I am currently writing from the Milan airport during my layover, on my way to Istanbul. I woke up so flippin early this morning to take the train to the airport for my 7:40am flight…thank goodness for all my early morning Starbucks days…I’m actually feeling okay right now.I have had quite the French adventure since last writing. Jessica and Jodi came in for ten day
s to explore the country with me. The plan was to take a few days in Paris, then rent a car and head out to see France. Unfortunately, after 
Jessica and I went to Disneyland for the day (so fun…the Halloween decorations were adorable and all over the park.) she came down with something and stayed in bed for the next couple of days. This pushed back our car trip, but Jodi and I took a couple of day trips on the train to the Champagne region and to Fontainebleau.
s to explore the country with me. The plan was to take a few days in Paris, then rent a car and head out to see France. Unfortunately, after 
Jessica and I went to Disneyland for the day (so fun…the Halloween decorations were adorable and all over the park.) she came down with something and stayed in bed for the next couple of days. This pushed back our car trip, but Jodi and I took a couple of day trips on the train to the Champagne region and to Fontainebleau. We got in to the Champagne area a bit late in the afternoon- and pretty much ran to a winery to
catch the last English tour…we got there a few minutes late, but were able to take a French tour of the Champagne caves. While we didn’t understand much of it, we nodded along like we did. The caves were cool, and the tasting was yum. There was also a huuuge Gothic church in the small town- I’m going to go ahead and say the outside was probably more impressive than Notre Dame. The detail was just incredible. Then we stopped in a restaurant and had dinner…it was Halloween-ish and the poor waiters were wearing head to toe sparkly black…even their shoes had sparkles.
catch the last English tour…we got there a few minutes late, but were able to take a French tour of the Champagne caves. While we didn’t understand much of it, we nodded along like we did. The caves were cool, and the tasting was yum. There was also a huuuge Gothic church in the small town- I’m going to go ahead and say the outside was probably more impressive than Notre Dame. The detail was just incredible. Then we stopped in a restaurant and had dinner…it was Halloween-ish and the poor waiters were wearing head to toe sparkly black…even their shoes had sparkles. 
The next day we took the train out to Fontainebleau to check out the palace there. I had already been to Versailles and the France book said the palace here nearly rivals Versailles. And yes, it was pretty similar- the palace was a little less grand, but not much. They also had modern art displayed throughout…which wasn’t QUITE as out there as the Versailles exhibit…but very close. Check out the cat attached to the helium tank, floating on the ceiling. Yeah. The next day Jessica was finally feeling better and we woke up early to head out to pick up our
rental car. Well, in typical rental car ridiculousness- the price we were quoted just about tripled by the time we were done. It took awhile, but we managed to get the price down a bit (thanks to some handy computer work by Jessica’s dad back at home…who happened to be up at 4am). 
Finally, we were on our way. First stop was the Beaujolais wine country. This is right outside Lyon-southeast of Paris. We were in VilleFranche- which was a perfect location to drive through the vineyards to the various wineries. We did a few tastings and bought a couple bottles…Jodi and I went out for dinner that night- Jessica was still recovering. And we ended up in a bar sitting with a couple of locals, who somehow managed to make their seats at our table…it was a little strange. Very fun having “conversation” though- tested Jodi’s French skills (while she likes to say she doesn’t know any- we would not have survived without her…I was super impressed!!), tested my newfound ability to figure out the topic of conversation through voice inflection and body language (and I picked up a bit of the language too, I think…more than I realized). One of our days in the wine area, we stopped for lunch at a tiny little restaurant (the only one we could find in the area) and experienced our first four (or five?) course French meal. Oh, it was good! I didn’t ever do that while I was in Paris- both because of the crazy prices and also because it is fun to share the experience with someone else. But man, they sure know how to do sauces….it was fantastic.
