In summary

"Most travel is best of all in the anticipation or the remembering; the reality has more to do with losing your luggage." ~Regina Nadelson

We had a great trip.
It's good to be home.
We learned a lot.
We greatly appreciate all the friends and hospitality we encountered in our travels.

You can check out some of the pictures from the trip in the postings below.

It was nice to have done all the research I did ahead of time. It was nice to have the maps and instructions we had ahead of time. It was good to have a compass.

I'll take fewer clothes next time, and a smaller suitcase, and probably not do cities, I'd like to do future trips at a slower pace and w/o a car.

It was great to meet Shannon's friends and family and her new country.

And, we only lost 1 suitcase on the way home, so hopefully it will show up today..............

Last day in France - Paris to Denver - 7/16/05

Well, we did it! We did a whirlwind tour of France in 3 weeks and got home safely too with lots of stories to tell.

Our last day leaving Paris was no exception. We got up and cleaned and closed up the apartment on Rue Papillon. We had a wonderful time using the apartment and it was a very nice and comfortable "home" for us during our stay there. I ran across the street in the morning to get our morning croissants for breakfast from the boulangerie there that opened at 7:30 am. Steve has been patroning the local market on the other end of the block every day getting his beer. That market is open till 11:30 pm every night. Much more convenient than our King Soopers here in Colorado 1/2 mile away :).

I had scheduled for us to leave the apartment by 10 am so we would have plenty of time to make a 3:15 pm plane departure from Charles de Gaulle. We hauled all the suitcases down the 4 flights of narrow spiral stairs to the courtyard and then bid adieu to rue Papillon.

Shannon is finishing this trip with 3 very large, very heavy suitcases to take home after 10 months in France. We divided up the 7 suitcases amongst us and proceeded to walk the 5 or so blocks to Gare du Nord. We got there by 10:45 (a good sign) and found the gate and bought the tickets smoothly (thanks to our scouting earlier in the week) and then hopped on the RER to Charles de Gaulle airport along w/everyone else.

It was a little tough hauling the heavy suitcases through the turnstiles and up and down the escalators but we managed. I'm glad we only had to do this 1 day and not for the entire 3 week trip. Thanks again to Rick Steve's guidebook, we knew that we had to get to T1 terminal to find United.

Once we got off the RER train we had to go up an escaltor to get to a bus to take us to the terminal itself. In the process of moving all the suitcases and getting on one of the escalators, Steve got stuck getting on the escalator and fell over backwards and got his hand caught in the moving steps . I didn't see any of this until he showed up at the top of the escaltor w/gear all over the steps and w/a bloody hand and a little stunned. The cuts initially looked pretty bad but he was able to carry on with plans to wash it once we got to the terminal since we still had 3 hours before we had to get on the plane. I dug out my first aid kit but he declined using any of the offered first aid.

We then hauled the luggage onto a bus that took us from the RER stop to the terminal. The bus wasn't able to get to the terminal door because of all of the backed up traffic so it let us off about a block away and we all walked the distance to the terminal. We were able to find United pretty readily and managed to get in the correct line to check the luggage after some observation. We were still doing pretty well time wise, at least we were on schedule to my original estimates.

So, after having some initial security questions asked and little yellow stickers put on our passports and luggage we made it to the United desk to check our luggage (relief was in sight). Shannon went first and was able to check two bags and stay under the 70 lb/bag limit. Anna stepped up to check her 2 bags but it was not to be. We were then instructed to evacuate the building. Rats! we still had 5 more bags to check.

Us, and our 5 bags, along w/all the other travelers in the terminal were instructed to leave the building and stand outside while security personnel inspected the building. We could see various personnel in various uniforms walking around inside the glass doors while the crowds grew outside. We found out from a United employee that someone had left a bag unattended (which happens often apparently). The bag was blown up, w/o blowing us up or damaging the building, we could smell the gun powder once we got back in but didn't see any signs of anything else.

