Geo: 43.9486, 4.80597Bonsoir!Took the bullet train -- the high-speed non-stop TGV -- out of Gare de Lyon train station in Paris yesterday morning for a quick, 2 1/2 hour trip to Avignon in the Provence region of southern France. When purchasing the tickets ahead of time online, first class tickets were only $8 more, so we jumped on that. Made for a really comfortable and enjoyable jaunt.Avignon was ten degrees warmer and much sunnier than the Paris we left. It's just an hour north of Marseille and the Mediterranean Sea and in the heart of fresh and healthy eating and lavender country. It was also the temporary home of the papacy for about 100 years from the early 14th Century to the early 15th Century, so its most prominent historical features and buildings grew out of ... read more

Geo: 48.8566, 2.35097Bonsoir, friends and family:Deferring to blog reader interest and pressure, we are finally going to talk about the food we've eaten in Paris. Specifically, tonight's dinner.Recommendations from Rick Steves and the front desk clerk at our hotel led us to make a quick, impromptu, no-reservations-made-yet stop by neighborhood eatery Le Florimond. The head waiter asked if we had reservations, but since we'd had no idea when we'd arrive back at our hotel after a long day (see that narrative below), we had not made them. The place was packed (Parisians dine late), but he told us to come back in ten minutes and he'd squeeze us in.So after a quick traveler's shower (washcloth to the armpits) and a change of clothes back at the hotel, we'd freshened up enough to make ourselves presentable for ... read more

Geo: 48.8566, 2.35097Bonjour, friends and family:Just a quick blog post this morning, since yesterday ran late after our evening foray through The Louvre. Caught all the superstars there, including the Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo, and works by da Vinci, Raphael, and Michelangelo. The museum, a former palace, is immense and very impressive. You probably could get lost in it for days. Emerging from the glass pyramid entrance/exit after dark was a thrill in itself.We began the day with a walk through the Latin Quarter on our way to Ile de la Cite, the historic center of Paris and France, and the Notre-Dame Cathedral. After a stroll around the cathedral through the beautiful grounds, we found ourselves in the queue for the Tower Climb. A short wait and 400 steps up later, we were at the ... read more

Geo: 44.9332, -123.043Bonjour and greetings on a sleepy Sunday morning!Tomorrow morning at this time we'll be rolling our way to PDX to begin our next big adventure! This time, we head to Paris, France, the City of Light, with a few days in Avignon, Provence, France added for spice.Just setting up this travel blog, so this is a bit of a test run. If you're getting this post by e-mail, it's probably somewhat accidental but mostly intentional.Kate and Nate have been here for the weekend -- Kate decided to do some impromptu bridal gown shopping -- so we're going to have to really ramp up our packing efforts today before we get one more good night's sleep here at home. While away, Charlie and Onnie will be vacationing at the schnauzer farm and Ashley will be ... read more

Geo: 43.7687, 11.2569Ciao all:Today was the last full day of our Italian vacation. And little did we know when rescheduling the trip from last September, today was Labor Day all over Europe. Most worker-related industries and services, including grocery stores and transportation systems, were closed or shut down today. The significance of this inconvenience didn't hit us until a couple of weeks ago, up to which time we figured we'd catch the regional bus from Siena back to Florence this day, since we're scheduled for a 6:30am departure for our trip back to the States Wednesday morning. Once we got over that shock, we were able to line up a tour operator to give us a low-frills ride from our Siena B&B to our Florence hotel with two leisurely stops in a couple of hill towns ... read more