France Part II

We spent the last 3 days of our trip touring the northwest side of France. We drove from Versailles out to Mont Saint Michelle, famous for its monastery. We arrived around 9 pm. There was nothing but farms and then the monastery just appeared, glowing: 

We checked into the hotel and went to take pictures.  We tried to get a great one, but this does not do it justice.

Here it is in the day!  It's hard to tell, but what is really impressive is that it's built on a rock "island" on the tidal flats.  At high tide, it's an island.  At low tide, you can walk to it through the mud.  We chose the road.

We wandered the narrow streets because the monastery did not open until 9. This is me with Joan of Arc at a small chapel below the monastery. 

We also ate breakfast. Our first breakfast in a restaurant. We had hot chocolate, croissants and bread

When we arrived at the monastery we were told the government workers that operated the site were on strike and there would be no entrance for the day. All that driving for nothing...although it was pretty at night.

We had read in the guide books that at low tide you could walk around the whole island. There were a bunch of signs saying not to though because of quicksand. [Alan's note: the signs did not say that you should not, but that you should be careful]  Luckily, Alan was confident we would be safe and we were. We got some great pictures and got our feet all dirty.

Barefoot and pregnant!

After the monastery we were off to the Normandy coast. We had a nice drive before reaching the coast. This was at Pointe du Hoc. It was a small outcropping of land on which the Germans had set up a lot of large guns. From here they could defend both Utah and Omaha beach. The cliffs were vertical so they felt it would be difficult to attack from see. One group of US soldiers was assigned to scale the cliffs and take out the guns in order to make the D-Day landings successful. This crater is left from one of the aerial bombs.

You can see the extent of the bombing that occurred prior to the D-Day invasion.

This is Alan next to one of the German bunkers. Many had sustained bomb damage, but many still remained. They apparently bombed the area for 2 months prior to D-Day.

Here we are eating lunch on Omaha beach. The army suffered the most casualties on this beach during the invasion. There were 5 beaches total along the coast that soldiers invaded on D-Day. The US invaded Utah and Omaha, the British invaded 2 and the Canadians invaded 1.

Here Alan and I are the U.S. Cemetery. It was a beautifully kept memorial. There were over 10,000 casualties on D-Day by allied forces alone.

After Normandy we went onto Chartres which is southwest of Paris.  We spent the night there and visited the cathedral which is famous for its blue stained glass windows.

Alan worked hard to get a picture that really captured the blue of the windows.

My favorite part was witnessing the restoration that was going on. Can you see the difference in color of the stone that has been cleaned and the the stone that has not. It was amazing to me. I wish I could see it once it was all clean.

From Chartres we were onto the home of the late treasurer of Louis the XIV.

This man was well liked by all Parisians but King Louis was jealous of his success and his home. He asked the Treasurer to hold a party at his new home and then shortly after accused him of treason and locked him up for the rest of his life. Louis confiscated all the artwork from the house and took the Garden/Home designer to build him a great home. A great home now known as Versailles.

Here Alan is in the gardens. The home was being worked on so that is why there is a large square tent over the middle portion. The gardens were lovely.

This was the tree lined road leading to the home.

From there we were back to Paris where we dropped off the car, checked into the hotel for the last night, and went off to see the Eiffel Tower.

We got very artsy in our picture taking. We decided to take advantage of the fact that we were in Paris in the Springtime.  [Alan's note:  The line to climb the stairs of the tower was quite long, but the elevator line was longer.  Lindsay decided that she was up to the task of climbing the stairs.  We had a great time climbing, visiting, and learning about the Eiffel Tower.  We also got our Eiffel Tower Christmas tree ornament.]

The Tower at night. We stayed out pretty late this last night in Paris.  

