Monday, June 18th (Reims and Epernay Champagne, France)

We missed driving the roads so much so we decided to head to the Champagne region today which was about an hour from our villa. And if you are going to do Champagne, what better way to do it then go all out with Moet & Chandon. At least that was Jobby’s motto. The regular champagne tour (the cellars/caves) included a basic tasting along w/ the price of the tour. Since Jobby knew he would be drinking most of my tasting, he decided to go all out and get the premiere vintage tasting for himself! Dom Perignon or bust! We enjoyed a great tour of the cellars/caves which are located 30 meters directly below the headquarters in Epernay. There are over 28 kilometers of caves holding millions of bottles of champagne. What a site! The caves were amazing and the story behind the champagne was even more intriguing. Putting some math together we realized there is over $15 billion dollars worth of champagne in the cellars. We debated whether we should hide out in the Dom Perignon section overnight and steal a few for a celebration when OB1 arrives.

After the tour was over, we set up for our Premiere tasting in the gardens (everyone else tasted in a boring room J ). They showed us pictures of famous people who had done tastings in the same gardens – most notably Princess Diana. So there we are, in our basic street clothes tasting $150 bottles of champagne (well, Jim was drinking and Carla was barely sipping). The vintages were truly amazing and we had our first tastes of Rose champagne. The vintages were from 2000 and Jobby truly fell in love with them.

With a few glasses of champagne in Jim, we headed to Reims (pronounced Rance – these Frenchies – don’t get it) to view another Notre Dame Cathedral. This one was spectacular in its own way. First, it was nice to be in the small town and not have hoards of tourists touring the cathedral at the same time as you. It was very peaceful. Built between 1211-1311 on the traditional coronation site of the kings of France, this cathedral was probably the favorite of our trip and one of the greatest monuments of Gothic art and architecture we had seen yet. The cathedral is famous for the smiling angel on the façade.

Ahh, another relaxing, fun filled day in Paris. We had to rest up tonight to prepare for the arrival of Matt & Allison Proulx the following morning – now the adventures would REALLY begin (Matt & Allison have never been out of the US before – unless you count Canada!).

Sunday, June 17th (Paris, France)

First real breakfast at home – eggs and sausage! We were excited to not have to go anywhere for breakfast and not just eat bread and fruit. It is great having our own little villa in the French countryside.

We woke up early and took the train into Paris to catch the early mass at the Notre Dame Cathedral. This was interesting because it was in French and there were hoards of people circling the mass taking pictures of it along w/ the cathedral itself. It felt like we were part of a production. The organs were some of the loudest things we have ever heard but it was a great experience.

From there, we headed to Saint Chappelle, another beautiful church built by Louis IX in the 1240's to house relics from the Holy Land (supposedly the Crown of Thorns and part of the True Cross). It was a tiny gothic chapel compared to Notre Dame and was inspiring visual with the stained glass windows which essentially surround the entire upper floor and tell many of the stories from the Old Testament. Too bad we waited around for almost an hour for an English paper guide but it seems the English steal the guides!

Our afternoon changed directions as we decided to explore the modern art museum, The Centre Pompidou. This was drastically different from anything we had been to see on our trip thus far. The building itself was very modern and the 6 floors allowed us to get a great view of the city of Paris. We saw some great paintings from Picasso, Matisse, and Chagall but we also saw some crazy (maybe interesting) works of art.

We continued our visit of art museums by hitting up the Parisian Pablo Picasso Museum. This was our 2^nd Picasso museum of the trip (along w/ the Picasso’s we saw at Pompidou). We honestly feel like we know Picasso in and out now J Between this Museum, the Pompidou and the one in Spain, I think we saw every single one of Picasso’s works.

We ran through the rain to catch our train back to the village of Bailly-Romainvilliers and enjoyed a chill night at home feasting on some homemade chicken, veggies and couscous. Who would have ever thought that a frozen meal like that would taste so good after over 3 weeks of traveling!

Saturday, June 16th (Drive to Paris, France)

We decided to start this blog with a picture of a Total Service Station which populate the French highways to help share two facts and a story about driving here. In our boredom, we calculated that gas in Europe costs us $0.25 / mile versus about $0.10 in the US. This makes us feel like we are throwing a quarter out the window every mile we drive (a frightening thought). Second, there are more tolls in France than anywhere (with the possible exception of Italy). We paid over….

