The Trip: 2019

Saturday, June 8, 2019

2019 France Trip Day 10: Paris to Caen and Falaise, Normandy

Saturday, June 8, 2019

The end of the tour began early again with the extension part of the trip to Normandy.

visited Caen Memorial

Then to Falaise where our hotel is to see either the Castle where William the Conquerer grew up, or a museum about the day-to-day life of civilians during World War 2

It all culminated with the "dress up" dinner at our hotel followed by a group picture.

2019 France Trip Day 8: Chartres Cathedral and Paris

Thursday, June 6, 2019

Early start to get to Chartres Cathedral

Then on to Paris to check in to the hotel and then head to the Louvre.

Couldn't get too close to the Mona Lisa

Still tried to see the other sights inside and outside the Louvre.

Then we had a short walk to get to where we would eat our dinner.

After dinner we took the metro to the bottom of Monmartre, climbed some steps, saw Sacre Coure, came down the back way past where Van Gogh and Gogan and Picasso used to hang out past the Moulin Rouge,

2019 France Trip Day 9: Paris and Versailles and Paris

Friday, June 7, 2019

Started Friday with the Paris city tour

Then we moved on to Versailles for that tour

Then it was back on the bus for a return to Paris and Dinner and then to Montparnasse Tower.

Since we had a little time, we headed to the Champs-Elysees on the Metro before calling it a day and taking the Metro back to the hotel.

Wednesday, June 5, 2019

2019 France Trip Day 7: Loire Valley Castles

Wednesday, June 5, 2019

We had our first rainy day here in France for our 2019 trip. It may have slowed us down a little bit, but we still managed to see the sites and have a good time. We started a little later today, leaving the hotel at 9:00 am. We arrived at our first location, Plou & Fils Winery, where we were given a tour of their operation before having a wine/grape juice tasting.

From the winery we drove to Amboise where several members of our group purchased an emergency umbrella as it continued to rain. We were given free time to get something to eat and look around Amboise and during this time quite a few people in the group went to the former home of Da Vinci, Clos Lucé. This trip involved a tour of his home and many of his inventions. Later in Amboise we were joined by our first walk-on guide to tell us about the history of the Château Royal d'Amboise and also Château de Chenonceau a little later. All this while it continued to rain... even for the infamous hedgerow maze picture.

The next, and last, stop of the day came near our first stop at a Troglodyte cave for our dinner. This cave was similar to the one in which Plou & Fils stores and ages their wines, however this one houses large gatherings of tourists and locals for meals or discotheque! It was good food and a fun experience.

Tomorrow Paris!