France by train.....

Enroute to the South of France by train.....

I always get the pictures backwards, but oh well. From Paris, we took the train to Orleans. We had time to walk the downtown part and enjoy the city. We found the Brice store a couple doors down from our hotel. Brice, I'll bet you didn't know you owned a store in France. The downtown part of Orleans does not allow street traffic, but you do have to watch out for the trams, otherwise, you can walk where you wish.

Orleans is the first stop in the Loire Valley. We didn't stop at every little hamlet or we could not have kept our schedule, but we enjoyed seeing the French country side as we got further into the trip.

Tours is actually the last stop in the Loire Valley and we chose to stay overnight there as well. We stayed in a B & B over 100 yrs old that was just delightful and only a few blocks from the train. Again, we had plenty of time to walk down to the old town part and other sites in the city.

Bordeaux was our last stop before heading to the retreat. We entered one door of the train station and out the back to catch the tram. We rather liked Bordeaux and spent another night there after returning from the retreat. Bordeaux is much larger than the other cities we visited enroute.

The next morning, we road the tram to the railway and boarded a train to St. Foy La Grande for our retreat. Plum Village and the retreat will be the third and final story of our time in France, and most definitely the longest. We actually have two sets of pictures for Plum Village. Chris took about 100 pictures and Kian, on of our fellow retreatants took a few 100 and was generous enough to download them on our computer before we left.

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

OBAMA!

For many of us (appx 25,000), the race began on or about February 28, 2007 on the banks of the Colorado River/Town Lake of Austin, Texas. Chris, Valerie and I stood in a light rain for part of the three hour wait to see the Obama we were hearing so much about. It was worth every minute of the wait; Obama does not disappoint. It was very early in his campaign and the largest audience he had spoken to. We didn't have a camera but Chris took pics with his phone. We saw Obama again in Austin sometime in 2008. My decision was made.


The Patriarca/Kirk family was well represented at the Inauguration by Valerie and David Kirk, and by Christopher & Brice Patriarca. Those are the ones I know of. Many people like me joined them by watching the TV from beginning to end. That was a wonderful, historic day and I am grateful that some of our family members were there to see it live and in person.


Now one thing that baffled me was when I saw that Paige was also there. I told Chris that I didn't know Paige was going and he said no, he didn't either, but I showed him the picture. Later, he talked to Paige and we learned that she had asked to be pasted in since she couldn't be there in person. Well done Christopher!


This was a campaign, election and inauguration that I believe we will all remember for the rest of our lives. More pictures are posted at http://picasaweb.google.com/donniedayp


Well done family!


Cheers!


Donnie