Trip to France - Day 3 - Paris

One of the fun things about the metro in Paris is that all of the different stations have different seats in them. This was a picture of the seats in our nearest metro station.  We loved these seats because they reminded us of childhood.  My Grandpa Crane made chairs and stools out of old implement seats.  Yulia remembers similar seats from her childhood visits to the countryside (Soloneshnoye). 

Wednesday morning we did the Paris tourist thing.  We took the metro to the Louvre and got out.  We were there right before it opened, got through okay and spent about three hours walking around the museum.  We have been to a lot of museums.  The Hermitage in St. Petersburg and the Vatican Museum both have impressive collections and are huge.  The Louvre was similar.  Of course, the Louvre is home to the Mona Lisa and so we got to experience that. 

Implement seats!

At the Louvre entrance (underground)

The Mona Lisa photobombed us!

One hallway full of priceless art from the masters.

Mary and Elizabeth - one of our favorite paintings.

Early scientific instruments

How the royals lived in France.

One of Yulia's favorite art pieces.

Taking a quick breather

Statues in a little courtyard.

The Louvre from the outside.

Look at how much fun we are having. In France!!!!

After we had our fill of museum, we exited and oriented ourselves and walked to the Notre Dame cathedral.  We especially loved the stained glass windows.  Our favorite cathedral is still the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, but this was beautiful as well. We were there just a few weeks before it caught fire, so it was good timing for us. 

We found a nice little cafe and ordered Croque Madame sandwiches.  This cafe was everything we had expected from Paris from the arrangement to the demeanor of the waitress and patrons.  It was a fun experience (and one of our most expensive meals....)

Seine River on the walk to Notre Dame.

We passed this clock on our walk and really liked it. Reminded us of Prague.

Notre Dame Cathedral.

Beautiful stained glass rose windows.

Carved statues depict Biblical scenes.

Joan of Arc statue.

Inside was quite dark .

Lunch at a Parisian cafe.

Parisian views.

You may not be surprised to learn that we went to see the Eiffel Tower.  We didn't want to climb it or wait in line, so we mostly just admired the view and enjoyed the day.  We were surprised at how far from the center of the city the tower is and just how much it doesn't dominate the landscape.  It was fun to have those conceptions challenged while being in a place that was "familiar" through popular culture.

Just look at these happy kids. So much selfie fun in Paris!

After returning from our adventures we rested for awhile in our hotel room and then went out to eat dinner.  We went to a little place a couple of blocks away that was a Tunisian/Algerian restaurant that specialized in couscous.  It was truly a little hole in the wall place.  We were the first customers, but by the time we left it was really filling up.  We really loved the food and  the atmosphere.  The place also specialized in cocktails, including non-alcoholic ones, and we ordered those and just loved them.

Sauce with peas to put on the couscous.

Look how yummy that looks, and how cute the dishes are!

Trip to Paris - Day 2 - Bayeux, Normandy

Our bed and breakfast included a wonderful breakfast.  We shared it with a nice couple from the US who had traveled to Bayeux the day before by train and who were taking a tour of all the sites with a group during the day.  They told us that the train system in Paris was a bit wild, and so they had a bit of a tough time getting to Bayeux.  They were very nice and we had a great breakfast with them.

After eating breakfast, we took a walk through Bayeux.  We went to the cathedral and wandered through it.  It was quiet (and being renovated like many cathedrals we have seen in Europe) and quite beautiful.  After walking through the cathedral, we walked through town.  The old town was just like it had been centuries ago and was quite interesting.  

The breakfast spread.

Looking out toward the front from the breakfast nook.

Our bed and breakfast.

The adventurous travelers.

Downtown Bayeux (cathedral to the left)

A close-up of the cathedral.

Inside the cathedral. Beautiful stained glass windows were everywhere.

 

We followed a map that Yulia had and found the British Military cemetery in downtown Bayeux.  There are about 4,600 buried there from all over the British empire.  We really liked the tombstones in the cemetery because they were more detailed.  The Americans were mostly young men.  Many of the British dead were middle aged and fathers.  The cemetery was well-kept and we were very glad to have found it on a quiet morning to have for ourselves.

Tombstones at the British Cemetery ion Bayeux.

