We Made It!!
Our first 4 days in Paris were AMAZING! Pictures and words can not describe the beauty and charisma of Paris. We are going to try to tell you a bit about our trip thus far without killing you will all the details and don’t worry we got our first vacation fight out of the way so we are set to go.
As crazy as it sounds, we were so exhausted after our flight and with a 6 hour time change that we needed a nap as soon as we arrived at our hotel. After rousing and cleaning up, we headed to the streets and wandered down Rue Cler, a pedestrian-only, open air market. Bert and I quickly noticed that we stood out among the crowd, not only as tourists but as AMERICANS because we both refuse to wear skinny jeans and Bert certainly can not wear a long sleeved medium shirt in the summertime. We were impressed by how well the Parisians dressed and their sense of style was seen in every aspect of their life. From the ladies who wear their zip up stilettos to trek miles of The Louvre’s marble floors to the men taking their afternoon jog in hot shorts and a collared polo - in Paris, you must dress for style not for performance and comfort. It was definitely interesting to see how style emitted from every Parisian.
Amazingly, sunset in Paris is after 10 pm so we had plenty of time to explore the café lined streets of the 7th arrondissement. We had a wonderful meal on Bosquet Ave. and walked to the Eiffel Tower. We strolled through Champ de Mars Park and realized that this is one of the happening spots in Paris every night. Young people gather in groups with food, wine and music on the mall in front of the Eiffel Tower. By the time we arrived, everyone was in full swing and the tower was completely lit. At the top of every hour, the tower would “twinkle” with over 20,000 lights and you would hear the crowd erupt in cheer. Oddly enough, even the Parisians can’t seem to get enough of the Tower.
Musee d’Orsay and Musee de Louvre were on our list of must-dos for the next day. At the Musee d’Orsay which used to be a train station, we saw works from famous artists such as Monet, Degas, Renoir, and Van Gogh. We quickly found out that sculptures are what intrigue us the most. Lucky for Bert, there were enough breasts to offset the exposed male genitalia. The Louvre is beyond description but we’ll make an attempt. First off, there is no way to see the Louvre in one session or four days for that matter. We ended up going twice and felt like we had to run through half of it. Its horseshoe shaped design, sprawls in over 645,000 square feet and has more than 35,000 pieces of art in its collection. Even though all of the art is described in French only, there is no language barrier that could stop us from being amazed at everything we saw. Highlights include the statues Winged Victory, Hermaphrodite, Venus de Milo and all of the Roman Emperor’s; Napoleon the second’s apartment, Egyptian sarcophagus and Rameses II from 1200 B.C., and The Mona Lisa.
We walked through The Lourve Gardens and down the famous Champs-Elyses with the Arc de Triomphe as a backdrop. We spent hours window shopping and drooling over 1200 dollar Louis Viton pumps we had to leave behind.
Notre Dame has to be one of the most beautiful cathedrals we have ever seen. We were fortunate enough to be able to attend a mass while we were there and the choir and soloists resonated in a beautiful French voice throughout the cathedral. It is truly awe-inspiring that a structure of this magnitude and beauty was built in 1163. The North Rose window still has the original stained glass. It is amazing to think that this is site where so many events in history have occurred such as Napoleon’s Coronation and numerous marriages of French kings and queens. We could have stayed for hours.
In the mornings, we strolled through a maze of open-air markets and picked up pastries and croissants. On one particular morning, Bert decided that the cheese Danish he had wasn’t quite enough to get his day started and went back for a slice of pizza. He approached me with sour face and breath to match as he inadvertently chose the pizza with anchovies on it. He was so disappointed but tried to eat it anyway so it wouldn’t be wasted.
The morning of the 15th, we flew out of Charles de Gaulle Aiport and arrived in Milan-Malpensa Airport around 8 am where we met by Marco fromVagamondo RV company. He drove us to Verbania which is located next on Lago (Lake) Maggiore right on the Italian-Switzerland border. With the Italian Alps in the background, we had a beautiful drive to their office where we were met by a team of friendly Italians to pick up our RV & scooter. After going over the operations of the RV and packing it full of our “necessities”, we made our way to the local supermarket to stock up the fridge and cabinets with Italian goodies. This was a wonderful experience and we both could have stayed in there for hours, looking at the different types of foods they have. Bert wanted to sample every smoked meat in the deli! The RV has tons of space for storage and a refrigerator/freezer so we are able to keep everything we need for breakfast, sandwiches, etc.
Bert did such an awesome job getting us from Verbania to Venice. The open road with tunes and views of the Italian countryside was a nice change from the Metro and city life of Paris. We got to see a beautiful sunset over the waters surrounding Venice last night on our drive in to our campsite. The campsite is right on the water and the cool breezes offered cool temperatures for a good night’s rest. Today, we had breakfast in the RV and take the ferry over to Venice.
Our postings will become more frequent since we are starting a slower-pace portion of our trip. We miss you all and hope you are well!
Bert and Jen
Our first 4 days in Paris were AMAZING! Pictures and words can not describe the beauty and charisma of Paris. We are going to try to tell you a bit about our trip thus far without killing you will all the details and don’t worry we got our first vacation fight out of the way so we are set to go.
As crazy as it sounds, we were so exhausted after our flight and with a 6 hour time change that we needed a nap as soon as we arrived at our hotel. After rousing and cleaning up, we headed to the streets and wandered down Rue Cler, a pedestrian-only, open air market. Bert and I quickly noticed that we stood out among the crowd, not only as tourists but as AMERICANS because we both refuse to wear skinny jeans and Bert certainly can not wear a long sleeved medium shirt in the summertime. We were impressed by how well the Parisians dressed and their sense of style was seen in every aspect of their life. From the ladies who wear their zip up stilettos to trek miles of The Louvre’s marble floors to the men taking their afternoon jog in hot shorts and a collared polo - in Paris, you must dress for style not for performance and comfort. It was definitely interesting to see how style emitted from every Parisian.
