From the moment we landed on Tuesday morning until we returned eight days later our days and nights were filled with lessons on history, art, architecture, food, and life in France. I especially appreciated our wonderful guide, Angelique, who had so much information to share and so many insights on how to make our visit perfect. I have never walked so far, so fast or climbed so many steps (365 to the top of Mont Saint Michel) and had fun doing it!
I loved seeing the inside of Sainte-Chapelle with its magnificent windows, hearing mass at the abbey at Mont-Saint-Michel and then listening to a little boy sing the same melody outside by the garden, visiting Monet's house with its famous bridge and gardens, chasing through the Louvre just before closing time to find one last painting, walking the rampart around St. Malo and realizing we had no idea how far we had to go to complete the circle.
Seeing the beaches and monuments at Normandy and Pont du Hoc was a humbling and deeply moving experience. How blessed we are to have that remembrance to honor those lives lost in WWII.
I'm sure I will never again be first in line at the opening of Versailles — thanks to Angelique's insistence on an early departure. It's hard to believe people actually lived there and in the castles at Chenonceau and Chambord. A perfume factory, an afternoon making Parisian macarons, a stop at a winery, all these experiences are ones I will never forget. I truly loved all our time in Paris and wish it were not an ocean away!
Linda (photos coming!)
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