Cheers Old Chap - London Day 2

On Day 2 in London we switched from the history of Britain in general to the history of some very specific British people: the British Royal Family. Buckingham Palace is only open for tours at certain times of the year. Since May is not one of those times, we had to settle for Windsor Castle, Kensington Palace and the places were the past royals were all married. 

Our first stop of the day was Windsor Castle. This is not located in downtown London, so to get there, you need to take the the tube slightly out of town. By train: To Windsor from London Waterloo or London Paddington stations. The Paddington train requires a change of train at Slough where you catch the shuttle service down the branch line to Windsor. The journey takes about 40 mins. We naturally gave ourselves an hour and a half to get there to allow ourselves plenty of time to get lost. We also always like to get to things when they first open in the mornings to minimize crowds. Fortunately for us, nothing was crowded in London in mid-May. The weather was chilly but not unseasonably cold. With jeans, a t-shirt and a light jacket, we were good for most of the trip.

Our day at Windsor was lovely. When we arrived, we could see the flag flapping in the wind which meant the Queen was occupying the castle the day we were there. My favorite thing inside the castle was the massive dollhouse. This is a must see for any doll loving girls. If you take the regular tour of the castle, you don't miss it. 

The grounds outside of the castle were also extensive and lovely to walk. It gave you great views of the castle besides the walk up to the entrance. We also took a tour of St. Georges Chapel which resides on the property as well. This is where knighting services are performed and you can see the rooms where the knights congregate for official meetings. We stayed for the changing of the guard and then headed back to London for the afternoon. 

Walking up to Windsor Castle

After lunch, we gave ourselves a walking tour of some famous sights in London. We walked past Parliament and Big Ben on our way to Westminster Abbey and St. Paul's Cathedral. Much of London seemed like it was under construction while we were there, so we found it difficult to get a ton of pictures. Here's a tip for you if you can't get good pictures of things: buy postcards! I'm an avid scrapbooker and love nothing more than to reminisce about my trips for weeks afterwards while I put my pictures into an album. In recent years I've gone completely electronic with my albums, but that doesn't change the fact that when I'm unable to capture a good picture of something, I buy a postcard of it, so that I can remember how it really looked. (Or in some cases, how it was supposed to look). Other times, postcards are great when photographs of certain things aren't permitted. Unlike France that allowed you to photograph everything, England prohibited photographs inside most places. Postcards are cheap and a great picturesque keepsake. 

I greatly enjoyed Westminster Abbey. It was neat seeing where so many royal coronations and weddings had taken place (though the most recent royal wedding of William and Kate was just a dream when we visited in 2009). From seeing where the royals wed, we went to Kensington Palace, where many royals past, present, and future call home. 

Westminster Abbey - cloudy skies and bad camera angles made me glad for postcards of this beautiful church

While I enjoyed seeing Kensington Palace, I was also slightly disappointed by it. I clearly didn't expect to be able to have a guided tour through the currently royals' living quarters, but I was hoping for something of a representation of their living quarters. Instead, they had 2 museum-like exhibits set up in the basement of the palace, and we weren't permitted access anywhere else. I don't know if this exhibit is still on display, but what drew me there in the first place was an exhibit of Princess Diana's dresses. 

Before that, however, you had to go through an exhibit of the last debutant ball held by the queen. It was a strange but rather interesting exhibit, though my husband found it horribly boring. The debutant life is reserved only for the upper crust of society in the United States but in England, it was something of a social frenzy. It was neat to see the pictures and footage of the preparations the girls went through prior to the ball. I can't say we would have gone through an exhibit like this on our own, but since it was connected to the Diana dress exhibit, we saw it anyway. I loved seeing Diana's dresses. They were stunning, creative, and a fashion blast from the past. Beside many of the dresses, they had photographs of footage reels of Diana wearing them during her life. The best part is that they allowed picture-taking.

Just one display of Princess Diana's famous dresses with a movie reel in the background

After Kensington Palace we made our way to London's West End (aka the theater district). In addition to being a huge history buff, I am also a theater lover. Some of the happiest moments of my life are those I have spent on the stage acting, singing, and dancing. To me, no trip to London would be complete without at least one show on London's equivalent of Broadway.

I researched shows ahead of time and bought tickets in advance for the show Billy Elliot. I goofed a little bit when buying tickets because I was hoping to catch the original cast of a show. I saw that Billy Elliot had just opened that year on Broadway in NYC, so I was hoping the same would be true for London's West End. WRONG. When we got to London, I realized that Billy Elliot had already been running for 6 years. Oops. Guess there would be no original cast for me, but the show was still phenomenal! 

Victoria Palace Theater in London, England

We got to London's West End a few hours before the show, so we enjoyed walking around a little bit, shopping, and getting dinner. I just mentioned that I love doing theater. Well, about a year after my husband and I got married, we had the opportunity of playing Molly and Giles Ralston in the famous Agatha Christie murder mystery, The Mousetrap. I don't exactly recall the specifics, but there is some rule about the show not being able to be turned into a movie or that the cast has to take an oath not to reveal the ending until after the show completes it's original run on the West End. When we did the show with our theater company back in 2007, we learned that almost 50 years later, The Mousetrap had still not completed its original run making it the longest running show in history. 