Amazingly, sunset in Paris is after 10 pm so we had plenty of time to explore the café lined streets of the 7th arrondissement. We had a wonderful meal on Bosquet Ave. and walked to the Eiffel Tower. We strolled through Champ de Mars Park and realized that this is one of the happening spots in Paris every night. Young people gather in groups with food, wine and music on the mall in front of the Eiffel Tower. By the time we arrived, everyone was in full swing and the tower was completely lit. At the top of every hour, the tower would “twinkle” with over 20,000 lights and you would hear the crowd erupt in cheer. Oddly enough, even the Parisians can’t seem to get enough of the Tower.
Musee d’Orsay and Musee de Louvre were on our list of must-dos for the next day. At the Musee d’Orsay which used to be a train station, we saw works from famous artists such as Monet, Degas, Renoir, and Van Gogh. We quickly found out that sculptures are what intrigue us the most. Lucky for Bert, there were enough breasts to offset the exposed male genitalia. The Louvre is beyond description but we’ll make an attempt. First off, there is no way to see the Louvre in one session or four days for that matter. We ended up going twice and felt like we had to run through half of it. Its horseshoe shaped design, sprawls in over 645,000 square feet and has more than 35,000 pieces of art in its collection. Even though all of the art is described in French only, there is no language barrier that could stop us from being amazed at everything we saw. Highlights include the statues Winged Victory, Hermaphrodite, Venus de Milo and all of the Roman Emperor’s; Napoleon the second’s apartment, Egyptian sarcophagus and Rameses II from 1200 B.C., and The Mona Lisa.
We walked through The Lourve Gardens and down the famous Champs-Elyses with the Arc de Triomphe as a backdrop. We spent hours window shopping and drooling over 1200 dollar Louis Viton pumps we had to leave behind.
Notre Dame has to be one of the most beautiful cathedrals we have ever seen. We were fortunate enough to be able to attend a mass while we were there and the choir and soloists resonated in a beautiful French voice throughout the cathedral. It is truly awe-inspiring that a structure of this magnitude and beauty was built in 1163. The North Rose window still has the original stained glass. It is amazing to think that this is site where so many events in history have occurred such as Napoleon’s Coronation and numerous marriages of French kings and queens. We could have stayed for hours.
In the mornings, we strolled through a maze of open-air markets and picked up pastries and croissants. On one particular morning, Bert decided that the cheese Danish he had wasn’t quite enough to get his day started and went back for a slice of pizza. He approached me with sour face and breath to match as he inadvertently chose the pizza with anchovies on it. He was so disappointed but tried to eat it anyway so it wouldn’t be wasted.
The morning of the 15th, we flew out of Charles de Gaulle Aiport and arrived in Milan-Malpensa Airport around 8 am where we met by Marco fromVagamondo RV company. He drove us to Verbania which is located next on Lago (Lake) Maggiore right on the Italian-Switzerland border. With the Italian Alps in the background, we had a beautiful drive to their office where we were met by a team of friendly Italians to pick up our RV & scooter. After going over the operations of the RV and packing it full of our “necessities”, we made our way to the local supermarket to stock up the fridge and cabinets with Italian goodies. This was a wonderful experience and we both could have stayed in there for hours, looking at the different types of foods they have. Bert wanted to sample every smoked meat in the deli! The RV has tons of space for storage and a refrigerator/freezer so we are able to keep everything we need for breakfast, sandwiches, etc.
Bert did such an awesome job getting us from Verbania to Venice. The open road with tunes and views of the Italian countryside was a nice change from the Metro and city life of Paris. We got to see a beautiful sunset over the waters surrounding Venice last night on our drive in to our campsite. The campsite is right on the water and the cool breezes offered cool temperatures for a good night’s rest. Today, we had breakfast in the RV and take the ferry over to Venice.
Our postings will become more frequent since we are starting a slower-pace portion of our trip. We miss you all and hope you are well!
Bert and Jen
Wow! It sounds like an action packed 4 days. I'm sure I speak for everyone when I say that we'd love to see Bert in skinny jeans. I can't wait to hear about your adventures on a Venetian gondola. Take care and we love you!
ReplyDeleteWe are so happy you guys made it safe and are having a great time. Jen . . . please remember two things about OG - 1. He likes his food spicey 2. He finds pastrami the most sensual of all the cured meats. As for the skinny jean OG . . google pics of Johnny Bravo and that would be close enough :) We hope you two continue to have a safe and wonderful trip.
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad you made it safely (and congrats dr ogburn for licensure!!!) Sounds like everything is glorious. I thoroughly enjoyed the art pics..van Gogh, Degas, Renoir, Monet are all my heroes! I guess their affection for the eiffel tower is like our love for the old well. And remember our 5K CH experience in relation to the parisans, it's not how you run, but how you look when you run ;) Bert, I expect to see some tiramisu...
ReplyDeleteI am so jealous of you two, come on Renoir and the Eiffel tower! You both look beautiful in Paris. Can't wait to read/see more.
ReplyDeleteNice pics...keep them coming!
ReplyDeleteWell you said it! Paris is amazing. I told Bob to tell you I wouldnt look at your blog because of my intense jealousy, but I am happy for you all. Sounds like you're doing it right! The Louvre is amazing isnt it. I only got one day when I was there but could spend months there I am sure. Venice is glorious as well. I am so glad you all are having such an awesome time and you've definatly picked all the great places to visit. Enjoying the blog.
ReplyDeleteCarey