Barcelona

We took a quick trip to Barcelona to celebrate Alex's 30th birthday. Awesome weather: the sun was out and the breeze from the ocean was nice and cool.

Les Rambles. A collection of streets in the heart of town with pedestrian walkways lined with shops, vendors, street performers and restaurants/cafes.

La Boqueria. Huge open air market along La Rambla with vendors selling all different types of food, cooked and uncooked. Delicious and cheap.

Temple de la Sagrada Familia. You can't hit any city in Europe without visiting at least one cathedral. Construction began on this cathedral in 1882, and it is still isn't finished.

One of the entrances to Sagrada Familia.

The transcept.

Olympic Harbor.

Passeig de Gracia. Main street lined with shops and businesses. Reminds us a bit of the Champs in Paris, but with better prices.

The building in the middle is called Casa Batllo, designed by Antoni Gaudi, the same man who designed Sagrada Familia. It was built from 1905-1907. The house on the left is called Casa Amatller, built from 1898-1900. These two very modern looking houses are part of the Block of discord along the Passeig de Gracia.

Bourgogne: Day 3

Clos de Vougeot

Sunday morning, we headed to the Chateau du Clos de Vougeot. It was built in the 12th century by monks who needed red wine for mass.


The chateau surrounded by its vineyards. The chateau does not run the vineyards, nor does it sell any wine on the premises any more.

Wine making barn on the right. Cellars on the left. The cellars are above ground because the limestone was too hard.

One of four massive wine presses in the wine making barn. Each press can hold four tons of grapes at a time.

Dijon

Our last stop was Dijon, the capital of Burgundy.


Palais de Ducs or Ducal Palace. It now houses the Fine Arts Museum.


St-Michel. Completed in the 17th century.


Notre-Dame. One of the oldest churches in Dijon, built in the 13th century.

Bourgogne: Day 2

Hotel-Dieu or Hospices de Beaune

After the Hundred Years' War, the town of Beaune suffered from poverty and famine. So the Duke of Burgundy founded a hospice for the poor in 1443 and endowed the hospice with saltworks and its own vineyards for its annual income. Today, the hospice owns 151 acres of vineyards, some of the finest in the region.

The Great Hall of the Poor. Both sides of this room are lined with beds and there is a chapel at the end of the hall so that the sick patients could attend church services from their bed.


Court of Honour. The roofs of the Hotel Dieu are covered with glazed multicolored tiles, typical of the Burgundy region. The well, in the back corner of the courtyard, provided water for the entire hospital. You can see the Bouzaise River flowing beneath.

Better view of the colorful, geometrical glazed roofs.

Marche aux Vins

There is a wine market across the street from the hospices, which allows you to tour their cellars and taste 15 different wines (3 white, 12 red) for only 10 euro.

Barrels lining the cellars of the wine market. I'm holding the souvenir tastevin in my left hand, and the list of wines in my right.

Autun

After the wine tasting, we drove to the town of Autun. The town was founded in the late 1st century B.C. and was originally called Augustodunum, the town of Augustus. There are still many Roman remains all around the city. As we drove around town, we saw signs for the Tour de France, since the Tour will be passing through Autun this summer.

Temple of Janus, right outside the town of Autun. Built by the Romans.

The Roman theatre, built in the 1st century A.D. It could sit 20,000 people.

Another view of the theatre.

Porte d'Arroux. Once part of the Roman wall built around Autun.

Bourgogne: Day 1

Beaune

We drove down to Burgundy (called Bourgogne in French) for Easter weekend. We stayed in Beaune, located in the center of Bourgogne. It was such a cute town, with lots of delicious food, fruit and gingerbread, a specialty of this region.

Sunny afternoon in Beaune

Along the Route des Grand Crus. This road is lined with vineyards.

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.