The next morning we had to wake up early to catch our flight to Salt Lake.  On top of the early flight, it was daylight savings so we had to set our clocks back an hour.  We picked up some last pastries and caught the subway/train to the airport.  We arrived in Salt Lake during Amelia's nap, so we got to surprise her when she woke up.  We are so grateful to grandma and grandpa for watching her. She had a great week. The next day, she was exhausted and fell asleep in the airport before our flight to Phoenix.  This isn't her stroller anymore.  This is one of those that you clip the infant carseat in.  We had left it in Salt Lake and needed to take it back home before the new baby came.  Prior to boarding, we asked her if she wanted to ride in the bottom of it.  She readily agreed and quickly fell asleep.

Here is Alan and Amelia (still sleeping, hurray!) on the plane ride back to Arizona. We had a great time in Paris and seeing everyone in Utah. Thanks for all your help and encouragement.

Over the Pond With Our Bump!

Here is the first segment of our daily log of our trip to France.  The trip hung in the balance for so long. Thank you to all those who encouraged us to go and everyone who willingly watched Amelia for us. We ended up having a fantastic time!
We flew into Utah Saturday evening and flew to France Sunday evening leaving Amelia with Oma and Opa. Lucky little one! The flight was long with bad movies but we made it in one piece and arrived around 11:30 Monday morning.
Day 1 (Monday): Checked into Hotel, napped for a couple of hours and then took our first look at the city: We walked up over the bridges to Notre Dame and then continued North to Montparnasse:

We saw the famous Moulin Rouge, but stayed outside.

Here I am walking the Seine

The outdoor artist plaza close to Sacre Coeur

Here we are on the steps of Sacre Coeur.

Then we mosied down to the Arc de Triomphe to witness its grandeur and hopefully find someplace to eat dinner (restaurants don't open for dinner until 7ish). As you can tell, Alan is a better photographer than I so most of the the pictures have just me! [Alan's note: I had the camera and have learned that if I don't want to be the one in all the pictures, I need to be the one to pull it out and put Lindsay in the frame.]

The two of us atop the Arc with a lovely view of the Eiffel Tower in the back.

A view of the traffic circle from the Arc....chaos! Alan thought about driving it when we got our rental just to experience it.

A view down the steps of the Arc...my first test of the pregnancy and climbing.

Looking down the Champs-Élysées at night. We ate close to the Arc and then meandered all the way down to the Place de la Concorde...the old home of the guillotine. Then we caught the subway back to our hotel and caught some sleep to prepare us for Day 2!

Day 2 (Tuesday): We bought pastries, fruit, and yogurt and headed down to Notre Dame. We ate in front of this magnificent cathedral and read about it in our tour books.

The inside was beautiful and I sat and pondered while Alan looked around and shot photos of the rosette windows.

One of the three Rosette windows.

Standing on the lock bridge looking back at Notre Dame. We tried to visit the holocaust memorial, but it was closed for a school group. The lock bridge has tons of locks that couples have come and attached and then thrown the key into the river as a symbol of their commitment to the relationship.  Where is a pesky street vendor when you need one?

Saint Chapel, which is still on the central island with Notre Dame.  It was constructed as the King's place of worship and to house religious relics, including the crown of thorns (unfortunately now housed in Notre Dame and only brought out on special occasions). Saint Chapel is small, but it is almost all stained glass. Very pretty in the light.

We hiked over to the Centre Pompidou which is a museum famous for its inside-out design. All the piping is colored and runs on the outside of the building. The museum itself was closed. We found this sculpture fountain and it called to Alan's engineering side so I needed a picture.

Outside the Louvre. We were just on a pass through since it was also closed.

Relaxing afternoon stroll and lunch in the Tuileries Garden. This is a very pregnant looking picture.

This is the Museum D'Orsay with all the French artist paintings. It is in the old train station and was quite an impressive structure.  We weren't suppose to take photographs here, so this was taken as inconspicuously as possible.

We then walked to the Rodin gardens and passed this little park on the way with some great spring blossoms and the Eiffel Tower in the background. It was really beautiful to be there in Spring.

Here is Rodin's sculpture of the Thinker.

