We are so lucky to have Ian and Neha here in Paris for a few days for a visit. They timed their trip around the French Open, so yesterday we spent the day at Roland Garros watching some tennis. We spent a lovely spring day watching a few well-known names like Serena Williams and Novak Djokovic.
But the real fun starts when the French players take to the court, and the crowd really gets behind their own. Allez!! is the battle cry to get their guy pumped up, and a resounding ooh la la follows when a play goes bad. It's all good fun.
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When we traveled to Italy last summer with Casey, we absolutely fell in love with Monterosso - one of the Cinque Terre on the Italian Riviera. On that trip, we decided to splurge with our accommodation overlooking the Mediterranean Sea, and I think all three of us immediately knew that we had found something special. We have been dreaming of going back ever since. It's one of those places that is as relaxing as it is beautiful. These past few months have been really busy for us, with some great visitors and a busy summer ahead with a trip back to the US. So our goal was to take a long weekend to relax, drink a few spritzes (per day!), and eat some excellent Italian food. And bonus for us this time is that it is lemon season. Monterosso is a great place to sit on the beach or take a hike (literally, not figuratively). The weather threw some storms at us the first few days, so we never made it up to the hills for a hike, but we did check out a new town (Riomaggiore) and got a solid day on the beach at Il Gigante. We returned to Paris with some great memories of one of our favorite places in the world, and with pictures to look back on when life feels overwhelming.
Since we don't have a car here in Paris, most of our getting around is done on foot, bus or metro. We recently added a fourth mode of transport to the mix - bicycles! But not our own. We joined the Parisian bike share program, Velib. Bike share programs are now all over the world in major cities, and are a great way to get around without having to own and store your own bike in a small apartment space. This past weekend, I took my maiden voyage. And I'll be honest. Riding a bike is not exactly like riding a bike. It has been years since I hopped on two wheels, and I'll freely admit I was a bit wobbly at first. Maybe it has something to do with riding so close to passing cars in the streets of Paris.
But it was incredibly liberating to feel the spring wind through my hair and the sun on my face. Biking through Paris on a beautiful afternoon is everything you would hope it would be. It's hard to overstate how beautiful Monet's house and gardens are in Giverny. Our second great adventure with Natalie this weekend was made possible by my good friend and colleague, Carmel, who suggested the trip to Giverny at the invitation of her artist friend, Bill Welch. Bill is an American artist who spends a few months each year painting in France, and was opening a temporary exhibit that afternoon in Giverny - which is the tiny town 50 miles west of Paris that is best known as the location of Claude Monet's house and garden. I am sure that the photos here are not going to do the place justice. Monet was not only the founder of French Impressionist painting, he was an avid gardener. I'm not entirely sure how Monet would feel about the mad cacophony of flowers and trees (and tourists) exploding in the garden at this time of year. But to me, it was magical. Not to forget the reason for our visit, we had lunch in town with Bill and got a private tour of his exhibit. If only I had a spare 600 euros laying around, we would have left with one of his beautiful paintings ;) We had one more stop to make before we called it a day - a visit to the Musée de l'Orangerie in Paris to see eight of Monet's huge murals of water lilies; the inspiration for which we spent the morning in admiration.
Since Michael and Natalie spent all of Friday hoofing it through a massive scenic tour of Paris, we decided to go off the beaten path on Saturday to check out the subterranean Parisian catacombs. What exactly can you find in the catacombs, you ask? Well, it's an underground ossuary that is the final resting place for the bones of over 6 million Parisians. It's a giant tomb. A bit macabre for a Saturday afternoon in April, huh? The underground tunnels were originally created when limestone was extracted from what was then the outskirts of Paris (now much of the left bank) to build the city back in the day. In the 18th and 19th centuries, city officials dug up an incredible number of skeletons from the over-flowing cemeteries and added them at night to the underground quarries. The catacombs have been a tourist attraction ever since. When we visited on Saturday, we waited in a 2-hour line just to get in, so if you're planning a visit, plan to wait in a long queue or get there quite a bit before doors open. A few more pictures from our underground adventure... Catacombs
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AuthorBecause why not get married and move to Paris to really kick off your thirties? Archives
December 2016
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