Finally, the story. So Carla and I decided to play a little Bonnie and Clyde today and not pay for fuel after filling up at the Total Service Station between Dijon and Paris. I thought Carla had paid and she thought I had paid and neither of us realized it until Carla asked if they had taken our Visa card (which we’ve had a few probs with) 16 km up the road. We briefly considered continuing on to Paris anyway with the hope that we could get our car out of the country before the French Police had a clue (in legitimate protest of the ridiculous tolls and high gas prices of course) but our ethics got the better of us and we turned back. As we passed the station going south (there are no exits on French freeways) we already saw Police cars in front. I pulled in and began with “Pardon, je suis desole, je pense que elle paye pour le gasoline” which translated means, “I’m sorry, its all my wife’s fault” The cops just laughed and pointed us inside to pay, it seems they had bigger fish to fry. They had just apprehended a suspect who stood in handcuffs outside the station while they were searching his car. As a result, I believe we went from being outlaws to good civil servants by helping draw law enforcement to this den of thieves. We apologized again inside, paid (with Visa) and were on our way (48 miles, $12 in gas and $12 in tolls later). (Jim usually pays for gas so who’s fault is this J )

But we must go back to the beginning of today…

Because our hotel in Lyon was oh so charming, we motivated to wake up pretty early and get on the road towards Paris. Carla couldn’t wait to settle down into a comfortable place for a WEEK after 3 weeks on the road. We wanted to grab a yummy French breakfast before we took off but TomTom guided us right to the highway. Though we had both heard great things about Lyon, we decided we would stop along the way and grab some lunch on the way to Paris.

We stopped in Dijon for lunch. We were lucky enough to hit the Saturday market when we arrived. What a site to see – everyone in town was out. They even served Carla’s favorite meal at the local butcher shop – PIGEON! We enjoyed a traditional French lunch of cheese, ham, beef bourguignon, and red wine before heading off to Paris (and the gas station story above).

On our way to Paris! YEAH!

We arrived just outside of Paris to the Marriott place Carla’s parents just stayed a week ago at. It is BEAUTIFUL and so nice to have a little 2 bedroom place with a kitchen, washer/dryer etc. It is great and a wonderful start to the last week of our trip!

Friday, June 15th (Marseilles, Arles, Avignon & Lyon, France)

We woke up this morning planning to hit the beach in Nice one last time but much to our surprise it was pouring rain and lightning! Since the hotel was going to make us change rooms for extending our reservation, we decided to take off from Nice and break up the long drive we had to Paris the following day.

We took off expecting to head to Monaco and check out Monte Carlo but there was so much flooding in the streets we decided it was best to get to higher ground and get out of the South of France before we sailed away. Good call on our point because once we were an hour outside of Nice, the weather was beautiful and sunny.

The first stop on our drive to Lyon was Marseilles. The ‘mean streets of Marseilles’ as Jobby called them because apparently this is where Zidane is from (the French football player who headbutted that Italian guy in the world cup last year). Much to our surprise, this city seemed very beautiful. It is all based around the oldest port in France. The water was blue and beautiful and the port was full of sailboats of all sizes. We ‘snuck’ into the upscale Sofitel hotel on the hill of the fort and got a great overview of the city.

From there we headed to Arles, the home of Van Gogh. Arles is a quaint little city on the Rhone and we stopped to scope out a few of the scenes from which Van Gogh drew his inspiration (and cut off his ear). After a stop at a Roman era coliseum (still used for bull fighting today) we went down to the river to find the scene from “Starry Night Over the Rhone” and then into town for “Café at Nuit.” The city and surrounding country were quite beautiful although we didn’t see quite as many flower-bursts as Van Gough painted.

The last stop on our way to Lyon was Avignon for dinner. This was a unique and old city and we grabbed dinner in the shadow of St. Pierre’s Church hidden away in the cobblestone maze of old town (it seems every city in Europe has a cobblestone old town meant for walking only but which the Euros do not mind driving on, at frighteningly high speeds, particularly for pedestrians). We had some interesting salads and crepes for dinner (Carla’s crepe had salad, tomato sauce, one slice of ham and an egg on top). Luckily, we topped off our interesting dinner with a fantastic sweet crepe – hot bananas with hot chocolate sauce and whipped cream on top.

We saw our most beautiful sunset yet driving from Avignon to Lyon. We also encountered our biggest thunderstorm yet (which probably made for the amazing sunset).

