Biking with daddy and oreos

With the nice weather last week we have really been able to enjoy our bike trailer this year. Last year Violet was too little. We bought the cheapest one we could find and with works great!
If you give a Violet an Oreo ...

Ahhhh Paris

Last week I decided to go with Tyler on a business trip to France. We spent 3 days in Paris and the rest in a town in Normandy called Gournay en Bray. The following posts are a complete wrap-up of what we did and saw. I've decided to back-date my posts so it's a little bit easier to read. Overall, Paris was amazing and exceeded all my expectations. It far beats NYC and although I love San Francisco, I think Paris might beat that too. It was romantic and quaint, beautiful and movie-like.

Day Seven - Les Andelys, Dieppe

I really wanted to find a castle. My hunt didn't prove successful. But I found nice gothic architecture. I walked into a church and found a huge life size sculpture of Christ after he was taken off the cross with Mary, Martha and some other people. I could go right up to it and could have touched it. Sort of made you think about what it would have been like if you had been there.
Gothic ... enough said

There is a good castle in Dieppe, the next city I visited. But it's on the other side of the pier. The pier is in the distance. I never was on that side.

A nice WWII tribute for our Canadian troops. I was totally freaked out I wasn't going to be able to find the car after visiting the beach. So I hurried up and got out of there. I was also tired of everything being in French. If we had stayed any longer I would have had to learn at least a couple more verbs.

That night we discovered our tire was blown out. I think I got too close to a curb. Anyway, we had to get a cab to the airport and a tow truck picked up the Citroen. Apparently they don't have spare tires?? Oh well. We got home ok!

Day Six - Joan of Arc and Rouen

Rouen is a big city. I explored it for several hours and found a few interesting things. The park that I subsequently parked next to had a waterfall and small pond with a swan. It was really beautiful.

The coolest thing that I didn't get to see was the inside of this cathedral next to the Hotel de Ville. The hotel de Ville housed injured soldiers in WWII primarily from the Ohio region. Anyway, the two buildings are attached. Inside this cathedral during the plague bodies were stored here. They actually entombed a live cat to ward off evil spirits. Inside the cathedral it is mostly empty, but I heard the stained glass is beautiful and makes great colors on the floor. It was closed and I didn't feel like hanging around for several hours doing nothing, but this is definitely on my to do list next time!

The old narrow streets that the impressionists loved to paint.
This is the tower where Jean d'Arc - or - Joan of Arc - was held and tortured. She wouldn't deny that she had visions though.
Inside the tower. I climbed to the top.
Where she was burned at the stake.
Right next to the cross there is a modern looking church at the site. It's meant to look like a sinking ship.
Right next to the market there's this giant clock. Sort of interesting.

Day Five - Monet's House and Gardens

This was my first day traveling in France by myself with about 20 - 30 words of French. As I was driving I had to stop and take a picture of this cemetery. Most of the graves were from the early 1900's or late 1800s. This was just along the side of the road in the French countryside.


Out of all the things I had found to do in the surrounding towns of Gournay en Bray I HAD to see Monet's house and gardens. It was so beautiful. I definitely recommend this day trip. Everything was preserved and although you couldn't take pictures inside his house, pictures wouldn't describe the colors and feeling of a legendary artist's home. The rooms were a pastel green, yellow or blue with trim painted five shades darker in the same color. Somehow it all worked. He also had his canvases hanging from ceiling to floor in his living room.

It is said that Monet thought his greatest work were his gardens, not his paintings. I think the verdict's still out.
Look familiar? Footbridge with lillies?

At the far corner of the house's main gardens there was a little stairway. The stairway went down two flights of stairs to a pathway around two ponds. The ponds were gorgeous. Surrounded by thousands of blooms, bamboo groves and weeping willows. It smelled great too.

I also walked up the street to where he was buried. He was buried next to a small chapel near his parents and I think his wife.

All in all it was a fantastic day!

Day Four - Eiffel Tower and a real French dinner

The Eiffel Tower from across the street.
Up close. This thing is huge!
The Arc d'Triomphe
A complete view of the Louvre ...

