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Corridor on Mt. Saint Michel
If you look carefully you can see my Dad. My Dad and Linda arrived in early April and stayed for 2 weeks. They had actually planned a side trip to Rome that coincidentally coincided with the Pope’s funeral. Since it was so crazy there, they did not go to the Vatican, but got to see many parts of Rome that we missed when we went with Ian. The first day that they were here we took them down to the boat ride on the Seine so they could get an idea of the layout of the city and hear some interesting facts from the tour guide on the boat. Next we took them for ice cream at a place on Ile St. Louis, which just happens to be the best ice cream in the whole entire world (as Vanessa mentioned in her last blog). The next day I took them to Musee d’Orsay and poor Vanessa was stuck at home doing homework (which I suppose is not a big deal since she’s been to Musee d’Orsay a billion and half times - okay only 5). Since it was the first Sunday of the month, it was free, so that was nice not to have to pay. The next day, I
had to work so they went off on their own. Vanessa directed them to a flee market on the edge of town and the St. Germaine shopping area. They next day they went to Rome and didn’t return until Friday.
That Saturday we went out to Monet’s Gardens and Vernon with them. The weather was just so-so, but it was nice anyway. The flowers that were in bloom were different ones than when we went with my Mom earlier this year. After that, we went to the same restaurant that we ate at last time (since it was the only good looking place that didn’t cost 30+ euros per person). It was pretty good, I had a Hamburger Parisian (and so did my Dad). Vanessa had big salad, and Linda had a ham and cheese crepe. I was still hungry, so I ordered a yummy fruit crepe for dessert (mmmmm, apple cinnamon). We still had some time, so we walked around Vernon and checked out a cool church (Notre Dame de Vernon) that we had not been to before. Oh yes, and my Dad bought a poncho because he was too cold (even though he had a jacket). Heh-heh, I
suppose he isn’t used to the cold since he lives in the inferno known as Phoenix.
The next few days they spent tooling around Paris. I took one weekday off and we all went out to Mt. Saint Michel. It was about 2 hours by train, then another hour and a half by bus. Once we got there, we saw a weimariner that made me miss Dharma. When we arrived, the tide was just starting to go out, and one of their parking lots was actually covered in water. They had a big truck that went along and sprayed water to get rid of all the silt that covered the lot. Anyway, we went inside and looked around in quite a few shops and went out around the side of the castle walls. We finally made our way up to the church at the top and went in. It was like a maze. Once you worked your way through several rooms, staircases, and chapels, you made it to a courtyard with two rows of archways all the way around. It was pretty impressive. Unfortunately I was unable to take a very good picture since there were so many people. After
that we made our way back through some equally confusing paths through the building and ended out were we started. By that point we were all hungry so we went to a restaurant down at the bottom of the town. We had lunch, then decided to finish up our shopping, have dessert and then wait for our bus outside the walls since we weren’t sure they didn’t oversell it. Vanessa and I got some snacks and tried to feed some bread crumbs to some little birds that were all over the place. Once we got to Paris we were exhausted so we all hit the sack quite promptly.
One afternoon we all made it over to China town to check out the shops. Vanessa and I bought my mom a little something, and Vanessa got a new outfit. My Dad and Linda also bought some clothes for themselves and some for presents. We also went to Opera Garnier to both show them the architecture and look at a cool knife shop. In the knife shop my Dad was trying to decide between a cool set of steak knives and a damascus switchblade (they are legal in AZ). He settled on
the steak knives. While he was doing that I happened upon a knife that I just had to buy. It is too complicated to describe in words, you will just have to see it in person. Anyway, my Dad bought it for me as a birthday present.
The next day Vanessa and I took them to the airport and off they went, back to the U.S.
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