Yia Sas, Ciao, and Au Revoir!

After 4 weeks of travelling both Lindsay and I feel like going home.

We have enjoyed our time away, but there is definitely something nice about sleeping in your own bed, not having to take public transportation, and being around friends and family.  So, with eager anticipation, we were up early, and out the door by 8am, catching metros and trains to Charles de Gaulle Airport, for our 11am flight back to Toronto.

It was all pretty smooth sailing, with a connecting flight in Toronto and Vancouver, as we were on Air Canada for all 3 legs of the flight, and there was only 2 hour waits at both Pearson and Vancouver Airports.   However, when we arrived in PG around 8:30pm we were ready for bed, even though we had been "resting" on the plane.

The only hiccup we faced is that somewhere along the way, during our return flight from Paris, we lost Lindsay's money belt which contained all her cards, minus her passport.  So, now that we're back in town we'll have to take care of that and hope she isn't a victim of identity fraud, but we'll do what we can and pray for the best.

Such a great trip, and until next time, yia sas, ciao, and au revoir.

One Last Day

We slept in a little bit today as we were still tired from the bike tour of Versailles yesterday, but even with a bit of sleep in we still made it to the Louvre around 10:30.

It was packed, once again!  The line in was a 2 hour wait, but because our tour guide from the day before gave us a tip about going in through a side entrance we actually saw that the line for people with the museum pass was empty, so we jumped the line and went straight in.  Once in, we did the Rick Steves tour of the Louvre, which was good, but only covered the highlights of the Denon wing (which houses the Mona Lisa, among other famous pieces of art and history).

The audio tour took through one part of the one wing (there are 3 wings, each with multiple parts) which we were happy with because even to do that small part of the whole museum took us about 3 hours.  We did get to see a few other famous pieces in addition to the Mona Lisa, such as the Winged Victory, Venus de Milo, and the Coronation of Napoleon.  The size of the museum is just incredible, and there was no way we would be able to cover it in less than a few days, and using a few audio tours, so we limited ourselves to just a few hours, and seeing some of the highlights.

After the Louvre we wandered west along the River Seine, taking our time and enjoying watching people.  We eventually ended up near the Saint Germain area and decided to grab lunch, so we stopped at a cafe; Lindsay ordered a french onion soup, and I ordered a quiche and salad, and then for dessert we shared the WORST crème brûlée‎ either of us have ever tasted.  It basically tasted and felt like scrambled eggs.

With that disaster of a dessert in our rear view mirror we went back to the hotel, wrote a couple blog posts, and then ran to KFC, (yes...Kentucky Fried Chicken) for dinner before heading out to the comedy show we purchased tickets to.

The show was good, but not great.  The comedian did a stand-up monologue on "How to Become a Parisian in 1 Hour".  He went through how to act like a Parisian in different circumstances, such as in a restaurant, in the metro, and during sex, and although at times it was very funny, neither Lindsay or I were wowed.  It isn't that he was overly vulgar, although there were times he pushed the envelope, it is just that we didn't find it side-splittingly funny...maybe that is because we recently watch Grumpier Old Men and the likes of Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau just cannot be beat...

After the show ended it was near 10pm, and we decided that it would be best to just get to the hotel and call it night, knowing that we had a long day of travel ahead of us.

Thank you Paris...it was great!

Versailles

A few days ago we booked a bike tour through Blue Bike Tours to go around the Palace and Grounds of Versailles.

Versailles was originally started by King Louis XIII as a hunting lodge, to get away from the stress of being a king.  He did a few expansions to the hunting lodge over the years, but it wasn't until King Louis XIV came around that most of the work to Versailles was done.  King Louis XIV did incredible expansions to Versailles, including building a Palace, a 1km long canal, over 1600 fountains and water features, elaborate horse stables, smaller summer houses, and a bunch of other work.  He was also the one who started to use Versailles, instead of Paris, as the official royal palace for the King of France.

His successors, King Louis XV and King Louis XVI also used Versailles as their primary place of residence, each of them adding new elements to Versailles, but not nearly to the same extent of what King Louis XIV did.  It was, however, King Louis XVI who was married to Marie Antoinette, and built her hamlet, and eventually was the king on the throne during the overthrowing of the Monarchy and French Revolution that lead to both of their beheading.

We met up with our tour group at one of the train stations in Paris, just before 9, and together, the 10 of us caught a couple trains out to Versailles, learning the the history of it from our Parisian tour guide, Agnes.

Once we arrived in Versailles we went to pick up our bikes, and then went to a farmers market to purchase some food for lunch, and snacks along the way.  We then hopped on our bikes and were lead by Agnes around the canal, and through some of the hunting grounds, which took us until 12:30 or so.

