Oh what Schmucks we are

So absolutely NO pictures to post today because upon arriving at the Louvre we realized that we forgot the camera at the apartment :-(    Christian took a few photos on his phone, but no way to download them since he doesn't have service.  So, no pictures of the Louvre, no pictures of Caroline's friend Ingrid, no pictures of Orsay (they don't let you take any there, anyway), no pictures of St. Sulpice, and no pictures of the Archaeological crypt at Notre Dame (which is really cool, BTW). And silly me, the guy taking tickets at the crypt asked me how old the kids were and when I answered 15 and 17, he said with a smile (in French, of course) "are you sure they aren't 14, because 14 and under is free."  So finally I get what he is doing and say, yes of course they are only 14, so he let them in for free saving us a total of 4 euro (about $6). Who says the French aren't friendly????  We were all exhausted so stayed in after dinner tonight. On tap for tomorrow is the Rodin Museum and garden, and after that, we have no clue. Tomorrow night after dinner we are going to walk down part of the Champs Elysees to the Arc de la Triomphe and climb that at night so we can see the Eiffel Tower glittering after dark.

What we did on Monday and Tuesday

Here are some pics from what the kids and I did from Sunday night (boat ride on the Seine) to today (Versailles):

A rather unflattering picture of Hannah on the boat tour:

Sacre Coeur from La Tour Eiffel:

La Tour Eiffel

Us on the top la Tour Eiffel

Napoleon's Tomb

 Where the (supposed) Crown of Thorns was housed in Sainte Chapelle:

 Us outside Versailles:

the babies in front of the Latona Fountain. The fountains only run on weekends now :-(

So here is the tally so far:
Mass at St. Severin
Cluny Museum (with the Lady and the Unicorn tapestries, Durandal and Joan of Arc's sword!!!!)
Attempt to visit Notre Dame (most was blocked off because mass so we have to get back there)
Walk around the outside of the Louvre (visiting the inside tomorrow)
Sacre Coeur
Boat ride on the Seine
La Tour Eiffel
Napoleon's Tomb and the Army Museum
Sainte Chapelle
La Conciergerie
La Promenade Plantee
Versailles

On the docket for tomorrow: the Louvre and the Musee d'Orsay

Schmucks do Paris

On my last night in Avignon I went out to dinner with some of the  other participants the night before leaving for Paris:

So aside with an issue with the shuttle to Paris and having to take a taxi, the kids arrived in one piece. After setttling in to our apartment (on the 4th floor walk-up) we headed out to walk a bit before the kids crashed into bed. Here a few pictures of our first day and a half in Paris:
The courtyard of our building:

This is our appartment. Christian sleeps up in the tiny loft at the top of the ladder: What you see is it. The bathroom is behind that wood door and the kidtchen is behind the window on the right.

Paris City Hall: Hotel de ville

 Notre Dame

I.M. Pei's pyramid at the Louvre

Today we sent to mass at St. Severin and a visit to the Cluny museum. I saw Joan of Arc's (supposed) sword and Durandal, the sword of Roland in the Chanson de Roland. Possibly the most exciting thing the this entire trip. Durandal......amazing!!!

After mass and the Cluny museum we headed to Sacre Coeur

The view outside our apartment window

Tonight we plan on taking a boat ride on the Seine and tomorrow we plan on hitting the Eiffel Tower, Rodin Museum and Napoleon's tomb in the morning. Haven't quite decided what to do in the afternoon/evening yet.

Last day in Avignon, then off to Paris to get my babies!

Well, today is it for the Avignon part of my trip. We had class this morning and all of us brought food/wine that we had left over and at 11:30 we had a big pot-luck type lunch with 4 different wines, cheese, pate, bread and tartes. Here are a few pics of us in class, then a few from our party on the patio afterward. I am having dinner with a few people tonight, then the shuttle picks 4 of us up at 6:30 AM to take us to the TGV station to head to Paris to get the kids!  YAY! Final play count for me was 14 plays in 2 1/2 weeks. Not bad, but a few of the other participants stopped counting after 20. A few even saw as many as 4 in one day.

