Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Paris, Grenoble!

Well we have been in France for about four days now, though it seems like weeks at this point. We have done so much, and been to so many places in those four days that its hard to believe we just arrived on Friday.

On Friday we arrived on our flight from Chicago at 8:30 in the morning, and were kindly greeted by my friend Ally, who drove us to our hostel so we could avoid rush hour on the metro. She informed us that we were on the same plane as Segolene Royal, candidate for President of France this past year.

We were tired Friday, but checked out Notre Dame Cathedral and Ste. Chappelle. They were both beautiful and had amazing stained glass windows, but I preferred Notre Dame.

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On Saturday we had a lot more energy and had a day full of art, going to the Musee D'Orsay which houses impressionist and post impressionist art, and the Pompidou Center, which houses modern art. I really enjoyed both, and liked seeing the Monet's, and Degas the most. At the Pompidou I enjoyed about half of the art and was perplexed by the rest. But seeing Matisse's cutouts made it all worth it. We went out for a nice dinner that night and I had some of the best salmon I've ever had.

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On Sunday, Ally acted as our tour guard and took us all over Monmartre, and to the Eiffel Tower. She also made us an amazing French dinner which included Apertifs Peche, Chevre Chaud (goat cheese salad) and Tarte a la Orange.

Monday we lugged all our bags on the Paris metro (not fun!) and got ourselves to the train station. Then we took the TGV (one of the fastest trains in the world at 180 mph) to Grenoble. I have certainly never gone that fast before, and it was amazing to watch the landscape go by. Grenoble is an extremely beautiful city surrounded by mountains. Matt calls it the French Portland and now I understand why he would want to live here. So now Matt is leaving for a 2 day work retreat/orientation in the mountains and I will be on my own in Grenoble until Thursday. It seems like a friendly city so I think I'll be fine.

I'll add some pictures to this when they finally finish downloading.
Bonne Journee!

1 comment:

Susanne said...

Love the pictures!! You got some awesome ones. Things here are great. I was able to be really helpful for Mom. Put 6 dinners in the freezer for her and Mark made it so the door would slide over the opening to that office. Keep the posts coming!!