We kept a pretty good pace on the bikes, stopping at some of the sites to go explore, and here some more of the history from Agnes, who was a history major and had lots of information about Versailles and the royalty that lived there.

One of the best stops was at Marie Antoinette`s Hamlet, which she had built by King Louis XVI in the style of a farm, except she really didn`t know what farm life was like, so the houses were very elaborate inside.  The setting of this Hamlet was very picturesque, and looked like something in Disney Land, with it`s perfectly manicured lawns, gardens, and cute cottages.

From here it was almost 4pm by the time we got to The Palace, and although the lines were considerably shorter than they were when we arrived first thing in the morning, it was still a 1-hour wait to get in, and once we were in, it was PACKED!

It really was too bad that the palace was as packed with people as it was, because it was really beautiful and had lots of grand things to see, and history to learn, (we had a Rick Steves tour, once again).  But, within the first 30 minutes of being crammed into the hot, sweaty, claustrophobia-inducing palace, we were ready to leave, so did, and slowly made our way back on the train back to Paris, (but not before having McDonalds for dinner!)

We went back to the hotel, rested for a couple hours, and then went to a grocery store nearby around 9pm, to grab some snacks, drinks, and food for tomorrow`s breakfast.  We then hopped on the metro and made our way back to the Eiffel Tower once again to enjoy the lights and just sit back and relax and be tourists :)

Day 25 - A Few Sites Around Notre Dame

We slept in a little bit, until 8 or so, but as we wanted to make use of the museum pass we purchased we knew we needed to get out and about ASAP so we could see as many attractions as possible.

After a quick croissant breakfast at a local bakery, we caught a couple metros over to Notre Dame, as we figured it would have some of the longer lineups, (behind the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower)...unfortunately we were right.  It was about a 30 minute line up to get into the church part of Notre Dame, and then afterwards, another 1.5 hours to get through the line up to the Bell Tower.  Obviously the church and the stain glass and Gothic architecture are just amazing, as are the views from the top of the 422 step bell tower, but the lines and the waiting were just ridiculous.

We arrived at Notre Dame around 10:00am, and by the time we left around 2:30, we really didn't have much time to walk the Louvre as we had hoped we were going to be able to do.  So, with considerably less time left, we ate a quick crepe lunch, (which was actually a little gross because of all the cheese they put on the them) and did a Rick Steves walking tour which took us through the nearby Sainte-Chapelle, Conciergerie, and through a few other historic areas of Paris.

Sainte-Chapelle is another Gothic church near to Notre Dame, and what makes it famous is all the stain glass work it has.  The main church has an incredible amount of stain glass windows, all of which come together to tell the creation of man, through to the coming of Jesus, to the final judgement.

Conciergerie used to be used as a jail, and more specifically, the "Green Mile" of France, where people sat awaiting death, (generally a beheading).  They beheaded some 2600 people over the years, including Marie-Antoinette.  It is now purely used as a historic tourist attraction.

By the time we finished our Rick Steves tour and seeing some of the sites of historic Paris, we were nearing 6pm, so we caught a metro to the Arc de Triomphe and enjoyed spending some time atop the roof, looking out over the city, taking pictures.  As the Arc de Triomphe sits at one end of Champs-Élysées, (a large street with luxury shopping and restaurants) we decided to stroll down it, hoping to find a grocery store.  Eventually we did find one, after consulting a few sales associates at the Adidas store, so we bought some food for dinner, for breakfast, and some snacks.

We then made our way back to the Eiffel Tower to sit on the lawn and enjoy the sunset, some food, and each other`s company.

Paris!

We had to be out the door by 9:30am to catch our 12:30 flight, so there was no sleeping in today!

After a metro ride and a train ride...including missing one train because of some people who stood at the ticket machine for over 10 minutes because they couldn't figure out what to do...we were in the airport and checked in.

The flight from Rome to Paris is only 2 hours, so after landing, getting our gear, buying our 4 day museum pass and our 5 day transit pass, and taking the right metros and trains to our hotel, we checked in around 5pm and quickly made our way out to dinner. We found 2 restaurants near our hotel that were rated well on TripAdvisor, so we tried going to those, but both were closed, we figure, because it was a Sunday, so we just went to the next nearest restaurant.

Not wanting to waste any time, we took another metro straight to the Eiffel Tower, and stood in the 1.25 hour line to go up to the top! However, as we were about 5 minutes from buying our tickets they said they were closing the very top, so we only got to go up to the 2nd level, but Lindsay thought that was high enough :)

We spent maybe an hour up there just relaxing, taking in the views, taking photos, and just watching the sunset. It really was nice, even without being able to up any further.

