Avignon, Monte Carlo, & Nice

Day 6 - Highlights of France & Barcelona

This early morning business is for the birds! We had to have bags out by 6:30am so we could leave at 7:30am to beat the traffic out of Lyon. I am perfecting napping on the bus even when the tour director is talking or playing a DVD. We stopped at another fancy gas station and arrived in the historic walled city of Avignon around 10:30am. Patricia showed us the Papal Palace and Square before letting us loose for an hour of free time. Avignon is in Provance so they had beautiful lavender shops and other locally made goods. We definitely did not have enough time in Avignon to wander, shop, and grab lunch. 

Next stop, Monte Carlo! Finally, we made it to my heart & soul...the sea! The weather cleared, the sun was shining, and I could smell salt in the air! The drive down toward Monte Carlo was beautiful overlooking the city and the Mediterranean Sea. There was even a Holland America cruise ship in port! 

They city was beginning to set up bleachers and signs for the Monaco Grand Prix that occurs in Monte Carlo every May. 

We stopped our short orientation tour in front of the infamous Monte Carlo casino. It was beautiful! We walked around the casino and watched people play the craps tables. We left the casino and shopped a little in Monte Carlo before it was time to head back to the bus...once again, we could have used more time in Monte Carlo to explore the town. 

We finally made it to Nice where we will spend the next 2 nights. So far, Nice is beautiful and I love these Riveria towns! 

Fancy Gas Stations & Lyon

Day 5 - Highlights of France & Barcelona

Monday was our long travel day and I'll admit I'm getting a bit tired of the bus...thank goodness I have short legs. We traveled from Tours to Lyon with several "comfort stops" along the way. I have never seen such fancy gas stations! These gas stations had full cafeterias with hot meals or sandwiches. We learned that you can only get wine for lunch if you are ordering a full hot meal...interesting French law. 

We arrived in Lyon around 3:30pm and met our local guide for a walking tour of Lyon. We walked along the rivers Rhone and Saone and from the "new" city - you know, only a couple hundred years old - and to the old city. Our local guide did a fantastic job and took us in yet another cathedral and to a ledge overlooking the city and through hidden alleyways to show us buildings dating back to the 1600s. 

After our tour, we settled in to our hotel then walked back to the old city for a little shopping before dinner. We ran into one of our fellow solo travelers and ate dinner with her at a traditional French restaurant. After trying traditional foods I can say...I'm not a fan. I had oysters...on ice - the French should really try them steamed with a little melted butter and Tabasco on a saltine. We had potatoes au gratin and steak for the main course and the cut of steak might as well have mooed at me even though I had asked for it medium well. Once again, thank goodness for dessert...the creme brûlée was excellent. 

Tomorrow brings an early early morning so we can stop in Avingnone and Monte Carlo before arriving in Nice for 2 nights.

Cathedrals, Chateaus & Crepes

Day 4 - Highlights of France & Barcelona

Our first day away from Paris...what did we do? I don't know...I thought you might...the day felt like a whirlwind. We loaded up the bus and drove outside of the city for about an hour to a cathedral...don't ask me the name...I couldn't pronounce it even if I could remember it. It was a beautiful little village with an old cathedral. Mass was going on while we were there. Apparently it's common place to have tourists wandering around during a service. The cathedral is noted for having a historical artifact that Catholics make a pilgrimage to see the supposed cloak that Mary wore when she gave birth to Jesus. 

We napped on the bus on the way to our first château. I don't remember the name of this château either but it was enormous and resembled the Biltmore. We dodged the puddles to take a few pictures of the château before finding a spot for lunch. We had our first sweet Crepes for dessert - Nutella and chantilly - it was amazing! 

Back to the bus for a food coma induced nap only to wake up at yet another château. This was our favorite stop! The entry way to the chateau was gorgeous! We had time to walk through the home and the gardens and the farm AND we were the first back to the bus - probably the only time that's happening on this trip! 

