2010 France Page 2

View 2010 France in a larger map in a larger map with points of interest table of contents.

On Friday July 9 I picked up my sister Jodi at CDG airport & we headed for the campground in the Paris Bois du Boulogne park.

After setting up, we went for a stroll along the Champs Elysee.

Recommendations for Paris:

Museum Pass

A Must-Read: Walks Through Lost Paris by Leonard Pitt

Don't bother with the expensive Paris Visite transit pass - buy 10 packs of the t+ tickets. Take the bus/trams only & you can transfer within a 90 min period. No transfers bus/tram to metro & vice versa, though. I prefer buses & trams to the metro - the scenery is better!

We have so many Paris pics that we included only a representative few on this page, then we created a slide show (just below) and an album page with each picture geotagged to a map with the location where it was shot.

To see this slide show in album form, with pics mapped to their locations:

CLICK HERE

Next day we begin 4 days of strolling around Paris, Museum Pass in hand.

Some highlights:

Musee d'Orsay - no interior pics allowed.

Then we strolled around the Left Bank, having cafe creme at Les Deux Magots & eating in the Latin Quarter.

Our 3rd Day saw us tour a cluster of sights around Notre Dame - The Conciergerie,Sainte-Chapelle,The Crypte Archeologique & Notre Dame itself, where a mass was being performed. Then we hiked up to Les Halles & strolled around the Beaubourg area before visiting the Museum of Modern Art in the Pompidou Centre. Following that, we walked around the Marais & finished off with supper at Sgt. Recruteur on Ile St. Louis.

Day 4 was a visit to the Louvre "Zoo", followed by the enjoyable Museum of the Middle Ages (Cluny). Finished off with coffee at Cafe de Flore.

Day 5 commenced with a visit to an Art Nouveau apartment house in Rue la Fontaine, then snacking on pain au raisin on a bench overlooking the Seine, with the Statue of Liberty & the Eiffel Tower setting the scene. Following the Tour Eiffel, we drove smack dab through the centre of Paris to the Chateau of Vincennes on the eastern edge, then around the Periferique to Versailles (another zoo).

The camping in Versailles was full, so we drove to Orleans, camped right on the Loire & fell asleep to the sounds of Bastille Day fireworks. Next day we took a turn through medieval Beaugency(first pic below), then Jodi made the obligatory pilgrimage to Chambord, while I stayed in the camper working on this website.

As can be seen from Jodi's pics of Chambord above, she found the stables!

We then drove through Blois along the Loire to camp on an island at Amboise. We strolled through the town in the early evening, discovering a section of intriguing modern "troglodyte" homes - houses carved right into the rock - modern "cave men".

After a night punctuated again by Bastille Day fireworks, we arose to tour the royal Chateau d'Amboise and Clos Luce, where Leonardo da Vinci spent his final days (he is buried in the chapel of the Chateau d'Amboise). The manor house of Clos Luce & the extensive gardens are filled with models of his prospective inventions.

Departing Amboise, we head south to the famous Chateau of Chenonceau, spanning the river Cher. After that we meander through a series of towns & castles, visiting in turn: Montrichard, Montpoupon,Chartreuse du Liget,and Loches, stumbling on some picturesque farms, ruins & troglodyte settlements along the way.

Again, too many pics for the page, so we have inserted a slide show & a link to a page of geotagged pics.

To see this slide show in album form, with pics mapped to their locations:

CLICK HERE