May 8-11, 2025; Paris France

While Mark was testing the medical practices of the American Hospital of Paris (excellent by the way,) the rest of the party was enjoying the City of Light. What can be better than Springtime in Paris? Sounds like a great song title. Since Glenda and Deb had been to Paris some 20 times, they were on their own, although Deb, a saint in the making, kept close to the hospital area. Glenda went wandering in the morning while Jeff joined the other four on a Paris bus tour, hitting the highlights. Jeff had been once before, Howie and Lee had accompanied Deb and Mark and “participated” in the infamous burning of the Notre Dame a few years back (see previous Paris posts of prior years) Ann had not been since she was 15 years old and probably had other things on her mind than tagging with her parents. Don was a Paris virgin! 

The bus tour was very enlightening, hitting all the landmarks and a few of the lesser known spots.

The Sorbonne University of Paris for example is not necessarily on every tourists list of top sites. However the Arc de Triomphe, Tour Eiffel, and Shakespeare & Company books almost always make the list and do not disappoint. The restoration of Notre Dame, while still underway, has brought back the amazing nature and artistry of this iconic Paris landmark.

Dinner at the restaurant recommended to Howie by the hotel Concierge did not disappoint all diners, particularly those who chose flaming duck or sirloin beefsteak. However the chopped sea bass and mashed potatoes stuffed into a pita, although different, was not such a big hit. The wine was good, some may have over indulged but a great and grand time was enjoyed by all.  The dessert sorta of made up for it as did the free open bottle of Calvados the waiter left on the table.

The next day Glenda and Jeff struck out on their own for a self guided tour, taking in the famous Metro underground system while visiting the Parc Monceau with Deb before she headed to the hospital. This park was lovely and picturesque in every direction.  Ann, Don, Lee and Howie headed for the Musée d’Orsay for a day of Impressionism and lunch at the museum. Everyone compared distance walked the evening while waiting for the UBER to show up and take the group (minus Mark who had been coerced into another day at the hospital) to the Bateaux Parisian Dinner Cruise at the foot of the Eiffel Tower.  It was a late dinner for all but everyone came through in their own way and we had a ball.  Lots of champagne and wine and great desserts.  The scenery was wonderful too!

Saturday night was also “set out the luggage” night for our crew, as the luggage truck was leaving at 6:00 AM. Our group was due in the Rochester Hotel dining room Sunday morning for pick up of a box breakfast, universally reviewed as tasteless both in style and ingredient. Onward to the coaches for a head count and trip to the TGV. The headcount was a bit disjointed as two (Mark & Deb) were missing, and two names from another group were not on the list. Finally sorted, they were off to the Gare de Lyon train station for the two and one-half hour trip to Lyon. Scenic countryside at upwards of 225 kph through rolling French farms and villages before arriving at the gourmet center of France - Lyon. ( Recently un-seated by Marseille, Lyon had been the second most populous city of France.)

The troops were herded onto another coach for what they were told would be a 45 minute ride to the ship. Luckily the driver was not a native English speaker and, 4 to 5 minutes later the coach arrived at the dock. All were piped on board and assigned their cabins. While luggage was distributed to the cabins, lunch was served in the dining room. In the afternoon, the Hosfords and the Needelmans took an offered walking tour of the Lyon area where the docks were located, while Glenda and Jeff struck out for the Resistance Museum and an in-depth look at the French Resistance movement during WW II.

Back from their strolls all repaired to the lounge for a beverage and a rest. Meanwhile, Mark & Deb had arrived and the now intact group of eight joined the rest of the passengers for an hour long mandatory safety and discussion with the ship crew. Then on to Dinner, and what a dinner it turned out to be. There was plenty of wine available, multiple bottles on sample, and an amazing chef’s special for this evening that 7 of the 8 chose, a Salade Lyonaise followed by braised boneless beef ribs and swirled potato cakes with asparagus. For dessert a cherry filled clafute. Mark, still a bit on the mend, chose a sweet potato soup spiced with curry and followed by a mushroom ragout and puréed potatoes. The evening ended on a quiet and filling note. All crept into their cabins for a well earned rest.

