Vive la France!

July 27, 2011

Hi Again!

Where to begin! We arrived in France this afternoon from Majorca, after a wonderful 2 week holiday of sun, fun, exploring, bike rides, wine, food, friends and relaxation.

After an admittedly typical discount airline experience (Easy Jet, with a blessed empty middle seat, but a long delay in both Palma and again in Paris – due to a security breach at our gate?????), we finally got off the plane about 45 minutes after taxiing to the gate at Charles de Gaulle international, then waited another hour for the luggage. The 45 min. bus ride into Paris and the 45 min. walk to our hotel – yes we should have gotten a taxi, especially since it started raining – meant we arrived at 9 pm. Fortunately, we dumped our luggage in the room and went to dinner at a lovely restaurant close to the hotel for a fabulous meal that more than made up for the long travel day. My confit du canard and Charlie’s saumon au citron, along with crème brulee and gateaux glace for dessert, and a perfect bottle of St. Emilion certainly absolved a lot of traveling woes!

Our lovely hotel is minutes from the Champs Elyseey and is surrounded by streets full of designer showrooms and shops. Name a designer, any designer and the shop is here anxious to help you part with your treasure. Amazing shop windows are now etched with my “oh so lady like drool”.

We strolled along the Seine, took a wonderful river cruise from the Eiffel Tower past the heart of Paris and her beautiful monuments and structures, around Notre Dame and under numerous bridges, each more beautiful and historic. The day turned to evening (the sun sets about 9:30 pm) as we strolled through the Jardin du Tuilleries, past the Louvre and across the Pont Neuf bridge – with its open iron grillwork sides hung with thousands of padlocks engraved with couples’ names professing their love (oh, so Paree) – to the Ile de St Louis for dinner along the Seine. I forced myself to order Escargots, then Steak Tartare – two really good reasons to come to Paris. Charlie devoured a whole grilled sea bass. Okay, yes, we also had dessert – Ile flotante, chocolat mousse, café, and another spectacular bottle of wine – of course. We took a taxi home!

Next day we were up and out early for our train to Joigny, in the Burgundy “departmente” and to meet our canal boat, armed with a bag of fresh pan au chocolat and croissants. Not sure if it’s a blessing or a curse that there are no scales here, but I am having a bit of trouble seeing my feet these days! Hmmm.

My next blog will share our wonderful canal boat journey on the Yonne River and Canal du Nivernais.

Au revoir!