Louve and Versailles

I'm trying to stay caught up but its hard to go so much and then do laundry in the evening (It's too hard to pack enough clothes for 2 weeks) and experiencing the Parisian laundry mat is an adventure in its self. Life here is not the same as it is in the U.S. (we are really pretty spoiled with life's little convinces) on the other hand we also miss out on a lot of different things such as a shop that simply bakes bread or a shop that just sells hundreds of different types of cheeses or a small store on the corner that sells the freshest and most incredible fruits and vegetables.  I do miss my nice big comfy bed and pillow and my giant size shower where I don't have to become a contortionist just to shave my legs. Even given all of  the trial and tribulations, I LOVE FRANCE!  I'm so happy to be here and see the incredible things and to get a taste of the local lifestyle.  It's incredible the way you pop into a brassiere or bistro for a cup of coffee in a real cup that isn't made out of paper and if you are in a restaurant you always have to ask for the check and they aren't trying to get rid of you and they bring the food and leave you alone unless you ask for something, what a concept!  I think there are definitely a few things we can learn from them.

Enough of my rambling, yesterday we did the Louve and as before its incredible and huge.  There is no way you could possibly see everything even if you went every day for a month.  We of course hit the majors, the Venus de Milo, Mona Lisa, Winged Victory (one of my favorites) and the Reubens.  We also spent a fair amount of time in the Egyptian and Mesopotamian antiquities (which I also love).

Today was the Versailles palace and for those of you who are not familiar this is the very famous and incredibly large and lavish palace that served as the capital of France for about 100 years and was also where King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette last resided. The last time we were there was in 2008 and the Petite Trianon was closed for renovation but luckily was open this time and we really enjoyed it.  This was a gift from Louis XVI to Marie Antoinette where she spent much of her time as well as a incredible grounds with a fun grotto and beautiful gardens.

I think that's enough for tonight my bed is calling and tomorrow we are going to Monet's last home in Giverny where his very famous Water Lily's were painted and tomorrow night the Effiel Tower at dark!  Hopefully some great pictures of the gardens of Giverny.

Au revior mon amies 

Musee d'Orsay and the Arc de Triomphe

Yesterday we visited my favorite museum in the world the Musee d'Orsay.  It contains incredible impressionist paintings by Monet, Van Gough, Degas, Renoir, Gauguin and  Cezanne(just to name a few)!  Sorry they no longer allow pictures to be taken inside (a change from 2 years ago).  We then treked to the Arc de Triomphe where Tom, Jim, Bailey and myself climbed the 284 stairs (Brian would be proud) to view Paris from the top of the Arc and I was able to get some pictures from the top.  Sheree and Natalie chose to sit on a bench and watch the crazy rush hour of Parisian drivers.  The Arc is surrounded by what has to to the craziest round a bout in the world.  There must have been 12 lanes across with people constantly entering and exiting (if you think the Dublin roundabouts are crazy you haven't seen anything yet) all of the while yelling and honking. Jim & Tom are considering renting a car on our next trip and driving around the Arc (not)!


Today we are heading to the Louve for the entire day and well into the evening it is opened until 10 tonight or 22:00 is they way they do time here.  Hopefully we will still be allowed to take pictures but I'm not holding my breath.  


Until tomorrow

Les Baux

We made it through the incredible castle ruins this morning before the rain.  Today is the first day that has rained, its a slow drizzle but is noticeably cooler.  We have an incredible dinner planned this evening.  The  girls will be staying at hotel and ordering in pizza (they are not too into the rich french food.  So this is short and sweet so I can post some pictures of the ruins. 

Until later....

Provence!

Greetings from Provence - Arles to be exact.  We have had quite a time, sorry about the lack of postings, but the wifi in my room doesn't work and I have to sit in the lobby :(  We have been very busy, on Wednesday we went to pont de guard and it was quite impressive.  The aqua ducts were built in 94 AD by the Romans without mortar and modern equipment to divert water from the Rhone to Nimes and is still quite impressive.  Yesterday we went to the Mediterranean to ste. Maries-de- les-Mer.  It was beautful, however quite windy and the water was still very cold but we still enjoyed frolicking on the beach that we be filled with Parisians during August.  Today is our last full day in Arles as tomorrow we return to Paris.  Today we plan on visiting a castle ruin and perhaps make it to St. Remy.  Hopefully I will be able to post this evening (I promise to try!).

Look Out Paris, THE BLOCH'S ARE BACK!!!!

We finally arrived this morning after many mishaps yesterday.  It all started when I got up at 5 A.M. and just happened to check my email and saw that we had received an email around 1 A.M. stating that our flight was changed to TUESDAY, needless to say that we have train tickets to  Arles in Provence Tuesday morning so that was unacceptable.  So Jim spent a very long time on the phone with Continental Airlines and we realized that it was just the flight from Columbus to Newark that had been canceled (we never really received an explanation). We then were informed that we could get a flight from Cleavland to Newark and take a later flight to Paris.  We had to take our car to the Columbus airport (we will be returning there) and rent a car to drive the 2 hours to the Cleavland airport which was suppose to be a full size car (for 4 people and luggage for 2 weeks) and it turned out that Hertz considered a Toyota Corolla full size!  We finally crammed everything into to the car including a large suitcase in the back seat between 2 people.

We are all exhausted, especially Bailey and Natalie who have been napping for a couple of hours and I'm not sure I have the heart to wake them up as I'm not really sure how much they slept on the plane.  I didn't sleep too bad considering there was a crying baby in front of us (my ipod and eye mask came in really handy).  I think managed  about 4 hours of sleep, not too bad considering I was sitting up and not super comfortable.

I think we will lay kind of low for the remainder of the day as everyone is dragging their wagons.  I promise to post some pictures tomorrow.  Hopefully, everyone will be more rested and ready for the train ride and photo opportunities.  

 au revoir