Chartres

This morning we woke up and were out earlier than ever.  We walked to Notre Dame for a Gregorian mass at 10am.  Then took the metro to the train station and rode out to Chartres.  This was one thing on Mike's todo list and we are glad he wanted to do this.  We spent the rest of the day admiring the incredible church.  The church was first built in the 13th century and rebuilt a few times throughout the centuries.  One unique aspect are the two spires:  one is Gothic and one is Romanesque.  The church also is in possession of the Sainte Voile, the Holy Veil said to have been worn by the Virgin Mary when she gave birth to Jesus.  We took a tour through the crypts below the altar and were able to see the Reliquary where the Saint Voile resides.  Very inspiring.  To think that something like this could have been preserved for 2000 years, especially with France's turbulent history.
The carvings surround the altar were of unbelievable detail.  It's hard to imagine the time and patience that was put into carving these out of stone!  Such a lost art.  And the stone floor is original, we walked where pilgrams hundreds of years ago walked. 
After we had a snack, Cindy and Mike each had an apple tarte and I had a lemon tarte.  One of the nice things about french desserts is that they are not overly sweet like ours tend to be.  Just enough sweet to appreciate the other flavors.  A neighbor told me I would lose weight on this trip especially in Italy.  Well maybe I'll lose the weight I've gained in France....we'll see.
Tonight we pack up and tomorrow fly to Rome.  Another city, another adventure.

note the 2 very different spires

statue of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary

notice the incredible detail of the stone carvings

Reliquary of the Sainte Voile

One more day in Paris

French lesson for the day:  carpaccio de boeuf = thin sliced RAW beef!
Quit your whining and eat your dinner Mikie....actually he was a trooper and ate half of it.  I had roast lamb shank and Cindy had a light meal of pomme frites.  After we had ice cream for dessert at a little shop.   I had rum raisin with real rum, delicious!  Then we watched some street performers dancing for a while, they were pretty good, lots of acrobatics.
Yesterday was a quiet day for me, knee was sore from the day before.  Mike took off in the morning to do some sketching.  Cindy roamed the area around the apartment and beyond.  So no pictures.
Today we are going to Mass at Notre Dame and then take a train to see Chartres.  Mike wants to see the church.  Should be a nice day and we'll be able to see some of the countryside from the train ride.
Tomorrow we fly to Rome for a week.

Another day in Paris

We all slept pretty well last night.  Forest got up about 9, me about 9:30 and Mike a little later (he didn't sleep as well).  We headed out about 10:30am for the day.  First stop (we walked) was to see the Sainte-Chapelle, "a gem of High Gothic architecture".  This church had beautiful stained glass windows all around.  "The 1,113 scenes depicted in the 15 stained glass windows tell the story of mankind from Genesis through to Christ's resurrection.  Fourteen of the windows, depicting episodes from the bible, should be read from left to right, from the bottom upwards."    "The western rose (huge stained glass window) illustrates the prophetic Apocalypse of St. John, symbolically represented opposite the Passion of Christ in the choir's central stained glass window."   There is your history lesson for the day.  There was so much to see in this one church, just beautiful.

After seeing Sainte-Chapelle, we headed for the Metro to take us to the Eiffel Tower.  We had to change lines and were able to accomplish that task with Mike's help.  The Eiffel Tower is an amazing sight....... huge......... thousands of people............. beautiful parks all around.  Mike did a couple of sketches and Forest took several photographs.  We did not take the tour, nor did we climb up the tower.  We just enjoyed the view from the ground.

We decided to walk back.  Not a bad walk, just a very long one.  The walk was very pleasant, not many people once we got a ways from the Eiffel Tower.  The buildings are tall and the streets narrow, so we were in the shade most of the way.  Well we walked and walked and walked.   We were getting hungry and not finding any restaurants along our route.  We passed the Grande Palais and the Petite Palais.  Finally we found a place to each lunch, it was now 4PM (Paris time), we were all pretty hungry, so we made this lunch and supper.  After so much walking (about 1 1/2 hours from the tower to the restaurant) we debated on finishing the trip home on foot or on the Metro..... Metro it is.  After changing trains once, we found our way back to the closest station home.  Stopping at the bakery for fresh bread and pastries (breakfast), grocery for milk, fruit and beer, and the fromagerie for cheese; we finished our trip home.  After naps and checking email, we enjoyed fresh bread, cheese, fruit, wine and beer about 8PM. 

