Just got back from France

[Pax]

Je suis retourne de France. Tres amusant! Tres interessant, aussi... mon oncle m'a dit que mon grandpere etait un 'maquis,' ou, un membre de la Resistance Francaise pendant WWII!

[MacBeth]

Being a total loser when it comes to anything other that English, I looked it up:
French to English translation (per Google)
I went back to France very fun very interesting also my uncle told me that my grandfather was a 'scrub' or a member of the French Resistance during WWII!

[wheelspinner]

Je suis overcome avec jealousie or something like that

[Pax]

lol... sorry, just excited to have gone... and be back... and, absolutely amazed that I still remember high school french thirty years later, given that I have used it only about three times since then...!

Roughly translated, I just said I had an interesting time in France, and that I found out that my grandfather was a member of the 'maquis,' a member of the french resistance. Pretty cool. He was a courier. Also kept weapons under a pile of coal in the basement - guns and grenades.

Aside from that, we went around Paris a bit, and also visited Chartes cathedral. I'm not terribly religious, of course, but that building as a work of art is simply astounding. Especially given the skills of the people of the day -- they built the thing over 130 years starting in the 13th century. Imagine working 200 feet up on rickety wooden scaffolding with iron tools against tons of sculpted rock.

It was also fun just going around the french countryside. We stayed in a bed and breakfast that was built into the stone barn of a 200-year-old farm. It rivals anything in any hotel I've ever been in. Everything was Just So. It was also cool to meet a british couple on their way home, and an american/german couple just taking a holiday from Hamburg.

Looking forward to going back -- I've got the travel bug!

[Georgina]

Sounds fantastic, Pax! Paris is an interesting and remarkable city. Living surrounded with that much amazing architecture is mind boggling. I'm glad to hear you got away and had a terrific time.

[wheelspinner]

For me it was the art: Louvre, Musee D'orsay, Picasso, just an absolute stack of unmissable exhibitions. Not to mention Versailles just out of town.

Then of course there is Shakespeare's for we book addicts.

[Georgina]

Wow, I hadn't even remembered Shakespeare's until you mentioned it just now, WS.

[Pax]

Something I'd like to do again is the Hermitage in St. Petersburg.

[Georgina]

We spent an entire day on foot in Montmarte just trying to get lost. It was delightful.

[wheelspinner]

Sept 13, 2010 15:49:19 GMT -5 Georgina said:

We spent an entire day on foot in Montmarte just trying to get lost. It was delightful.

We did that in Venice. It worked - we got totally lost and couldn't find our hotel.

[Brian]

I'm glad you had a great time, Pax. I'm sure it was an interesting trip.

[Pax]

Never been to Monmartre. Perhaps I will make that part of my trip next year!

Brian - it was. It was a bit of a short trip, but I got re-acquainted with my aunt and uncle, who are just wonderful people. It wasn't so much a tourist trip as a family visit. Next year we'll do more running around. :-)

[Georgina]

Monmarte is the north end of Paris, Pax, and where our hotel was. I knew nothing about the area, history, or geography, so when we stumbled upon the Sacre Coeur Cathedral just by wandering around, we thought we'd found something no one else knew about. (Yeah, I know. I was young.)

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basilique_du_Sacr%C3%A9-C%C5%93ur,_Paris

And directly behind it is the Place du Tertre artists' market, which I actually did know about because my grandfather had told me about it. Very cool.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Place_du_Tertre

It's a super cool area to walk around and soak up local culture. Seriously.