After waiting outside for 1 hour for this process to complete (we still had 2 hours to catch the plane) we scurried back inside and were able to skip one of the lines and get right back in front of a United ticket person and check the last of our 5 bags. What a huge relief to be unburdened with those suitcases! kind of like dropping off the car in Paris. But our relief was only temporary.

We then turned to head to the gate, only to find throngs of other people trying to get to the same gate. The french gods were looking out for us, and just as we were about to get into the long line to head up the tunnel, to get to the gate, we were detoured to a no-line entry and we scurried upstairs only to find a hot mass of very angry people trying to get through security, but we still had 90 minutes to catch the plane so I thought, we can do this. We patiently got into the next long twisty line. Steve scanned the crowd and noticed a friend of Shannon's ahead of us waiting in line to go to Africa so we exchanged greetings.

We waited in this line for 90 minutes, slowly progressing with no real sense of order, just mostly a mass crowd mentality of trying to keep moving. No one was taking charge trying to organizine the people, there were no superviser Security types trying to eliviate the situation. There were just 2 frenzied Security/customs employees sitting in 2 of the 6 booths trying to process everyone as quickly as they could. A 3rd person came up and tried to get all the US travelers in one line but then he couldn't get his computer working and it only created more tension. There were a few brief periods of the crowd yelling at people trying to get ahead and yelling at the people in charge. There were also surges of processing and Shannon, Anna, and I manged to surge to the front of the line and get through w/about 5 minutes left to get to the plane before it took off. But, Steve didn't manage to surge w/us and was politely still waiting in line letting others go in front of him.

I sent the girls to the gate w/instructions to tell the United personnel that I was still waiting for Steve. I expected them to go ahead and get on the plane and we would hook up in Denver if Steve and I didn't make the plane. I also managed to tell everyother American I could to tell United to wait for us.

So, here I am on one side of a glass wall looking through to the other side with the angry mass of people trying to get through customs and security to make their planes too. It was nice to be out of the heat and crowds but also nerve racking waiting for Steve to get through and watching the time pass not knowing if the plane would delay its departure.

In the process of watching Steve slowly advance toward customs, an American woman had passed out from the heat and she was escorted through to a chair on my side of the glass wall to recover. Also, about now, 3 armed security types w/billy clubs and guns showed up I imagine for crowd control. But none of them got into one of the 4 available windows to process the tourists through. Steve eventually made it through and we went running down the mostly empty corridor to the next gate and through another security check point to get on the plane.

WHAT A RELIEF to be on the plane. The girls had waited for us outside the plane so it was nice to see them. We were going home. Steve still hadn't had a chance to clean his hand so he took care of that right away. The plane was mostly empty and the flight crew announced that the flight would be delayed since 70 people were still stuck in customs.

Steve then announced that he didn't understand how the 3 of us had gotten through ahead of him and that he knew the plane wouldn't leave w/o him. There was also comment about the difference between Type A and Type B people and a few rolled eyes and a few complaints about sitting and waiting on the plane. BUT, I was glad to be on the plane, I don't mind waiting , I'd much rather wait, than rush last minute. My 2 cents.

So, we made it to Chicago on time w/no other excitement. Chicago was much cleaner and nicer and newer than I remembered it. It was also incredibly organized and much more prepared to deal w/huge crowds of travelers. We had to go through customs and get our baggage and go through customs again and recheck our baggage, but we managed to follow the signs and everyone else and get through w/o too much hassle. We also made it to our next gate w/time to spare.

We made it home to Denver on time and Dave and Sandy and Torin were there to meet us. It was a very nice welcoming party.

All the suitcases but 1 made it and it was nice to be home again.

Paris - Day 4 - The Louvre

photo - Mona


We had a very leisurely morning getting up and getting ready. I think everyone is slowing down and the energy required to be a tourist is starting to wane, since we know we are heading home tomorrow.