It had escaped my mind as the next two years went by, when as we were shopping in some theater boutiques in London, I saw t-shirts and souvenir programs celebrating the 50th anniversary of The Mousetrap. Suddenly, I decided that I wanted to see a performance of that show as well. We already had a full day of activities for the next day, but they offered a matinee performance, so we spend a little bit of time figuring out how we could still see everything we planned while squeezing in an afternoon show. Without too much trouble, we rearranged things a bit, and bought matinee tickets with pretty good seats. I suppose that after running for 50 years, tickets for a random Tuesday afternoon wouldn't be in that high of a demand. 

After that we got dinner at a cute pub with a nicer dining room upstairs. We explained to the waitress that we had a 7:00 show to catch, so she made sure we were done and out in enough time to make it back to the theater. 

Billy Elliot was a great show. For anyone who enjoys classic musical theater with some amazing choreography, this is a great show for you. I don't think it's still running in London or on Broadway, but if you ever happen catch a professional tour, it's definitely worth your time. There are some definite mature themes, so make sure you do your homework before taking small children to see it. 

What's this? We weren't in bed until almost 11:00 that night. But that didn't deter us one bit. What is one thing everyone has to see when they visit London? The famous tower and the crown jewels. That was our first stop the next morning, and we wouldn't let a little fatigue stand in our way of getting up early to beat the crowds. 

The journey continues with London Day 3 HERE. 

Thanks for reading!

- Foxy the Traveler

Cheers Old Chap - London Day 1

For those of you just joining me, I am currently half way sharing my tales of my 2 week European extravaganza in France and England. My previous posts cover my activities both in Paris and around the French Countryside (including the Loire Valley, Mont St. Michel, Normandy, and Caen). After a week of baguettes and croissants, we headed across the English Channel to the land of fish 'n chips. We used the Eurostar website to book our train from Paris to London which I highly recommend. We didn't exactly love Paris (read why here), but we really enjoyed the rest of our time in France. Spending the second week in England was a nice change of pace after France. In Italy, we suffered from severe travelers fatigue after two weeks. After a week in France, we were already a little worn, but England gave us renewed energy for a new adventure in a language more familiar to us. People in France, for the most part, spoke enough English for us to get by, and I remembered enough of my high school French to fill in the gaps. Language barriers always cause me some extra travel anxiety, so when we arrived in England, it was nice for that to go away. Our schedule in England was very similar to France. We had 3 days in the city followed by 4 days in the countryside. Today's blog covers London Day 1.

As soon as we arrived in London, we got British Pounds from the ATM and hailed a taxi to take us to the Hilton London Metropole Hotel. I struggled a lot with finding a good London hotel. I ended up picking this hotel because it met all of my requirements and also got slightly better reviews than the others I looked at. (I browsed their website before posting this, and it looks like they're undergoing a renovation which is good and bad. Good if you get a renovated room; bad if you get an old room near construction noise.) One thing I will say about this hotel is that we had a horrible experience with them one of our first days there, but their management really came through for us. My husband carries a lot of his toiletries in a plastic grocery bag. One day, by accident, the maid threw that bag away which contained his soap, cologne, deodorant, etc. for the rest of the trip. (Even though cologne is on my "do not carry" list for traveling, he brought it anyway.) Lots of those things were easily replaced, but the cologne was pretty expensive. We asked the hotel immediately, and the maid admitted to throwing the bag away. The hotel took our address and said they would mail us items that they could find. Both of us rolled our eyes and vowed to give this hotel a scathing review when we got home. But about two weeks after we got home, a package arrived in the mail. Sure enough, the hotel manager replaced as many of the items as he could including the cologne. He also included a handwritten letter of apology for what happened. Sucky accident, but gold star for customer service!

Back to the trip.

On our first day in London we went to Mme. Tussauds wax museum, the British Museum, and the Imperial War Museum. I highly recommend all three of these activities, and they filled the day nicely. Mme. Tussauds is a personal preference. I went to one first in Las Vegas and had a blast there. It was so fun for me to see life-size figures of famous people, historical figures, and British Royals. And each Mme. Tussauds is slightly different, so it's not like if you've seen one, you've seen them all. The Washington DC one has all of the US Presidents while the one in London has more emphasis on the British Royal family (naturally). My husband thinks I'm nuts (and tickets aren't super cheap - £22.50-£30.00 for adults) but I think they're so fun! (I'm planning our trip to Southeast Asia, and I was so excited to see that there's one in Bangkok AND Singapore. But I, being the good wife that I am, will not make my husband go to BOTH. Haha!) TIP - Tickets are cheaper if you buy them online in advance. Not to mention that Mme Tussauds is your best chance to see the Queen!

Meet the Queen at Mme. Tussauds in London

Stop two for the day was the British Museum. This is a great place for budget travelers because it's FREE! And don't let the title fool you. While there is a lot of information on British history here, think of it more as the Louvre of London. There are exhibits from nearly every culture and every period in history. One of the coolest things that we saw was the Rosetta Stone. The actual Rosetta Stone. What's funny is that I didn't expect it to be an actual stone. :)

The Rosetta Stone at the British Museum in London

I'm sure one could spend many more hours than we did at the British Museum, but military history is more my cup of tea, so I was anxious to get to the Imperial War Museum. This, like the British Museum, is also free, so it makes the hefty ticket price to Mme Tussauds a little easier to stomach.