Wednesday, May 7, 2025 On to France

We are on our way to France. We leave today with Glenda and Jeff arriving from Lincoln to park in front of our house and Abigail arrives to haul the four of us and our attendant luggage to Eppley Airfield for our 10:30 AM flight. We hook up with our other traveling companions, Howie and Lee Needelman and Don and Ann Hosford. We are using American Airlines for this trip. We don’t often fly them, but they had the best options available. We head to Chicago for the initial leg where we “enjoy” a nine hour layover.

 

We all eat lunch together at a very overpriced airport restaurant and have Caesar salad with grilled chicken for six diners, and Jeff and Mark choose a bowl of lobster bisque soup, a veritable bargain at $12.00 per bowl! We find some seats near our Gate 14, and settle in. Some walk, some sit, and some wander or nap. Around 6:00 we split up for dinner, the Needelmans and Hosford’s headed for a Chicago Hot Dog place while the other four choose a cheeseburger and pizza. After dinner wed head back to the Gate 14 to await our 10:00pm overnight flight.

Compared to the first leg crammed into an American miniature plane, on this leg we enjoy Economy Plus seating. What a difference; plenty of room for wide derrières, decent leg room and provided with blankets, pillows and upscale headphones. Since we had already eaten a few hours earlier, we weren’t too tempted by the meal - some picked salad, and some tried the pasta. Nothing too great. The flight time was a little over seven hours, but given the time difference of 7 hours between Central Daylight and European time, we arrived in Paris just at noon.

The flight was uneventful, but about 5 hours out Mark began to feel ill and feverish. He had to make use of a continuing supply of “barf’ bags, making Deb’s flight a bit unnerving. He seemed to be doing better but had developed a horrible rasping cough. We picked up our transfer and checked in at the Hotel Rochester for the next three nights. Mark went to his room to sleep, and the rest of the crew headed out with the Viking Cruises Guide for a quick reconnoiter of our new neighborhood. 

Returning at 4:00, Howie and Deb went to check on Mark and found him sound asleep, sweating profusely and with a cough that sure sounded like pneumonia. Deb and Mark walked two blocks with the Viking Cruise rep to secure an Uber for a trip to the emergency room - the American Hospital of Paris. Like hospitals the world over, this entails a flurry of short activity, be it initial check in, preliminary diagnosis or x-rays, interspersed with hours of waiting.  At 11:00 it was determined that Mark was going to spend the night. Deb headed back to find the rest of the group, and Mark was finally installed in his room by 11:57pm; Mark learned later that Deb didn’t get back to the Hotel until nearly midnight, having problems finding a taxi. Mark was served a bit of dinner, but no wine, even though it was Paris France! Deb arrived at the hotel to find Glenda waiting for her in the lobby with wine, bread and cheese. Finally a heroine in this sad tale!

So much for an exciting first day. 

The Great Adventure, the final week - Friday, September 9, 2022

We awake to more sunshine on this bright Sunday morning. Another travel day coming up, but now we are car sightseeing. We start with a wonderful breakfast served in the garden of our guest house while being studied by the neighborhood cat. Home made (fait maison) yoghurt and marmalades, accompanied by fried bread, fresh baguettes and croissants, orange juice and coffee. We visited with the proprietress for a bit; when we brought up check-out, we learned to our dismay that she could not accept credit cards, only cash. We did not have enough! So, leaving our luggage as collateral, we set off to find a cash machine on a quiet Sunday. A short walk and we found our goal, accessed our account and were soon back to claim our luggage. We had a nice chat considering her low facility for English and our very poor French. We parted friends and she even gifted us a jar of fresh made fig marmalade, the figs from the tree in her garden.

We next drove up the hill to the Citadel to park and walk around. This is a huge property and we wandered only a small bit of this city within a city. Being Sunday, local and foreign tourists, together with their noisy children and truculent teenagers, leashed dogs, and tottering elders were clogging the streets and stepping in our way. Some people are so inconsiderate!

After a long trek to the public toilets for Mark (Deb thought he had fallen somewhere and finally came looking - it was a long distance) we turned back towards the car park to get on the road towards our next stop-the city of Cahors.

We arrived in Cahors around 5:00 and quickly found our room for the night in a building right on the Main Street of town. Deb rang the bell, and after a wait, the landlord, Patrice, arrived. She quickly found the reason for the delay. Four flights of steps! She almost cancelled then and there. However he convinced us to take a look and offered to help with our luggage. He, too, is semi-retired, but up and down four flights of steps six to eight times per day evidently keeps one healthy. The accommodation was exquisite, nicely decorated and included a sleeping room, a dinette with kitchen area and a wonderful bath. There was even an air-conditioner in the bedroom!