Here is part of our class

 And more:

 and more

This was our clean out your fridge lunch on the patio

This was our group, minus 1 who already left for Paris, and 1 who ran off to yet another play.

Our farewell dinner

We had our farewell dinner at this beautiful restaurant Le Jardin de la Tour. The food was wonderful and he even had a Jacques Brel tribute singer sing a few songs for us before he headed off to his Off show.
Here is the table we had:

This was the salad. It was a baked tomato on carmelized onions with nuts and truffles (the underground kind) and I forgot what kind of vinaigrette.

Me with Joe from Seattle and Mary Ellen from Minnesota: She reminds me so much of Susie! her mannerisms and everything. It was pretty cool

Here is the Jacques Brel singer dude:

Mary Ann, our teacher, opening her thankyou gift.

Me with Dominique from Miami and Paula from Seattle.

It was a wonderful evening!!

Afternoon of wine tasting

After class today some of us headed out for a wine tasting tour. Our first stop was Chateau Raspail in Gigondas where we tried some Chateauneuf-du-Pape (which is an apellation controlee, so there are several vintners who can use this appellation) and Cotes du Rhone Village plan de Dieu. I discovered that there are some reds that I like, not like all of the really heavy ones I have tried in the U.S. Here are a few pictures of the tasting and the "chateau" which was built in late 1800s:. FYI red wine should be kept/served between 57 and 61 degrees and to give it air, you should pour it into a decanter 20-30 mins before serving making sure to swish it around when pouring so that all of the wine gets air, not just the first glass at the top of the bottle.

Next we stopped at a wine "museum" where there was a sensory exhibit to show how wine was made, etc. Not really interesting at all, except for a few of the signs:

Then we were off to Caveau Domaine Mousset where we got an extremely technical explanation about the wines, how they are made and how they should be served.  You will notice that the vines (the ones in the following pictures are specifically grenache which don't need any kind of support to grow) grow in fields of rock. These rocks were carried here from the Alps during the last ice age. There is about 6 feet of rock on top of red clay, which keeps the heat pretty even between day and night for the grapes, which makes it ideal for growing. If you want more technical info, I'll give it to you when I get home (if I still remember it then). Here we were taught how to properly hold a wine glass, how to smell it and look at it's color, and lastly taste it, which, as the expert put it, is the least important of the senses....only serving to confirm what we discovered from its smell and color. (Don't I sound cultured????)



The ruins in the background are the Chauteanuef chateau, which the Germans blew up when retreating to Germany when WW II ended.

Here you can see the 6 feet of rock through which the grapes grow. The red clay underneath holds water which slowly rises to the top to keep the plant watered. Irrigation is prohibited for this appellation. Also, the wine expert says that when grapes are watered, the fruit becomes too large and juicy, which then affects the balance of the wine since there is too much water in the fruit.

 some grenache grapes. They will be ready to be picked by HAND, another requirement of the appellation, sometime between the middle and end of September, depending on how the weather goes.

Last stop, the ruins of the chateau of Chateauneuf-du-pape, and a few pictures of the very picturesque village:

A really nice way to spend the afternoon!



Canoeing under the Pont du Gard

This afternoon 8 of us took the bus to Remoulins to rent canoes to canoe 2 hours and pass under the Pont du Gard on the Gardon River. This bridge/aquaduct was build in 50 AD to bring water to Nimes. It was 50 or 60 KM (30-36 miles) long to bring water from some springs to Nimes. This is apparently the longest section of the aquaduct left, the rest being in disrepair or demolished by the locals for the rock to build homes (not recently, of course). We had a picnic and then also pulled over near the Pont so we could scale the hill and walk along it - You can't actually walk on it, they built a bridge that runs along it that you can walk on. Here are some pictures:

We stopped at the bottom of this falaise for lunch.

I swear this looked like CGI when we turned the corner on the river. It made me think of the Lord of the Rings movie when they were rowing down the river and approaced the huge statues along each side.

I climbed part way up a hill to get this picture.

It was a wonderful day!!