French chateaus

For the final Euro-vacation wrap-up post, I’ll share some pics of the French chateaus we visited. On the suggestion of my good friend Deb who had studied in the Loire region of France while in college, Alexis and I added this stop to our itinerary. From Paris, we took a train to a town called Blois (doesn’t roll of an American tongue as easily as a French one, pronounced “blwah”). There are lots of beautiful chateaus in the Loire region, but Blois seemed to be the easiest place to base ourselves out of to hit some of the more well-known ones.

The city of Blois itself has a chateau that has sections built in each of the major architectural styles- Gothic (13th century), Flamboyant (15th century), Renaissance (16th century), and Classicism (17th century). Here, we got our first taste of the huge, winding staircases that seemed to be in all the chateaus we would visit.

The next chateau we visited was Chambord (picture with Andy & Alexis in it). The common theme in all the chateaus was that they all seemed to have started off as hunting lodges! Chambord was huge and included 77 staircases, 282 fireplaces, and 426 rooms (according to the English language pamphlet!). We only visited a small section of the estate, but it was quite impressive. As luck would have it, there was a hunting exposition going on right on the grounds, so our visit was serenaded by constant gunfire while we were there (fitting, I guess, since it started out as a hunting lodge!). There must still be good hunting on the massive grounds because there were lots of recent photos of hunters and their kills in one of the rooms. There was even a replica of a deer stand from back in the day, complete with a chandelier!

The most down-to-earth chateau we visited was Cheverny. It was built by the Hurault family whose decendants lived in the Chateau until the 1980s. It was really cool to see the typical old paintings of men with wigs and stockings right next to a wedding picture from the 1980s! This chateau is said to have started what is now known as the “French Style” of architecture in the 17th century.

After all this sightseeing, Andy ended up getting sick. He stayed in bed on our final day in Blois as Alexis and I took the train to the neighboring town of Ambois. We set out to see the famous Chateau Clos Luse, but we ended up touring the Amboise Chateau (the picture with the river). Little did we know that the Mansion of Clos Luse (we thought it was a chateau, though I have no idea what the difference is) is only 500 meters from the Amboise Chateau and is connected by an underground tunnel. But, as it turns out, the biggest and grander of the two is actually the Chateau, so we came out on the winning end of that one, Alexis!! Although Leonardo da Vinci lived his final years at the Mansion of Clos Luce, he is buried beneath a chapel at the Amboise Chateau. I’m not one for seeking out graves of famous people, but it was kind of cool to see da Vinci’s final resting place! This chateau was huge and even sported a stairwell big enough for military horses and wagons to use!

So, unless Andy or Alexis have anything to add later, this concludes the Euro-vacation wrap-up (doesn’t that sound so official?!). I’ll be going to Australia on business from July 8-15, so I’ll try to do a few posts from down under!

And the stomache rumbles!

Hope yall don’t mind, but I’m gonna back up to the Euro-vacation again! This is going to be the food post I promised!

When my mom and I were in Paris about 10 years ago, I distinctly remember being quite enamored with the food. I thought everything tasted wonderful and was masterfully presented. Perhaps because this was a different kind of traveling (hotels & sit-down restaurants back then versus hostels and bar food on this trip), but I wasn’t very impressed with the food this go round. Perhaps also because it wasn’t very long ago that I dined on Italian cuisine for two months. Don’t get me wrong, there were some standout items like chocolate, pastries, and ice cream, but the entrees were nothing to write home about. It goes without saying that breakfast is just not a big deal in Europe, in fact an afterthought at best. Poor Andy was so sick of cappuccino and croissant for breakfast I think he was craving waffle house! He made up for it by having ice cream twice a day, everyday!

The food in Bayeau was really good, especially the Croque-monsieurs (pretty much a grilled ham & cheese sandwich with more cheese melted on top). I think the cheese was Gruyere, but I had one with some kind of goat cheese that was out of this world. Another standout was the crepes in Blois. We stumbled upon a great little Creperie in the “old town” even though town as a whole has history all the way back to the 9th century! There we had dinner and dessert crepes. We were walking by and wasn’t sure about the menu we were reading in the window (it was all in French), so the owner recognized our confusion and summoned us inside. There he prepared a plain crepe and got the idea across that he put different ingredients inside. He was so accommodating, we decided to try it out for dinner. I wasn’t sure what oeuf was, so one of the patrons sitting next to us acted out a chicken laying an egg as a translation! The picture is of a Crepe Normandie which contained ham, crushed tomato, mushrooms, and an overeasy egg yolk for good measure!

Call me crazy, but I’ll choose my momma’s crawfish etouffee any day over anything we ate on this trip. OK, maybe I’d want some of those fruit tarts for dessert!!

