Limoges

We spent a few quiet days in Limoges.  We arrived late on Saturday night, but first ventured out into the town on Sunday.  Unfortunately, almost everything was closed.  It felt like we were in a ghost town.  The only place where we could find food was at a Subway restaurant where we were forced to dine.  At least there was a pretty terrace outside.

We wandered around the deserted streets for awhile until we found the river running through the town.  The girls quickly found a small dock to jump off from and have a refreshing swim.

Limoges is known for its porcelain and fine china.  Many of the buildings are decorated with mosaic tiles.

An old book store.

Fun at a city park.  The two other mothers at the park were quite surprised to see Cedar and Jasmine having so much fun.

Cedar left us in Limoges to go visit her friend Emilie who lives a few hours away by train.  Jas and I left the following day for a full day of train rides to get to Annecy, in the Alps.

Loire à vélo

We arrived in Blois excited about renting bikes and getting into the countryside.  We picked up our bikes, packed our panniers, looked carefully over our cycling map and set off toward one of the most beautiful castles in the region 'Chateau Chambord'.  The route stayed close to the Loire river until about 5 km before the castle when we followed paths that wove between villages and fields.  

Typical cycling path between fields: level, paved and nobody in sight.

We had to stop for a picture at our first sunflower field.  Sunflowers as far as we could see!

We arrived at the castle after a couple of hours of cycling.  We were impressed with our first glance of the castle.

Picnic on the Loire.

The following day we left our back packs in our home base of Blois, packed our panniers with our essentials and headed East along the Loire towards Amboise.  It was another beautiful ride and we passed some impressive castles and many gorgeous villages.  We are overwhelmed with how beautiful everything is.

Castle in the centre of Amboise.

We arrived in Amboise after a long, but enjoyable day of riding.  We checked into a hostel which seemed more like a hospital.  We planned to go for a ride the following day, but when we discovered there was a swimming pool down the street from our hostel we dropped our plans and spent all afternoon lounging around the pool.  It was fun to have a relaxing day.  There are strict rules about the type of swimsuit that men can wear in swimming pools in France.  Here is a sign that strictly informs men of the rule.

We need to remind Martin to bring his speedo!

Jas took some great pictures capturing the beautiful sunsets we in Amboise

Wandering through the streets trying to find wifi!

Taking a break in some empty boxes on the street!

After our break day we headed off in the pouring rain to the last town on our cycling trip, St. Avertin.  It rained for most of the day, but it was warm so we didn't get too cold.  St. Avertin is a beautiful village and the hotel we chose was cute.  The owner was excited to find out we ere from Canada and was pleased to inform us that other Canadians had stayed at the hotel before.  He later came to get us so that he could introduce us to the mayor of the town.  We were lucky enough to catch a small music festival on the river during our one night stay.

Playing air hockey before the music festival in St. Avertin.

The next day we returned our bikes, repacked our backpacks and boarded a train for Limoges.

St. Malo, Brittany

We arrived in gorgeous St. Malo, on the Brittany coast, after a hot week in Paris.  As we walked from the train station to our hotel we all gasped as we had our first view of the ocean.  The tide was out so there was a huge beach, the ocean was turquoise (yet freezing we later discovered) and there were little castles on rocky islands just off the shore.  

You can see in the photo how there is a cement wall that holds water for swimming as the tide goes out each afternoon.

Our hotel was inside a walled, medieval village, just on the beach.  This is a photo from our hotel room showing the red umbrellas from the restaurant at our hotel and then a walkway through the wall out to the beach.  It was a beautiful location.  Jacques Cartier sailed from St. Malo on his way to Canada so we could feel that the town felt a strong connection with us.  At one point a man asked me what region of France I was from (!!!) and I told him Canada, he replied, "Jacques Cartier, our little cousins."  We found the people especially kind in St. Malo.

I was happy to discover that Moules et Frites (mussels and fries) are a speciality of St. Malo so every restaurant in town offed a mussels special for supper.  We all happily ate mussels every evening during our stay!  The girls also greatly enjoyed the crepes and the ice cream of this region. 

Enjoying huge chocolate pistachio cones.

At low tide we went for a walk to one of the little islands just off the coast. 

