Paris

As with most trips, we started to plan this trip about 2 months out starting with airline reservations. Done, check that off the list. Then we started to plan what we wanted to see and do and began making hotel reservations. And of course, in this case there was also reservations at Plum Village, the meditation retreat. All done weeks in advance, file made and ready to go.


While I packed at least a week before, most of it anyway, Chris is a last minute kind of a guy, so he comes home on Thursday, January 29 and said before he started packing, he would login and print our boarding passes. In a few minutes, he returned with a panicked look on his face and said "Donnie, is this the 29th?". And I said "yes, of course, and we leave on the 30th." He said "Donnie, our reservations are for tonight." Then we both got into high gear and got things done, cancelled appts here for Friday, notified Samuel, our driver that we needed him to take us to the airport. Yikes, that was temporary insanity, but we laughed about it many times once we were enroute. Oh darn, we have an extra night in Paris.

Paris was fabulous! It's a magical city and reminds me of New York, or as Kevin says, maybe NYC on steroids. We had great times, probably saw only about half the things we wanted to see but it's not the last time we will go, and there is only so much you can take in when it's below freezing every day, some days with rain and one with snow.

I would have to say what we enjoyed most was the modern art museum and the Picasso museum, but it was all good and we had a great time.

The next part of our journey, we go South of Paris through the Loire Valley by train with an overnight in Orleans and in Tours, then an overnight in Bordeaux before leaving for Plum Village where we spent the next week. These I will continue to post, but as separate entries for the next few days. Every part of the trip was special.

Two of the pictures in Paris are from a wonderful designer children's shop. The shop owner was also the designer and they make the clothes right there in the small shop. We were able to pick up gifts for our twin great nephews who will be arriving in a few months as well as something for grandson Jasper.

What a great time we had, and also some very good food. Lots of good pastries, coffee and hot dogs along with some more substantial meals. More to be revealed!

Cheers!

Donnie