Landing at 6:15 am made for a very long day. Hour ride from the airport to our Westin hotel. Freshened up, dropped our luggage and took off for a long meandering walk.

Entrance to Jardene de Tuilieries right next to our hotel. Will explore more later.

Took a quick walk through the Louve grounds - the museum is massive. We have decided to forgo going into the museum as it is overwhelming!

A small section of the palace.

Notre Dame - undergoing reservations due to the fire so no visitors allowed. Still an awesome sight.

Near the Louvre.

Church of Eustace. Beautiful architecture inside and impressive stained glass.

Statues everywhere.

Paris is a loud and crowded city! \240So many motorcycles, bikes and scooters to get around. This is a common sight - motorcycle parking.

Love the architecture of the buildings - this one was beautiful and had a name we recognized!

Near the River.

So,so tired. As our hotel room was ready, headed back to have lunch at our hotel - opening day of the garden restaurant. Decided to have “nap lunch”. Bottle of wine, meat and cheese plate for me and a club sandwich for Di - hard boiled eggs included.

French wine! Julie was correct - French wine is pretty damn good. This was from the Bordeaux region.

Diane’s sandwich.

Post nap - decided to head for a river boat tour and our first sighting of the Eiffel Tower.

Boat tour sign - good tour company.

Diane on the boat passing by the Grand Palais.

And right by the tower!

Went under quite a few bridges. Everyone is different. One of the grandest.

Dinner at a lovely cafe. Champagne of course.

Beef stew with mashed potatoes- so so tender and pasta for Diane.

VenDome near our hotel.

Took the metro to Montmartre to visit the Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Montmartre. Beautiful!

Best view - Diane taking selfie. \240

Tee taking selfie.

To get here we went up 98 flights of steps - orangetheory you got nothing on us today.

Locks on bridges everywhere. This one wa a little excessive.

Park near the top - peaceful except for the damn cigarette smokers.

Gary - for you. Pink flamingo 🦩 on the balcony.

The artists of the square.

Careful Tee - do not fall- uneven streets everywhere!

Stopped for a snack and a beverage. Aperol Spritz for Tee and champagne for Diane.

And snails!

Lots of wandering around the streets today. An occasional bit of color.

Frog Beer stop - Diane does not remember the beer she had, a wheat or course. I had another Aperol spritz - becoming a fan favorite.

Next up - Bakus - beautiful place. Tried a glass of French Pinot Noir and thennnn… a new type of spritz with ginger beer.

After a nap, we went out for a Parisian stroll in the dark, a snack and to see the city at night. We were actually out until after 1:00 am!

Arc de Triomphe.

Lit up at night from afar.

They are everywhere - only this one has a great outdoor patio.

To many choices.

All pair well with this port.

Walked through the Gardens Tuileries on our way to our tour. It rained this morning. So everything was dewey fresh. Beautiful spot - wish we had parks that incorporated some of these ideas.

Flowers….

Sculptures….

More flowers.

Tree lined walkways.

Goat weed eaters.

Nice walk to the start of our tour.

So the tour wasn’t quite what we expected.Started by going into a small pastry shop to pick-up pastries which we ate in the street standing around.

Tried three different kinds - not sweet - they don’t use much sugar.

This was followed by us going to a cheese shop to learn about cheese \240and then pick-up cheese to eat at the wine shop. OMG - never knew there was so much to know about making artisanal cheese.

To many choices! \240

Next stop was for a bite of chocolate from a Japanese chocolatier. Pretty…

Last two stops to pick up bread and dessert.

With all our choices, we went into a wine cellar and enjoyed a Brut wine and a natural Gamay.

Early night in - sitting in our room at 10:00 and it is still light out. Have to wake up at 6:00 tomorrow to go to champagne country.

Walked down into the cellars to get the story behind making champagne.

At least today they were down hill, not uphill.