I checked the Rick Steve's guide book one last time to see if there were any more sites in Paris I wanted to see since this will be our last day here and didn't really see anything else that caught my fancy. I had noticed a Calder mobile exhibit earlier in the week at one of the other museums, but decided not to do that. So instead we headed to the Louvre. Again, the girls were free.

What a scene! What a huge beautiful place! Lots and lots of other tourists for company. I noticed an Italian family I recognized from the day earlier at St Chappelle, so that was fun. We split from the girls immediately w/plans to meet later near Winged Victory. We had our compass and a map in hand of the place but it was still tough figuring out where you were initially. We did the usual Louvre highlights, Egyptian art, coptic art (coutesy of education from Amelia Peabody books by Elizabeth Peters), Venus de Milo, The Royal jeweled crown, Mona, Winged Victory, a few works by Vermeer, and then a chance encounter of a room w/Rodin, Talouse Lautrec, Monet, Degas, Renoir, Rousseau, and a few other impressionist painters which are always lovely to find and see.

Paris - Day 3 - Bastille Day parade and Notre Dame - 7/14/05

Shannon and Anna had visited a friend last night in northern Paris and didn't get in till 2 am so we left them sleeping and Steve and I got up and left to find the Bastille Day parade around 9:30 am.

We headed toward the Champs de Elysse. The closer we got the more police/military personnel we encounted prohibiting access down side streets to get to the parade. The closer we got the more people we encountered also trying to find the parade. We had a chance encounter w/another spectator at place de Madeline who informed us that this would be a good place to stay since this is where the marchers have to pass through at the end of the parade. We tried hanging out near the barricades awhile but then the police made people move on so we moved on to the Champs de Elysse.

The closer we got the more people we saw and the crowds were getting progressively worse. We wouldn't have been able to get anywhere close to see anything so we headed back to the place de Madeline and had a great view of the military marchers finishing with all their various different uniforms. We had no idea what the different uniforms or groups represented, but they were all very colorful. There were several fly overs of military planes in formation of all types and helicopters. We were wondering if the parade consisted of any military equipment and about that time the tanks started driving by along w/all the other military vehicles, ie road graders, water trucks, fuel trucks, and whatnot vehicles w/guns and men carrying guns.

I noticed a little boy, probably about 9, standing on the street corner near us w/ a shiny silver helmet and a blue uniform of some kind. It was very fascinating watching him watching the parade go by. Again, I didn't know what kind of uniform he had on. Then, towards the very end of the parade, wouldn't you know it, men in the same uniform started passing in fire trucks and the little boy got very excited and started waving to them since he was also in their uniform. It was very enchanting to watch.

After the parade Steve and I walked back to the apartment around 12 and the girls were up. They had watched the parade on TV and wanted to know if we had seen Chirac. No, we hadn't. As usual, they had seen more on TV than we had being there in person.

We then headed out to join the massess of tourists to see Notre Dame, St. Chappelle, and the left bank. While at Notre Dame, we read about St. Denis, one of the sculptures on the front w/his head in his hands. The story has it that he lost his head to the guillotine, then picked it up, put it under his arm and walked to MontMontre (the mount of martyrs) to get to heaven.


We happened to pick St. Denis as the street to follow to get home in the afternoon (since we had not been on that street yet). We left the girls shopping in the southern walking mall area of St Denis and headed north up St Denis to rue Paradis. Shannon had a map of Paris to get back , but we also told her to follow St. Denis to Paradis to get home.

We found it pretty fascinating, that rue St Denis, is lined w/lots of ladies of the night out front of their establishments "advertising" for work. It felt a little like 42nd street in NYC. A very interesting and "colorful" part of town. The girls found it all very entertaining and just part of another day in Paris and got home safely w/o any problems.

We bought the DVD Chocolat earlier in the day and watched it at night in the apartment and then left it for Shannon's host family to enjoy the next time they are in Paris. I had forgotten that Johnny Depp was in the movie, so he was a lot of fun to watch.