Then we drove out to the Loire Valley region…west and kind of in the center. We found a really cool little ivy-covered auberge to stay in. It was so cute…and was located right on the only street
in town (this was what we pictured the little towns in France to be). The drive to the Loire Valley was absolutely breathtaking…we went through some big hills (not quite mountains) and the leaves were in full-Fall colors…bright yellows and deep reds…so pretty. We kept trying to take pictures, but it was definitely a 3x5 kind of drive- you had to be there and see it yourself. The Loire Valley is 
home to many-a-castle…yep, my fairytale France was coming true. The town we stayed in- Chenanceau had its own castle…a very short walk from where we were staying (since there was only one street in the town) The castle had a moat and everything! The audio guide for the castle was on an ipod…which was both cool and impressive. After the first castle visit, Jessica decided to stick around town and Jodi and I drove a short little way to another castle. It looked impressive in the pictures and did not disappoint. This castle had huge grounds to wander around on- a separate chapel, a little vineyard. As we were wandering around the grounds, we discovered Leonardo daVinci’s grave. Yep, he spent a lot of his time at this castle and decided he wanted to be buried there…we had no idea. AND, this information brought us to the conclusion that this castle/area was where the movie Ever After was based. Some of you might be thinking- “Ever After- you watch that crap?”…and some of you are thinking “how cool that you were at the castle where Ever After was based-that was a fantastic movie”…either way, there we were. The castles and the town and houses were so…exactly what you would picture…I felt like we had stepped into a big Disney World…I kept saying that it had to be fake…there is just no way it could ACTUALLY look like this. It was fairly magical…I loved being there.
rental car. Well, in typical rental car ridiculousness- the price we were quoted just about tripled by the time we were done. It took awhile, but we managed to get the price down a bit (thanks to some handy computer work by Jessica’s dad back at home…who happened to be up at 4am). 
Finally, we were on our way. First stop was the Beaujolais wine country. This is right outside Lyon-southeast of Paris. We were in VilleFranche- which was a perfect location to drive through the vineyards to the various wineries. We did a few tastings and bought a couple bottles…Jodi and I went out for dinner that night- Jessica was still recovering. And we ended up in a bar sitting with a couple of locals, who somehow managed to make their seats at our table…it was a little strange. Very fun having “conversation” though- tested Jodi’s French skills (while she likes to say she doesn’t know any- we would not have survived without her…I was super impressed!!), tested my newfound ability to figure out the topic of conversation through voice inflection and body language (and I picked up a bit of the language too, I think…more than I realized). One of our days in the wine area, we stopped for lunch at a tiny little restaurant (the only one we could find in the area) and experienced our first four (or five?) course French meal. Oh, it was good! I didn’t ever do that while I was in Paris- both because of the crazy prices and also because it is fun to share the experience with someone else. But man, they sure know how to do sauces….it was fantastic.
Then we drove out to the Loire Valley region…west and kind of in the center. We found a really cool little ivy-covered auberge to stay in. It was so cute…and was located right on the only street
in town (this was what we pictured the little towns in France to be). The drive to the Loire Valley was absolutely breathtaking…we went through some big hills (not quite mountains) and the leaves were in full-Fall colors…bright yellows and deep reds…so pretty. We kept trying to take pictures, but it was definitely a 3x5 kind of drive- you had to be there and see it yourself. The Loire Valley is 
home to many-a-castle…yep, my fairytale France was coming true. The town we stayed in- Chenanceau had its own castle…a very short walk from where we were staying (since there was only one street in the town) The castle had a moat and everything! The audio guide for the castle was on an ipod…which was both cool and impressive. After the first castle visit, Jessica decided to stick around town and Jodi and I drove a short little way to another castle. It looked impressive in the pictures and did not disappoint. This castle had huge grounds to wander around on- a separate chapel, a little vineyard. As we were wandering around the grounds, we discovered Leonardo daVinci’s grave. Yep, he spent a lot of his time at this castle and decided he wanted to be buried there…we had no idea. AND, this information brought us to the conclusion that this castle/area was where the movie Ever After was based. Some of you might be thinking- “Ever After- you watch that crap?”…and some of you are thinking “how cool that you were at the castle where Ever After was based-that was a fantastic movie”…either way, there we were. The castles and the town and houses were so…exactly what you would picture…I felt like we had stepped into a big Disney World…I kept saying that it had to be fake…there is just no way it could ACTUALLY look like this. It was fairly magical…I loved being there.