We woke up late, and decided to drive, once again, into the city. Getting stuck at the airport was not a good experience. But my advice would be to stay in Paris, not by the airport. So we checked out of the hotel and tried to go to the Musee d’Orsay, but it was closed on Monday. Many things are closed on Monday, so be careful. Instead we went to the Eiffel tower. First we went to the building across from it and got a good view. It is really neat and beautiful. We also got some crepes. They were warm and it felt good since it was still raining. From there we debated, but ultimately decided to go up to the top. Sort of a once in a lifetime thing. So we got tickets, waited in the cold rain and wind, and went to the top. It was fun, but very cold. I recommend going to Paris when it is just a little bit warmer – maybe May or June.

We left Paris exhausted (I slept the entire way to northern France), but happy. I love Paris. I really do. Not just because it says it on some t-shirt. It is truly amazing. It is so beautiful and it just keeps going and going and going. No big box stores (although we did see and IKEA), just little shops owned by real people. People walking and enjoying life.

We checked into our next hotel in Gournay en Bray. The room is small, but nice, updated and quiet. For dinner we went to a co-worker of tyler’s who lives in a 200-year-old house. I don’t think American houses last that long. He showed us the cellar – where he keeps all his wine and the wine of some friends. It is so quaint and has a cement, rock, and wood exterior. You can’t see the house from the one-lane road very much, but it is really nice. They have two boys who were also perfect hosts. One didn’t really speak any English, but the younger boy was really interested and tried very hard to speak a few words.

We ate shredded carrot, cumber and tomato salad with home made vinegar dressing, pork with honey glaze and sauce, cheese (even some black cheese), mousse and cake.

We left early when the liquor came out. Tyler had a big presentation the next day.

Day Three - continued

Night cruise along the Seine


Trapped at the airport
Space Invader Graffiti - this anonymous artist has these little mosaics all over Paris and throughout the world.
Notre Dame from a distance. Note the umbrellas.

Our bike tour group - couples from England, Georgia, and South Carolina.
A courtyard preserved since Roman times.
This is awesome!
If you want a great hotel location - you may want to stay here when you go to Paris.


Notre Dame up close


We caught the Metro to a stop near Notre Dame, and ended up in the neatest little neighborhood with tons of places to eat for under 10 Euros. Every meal we ate prior cost at least 20. We got some gyros and ate along the street. It was so beautiful and nice. I was falling in love with Paris.

On our way to Notre Dame we had fun taking pictured of the streets. Everything looked like a painting or photograph. It was beautiful.

The bike tour was the hit of our Paris stay. Bike About Tours takes you through many Parisian neighborhoods and tells you about some history and hidden places in Paris (gardens, restaurants, houses) The bikes were fun and much easier than walking. Our tour guide, Christian, was actually from Fla., so it was nice to have an American who lives in Paris take you through everything. I definitely recommend it! Christian and Paul are the owners, and speak perfect English. I have to say too, that the bike fell (not me, the BIKE) twice. I got the prize for best fall - a shirt - so I told them I would send some business their way. www.bikeabouttours.com. I think Christian felt bad, but it's just an average day in the life of Sarah.

Christian recommended a restaurant called Chez Josephine a couple metro stops away. We went up there and enjoyed a quiet, candle-lit dinner and great food. Ordering from a menu where you only know one ingredient is an interesting experience. Tyler had duck and I had some sort of Salmon cake thing served cold. For dessert Tyler had a thin apple tart and I got chocolate cake with chocolate in the middle. It was very light and didn't have nearly the junk that Americans would put in it.

After that, we definitely wanted to make it to the boat tour of the Seine. So we went, and it was pouring rain on and off. It wasn't worth it because of the weather. You could have had the same effect by walking down the river in this weather.

After the boat tour we asked when the last Metro was. The person said 12, so we jumped on the metros all the way back to the airport. However, what we didn't know was that the last bus from the airport to the hotel was at 12 too, so we were stuck. We never felt unsafe, but we did see some messed up kids at one of the metro stops. In the end we had to call the hotel for a taxi and it cost us 20 euros for a 5 minute trip.