I really enjoyed this museum. Their exhibits are constantly changing, but if it's still there, go through the World War I exhibit which is an interactive, life-size trench warfare experience. I think it was designed for kids, but I still found it fascinating. There is also a very moving Holocaust exhibit. If you've never been to the Holocaust Museum in Washington DC (which is by far the best), I encourage spending some time in the exhibit here in London.

Imperial War Museum in London

Unlike Paris where we walked almost everywhere (sometimes without realizing just how far we were going to walk), we took the underground (tube) most places in London.

Now should be the time where I tell you that we sat down to a nice dinner and had a blast scoping out the hip night life, but I've already established that I travel like an old nerd. I wake up early and see as much as I can see in a single day before everything closes at 6PM. Then I do sit down to dinner, but it's usually at a cheap cafe or pub where I can dine and be done in an hour. Back to the hotel and in bed by 8:30-9:00. Why? Because I'll be up at 4:30-5:00AM the next day to start all over again. And it's not that my beauty regimen takes hours, but because there are several housekeeping things that I do throughout the trip to help future trips be more efficient.

First, I journal daily about the day's events and what I enjoyed or didn't enjoy to help me remember it better. Sadly, I didn't start this until my trip to Japan in 2012, but I've done it for every trip since and will continue doing it for all future trips. Second, I take a daily look at costs. I have a sheet where I record every penny we spent that day from the cost of the hotel to the ice cream we got from a street vendor. When I get home, I put everything onto a spreadsheet by category. That helps me get an accurate idea of budgeting for future trips. In a previous post, I mentioned that I used to budget $100/day for food for 2 people. After Italy and France and England, I realized that we don't spend even close to $100/day on food. This has done two things. It's helped me budget more realistically for future trips, but it's also helped me see where we can afford to enjoy a little more luxury. (This came in very handy during our trip to Dubai which I'll blog about later.)

That's all for London Day 1. HERE are the highlights from Days 2 and 3 including Windsor Castle, the Tower of London, Westminster Abbey and some reviews of 2 fabulous shows on London's West End.

Thanks for reading!

- Foxy the Traveler

France's West Coast (Mont St. Michel, Normandy, and Caen)

After our lovely stay at the Altos Hotel, we checked out early and drove about an hour until we reached the car park of the awesome Mont St. Michel. (Quick note about the hotel: back in 2009 we made our reservations for this hotel through hotels.com which worked fine. The hotel's website is more advance now and looks like booking is available directly through them. Always shop around for the best rate, but I'm a supporter of booking directly through the hotel's actual website whenever possible.) Our plan for the day was to spend the morning touring the cathedral on the top of this island mountain village and then spend the afternoon at the D-Day memorial in Normandy.

Do your research before planning to drive to Mont St. Michel. There is a giant car park at the foot of the "mountain" though during high tide, the car park is under water. Just make sure that you plan on getting there after the tide leaves and that you depart before the tide returns. It would be terrible to come back and find your car under water. (Though the internet pictures are funny to look at!)

We arrived at Mont St. Michel about 45-60 mins before the cathedral opened, so we enjoyed a leisurely stroll directly up hill until we reached the top. On our way, we stopped for a hot beverage and some sweet pastries. The whole experience of this place is spectacular. The cathedral itself is beautiful with an interesting history, but I also equally enjoyed walking around. Do people really call this rock island home? It was as fascinating to me (if not more so) than the locals on the Isle of Capri in Italy. How is one born into a place like this? As we were leaving, some storm clouds were rolling in, and I was able to get this picture.

Mont St. Michel

The dark clouds didn't amount to anything which relieved us. The drive from Mont St. Michel to the beaches of Normandy took about 1.5 hours. Our original plan was to spend the afternoon at the D-Day museum and spend some time seeing the beaches and monuments the next day, but the museum didn't take as long as we thought, we we were able to see both that afternoon.

D-Day Memorial

The skies turned back to blue, but the wind picked up. As we walked among the grave stones of the fallen D-Day soldiers, we were nearly knocked over by the wind. Oddly enough, it was calmer as we walked closer to the water's edge. Seeing Normandy is very sobering. Obviously the events of D-Day happened decades before my lifetime, but as I pictured scenes from the first 10 mins of the movie "Saving Private Ryan" and thought about how similar things happened in this exact location right before my eyes, the calm, serene waters seemed very harsh and merciless. There's more to see there than just the sandy shores. There are monuments and old underground artillery bunkers to see as you walk around.

Omaha Beach

From the Normandy beaches, the city of Caen is just a 20-30 min drive. We stayed at the Best Western Hotel Moderne which is literally in the center of town. We had no problem finding the street the hotel was on, but we must have spent 15-20 minutes driving around and around and around looking for the actual hotel entrance. It had a parking garage underneath it which is a big reason why we picked it (also because it was a 4-star hotel under $200/night).  The hotel had a great central Caen location, so after we checked in, we spent the rest of the evening strolling the town, souvenir shopping, and eating dinner.

