grantwendy

Paris - Day 4 Decided to split up today… A girl’s day and a boy’s day. Grant left at 8 am to beat the cue for the Eiffel Tower and I stayed in bed, for a slow start. By all accounts he had a great day. Buddied up with a guy from Cincinnati Ohio at the top whose wife had also gone awal and they had coffee together. He then went to the Musee of Maritime. Meanwhile I walked down the Boulevard Haussmann to the Printemps and Lafayette Galleries. I did a couple of rounds of both but total concept shops, a bit intimidating with beautiful assistants standing around looking totally bored. As I had been sent out with my escorts credit card, I felt a small Julia Roberts moment. Not really my scene so off ... read more

Paris Day 2 Needn’t have worried about the fat tyre bike tour! It was great fun. We took a taxi to the Dupress station area to make sure we were in the right place then had something to eat in a café (really nice duck). A little disconcerting having the meeting place directly outside the pharmacy promoting braces and bandages etc. Anyway lovely tour guide Tony, measured us up for our bikes and don’t forget the high viz vest. Helmet never mentioned! (Crazy Paris traffic would be interesting to know stats on Car vs bike) Of we went at about 7.20 18 little yellow ducklings following behind Orange Mother duck (Tony). As we left the drizzle became quite heavy but no time to stop for poncho – must keep up. According to Tony’s instructions there were ... read more

ss Catherine – Burgundy Woke up this morning in the village of Macon. On the bus at 8.30 for the beautiful trip through the Burgundy countryside to the village of Beaune. We passed on a detour through the lovely little village of Torne half way between the North and the South of France – a good place to stop for lunch (sort of like Hamilton only nothing like Hamilton)with a Michelin star restaurant. I never knew before Michelin star = 1 star for food, 2 stars food and service, 3 stars for hotel; too. So in future go for the one star Michelin its cheaper and you still get the best food. We passed the little village of Dijon (this is appellation AOC) heartland. Arrived and the village of Beaune. Very lovely and we arrived on ... read more

ss Catherine – Rhone River – Burgundy Woke up this morning to the twin towns of Turnon-sur-Rhone and Tain l' Heritage. They are across the river from each other but connected by the two first suspension bridges built in Europe and before the Golden Gate Bridge. The twisting wire process was developed for these. We were guided through the small town of Turnon sur Rhone a cute medieval village. With castle cathedral and the cobbled streets. Funny thing on our walk we came across large windows looking into a spotless high tech workshop with mostly Asian people making dentures and bridges etc. It looked weirdly out of place in the old villages but obviously was making work for the locals. The guides like to talk about their socialist country. They are proud of the free health ... read more

Avignon à ss Catherine We braved the heat again this morning to do the tour of the papal palace. But first stop was the Les Halles (food market) for breakfast. Fabulous food market selling fresh as well as precooked food. You could take home to heat, or one of the bars/coffee shops would cook for you. Very colourful and noisy. The Popes palace was started 1335 by the popes when they moved to Avignon for political reasons. There were nine popes to live here in all before they moved back to Rome. It remained in the hands of the popes until the 1700’s. The castle suffered sieges, a fire, a revolution and being turned into an army barracks for a hundred years until 1900 when the army moved out and they started restoration. Avignon is a ... read more