Cannes

We spent the weekend in Cannes, visiting Alex's uncle, aunt and cousin. The sun came out on Sunday, so we went for a walk along the beach.

The mile-long promenade along the beach is called La Croisette.

Etretat with Kate

The weather wasn't that great during our friend Kate's visit, but it stopped raining for one day, so we headed up to Etretat.

We climbed up the other side of the cliffs to see the other side of the elephant. Even cooler view than before. There's a golf course up there too.

Paris on a Rainy Day

We spent the rest of the day in Paris after dropping off Sammy & Judith at the train station.

Alex in front of the Alexander III bridge.


Petit Palais. We wanted to go in and see the French painting and furniture exhibit, but the line was out the door due to the rain.

Sammy & Judith

Sammy & Judith came to visit us for the weekend. It was so nice to see them and catch up on their life in London.

Etretat and Honfleur

Sunday afternoon, we headed to the northern coast of France, known as the Alabaster Coast.

Etretat

The Falaises d'Etretat are white chalky cliffs that form the Norman coastline of France. It was a beautiful sunny afternoon.

In the distance, you can see the Falaise d'Aval, which some say looks like an elephant dipping its trunk into the sea. There were people parachuting off these cliffs onto the beach below. You can see one of the red parachutes in the middle of this picture.

Sun setting on the English Channel. More parachuting.

Honfleur

That evening, we drove down the coast for dinner in Honfleur. Lots of seafood. This is a view of the old harbor.

Loire Valley: Day 3

Chateau de Chenonceau

Another must see chateau. It spans the Cher River, which was flowing so quickly while we were visiting that it sounded like a rainstorm. Henri II gave this estate to his mistress, Diane de Poitiers in 1547. When he was killed in 1559, his widow, Catherine de Medici ordered Diane to exchange Chenenceau for Chaumont-sur-Loire.

The chateau is surrounded by two gardens, one designed by Diane de Poitiers and the other by Catherine de Medici. The gardens require 130,000 bedding plants, all of which are grown on the estate.

Four donkeys live in the 16th century farm. You can see the sheep in the background. The estate also contains a 72 acre vineyard.

Tours

Cathedrale St-Gatien. Built between 1239 and 1484. Two of Charles VIII and Anne of Brittany's children are buried here.

Loire Valley: Day 2

Chateau Royal d'Amboise

The Chateau d'Amboise was a royal palace from the mid 15th to mid 16th century. King Charles VIII was born here in 1470. He also died here in 1498, when he bumped his forehead on a door frame on his way to watch a game of tennis.

These are working fireplaces!!!

Leonardo da Vinci is buried in the St. Hubert Chapel on the terrace of the chateau.

16th century battle armour. The Emir of Algiers (Algeria), Abd el-Kader was kept under house arrest in this chateau after he surrendered to France in 1843.

The Chateau d'Amboise is not the biggest, nor is the prettiest chateau in the Loire Valley, but it is a definite must see. You can't help but get immersed in its history.

Chateau de Chaumont-sur-Loire

Charles II built this between 1454 and 1510. When Henri II died, his wife Catherine de Medici forced Diane de Poitiers to exchange Chenonceau (see Day 3) for this chateau.



The luxurious stables of this chateau housed purebred horses in the 19th century.

Chateau de Chambord

The largest chateau in the Loire Valley. King Francois I commissioned this chateau in 1519, originally intended as a hunting lodge. It is over 500 feet long and 183 feet tall, has 77 staircases, 282 fireplaces and 426 rooms. The Chambord estate covers over 13000 acres and is surrounded by a 20 mile wall with 6 gates. It is the largest enclosed forest park in Europe. The chateau is so big and in the middle of nowhere, so the Louvre stored its most precious paintings (including the Mona Lisa) here during WWII.

The double spiral staircase in the center of the keep. Two concentric spirals wind independently, so two people never meet each other if they each take a different staircase. It is presumed that Leonardo da Vinci inspired this staircase. Also on display are saddles from the late 1800s, made by Hermes.