May 16 was our last day in France and...my birthday!! Since we saw all of the Normandy sites on our list the previous day, we had a free morning until we had to drive back to Paris and catch our train to London. What better way to spend a free day, than learning more about the city you're already in? We didn't really do any research ahead of time, but our hotel had several things they recommended including a cathedral in the center of town and the fortress of William the Conqueror. I don't remember much about the cathedral, but I really enjoyed William the Conqueror's fortress. William the Conqueror was the first ruler of England, so our time there very fittingly tied into the theme of the day since we woke up in France and would fall asleep in England.

Fortress of William the Conqueror

After spending a few hours seeing the sites of Caen, we relaxed for a while at a cafe in Caen before heading back to Paris. The drive was just over 3 hours, but we didn't mind it at all. We drove mid-day with light traffic, and we were excited to continue our journey across the English Channel. Although one might question why we drove all the way back to Paris only to take a train over to England, the answer was simple. A train ticket from Caen to London was more expensive and had a layover in Paris. What? How does that make any sense? But we didn't try to figure out the logic, we just went with it.

We returned out rental car back to Hertz, took the Paris metro to the main train depot, got dinner, and found our "terminal" at the station. What delighted me about this experience was going through customs. When we were in Italy, we drove across the Swiss border one day, and their idea of customs was to pay a toll charge. Customs and security in Paris was more similar to an airport but much more lax. We went through metal detectors and had our passports stamped. At one point during the process, we officially crossed onto British soil (even though we hadn't gone anywhere), so that we didn't have to go through immigration once we arrived in London.

The train itself was comfortable enough. The ride was 2.5 hours though we only lost 1.5 hours since England is in a different timezone. On the way under the English Channel my husband occupied our time with a little birthday surprise which included a puzzle game and a pretty present. When I opened it, he was certain I had "snooped" since the souvenir I bought earlier in Caen matched it perfectly. I promise I didn't peak!!

Well friends, that concludes our short stay in France though our entire trip was only half way done. My next blog series continues highlighting our stay in London followed by several days in the English countryside.

Thanks for reading!

- Foxy the Traveler

France's Loire Valley and the 4 C Chateaus

After a memorable but somewhat disappointing couple of days in Paris, I was more than eager to bid this busy city farewell and head south to the Loire Valley (Tours, France). The Loire Valley is home to many of France's most famous chateaus, and we planned on spending 2 full days driving around area. Getting a rental car was our first objective. As I've mentioned before, I can't emphasize enough the importance of a backup rental car. (Most times you don't have to give credit card information to reserve them, so you lose nothing by reserving more than one.) We used our back up car in Italy, so we knew the importance of having a Plan B. In Paris, our primary car rental (based on price, of course) was Avis. Our backup car was through Hertz. When we got to the Avis counter at the Paris airport, they had the automatic car we reserved, but not the GPS we reserved with it. I had printed maps with turn by turn directions for the entire trip, but the last thing I wanted to do was rely on my own navigational skills. (Of which I have none...just so we're clear on that.) After a bit of unsuccessful arguing with them, we went over to the hertz counter. They were able to give us an automatic car and a GPS. The backup car saves the day yet again! This is my rental car takeaway; hertz rocks. They're more expensive for sure, but they've also been the single most reliable international brand in my own personal experience.

Getting out of Paris was a little tumultuous (mostly due to traffic and navigating the roads and unfamiliar signs), but it wasn't long before we bid the rainy, dreary city au revoir, and headed for the countryside. I don't know if it was coincidence or what, but the minute we drove beyond the city limits, the sun came out and the sky turned blue. This would forever cement our disdain for Paris, but I wasn't ready to give up on all of France just yet. Our first destination (or our first "C" chateaux) was the Chateau de Chambord. Have you ever had the raspberry liquor Chambord? It's made here (even though I think it's kinda gross)!  Just over 2 hours from Paris, we drove here easily and arrived right as the chateau was opening for the day. I know we just saw Versailles the day before, and that it is supposed to be one of the most magnificent palaces in the world. And while I agree that it was pretty great, and we enjoyed spending the day there, the Chateau de Chambord was definitely more up my alley. The chateau itself was stunning (my favorite out of the 4 C's that we would see over the next 2 days), and the rural setting was far more soothing that the busy Parisian streets.

Chateau de Chambord 

We spent a couple of hours here touring this massive chateau and spending some time walking around the grounds. We got sandwiches (avec jambon...with ham) at a little food stand by the chateau before continuing on to the next one. 

What I loved about the Loire Valley even more than the clean air, open spaces, and sunny days (can you tell I'm not a city girl??) were all the flowers! In Paris, we walked through many parks and gardens (including the Luxembourg gardens) but just didn't see the types of roses and other flowers that we saw on the grounds of these magnificent chateaus. 

The second "C" chateau we saw that day was the Chateau de Cheverny. Only about a 25 min drive from Chambord, what this chateau lacked in majesty, it made up for in flora. As we approached the entrance to the chateau, we were escorted by the most beautiful wall of red roses. 