We enjoyed our half-bottle of wine we had left over from the night before (yes there are times when we don’t consume the entire bottle,) and then struck out to find a place for our evening meal. We were skeptical, as we had not seen anything open on our drive in. No cafés, no retail establishments, nothing. There must be some strong blue laws in France. For our mid afternoon break, we were forced to stop at Chez McDo, as the Golden Arches seemed to be the only establishment allowed to be open. It was packed!

Our proprietor, Patrice, had recommended a sidewalk café Le Bistro d’ l’Isa up the street some blocks so we walked along. We found it open but, as it was only 6:45, we could only order a drink. Dinner service in France does not start until 7:00, anywhere. We sat at a sidewalk table, looked at the menu and found what we wanted to eat, we then ordered a bottle of Cahors area wine to start and soon were happy we had arrived early, as the tables quickly filled up. We enjoyed a huge cheeseburger with frites and a large cheese omelette. We skipped dessert this time but did stroll up the street away to a small local market where we picked up two more bottles of wine, some local cheese and some Perrier for provisions for the next few days. We climbed the Mt. Everest of staircases, ensconced ourselves in the air conditioning and read until our eyelids dropped. Note their is no talk of television watching while in France - finding English language television has become impossible.

Monday morning, we awoke to another lovely breakfast, this one delivered to our door by our proprietor, who also lives in the apartment next door. He owns the floor and has converted our small area to a B&B, He may also own another unit in the building, although our translation is a bit unclear on that fact. Anyway, the breakfast this day was a selection of cheeses, orange juice, croissants, baguettes and jams, together with the requisite cafe au lait and cafe noir. This delightful accommodation with so much food and so much room, was only $89 per night!  We told him he needs to charge more but from the next guy!

We lugged our two small cases back down the mountain, with another courteous assist from Patrice, plugged the meter for our vehicle parked on the street out front overnight, and struck out to explore Cahors. This city, surrounded by a meander of the Lot river, with steep limestone cliffs on all sides, was originally a Celtic settlement, prior to the Roman conquest around 50 BC. Their are remains of the Roman fortifications, and we walked the old city area, adjacent to our guest house, taking in the small medieval streets and then across the main square (which is conveniently a huge underground parking garage) to the covered historic bridge over the Rive Lot. The bridge now is only for pedestrian traffic, but is properly dramatic. By the time we returned to the car we were drenched in sweat as the temperature had risen to 32º C (90ºF) and the humidity wasn’t far behind. We cranked up the AC in the car and drove out of town, glad we hadn’t wilted, but also happy to have gotten the exercise and seen the marvelous town.

Our goal today is the city of Brantome, but first we needed to stop in the city of Sarlat, a medieval city, one that Deb had visited some eleven years previous on a trip with dear friend Glenda. We found a car park, and some public toilets, complete with an attendant and a 1€ Per person fee - beautifully clean and well worth the price. We began our wander around the old city, still a very hot day, and we eventually stopped at a sidewalk café for a noon meal. Another croque monsieur and another omelette, this time a mushroom one - not nearly as good as the cheese omelettes of days before. Accompanied by a glass of wine, and a huge carafe of ice cold water.

We returned to the car and then headed into the heart of the Perigord region towards Brantome. We typed the final exact destination into Google-Maps and ended up on a small country road at a large old farmhouse with the sign saying Escapade. This was our B&B- not what we were expecting. Our proprietress was out the door to meet and greet us before we could drive away to search for something different. She is Isabelle and she is a fortyish woman originally from Belgium. She has always wanted to run a B&B and looked at over 22 properties before she found this one. It is really amazing, very ecologically friendly and quite the setting. There is even a pond out front with decking and chaise lounge chairs - “the pool” as she says, with a pumped waterfall. We decided to stay and hauled our luggage up the single staircase to our lovely room with en suite for the next two days.

It had been a long day’s drive, so rather than walk the 20 minutes into town to a restaurant or drive and risk getting lost in the dark on the return, we settled for our cheese and wine on the front portico, overlooking the pond and studying the sunset. Beautiful.

