Mouffetard street

This a wonderful little street in Paris in the Latin Quarter.  It is full of inexpensive, variety of ethic restaurants and bars.  Little shops,fruit markets and grocery stores. It runs about 6 blocks.  And the good news is that the street is a block away from my apartment.  Last night, John and I walked down the street and John was amazed at all the restaurants, bars and shops..He noticed that a lot of the people in the street were young adults and he thought that Paris is for the young.  But I pointed out to him that the Latin Quarter in Paris is where the University is located and most of these young people are students. We had dinner at a restaurant of which he  truely enjoyed the meal.  Also we found a bar very close that will have American football on TV on Sunday. Oh happy day!  Today will be a little hectic as we have to check out of the hotel at 12 and we can not check in until 4.  What will we do for those 4 hours.  I guess we can have lunch and john can go to the sportif bar.  We do not want to be that far away from our luggage.  I will let you know when we are safely in the apartment.

ah gay Paree

hallelujah We made it.  I dropped off the car at the airport rental return and we found a cab to take us to our hotel in the Latin Quarter.  We could not get into the room right away so we put our luggage in a safe place in the hotel and went across the street to a place called vielle tour.  We had a nice and reasonable in price lunch.  Mine was delicious mussels in leak cream sauce and hocke fish (similar to handock))in Dill and creame carmel(flan) for dessert.John had a minced Beef, and fries. Which he thought was alright.  He says that the french make good french fries.  We had a glass of wine which nearly knocked me out.  The waiter misunderstood that john wanted a red not rose' wine.  So our first glass of wine was rose'.  So for dessert we got the waiter to understand that we wanted a red.  this was a small bottle for actually the same price as the rose'  John drank the wine and I had a coffee with cream.  We then went back to the room to check in.John took a nap as I decided to explore.  The hotel is on this busy street called mouffetard.  It is a wonderful street as it is full of restaurants and food shops.  I worked with the gentleman at the front desk to figure out how to find the apartment.  With his help, the map, map quest and my GPS I was able to find the apartment.  It is only .9 of a mile.  On the way is a post office, many different cafe's, restaurants, bars, grocery stores, fruit markets.  The street the apartment is on is a nice street and the little alley the apartment is off of is very decorative and friendly. Now to get though these next few days as John is not thrilled with Paris. But hopefully we will find activities that he would enjoy.  If I only could find a sportif pub that showed American Football on sunday.  John would be very happy.

Paris tomorrow

It is Wed. evening.  tomorrow we turn in the car.  I hope it is easy.  Then we will have to get a cab to take us to our first hotel which is close to the apartment I have rented for 13 days.  We can get into the apartment at 4 on friday.  Tuesday 10/5 I go with John to the Airport and I pick up Lisa.  I am hoping to meet her at the place where she picks up her luggage.  There are 4 terminals at Charles De Gaulle.  I am not sure or I am not sure even Lisa know yet what teminal she will be at when she lands.  It may be a few days before I can write another blog but you never can tell.  supposingly the hotel I will be at tomorrow night will have internet.