We heard several firecrackers going off during the evening. Steve left around 8:30 pm to hike up to Montmartre to watch the fireworks from the steps. Nobody else felt like going back out. So we sent him off w/the map of Paris, a compus, and a little pinch light to see the map coming home (which he later was very glad to have).

He spent the evening on the steps of Sacre Coeur w/lots of others listening to the fireworks but never seeing them. He didn't realize that the fireworks were around the Eiffel tower which is hidden by trees from Montmartre. You have to walk away from Montmartre to see the tower. But alas, he had a good time anyway. He was able to help another tourist wandering around w/a map around midnight who had just flown in from Houston.

We have seen lots of tourists in Paris, and other parts of France wandering around w/maps in one hand and guidebooks in the other, so we felt quite at home looking the same (despite Shannon being very put out w/me for looking like a tourist). The only difference between us and them has been that WE HAD A COMPASS! a definite "must" to have for any future trips. Thank you to Sandy and her sister for recommending this little item to bring.

Paris - Day 2 - D'Orsay and Luxembourg Gardens - 7/13/05

It has been so hot here, we opted to do 1-2 museums today and hopefully enjoy a little air conditioning. We walked toward the Place de la Concorde to go to the l'Orangerie museum but discovered it was closed for remodeling. We then crossed the river and had a hugely enjoyable experience wandering around the d'Orsay museum.

We separated from the girls with plans to meet later and Steve and I headed upstairs to see the Impressionist paintings which I thoroughly enjoyed. We skipped the sculptures on the first floor. I was familiar w/several of the artists and it was so nice to see their painings w/the brillant colors. I eavesdropped on a english tour of students and learned a lot about a Renoir and a self portrain of Van Gogh. The crowds were pretty bad, but it was still nice to see the paintings. We had just traveled through Arles so we had seen where Van Gogh had lived and painted some of his works.

There were several rooms of Art Nouveau works and we found a few works by our newly discovered artists, Prouve and Galle exhibited. It was like running into some old friends. Thanks to the education provied in Nancy by Marion.

We then headed to the Luxembourg gardens where we took a break in the shade and had a 20e lunch of french fries, a tart, water and beer. Pretty outrageous for a midday snack, but what the heck! we're on vacation.

We got to see the kids sailing their little sail boats on the pond which was pretty cute to watch.

Tomorrow is Bastille Day, no idea yet as to what time the parade starts, despite picking up a Pariscope events magazine.

Paris - Day 1 - Arc de Triumphe, Eiffel Tower - 7/12/05

Today was a day of lots of walking. We decided to walk instead of taking the metro so we would see more of Paris that way. We also decided to take mostly side streets since they are just as interesting and have lots less people congesting the sidewalks.

We headed for the Arc de Triumphe. Steve navigated our way there w/his trusty Paris map and his compass. We were there w/all the other tourists checking out the site and traffic. Steve and the girls went to the top for the view and I stayed and did a little tourist watching around the tomb of the unknown soldier at the base. The girls are free at most of the sites in Paris since they are under 18 so that has been nice. A very good year for them to be in Paris. It's an impressive arch, probably more so, if you got to see it w/o so much other company.

We then proceeded to walk down the Champs de Elysse, which was not much different than walking through any other congested retail area in a big city. We decided we had had enough of the crowds and walked to the south of the river to check out the Eiffel Tower. Where we encountered even more crowds, huge lines to go up the tower, which we opted not to do. Instead we walked around the base where we saw a pair of military personnel in camoflage uniforms holding 2 machine guns at the ready. It was a little creepy, but then, this was probably a showing, since the bomb had recently exploded in London.


To finish the day, we walked back to the apartment, I think we did about 7-8 miles of walking today, and collapsed to watch the Tour de France. We watched the Grenoble to Courcevel stage which we had driven last week, so that was fun.

Nancy to Paris - Monday 7/11/05

On Monday, we cleaned up the apartment of Shannon's host family in Nancy. A friend of Shannon's from school here in Nancy, Dorothy, showed up in the morning. We will be giving her a ride to Paris. She said she is familiar w/Paris and enjoys navigating so I was very much relieved to hear that. Once we get to the Paris suburbs, I will let her take over the navigating.