The next morning we were up for our 8:00 breakfast of croissants, baguettes, fait maison yoghurt, a fried egg and coffee with apple juice on the side. Delectable. WE then loaded ourselves and our backpack into the DZ for a drive around the Perigord. First stop was the Grottes de Villars, the caves of Villars. The Perigord is famous for its caves, within which are Paleolithic drawings, Lascaux being the most famous. Lascaux however is now closed to tourists and the French government has created a facsimile of the drawings within a modern building. the reason being that the lights and the carbon dioxide from all the visitors was destroying the drawings. Villars however is not that visited, so we were able to spend an amazing hour plus underground viewing the stalactites, stalagmites and the columnar formations. At the end of the tour we entered a chamber with some drawings, one of which depicted a man. This, we believe, is the only extant drawing of a human figure in all the cave art discovered so far.

Next is is on to the small village of S. Jean du Cole, or St. Jean on the river Cole. Here we parked and walked the village, locating a wonderful cafe for our afternoon meal of a Salad du chef with salmon, a casserole en croute with squab or chicken (we’re not sure which) and a carafe de van rouge. We enjoyed the meal, the scenery and the setting. Next we drove through a few more small villages before heading back to our “farm house” for a glass of wine before heading back into the village of Brantome for our 7:00 PM dinner reservation.

We were seated in a stunning outside garden area and presented with the menu by the Chef de Cuisine, who spoke excellent English and even knew, or claimed to know, where Nebraska was located. After an amuse Bouche of gazpacho, we started with a shared appetizer of fois gras, followed by roast duck for Deb and a cold roast veal with garlic aioli for Mark. Yes, yes, we know!  All bad and inhumane choices but that calf and goose died for us!  It was an honor to eat them.  We shared a bottle of scrumptious St. Emilion wine and enjoyed a pair of desserts - a millefleure of strawberries with basil inflected cream, and a selection of fromage. One of the best meals we have ever enjoyed in France, unhurried, unpretentious and excellently prepared. We motored home in the descending darkness and retired for the evening, resting for our final driving day of the Great Adventure.

Wednesday morning we were up, packed, showered and down to our croissant, yoghurt and coffee by 7:45. We took leave of Isabelle and her beautiful home and drove off toward Bordeaux, an approximately 3 hour drive. We returned to the Gare St. Jean, turned in the rental car and then had a coffee while we waited for our TGV high speed train to Paris and our final two nights away from our kids and friends and our own charming little cottage.

The TGV high speed train to Paris was quick and easy, especially as we had 1st class seats and plenty of space to wrangle our luggage. Deb had a small scare when reading about our hotel in Paris.  All indications were that it had no lift and no A/C and sounded like a youth hostel!  Upon closer examination, it turns out there are TWO La Perle Hotels, one near the station which is indeed a 2 star hotel and OUR La Perle, a very nice four star with A/C and and elevator.  Upon arrival in Gare Montparnasse, we stood in the taxi line and eventually loaded the luggage and headed into town towards our destination, Hotel Perle, in the 6th Arrondissement. Our hotel is very nice, has a lift, is relatively small and excellently located just 1/2 block off the Place Suplice , with its huge fountain and the Eglis Suplice  lurking overhead in the background.  It is on the Rue de Canettes and is a very short stroll from everywhere and many, many restaurants and bars.  Turns out, quite a LOT of bars as we are very near the Sorbonne and there are beautiful young people everywhere. It was really fun to watch all the goings-on.

As the clock neared 7:00, we took the lift down and walked around a bit to find a cafe and a place to eat. We ended up at the Cafe Mabillion for an Omelette and a “Minced Beef” with a fried egg, essentially a large hamburger, accompanied by some vin rouge and frites for all.We walked back and retired by 10:30, having had a long travel day.

Thursday morning we had a lovely breakfast in the hotel garden room and then stepped out for exploration. It had been raining yesterday, and more was forecast for today; luckily we had packed our rain jackets in our carry on bags and so were prepared. We wandered down to Notre Dame, site of our last shenanigans in 2019 when the Cathedral burned (not our fault, really!) We attempted to take a photo from the same spot as in 2019, and after a number of attempts (selfies are hard for short armed people), we think we succeeded. Next we walked along the Ile de la Cite  streets and finally back towards our home base.

