Paris, France

Adley sings all the time. You can hear her singing the ABCs, wheels on the bus, Spider up the water spout, etc with the hand movements. The teachers at her pre school told Eve she artistic abilities. Eve said, yes she colors in the lines. She loves the men in her life. Jack just melts when she calls for her Poppa. She has a cute way of saying many words.
A likes to stray people with water in the backyard. She chases you and laughs as she hits you with the water. See the jet of water coming out of water bottle.



Nice picture of Jack just looking..


We got to the airport 2 1/2 hours early. It is always interesting people watching, so the time went quickly. The plane left right on time. One hour sleep for me and a little more for Jack. I moved and had two seats to stretch out some.
We had our first croissant on the plane. I would think it will be the worst one. Tomorrow I am planning to have a chocolate one.
We went to the subway and could not figure out how to buy tickets. Our credit card would not work. A nice, handsome young man was helping us. He then used his credit card and tried to give us the tickets without us paying him back. Weds. night the card did not work for dinner. We are wondering if MC misunderstood us. And we can not use it in France instead of us telling them , we are in France and charges will be coming. We checked into the hotel and we were off and running.
Arc de Triomphe













We walked down the Champ- Élysées. People are everywhere. I can not imagine touring in the summer, with the crowds I see now.


Driving is crazy. But nothing like my experience in China. When you go around the round abouts, cars are everywhere. There are also the scoters and the bikers. It is surprising there are not more accidents. Many small cars and especially Smart cars. Here are some parked cars.
Cars parked in the center of a street. The scoters park on the side walks. You can rent bikes like zip cars.








Sainte-Chapelle Everything you see has some restoration going on. You can look at one side of the church and the stain glass windows are restored and they are broken and dark on the other side. This picture is an example.








Norte Dame
It was extremely large. When I thought I had seen it all, there was 1/2 more on another side. It got quite noisy inside. The load speaker came on and repeated to be quiet in a few languages and silence occurred.
In the gardens








Weds. Oct. 24
The hotel room is small. the TV does not,work. And it stinks from cigarettes. And it cost $300. There is so much smoking here by the french people. We bought two chocolate croissants, bananas, OJ for breakfast. The buffet at the hotel was not open as early as we had to leave. Up at 5:30. Out the door at 6:30 and on the tour bus at 7:15. It was a 12 1/2 day of touring. It was the Loire river tour of Chateaus. We saw Chambord, Chenonceau, and Cheverny. The guide was charming. She spoke in French, Portuguese and English. It was music to your ears. We met a nice couple from Michigan. They said they have four sons. But in further conversation, they had one son die of cancer and have three living sons. So sad.
Chambord. Built in 1519. 426 rooms. King Louis 14 build this for hunting. He would visit it every other year. He only spent 72 days in it. When he went from castle to castle, they carried the furniture with then. It would break down to be portable.






Center stairway. There would be apartments on four quarters of each floor.





Chateau Chenonceau. 1600 th century. Built over the river Loire.






Diane De Poitiers' bedroom
The beds are raised to show importance.





The Gallery.


The kitchen is in the basement. The food would come by boat right into the rooms. Many rooms and well equipped .


Servants dining.



Wood block for butcher. This was a separate room.



Keepers house. Separate from the Chateau.





The five queen bedroom



Chateau Cheverny. Built 1624 by the Hurault family and still owned by them. The right hand 1/5 of the house is the private quarters of the present family. By making it a tourist spot in 1922 they are able to afford to keep and own it.
It's is a real picture that I took.











Dining room






Thursday Oct. 25.
3 chocolates in one day.



Also Nutella on the table.


Crepe


Versailles 1661. This is the cream de cream of all castles. 2000 rooms. We has three guides on the bus and they translated in six languages. At Versailles we had a guide for each language.

















Hall of mirrors





King Louis 14 bedroom


Marie Antoinette bedroom








Back of castle, two sides












Effie Tower. We went up to the second floor. They warn you about pickpockets everywhere. A women had a gypsy un zip her purse on the subway. So I put a safety pin on the zipper on my purse.
















An art park.



People relaxing around the pond.