Bordeaux -- first impressions

We arrived in Bordeaux and spent some time literally driving in circles trying to find our hotel.  Yes, we had GPS but the addresses and the hotel were not marked well. After finally finding it, we dropped off the luggage, turned in the rental car and went for a walk.  Bordeaux has lots of beautiful 18th century buildings along the riverfront and there was also a festival going on in the area so the town was really buzzing and lots of people around.  We will have another day in Bordeaux at the end of our river cruise as well, so I'll have more to say about it later on.  We finally managed to find an ATM that worked with our cards too, which was nice because we were starting to run low on the euro  we had brought from home with us.

Loire Valley, France (9/11/17 - 9/16/17)

After leaving Paris and stopping at Chartres, we journeyed on to our next destination the Loire Valley.  We stayed just outside of Amboise in a chateau from the 1700's that was remodeled in the 1800's, and occupied by the Nazis in the 1940's. Quite an interesting place, especially since part of the chateau was built into the rock of the hillside.

We came here to see some of the famous chateaux in the area and started with one that would become our favorite, Chenonceau. This is a beautiful castle that spans across a river with a series of arches. Beautiful from the outside and also with very pretty gardens, it was extremely well done on the inside as well.  The written guide was easy to follow and the progression through the rooms was marked well. Since it is September we also didn't have to fight the summer crowds, which was great.  The rooms are furnished quite nicely and there were beautiful flower arrangements in each of the rooms too. 

From Chenonceau, we went to Chambord which is basically the big granddaddy of them all.  Chambord is very impressive from the outside but we were a bit disappointed with the inside.  The double helix stairway is cool and there are nice views from the rooftop terrace, but it just wasn't as well decorated or organized as Chenonceau.  

The next morning was rainy so we took some time to find a warm jacket for one of our friends, then spent time in the afternoon at Amboise's castle. The ramparts provided a nice view over the river and we went into the little chapel to see the grave of Leonardo da Vinci who lived the last years of his life at Clos Luce nearby.  

The next morning we went to Clos Luce to see the former home of da Vinci. We all agreed that this site was really, really good. The house showed da Vinci's rooms including his workshop which displayed some of his paintings and drawings and some of the things he used to create his masterpieces. The most fascinating thing was the collection of small models that a team of IBM experts had made from some of his drawings.  They then created actual size inventions and those were located outside on the grounds of the estate. It was amazing to see the number of things he had actually designed, and so many of them worked exactly as he thought they would.

In the afternoon, we visited Chateau Villandry. Everyone raves about the gardens and rightfully so, but the inside of the house was interesting too. The family that owns the chateau has spent a lot of money restoring it and especially caring for the gardens.  The gardens are truly beautiful, some of the best I've seen in Europe thus far.  There were watergardens, ornamental gardens, love knot gardens, and vegetable and fruit gardens that were honestly just as pretty as the flower gardens because they were so well done. It was a beautiful place and a bargain price compared to some of the other chateau. 

We also visited a troglodyte site. Troglodyte means people carved out caves and homes from the limestone prevalent in the area. It was interesting but the air inside was a bit too dusty for me.

We're moving on to Cognac for one night, then to Bordeaux.

                                                 Chenonceau

                                                   Villandry

Villandry

                                                            Chambord

Da Vinci personal items

Chartres Cathedral (9/11/17)

The Notre Dame Cathedral at Chartres began being constructed in the 12th century.  You can see the spires rising above the town from quite a distance away. I knew from my research on Tripadvisor that an English tour would be given at noon by Malcolm Miller.  Mr. Miller is probably the foremost authority in the world in this cathedral so we were lucky enough to arrive on time, despite our troubles in leaving Paris.

I worried that the guys would be a little bored by a 90 minute talk by an 85 year old expert, but they both said they found it fascinating.  We actually have never had anyone explain how to interpret stained glass windows before, especially in terms of some of the symbolism involved.  We all agreed it was one of the best tours we have heard.  The cathedral itself is being cleaned inside and the lightness is wonderful compared to the usual gray dingy color in most Gothic cathedrals. It would be fascinating to return in a few years and see the changes.

Driving the Arc de Triomphe

Unfortunately, one of our friends left his camera bag in the back of the tour van on the day we went to Giverny, so we needed to pick it up from the tour office after picking up our car as we were leaving Paris.  We entered the address in the GPS and set off.  Soon we had the dreadful realization that we would need to drive the roundabout at the Arc de Triomphe! Now the Arc's roundabout consists of about 7 lanes of traffic.  I say "about" because there are no lines on the road at all and the whole thing seems like a giant free-for-all.  We managed to get through it with a lot of watching out for other cars and then we ended up on the Champs-Elysees! So it was quite a morning just trying to get out of Paris.

