2010 Outside of Paris

After Paris, we picked up our rental car from the airport. Ahh - to be driving the open road! We had a general plan to wander north towards the Champagne region. As we enjoyed the open countryside, we drove through small and charming villages, endless fields and forests, all green and lush. Then, our jaws dropped as we stumbled upon this view.

Chateau de Chantilly, originally destroyed by the French Revolution, and then rebuilt in the late 1800s.

This beautiful estate was the site of the James Bond movie, A View to a Kill. There is a grand horse stable nearby, where the town of Chantilly is built adjoining it.

We took a quick tour of the chateau and grounds, impressed with the collection of artwork.

Then, we were on our way --

We headed to Epernay, in the Champagne region, north of Paris. We toured the great house of Moet et Chandon, one of the premiere champagneries, where we joined a tour. While Epernay is not particularly interesting city, the champagnery was nice to visit.

Here's old Dom Perignon - there is a real person behind the famous champagne!

One of the historic rooms where Napoleon came to stay at the home of Mssr. Moet.

The dark, cool underground caves of Moet et Chandon, some are hundreds of years old. You could get lost down here!

Dom Perignon champagne - slowly aging for a minimum of 3 years - just to be drunken down with abandon in minutes!

Driving around in this region, we noticed signs of memorials and cemeteries throughout the region. It was also not uncommon to find statues of soldiers of WWI standing in town squares. It was hard to believe that ferocious battles even took place in this now peaceful and scenic place.

. We stumbled across this monument honoring the WWI American and French soldiers. Sitting atop of a green hill, overlooking the valley, it was a quiet spot to stop and reflect the war efforts of both countries.

This was built in 1929. Unfortunately, no one knew another war was coming to be fought here again.

And it was here, walking about, looking up, trying to capture a photo, that I stepped into a drain and went tumbling over. Fortunately I ended up with only a bruised knee and ego. I must be more careful!

2010 Paris part 2

Here I am at the The Palais du Luxembourg. 11 years ago, when I was last here, it rained. This time, it threatened to rain. Still people were about enjoying the day.

It was Father's Day, Fetes du Peres, and families were all out with the kids enjoying Sunday at this great park that surrounds the building. There was a toy boat rental stand nearby, and kids launched the miniature sailboats from the edge of the pool and watched them sail about.

Little sailor girl, following her boat around the pool.

This kid just liked playing with the stick! No boat in sight...

Sunday afternoon, after everyone went home.

Luxembourg garden path.

Just outside of the park, there were these great carved wooden doors that no one seemed to notice. We don't have doors like that at home!

Took the train out to see the Palace of Versailles - the palace of the Sun King, Louis XIV and ("let them eat cake" fame) Marie Antoinette...

...now home to hordes of tourists! This is the Hall of Mirrors, and Louis and Marie would be turning in their graves seeing all the riff-raff here!

Opulent and grand torchieres at Versailles.

View from the top of the stairs.

This is the SMALL pond and garden off to the side... (I'm not kidding!)

To view the rest of the estate, including Marie Antoinette's private "cottage" and to cover the vast amount of other gardens and ponds, we rented a golf cart to zip around. Those who chose to walk it - saw us and had that look of longing on their faces... In the background, half of the palace -- too large to shoot in 1 picture!

At the end of the day, yes, I felt like her...

2010 Paris

From Day 3 of our trip, we took the TGV from London to Paris. It had been around 14 years since I first took the Chunnel Train between the two cities. The London station, St. Pancras (Saint Pancreas, as I like to call it), was a new station, quite sophisticated, much like a new airport, complete with shops, eateries, and comfy gates. From leaving the station and arriving on the French soil, it took only 1 hour, although it took a little bit longer to get into Paris. Immediately, the sights and smells of Paris came flooding back.

Paris cafes, bistros, brasseries & bars - seen everywhere. For the price of an espresso, you can sit all day and watch the world go by. Sometimes it feels that long before you can flag the waiter's attention to get the bill, too.

Wow, what knockers! Walking around the Left Bank area, we found these ginormous doors and had to take a corny picture of me. Don't I look like a Leprechaun?

The Metro - the way to get around. Like London, the subway is the fast, cheap, and easy way to get around Paris. Combine that and the railroad lines and buses, public transportation here is very efficient.

During non-peak hours, it's easy to find seating. But during rush hours, it can be packed.. watch out for your toes - mine got squashed twice today!

L'Hotel de Ville -- no, that's not a hotel... that's Paris' city hall. Quite grand and it never fails to impress me when I see it. That's a poster of Charles de Gaulle on the front, commemorating 70 years since he rallied the French in a broadcast to fight Nazi Germany in WW2.

The Seine River at sunset. It's been cool, cloudy, and occasionally rainy this week. Strange for June in Paris. In previous trips to Paris in the summer, I've sweated in 90+ degrees with high humidity. The sky finally opened up after a brief shower, and we got this great sunset, just from the Ile de la Cite, the island in the middle of the Seine, at the Notre Dame Cathedral.

It was a rainy day at the Pompidou Center, the modern art museum with the edgy industrial exterior.

These tubes actually housed the escalators and walkways to the different floors.

View from inside one of the tubes.

Here's a view from the Pompidou Center across Paris. You can see the Eiffel Tower on the left, and La Defense towards the right in the distance.

I guess she wasn't into the art!

Sea of chairs at a bistro outside the Pompidou Center.

2010 London

This is the beginning of one big trip, this summer of 2010. with my good friend, Kevin. We start in London, for just a few days, and will be returning to it on the way back. Here's a view of the River Thames, with the Tower Bridge in the distance. Too cold, even in mid-June this year, to take a river cruise, but maybe that will happen later on the return part of the trip in July.

Contrary to how it appears, the first couple of days were partly cloudy, occasionally rained, and was cool. But the late afternoon opened up by day 2 to some great puffy clouds and some pretty vistas. A bit of greenery on King's Road...

This is a walking town - and we did just that! Even though there's the Underground that will take you to most parts of the city easily, you still walk, climb those stairs, and walk some more. I think we walked 6 miles that day, exploring the city.

It's handy that street intersections are painted with Look Left and Look Right for tourists.

It gets darn confusing!

King's Road is filled with interesting shops, eateries, and coffee shops, including this Starbucks, where we could get our wi-fi in. Unfortunately, our hotel charged $40/day for wi-fi. So Starbucks free wi-fi it was!

The Full English Breakfast! This is something like the Denny's Grand Slam -- eggs, toast (not shown), hash brown, sausage, bacon, roast tomato, sauteed mushrooms, and baked beans, and coffee. Rather enormous, it was a tradition we had to have once. The typical mid-week breakfast for Brits seem to be coffee and a roll or croissant.

The view from our hotel room at the Bailey's Millenium Hotel. We lucked out and got a top floor room with lots of windows.

St. Paul's Cathedral

Close up of the Tate Modern Museum, a converted power plant, now a modern art museum. This sits directly across the river from St. Paul's Cathedral, with the Millenium Bridge connecting the two sides.

The London Eye. We did not ride this, as it was cloudy and gray. Later in the afternoon, it cleared, and we wished we had. The weather is a bit unpredictable right now.