We had parked the car in a covered garage during our stay in Nancy and it was still safe and sound, so we packed it, said our goodbyes to Nancy, and took off for Paris. We decided not to do the autoroute per the Michelin guide but instead took a National Road. The speed limit was slower and it went through more of the country side which was very nice. We stopped in a small town called Frere Champenize for lunch at a very nice boulangeries. We bought our sandwiches and treats and then walked over to the local church steps to eat it. The town was very quiet and we didn't see many people out, probably because most everything shuts down between 12-2 everywhere. Lots of beautiful flowers in the house windows and small parks. The town also hosted a cemetery to the dead lost in WW1 which we had noticed from the highway.

From Frere Champenize to Paris the countryside started to charge from rural to urban. Dorothy did a superb job of navigating us through Paris despite the awful traffic. We entered in the south of Paris and had to get to north central Paris to return the car to Gare du Nord. We decided to drop off all the luggage at the Paris apartment first, then drive the 5 blocks to the train station to return the car. That 5 blocks took about 1 hour to drive because of all the traffic congestion. We had been instructed to leave the car at a parking garage near the train station. We drove underground for 5 levels and never saw a single National Car Rental employee. We left it in a parking spot near other National Car rental vehicles, said good-bye to Dorothy since she had to catch a train elsewhere, and then walked to Gare du Nord to find the National Car Rental desk to give them the keys.

We found the desk and returned the keys and breathed a sigh of relief to be on foot again and out of the traffic. We wandered around the station and figured out how and where to catch the RER next Saturday to Charles de Gaulle airport.

It felt like we were "home" since we were back to an area that we had already been to. We cruised the local markets and bought groceries for breakfast and dinner, then collapsed for the evening watching the Tour de France.

Steve figured out that we had driven 2100 miles since we had last left Paris in all our wanderings around France.

Saturday and Sunday in Nancy

We`re still here in Nancy, Shannon has been visiting with her friends and Steve and I have been walking around exploring the city: We picked up a walking tour of Nancy from the Tourist information place so we did the 3 hr walk yesterday. It was mostly through the old town area loking at gardens, former walls, and churches. Most of the descriptions were in french so we got a little bit out of it. The girls explored a very large open air market in Nancy for mpre retail therapy.

We came home in the afternoon and watched the tour, then we went back into old town in the evening with Shannon`s friend Gabi to a nice restaurant.

Today, Sunday, Steve and I walked to the river Meurthe to find Sannon`s rowing club. It`s a huge club with a huge boathouse on a pretty big river. There`s a nice walking cycling paved path along the river so we spent several hours walking. Then came `home`and met the girls at 12 and walked to Shannon`s first host mother`s house to visit with her. Her daughter had just returned from her Rotary trip to Black Hawk,CO so we had a good time talking to her and listening to her experiences. We then walked to old town to have lunch in a large park, le Pepinere. There were lot of Nancyites there walking with their families since it was so nice out today.

Tomorrow we head to Paris, so the pace of the trip will pick up again since we will switch back into serious tourist mode on our own. It has been very nice not having to drive the car and do any route finding these past 4 days. We will return the car when we get to Paris and get around by foot or Metro. I prefer to do my route finding at a slower pace by foot or bike, much less stress than in the car. The Michelin atlas I brought along with the route guide instructions from the internet have been very very helpful.

I also will lose this handy internet access so who knows when I will be able to post again.

Cara

Friday in Nancy

We had a lovely day today here in Nancy. Shannon met her Rotary counselor Bernard and his wife Marion in Stanislaus Square. They had some Rotary business to conduct and then Marion took us to the Musee des beaux-arts on the plaza. She was very very knowledgable about the works in the museum and really enhanced our visit there. We saw several Victor Prouve paintings and she also introduced us to Daum and Galle glass (very similar to Tiffany and Steuben). Another new painter for us was Emile Friant. All these artists lived in the Nancy area in the early 1900`s and are credited with starting the art nouveau style.