Things I learned about champagne making today. The region in France where they grow the grapes for champagne is chalk - really, the grapes are grown in veins of chalk. And all are made from three types of grapes - Pinot noir, Chardonnay and Meunière. Some are a mix of all three and some are just one. They use a two step fermentation process - one with the still wine and in the second phase they add yeast and sugar to generate the bubbles. However, this leaves sediment, so they have to turn the bottles twice a day until they are upside down and all of it has settled in the neck. They then freeze the neck and the sediment and extract that and quickly seal it again. Hard work! \240Mostly now automated. Who knew?

The cave - really cool.

And the reward at the end 2 glasses of champagne.

And up the steps. Stopped at 1962 for a second 😜

One of the many views of the grape growing valley. Beautiful!

Us 😊

Stopped in the town of Evernay for lunch - the champagne capital. Quaint little town. This was our lunch place.

What - more champagne? \240This one was called Mercier which I picked randomly. Who knew we were stopping by there next…..

Veal for guess who?

Vegetable lasagna for Di.

The town square.

The largest wine cask ever. For a promotion, they pulled it into Paris with 24 oxen in the late 1800s. Sure it made quite a spectacle.

Third stop was a little wine maker with a big taste and a beautiful view. And our second tasting of the day at G Tribaut.

The three types of grapes they grow for champagne.

That was one of the villages we traveled through.

They keep the vines short and unlike anywhere else we have been, they replace the vines every 25-30 years.

And our final stop before the two hour trek back to Paris.

Another small producer who only sells here and in Las Vegas of all places. Yes - they still use this old style manual grape press.

Last picture in the very picturesque part of France.

Last view of the tower for now…

Art in the park.

Love the carousels around the parks.

At the train station, must drink your wine standing at the bar. Who are we to argue?

Time for our train ride to Beauvais - glad to escape to the quiet. Paris is an essential visit for anyone traveling to Europe, but the number of people in the city is insane. Very difficult to find any peace unless wandering after dark or very early. They are trying to do away with cars and motorcycles in the city center. That will be nice, but so many bicycles will still make it difficult to maneuver on foot.

Enjoyable train ride with my book, my wife and vino,

Our quaint hotel room (meaning small😜)

Meandering around the city.

Another carousel.

And Bordeaux with lunch.

The stained glass is amazing.

Astronomical clock inside. Built in 1865 with 52 dials that display rise and setting of moon and sun, position of planets, time in 18 cities and tidal times. Wow - lots of info in this machine.

Diane and her pose.

From 1410.

A little old and a little new.

Lots of flowers and small gardens.

Maybe I can build one of these at my new casa.

Decided to spend an hour or two at the beach - little chilly getting in but acclimated pretty quickly.

Chill time for the birthday girl.

One cheesy tourist picture..

Pre-dinner cocktails- yes that is a blue wine. Apparently made from extracting the blue out of a red grape- really they can extract the blue from a grape??!!! \240It is NOT food coloring.

Cheers Diane!

Thanks Russ, Irina and her mother for an amazing rooftop dinner

And a beautiful sunset.

Totally beautiful.

And cake of course.

Chicken Kabas for Diane.

And a ribeye for Tee.

Home again, home again. Pistachio liquor- yummy.

And good night. Blue lagoon tomorrow.

So many shades of blue.

And turquoise here.

Our British table mates.

Russ and Irina - cracking himself up.

I know these two.

The turquoise water was so clear with soft white sand and fish to watch. Blue lagoon was definelty appropriately named!

And there we are, shivering in the water.

Can it get any more beautiful?

And lunch cooked off the boat.

Tomatoes and cucumbers abound here. Along with some grilled pork and chicken.

A bit of a roadblock.

Sat on the patio as the sun set just enjoying a relaxing evening. Nice to be chill for a night.

Today our tour guides, Russ and Irina, took us on a tour of their part of the island. Coralis beach behind us.

Great sun day!

That stranded ship has become a tourist spot here on the island - they won’t remove it. So we decided on \240another cheesy tourist picture.

Sea caves.

The water is so clear everywhere around here.

Us again :-)

Kind of like a Texas bluebonnet. They grow in most places.