 
After the cemetery, we returned to the bed and breakfast and checked out.  We drove to  Longues-sur-Mer where there is still a battery of German guns that had been used by the Nazis on D-Day as part of their defense of Normandy.  We arrived at the same time as a few groups, but the site was huge and we essentially spent our time alone looking at the site.  It was larger than the Ponte du Hoc site with lots of guns and a series of tunnels and ammunition sites that was very extensive.

After we had seen the battery at Longues-sur-Mer, we got back on the road.  We stopped to fill up with fuel and to eat lunch at a rest stop along the way.  We were surrounded by a group of teenage boys who were there on some kind of a trip.  It was fun.  Driving into Paris was a bit congested, but we made it to the airport (with the help of our GPS) and returned the car without incident.

French Road Warriors!

We figured out the trains into Paris and made a switch and got onto the subway and made it to our hotel.  It was a nice little modern room and the price was very reasonable.  We were a block from the subway station and in a quiet neighborhood, so we were happy with the accommodations. We decided to go out and get dinner and get to bed since we were quite tired from all the traveling.  We went out at 7:00 and found a restaurant that was open.  It was not very full at the time, but it filled up as we were eating.  

The name of the Restaurant was "Les Fabricants" and it was Basque food, family style.  And it was amazing.  We ordered a salad and escargot as appetizers.  You can see the size of the "salad" in the picture below. Our meals (I had duck con-fit) also came with salads, which was the same thing just half the size.  We left very full, but very in love with Basque cooking as well.  We slept well, ready for our standard Parisian adventure the next day. 

Trip to France - Day 1 - Normandy

In March we got a wild hair, well Yulia did, and we planned a quick spring break trip to France.  I had always thought I wouldn't like to go to France (a lot of this was quite stupid bias on my part and a bit of Machismo.) Yulia said we could do Paris AND Normandy, though, so I got on board.  We left the kids home with Babushka and went on our own.  This is the third time we've done this since we've been in Kazakhstan (Kyrgyzstan, Georgia, and now France) and it is nice to travel just the two of us.

Yulia got a fantastic deal on flights through Belavia, the national carrier of Belarus, and we were on our way.

Waiting for our early morning flight out of Astana (it was still Astana when we left.)

The Belavia flights were pretty nice - scaled back, but comfortable, clean, and with nice little food boxes.  The layover in Minsk was quick and fine.  The plane that we flew to Paris on was branded with "World of Tanks" and was painted like a tank, had tank decals inside and had special announcements.  Apparently, World of Tanks is one of Belarus's main exports.  It was fun.

When we landed in Paris and cleared customs, we rented a car.  We got the GPS option (great choice on our part) and besides getting lost on our way out of the airport (we went around the circle in the center of the airport three times before I figured it out), we were on the road and fine.  We drove for about two hours and stopped at a roadside McDonald's for lunch.  We eat McDonald's when we travel because it is fast and you always know what you'll get.  Don't worry, we also ate French food, but on the road, McDonald's was fine.

On the road.

We went immediately to the American Cemetery at Normandy.  The visitor's center was closed, but we had the cemetery almost to ourselves and we took our time.  It was very overwhelming.  The cemetery is so well cared for and the different monuments and explanations are very well done.  It was a very moving experience for me especially.

Overlooking the beaches at Normandy

Looking out over the beach.

Rows and rows of crosses and stars of David.

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After we had visited the American cemetery at Normandy, we drove to Pointe du Hoc, which was the site of a ranger assault on the cliffs where a German gun position was located. The craters from the naval bombardment are still visible, filled now with thorny flower bushes.

The fortified positions are still there.  Guns were disabled, but the concrete is still there.  Part of a series of fortifications stretching all along the Atlantic coast.

A view of the how steep the cliffs were where the assault took place. Normandy beaches are just past the little Peninsula.

Driving through little villages along the Normandy Coast.

Yulia had made reservations in the little town of Bayeux at a little bed and breakfast that overlooked the cathedral in the city, one of the most famous in France. We found the place without much trouble and checked in.  After checking in we went looking for somewhere to eat.  That was a problem, because apparently most places in town are by reservation only (and they don't open without reservations), but we found a little restaurant in a different hotel that was open already.

I had a little casserole and Yulia had a beefsteak with fries.  It was a nice meal and more "peasant French" than fine dining, but was delicious.

A view from our hotel room.

Dinner!

Out walking in France!

The cathedral lit up at night.  It was a very beautiful building.

Our first day in France was done.  We had successfully taken a road trip, seen the sites at Normandy that I was most interested in seeing, and had a nice French meal. We were off to a great start.