Wall of roses at the Chateau de Cheverny

I don't honestly remember too much about the inside of this chateau. I'm sure there was a stately dining hall and elegant sleeping chambers, but nothing struck me at exceptionally noteworthy. What I do remember about our visit to Cheverny aside from the lovely, fragrant roses, was the fact that the property had a history of raising hunting hounds. We could even walk the grounds over to the hound quarters where we could see them sleeping away their lazy May afternoon. One whiff of the interior of that building however, and we ran as far away as quickly as we could. The pungent odor of stinky dog blazed through our nostrils leaving us gasping for fresh air. Warning friends: this is a lovely chateau to visit, but hold your breath if you go see the hunting dogs. They're cute and furry and adorable while sleeping, but the smell could make even the toughest of eyes water. 

Chateau de Cheverny in Loire Valley, France

By the time we left Cheverny it was mid/late-afternoon. Our hotel for the evening was something of a special sort. When doing research for hotels in the area, it occurred to me that for as much as I loved touring these beautiful manor houses, I would love even more to stay the night in one. Keeping my budget (less than $200/night) in mind, I began a hunt for a chateau that had been converted into a bed and breakfast. 

After a hefty search, I came across Chateau Du Plessis (37360 Saint-Antoine-du-Rocher, France).  Sadly, the website for this lovely bed and breakfast has been disabled, so I fear it's no longer open. It was only an hour from the Chateau de Cheverny, and while our GPS system was unable to find it, it got us within 5-10 mins of the B&B with the website directions getting us the rest of the way there. 

It is really in the middle of nowhere but still a stunning restored chateau. The only place we were able to find food was a grocery store, so we got ourselves a baguette, cheese, and lunchmeat and had a lovely picnic dinner on the grounds of our chateau hotel. 

Chateau du Plessis: Saint-Antoine du Rocher

We stayed only one night, and the next morning, the lady of the house made us a delicious breakfast with bacon and eggs. We had a long day of driving ahead of us which included stopping at the last 2 of the 4 "C" chateaus. 

Our first stop for the day was the Chateau de Chaumont. I regrettably remember the least about this chateau. It was undergoing a conservation effort, and we didn't have much appreciation for the art displayed throughout the chateau. Speaking of art, in the gardens adjacent to the chateau there was a bizarre outdoor "art" festival going on. With some time to spare, we decided to check out this festival of color. It wasn't exactly our cup of tea, but some of the things we saw were so very odd that we actually enjoyed the hour we spent here. 

One of the art exhibits. Not exactly sure what it was supposed to be...

The last place on our 4 C's Chateau tour was the Chateau de Chenonceau. This was my second favorite after Chambord. It was only 30 mins from Chaumont and the GPS helped us find it easily. Aside from our chateau hotel, the GPS was able to give us accurate turn by turn directions to every chateau we saw those two days. We even took a quick detour to the Chateau de Beauregard but only went so far as to take a quick photo of the outside and walk the grounds a bit. There is an old chapel in the forest that made for a fun little adventure.

The Chateau de Chenonceau was really a neat place to visit. Aside from the main structure, an "addition" was added that stretched out over the river. This grand gallery was used for balls and banquets and then converted to a hospital during World War I. Its unique history spans 400+ years and the docents at the chateau were very friendly and knowledgable. 

Gallery at Chateau de Chenonceau

There are so many chateaus in the Loire Valley. You could easily see more than the 4 we picked though after seeing too many, they all tend to blend together. This can happen anywhere. In Germany we got saturated with castles. In Kyoto we got saturated with temples. My best advice is to pick a couple that sound really neat to you, and spend the rest of your time on other activities. 

Our time in the Loire Valley came to a close, and we got back in car and headed toward the western coast of France. We sadly didn't travel any farther south than the Loire Valley, but our days in France were numbered, and there were too many things we still wanted to see in central France. 

We finishd up at the Chateau de Chenonceau around mid-afternoon and faced a hefty 3.5 hour drive to our hotel for the evening. Our destination for Friday, May 15 was the Normandy region, so we wanted our hotel for the night to be closer to our activities for the next day. We stayed at the Altos Hotel for the evening which was one of the cheapest hotels we stayed in the entire trip. For the night, we paid less than $100, though it was still a lovely boutique hotel. Though relatively in the middle of nowhere, it was perfectly situated for our activites the next morning.  Click here to continue my journey to the west coast of France. 

Thanks for reading!

- Foxy the Traveler

Bonjour Mes Amis! Paris - Day 3 & 4

I'm going to cover our last two days in Paris in one blog because day 4 really only consisted of a single activity.  Having seen almost everything on our "must see" list (Louvre, Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, Musee D'Orsay, Opera House, etc.) in the 2 days we'd been there so far, we turned to the Paris Museum pass for some ideas of how to spend the next day. Still on our list were the Arc De Triumph and shopping up and down the Champs Elysee, but we didn't expect either of those activities to take the entire day. (Don't get me wrong, I can easily spend an entire day shopping, but I'm always leery of buying souvenirs too early in the trip. A personal rule I'm still adjusting. Part of me thinks that if you see something you want, you should buy it no matter how early in the trip it is because you might not find anything like it again. Another part of me doesn't want to blow my souvenir budget in the beginning. It's a personal preference thing. And also depends on your souvenir budget.) It also didn't help that the cloudy, overcast skies from Day 2 left us with a yucky rainy day for Day 3.

