Mardi - Giverny

The morning’s activities were based on personal interest.  Cindy and Kim joined Kathy on a shopping trip to Galeries Lafayette.  The goal here was to spend at least 175 Euros in order to get the 12% tax refund.  Total was 180 – success!  Sorry we didn’t have a camera with us because the building itself was beautiful.

Mindy and Jessica went to Victor Hugo's house on the Place des Vosges. One of the floors was preserved as it was when he died and another served as galleries for various drawings by the author and of his work. Jessica rented an audio guide and listened to most of the information, but Mindy didn't feel like paying the five euro so she went through quickly and then sat on a bench to take a nap.

Judy and Phyllis went to do a little shopping and walked the wrong way on St. Germain des Pres.  Since they were close to St. Sulpice, they walked there to go inside to see the rose line which Judy walked over on Sunday and didn't notice.  However, when they arrived, a casket was being carried outside, so they didn't go in.  

After lunch we were picked up at the hotel for a tour of Monet’s gardens in Giverny.  It was a wonderful time to visit with iris, roses, clematis and much more all in bloom. The drive there was interesting; this time, Mindy the Extrovert sat in the front seat next to the guide and the two of them were engaged in a lengthy and weighty conversation about World War II when all of a sudden, the driver, realizing that he was supposed to be telling us what we were passing, gestured to the right and said out of the blue, "Oh, and here is a farm with strange animals," before returning to the conversation. (The animals weren't that strange; Jessica noticed a miniature horse, an alpaca, a llama, a donkey, and an emu.) For more pictures, go to http://picasaweb.google.com/KimCooper88/McKonlyTripToParis?feat=directlink.  

Dinner that night was at Les Ministeres where Kathy demonstrated her mastery of the French language.  When the waiter came to the table with duck, he announced which dish he had.  When no one responded, he asked, ‘quack quack?’ and Kathy responded ‘quack’. This was also the dinner where we were given poorly translated English menus that consisted of the regular menu with papers taped over it. These menus didn't list the ice cream flavors, so Cindy tried to pry up the bottom of one of these papers much to the waiter's chagrin. He tried several times to get her to stop, but she was oblivious and didn't notice until Kathy alerted her to his cries and wild gestures, at which point he scrambled to get her a French menu.

Pictures from Monet's garden.

Lundi - Tour of Champagne

Today we were picked up at the hotel for a full day tour of the Champagne region.  We started with the very impressive structure of the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Reims, traditional site of the crowning of kings.  If you want to know how the town is pronounced, it sounds like the noise my cat makes when he has a hairball (http://forvo.com/word/reims/).  We went to wine cellar tours of Mumm and Moet & Chandon, learning a lot about the history and production of champagne.  Our tour guide told us what they won’t mention – the abundance of pesticides and high cancer rate.  But when a hectare of land is worth a million Euros, I guess organic farms don’t pay.  Beautiful countryside – we also saw the tomb of Dom Perignon.

Back in Paris, we all had dinner at Au Bon Accueil which is close to the Eiffel Tower.  Afterwards, most of us went to the second floor of the Tower for a view of the city.  Getting back to the hotel was interesting because of a sudden downpour.  Those trying to get a cab had to fight off the other pedestrians competing for a cab; those taking the walk back, got drenched.  We ended the day with champagne bought at Mumm.  Not bad.

Notre Dame Reims




















Champagne vineyards















In the cellar of Mumm















Tour Eiffel

Dimanche - St Sulpice, Notre Dame, St Chapelle

Service at St Sulpice
The prelude started at 10:15, which we all wanted to see. So Kim, Judy & I (Kathy) left from breakfast because Mindy & Cindy were getting a second cup of cafe au lait. We got there at 10:25 & heard a little of the famous organ. Mindy & Cindy got there at 10:45 after starting in the wrong direction for 15 minutes - they walked for an hour. There was lots of construction around the church, so the first entrance Judy, Kim & I entered was into some orthodox service - they wouldn't let me try to walk through it to see if we could get to the main chapel so we walked to the rear entrance & walked to the back where all the rest of the Americans were. Hey, Deb - I couldn't help but laugh at Judy being deaf, mute & dumb at the passing of the peace - no kisses near us.

Kathy and Kim left after the service to go to Musee D'Orsay, while Mindy, Cindy and Judy stayed for the music after the service. We then went up the 65 step spiral staircase to go through the organ chamber while Daniel Roth was playing for the 12:00 mass.





