We arrived in our sketchy, sketchy, SKETCHY hotel in Lyon just before midnight. Much to our surprise we didn’t even have a shower curtain or a light in the bathroom and Carla kept hearing what she thought were rats gnawing at the walls. At this point we were so tired we couldn’t bear to wait for the hotel staff to come fix it so we just showered with no lights or a shower curtain and hit the hay.

Thursday, June 14th (South of France – Cannes and Antibes)

We explored the South of France today by car. We first drove to Cannes. It was pretty Hollywood because there were posters all across town of famous American (and international) actors and actresses. You could tell the town revolved around the film festival. So many people were touring the city and it was PACKED with lots of rich people (or those pretending to be – not us in our Volvo wagon) shopping to try and keep up with the Jones of Hollywood. There were some great views of the harbor (and yachts similar to those you see Beyonce and Jay-Z on) from the top of the Cannes hill (I guess similar to the Hollywood Hills).

From there we hit up Antibes, a more chill town between Cannes and Nice. This town was really cute with lots of tiny streets (the Volvo – still yet to be named – barely fit). We hit the beach which was actually white and sandy compared to the beach in Nice. The pigeons were still there but we enjoyed a day at the beach like the locals. We hiked up for a great view of the harbor and enjoyed a wonderful Italian dinner in the old part of town (hey at least we are using our knowledge of the French language – we just wanted some comfort food). This is a town we could see ourselves hanging out in more along the Riveria.

Wednesday, June 13th (Nice, France)

We woke up pretty early and after our Italian breakfast at the sketchy hotel, we decided to forgo a dip in the pool and hit the road because the amount of Italian men in thongs at the pool motivated us to hit up Nice.

Nice was only 45 minutes down the road so we arrived with the whole day to play. We hit up the rock beach right in front of our hotel. Nice isn’t quiet what Carla expected but more what Jim expected. Don’t get us wrong, it’s not that its not ‘nice’ but it’s a big city on the water. The beaches had some pigeons on it which scared Carla a lot J We hit the beach for a few hours (it is rocky not sandy) and Jobby took his first dip in the Mediterranean Sea. The water was a great temp so we enjoyed that a lot.

We cruised the ‘strip’ for an hour or two (the Promenade des Anglais) and Jobby took his first run (the run he said he would do every day of the trip J). There was a lot to check out in the old city so we hit that up at night.

We had our first taste of the Mediterranean flair on the Provence cuisine for dinner. Most of it was good minus the salad nicoise which we thought would be the best part. The lettuce was tres funky but the rest of the meal was delicious (but pricey).

Tuesday, June 12th (San Remo, Italy)

We left Geneva relatively early on Tuesday (it was still dark and drizzly) and drove to SanRemo, Italy. This was one of the most beautiful (but crazy drives) we have had yet. We went through the longest tunnel ever (over 8 miles) - we thought we were going to die of carbon monoxide poisoning! We also saw a glacier (Jim's 1st one) and some beautiful scenes of the alps and waterfalls. This is the land of tunnels and bad drivers. The Italians are clearly the worst drivers in all of Europe and Carla’s challenges driving to our hotel in downtown will ensure that Carla will drive the highways from now on and I will handle all city driving (I never knew that Carla could curse in Italian, but she was rather effective). We checked into our sketchiest hotel so far (which isn’t saying much since we had been staying at Radisson/ Westin/ Marriott/ Sheraton chains for a while now. After checking in and being handed a key and lead keychain that weighed over 5 lbs we went for a walk along the waterfront and through downtown (me with a discernible pimp-lean). The Italian Riviera was more of a giant fishing village than a beachy paradise though. One street off of the water however was an avenue packed with tourists and locals shopping away and a few nice restaurants to boot. We hit the marina where we stalked a restaurant who’s menu we liked (it didn’t open until 7pm and we walked by it three times between 5-7. At 6, we decided to grab a drink at a restaurant nearby (I had a port wine aperitif which drew confused stares from the waitress and Carla since that’s usually a digestif for after-dinner. Eh who knew?)

After dinner we walked back and after a quick call from CIGNA where I confirmed that I still had a job on my return, we went to bed, only to be awakened around 1am by the front desk who asked me to move my car in the garage. This didn’t make sense to me since we parked in the rear corner in nobody’s way, but he spoke terrible English and I was worried someone had hit us so I went downstairs. Turns out some people were parked in by an unknown guest and they were calling all of the rooms one by one to figure out who’s car was downstairs. Needless to say there were a pile of unhappy people downstairs when I got there, but our car was fine so I went back upstairs and left the Italians to argue amongst themselves (very loudly).