They invited us to their home in western Nancy for a very nice lunch. Then afterwards we went to Musee de Nancy which strictly focused on the above mentioned artists. The museum is in a very large house wih a beautiful garden. The entire house is furnished with art nouveau furniture and Galle, Daum and Prouve paintings and accessories. It was all beautiful and I am very happy to have enhanced my art education with these wonderful artists (they are much more to my liking than Marsden Hartley - a family joke). I`m looking forward to doing additional research on these men when I get home.

to Nancy and the Tour de France

Well! we can now say that we've done the Tour de France! but first you have to hear about us getting to Nancy.

We spent all day Wednesday driving the auto routes from Val d'Isere in overcast and rain. We did over 600 km which is quite a lot but managed well since we weren't going through a lot of small towns. The auto route is a toll road and we spent over 40euros on tolls but we made it safely. We stopped periodically along the way at the rest stops and got prepared food. Nothing fancy, but clean restrooms and lots of food to choose from.

We arrived in Nancy and moved into the 3rd floor apartment of Shannon's host parents. Steve and I stayed in and tried to catch up on the day's proceedings of the Tour de France on TV and Shannon and Anna went out to visit Shannon's rotary friends here in town.

Thursday morning we woke up to overcast skies and cool weather so took all our rain gear and walked over to the finish line of the Tour de France in Nancy. All the barricades were already in place at 11 am w/all the press vehicles stationed in a large square. There were already people staking out their spots to watch the finish. So we did too. Even though the race didn't finish till after 5 pm. Shannon had met one of her Rotary friends near Stanislas square (where the art nouveau gates are) . We took turns holding spaces for 5 of us.

What a scene! We stood there for about 6 hours mostly watching the vendors go by passing out free hats, key chains, food, coffee, water, pastries, neckerchiefs, phone cards and who knows what else. There was a TV across the road from us so we mostly watched the tour on the TV screen. About an hour before the racers passed the finish line stream after stream of vendor cars came by w/ all sorts of 3d logos/mascots attached to their vehicles (and of course pretty girls). We also saw a guy on a Segway passing out coffee.

Then 1 single guy raced to the finish line and several waves of riders came by and that was it. It had been raining off and on most of the day, so it looked like there were several crashes, since several riders came by w/some pretty visible roadrash.

We are at the cyber cafe in Nancy that has the web camera that I've been watching these past 9 months in hopes of seeing Shannon. Steve and I stood in front of the web camera and waved to "you all" today.

Tomorrow we are meeting Shannon's Rotary advisor and he and his wife will show us around Nancy for 2 hours and then we will have lunch with them. Steve and I also picked up a walking tour of the historic spots of Nancy so we may also do that too.

Shannon and Anna are w/Shannon's Nancy friends tonight going to a movie. Shannon is trying to hang out w/them as much as possible before they all go back to the states.

To answer some of your questions.... We've been drinking some wine, not a lot. It doesn't seem to be that expensive. Mostly, I've been eating lots and lots of goat cheese. It is very very reasonable. Also lots of very good bread. Steve has mostly been trying to find a reasonable beer. He's been drinking 1664 which is kind of like Michelob. We found small bottles of Chimay in Val d'Isers so he treated himself there. He also found a brand of Belgium beer that he seems to like.

Tuesday in Val d'isere

Last night while I called Thomas in Bern (our former neighbor) Steve started talking to some friends of Bernard (Shannon's host dad). W/o me knowing it, he had planned a bike ride w/ a 58 year old Spainerd up the mountain here in Val d'Isere while I was planning for us to go to Bern. Needless to say we were a little disappointed we wouldn't be heading to Bern.