Outside of the town of Tours, we stopped at a farm house to have dinner with a local woman. We had pork still on the bone with the skin still on it...but dessert was excellent! We enjoyed the time with our fellow travelers. Most of the group is from Australia and New Zealand or the US. There is a huge variety of ages from Katie and I in our twentys to people in their sixtys. There are singles, couples, and friends traveling together. By day 3 of being with our group we are pretty sure our new friends consider us the giggly Americans girls who are almost always late...especially in the mornings. 

The Eiffel Tower, Napoleon, & More Shopping

Day 3 - Highlights of France & Barcelona

The first official day of our tour brought a rude wake up call...at 6:30am. Our leisure mornings are over. We had to be ready and on the bus by 8am to begin our city tour of Paris. We had a local guide who talked about the history and highlights  of the locations passed. We rode by the Arc de Triompe, up the Champs Élysées, by the lock bridge, over the Ise de Paris and by Notre Dame Cathedral, along side the Louvre, and finally to the Eiffel Tower. 

We faced the cold rain to get in line to go to the 2nd level of the Eiffel Tower. When we got off the bus there was already a line waiting to go up and we quickly learned a major benefit of being with a tour group as Patricia handed out of tickets and we immediately bypassed the waiting lines and proceeded to the elevators. The elevators go up the tower diagonally and we got off on the 2nd level. Our local guide pointed out a few highlights from the observation deck and then we had free time to wander and take pictures. 

One of Samantha Browns' first episodes of Passport to Europe has her in Paris and when she went to the Eiffel Tower she found a post office at the tower so, of course, I had to find this and mail a post card to my parents stamped from the Eiffel Tower. Katie and I had to buy umbrellas because the rain just wouldn't quit. The group left and went to the gold dome where Napoleon Bonaparte is buried within 7 caskets. 

We had free time the rest of the day so Katie and I went back to the St. Germain area and found a cute lunch place called Cafe Louise. We were the only foreigners in the cafe and we had to piece together Katie's French and the waiters minimal English to order. We strolled St. Germain before going to the Opera district to the Galleria Layfayette, a famous department store similar to Harrods. The Galleria Layfayette was 7 stories of pure misery! Since it was a rainy Saturday everyone wanted to be inside and the entire 7 levels were elbow to elbow with people. Katie and I surved 1 hour before we had to escape the madness. We shopped a little more before going back to the hotel. Charles, the concierge, recommended an Italian restaurant "just down the street" for dinner. Either Charles gave us the wrong directions or his perception of close by is way off base because 45 minutes later and 3 stops to ask directions later finally made it to Da Vinci. Thankfully the food was well worth the walk and the little waiter showed us to a bridge where we could see the Eiffel Tower twinkling over the Seine River. 

                       Au Voir, Paris!

Shopping like a Parisian

Day 2 of Highlights of France & Barcelona

Our first full day in Paris and we don't have to join the Trafalgar Tour group until 5pm...what else is there to do, but shop! We slept in til 8am since we were at Moulin Rouge so late and we enjoyed breakfast at the hotel before taking the train to the infamous shopping street, the Champs Élysées. We wandered in any and every shop and dodged the scattered rain by trying on lots of cute clothes! Katie found a beautiful perfume shop called Guerlain where the salesman, Yohann, was either entranced by her or a very diligent employee because he was so happy to see her when we returned later in the day that he took her to the "Magic Room" upstairs for her to pick out her perfume. I got a quick picture of the Magic Room before running back downstairs after being fussed at.

We lined up with the masses at Laduree to pick out macaroons...they are almost too cute to eat! We wandered all the way down the Champs Élysées to the Arc de Triompe and walked under ground so we could stand under it and see the entire Champs Élysées. 

We went in the largest - and possibly the original - Louis Vuitton on the Champs Élysées. Katie was looking for a particular wallet and they were out of it at that location so we took the train to St. Germaine where that location had the beautiful Emily wallet. The St. Germaine area was a quieter shopping street with a lot of local cafés and boutiques plus some big name shops. We hopped the train back to the hotel just in time to meet our tour group. 

