Yes, its been a long trip but we are here at last and enjoying every minute!
We left Portland early morning en route...
to Dallas where we had a shorter than expected lay over. Just enough time to have some ribs at the airport which were very tasty! Not sure what this large sculpture is about but didn't have time to go over and see.
We made it onto an earlier flight to London and got to be in Business class which meant totally flat beds to sleep (well, at least for about four hours or so). That was really wonderful.
On our Portland to Dallas flight a very sweet service dog named Lila was seated next to us.
She was so calm and obedient it made me feel happy.
We arrived early morning in Heathrow which is perhaps my least favorite airport of all...it is so huge and messy with busses one has to take to the various terminals. We had a long wait ahead of us to get to Paris and we decided to take a chance and see if we could get onto an already oversold flight leaving hours earlier. We waited patiently until everyone was on board and then Jean Claude went up to ask what the chances were....by luck there were actually three seats empty!!! Amazing, three no shows and it is Easter vacation in England. We were so happy to have carry on luggage because if we had checked bags the answer would have been no!!
So...we arrived in springlike Paris almost five hours earlier than we had expected to and took a cab to our hotel which was next door to the Gare de Lyon.
It was a gorgeous day. We took a shower, changed clothes and headed out into sunshine and blooming trees to take a stroll by the Seine.
We gazed out at Notre Dame in the distance and walked over to the port de plaisance where all the little yachts and some barges are moored. In the distance is the monument at the Bastille with the golden statue.
I felt exactly like the title of this new movie!
People were out on the bike paths
and it was amusing to look up at this elegant building and see colorful underwear hung out to dry!
It was a lovely day to walk around this area which I hardly know at all and to find sweet little streets like la rue Cremière
with its trompe l'oeil windows and pots of trees and shrubs.
Looked very artistic. This bakery was on the corner on rue de Bercy...I love the tiles.
We had dinner in a nice, cozy brasserie across from the Gare de Lyon watching people coming and going
and then headed back to the hotel to sleep. We had a train the next morning to Carpentras. These are some of the cities you can travel to from the Gare de Lyon and we had never noticed the sculptures before.
The Gare de Lyon has been putting in some new structures like this area for internet users
and the wall of exposition items. This time the theme was the new generation. This young woman is the champion embroiderer of Bretagne for 2017 and she is from Pont l'Abbé where Jean Claude's mom lives.
We were not the only travelers to be leaving Paris.
Here comes Jean Claude with his travel face on
...is he a grumpy old man only with me???
The countryside slid by and we could see how different areas had more or less spring blooms. White cows out in the field with little ones.
At one point the train came to a standstill and this castle was our view from the train window.
We waited about 35 minutes for the engineer of the TGV in front of us to fix something in that train before we could go on. This was a first for me to have the TGV slow down and stop in the middle of the countryside.
It was great to arrive in Avignon where we had a chance to stroll a bit as we waited for our short connection to Carpentras. It is a nice station and I took some photos of shop windows and posters.
The message in this shop is very clear...be sure to bring something to your host!! I already had stuff in my carryon!
We arrived by two o'clock at this familiar train station...
Before long it was time to walk over to school and pick up Maya...one of the best parts of the day!!! We walked home and she posed for me by a poster I love of this cute dog.
Later we had fun with little charmer Oscar!!
Sigh. A long trip with real prizes at the end! Its nice to be here. Next week is the strawberry festival! See you then! A bientôt!