After four relaxing, beautiful days we packed up and got ready to take the train to Blois, in the Loire Valley to begin our next adventure.

Paris

We were lucky to cross paths with my niece Sierra, who is spending her summer travelling through Europe.  She spent one night with us before heading off to Salzburg to visit more family.  We hope to meet up with her again later in the summer.

Supper with Sierra à Paris.

Cedar and Sierra just missed each other as Cedar arrived later in the day.  Cedar had an extraordinary 10 days in Switzerland and would now rather continue on her own than hang out with her family!  

We are happy she has arrived as we can now see the two big sites that we've been saving for her!  The wait for the Louvre isn't too bad and we get inside after about 20 minutes.  We follow the signs toward the Mona Lisa as we want to ensure we see her before we leave.  We can tell we are close by the huge crowds pushing into a room about the size of a tennis court.  The room is packed with people and everybody is pushing towards the painting.  I give up after getting a glimpse of the painting and hand the camera to Jasmine.  Jas perseveres and manages to get a close up photo of the world's most famous painting.

Can you see the Mona Lisa, way at the back of the room?

Getting closer ...

Voilà!

Practicing their Mona Lisa smiles (this one's for you, Aunty Maria).

Incredible artwork everywhere we look.

Cedar pretending to hang out with Napolean in his apartment.

We spent the afternoon on a guided bike tour of Paris.  It was great to see some of the lesser known sites.  

Jim Morrison's Paris apartment.

This last photo is of a mosaic Space Invader that an anonymous graffiti artist has done all over Paris.

Lover's bridge where couples write their name on a lock, attach it to the bridge and throw the key in the Seine.

The next day we finally visited the Eiffel Tour.  It was a fun walk up and the views of Paris were breathtaking.

Waiting in line.

The long walk up...

On the second level.

Our last day in Paris we took the train to Versailles.  Cedar was excited as she is interested in Louis xiv and Napolean and they both lived here.  After a long, hot wait we finally got in.  

After watching Les Misérables on the airplane I can't stop imagining the bitterness the French people living in such poverty must have felt compared with this extravagance. 

Approaching the palace.

Louis xiv

We spent a long day wandering the palace grounds of Versailles and finally headed back to Paris at 8 pm.  The next morning we got up, cleaned our apartment and headed to the train station for our first TGV train trip to our next destination.

A week in Paris

Wow, Jas and I arrived in Paris on Thursday and after a 30 minutes métro ride we found our apartment.  We slept for a couple of hours and then began what turned out to be an action packed week.  Cedar wasn't going to join us until later in the week so we saved the "big" sites for her arrival. Our apartment was in the 2nd arrondissement, on a pedestrian only street, so we spent many hours exploring our neighbourhood.  We decided to visit the museums by starting with the present and working backwards in time.  We first visited the Centre Pompidou, the modern art museum which houses art from 1905 to the present. 

Jas waiting for the museum to open.

We then spent an afternoon wandering through the Musée d'Orsay where we really enjoyed all of the Impressionist work.  I can understand why teachers in France can visit museums for free as the artwork inspired me to include more art in my teaching!

We spent a couple of hours wandering through the gardens at the Musée Rodin which were designed by Rodin himself!

Le Penseur ( The Thinker)

We finally made it to the Musée d'Orangerie, the museum designed by Claude Monet to house his incredible 'Water Lilies' set of paintings.  There are eight paintings that show the passage of light from morning until night on the pond.  They are housed in two huge oval shaped rooms, four in each room.  Unfortunately, we were not permitted to take photos in this museum.

Smashing the piggy bank

Jasmine breaking the piggy bank that Tante Laura made for Cedar in 1997.  Time to head to the bank and deposit her savings.  Ice cream is expensive in Paris!

Europe summer 2013

We're packing our bags and getting ready for our next big family trip.  Watch out Europe, here we come!
Cedar's heading to Switzerland on June 26, Jasmine and Jennifer are heading to Paris on July 3 and Martin is meeting us later in the summer.  We plan to travel by train and bicycle through France, Germany and Austria.
Here's Cedar at the airport just before she left.  She flew Vancouver -  Paris - Zurich.