Paris, Versailles, Burgundy, Beaujolais, Italian Alps, Switzerland, and Strasbourg

Whew! We're worn out from reading it, let alone having done this trip in a mere 7 days. We dropped the kids off in Paris to fly to the USA for a summer trip. They are visiting friends in Hahira, GA, and Andrew is going to visit Nanny and Ronnie in Mississippi, then on to Dallas to hang out with his cousins. We decided to go to Paris a day early and do 2 things we had never done with the kids: Versailles and Sacre Coeur (Sacred Heart Church). We wound up at a bare bones hotel near Sacre Coeur, but were close to the Metro and the room was cheap, but noisy in the morning. We went straight to Sacre Coeur and got Nutella (chocolate and hazelnut cream) crepes, cafe' au lait and plopped down at a picturesque cafe to look at the church and eat. The view of Paris from the top of the dome (an additional 300 claustrophobic steps inside the church) is amazing. We've seen it from the Eifel Tower, but Sacre Coeur is on the edge of town and up on a hill, which gives a complete layout of the city.

We moved on via 3 metro connections to Versailles, a cool 45 minute train ride outside town. We took our Rick Steves guide book into the palace and did a self tour. Even the kids, as un-moved as they sometimes are, really enjoyed the palace and are both interested in and familiar with it's history. Jena and Katie recently watched the movie "Marie Antoinette," so it was surreal to stand in her bedroom and then in the room in which she and the king were captured. We enjoyed the gardens and took some time for gelato (Italian ice cream) and beer and Nutella crepes (see a trend?) near the large Venetian lagoon. As the day was almost over, we skipped the Marie Antoinette villas in the far back of the grounds (1.5 miles into the gardens) and made up our collective minds to return on a summer day and rent a boat and bikes and explore the mazes and villas of the palace grounds.

And just for Maw Maw: Face-in-the-flower picture from Versailles!

Newly kid-less and with a mission, we left Paris after dropping Katie and Andrew off with Air France. We drove a few hours south to Nitry, in the north of the Burgundy region, known for Pinot Noir and Chablis (Chardonnay grown and made IN Chablis). We stayed at a really nice, small farmhouse that had an amazing restaurant where we had duck, escargot, bread, cheese and wine--you can check out the picture gallery at their website if you care to: http://www.beursaudiere.com/uk/galerie/index.htm Without the kids, we were able to stay in the best room--a double with a huge garden tub made to look like a wine vat. It was late afternoon and we headed into Chablis, although Jena doesn't like white wines, and bought nice Chablis at two different vineyards. Everyone in France was nice and we had a great time.

We passed through Beaujolais the next day on our way to the Italian Alps. We stopped at a couple of Beaujolais vineyards and tasted and bought more wines. We stopped in the village of Julienas and it was very beautiful. We'll go back sometime to spend a little more time in the various villages and taste more wines.

We arrived at Bella Baita (Bah-ee-tah) in Pinasca, Italy, in the Alps, west of Torino, and just a few miles across the French border. We stayed for 3 nights and had cooking classes on each night by our hosts, Marla and Fabrizio. He's Italian and she's American. Marla is an excellent teacher and gave us many tips, even on things we'd done for years. Fabrizio was a fast talking funny guy with a warm personaility and 20+ years in the restaurant business. He worked hard and we learned Gnocchi, Pasta (from Marla), and Risotto. Each meal was a feast and we cooked, ate, drank wine, and talked until late into the night all 3 nights. It was like our own mountain home. On the second day, we climbed the nearby mountain. It was a 5.5 hour climb and we're still feeling it. There was a cross on the mountain and a small book in which we recorded our visit--the only Americans in as far back as the book had recorded (8 years). We met another couple, Carlo and Sonia, Italian climbers from Genoa, who run a climbing/travel website business. We practiced Italian and they tried English and we had 2 great nights with the 6 of us laughing like old friends over stories and jokes. As Fabrizio says "What a terrible life we are living!"

We finished off the trip with a drive through Switzerland and dinner in Bern, Switzerland. We spent the night in Strasbourg, France, then had brunch in front of the cathedral. I had Banana and chocolate crepes...mmm. We passed through Soufflenheim where we shopped for Alsace pottery. Jena is in love with it and it is very nice. We only window shopped. As it is only 2 hours from the house, we'll go back for a full day soon. This is a strange section of France where they speak German. This region has been part of Germany several times in the last couple of centuries. We finally made it home to wash and pack. We leave for Norway in 2 days!