An Unforgettable Adventure in France

 

 

It’s Writer Wednesday, where myself and some of my author friends get together to blog about the same topic. This month we’re sharing our favorite vacations.

I had a hard time choosing just one, but here are some photos from one of my absolute favorite vacations – a trip to Paris with my guy.  This was our 2nd trip to France and we spent an entire week living a little like Parisians. We stayed in a quaint little hotel on the Left Bank in the Montparnasse quarter, called Hotel du Midi. Which incidentally is the same hotel we stayed on our first trip to Paris. It’s super convenient to the Metro, a bakery where we could load up on chocolate croissants, and a market for yogurt, fruit, and bottled water.

Although the weather was a little cool, the spring flowers were in bloom and the city was alive with color. This is one of my favorite photos and was taken at Champ de Mars, the park that’s also home to the Eiffel Tower…

 

Ahhhh…Le Tour Eiffel… See that observation area on top of the tower? On a beautiful summer night many, many, many years ago (on our first trip to Paris), my guy asked me to marry him. Up there. Under the stars. With “The City of Light” glowing below us. It still makes me squee just thinking about it. (Truth be told – that’s probably my all-time favorite vacation but that was before digital cameras and I have only a handful of crappy photos that wouldn’t make for a good blog post.)

 

Our visit to The Notre-Dame Cathedral included a hike up 387 spiral stone stairs to the towers. After easing past the Emmanuel Bell, we stepped outside to see the stunning 360 degree view of Paris. But the best part was getting up close and personal with the massive stone gargoyles guarding the French Gothic cathedral. (So yeah – remember my previous comment about digital cameras. This trip was also taken before digital cameras were all the rage, and none of my gargoyle photos came out. But here’s one I found on Morguefile)

Isn’t he cool???  After visiting Notre-Dame, we headed for Île Saint-Louis. We crossed Pont Saint-Louis and a few blocks later we arrived at Berthillon – which has been called the “grande dame of glaces” and where you can get your ice cream topped with the most amazing Crème Chantilly. I still think about the delicious ice cream and will certainly go back the next time I’m in Paris.

 

Here’s the Pont des Arts, a pedestrian bridge that links the Louvre with the south side of the Seine. I believe I was taking this photo of the artist-guy in the center of the picture. I’m not sure what he was sketching, but he makes a good subject, doesn’t he?  I just love the cool artsy vibe around Paris. Especially all of the artists painting, sketching or busking on the bridges and next to the canal. Of course we visited the Louvre, but since we’d been before, we just picked a few exhibits to check out.

A different thing we did was a visit to The Catacombs, an underground cemetery in Paris. It was fascinating, but not for the squeamish or claustrophobic. We also took the train out to Versailles to check out their stunning gardens, all abloom for spring..

 

Perhaps the most memorable part of the trip was our excursion to Normandy. It was wicked cold and kind of rainy, for which we woefully unprepared. Can you see how cold I am in the photo?  I believe this was taken at Caen, where we stopped to visit the Memorial de Caen. Then we were off to Omaha Beach…

It was sobering and humbling to stand on the cliff, listen to the waves crash in the distance, and think about what those soldiers faced as they landed on those shores…

It’s definitely a trip I will never forget. Do you have one of those? Feel free to share in the comments..

And some of my writer friends are sharing their stories. Please stop by and say hi.

Tamra Baumann      |     Kay Hudson     |      Jean Willett

Carol Post       |       Sharon Wray