Verdun (9/10/17)

We hired a private guide for a trip to Verdun from Paris.  Verdun is the site of a 300 day battle in World War I. I read about it while researching last year's trip and we wanted to include it this year. Mike and I both love history so we were really looking forward to this. I actually wish we had stayed closer, possibly in Reims, so we could have had more time.  It was a 12 hour day as it was, and we could have spent another few hours for sure.

Neither side really attained victory here, but the French Army's tenacity really kept the German forces at Verdun engaged so they couldn't be re-directed to other battlefronts.  There was also really no other line of defense between the Germans and Paris.  

We stopped off at a monument in the countryside and as we drove away we saw a poor abandoned dog with a muzzle on. The poor thing looked like it was half-starved and I couldn't imagine what sort of monster would abandon a dog without any means of eating! We stopped and tried to coax it to us but it was too afraid to come near.  Another car had also stopped and the lady had called the local police who were coming out to see if they could catch the dog and free it from the muzzle.  We couldn't wait for the police but the people in the other car were going to stay until they came. The thought of that poor dog haunted me the rest of the day. 

We drove on and visited the Verdun Memorial which was an excellent presentation of information about the battle, the soldiers and the aftermath.  There was so much shelling that several small towns were completely obliterated.  Blown off the face of the earth forever.  The unexplored ordinance was still being found pretty regularly as little as 20 years ago.  The area is still full of trenches and shell craters though the grass and trees were replanted and it is green there now.  Photos after the war show it looking like the surface of the moon- no trees or anything, just the craters. There were pictures of the soldiers and some video showing the shell shock that affected so many of them. Very, very sad. 

Next stop was the Ossuary.  The collected bone fragments of approximately 130,000 soldiers are enclosed in the Ossuary and another 70,000 soldiers are buried out in front of the monument. There is an area inside dedicated to the soldiers from each surrounding area with their names inscribed.  

Fort Douaumont was next.  One of the few defensive forts in the area, it was at times occupied by the French or the Germans, and sometimes by both at the same time! The fort itself was almost completely buried by the dirt being thrown up by the thousands of shells exploding around it. 

We also managed to find a small section of the remaining trenches nearby.  

All in all, it was a sobering but truly interesting day. Definitely something we will always remember.

                                              Fort Douaumont

                                                        Verdun Ossuary

France 2017 - Paris

We took off without a hitch from Sac Metro Airport and landed in Salt Lake City 15 minutes early - great! A 1 hour layover, just the right amount of time. Around the time we should have started boarding, they announced a delay of one hour due to a mechanical problem with the plane.  One hour turned into two, then three, then three and a half.  Finally they gave the word that we would be boarding, but we had to be very quick about it as the flight crew was about to time-out and then we would have a big problem and another delay.  Well we all managed to get on the plane and push off from the gate with just minutes to spare. Whew!

We had a good flight and arrived in Paris without incident, but now it was late afternoon and so our plans changed to basically dinner and bed instead of doing a little sightseeing after landing.  The next morning, we woke up and had a nice breakfast of French pastry then decided to walk around a bit.  We walked through the Tullieries gardens and over to the Grande Palais and then the Eiffel Tower.

In the afternoon, we had arranged to go to Monet's home and gardens at Giverny with a small group tour.  The gardens were very nice and still showing a lot of color, it did rain a little bit on us but we enjoyed the gardens and looking inside the house. We enjoyed a good dinner and took ourselves off to bed as we had an early start for Verdun the next day.

                                           Monet's garden

France 2017

Back to France! I've been planning our return for several months now, almost since returning from our last visit. When we went to France last year, we realized there was so much more to see and we decided to go again this year!

We decided to spend 3 weeks - the first week with two of our friends to see Verdun and Giverny, and a little more time in Paris. After that, we would travel to the Loire Valley to see some of the big chateau. The second week we would all meet up with two more friends and the six of us would take a riverboat cruise from Bordeaux.  The third week would be just Mike and I exploring the Dordogne region.  

So a lot of planning had to go into this trip because the three different weeks are so diverse and so different from each other.  I feel as though I haven't done as much research in some areas as I should have, so we'll see how it all turns out.  :-)