recalulating

John and I have heard this word more times than we desire.  We have heard it from my dear little GPS that always come though but it may have to go though a lot of recalulating before the car and moi get it right.  After Reims we went to Dijon.  We were there for two nights and it was not at all what I expected.  We arrived on sunday and the town and hotel until dinner time at 7 was dead.  We stayed at a wonderful holiday inn.  I thought it was a little expensive at 149 a night, but that was until I found out about the amendities nest store.  When we arrived I noticed there was a stadium accross the street. Visions of Frankfurt Germany, Glenda.  And there was a McDonalds next to the hotel in a ajoining big building.  The building was open but the Mc Donalds was closed.  I went into the building to find it was a huge mall the size of woodfield or Mall of America.  However everything was closed.  That night we at dinner in the hotel restaurant.  it did not open until 7 and john and i were the first ones in the door.  we are not use to eating dinner so late. everything in france is closed between 2 and 7.  So by 7 John and I are starving.  We have a hard time eating before 2 and then we find that everything is closed until 7.  Grrrrrrrrrr  Anyway the waiter took our order and told us that the restaurant was going to be very busy in an hour and if we wanted desert we should order it then.  We did although I thought this might be a ploy to get us  to order some more food.  The French seem to think people should have more than one course. Also the hotel was so dead as was the parking lot, we could not imagine a lot of people coming.  But we were wrong.  All of a sudden there were about 80 people asending on the hotel and restaurant.  the people we with a tour group from England stopping at this hotel on there way to Spain.  Luckily we had received our delicious first course entre and was awaiting for our desert to arrive.  The got the order a little mixed up but eventually we got it.  The next day I woke up early and went next store to see if the McDonalds was open.  Much to my delight all the stores and several restaurants and deli's were open. What a shopper's pardise.  After I got john a coffee and roll from the mall, I talked him into coming over to see the mall.  He too was impressed.  There is a huge store called carrefour, which is a glamorized Walmart, with food and all the goods one might want.  The wine rows were long and ery tempting.  I bought some socks.  I had read that they have carrefours in Paris so I will save my money for shopping there until I get to Paris.  In the afternoon I talked John in going on an adventure to the laundrymat and maybe the tourist office.  I put in the address from Rick' s. france and the GPS took us on a mad ride.  It reported about 6 recalulations as dijon is doing a lot of road construction.  But amazingly after going down several very narrow streets and alleys we arrived right in front of this small laundrymat.  John was amazed but not I.  For 8 euros I got my laundry done.  I would have booked more days at that hotel but the hotel was full. so I had to find another hotel closer to Paris as I wanted to take John to Versailles.
Again many of the hotels near Versailles were booked so I found a hotel near the air port where we will drop off the car tomorrow.  Trying to get out of dijon was a trick but we made it.  It was a long ride and we amazingly found the hotel. That night after we checked in and were waiting for the restaurant to open we met two nice women (in their 40's)from England.  One was returning to England after living in Cape town for 15 years.  She was bringing her two children(a mix  reg dog 11and a irish setter9)with her as she is going to take up residence again in England.  Her friend had agreed and was picking her and the dogs up at the airport and taking them to Dinan ,France to put the dogs in quarentine Kennalfor 6 months before she can bring them into England. English rule. Anyway we had a delightful dinner with them. Today we took a ride to Versailles which was not far, but the traffic was bad and slow.  We did not go in but saw the outside which is very grand and golden.  I have a picure of John standing in front of King Louis 14.  We had lunch at a place next to the chateaux and then began our drive back.  Everything was moving along swimmingly or may I say gallantly until we got close to the airport.  We must have circled the air port 10 times trying to find the right road to the hotel.  Over a cocktail with John I said the word was fantastique and he said the word was recalulating.

A little of the bubbly

For those in the know about Champagne, I guess this is the place to be.  We are now in Reims that is in the Champagne region of France.  You can get samples of the most famous brands of Champagne here as this is the location of many of the most important Champagne houses.  This is Reims and this city is also well known for the Cathedral of Notre Dame of Reims.  This cathedral played a major role in the coronations of the kings of France.  It is impressive building as I can report as I walked though it and took many pictures and a few videos. Again until I can download my cameras view youtube as they have a few videos. Most of the cathedral was destroyed by the wars but has been restored by the people of France and a major funder, named John D Rockefeller.  There are new stained glass windows designed by Marc Chagall along with stained glass windows from the conception of the cathedral.  but there are also many empty windows as a result of the bombing.   Reims is also known for dwight D Eisenhower accepting the total surrender of the war by Germany.  It has been very gloomy and rainny here and we ate a dinner of various items I founds at a local grocery store.  The wine a bordeaux was only 2.5 euros and a good buy.  We did not taste the champagne this trip.  John and I must be getting old.  I am sure we will be sorry later. C;est la vie, for now.

We are still in Calais

Nothing much to report today.  We stayed at the hotel all day.  We had a delicious lunch and went to our room to take a nap. It was very windy and rainy in the afternoon, so I went to the fitness room and worked out on the tread mill and rowing machine,  Then I met John in the pub where he had a hamburger and I had soup and a selection of cheese.  I am still not sure where we will go tomorrow. Maybe Reims.

Dunkerque and Calais

We are staying in Calais at a nice (very French,LOL)  Holiday Inn.  It is very nice, expensive,comfortable but no free breakfast,  Yesterday we drove about 200 miles to get to Dunkerque. When we got there the traffic was very bad because the people in the area were staging a protest over the reduction of the protester's reduced state pension. Yikes!  Could that happen in Illinois? Anyway I was not impressed with Dunkertque as it is a industrial city with adverage buildings.It is very congested and this is the first city I have been to in France that I felt had little charm,  I might be wrong.  We may find out today.  I am on the outskirts of Calais. So at this point I really have not seen the real Calais.  John and I have to decide our next destination today,  It is gloomy here.  It rained last night just after we had checked in.  Good timing for me.  The weather report's claim it is going to be showers today.  We will see.