Well, we climbed Mt. Vesuvius in the rain, so we weren't going to let a little bit of Parisian rain stop us from seeing what else there was to explore in the city. We spent the morning shopping down the Champs Elysee all the way to the Arc De Triumph. At lunch, we turned to our guide book for a suggestion on how to spend the afternoon.

One place on the Paris Museum pass that looked both intriguing and confusing (because of the name) was the Hôtel des Invalides. We had absolutely on idea what this was supposed to be, but the booklet said that it contained the tomb of Napoleon, so we decided to check it out. The Hôtel des Invalides contains the Musée de l'Armée which at the time had a World War II exhibit. Being a huge WW2 buff, I was eager to see a history of the war from the French perspective. 

What an interesting time we had here. First, Napoleon's tomb is huge. It's bigger than huge. It's enormous! I tried to include a picture that I took from the second story to give you a better idea of just how large it is. I could make some inappropriate joke about size and compensation right now (because Napoleon was really short), but I'll forgo the indulgence.

Napoleon's Tomb - see how tiny the people are comparatively? 

What I found equally as flummoxing was the World War II exhibit. It basically goes like this: France enters the war against Germany - yay us! France fiercely fights Germany - yay us! Germany conquers France - not our fault! French people start resistance movement during German occupation - yay us! D-Day happens - ok fine; we'll mention it briefly, but don't go thinking it was THAT special. War ends; Charles De Gualle marches down the center of Paris during the victory parade - yay, we won the war all by ourselves! End Scene! We left that museum absolutely astonished. Was that museum an accurate representation of how the French people really perceive the United States? I am personally very proud of the role the United States played in World War II, so it saddened me to see an ally of ours remember the war with almost a sense of animosity toward our involvement.

Needless to say, at this point, we were just really ready to be done with Paris. The previous day's "incident" plus the cloudy/rainy weather all combined with the sour taste this museum left in our mouths really led to an overall melancholy feeling. I was glad to be leaving the city soon. We had some exciting activities coming up on our itinerary, and I was excited to explore France beyond Paris.

We still had one more day technically in the city, but we rose early the next morning to head out to the beautiful Palace of Versailles. In my notes from the trip, I have these instructions for getting out to Versailles using the Paris public transportation system. (Take the RER C direction Versailles Rive Gauche (train called VICK), get off at Versailles Rive Gauche station. Be careful not to get off at Viroflay Rive Gauche! The name looks somewhat the same, but this is not the same station! Another branch of the RER C, direction Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, stops at Versailles Chantiers).

Despite the 45 min trek out of the center of Paris to get to Versailles, it was still surprisingly urban. As we approached the palace, I had to do a double-take because there was no jaw dropping moment of awe as we got closer. It could have been the busy street we had to cross to get to the courtyard entrance, or the fact that parts of the side building were covered in scaffolding. But that first impression aside, the rest of the day was pretty spectacular.

Busy Versailles entrance.

We got there before the palace even opened so we stopped first at a little cafe and had a warm beverage. We entered Versailles as soon as it opened, so we were able to tour the palace rooms before they got too crowded. The inside of Versailles was beautiful, and I loved being able take pictures of everything. The Hall of Mirrors wasn't quite what I expected, but then where's the fun in traveling if everything is always what you expect? If you have the time, I strongly encourage planning to spend the entire day at Versailles. The palace itself takes maybe an hour or two, but there is so much more to discover while you're there.

The most fascinating aspect for me was learning more about Marie Antoinette. She found the main palace of Versailles overwhelming and loathed court customs, so she escaped from that life whenever possible.  There was a "smaller" house on the Versailles grounds where she spent most of her time.

The Marie Antoinette House. Still larger than anything I've lived in.

Further into the gardens was a quaint miniature hamlet that she built to also help her escape from "city life". Touring the hamlet was one of the coolest parts of the entire day. She literally built a small village with buildings on a smaller scale than that of a real village. All of the houses were just slightly smaller than you'd expect of a full-size house. Marie Antoinette built it specifically for parties and none of the buildings were ever lived in. Though given their smaller size, it would make living in them impractical. Your imagination really runs wild in a place like this, and I just loved it there.

The Marie Antoinette hamlet

In addition to Marie Antoinette's house and hamlet, the Versailles gardens are quite extensive. You can easily get lost wandering the paths. The numerous fountains that pop up throughout the gardens make it feel like you're finding little secrets.

Despite the entrance of Versailles leaving a lot to be desired, the back view of the palace is nothing short of spectacular. The statues and fountains add an extra layer of luxury to one of the grandest palaces in all of France with one of the bloodiest histories.

the back of the Palace of Versailles - still cloudy!

It was fascinating to imagine life on the eve of the French Revolution when the people became so angry they rose up against the king, beheading him and his wife. It's fortunate for us that they didn't burn the place to the ground. It also made me very grateful for the life I have. I may never have the riches to live in a palace like Versailles, though I am very blessed to have the ability to live without dire financial distress.

All told, we probably spent about 6 hours at Versailles. Since we got there right when it opened, we were back in the city by late afternoon. We took advantage of our last day in the city and took a leisurely stroll along the Seine River by our hotel, bought some street art, and drank in a lovely view of Notre Dame from across the river. The next day, we would head back to the Charles De Gaulle international airport, get a car, and head south for the Loire Valley. Versailles was just the first of many magnificent structures we were bound to see. Click here to continue reading all about my adventures in the magnificent French countryside.