A little relaxation and Paris

I’ll backtrack a bit here and show a few pictures of us relaxing! Yes, it was quite hectic trying to get in all the sights we wanted to see in two weeks, but we did actually stop and just hang out a couple of times. The day we left London for Portsmouth to take the ferry across to France, we had almost a whole day to kill before our train left, so we hung out in St. James Park. With our big backpacks on, it’s not so enjoyable to do a lot of walking and sightseeing! As luck would have it, it was a beautiful day and there just happen to be a “practice parade” happening right on the street in front of us (a rehearsal for the Queen’s birthday parade a week later). We seemed to have good parade-karma because Alexis and I would stumble upon another parade a week later in Ambois, France! At any rate, we spent the whole afternoon hanging out reading or listening to IPODs (Andy and Alexis). It’s a good thing we rested up, because as you can see in the next picture, Alexis and Andy fell sound asleep in a parking lot after our all-night ferry ride to France! I don’t think Andy was prepared for how physically demanding this vacation would be - carrying 35lb backpacks, walking miles every day, bicycling hilly countryside, staying up late and getting up early, climbing endless stairs, etc.).

We saw lots of cool things while we were in Paris. We spent a good amount of time exploring the palace and gardens of Vasaille (picture is of the well-manicured gardens) and two major museums- Musee D’Orsay and the Louvre. We all really enjoyed the Impressionism and Post-Impressionism art at the Musee D’Orsay. Andy liked the colors in Gauguin paintings and we all stood in awe in front of Van Gogh’s works. The Louvre proved to be a full day with each of us taking away our own favorites in our minds. It’s hard to justify spending all our time in museums, however, when most of the architecture in Paris could qualify as art in and upon itself. Case in point- Notre Dame Cathedral. Although there wasn’t a very sacred feeling with the throngs of tourist bustling about inside and outside (quite loudly sometimes), it’s impossible to not stand with mouths agape in front of the stained glass windows. Alexis really liked the gargoyles all around the building and we all got a chuckle out of some of the statues along the entryway.

Hope you’re enjoying the “catch-up” of our trip; I’ll try to do a couple more very soon.

Stateside once again!

We’re all safe and sound back at our respective homes. As time marches on, our vacation will become a distant memory. But, until then, I wanted to fill in the gaps from when I wasn’t able to post or to download pictures. Andy and Alexis were both quite excited about completing their trip with four stamps in their shiny new passports (UK, France, UK, USA)!

I really wanted to post a couple of pictures from Normandy. This picture shows just a few of the 9387 tombstones marking the remains of servicemen and women (4 women are interred) at the American Cemetery. The graves of three Medal of Honor recipients are engraved in gold lettering and the corresponding citations are on display in the information center- pretty amazing stuff. The other picture is of me walking on Gold beach out in front of the D-Day Landing Museum at Arromanches. You can see a remnant of the artificial harbor in the background. I was really surprised by how wide the beaches were here (at low tide)- great while sunbathing, not so great while trying to avoid enemy fire. We toured Utah Beach, Omaha Beach and the Pointe du Hoc Rangers Memorial, the American Cemetery, Gold Beach and the D-Day Landing Museum, and the German battery at Longues sur Mer. It was a long, but memorable day.

I think we all agreed that Normandy made the top of our favorites list. The WWII history certainly made this area one of the most memorable, but the region itself was also a favorite. We based ourselves out of a town called Bayeax. It had a grand cathedral, an original tapestry 70 meters long in pristine condition dating back to the 11th or 12th century, and some of the best food we had on the whole trip (more about food in another post!). The hostel we stayed in was clean, cheap, and had lots of charm (a Bourbon Street style lamp post in the middle of our huge room!). I would quickly choose a return trip here over any of the big cities we visited.

But, onto the big cities we went! As much as I dislike big cities, some have to be visited at least once for their architecture and museums. Paris was no exception. Our first excursion upon entering the city (after finding a hostel and securing 3-day metro passes), was to climb the Eiffel Tower. Actually, you can’t climb all the way up to the third floor of the Tower, you have to take the lift (elevator). And man, can they pack some people into those lifts! The view from the top was spectacular and worth every smelly minute of the elevator ride. After descending from the Tower, we hung out in the Parc du Champ de Mars (Martial Field) between the tower and the Military School. It was a beautiful day, so we took the opportunity to lounge around the park and take in the magnitude and beauty of the Eiffel Tower.
I’ll pick up with our other excursions later this week. I’d like to say I’d do it tomorrow, but tomorrow is my first day back to work after being off the office internet and phone grid for two weeks, so I’m not sure how much time I’ll have. As always, thanks for following along!

Winding down

Sorry about not being able to post for a while. Never take for granted how good we have it to have our own computers back in the States! Since the last post, we went down to the city of Blois and visited some chateuxs then made our way back up to London where we are right now. We are on our way out to the airport for the flight back across the pond today. Once I'm a little settled in back home, I'll continue the story of our trip and post some pictures. Maybe I can convince Andy and Alexis to each to a post summarizing their experiences also!

Louvre is huge, Mono Lisa is tiny!