Rose Window in Saint Chappelle

Saint Chappelle

mural on Grand Palais

Petit Palais

Saint Magdalene

First day in Paris

Well we did make it to Notre Dame.  Left the apartment about noon and walked there.  Found we ARE in a very good location.  Not hard to find our way around, well not too hard thanks to Forest and Mike's sense of direction.  From Notre Dame we found a nice little restaurant with sidewalk table (most of them do have them).  Mike had duck, Forest had steak and I had fish.  They were all very good, we wanted to each try something different so we could taste them all.  Then we each had a different dessert; Forest had lemon crepes, I had strawberries with strawberry sorbet and whipped cream, and Mike had vanilla ice cream with apple pie...... they were all yummy. 
We then walked to the Louvre.  Walked around outside ..... it is an AMAZING building.  Then headed toward the Arc de Triomphe through the Jardin des Tuileries.  Looked like it was going to be quite a walk so after resting a few minutes under some nice trees (and watching the people go by) then finding a bathroom for me (50 cents please) we paid for a ride the rest of the way.  We walked around under the arch but did not climb to the top (284 steps to the top).  The arch is in the middle of the world's largest roundabout connecting 12 avenues.  To get to the arch you actually have to walk through a tunnel.  The arch was commissioned in 1806 by Napoleon to commemorate his imperial victories, it was completed in 1836 under Louis-Philippe. (just a bit of history)
From there we decided to tackle the Metro.  We purchased a 3 day pass for each of us to make getting to further places easier.  Good thing we decided on the pass, we went to the wrong station on our first try..... guess we would spend more on single tickets in 3 days than on a pass.  We found our way back "home" a little after 6 for our afternoon rest.  We will go out later for dinner, maybe take the Metro back to see some of the same places after dark.  OH it doesn't get dark till about 10 or 10:30, I missed that last night.... I was asleep, Mike told me.

Notre Dame

Charlemagne

the Louvre

Arche de Triomphe

Arche de Triomphe

Paris

We made it to Paris!  Had an easy flight to Miami then an overnight flight to Paris and arrived here at 8:45am.  I now remember why I hate to fly.  Why do they give you a blanket when it's so warm in the plane that I was sweating all night?  Other than that it wasn't too bad, well not if you like to sleep sitting up.
We're here!  Cindy was kinda frantic in the taxi ride over here especially with all the motorcycles zipping in and out of the traffic and everybody just makes extra lanes whenever they feel like it.  But it's beautiful here weather is nice, down to 56 at night and high 70's to low 80's.
Our apartment is nice, on the 4th floor and we even have a lift.  Cindy and I took a nice walk and found Naturalia, small natural foods store so we stocked up on essentials- coffee, wine, fruit, yogurt.
When Mike wakes up in a bit we'll walk out and find a nice little cafe for a late lunch/early dinner.
Our apartment is in the 2nd arrondisement and we found the Metro station a couple blocks away so we can go anywhere from there.

from outside our apartment window

Cindy making a list of things she definately won't eat!

our lift, I can barely turn around in it, but beats climbing 5 flights of stairs

Only have a couple pictures so far but I promise I'll have more tomorrow when my eyes and body aren't so tired.

10 days and counting

Well it's gettin' closer.  In 10 days we leave for 5 weeks in Europe!
Cindy and I have been very busy planning this trip, Cindy especially busy while she tends to her mom.  Cindy spent the last 3 days finalizing our train reservations and was able to finish yesterday.  Thank you very much my dear.
Cindy, Mike, and I leave on August 7th to Paris for 5 days, then fly to Rome for 7 days.  Mike has to fly back on Friday the 17th since he starts his final year in Architecture on Monday.  Cindy and I were lucky enough to book the "Scavi Tour"  http://saintpetersbasilica.org/Necropolis/Scavi-map.htm
This will be very interesting and fulfilling to us as Catholics.
Mike wants to take a day trip to Assissi so we'll hop a train to visit there.  Then Cindy and I will take a train on Monday to Interlaken, Switzerland for 3 days.  When I was researching going there I thought it would be an easy train trip.  Well when Cindy was booking the train reservations we found out there was rail construction on the most direct route and we would be put on a bus and probably miss our connection, so Cindy was able to route us through Zurich on trains the entire way.  Thank you my love!
When we leave Interlaken we'll take the train down to Genova, Italy for the night.  Then take an early morning train to Monaco where we meet up with David and Denise.  David told us about a Marriott credit card promo which we were able to get and get a free night at the Marriott in Monte Carlo!  How cool is that?  One thing I definately want to see is the Jacques Cousteau Museum there.
Then we drive over to Port Cassafrieres, France where we board our canal boat which David and I will pilot to Homps, Fr. visiting all of the quaint little villages along the way.  This will be awesome.
I still remember drinking pina coladas in Bonaire in March last year listening to David say how cool a trip like this would be.  Then in Bonaire last October they joined us for a week and we decided to book the trip.  We all thought it would be great to extend the trip a couple more weeks and see Spain and Portugal.  Then we decided recently to add 3 nights in Fez, Morocco.  So after the boat we'll train to Toulouse and fly to Madrid, Spain.  Then pick up a car and drive over to Madrid, then Tarifa.  At Tarifa we'll take the ferry over to Tangiers, Morocco where a driver will take us to Fez where we have this really neat little hotel Riad Le Calife  http://www.riadlecalife.com/accueil.php?lang=en

Where we'll explore the city.  And I just have to ride a camel!  Then we travel back to Tangiers and cross the Straits of Gibraltar once again then spend our last 2 nights in Marbella, Spain.  Then we bid adieu and fly home from Madrid to Miami then back to the Big Easy.

Today I just have to wish my son and his lovely wife a very happy anniversary!  They are celebrating their 5th on the beach.  And we get Ella for a couple days starting tomorrow.
And to my lovely wife a very happy 34th anniversary tomorrow!