France
Nice & Monaco Carcassone Bordeaux Loire Valley Bayeux Paris
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Nice and Monaco
We arrived in Nice, France on August 30, 2004. This was the first place on our tour that didn't speak English as their native language, so we finally got that adventurous feeling that comes with travel. After a fairly cold summer in England, and a weekend of sweaters and scarves in Scotland, Nice's warm weather was a treat. We spent most of one day swimming in the Mediterranean. Of course, since we wanted to be able to go into the water together, we left all of our valuables at the hotel - including the camera. We brought it with us to Monaco, but managed not to take a single picture in Nice itself. Ah well, you can't take pictures of the feel of the water. One thing about the beaches in Nice is that they're rocky beaches. It's beautiful from a distant, but the rocks are unexpectedly painful to walk on. One of the joys of being in Nice is watching people attempt to get in and out of the water while having their feet torn apart on the rocks. Of course, Jeff and I provided some entertainment for others in our attempts as well.
| The Casino at Monte Carlo |
| Some of the yachts in the harbor |
| Even the park sculpture is "rich". |
The Medieval City of Carcassone
The medieval walled city of Carcassone still resonates with a feeling of swords and chainmail armor. The city is double-walled for extra protection, and it's really amazing that it has survived fully intact all these years. If Carcassone is on your agenda any time soon, make sure you get a hotel within the medieval walls. We stayed outside believing (based on the tourist information pamphlet) that only high-end hotels are available within the city. But actually, there are two mid-range options, including a Best Western, that would have been a treat to stay in. Of course, if you can afford the $300 a night for the top rated place, go for it!Today the inner city of Carcassone is lined primarily with restaurants and gift shops. It's a big tourist destination, and for good reason. We found the game "Carcassone" in one shop, and almost bought it just to have it from Carcassone. But besides being in French (although it was actually published by a German company), we already have it.
| The medieval city from outside. |
| One of the entry ways into the city. |
| A view of the double-wall. The inner wall is higher. |
| A couple of torrets rise above Jeff. |
| Every medieval city has their cathedral. |
| A scale model of the whole city as it is today. |
Bordeaux
Bordeaux is considered the center of French wine making. The highlight of the region is taking one of the many wine-tasting tours available. Unfortunately, Bordeaux itself is a rather dull and unimpressive city. Its architecture is uninteresting; the city boasts almost no greenery; and the walk along the river is lined with concrete and industry. We stayed for a few days so that I could take a wine-tasting tour that included some white wines. (I'm not a big red wine fan.) Jeff, not liking any variety of wine, didn't go with me on the tour. The tour itself was fun, and the surrounding countryside, filled with grape vines, is quite beautiful. But if you're not really interested in wine, you can probably leave Bordeaux out of your next travel plans. On the other hand, there was a lot of construction going on in Bordeaux, and both tourist services and city beautification projects have received a fair amount of funding. Maybe when the plans are all complete in 2007 or 2008, the city will be more worth a visit.
| The one cool Bordeaux monument. |
| It even has a fountain at its base. |
| Rows of grape vines. |
| And grapes! This was early September, right before harvest. |
| Last year's harvest is still fermenting. |
| Walls and walls of finished product - wine! |
The Loire Valley (Amboise and Orleans)
The Loire valley is best known for the many Chateau, or mansions, along the river. Nobility used to flock to the region for its beautiful views and good grape growing climate. We headed to the Loire valley in hopes of finding a canoeing expedition, which we never did. In our search, we stumbled, almost accidentally, upon Ambois.Ambois' cozy village feel, position on the Loire River and abundant greenery contrasted starkly with the drabness of Bordeaux. And although the canoeing outfit happened to be closed for vacation for 2 weeks during the time we were there, it turned out to be a worthwhile stop anyway. The highlight of Ambois was the Leonardo Da Vinci Park. Da Vinci lived in Ambois for the last few years of his life, and the home he stayed in has been turned into a museum, with a large, beautiful park surrounding it that now houses working mock-ups of a number of his drawn inventions.