Of course we stopped twice during the day for a glass of wine and some major people watching at the cafes along the way. After all, it was our last full day of vacation and who knows when we will back to Paris!  Back in our room, to reorganize all the luggage and grab some cat naps before going back around the corner for our last meal in Paris. Nothing special, except for our memories, another Omelette and a Salade Parisien with a lot of ham & cheese on top. Vin Rouge, baguettes and a toast to the City of Lights. While eating our supper, we learned of the death of Queen Elizabeth II. So in our years of travel, we have experienced earthquakes, the death of 2 Popes, the burning of a national landmark and the death of the longest serving monarch in British history, again none of it our fault!! Home to Hotel Perle for a last check of luggage and then to sleep.

Friday morning we were up and showered and ready to go in the Lobby for our 7:30 AM pick up, which was actually 20 minutes early! We arrived at Charles de Gaulle Airport by 8:40 and commenced the check-in process, divesting ourselves of four large bags and then taking the long walk through security and down the walk to our gate. Almost there when Deb realized that she had left her watch and bracelet back at security, so we backtracked and retrieved the articles.  As we are traveling Business Class this time, we found the lounge and enjoyed a cup of coffee, a croissant and a cream puff, before boarding the big bird and heading home to Omaha. 

We have visited three countries, Ireland, England and France,  driven three vehicles, two on the “wrong side” of the road and logged well over 2,000 miles with nary an accident nor  ticket. Lots of wrong turns and u-turns, but that is part of the fun. Lots of bickering but also lots of laughs and some new found insights into each other. Loads of great food and wine, as you no doubt have noticed. This Great Adventure was truly a trip of a lifetime for us. We are, however, very happy to be home.

France, Wednesday, April 17, 2019

Bonjour. Happy Birthday to EBC III . Today is our last day in Paris and in France. We are up for our final breakfast and then out into the streets on a stunning day. We catch an Uber and ride to Sacre Cour, at the end taking the Funicular to the top. Howie and Lee tour the Church while Deb and Mark stroll the square, looking at people, pigeons and other assorted sites. After the church tour, we wander the horrifically crowded streets, stopping in the small shops to gaze at the merchandise. Eventually we settle in a cafe for a glass of wine and some pomme frites for our lunch.

We then start the trek down the steps, and split up for the afternoon. Howie and Lee go to explore Pigalle and a look at Moulin Rouge, following which they head for the long walk back towards the hotel and a nice stop for a sandwich and then a pleasant hour and a half at the Picasso Museum. The museum was showing a combination of Picasso works and Alexander Calder works; most interesting, but somewhere along the line, Howie misplaced his hat. That makes a hat and a wallet swallowed up by the City of Light.

Mark and Deb went on to the Metro stop at Abbesses to catch a subterranean ride to the Left Bank and our destination of Le Bien Aimee - a yarn shop, to pick up Abigail’s requested order of hand dyed yarn. After three train line changes, we arrive and step out into the sunshine for the amble to the cute little shop where we make our purchases and visit for a bit; then back towards Place d’Italie for the metro.

We take a break for another rest stop and then board the metro again to head back to the Bastille and a walk to our hotel. We arrive around 4:45 and head upstairs to pack and rest.

We meet back up with Howie and Lee to hear of their adventurous afternoon and plan for our last meal in Paris. We walk to Place du Marché St. Catherine, the small square near our hotel lined with small cafes - tres romantic. We choose the restaurant Le Marché, took a seat outside and dined on a crepe caramel, omelettes and tagliatellia followed by a creme brûlée dessert shared by all. A fitting end to our Parisian experience. We walked a few blocks to clear our digestive tracts and then to bed for our early morning wake-up.

France, Tuesday, April 16, 2019

Bonjour mes amis. Today starts with a drizzle outside, but we troopers suffer through our fruit compote, ham, cheese, baguettes and croissants with our normal stoicism and plot a day of museum trekking.

First off towards Notre Dame to survey the damage from the previous evening. The entire area is cordoned off, but we are able to take a picture from the bridge. People everywhere! We stop at a pharmacy for some ibuprofen to restock our supply and then head towards our first destination of Musee L’Orangerie, a long trek through the Tuileries garden to near the Place de la Concorde. We arrive around 11:30 and there are no lines! Because, of course, it is closed on Tuesdays, which we knew a day ago, but then forgot. Next we tromp back across the Seine to the Musee D’Orsay. Here lines snaked around the blocks.

