Friday, August 30, 2019

Lake Como, Italy

Bellagio

We flew from Paris to Milan, then we were picked up by a driver at the airport who drove us to Hotel du Lac in Bellagio - it was money well spent rather than taking a train and a ferry after the airport.  The road was so narrow as we traveled along the lakeside we were happy we weren't driving it either!

Beautiful spot, and a great hotel.





Roof top lounge at our hotel had amazing views.





Ferries travel consistently back and forth between the little towns on Lake Como.







Ted had the best brushetta at this place; all others of the trip have to measure up to it...



And after three nights visiting Bellagio, Varenna and a couple of other lakeside towns by ferry it was time to take the train to Venice.

Wednesday, August 28, 2019

Musee d'Orsay and Disneyland Paris


We saw some historical artwork one day, and then present day artwork the next - two very different mediums and yet both enjoyable but in different ways.



Even the museum building itself is interesting.



Monet classic


Monet, Van Gogh - there was so much artwork to see.


Then the next day we took the train 45 minutes away to Disneyland.




I had to go on the tea cups, wouldn't miss it.



Terrifying ride!  It was a roller coaster that went upside down, fortunately Ted saw his iPhone  on the floor of the car we were riding in as we were getting out.  



Ratatouille 3D ride was very cute





And afterwards Ted even caught a glimpse of Minnie.  A hot day with long lines but it was fun!



Sunday, August 25, 2019

Luxembourg Gardens


There's lots of people walking the streets of Paris with Google maps open on their phones, and we're one of them.  It shows how to get to a place but it's never quite the straight line that you think it'll be.  A 10 minute walk quickly turned into 20 but we did manage to find Luxembourg Gardens, it's beautiful there and I didn't want to miss it.  The park is so well-used and I think that too is one of the things I like best about it.








Many families having their evening picnic - probably no air conditioning at home.




Pony rides are over for the day.



Later on we found a lovely street side cafe to have dinner, we dined fashionably late!


It was another full day in Paris and it was nice to just sit and relax and enjoy the evening.

Saturday, August 24, 2019

Versailles

Fat Tire Bike Tour

Another early morning with a trip planned to Versailles so we began by taking the Metro to meet our tour group, there were fourteen of us in total.  After we were given our bikes we went to the market in the town of Versailles to buy lunch and then we were off to bike the vast grounds.  We stopped for lunch beside the Grand Canal and then it was off to see Marie Antoinette's recreation of a 'commoners village' where she spent most of her time with her friends.










Our bike tour guide was a bit too intense about giving all the history of the revolution etc, it was pretty hot to stand and list to so after six hours we were ready to go exploring on our own.  




The Hall of Mirrors


The view of the grounds - who wouldn't want that for their backyard?  If the fountains were on we would have been tempted to jump in, it was 30 degrees Celsius and it felt even hotter.

Thursday, August 22, 2019

Paris

We're Here!


It was a bit of a long day to get here but we made it, found our apartment and a restaurant nearby to have a bite to eat and then settle in for the night. Then we were up early to get to the Eiffel Tower as we had tickets to go to the summit at 9am, and our Uber driver didn't show up so it was a bit of a scramble to make it on time.








Champagne at the top


Eiffel Tower tradition! 



         After the Eiffel Tower it was on to the Arc de Triumph and Champs-Elysees


Swarovski staircase



And we ended our day at Sacre Cour Cathedral.




A fun-filled day in Paris.