The day started like any work day, up at 6 am, shower, coffee, get dressed, except instead of going to work we packed up Tarragon and were off to Penn Station. It was a different feeling leaving on a Monday, typically we leave midweek and I work part of the day. This trip we had the entire weekend before we started the real vacation. It did make packing easier, but kitty certainly knew something was up. After we got Tarragon in the carrier and everything to the curb, Jerry walked up to Broadway to get a cab and bring it back around. The taxi to Penn station was pretty smooth, except there really is no good, or fast way, to get from the west side to Penn station. But we got there without breaking the bank. ... read more

Aix is a very lazy town on Sunday, most shops and other businesses are closed, many of the restaurants are also closed, finding a dinner location for later today was difficult we had two places cancel on us before we even got here. Since it is Sunday we opted for a lazy slow start to the day. We slept in until about 10, then took our time getting ready. We did not really have a lot planed for the day, brunch and several things to walk by but only one thing to actually go into. In order to give you a better idea of our room, and for me to remember in later years, I have added some pictures on this entry. It is very large and decorated very period. Caumont Centre D’Art Out day started ... read more

It was time to leave our five-star accommodations and head to Aix. We had a leisurely breakfast while we waited for the taxi to take us to the airport where we would pick up our car. I did have a horrible shock when we checked out of the hotel, somehow, I am no longer a Hilton Gold member, so we had to pay for our breakfast, guess we just need to travel more and get those points built back up. The trip to the airport was a hoot, the driver, who spoke very little English and we next to no French, still tried to have a conversation with us. What we understood is that he loves Apple computers but hates Android phones. We arrived a few minutes early to the Europe Car rental desk, and they ... read more

Part of the reason I am behind in my blogging and now typing this when I should be typing today’s is, we had a very early train from Paris to Carcassonne. The initial plan was to blog while we were on the train, but sleep won out. The day started at 3:30 for Jerry, yes, he got up first because it just takes him longer. I slept until 4:30. We had done most of the packing the night before, so only needed to shower and to the last-minute items in the morning. We were on the curb waiting for the cab by 5:30. Yes, we took a cab to the train station, normally, we take the metro everywhere, to the train station, to the airport, but we are in our mid 50’s now and are trying ... read more

Last night before we retired for the evening, we decided to change up the itinerary for Monday. We had originally planned this as our day trip out of Paris to Chateau Fontainebleau. This would have required us keeping up early and taking a train for an hour to the Chateau. Instead we decided to sleep in a bit and finish off the last five arrondissements. Of course, sleeping in means no morning croissant since we did not get up early enough for the morning breakfast. Instead, before continuing on our hopscotch we had lunch at a nearby café. We both were in deed of some raw vegetable, so Jerry had the French version of a cobb salad. It was basically the same, just more blue cheese, crispy chicken and strips of bacon instead of bacon bits. ... read more