We are now in Dieppe

Dieppe is a city of about 82,000 people on the northern Atlantic coast of France.  It is an important seaside port and apparently the beach and sites are good.  There is a castle two enormous cathedrals, a martime museum, an aquarium and some importance as to attempts to fight off the Germans(that failed  back in 1940. Victor Hugo uaws this town in his book Les Mismerables. It took us about 3 hours to get here and the GPS did a good job of leading us to the hotel we are staying at which is in the centre of the city. 
We are staying at another ETAP hotel.  They have great prices and comfortable and safe lodging.  39 euros for the night.,  The town looks very historic and quaint. not as cute as honfleur was but I have not seen the whole town yet.  After we checked into the hotel John and I went off to explore.  John has wanted to change some of his US dollars for Euros and we or I might say he flound a post office that also claims to be a bank.  John gave them 230 in US dollars and got  back 167 in Euros.  He was shocked as that is 1/3 less than what he was exchanging.  the euro rate is 1.37 and the bank charged him  the difference in service exchange costs.  The other day the rate was up to 1.57 so it did come down a little.  We had lunch at a cafe on the square called Les Trubunaux.It was a huge building that looked like a small castle.  I have a picture of it..  John had an american large hamburgur and I had a delicious salad called Salad la cambert.  In the salad was a fried egg, cambert cheese wraped in a light flour shell, canadian bacon(?) tomatoes, bib lettuce, endive stalks and a vinigar dressing.  After our meal we walked a little but returned to our room for a nap.  At about 8 we decided to go out to eat supper and found that the town had all but closed up,  we did find a little pizza place open and we ate there.  However coming back to the hotel,the streets were deserted and we did get back to the hotel safely but it was a little scary.  Hopefully tomorrow we will see a little more of the city before we head for Dunkerque.

Utah Beach

It was lovely waking up to the sounds of the sea.  The tide had rolled in and the waves were crashing on the beach wall.  Despite waking at 7 we were still late for breakfast or as the French call it petite dejeuner.  Breakfast is suppose to end at 10 and we got down there at 9:50 After breakfast we went on to the Utah beach memorial.  It took us about 2 hrs to get there as we first went back to the musee at omaha beach and then on to utah.  The memorial at Utah with the musee is larger than Omaha. This was a surprise as Omaha appears to be more important.  All of you will have to wait until I have time to download my pictures.  I have videos and pictures too.  In the mean time go to youtube and put in the places I have been and you will probaly see the same pictures.  Tomorrow we leave Vielville de mer and head for Dunkirk.   I have no idea what is there but John is anxious to go there and reports that it has something to do with battle.  Stay tuned for the next Post.  Dunkirk is either on the north east tip of France or the south east tip of Belgium.  I may go on youtube to find out!!!!???

We are back in Normandy

After a two day sojourn in Dinard.  (look up on youtube), we we have come back to Normandy.  We are staying at a lovely hotel overlooking Omaha beach.  We have a view of the sea from our window. We  came back to Normandy as when we were here earlier we did not get a chance to see all the D Day beaches and war memorials.,  Before we arrived at the hotel we went to an area called Ponte du hoc,  This is an important landing spot for 225 men who scaled the cliffs.  They scaled the cliffs because at the top were the German troops who needed to be stopped before all the American and allied troops landed on the beaches.  As it turned out only 90 of the soldiers survived but before being rescued by the American troops they were able to block the roads leading to the beachesfrom the germans so that the troops landing on the beaches could be victorious.

John is enjoying all of the history.  I am too but I am also enjoying the French countryside.  Dinard was a seaport village.  It had beaches and we spotted huge oceanliners in the harbors.  Dinard is next to St. Malo and Mont St. Michel(that is a huge monestary from the 1600 built high and on a island)  It was all very enchanting but John was not satified with the preparation of his steak.  The internet in Dinard did not work.  It is working here,  till tomorrow,

Omaha Beach and the American Gi Cemetary

What a beautiful day it was here in France.  We drove to the site of Omaha beach, which is one of the largest D day beaches where the American forces landed.  We arrived at about 11 and the beach, which is very long was empty of people and few cars.  As the time went by more people arrived to view the standing war memorial and information posts.  The tide was out and we got an idea of how it might have looked when the boats and ships landed to let the GI's off.  The beach is very long.  After a delicious lunch, at least I thought so, we drove to the American GI cemetary.  Wow what a beautiful setting for a cemetary.  The cemetary is very well maintained and there were quiet a few people there looking for graves.  The orientation center was free and very interesting. We left at about 6pm and we noticed that the tide had come in and made the beach dissappear.  The cemetary overlooks part of the very long beach.  The beach is 30 miles long I believe.  I need to check that fact.Tomorrow morning we will go to Utah beach which is another beach the American troops landed,on June 7,1944. I have lots of pictures and I will try to post them tomorrow before we leave this hotel.  Tomorrow we are also going to St. Michel which is a monestary on top of a huge hill.  Tomorrow we are staying in a town called Dinard next to St. Malo France.