| The Chateau at Ambois. |
| The Loire river from a bridge in the city center. |
| Leonardo Da Vinci's last home. |
| Da Vinci's helicopter design sits on the lawn. |
| Thin canvasses of his most famous drawings adorned the park. |
| You could go inside this tank design and make it spin around. |
| Canvasses on flight |
| The park itself was stunning. |
| A full-scale mock-up of one of his flying machines. |
Orleans, also on the Loire River, was the first city that Joan of Arc liberated. Being a young woman of 17, the English weren't too worried about her or the army she led. But in an unprecendent feat of arms, she liberated the city against all odds, and in record time. Orlean was her testing ground, and her command wasn't questioned thereafter. The city remembers Joan of Arc quite fondly, and has a yearly celebration in her honor on the day of liberated.
Although the Joan of Arc stuff was very interesting, it was butterflies, not battlefields that lead us to Orleans. In one of the plays we saw at the Edinburgh Festival, there was a silly, 8-word "Butterfly Song." It was sung 3 times in the play, and for some reason it stuck firmly in my head. I proceeded to sing it so many times over the next few weeks, that it also stuck in Jeff's head. So when the guidebook mentioned a butterfly santuary in Orleans, our destination was set. There weren't qutie as many butterflies as we had expected, and the room was kept boiling hot for some tropical species, but all-in-all it was a fun stop. Jeff even found himself a friend, who stayed with him for a surprisingly long time.
Since Steve had his laptop with him, we didn't need to conserve picture disk space. We knew we could download whatever we took. Even after he left, we had two empty chips, and thinking we would be getting our laptop in a few days, we went totally crazy. We have about 200 pictures of Paris. But really, who hasn't seen what the Eiffel Tower looks like? So we've decided to narrow down the pictures in this section to a few really meaningful ones. :-) (Ok, maybe if we ever catch up with the rest of the site, we'll add a few more traditional ones.)
A monument to Joan of Arc decorates the main town square.
In the center of a wide-open area, it's the obvious focal point.
The "original" house she stayed in (destroyed and rebuilt several times). Now it's a museum.
Mila Yovavich's armor from her role as Joan of Arc. :-)
The museum houses a scale mock-up of the city in Joan's time. It's complete with a sound & light show.
The main cathedral in Orleans.
The blue ones were really beautiful, but we only managed any photos while they were eating from this dish.
This orange on orange was stunning.
Here's Jeff's friend hanging out on the back of his t-shirt.
Bayeux
In the heart of Normandy, Bayeux is an excellent base for exploring the D-Day beaches, which of course, we did. Although we were both familar with the D-Day overview, we didn't realize that the Brits built a semi-permanent harbor for their landings. The U.S. put up some interim structures to block the high seas while they disembarked, but the defenses didn't last very long after the initial landings. The British harbor at Gold beach, outside the town of Arromanches, is still partially in place even today.
Part of the harbor at Gold beach has been washed ashore.
More pieces of the Gold beach harbor.
A mock-up of the original harbor built off of Port Arromanches.
The areas between the landing sites were well fortified by the Germans.
Jeff peeks out from a fortification site that had views of several of the landing sites.
A monument for the U.S. troops fallen in battle. It stands at the U.S. cemetery in Normandy.
The original war memorial at Omaha beach.
This one next to it was built for the 60 year anniversary of D-Day.
Pointe Du Hoc still shows its battle scars more than 60 years later.
Paris
Ah Paris... The Louvre, the Eiffel Tower, the cafes... the GAMES! Our friend Steve came to visit us in Paris, and we spent several days playing board games in his 4-star hotel (which is about 3 stars more than the best we'd stayed in so far). We took some time out to see the Louvre, but not much else. After Steve left, we stayed on for a few days to actually see the Parisian sights. We spent our 8 year wedding anniversary at the Moulin Rouge. Check out our letter, Love at the Moulin Rouge, in the Letters From The Road section for more details on that experience.
The boys get into the spirit of the "head room" at the Louvre.
Adrienne poses in front of this...uh, famous Parisian landmark.
The Smart Car is very common in Europe. And look, no more parking worries!