We woke up muy early the next day to begin our drive up to Normandy. We had two sights to visit and not many daylight hours (Normandy is grey and rainy!) Our first stop was at Mont St Michel- this gigantic Abbey built in the middle of the beach- if you don’t leave by the time the tide comes in, you are stuck there for the night! This abbey was unbelievable- we kept stopping on our drive to it to take pictures, because it just kept getting more and more impressive. A funny little side note…I bought a kids French History book in the gift store and the lady that checked us out asked if we were American and when we said yes, she said “congratulations”…Jodi and I must have shown the confusion we had on our face, and she said- “the election-Obama is your new President- congratulations!“ It was very cute and made me smile. Anyway…we easily could have spent a day going through the abbey and the surrounding town- it was cool…but we had to hit the road to make it out to Omaha Beach and the site of D-Day. 
They had a museum there with a video and then some memorials out near the beach. The video was great…answered a lot of the questions we had been discussing in the car. The whole experience made you really proud to be from the US-I’m glad we made that a must do in our France itinerary. After the beaches…we went and checked in at our next place of stay…oh yes, we were staying in a castle. We had a room up in the attic of this cool castle in a tiny little town. Jodi said it reminded her of a ski lodge- but I put a quick stop to that comment…there was no ruining our
castle experience! Jessica decided to stay in for the evening, but Jodi and I were starving and decided to hit the town. Ummm, there was nothing there. There was one bar that was open that had 3 seats in it, no food, and one guy sitting in there that looked like he might actually live on that stool. But, I had a great time frolicking through the town and singing songs from Beauty and the Beast (it was my first night in an enchanted castle, after all…I know, I know…feel free to make fun of me). We ended up jumping in the car and driving to the next town over- which had one restaurant. It was another of the 4 course meals and was fantastic. Again, amazing food and just such a fun experience!
castle experience! Jessica decided to stay in for the evening, but Jodi and I were starving and decided to hit the town. Ummm, there was nothing there. There was one bar that was open that had 3 seats in it, no food, and one guy sitting in there that looked like he might actually live on that stool. But, I had a great time frolicking through the town and singing songs from Beauty and the Beast (it was my first night in an enchanted castle, after all…I know, I know…feel free to make fun of me). We ended up jumping in the car and driving to the next town over- which had one restaurant. It was another of the 4 course meals and was fantastic. Again, amazing food and just such a fun experience! The next morning we were on our way back to Paris, to return our car, collapse from exhaustion in our hotel and prepare for the following day’s airplane adventures (Jessica and Jodi back home, and me to Istanbul)
I know this blog entry is very long…thanks for getting through it- I tried to include more pictures to help you out. I have to tell you my airport story. So I had to catch a cab to Gare de Nord this morning at 4:15am, to catch the train to the airport to be there in time for my early flight (like I said at the beginning, thank goodness for Starbucks). I caught my flight to Milan and then had a couple of hours layover. In which I had 2 pieces of pizza. Yeah, the airport pizza was delicious…I can’t wait to have real restaurant pizza in Italy!! The flight to Istanbul was delayed, first by an hour, then two…then cancelled. They actually had us all loaded on the bus to go out to the airplane, when they announced that it was cancelled. Sooo, the options they gave us was 1. Refund or 2. Fly to Rome at 5:50 and then to Istanbul from there, getting in to Istanbul at 1:30am. Sigh…I had to go with option number two, of course. The flight to Rome was easy, and then our flight to Istanbul was delayed a little, but finally we got going. We didn’t end up getting in until about 2am…and I don’t really feel especially comfortable cabbing it through an unknown city to my hostel- that I’m not actually sure will be open at this time.
I am sitting in the airport Starbucks…figure I’ll wait it out a bit, and then head out at a normal early morning time. I just ate a delicious pastry…definitely made especially for this area..it was a twisty, flaky pastry crust filled with rice and some veggies…kind of rice-a-roni tasting…mmmm.
That is all from me for now…I will update on my Istanbul trip soon…very excited. (also very excited to get in a bed and sleep….I am really tired).
