4 Countries in 14 Days….Part III: Le Frenchy Expériences

Like London, Paris was to be the only place that we actually had reservations in a hotel for. After navigating the complex Metro, we finally got to our hotel, cleaned up quickly and went out to explore Paris. We caught our first sight of the Eiffel Tower, and it was so much bigger that I ever imagined. The Arc de Triomphe was huge and sat amid one of the craziest roundabouts I have ever seen where most Parisian car insurance ceases to exist once you enter it. There was shopping galore along Champs-Élysées and for very good prices. So many beautiful clothes! The styles were gorgeous! We walked up the original “Rodeo Drive”, Avenue Montaigne, and saw the original Chanel designs, Louis Vuitton, Versace, Dior. The shops were closing but we were to return the next day for Chanel! That night we ate a wonderful dinner and the best crème brule I have ever had and on our way home we picked up a bottle of wine and drank it in our room to watch the Eiffel Tower lights twinkle in the window reflection across from us.

We awoke to sunshine, although not hot, it was a pleasant day to try and see all of Paris in. We grabbed some croissants and fresh fruit with what little French I could muster and enjoyed breakfast in the Champ de Mars in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower. While Mike and Tauna were walking to come join Ben and I they spotted John Malkovich having his cappuccino in a small café. Mike is good with those celebrity sightings! With one full day to see most of Paris in, the trip to the top of the Tower was not to be. That we can save for next time. We started the day at the Peace Monument at one end of the Champ de Mars and worked our way towards this river. We walked up the boardwalk along the River Seine and took in the sights before veering off to hit the Louvre Palace-Museum. With being short on time, we just passed though the exterior gardens, fountains, courtyards and continued onto the Obelisk at Concorde Square. After regaining our energy with lunch and more gelato, we climbed all 422 stairs up to the top of Notre-Dame to get some of the most breathtaking views of Paris and were able to hear a proper Catholic Sunday Mass with the organs eerily filling the entire cavernous Cathedral. Small winding streets with chic boutiques, small cafes, and coffee shops led us back to our hotel for more wine consumption, another wonderful meal and good company. As we wandered the streets we happened upon the Eiffel Tower as it did its twinkling show right at midnight. It lasted for 10 minutes and was a good ending to another day.

During our last day in Paris we hit Chanel on our way out since the shops are closed on Sundays and just happened to walk past the tunnel that Princess Diana died in. We were then on our way to Versailles. This was to be the start of another wet day. When we arrived at Château de Versailles where King Louis XIV had his summer home at, all it did was dump copious amounts of rain on us. Since most of the palace was closed for renovations, the clouds were hiding most of the extensive views of the gardens, we cut our losses and headed on to Caen. We got there shortly before nightfall, found a close hotel after splitting up to search and headed out for a meal. We went to a very Normandicly French restaurant where we dined on Escargo, French wines, Normandy Veal, and of course more crème brule. Some of the best food and a very charismatic waiter that enjoyed practicing his stated horrible English, which actually was quite good!

We got up early the next morning and headed to the WWII sites. We zigzagged along the coast seeing the Beaches of Normandy. We stopped along the road to see where some of the large British concrete boat things were anchored to create a base that is still there. We also toured the Washington Cemetery and paid tribute to those many soldiers that lost their lives there. It was an area that Ben would like to go back to someday with Brent to explore since you need more than one day to view it all in and discover. This was to be our longest day of driving as well. We left Normany and were finally heading south hoping for better weather.

We stopped for lunch in Le Mont Saint Michel, which is an ancient Tidal Island with an Abbey perched on the top of the island. In modern times they have paved a road that permanently goes out there now. You twist and curve up the tight pedestrian streets passing small shops, hotels, boutiques, until it leads up to the breathtaking views from the Abbey.

We all piled back in the car and headed to Boudreaux. After a long day of driving we finally arrived at our hotel and had another spectacular dinner. About this time we were all craving some veg since we had had our fair share of bread, bread and more bread. The next morning we got an early start of hitting the vineyards. The first vineyard was Château Siran, which was recommended by one of Tauna’s coworkers. We drove past their rows of grapes before arriving at a stucco compound painted a pastel pink. I was not going to let the pink detour me, and headed inside. We got a great tour of their wine museum and where the hold their wines. They even gave us a play by play on how they exactly make the wine, how long it takes, and how much of each grape types goes into a wine. We tasted three different types and each one got better. Each one should be ages 8-15 years and I could not resist buying a few bottles to save for a celebration later on, which was the Margaux. We also bought extra bottles to drink along the rest of the trip. The next winery, Château Lanessan, was amidst two large Châteaus that still own the vineyard and reside in them. We got a tour of the grounds and gardens, which had some of the nicest horse stalls I have ever seen. They were marble with wrought iron bars and mahogany stalls with the only running water in that barn at the time of construction at the whole compound. We picked up a few more bottles of Delbos-Bouteiller and were on our way to Spain and sunshine!