Here is Alan with Rodin's sculpture "The Gates of Hell". They were redoing a whole portion of the museum so we unfortunately missed a lot of his sculptures.

Then we caught a metro up to the Pantheon. It was built by the king following his recovery from a bout of gout! That had to be some bad gout because it is pretty impressive. It closed just as we arrived so we were unable to cross if off our list and planned it back into our trip. We headed home, took a short nap and then had dinner at a little place next to our hotel. I accidentally ordered paper thin beef "cooked" with lemon juice which essentially was raw, and Alan tried the Foie Gras!

Day 3 (Wednesday): We bought breakfast again at the pastry shop and ate on a bridge overlooking the river and Pont Neuf before heading to the Louvre.

Although the museum still did not open for 15 minutes, the lines were huge. We luckily had bought our Paris museum pass earlier so we were in a much shorter line that was allowed to enter first. We headed straight for the Mona Lisa having read that she attracted the most crowds. On the way we passed the Winged Victory of Samothrace...Alan's professors favorite work.

The Mona Lisa was not too crowded. It was larger than I expected after reading in the books that it was so small! A man there took our picture in exchange for us taking one with his wife. His wife was less than overjoyed that they were getting more pictures. She said it had been a long two week trip!

Alan with Venus de Milo.

We explored a lot of the Louvre before leaving. I was impressed with our progress.  We saw the upside down pyramid on our way out. Challis anyone?   

Then we were off Les Invalides to see Napoleans tomb. It was quite overstated. I went home and read his history that night on the internet to better appreciate why he received such a large tomb.

Outside Les Invalides. It was a hospital for injured veterans but now it houses the war museum, Napoleon, and other prominent military leaders and a few injured veterans.

Then we were back to Notre Dame where Alan climbed the towers and got a picture with the bell.  Many thanks to Quasimodo (and Victor) for bringing attention to the Cathedral and rallying support for its restoration.

Then we consulted our map....something we did often. This was after getting ice cream and relaxing down on the banks of the Seine among the "locals" (really the backpackers and youth crowd).

We headed back to the Pantheon and saw the tomb of Victor Hugo and Alexander Dumas. Then it was back to the hotel for a short nap.

That night we attended a choral concert in Notre Dame where they featured Mozart and Hadyn pieces.

Day 4 (Thursday): We rented our car, visited an outdoor market, and then journeyed northwest to Versaille.

We did the audio tour to get the most our of our trip, but the whole palace was so crowded that it was hard to appreciate the beauty and grandeur. This is the Hall of Mirrors where guests were entertained.

Then we were off to the gardens. We walked a fair amount of the gardens. We considered renting a golf cart but they were highly overpriced and so we walked. Our feet regretted it by the end. Because it was the beginning of spring, most of the trees did not have leaves and the gardens were not yet planted.  On top of that, it was mid-week and the off-season so all the fountains were off and the statues were covered. It made for a less than impressive visit. Also, they had blocked a lot of areas off but did not indicate it on the map so we did a lot of walking to areas we could not actually see. I would recommend going to Versailles later in the year and on Saturday when they turn on the fountains. Definitely I would recommend going on a Saturday when they turn on the fountains.

This is Marie Antoinette's little hamlet in one corner of the gardens. It was like a 18th century Disneyland (spend a lot of money to play make-believe, not a bad thing unless the peasants are starving and it results in your beheading). I liked it the most.

More of the Hamlet.

We took a second swing through the palace hoping the crowds had thinned.  They hadn't.  This is the napkin on the kings table. I took a picture so Chris would know my expectations for the family dinner. Can you learn the Magnolia, Chris?

They turned on one fountain right before we left so we headed over for a picture.

Here I am trying out the royal water of Versailles.

We spent a lot of time walking the first couple days and I wore the wrong shoes on our first two days.   By Thursday afternoon my feet were in a state of pain. Luckily we had a three hour drive to our next destination over which they had a chance to recover. I will post the last 3 days later.