Thanks for reading!

- Foxy the Traveler

Bonjour mes amis! Paris - Day 2

Our second day in Paris was jam packed so jet lag was something we had to be rid of. Since we were in bed before it was dark outside, we had no trouble rising bright and early. And early it was because we were out on the streets of Paris as the sun was coming up. We found breakfast in one of the many delicious French bakeries. Our first stop was a place recommended by a coworker: The Sacred Heart Basilica. This white church on a hill was stunning especially with a radiant blue sky backdrop. Little did we know the blue sky would quickly give way to clouds....and then rain. On our way up to the basilica we had a sort of an accosting happen to us. In Italy, it was common to see peddlers trying to hawk knock off goods on the city streets (handbags, sunglasses, etc). They kept them on the ground on blankets, so that at a moment's notice they could wrap up everything and take off. (As we saw later when a cop was chasing one of these guys down the street.) We took the "don't bother them and they won't bother us" approach and everything was fine. In Paris, however, that wasn't necessarily the case.

We were walking up the hill to get to the church when similar type peddlers approached us only this time they weren't hawking any illegal wares.  They spoke in broken English and asked us for money claiming that it was for the church and to help children. We shook our heads, politely repeated "no thank you" and kept walking. Suddenly, one of them grabbed my husband by the arm (not aggressively but to get his attention), and said something to the effect of, "Sir, no problem, it's for the church." My husband immediately grabbed his arm back and shouted at the man telling him to get away from us. The man let go, backed up, and then proceeded to scream very offensive profanities at us. Then his other buddies around him heard him screaming at us, and they all joined in. It was like a weird chorus of the "F" word. We weren't harmed or robbed. When we exited the basilica and came back down the same way, they didn't bother us again. But that was still one of the single most terrifying things that has ever happened to me while traveling and probably one of the reasons why I'm not crazy about Paris.

Sacred Heart Basilica

From the Sacred Heart Basilica, we went to the Paris Opera House, the infamous setting of the Phantom of the Opera. In 2009, the Paris Opera House wasn't open daily to visitors. There were only certain days one could tour it, and we happened to get lucky and be in Paris when it was open to the public. The inside is beautiful and I loved getting the opportunity to peak into the main theater through a box seat. But we didn't stay too long because our main activity this day was arguably the most famous art museum in the world: the Louvre.

Beautiful ceiling in the Paris Opera House

I've had friends tell me that they spent an entire day or multiple days at the Louvre, and given its sheer size, I don't doubt those statements at all. Even despite knowing my own personal indifference to art, I still planned on spending several hours there, just not an entire day. I thoroughly enjoyed our time there and loved that you were allowed to take pictures of everything. I found that true all over France. Anywhere we went, we were allowed to take pictures. We saw the legendary Mona Lisa, Venus De Milo, Winged Victory, and the Code of Hammurabi. I also greatly enjoyed the ancient Egyptian section. (Random side note: I saw the Audrey Hepburn movie Funny Face over the weekend, and just loved the scene where she's running down the steps of the Louvre with the Winged Victory behind her.)

The Winged Victory in the Louvre Museum

The Louvre is an attraction that gets incredibly crowded, and I read online that tourists could wait in line for hours to enter. We were there in the middle of the week in early May, so we just didn't have the type of crowds one could expect over a holiday or in the summertime. Note to any future travelers, springtime in Paris can be lovely (if not rainy) and not too busy. (The same is true for London.)

From the Louvre we considered our options for getting to the last thing on our list for the day: the Eiffel Tower. I can remember so clearly, seeing it in the distance and thinking to myself, "If I can see if from here, it must not be that far of a walk." Ha...hahahaha! Oh, how wrong I was. Do not fool yourself. The walk from the Louvre to the Eiffel Tower is very long. But the weather was ok at the moment (clouds had rolled in but the temperature was ok) and we had no other pressing things to do that day, so we were up for a stroll. With a baguette in hand for a snack, we started out for the iconic tower.

Despite the walk being incredibly long (well over an hour; a good 2-3 miles) we enjoyed getting to walk the streets of Paris and even strolling through a lovely park on the way. We could have walked almost the entire length along the Seine River, but we found it more exciting to zig zag down different streets.

At last we arrived at the prima donna of all Parisian landmarks. You can buy tickets online in advance for a specific day and time which allows you to avoid the queues. Since we visited during a less busy time, we decided ahead of time that we would just buy tickets when we got there. As I said, the Louvre wasn't crowded and neither was the Eiffel Tower. Granted it wasn't empty, but we were able to buy tickets without waiting and go right up. Since it wasn't too busy, the optional elevator was only running for individuals with physical needs, so my husband and I both took a deep breath and started trotting up the steps huffing and puffing until we reached the observation deck. The pictures I took from our time at the Eiffel Tower suffered from overcast skies which was rather disappointing.

Sooo cloudy! :(

We then went to dinner while deciding how to spend the rest of our day. One thing I wanted to do was to see the Eiffel Tower lit up at night. We walked around the grounds near the tower until almost 9:00PM. When it still wasn't dark out yet, we gave up and took the metro back to our hotel. Keep in mind that we'd been up since before dawn, so we were mighty pooped by 9:00. (Wow! Some of you readers much think that I'm ancient. I'm exhausted by 9:00. I don't care for nightlife. I swear, I'm not actually THAT old...though I am admittedly no longer in my 20s.)