That pretty much sums up the reactions of Andy and Alexis as we hit the Louvre Museum first thing this morning. Although it had been 10 years since I had last been there, I knew that I should take them to the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo sculpture right off the bat before the crowds got rediculous. Just like everyone else that sees the Mona Lisa for the first time, they couldn't believe how small the painting actually is. We split up after that and toured the sections of the Louvre that interested each of us. I've always had an attraction to Greek and Roman sculptures as well as Italian and Spanish paintings, so that's where I spent the majority of my time. I actually got the audo guide this time and learned so much more about my favorite pieces than I'd ever read. We were at the museum from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., so it was a full on day!

After the Louvre, we headed down the river to Notre Dame cathedral. Once again, I was awestruck by the stained glass windows as were Alexis and Andy. We took tons of pictures, but I'm on the internet in the hostel that doesn't allow me to access pictures. I hope my commentary isn't too boring without visuals! Alexis has posted a comment on one of the previous posts, so go back and check those out.

After Notre Dame, I thought it would be cool to show them Monte Marte. I remembered it to be a cool, Bohemian feeling part of town with mimes and a circus atmosphere. So, we took the metro to the closest stop I could identify on our map. I started getting uneasy when I noticed all the graffiti in the metro stop, but we pressed on and headed up to the street. I thought that the neighborhood was a little sketchy just because we were so close to the metro stop and there was a huge open air market going on. So, we walked a few blocks and tried to figure out where the Monte Marte Bascillica was located. My stomach started knotting up as I realized I had just brought two 18 year olds to the ghetto of Paris! OK, let's turn around and get back on the metro. I was thinking a couple of stops later we'd be where we wanted to be, but that stop was just as sketchy, so we scrapped the whole idea and went back to the river front for dinner. Alexis wanted to know why I had turned us around so quickly and left and I replied with This is where you're parents were worried I might bring yall! So, not to worry parents at home. . . we experienced the bad parts of town and made it out OK!!! With that part over with, we're home free now!!!

Tomorrow, we leave paris and head for the Loire region. Hopefully, we'll get internet acces with photo downloading there!

Ferries, Beaches, & Towers

A few apologies right off the bat. . . excuse the spelling (French keyboards have letters in different places!), excuse the tardiness (haven,t had internet access in a while and it's costing 5 dollars for 30 minutes right now), and for all that money, I can't post pictures!

From where we left off. . . we took an overnight ferry from Portsmouth, England to Caen, France. The ferry ride was great; the room was tiny, but we had our own cabin with a bathroom (most luxurious ferry accomodations I've ever had!). Therewas a full moon and the xater was perfectly calm. Alexis and I got up at 4:00 am and watched the sun rise over the English channel. Boyh Andy and Alexis were dumbfounded over the size of the ferry (there were several shops and a couple of restaurants in addition to all the 18 wheelers we saw drive on before we left).

Once we arrived in port in France, the adventure really began. Specifically, Andy and Alexis made it through customs fine, but I was detqined by French authorities! No, they didn't have records from my Navy days, they just didn't like my passport. On a similar backpacking trip I8 made alone in 1997, I was robbed at a trainstation and relieved of my passport. The temporary one I was issued at the American embassy in the Czeck ,Republic got extended by the Navy and has been my permanent passport for the last 9 years. My unusual looking passport has caused delays before, but not even the Chinese detained me! After sufficient posturing by the French authorities and adequate tongue holding by me, I was finally stamped into France with an admonishment to replace the passport ASAP.

D Day Beaches. We stayed in a great little town called Bayeux where we based ourselves to explore the beaches and museums. We saw an original 11th century tapestry and Andy had what he's deemed "the best ice cream and sandwiches he's ever had"! The only word I can use to describe the experience of standing on the beach at Normandy is INTENSE. I'm not gonna lie and say I did't shed a tear at the Americazn cemetary at Omaha beach. I took off my shoes and waded into the waters at that infamous beach. I did it not just because I am always drawn to large bodies of water, but also because I needed a sensory connection with the men who fought and died on those beaches. It was unsettling to see a handful of sunbathers on the beach; it just didn't seem right to be recreating on such sacred ground.

Paris. I thought Alexis was going to jump out of her skin during the 2.5 hour train ride from Bayeux to Paris! Andy had no particular destinations in mind as we planned this trip, but Alexis had been waiting to see Paris for several years. As we pulled into the train station, I wish I could've had my camera ready when she looked at me and asked with some trepidation, "This is Paris?" After having pulled into many different train stations in many different cities, it has been my experience that they are all pretty much the same from the tracks; graffiti and gargage strewn. It was worth it though to see her face absolutly light up when she got her first glimpse of the Eiffel Tower loomong over the ,Seine River as our metro carried us to the center of the city. We've been non stop ever since. I introduced them both to chocolate Nutella crepes (remember those Mom?!). We went to the top of the Eiffel Tower, xatched the cracy traffic go round the Arc d'Triumph, toured the palaces of Versaille, and took in some Impressionist masterpieces at thr Museum d'Orsay. So tonight, we had xashed down steak with red wine and are calling it an early evening. We're gearing up for a big day at the Louve tomorrow!