Smith and I are off on our big adventure across the pond!  Our first stop is London, followed by a stop at the British Open, then over to Normandy to view the D-Day beaches, finally finishing up in Paris.  We will be spending about 3 nights at each of those 4 stops returning July 27th.

From Memphis we hop a Delta flight to Detroit where we connect to a Virgin Altantic flight to Heathrow.  We arrive London at 6:30 AM and plan to stay up all day to adjust to the time difference.  Will see how that goes!

When I get back I plan to put a blog together of the trip.  A reminder the blog will be in reverse order with the last day first.

Well I had a great time and reading back over this blog we saw and did some incredible things but I must say I’m glad to be heading back home.

Soon as we get to Atlanta we are getting Fried Chicken and something cold to drink.

This morning’s bus to Heathrow skipped our run so we had to scurry around and call a last minute cab and once again we made our plane. But we cut it too close for comfort.

The plane did get away on time and soon back over the Atlantic we were heading.  No attempt to sleep this time – I read a book and Smith watched a couple of movies.  The airline was constantly plying us with food and drink and before you know it were back over the Northeast US heading down the Eastern seaboard for Atlanta.  We landed there on time around 5 PM or so.

As promised we found the nearest fried chicken and chowed down.  We didn’t have wifi on the flight so we found out about this time that Kathy had fallen during the night with no one there except herself and broke 2 toes, one of each foot.  She was at the Ortho getting patched up by the time we found out about it.

We boarded the short flight back to Memphis and were there in just an hour or so.  Slept in the next morning although the trip back was so much easier with jet lag not much an issue as on the way over.

Slept in Sunday morning and checked out of hotel.

We planned on our last few ours in Paris at the Orsay and Orangerie art galleries. Where the Louvre has older artwork these two pick up over the past couple of hundred years.

They each had fabulous collections of Monet’s, Van Gough’s, Picasso’s, etc. and were enjoyable to see. It rained much of our last afternoon in Paris so we simply donned our rain gear and walked in the rain.

As we made our way back down to the Louvre we came upon the final laps of this year’s Tour De France.  The last days they get closer and closer to Paris and start making their way down the most famous streets.  That’s what they were in the process of doing that afternoon so we saw them pass by several times.

Orsay Museum was previously an old train station.

Neat restaurant in Orsay Museum. Note the huge clock faces you can see out from.

Tour de France riders making final laps around Paris sights.

Late that afternoon we made our way back to the hotel to pick up our bags and then over to Gare Du Nord to catch the Eurostar to London.  On this high-speed train that goes under the Chunnel you go from the middle of Paris to the middle of London in 2.5 hours.  The very next night Chunnel authorities started having serious issues with immigrants jumping the fence and trying to hop on passing trains and trucks to gain entry into Great Britain. It has since become a real messy situation.  Glad we were able to avoid that.

By 8 or so that evening we were back at King’s Cross in London.  We stopped at a nearby pub for one last fish and chips dinner then caught the tube for Heathrow and the flight back home Monday afternoon.

Arrived at Heathrow Marriott around 11 or so that evening.

We made ourselves get up Saturday morning and it’s a good thing otherwise Versailles would not have been as easy as it was – not that it was necessarily easy.

If you have visited Europe in the summer you know it’s crowded.  If you haven’t believe that to be true! We were on the early train but probably 5-10 thousand folks still beat us out there. Plan B was to sign-up for a tour to bypass much of the crowd already waiting in line which we did.

So by 10AM we were inside fighting another mass of people I guess we couldn’t see from the outside.  But it was definitely worth seeing and very interesting – and very very impressive. I never knew that so many people once lived there permanently.  The King, court and nobles all lived there with the servants.  At it’s peak it was a small city of about 10,000.

And what a city it was.  Lavishness does not even begin to describe it.  And the gardens are vast today but only a fraction of the size they once were.

It’s tough to get a picture of the Palace exterior because it is more than a camera can take in. Here is a piece of it anyway.

Royal bedchamber. I think I saw a Sealy Posturpedic label sticking out. May have that wrong.

Versailles had it’s own Opera House. Here is one tiny part.  They had to limit the use because it took thousands of candles to illuminate it properly and the cost was prohibitive even for the King.

Opera House ceiling.

The chapel ceiling

The famous hall or mirrors.

One of the small gardens off to the side.

We happened to be there on a day when they turn the fountains on. To give you a feel for the size it’s several miles to the end of the far reflecting pool and today’s gardens are a fraction of their former size.

We headed back to Paris by mid-afternoon and had a few hours before dinner so we stopped by for a close-up view of the Eiffel Tower.  The size of it really surprises you – especially the size of the foundation and how spread out the 4 foundations are.

That night for dinner we met my colleague, Tim Boullion, from the International New York Times.  He took us to a little cafe and afterwards on a driving tour of Paris before dropping us off at the Sacre Couer in time to see the city at sunset.  We stayed until they turned the lights on the Eiffel Tower and hurried down to catch the subway to be over at the Tower itself for a close-up when they came on again at 11PM.

Got back to the hotel late but not a problem since we have a light schedule on Sunday!

Arc De Triomphe

Sacre Coeur atop Montmartre at sunset.

Paris at sunset

Here is a cool video of the Eiffel Tower light show that runs at the top of every hour.  Listen closely to the 2 cool frenchmen with strange southern accents.

We slept in again Friday morning due to the previous late night arrival and the fact I seemed to be coming down with a cold.

Originally we had planned on going out to Versailles but we got too late a start and decided to do the Louvre today and delay Versailles for an early Saturday start.

By the time we got to the Louvre, had lunch, got our audioguides and fought the crowds to get in it was almost 1PM.  But it didn’t matter since it was open late on Friday night.  So we began our tour of the one of the largest museums in the world and believe me it is large!  Overwhelming might be a better description.  Their collections are simply incredible and after a while you just kind of glaze over.  You know you are passing by all these wonderful treasures but you can only take in so much.  And it everywhere you turn you see another corridor and huge stairway leading to yet another wing of the museum.

The Louvre is huge. It seems everywhere you go is a corridor like this …

That leads to yet another staircase like this …

That leads to another corridor… well you get the idea!

Of course there are the must sees like Winged Victory of Samothrace

and Venus De Milo

I didn’t catch the name of this one but a lot of people were stopping and it was behind bullet proof glass so it must have been important!

and there are innumerable lesser known works like this Michelangelo that was left over parts from Pope Julius’s tomb.

Yep, there are treasures everywhere  – certainly on the walls.

even sometimes on the floors

and ceilings

It is a pretty incredible place!

We did manage to see all the major hits plus a lot more.  We left there early evening and headed over to dinner on Ile St. Louis, the island in the Seine where Paris started.  It is a very tony section of the city.  Afterwards we walked over to Notre Dame Cathedral and got the best gelato I have ever tasted then walked back to the hotel along the left bank of the Seine at sunset.

Notre Dame in the fading afternoon sun.

Oh my – at the moment this photo was taken I didn’t realize I was about to have one of those tasty treats you remember a lifetime.

The Seine at sunset. Notre Dame in the distance.

Got back to the hotel and asked for a glass of ice only to be rewarded with an entire bucket! You would have thought someone gave us a thousand dollars.  We gorged ourselves on cold water!

Facetimed with Kathy and Jackson and then off to bed since Versailles awaits at an early hour.