We have made it to bayeux

We are now into our third day of our trip.  All is going well with a few inconveniences.  It took us many trials to fine our hotel.  It seems like it is in no mans land, which funny enough that is the name of the town it is in.  The town the hotel etap is in is called nomant, which means no name.  Anyway we got to the war memorial in caen yesterday.  It was very impressive and we are going back there today to see the rest.

This is it!

A few minutes more and hopefully I will be getting on the plane with John for Atlanta.  It has been a slightly stressful morning as I had some problems checking in.  but all is well now.  Thank you all for your fond farewells.  The next blog I hope I will be in France.

One day, will that be enough?

I am one day away from flying over to France.  I have a suitcase packed , with clothes and all my other parafenealia that I think I can not live without.  It weights 50 pounds.  I might be alright with it though my Italy trip, but what will I do with such a heavy suitcase as Dona and I become vagabons in November. 
John printed out a burb on theft and violence in France that has me scared.  One thing the article did not mention was the prevevance of how many tourist have been robbed.  Is it 1 out of 5 or 1 out of 1,000? I suppose the good news the article mentions is; that there is more theft than violence.  I sort of laugh at the reference to parking your car at the D Day beaches in France.  The article mentions that tourist cars trunks have been opened with sledge hammers and wedges to steel items, while tourist view the beaches.  Is their a hidden message here.  I say this because this is the only specific place they mention that tourist find their car trunks vandalized and luggage stolen.
I know you have been waiting to hear my itinerary for the trip so you know what to expect of this trip.  Take a deep breathe.  1.  I fly to Paris with my handsome Irish Prince.  At Charles-de-Gaulle airport we pick up our rental car and for the next 15 days we travel around France.  Starting with the DDay beaches.  I know what you are thinking?
2. We drop off the rental car outside of Paris and head for the apartment I rented for 13 days in the Latin Quarter.
3.  5 days later,;John and I have done a quick tour of the main highlights of Paris, I ride with John to the airport, where he will fly home.  As he is boarding I am greeting my good friend Lisa.  She will be staying with me at the apartment.  We will have a glorius time touring and getting to know Paris and the countryside. She took many years of French in College and this will be one of the first times she will actually be able to use it.
4.On the following Tuesday I go with Lisa to the airport and as she is getting on the plane, I am greeting my good friend, Glenda.  Glenda and I stay in Paris for about 5 days when we both go to the airport and take a plane to Rome,  Italy.  Glenda and I have  a similar  sense of humor and when we travel together we do a lot of laughing. 
5. For the next 15 days; Three friends, Glenda, Dona,Charlotte and I will be on a escorted tour. It is called The best of Italy and Sicily.  If you are interested in the itinerary go to Globus tours and check out the information for this trip.
6.  At the end of the Italy trip.  Glenda and Charlotte goes home to Illinois.  Dona and I then will decide what our itinerary will be.  Dona is a great traveller and we both are not afraid to travel around independently and cheaply. By that time I will be more confindent or not. I can see my Handsome Prince sneering at me now as he reads those last two sentences.  No we are not going to Camp.
That is the trip.  Will I be ready to come home.  Time will tell.

Faux Europe

I am not in Germany as this picture might suggest.  I am with my sister here at Walt Disney World.  Nan is not coming with me to Europe but she will be there in spirit.  Only  5 days left until I take off for France,

Travel Books

It has been so long since I added a video, I almost added this movie twice.

Getting closer to the beginning of my trip

Okay now it is only 11 days before John and I get on that big plane to take us on our adventure of a lifetime. Yesterday was a nerve racking day as I misplaced my debit/credit card and that really threw me in a tizzy.  But, Thank you Lord,  I tracked it down to the restaurant that Nick, Rose and I attended the night before.  At this moment the card is safely with Nick.  I will go to his house next week to retrive it and give him futher instructions on my bills and he providing me with instructions on using my new little lap top. Yesterday I did get my international driver's license at Triple A office, Went to the drug store to get medication for 2 months and met with one of my friends, Lisa.  She will be with me for 7 days in Paris.  She is excited too.  Today I will focus on starting to pack, and getting my list of bills ready to insure that they get paid while I am gone.

Getting ready!

There are now 12 days left before John and I fly over the pond to Paris.  I have a list of about 15 items on my to do list.  Today I have to get my international driver's license, get the medication from the drug store, work on listing my bills and calling credit companies, and picking up my suitcase from my storage locker.  Later today I will be meeting with my friend Lisa who will be coming over and stay with me for 7 days when I am in my apartment in Paris.  The challenge of the trip is that I will be gone for 2 months to Europe.  It is not difficult to be gone 3 weeks but  to be gone for 2 months it appears that one must do a lot more planning to insure that nothing changes at home. 

First Movie

I took this fantastic movie using FlipVideo. It was really easy. however feiro is not going with me to france.

First Post

It is 13 days before I leave for France with John.