Off to Provins

 The town of Provins was an important trading center and hosted the Trade Fairs of Champagne in the 12th and 13th centuries. Perhaps this was the first commercial center in France!The town is a popular tourist area and is beautifully maintained.  You can see the town square below.

This is near the restaurant that we enjoyed a Michelin 3 star dinner.

Can one say anything more about a meal than how it is finished?

The Louvre

We enjoyed a beautiful day at the Louvre.

 

 The pigeons enjoyed the remainder of our French bread!

 One of our favorite sculptures.  The hooded monks have distrinct expressions if you peek underneath their hoods.

Pastries come with special wrappers instead of a bag.

And inside?  Wonderful!

Musee d'Orsay

The Musee d'Orsay was a former railway station and is located on the banks of the river Seine.  It now houses beautiful works of art that we enjoyed discovering.

We ate at the de Poison cafe for dinner.  Just in case it has been a while since your last French class we were not at the "poison" cafe but the "fish" cafe!  It was delicious and we knew it would be pricey when they brought the menu out on iPads!

I really enjoyed the crepes for dessert but why do they keep setting my food on fire!

Bordeaux Region

Our friends took us to  fortress in Bordeaux called Citadelle ae Vauban built in 1689 to protect French trading interests. 

We then went to Saint-Émilion one of the principal red wine areas of Bordeaux.  It was a beautiful medieval city named for a monk who first lived there.

Off to La Rochelle

Before going to bed we made sure that a taxi would be available to take us to the train station in the morning.  It turned out that the concierge had forgotten to call for our taxi!  We dragged our luggage to a taxi station a few blocks away and prayed for a  taxi... and of course the taxi came in the nick of time.  We took the high speed train called a TGV to La Rochelle.  It was very confortable and fast.  We passed field after field of sunflowers.  Mark's friend was waiting for us at the station and drove us two hours to his beautiful home. We were treated to a tour of friend's Cognac distillery and a fantastic gourmet dinner.

Les Tramways de l'Est

We ate dinner at an outdoor café near a metro exit, les Tramways de l'Est.  The waiter made sure that we stored our camera and purse out of reach. The scallops and salmon were wonderful!

Cimetiere du Pere Lachaise

We took the metro the a famous Paris cemetery once owned by Louis XIV's confessor.  We saw the graves of Jim Morrison and Oscar Wilde.  They were relatively easy to find because of the crowds around them.   Each of the gravestones were usually small chapels, some were very beautiful and well maintained others were in disrepair. 

Visit to Sacre-Coeur at Montmarte

We walked up the hill to Sacre-Coeur at Montmarte (felt like a mountain) over the rugged terrain of cobblestones.  OK, not everyone thinks that cobblestones are rugged, but honestly it requires more effort than I would guess!

Ethan and Jon, check out the cool gargoyle!

The scenary was fantastic and we enjoyed the artists that lined the streets. We stopped for lunch at a bistro that Mark had visited earlier with a friend. Our waiter was lots of fun, when we sat down he asked if I needed a menu in English or Chinese? We ordered French Onion soup but the spoons did not arrive with the soup. When we asked for a spoon the waiter said that we could not have spoons because in France soup was eaten with a fork and a straw!

And who knew you could make a pie out of pears? 

The first day of the Paris Air show

Upon arriving in Paris I was whisked to the airshow!  The Paris Air Show, located in Le Bourget, was a fantastic experience.  The performance maneuvers executed by the pilots were amazing.  The products demonstrated were also interesting.  I saw a zero gravity airplane used to induce conditions of weightlessness while inflight.  I also saw products I have never seen like missile launchers.   Business people eagerly explained their products and vied for the attention of buyers. 

After the airshow we went to dinner at Café de L`Est.  We had "mille feuilles of veal and coppa with green asparagus, crushed potatoes and mushroom crème", a hamburger salad plate and crème brulee with cardamon flavor for dessert.  Then it was back to the hotel to catch up on some much needed sleep.

Happy Day