Chateau Royal de Blois

Each of the four wings of this chateau correspond to four distinct periods and style: Gothic, Flamboyant, Renaissance and Classicism. Both Francois I and Henri III lived here. Catherine de Medici died here on January 5, 1589.

Chateau de Cheverny

Alex grew up reading the Tintin comic books. The Chateau de Cheverny was the inspiration for Capitaine Haddock's mansion.

Loire Valley: Day 1

Alex had a three day break in his schedule, so we headed down to the Loire Valley to check out some chateaus. Here are some highlights from our trip.

Chateau du Clos Luce

Leonardo da Vinci spent the last three years of his life in this chateau, located in the town of Amboise. King Francois I gave it to da Vinci in 1516 so that he could listen to da Vinci converse about various subjects. The royal palace is right down the street (we visited the palace on day 2). The original bill of sale from when King Charles VIII purchased this chateau is hanging in the reception room. The King gave this chateau to his wife, Anne of Brittany.

Chateau d'Azay-le-Rideau

Our first chateau, located on the banks of the River Indre. It rained all afternoon and evening on Friday, so the sun was a welcome sight. This chateau was built in the 16th century by Gilles Berthelot, the Treasurer of Finance under King Francoise I. It was completed in 1529.

Chateau d'Usse

Also located on the banks of the Indre River is the Chateau d'Usse, located in the village of Rigny-Usse. This chateau is supposedly what inspired Charles Perrault to write the fairy tale Sleeping Beauty. The gardens on this estate were designed by Le Notre, the architect of the Gardens of Versailles.

Karen looking out of the Sleeping Beauty tower. The tower houses many rooms which depict key scenes from the Sleeping Beauty story. Kind of creepy, but maybe because mannequins freak us out.

Chinon

Francois Rabelais was born in the town of Chinon. This is where Rabelais' house once stood.

This street, rue Haute St-Maurice, is lined with many medieval and Renaissance houses. You also see many Joan of Arc memorials, as Chinon was where she met with the future king, Charles VII and asked to be placed at the head of his army. You can see random plaques all over the place which tell you the exact locations where Joan set foot around town.

Chateau de Villandry

Our last chateau for the day was built in 1536 near the Cher River by Jean le Breton, the first Minister of Finance under King Francois. These people in charge of royal money sure had a lot of money of their own.....

In 1906, Dr. Joachim Carvallo and his wife, Anne Coleman (grand-daughter of one of the founders of Bethlehem Steel), purchased the Chateau de Villandry and restored the 16th century gardens. The gardens span more than 3 acres.

Alex in the maze. It's probably harder to navigate the maze during the spring/summer, when the bushes aren't so bare.

View of the chateau from the gardens.

Another Day in Paris: The Latin Quarter and Montmartre

Sunday morning, we headed back to Paris and started our day with another hearty American breakfast. This time, we went to the Breakfast in America location in the Latin Quarter so that we could explore this district after our awesome brunch.

The Pantheon. This is the final resting place for some of the most famous movers and shakers in French history: Voltaire, Rousseau, Pierre and Marie Curie (their ashes are buried here, not their bodies because I think their corpses would still be pretty radioactive today), and Alexandre Dumas (Alex's current favorite famous French mover and shaker). The upper section of the dome is closed to visitors until the end of March, so we opted not to go inside. We'll have to save this monument for spring.

Right across the square from the Pantheon is the Law School for the University of Paris. Don't know much else about this place, don't know why the front door is blue.

The Sorbonne. Founded in 1253 by Robert de Sorbon as a school for theology. It was the seat of the University of Paris until 1969, when it was divided into 13 separate universities. This is one of the oldest universities in Europe.

By this time, it was raining pretty hard, so we ended our walk and took the metro and headed indoors.


Musee d'Orsay. This museum opened in 1986 inside an old train station. It houses Impressionist paintings and art from 1848-1914. This is the view from the fifth floor. The entrance to the museum is under the big clock on the other end of the building.