We had a deluxe multi course meal w/ Shannon's host family last night along w/2 other couples, friends of theirs from here. Lots of wine and cheese and other exotic meats. My favorite was the dessert which was very large figs boiled in red wine w/cinnamon. We didn't finish eating till after 10:30 pm.

We woke up to overcast skies and it was too cold for Steve to do his ride, so we briefly debated heading to Bern even though it was over 5 hours away and we would only see Thomas for a few hours. But our better judgement prevailed and we decided to stay in Val d'Isere another day and call this a rest day. We lounged around, had a late breakfast, the skies cleared up, Steve went off to rent a mountain bike in town and took off riding w/Antonio, his new best friend that doesn't speak English. Steve's been using his high school spanish to converse w/him and they seem to do ok.

The girls and I watched the Tour de France TTT from Tours to Bois for an hour and then headed off for a beautiful hike in the mtns for several hours w/Joelle. It was very cool today w/clear skies. The flowers are gorgeous around here and many are the same as we see in our Colorado mtns.

We head to Nancy tomorrow so we'll be there in time to see the Tour de France arrive their on Thursday.

Grenoble via Courchevel to Val d'Isere

Bonjour mes amis,
Yesterday in Grenoble, we got up and walked down to the TI and got information to drive the Tour de France route that goes from Grenoble to Courchevel. I think that happens next Tuesday 7/12. Courchevel is more or less on the way to Val d'Isere. This route will get us off the big highway and onto local roads. We were able to follow the town to town directions from Grenoble to Grignon pretty well. Lots of narrow roads through small towns in very deep valleys. We are now in the French Alps. We got near Albertville (Sunday) and nothing was really open so the only place we could find to eat was at Mc Donalds. It was pretty bad.

We tried to find the small town route from Grignon/Albertville to Moutier, but after going around several circles multiple times, we gave up and just got on the highway again and took it to Moutier. From there we found the road that goes up and up and up to Courchevel. It climbs for about 12 miles for at least 8% elevation, maybe even more. Steve said he thinks this is the route that Pete and John P are going to take when they are here in the fall, but I think not. It climbed to 1850 meters w/a pretty spectacular view of Mt Blanc.

We drove back down the mtn and got back on the highway and made it to Val d'Isere around 5 pm. The Prouves were not at the condo so we walked into town to find a phone to call them. The first phone didn't work that well so Shannon walked into town to find another one and ran into the Prouves at a bar in town visiting w/friends so it was a nice surprise.

We had a good dinner w/them of cheese (toasted) and various meats and fruits and bread. We are using a condo down the hall from them that belongs to their friends. Shannon and Anna are in bunk beds and Steve and I have a double bed w/a great view of the mountains.

Today, Monday Bernard Prouve drove us to the top of the ski area, and Shannon, Anna, Joelle, Steve and I walked down through various short bursts of rain. All the flowers and grasses are very very lush. We ended up doing a 5 mile hike and then ended up at this internet cafe that Shannon knew of.

We will try to call our old neighbor Thomas and his daughter Nadia tonight who live in Bern, and head to Bern, Switzerland tomorrow and then head to Nancy in time to catch the Tour on Thursday when it comes through there.

We're all healthy and taking lots of pictures. We discovered that one of our Motorola radios bit the dust also in the rain storm from the Chambord storm. So the mortality rate seems to be 1 partial camera and now 1 family radio. We had hoped to use it in Nancy at the tour, but we'll manage w/o it.