One more day in Paris before rounding out our city tour with Versailles. Big shout out to the Paris Museum Pass for helping us fill our third day in the city. Click here to continue reading about my experiences in Paris.

Thanks for reading!

- Foxy the Traveler

Bonjour mes amis! Paris - Day 1

The next international trip that I planned after Italy was a two week holiday in France and England. Our rough itinerary consisted of starting in Paris for a few days, then renting a car and spending the rest of the week touring the French countryside. From there we drove back to Paris and took the chunnel over to London. We spent a few days in London, and then toured the English countryside. I'm going to break this trip down into more blog entries than the three that I did for Italy because I kept much more detailed notes from this trip. Lucky you! :-)

If I'm being completely honest with you, I was incredibly disappointed by Paris. (I'll wait a moment while you finish gasping. Now pick up your jaw off the floor.) ;-) There were a few leading causes for this: 1. Paris paled in comparison to all of the Italian cities that I fell in love with. 2. We had lousy weather. 3. We had an interesting "experience" that I'll share with you in Paris - Day 2. My overall assessment of Paris is that compared to Italy, it struggles with a huge identity crisis. Here you have this classic European city that is rich in history and culture attempting to mask that with a modern, chic, hipster persona. You may say that Paris is the ultimate fusion of history and modernity, but I didn't quite buy it. That is not at all to say that I would recommend skipping Paris. We saw many lovely things during our time there, and if you follow anything similar to my itinerary, you can easily get your city fix in 3-4 days. If you're a city dweller, you may enjoy staying in Paris for an entire week, but I preferred the days we spent outside of Paris compared to the city itself. It really comes down to your personal preference. As a timid traveler, I am out of my element in cities. But since I understand their cultural and historical significance, I force myself out of my comfort zone, and I encourage you to do the same.

I don't know what the going rate is for airline tickets to Paris or London these days, but back in 2009, I was stoked to get a nonstop flight into Paris (returning nonstop flight from London) for $800 on United Airlines. We flew all night, and landed at the Charles De Gaulle airport on Saturday, May 9, 2009 at 6:55AM. Before leaving the airport we had 2 key stops to make: the ATM, and the tourist kiosk where we bought the Paris Museum Pass and the Paris Visite Pass. (One was for museums (shocker!) and the other was for unlimited metro transportation.) Like the Venice and Rome passes in Italy, I highly recommend the Paris tourist passes if you're going to be in the city for any length of time. We were there for 4 days and ended up seeing the sites we planned much faster than we anticipated. We turned to the Paris pass for ideas on other things we could do. But I'm getting a little bit ahead of myself.

When we were ready to leave the airport (via metro), our first stop was our hotel. Not able to check in yet, we were going to ask them if we could store our bags there. (Hotels all over the world will let you store your bags with them if you're not able to check in early. This a great tip so you can enjoy your day without worrying about your luggage). Our Paris hotel was The Hotel Castex just a few mins walk from the Bastille metro stop. This little boutique hotel was great! It matched our 4-star rating and was under $200/night, though it did not include breakfast. I don't recall now if it had air conditioning, but it was early May, so that didn't concern us at the time. Since staying there, I've had other friends and family members stay there based on my recommendation, and they've all complimented it. It's worth noting that the rooms are TINY! We were warned about this ahead of time, so it didn't surprise or bother us.

We stored out bags without any issues, and were quickly out on the streets of Paris. Our first stop was within easy walking distance of the hotel, Notre Dame. We stopped at crepe cart just beside the cathedral for some sustenance before touring this gothic marvel. If I could complain about anything, it would be the fact that my camera photographs stained glass so very poorly. From Notre Dame we went to (what is in my opinion, a true hidden gem) Sainte Chapelle. While the size of this small church pales in comparison to Notre Dame, just wait until you go upstairs. Don't let the windy, narrow stairwell deter you. The marvelous beauty you will behold on the second floor is absolutely incredible.

Backside of Notre Dame

We finished up at Sainte Chapelle in the early afternoon (earlier than we thought) and were fighting some serious jet lag fatigue. Instead of giving in to every desire to go back to the hotel, check-in, and take a nap, we took a look at our day 2 schedule to see what we could bump up. The Musee d'Orsay wasn't too far away, so we decided to go there on Day 1 instead of Day 3. I mentioned during my post on Tuscany, and I'm not a huge art lover, so it didn't bother me much that I would be half asleep to tour Paris' Museum of Modern Art. Looking back on my photos of this museum, and I do regret that decision a little bit but only because I've developed a greater appreciation for art as I've traveled. But back then, this was absolutely the right decision. If you're a fan of Monet, Degas, etc. you'll love it here.

Inside the Musee d'Orsay

We ate dinner in the restaurant cafe (can't say it was that great), and then dragged our tired feet back to the hotel. We checked in, collected our bags, and totally and completely crashed. Click here for day 2 which contains many classic Paris sites like the Louvre, the Paris Opera House, and the Eiffel Tower.

Thanks for reading!

- Foxy the Traveler