Musee D'Orsay

Samedi - Louvre and Versailles

Some of us went to the Louvre. Kathy mostly wanted to shop at the gift shop, but we wanted to hit the highlights first. Winged Victory was cool. Trying to find the Mona Lisa, we walked up and down the Italian salon several times. There weren't that many tourists at the time, so we were able to get close to it. Next we looked for Venus de Milo. Quote from Kathy: "The Louvre is big."

While the others were looking for the Mona Lisa, Cindy and Kim wandered around the Tuileries Gardens adjacent to the Louvre. We saw some perennials, but were disappointed that there were no annuals planted. We had fantastic weather and there were plenty of joggers doing their thing.

This is a view of the Arc de Triomphe (way in the distance) from Place de la Concorde.

Judy took a lot of pictures of us at the Metro stops.

This is the original hunting lodge of Louis XIII in Versailles, which was greatly expanded by his son, Louis XIV.

The Hall of Mirrors - as you can see it was way too crowded. The man in profile in the foreground was our guide Felipe. He wasn't a great guide, but we didn't intentionally forget to tip him. There was a McKonly communication breakdown with each of us assuming the other took care of it.



The fountains at Versailles were spectacular. Judy and Cindy ventured into the maze inspite of being told not to. As you can see below, even Bruce was there!

Later that evening, we dined at La Maree Verte (the green tide) near the left bank of the Seine. It was a three course prix fixe and everything was wonderful. Kathy continued her culinary adventure with an escargot appetizer and rabbit main course. The waitress who spoke little english, would say 'don't touch' with each plate she served. But that didn't stop Cindy. Ask her for the full story. Kim was seated next to the dessert station and couldn't resist ordering the floating island - meringue surrounded by creme anglaise. John needs to learn how to make this.

Our Day in Rennes

This is a picture of the Place Sainte Anne, in Rennes, which is where Jessica studied this semester. The half-timbered houses are a common sight in Brittany (the region), and some of them date back several centuries. You can also see the place where we ate galettes (a traditional Breton food) and crepes, and drank some Breton cidre.

A unique variety of the Gladiolus and Iris at the Parc de Thabor

We finally met Mme Souchet, Jessica's "host mother" for the past five months. Bruce didn't feel up to making the trip to Rennes, unfortunately. She had a gift for Judy and Bruce and for Jessica, and Jessica had to interpret everything that was said. It was nice to know that Jessica can, in fact, speak French and be understood (since we often can't understand her when she speaks English). Then the six of us divided up the many bags of Jessica's stuff and carried down the street out to the bus stop, on the bus, to the train, and through the Paris metro. Mission accomplished.

We had dinner around 10:00 at Les Deux Magots, a famous cafe that has known several famous clients, notably Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, and Ernest Hemingway. Besides her own foie-gras-and-duck-topped salad, Kathy tried some of everyone else's supper as well. It's now 12:08 am, and since we want to get to the Louvre by 9:00, we'll be signing off for now...

-Mindy, Cindy, Kathy, Kim, Jessica

View from the hotel

Timing Is Everything

We got to the airport in Philadelphia OK, but found out that Cindy, Judy and Kathy were listed as McKonlys. The lady at the counter told us that they might not be able to return to the country if their reservations weren't in the same name as their passports. She had to get Judy and Bruce to sign their passports. You can tell we are not frequent overseas travelers. Next "Mom's Idiots" were told that the plane was overbooked, so they didn't have seat assignments. But we all got on the plane, all in the middle section but not together. The seats seemed so small we couldn't move once we got in there.

When we landed in Paris, we disembarked but the line stopped before everyone was out of the plane. Everyone wondered why we weren't moving. Someone said that some woman didn't know how to use the exit door. We found out that Kathy went through an automatic door pulling her bag behind her, but the door closed on her arm with the bag on the other side. She finally had to let go of the bag. Well, there was also a delay caused by a random passport check.

Next we had to find Jessica. We got through Passport control (some of us were miffed that they didn't stamp the passport. Kathy: "When I'm 80, how will I remember when I went to Paris?"). We got our luggage. We found the door where we would meet our Paris Shuttle. But Jessica was taking the train and we had to tell her where to meet us - but we couldn't use the telephones. We had to get the van driver to call her. Twice.

But now we are in Paris in our hotel and the weather is beautiful and the hotel is great. While waiting for our rooms to be ready, we caught the Ascension du Seigneur Messe at Paroisse Saint-Germain des Prés. We are resting now before going out to eat.

Mindy/Cindy/Kim