Day Three - The Louvre

Nepoleon III's apartment - inside the Louvre. Just when I thought I'd seen the biggest chandelier ever, I saw this monster.
An interesting pose for a dead guy ....
What seeing the Mona Lisa is really like.

Did you know there's a grave underneath this pyramid?
1/16th the size of the entire building.
In case you didn't know I'm obsessed with Egypt. This is a statue of Ramses in a portion of the Egyptian temple they have at the museum.
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Day 2 we smartened up and ditched the car, or so we thought. We learned how to use the Metro, and it was definitely easier to get into the city. I recommend buying a day pass for however many days you’re going to be in the city. It is much easier that just walking everywhere – because Paris is huge, and you’ll kill yourself walking. You can buy a pass at any entrance to the metro.

We went in the Louvre museum. It was really busy, but we easily picked out the areas we wanted to see and targeted them. I would recommend renting an audio tour, because nothing is in English, and just reading the signs en Francais … c’est impossible!

Yes, we saw the Mona Lisa, and the Venus de Milo. The Mona Lisa was really cool, but waaaay too crowded. Remember the driving mentality? It was sort of applied in this situation too. There was no way we were missing our bike tour so we left after a little more than two hours at the Louvre.

Day one, or is it two?

Flight was good, uncomfortable, but good. I watched edited versions of the Atonment (didn’t like) and The Great Debaters (good). Arrived in Paris exhausted, but excited to be there. I didn’t notice any huge cultural differences because many signs were still in English. We picked up our car. To Tyler’s disappointment we didn’t get a BMW or Audi, we got a Citroen C4, diesel minivan! Of course it’s smaller than an American minivan, but it is a relatively large vehicle for Paris.

We checked into our hotel, The Park Inn. It was clean and comfortable, although the décor was a bit odd. (Modern and traditional both). The exchange rate was .24 percent lower at the hotel than in the airport so we kind of got screwed there. We had scheduled a bike tour at 3 – so once we got into the hotel we got into the car and tried to go into the city. Luckily, we had GPS – a must for any foreign city. We were supposed to meet at the Charlemagne statue in front of Notre Dame. As we began driving the traffic was terrible. Our hotel was right by the airport, a good 45 minutes outside the city – little did we know it would take that long

As we drove we realized soon that we were not going anywhere. A large market between the streets was closing and there were trucks lining the street, cleaning up everything.

As we got closer we decided to park and just walk. So we found parking underground (as all paris parking is) and began to walk. The city center is the Seine, and by the time we got there we were 45 minutes late so we called and had to postpone the bike tour. Driving in Paris is insane and very scary. If you are not a confident driver then do not attempt it. It is like a marathon, where everyone is everywhere, running to a destination, with no lines or rules, except to stop at red lights and not hit any bikers, motorcycles or pedestrians.

I printed off several things to do before arriving in Paris, so we decided to go on a walking tour as a replacement for the missed biking. The tour was something I just printed off the Internet, and was relatively easy to find when I googled “how to do Paris in two days.” We went to the Pantheon – a memorial and burial place for many French people, including Victor Hugo (author of Les Miserables). It was beautiful.

Next we went to one of the oldest colleges – University of Paris, that started in the 12^th century. Along the streets and throughout the city there were a ton of young people. There are many colleges around, so seeing students drawing, studying or talking is not a surprise.

Practically next door are the Luxembourg Gardens. Huge, beautiful gardens where children play and people sit and hang out. All the spring flowers were blooming and everything is meticulously groomed. It was cold and drizzling rain but people were still out and about. Today the assembly (or some body of government) meets at the palace.

There were also the neatest antique book stores. Beautiful French books that were very old. We went from the Luxembourg Gardens to the grounds of the Louvre, and met up with Tyler’s co-workers. The Louvre is huge (you always hear that) but what I didn’t realize is that it was the King’s palace for hundreds of years. Each king added onto it and added onto it. Until Louis the XIV decided it was still too small and he had to build Versaille.

We continued to walk down to the Champs - Elysees and had dinner at an Italian place on a recommendation from Tyler’s boss, Marco. Dinner was good, large, but good.

We tried to take a boat tour but we were too late. We arrived back at our hotel around 12. I had only had an hour or so of sleep. It was weird.