As we sit to reorganize, realizing that with the Musee L’Orangerie and the Louvre closed on Tuesdays and now Notre Dame closed, the crowds of tourists must go somewhere. We opt not to stand in this queue as 3 of our 4 had been to the museum on previous trips. So, off we go towards the Musee Rodin. The lines here are not so long, and we enter. As we have now logged nearly 9,000 steps, and having visited this museum three previous times, Deb opts to sit in the coffee shop while the other three of us tour the grounds viewing the marvellous sculpture. We return to Deb at 1:30.

Disaster has occurred; Deb discovers that her wallet is missing. Our only choices for recovery are that it was left at the pharmacy or left in the Hotel this morning. The other possibility is that, when accosted for signatures to a petition near the bridge over the Seine, her pocket was picked. Deb and Mark head back to the pharmacy while Howie and Lee continue their tour of the Museum.

The pharmacy had not seen the missing wallet, so on back to the hotel. The wallet was not at the hotel, hence the arduous effort to cancel the credit cards and plan anew. Being good travelers, Mark, held a credit card not in Deb’s wallet and money was evenly split between the two. We will get by for the next few days, but a story to tell to all future clients with even more power.

Howie and Lee return after undertaking a further death march, going to Champs Élysées, Place de la Concorde, Palais Royale, and then back past Notre Dame for a final few pictures. They returned to the hotel shortly after 6:00, having logged a total of 25,000 steps. Mark and Deb’s 18,000 was a mere pittance. All 8 feet were in protest.

We finished the evening with an 8:00 dinner reservation at the Metropolitan Restaurant. We picked up this recommendation from Rick Steves’ book and this was easily the best meal of the trip so far. Appetizers of gnocchi, asparagus with a panko dipped, fried coddled egg, and a ceviche. Main courses of duck or veal and desserts of chocolate mousse, a flan, and a cheese platter. All washed down by and excellent Loire Valley wine. Lovely end to a somewhat crappy day.

France, Monday, April 15, 2019

Bonjour. We are down to breakfast this morning at 8:30. A more complete breakfast today with fruit compote, juice, coffee, ham, Brie, and the usual assortment of breads and croissants. The only drawback is that we were only offered one cup of coffee and were unable to gain our servers’ attention for a second round.

Off we head for the Shoah Memorial, France’s Holocaust Museum. Although the literature said we should allow an hour for the tour of the permanent exhibition, we were in the Memorial for over three hours. A moving experience taking a timeline of anti-semitism and Nazi cooperation through to the discussion of 76,000 French Jews deported and only 2,500 of them returning after WWII. We toured the attached bookstore and then journeyed on for a rest stop of wine and beer at a sidewalk cafe. Then on to The Saint Chapelle for a tour of this 12th century chapel developed by King Louis IX, the first and only French king to be awarded sainthood - St. Louis.

The stained glass windows are amazing, outlining the life of the church from Genesis through the death of Jesus. The chapel sits on the Ille de la Citie, on one end of the Island shared with Norte Dame Cathedral. This island in the middle of the Seine was first colonized by a Gallic tripe called the Parissi in the 1st century and became renamed as Paris in the 5th century. Such history makes the 243 year old USA seem childlike.

Next we cross to the Left Bank to search out the famous Shakespeare & Co. Bookstore. This store, established in the 1920s carries English language books and has been a staple of the expatriate family of English and Americans ever since. The owner was the first person to publish Ulysses, the home away from home for Hemingway and Gertrude Stein. Now, expanding to the surrounding buildings adjoining, it is still selling books to the English language readers, and just tourists. As we approached, the line to enter the store stretched out and through to the street.

We stood in line and finally entered. There was no pressure and we spent a few fine minutes browsing as we do in any bookstore. However the crowds and the heat became over powering. We worked our way out without purchases, but glad for the experience. We then stepped down the block for our afternoon snack. Wine, beer, and Aperol Spritzer not accompany our Cheeseburgers and Hot Dog - French style. At least they were accompanied by the standard frites.

The cheeseburgers were very loosely formed patties, topped by a very runny cheese sauce. Also on the plate, together with the frites, was a small cup of guacamole and 4 tortilla chips. The Hot Dog was a baguette, split, with a foot long and grated Swiss Emmantel cheese, then cut in half. Not unflavorful but strange. We then head back towards our hotel, walking along the Seine, passing Notre Dame and stopping for an obligatory selfie from the bridge, and then on across the Îles St. Louis and back onto the right bank.