The main lighting of the Tower is one one the sun sets, but every hour, from 10pm to 1am , for 5 minutes, they have these little white lights that come on and sparkle, making it look like the Tower is shimmering. It is really neat to see and captivates everyone both on a below the Tower for the short 5 minutes they are running.

After this we caught the metro back to the hotel, and sat and listened to the Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban audio-book for a while, then wen pt to bed.

Day 23 - Our Last Day in Rome

 Knowing that we would be running out of typical "touristy" things to do near the end of our 5 days in Rome we thought we should plan a day trip somewhere. We had thought of Pompeii, Pisa, and a few others, but all of them were a few hours away, and we didn't want to invest that kind of travel time into 1 day, so we decided on going to Ostia Antica.

Ostia Antica is the original port of Rome, only a 30 minute train ride away. It sat, 2000 years ago, at the "Ostia" or "mouth" of the Tiber river. Over the years Ostia enjoyed great success as a port, and as a large settlement for the everyday working man. However, within a few centuries, the mouth of the River changed directions and ended up a few kilometres north of Ostia Antica. A new port was built, and Ostia was largely abandoned. Thankfully though, it became buried with a few metres of silt and clay, which persevered much of its original structures, so it basically an entire city still intact!

Ostia had a road, paved with the typical large grey rocks Romans usually built roads with, and this road actually went straight into Rome. You can still see of the original wear patterns and ruts in the rocks caused from carts that were used on road back in its prime.

The tour took us until mid afternoon, after which we caught the train back, and got cleaned up for dinner.

We had actually planned to have a quick dinner and make it an early night, but after dinner we decided to do a walk up the main street towards the Colosseum, and noticed that the road was blocked off to cars. We had forgotten that night Rome was having their very first "Notte dei Fori", or "Night at the Forum." Rome is eventually trying to close off, permanently, the main street and make it pedestrian only traffic, with lots of street performers and entertainers, and tonight was a trial run.

We didn't stick around too much at first because we wanted to go get gelato and sit at the Trevi Fountain for a little while first, so we went to do that for an hour.

...and on my way there I tried my first Red Bull.

By the time we arrived back at the crowded forum it was packed! There must have been over 100,000 people there, but we made our way to one of the circus acts, and watched that until the finished. Once they were done, however, it was even more congested, and to add to the mess, there were a few thousand protesters there making a scene, because they wanted to bring awareness to their opposition to some new landfill Rome is building. Because of this debacle, the police were there blocking the roads, so we had find a long way around them, which was equally congested, and took us near an hour to walk the normally 15 minute route back to the B&B. It was an interesting night, and we were only too glad to go to sleep!

Day 22 - A Slower Day

Overall, today was a slower day.

We started our day a little bit later than normal, having slept in until around 9, but as we needed to find a laundromat and do a couple loads, we REALLY had a slow start.

Our host, Andrea, directed us to a laundromat nearby, which was great, but it was self-service, so we had to stick around for the next hour and bit to do the laundry ourselves.  In every other place we have done laundry, in Greece this trip and Thailand last, thy always just did it for you and then you could just pick it up at the end of the day.  So, as noon rolled around we finally headed out.

We made our way to the Jewish Ghetto, which is a 4 block around that housed some 8'000 Jews during the 19th century.  Rick Steve's lead us through the Ghetto and gave us some good background info.

As "it was really hot", Lindsay wanted to stay inside as much as possible, so we booked a tour of a really neat archaeological site/museum that is actually situated on top of an old domus (house) dating back to Ancient Rome.  The museum has all glass floors, and uses technology/lights/projectors/audio equipment to lead you through the whole house and explain how things were.  It was very worthwhile.

Then, in keeping with the "staying inside because it's too hot" bit, we actually retired to the B&B around 5:30, and stayed there until 8 or so, while Mike watched YouTube videos and Lindsay watched The Incredibles (which was the first movie we ever watched together, coincidentally).

We then went out for a quick bite to eat, walked around Piazza Novona, and made our way to the Spanish Steps to just sit and relax.

While there, Lindsay went to go sit on them while I took a few pictures, and within that short amount of time I was gone she had attracted two Italian gentlemen, who were trying to talk to her.  They were definitely 10 years our senior, and were a little creepy, so she was more than relieved when I got to her a couple minutes later, and they immediately left.  We then watched them for the next 15 minutes as they scoped out other potential "special friends".

We eventually made our way back to our room and called it a night.