spent @ 9 hours in the car traveling from Chamonix in the French Alps to Antibes on the French Riviera. We took a lot of winding backroads through mountains upon mountains and, although the scenery was gorgeous, we didn't stop for pictures. At times, we began to wonder if we were on the right road as the mountains never seemed to stop, but eventually we crested the last hill and saw the sparkling blue Mediterranean in front of us.

I initially thought today's travels were an improvement over our trek to Chamonix: we only had 4-5 near death, heart-in-your-throat experiences. But then we entered the town of Antibes (during rush hour traffic, no less) and found ourselves going around and around in circles trying to navigate the one-way streets and traffic zipping in and out all around us. The French obviously have different driving customs, one being that they don't pull over or stop for emergency vehicles. When Rich stopped for an ambulance, we had the entire town honking their horns at us. That, coupled with me yelling at him to just "GO" probably made his day.

Once we found our hotel, however, everything immediately got better. It's in a very tranquil setting, in a quiet neighborhood. The picture posted today is a shot from our bedroom window.

Mont Blanc Alpine Hike, July 12

What an awesome day we had today! We were up early and to the Aiguille du Midi lift by 7:45 AM for a gondola ride to the top of this 12,600 foot peak. The weather was absolutely gorgeous without a cloud in the sky and the views from the top, especially of Mont Blanc (15,771 feet), were incredible. I felt a little unsteady on my feet when we first got off the gondola, but once I acclimated to the altitude, all was good. I can now understand the rush mountain climbers must get when they reach the top of whatever mountain they're climbing. You feel like you're on top of the world!

We spent quite a bit of time at the top and then took the gondola down to the Plan de l'Aiguille Refuge (7,522 feet) where we started our 3-hour hike to the Mer de Glace glacier and a town called Montenvers. It was a lot of up and down hills and scrabbling over rocks for what ended up being a descent of @ 1,300 feet. Rich is like a mountain goat on the rocks and there were a number of times he had to wait and help me over the rocks. I'm not sure what the total mileage of today's hike was, but Rich's pedometer is reading 9+ miles for today. (Take note, PTC teammates, I'm getting my mileage in, but I'm going to have to work on my pace.)

It looks like I need to bring this blog to a close, as Rich just woke up from a nap and is insisting on finding some dinner. For all the hiking and walking we did today, we haven't had a lot to eat. I think we need to wait awhile though, as thunderstorms have just moved in and it's raining like crazy outside.

Paris to Chamonix, July 11

I've firmly decided that renting a car and driving in a foreign country without being able to read or understand the road signs tests even the strongest marriages! Add to that trying to adjust to where traffic signals are placed (down and to the right) and negotiating roundabouts with cars coming at you from every which way and it's no wonder I was a white-knuckled passenger almost the entire 6 hour drive from Orly airport to Chamonix (that may be a bit of an exaggeration, but not much).

It didn't get much better once we got to Chamonix. We drove round and round trying to find our hotel. Rich finally got so frustrated he drove down a street with a Do Not Enter sign (of course, we weren't entirely sure that's what it meant) and ended up driving on a pedestrian-only thoroughfare! It was at that point that I got out of the car and went looking for our hotel on foot (finally found it tucked in an alley off the pedestrian-only street). Paula, did you and Bill really drive in this town? Once we parked the car, Rich said it was staying there until we leave Tuesday morning.

The good news is that we arrived safely without a scratch on us or the car (although there were times I was worried about both). An even better piece of news is that we found a replacement hat for Rich!

Versailles July 10

We were up early this morning and on a train for Versailles by 8:30 AM. What an impressive chateau and grounds the Sun King (Louis XIV) built for himself! It was a little over the top for my tastes, but then I guess if I was king of France during France's golden years I'd want something to impress my friends and enemies. We wandered through the chateau first and saw the royals' bedrooms, the famous hall of mirrors, and a few other rooms that I've already forgotten what they were used for (what a crush of people, though...I almost got claustrophobic!). We then wandered through the gardens (check out the view of the royal drive from the steps of the chateau) and to the Domaine of Marie Antoinette further away on the grounds. By the time we were done, Rich's pedometer was reading another 9+ miles.

Had a late dinner back in Paris at a very charming, very small cafe and then went for a walk to the Arc de Triomphe, climbed to the top, and walked down the Champs Elysees (crowded with people at 11:00 PM at night!) to the Place de la Concorde. By the time we got back to the hotel we were sore and tired all over and I would have given almost anything for a tub soak and a foot massage, but decided I was too tired for either and went to bed.