Closeup of the clock. We saw some of our favorite paintings here: Monet's Rouen cathedral series, pastels by Degas and the portraits by Renoir.

It wasn't raining when we left the museum, so we decided to walk around Montmartre, which is up on a hill north of the Seine, overlooking the rest of Paris.

The streets of Montmartre are lined with tourist shops and artists. We were going to have our portrait taken, but it started to rain again, preventing the artists from working. Montmartre is also home to the world famous cabaret, Moulin Rouge.

St-Pierre de Montmartre, a church built in the 6th century. Behind this church you can see the top of the dome of the basilica of Sacre-Coeur. The dome is the second highest point in Paris (second to the Eiffel Tower).

View of Paris from the front steps of Sacre-Coeur. You can't see very much in this picture because it's raining pretty hard. We didn't take a picture of the front of the basilica because the front steps were filled with people trying to get out of the rain.

Deauville-Trouville

On the way home from Brittany, we stopped by the twin towns of Deauville and Trouville. Both are beach towns along the English Channel and are separated by the Touques River.

Deauville

Alex calls this the Saratoga Springs of France. The streets are lined with exclusive shops (Hermes, Gucci, Ferragamo, Louis Vuitton, Prada, Longchamp, Cerruti, Burberry) all housed in these cute little Norman looking buildings. This square is called the Villa Strassburger. The building to my right, which you can't see except for the column, is the Deauville Casino.

Notice how there is nobody walking around this place. The town is so Norman looking that it almost looks fake. Lots of really nice cars around here too. Rich and famous French people supposedly spend a lot of time around here--- they could have walked right by us and we wouldn't know unless they were Tony Parker, Zinedine Zidane, Gerard Depardieu, Jean Reno or Johnny Depp (not really French, but I wouldn't recognize his French wife).

Trouville

The oldest seaside resort in France, it is a lot more laid back than Deauville. We saw a lot more people on this side of the river.

Crowds along the boardwalk. The white fence on the right sells Shetland pony rides. Trouville is a lot more kid friendly than Deauville.

Notice the people wading through the frigid waters of the English Channel.

Northeast Brittany

The eastern-most portion of Brittany is only a two hour drive from Rouen. We headed into the clouds and drizzle of Brittany on Tuesday afternoon.

St-Malo

The town is known for its great sailors, but it is most famous for its corsairs, or pirates paid by the French royalty to pillage the British on the other side of the Channel during the 16th-19th centuries.

The ramparts of St-Malo. Viscount Rene de Chateaubriand is buried on the island in the background.

Alex, a cannon and a fort. To the left is the Fort National, a huge fortress and dungeon. You can't see them, but there were a couple of little boys waiting in line to take a picture with the cannon after Alex was done.

Walking down the ramparts.


Jacques Cartier is buried in the church of St-Vincent. Cartier is the explorer who discovered the St. Lawrence River and promptly drove a cross into the ground, claiming Canada for France.

Dinard

More clouds and drizzle as we headed towards Dinard, only 8 miles west of St-Malo along the Brittany coast.

Dinard has a promenade where you can walk along the coast. The rain started coming down a little too hard by the time we arrived, so we went to a creperie instead. Brittany is known for its crepes, so we had to try some. Delicious.

After the crepes, we drove from Dinard to Dinan for dinner and overnight. The road signs were a bit confusing: beware of the road signs between Dinard and Dinan. It's hard to remember which town you're headed toward (and which town you're in) when you see signs for both towns while driving in a roundabout.

Dinan

The next morning we woke up to a beautiful day. Sunny and not a cloud in the sky.

The viaduct on the outskirts of Dinan, spanning the Rance River. You can see part of the ramparts to the left.

View of the Rance River valley from aforementioned ramparts.

Dinard's streets are lined with artisanal studios and shops. The streets are also very steep. The buildings are very well preserved, so you feel like you're walking in medieval times (and at Medieval Times). There are also lots of shops that sell swords and suits of armor.

Rue de l'Apport and Place des Merciers. All of these streets are lined with 15-16th century houses.