We arrive back around 6:30 and go to our rooms for a rest and to gather again for a plan for the balance of the evening. Lee finds a bucket of ice to cool down the champagne she had received as a Birthday gift from our landlady in Dinan and we decide to gather in our room to open. At 7:30, our phones start erupting with bulletins, and we gather in front of CNN to watch the unbelievable fire consuming the icon we had just spent hours skirting and walking around - Notre Dame. We watched, transfixed and astonished as the flames consumed and the spire came down. With that piece of news culminating our first day, we determined that we should call it a night around 10:00 and regroup for a plan for tomorrow.

France, Sunday, April 14, 2019

Fitting that this morning, Palm Sunday, we arise to look out over the square of Rouen Cathedral and see palm sellers lining the courtyard entry to the church, huddling in 32F chill. We pack our bags and head down to a wonderful breakfast, cereal, fruit, toast, yogurt, juice, coffee and the obligatory croissant. All while a grey long haired cat, almost a twin of our Sushi, wanders around the dining room looking for a scratch or rub.

We struggle with the bags to our car park and load up for the days run. Our only stop today before Paris is Giverney, the village of the home of Claude Monet, and the site of his home and gardens. We arrive at 10:30 and secure a parking place. Deb had, the night before, secured online prepaid tickets which allowed us to skip the entry queue and head for the group entrance where, after fumbling with the technology of tickets on a cell phone, we were through the gate.

There are two gardens, the famous lily pond gardens, which are across the road from the main grounds and then the beautiful beds surrounding the home. We start with the lily garden. If you never visit another garden, this is the one you must see - put it on your bucket list. Monet planned and planted this by painting with plants and then he famously painted the plants. The colors are wonderful, and blooming all year long as the early hyacinth, daffodils and tulips give way to the azaleas and rhododendrons, giving way to the roses and summer bloomers. All underplanted with a verdure that provides a base. All this surrounds a pond and stream crisscrossed with bridges and paths.

Next we stroll through the tunnel under the roadway to the house garden. Again painted with plants, but in a more orderly fashion. Row upon row of solid colors of tulips today, which will give way in a few weeks to the next wave of color. We eventually make our way into the house to walk through his gallery, studded with his own paintings and the hallways and other rooms hung with those of his friends, Pissarro, Renoir, Manet. All are reproductions, as otherwise there would be armed guards everywhere, but the illusion is masterful. The background of the yellow walls or the blue walls makes the home itself a work of art. Once arriving at the obligatory gift shop, we end up spending as much time as in the home itself.

We next stop at a nearby restaurant for our afternoon meal; memorable only in that the servings of quiche were nearly two inches thick and as large as a piece of pizza. Only that the flavor would have matched the size. The omelette on offer was also large and as tasteless as a 1/2 inch thick piece of fried cardboard.

Onto the highway and heading to Paris. As we are required to return the vehicle fully fuelled up, we stop on the outskirts and top off with €100.02 ($112.00) of diesel fuel. Sticker Shock!

We fight our way around Charles DeGaulle airport, at least twice until we discover our rental car drop off sight. Unloaded we walk to the nearest taxi stand for the long ride into Paris proper. Even on a Sunday, traffic is heavy, but we finally arrive at our hotel, Les Tournelles, around 6:00. We leave the bags in our rooms, rest for a few minutes and then off to explore the area of the Marais. By 8:30 we are ready to eat and so head back to the hotel and a nearby brasserie for a bite. Soup, crepes and sandwich with some wine and beer. Then to bed for our next days’ exploration of the City of Light.

France, Saturday, April 6, 2019

Today is departure day for our crew of four adults (older); Howie and Lee Needelman and Deb (the boss) Covert and me, your vexatious scribe.

We depart Omaha around 3:35 PM and arrive in Paris (Charles DeGalle) on Sunday morning at 9:30 AM. From there we pick up our rental van and begin our trek south and west, eventually returning to Paris for a final three day whirlwind of the City of Light - April in Paris.

We return on Thursday, April 18, arriving in Omaha at a scheduled 3:49PM. I will try and update you on travels as we go, but know we are thinking of all of you , our friends and family as we “struggle” along. There will be no bickering among us, and hopefully four of us will return intact. Wish us Bon Voyage and Adieu.