Visit to France - March 2006

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France has to be the land of Sycamore trees and Mistletoe, whch seems to be at hand from every tree everywhere.

The French train, the TGV, is incredibly excellant and causes us to bemoan how we in the US have decimated our transportation system. Upon arriving in Paris, however, it required almost an hour to get train tickets since the ticket machines were either out of order or were unfriendly to US credit cards and we finally had to Queue to a ticket agent.

It currently takes about $1.25 to get one Euro....heavy.

The weather in France was excellant, especially in Southern France where we spent lots of time near the Pyrenees.

We first took the train to Cavaillon where we were met by niece Cathy and Axelle along with Vincent. She took us to Cavaillon and strightened out the snafu I had made with my reservation via the internet...grr.

We stayed at a delightful efficiency hotel -ETAP for several nights so that we could visit and get to know Cathy, Corinne , Alain who came to pickus up from Sarrmezan many hours away. Cathy anbd Dominique treated us to many dinners and good jazz since Domininique is quite a music lover and had all the latest stuff.

We day tripped to Avignon to see Chateau de Papes. Later we went with the entire crew to Fountain de Vaucluse - which was fantastic.

Then to Sarrmezan to meet Rita and family ....

 

 

Young ladies (one from Finland and one from San Diego)that we met on Train from Charles DeGalle to Paris Centre

Paris styles After walking all over Paris - near the Pompidou Centre

 

Pompidou Lobby
 Saint Eustache - incredible beautiful
  Model Notre Dame
  The real thing
Great little Hotel Nevers - Otis' (Lift) finest installationLobby-Hotel Nevers Toilet in the smallest room in Paris....

The Louvre - an experince unto itself

   
Art Students in Statue Area  
   
   
   
JP and Pascal and, of course....(bein sur).......

We, of course, had to visit where the Laurents were born - in Versailles

TEntry - the Palace The gardens which we walked in the cold; they are Mammoth!
on the street where it all beganBrrThe hospital where the Laurents were born
 The place Marie-anne avoided - the wicked Aunt worked there and tried to commondere the kids....Double rainbow

 

Marie-anne's Family.

We visited Alex and Maite in Bruxelles, along with Jeannot's son Alexandre, Nathalie and children Emilie and Alexandre IV. Then we travelled by TGV to Avignon and Cavaillon where we visited twin nieces Cathy and family - Dominique and Axelle and Vincent- plus Corinne and daughter Maigane. We were then joined by brother Alain who drove us to his home in Sarrmezan (with a view of the snow capped Prynees) where we stayed with him and family Rita and son Bastien and Ciriel.

(To see photos of us with them, click here.) or to see Avignon and the Pyrenees area

or return to Marie-anne's home web site

Other Links of interest (maybe)