a bientot - ciao, till next time xxoo Cara

Grenoble

Luck seems to be on our side.....
we found our way slowly into the huge moutain town of Grenoble. The buildings look as though they belong in Paris but with a look of The Sound Of Music with the wonderful Alp moutains as a backdrop. Yesterday we did a nice stroll up a mountain side to the Bastille,up up up for 45 mins, wasn't too bad.
After we dragged ourselves back to the hotel room for a little reward of the beginning of the Tour de France. But as it was all in french Anna got a little bored so she and Shannon took advantage of the strategic placement of the hotel (right in the middle of Centre Ville) and they went shopping.... 2 hours and 5 outfits later they were famished and ready to regain lost calories. Now,since the very first french meal Steve had been dreaming of a good ol rice and beans meal....Coming into Grenoble we spotted a El Tex Mex restaurant which didn't look too bad (atleast a step up from McDs) so we bustled ourselves over to try Mexican food in France.Unluckily for our waitress Steve was in a "cute" mood.....and she was new so we full heartedly broke her into dealing with onboxious Amercians who felt like being Texans for a night.
Let's replay the scenario...
Our meal began something like this... Our waLuck seems to be on our side.....
we found our way slowly into the huge moutain town of Grenoble. The buildings look as though they belong in Paris but with a look of The Sound Of Music with the wonderful Alp moutains as a backdrop. Yesterday we did a nice stroll up a mountain side to the Bastille,up up up for 45 mins, wasn't too bad.
After we dragged ourselves back to the hotel room for a little reward of the beginning of the Tour de France. But as it was all in french Anna got a little bored so she and Shannon took advantage of the strategic placement of the hotel (right in the middle of Centre Ville) and they went shopping.... 2 hours and 5 outfits later they were famished and ready to regain lost calories. Now,since the very first french meal Steve haLuck seems to be on our side.....
we found our way slowly into the huge moutain town of Grenoble. The buildings look as though they belong in Paris but with a look of The Sound Of Music with the wonderful Alp moutains as a backdrop. Yesterday we did a nice stroll up a mountain side to the Bastille,up up up for 45 mins, wasn't too bad.
After we dragged ourselves back to the hotel room for a little reward of the beginning of the Tour de France. But as it was all in french Anna got a little bored so she and Shannon took advantage of the strategic placement of the hotel (right in the middle of Centre Ville) and they went shopping.... 2 hours and 5 outfits later they were famished and ready to regain lost calories. Now,since the very first french meal Steve had been dreaming of a good ol rice and beans meal....Coming into Grenoble we spotted a El Tex Mex restaurant which didn't look too bad (atleast a step up from McDs) so we bustled ourselves over to try Mexican food in France.Unluckily for our waitress Steve was in a "cute" mood.....and she was new so we full heartedly broke her into dealing with onboxious Amercians who felt like being Texans for a night.d been dreaming of a good ol rice and beans meal....Coming into Grenoble we spotted a El Tex Mex restaurant which didn't look too bad (atleast a step up from McDs) so we bustled ourselves over to try Mexican food in France.Unluckily for our waitress Steve was in a "cute" mood.....and she was new so we full heartedly broke her into dealing with onboxious Amercians who felt like being Texans for a night.itress asked if we would like apertif and Steve loudly yells WE'RE FROM TEXAS!! Cara, Shannon, and Anna cover their eyes in embarassment while laughing behind their hands. It was worth bringing Steve to see the wide eyed look on our verrrry French waitress' face. The meal then continued smoothly in a very NOT smoothly way...
After we recieved our menus and were DONE ordering our drinks Steve sees the decorative beer bottles in the cabinet beside our table. He proceeds to ask for one of these and "IS IT COLD??" in the midst of Shannon attempting to translate while Steve's yelling and Anna's laughing and the restaurant is being terribly noisy. We only THEN learn that these are merely decorative and Steve is thus left very disappointed. His spirits did rise enough, however, to....
"SHANNON TELL OUR WAITRESS THAT GEORGE BUSH IS FROM TEXAS" (since ever since the letdown of the "decorative" beer, he had been audibly wondering WHY they'd willingly open such a Texas-style restaurant if the French knew where our good old George Bush originated. This question (and relunctant translation from Shannon) was once again answered with a look and a laugh as she was trying to humor us. Apparently she knew. Thnkfully we left without harming anymore quiet french minds.
We got home and slept and then today Steve wants to drive the route of the Tour from Grenoble to Courcheval, with less than half a tank of gas and it being sunday, no gas stations open......Tonight we sleep in Val d'isere, hopefully......