Time for. Winery stop -Sterna Winery. What a view.

Wine cave! \240

Tee’s happy place.

No ducking for me.

5 euros for a 5 pour tasting with olives and bread to clear your pallet.

Second winery stop.

Vines are shorter and rounder than the grapes we grow at home.

The roses smell so good.

Ended up having dinner at Dolce Vita - preparing for our Venice getaway - up next!

Russ and his laugh….

First gondola sighting.

Ahhhh….

On the patio of our little apartment we will be staying in.

Isn’t it so stinking cute? \240To bad the mosquitoes are so bad….

Our window - just hop out into the canal.

Our street - nice and quiet.

Out our window 😊

A little dark - will have to revisit tomorrow.

Beautiful church.

Start of our stroll.

Didn’t see many headless statues - but did see this one.

Walked through the gardens.

Nice mums.

Gondola rest stop.

Across the grand canal.

Saint Mark’s square - way to busy during the day.

That is an actual 24 hour clock, not a 12 hour one.

Doing her pose.

Rialto bridge - where did all these people come from?

Three cute chicks.

Home cooked comfort lunch - an English pub.

Loaded fries

Nachos and chicken and waffles.

Got a little lost heading home so stopped for this 😜

Corner spot.

Nice window boxes.

Took about 30 minutes and a lot of bad directions to find a grocery store. Some of the food in the deli looked interesting……Eat in evening with bread, cheese, tomatoes, strawberries and lemoncello!

Purchases for the day - new shoes for Diane, purse for Tee, limoncello bottle for home. Irina was the real scorer-nice denim jacket and Murano jewelry. Although getting lost in the alleys and taking the road less traveled was hard due to the large numbers of people, glad we got to see the landmarks today.

Nice view - looks quiet….

Took the water taxi - view coming in. All the buildings are beautiful.

Wowsa!

Many of the doorways have these curtains in front of them - privacy from the tourists I am sure.

Meandering down the small streets - a shopping day.

Found this little shop run by the mom and the son does the work. Tee and Irina both got a necklace and matching earrings.

Putting the finishing touches on my earrings. Mine are silver plated instead of gold as that is how I roll.

Tada - beautiful necklace.

Selfie of course. Can see my new earrings.

Diane found a great pair of Murano glass earrings to match her necklace that Russ and Irina gave her for her birthday.

Little snack and refreshing beverage.

Found another leaning tower.

Or did we?

My favorite set of buildings.

Wandered away from Burano to the nearby winery. They actually grow grapes in the salty water.

Nice art on the grounds.

Pretty ladies looking forward to vino.

60 euros a bottle and not very good!

But nice place 👍

Water taxi back to a new location and started the trek back to the hotel. Google does not like the Venice streets and canals!

Nice bridge.

Nice canal with flower boxes. \240

Chocolate fountain - do not stop in Tee.

Final pic of the day!

Teaching Irina the pose.

Aren’t they lovely. \240

Walking along….

Passes home.

Arrived last night into our hotel bed around 11:30 and awoke at 5:15 to get to the airport for our flight home. Delta business class was a great way to travel. Like them better than American. Staff was wonderful and flights all on time and seats were comfy. \240

Loved our trip, but just a little to much moving around for us. Think we would prefer staying in place and doing day trips. We were on 7 flights, one train, 2 buses and water taxis in Venice. Think I like the trains the best. No security, hop on and find a seat and away you go. You can even bring on your own snacks and wine. May have to try train travel in the US.

Missed our little Missy and our own bed, but thoroughly enjoyed our time with Russ and Irina. Think flying trips from now own will have to be 10 days or less.

Did learn that we can go 14 days with carryon luggage, so no more checked bags for us - unless of course we go to wine country and need our wine suitcase. Not sure why we have to have our passport checked 7 times at any one airport, but hey- it is what it is.

Even with carryon, we brought home two shirts apiece, jewelry and some small art. And a cheesy Eiffel Tower to stick in our house somewhere 😜

Until next time Europe….