France Pics

Mona Lisa...

...DOES FOLLOW YOU AROUND THE ROOM! That was discovered at the Louvre.
Giverney...IS goregous and explains why Monet had so much inspiration
Versailles...IS a fantastic castle and has plenty of bling for all
The Louvre...IS enormous and has enough artwork to give everyone in the world their own piece.

France was a great trip - met up with Mom and Liz in Paris. We ran around, checked out the art, Sacre Couer, French food in all of its goodness (YUM for crossaints, chocolate filled bread, escargot, dark chocolate and oeufs).

Best part: The Eiffel Tower SPARKLES for 10 minutes every hour from 9pm until midnight.
It's so special.

And the cutest little girl who didn't come to France: Makenna!!!

Good Things and Bad Things

Good things about France:
-The Parisian Metro is amazing, you don't really have to walk outside if you don't want to
-The bread is to die for and cheap
-The coffee is super strong
-The men wear tight pants
-Goregous churches everywhere
-Lots of good seafood and pastries
-To be cool, you just need a scarf and no tennis shoes
-They call McDonalds McDo
-They sell beer at McDo
-Anyone can drink anywhere
-Good wine is cheap.
-Good chocolate abounds for cheap prices
Bad things about France:
-Dog poo everywhere (police don't ticket for leaving it around as they deem that below them...yes, I did step in it.)
-Lacidasical about everything
-Everything is closed on Monday
-It's ALWAYS windy
-Massive PDA's are the norm. I think I saw babies being conceived in front of Notre Dame, and it was so far from immaculate conception.
-Banks are closed Sunday, Monday and don't deal with cash on Wednesdays. There are crazy rules like this all over. I don't know how Vicks deals.

All in all, great trip :) We're going to Monet's house today to go biking around it. Saw Paris for the first time yesterday and will return tomorrow to meet up with Mom and Liz. Adieux. Bisous!

Bonjour!

Aside from almost dying on the way to Mt. St. Michel, everything has been fantastic here in France! Vicky picked me up from the airport donning French-cheese-filled sandwiches and red wine, we meet up with her friends and proceeded to the French countryside. It was absolutely lovely – very green, lots of cows, and old, provincial houses. Her crazy French friend Oliviet organized a 25 person trip to Mt. St. Michel and the beaches around that area of this country. Everything was great - the trip to Mt. St. Michel was a wee bit treacherous – we walked for 2 hours in the freezing cold across where the ocean was coming into (at high tide parts of the day, it is completely surrounded by water). The guide almost sunk into the quicksand, then Oli was pulled out of it by 3 men when it tried to eat him, and when we had to fjord the quickly rushing water, we all almost died. BUT we made it and it was really quite pretty. The chapel at the top overlooks the water and has been maintained itself very well (it’s at least 700 years old;…).

The next day, we went to the beach and it was absolutely wonderful. In Europe, the sky gets so blue…I remember the same pretty skies in Spain 9 years ago. We walked around the little town, ate some bread (it’s the cool thing to do…), and did some shopping. The French are so laid back and seem very relaxed about nearly everything they do. EXCEPT if you are trying to use a bathroom where you shouldn’t…then they are overly aware of your presence and tell you where you can pay to pee.

Today, we went to the Musee de Arte in downtown Rouen, where Vicks lives, and she bought a “pain de chocolat” which means a crossaint filled with chocolate. It’s really, really good. I want one now, in fact. We’re going out for dinner tonight – yeah – and tomorrow head for GIverney.
SIdenote: Lots of French toilet paper is scented. AND it’s rare to find white TP – mostly pink. A far cry from my organic, recycled Berkeley tp!

Ready to go...

Thanks to Tina, I am all set in the French language category.

Some useful phrases for you... France baby, yeah! :)

English: I like you
French: Je vous aime

English: You are goodlooking
French: Vous goodlookiez

English: Will you buy me a drink?
French: Vous fera m'achete une boisson?

English: Will you move to California with me and have five children with me?
French: Fera vous transfere a California avec moi et a cinq enfants avec moi?

This just might be more interesting than I thought...

haha

News just in from my Parisian sister regarding what I should bring...
"Umm if you want to be comfy around Paris wear tennis shoes,
but it is a dead give away that you are either American or Canadian."

Pepe Le Pew

Currently, I am super excited about going to France in a few short days.
Here's my itinerary ... any other ideas world traveling friends?

Friday and Saturday - Mt. St. Michael

Sun- St. Malo and drive back to Rouen

Mon- University Tour - Rouen (let's hope for strikes....haha)

Tues- Fly by the seat of our pants...

Wed- Meander to Dieppe (northern coast) and check out the
DDay Memorial

Thurs- Ride bikes through Monet's gardens in Giverney
Night: train it to Paris and meet up with Mom and Lizard

Friday- Versaille in the afternoon with the lovely ladies and Le Louvre at night b/c
on Fridays is it open an extra 2 hours later (until 10:00)

Sat- All the stuff you can cram into one day in Paris!
Here's my list...
1 - arc de triomphe
2 - basilique du sacre-couer
3 - centre georges polpidou
4 - hotel des invalides/napolean's tomb
5 - musee de cluny
6 - musee d'orsay
7 - musee picasso
8 - notre dame
9 - you guessed right..that silly tower

OOhh I am so excited! France. Paris. Vicky, Mom, Lizzy, crepes, chocolate, beautiful buildings, art, listening to the French language, cafes, no work. Just lovely.

In other news, CONGRATS to LESLIE and BRYAN!!! So fantastic! www.puddledog.blogspot.com