We have already decided that our fellow tour group will either love us or hate us for the next week. We were the last 2 to meet the group, the last 2 to get on the bus to go to dinner, and the first 2 to leave the group after dinner to wander on our own. Thankfully we spent time with the tour director, Patricia, and the bus driver, Louis, at dinner so we are really hoping they will love us! We had dinner at a restaurant on the grounds of the Louvre! We spent time strolling the gardens of the Louvre before dinner. Katie and I came to the conclusion that in order to work at that restaurant the waiters have to be as beautiful as the artwork in the museum! 

By the end of day 2 we have mastered the Paris train system and completely understand how Parisian women can eat bread and sip champagne all the time since we have done nothing but walk and climb stairs all across the city. 

Bonjour Paris

The funny thing about being a travel agent is that you get so wrapped up in planning everyone else's vacations that you plan your own on a complete whim and when the time finally arrives you realize you haven't read the intinerary or made any plans of your own. That's exactly what happened to me, again. Katie and I picked out a Trafalgar Tour months ago, got approved for it, booked the flights, and put it on the back burner of life. This week finally arrived and I realized I had only skimmed the itinerary and had no clue how we were going to spend our pre-tour day in Paris. Oh well! Paris here we come! 

We flew out of Wilmington to Charlotte without any issues. I of course thought we had 3 hours between our flights only to realize we had 1. We picked up lunch in the airport and made it to our gate to find out our flight had been delayed an hour. We were actually excited for this delay since we could enjoy our lunch without fear of choking on it. Unfortunately, our 1 hour blessing turned in to a 4 hour delay. Finally we boarded the plane around 9pm - we were supposed to leave at 4:30pm. Katie and I had each selected window seats in hopes of sleeping easier on the plane. As the people kept boarding and no one sat next to me I began to get cautiously hopeful that my seat buddy had been rerouted due to the delay. God knows I am not a happy girl if I can't sleep so I had already been worried about being completely exhausted upon arrival in Paris since I would be trying to go to sleep at 6pm and sitting up in my seat. God answers prayers because now it was 10pm and I didn't have a seat buddy! Our flight took off and dinner was served and I watched Julie & Julia to get in the French state of mind and then I stretched out and fell asleep. I woke up when they had already served breakfast and we were 30 minutes from Paris! 

We landed in Paris around 11:40am and breezed through customs and found our luggage then had to figure out how to get to our hotel...yes, that's one of those things I should have done before we landed in a foreign country. We found out a taxi would be 80€ so we decided to be adventurous and tackle the train for 9.75€. 3 hours, 3 trains, 2 helpful Americans, and a wander around the neighborhood and we finally found our hotel. The Radisson Blur Paris Boulogne is just outside the official city center of Paris. The hotel is very nice and since we got here much later than anticipated our room was ready. We unloaded our luggage and I opened our window to THIS... 

Way in the distance we can see the Eiffel Tower from our hotel room! We went in search of our first French meal and found a cute little cafe with sandwiches and burgers. Thank goodness for Katie's French classes in high school! She sure helped us figure out how to get to our hotel and order our meals. We ordered what I thought were pita sandwiches and this is what we got... 

No complaints since that was my first meal since we are dinner on the plane. Yes, the French bread was fantastic as were the true French fries. The bread was light and the fries weren't greasy at all compared to ours at home. We wandered back down the street to our hotel and took an unplanned nap. 

Tonight we had our first night out in Paris so what did we do? Go see Moulin Rouge and have authentic French champagne! You may call me completely naive, but I truly didn't know what to expect at Moulin Rouge. Sure I saw the movie about 10 years ago and I have clients that want to go so we figured why not! We had a great time and had our first taste of real French champagne and watched the worlds oldest cabaret show to kick off our France adventure!