Day 1 The yin and yang of travel

I can't complain about the journey part of our trip, although it was exhausting it went off pretty flawlessly. The flights totaled about 10 hours with layovers, then about 30 minutes to get our bags, another 30 to get train tickets into the city, and a 40 minute train ride to our awesome little hotel, up the stairs and into bed for a 2 hour nap.  We really wanted to get a nice fresh look at the city without the lack of sleep to cloud our vision.

After our nap, we washed up and packed a bag and started walking. Right away we realized that pictures can't do Paris justice.  Although we've only seen a little piece so far, the colors and beauty of the architecture is incredible.  Cafe after cafe with great looking food, wine, and coffee drinks.  We walked down Saint-Germain, which was once an artsy college student filled area, is now a little more touristy, but still a really nice place to walk around or sit in a cafe on the street people watching.  So that is what we did, we found a little street side table to get a quick bite and a .5 liter of white wine,  (Vin Blanc).  Our french is pretty much non existent, but we tried and as many people told us, it goes a long way.  I will jump ahead and say everyone we met has been excellent, and very accepting of our lack of french. At any rate, this is a little silly, but I will embarrass us to give you a laugh.  We ordered what we thought was a cheese plate with our wine. Out comes a plate of fettuccine Alfredo.  Yes, our first meal in France was Italian... With that said, it was a great fettuccine Alfredo, four really nice cheeses, over homemade pasta.

Sorry I need to speed this up, we have exploring to do.. After lunch we walked around a bunch, walked to Notre Dame which was massive and very overwhelming inside.  We walked over a few bridges crossing the river Seine, and over to the Pantheon.  We both really fell in love with the city, right off the bat.  The architecture is just stunning.  We hit another cafe for more wine, before heading back to get dressed for dinner.




For dinner we ate at a 10 table restaurant called L'estrapade, the owner, chef, and waiter took care of us. We were the only Americans in the place.  We had 2 apps: fois gras with bread and a tomato paste type sauce, and an apple, shrimp, and avacado dish with a mayo based sauce holding it together.  Both were really great. We had a half bottle of viognier.   For our meals, Allison, the women who hate birds got her revenge on a confit pigeon stuffed with fois gras, once again amazing, I could live off pigeon.  Allison is awesome in my opinion for being so daring, and she really enjoyed it.  I got a whole sea bass, delicious, skin and all..  At the end of the meal the chef brought us to the bar for a shot calvados since it was our honeymoon.  He's a great guy and has a really great restaurant.. A++ meal

After dinner we walked along the river Seine some more and strolled around to work off that meal. Paris is a very romantic place, we made the right decision to visit, no doubt!

HONEYMOON IN FRANCE!

Here we go again, travel time.And this time back to Europe, France to be exact. Allison and I floated around lots of ideas, including a multi country adventure. We ended up deciding, we want to relax, drink wine, and eat like monsters. France seemed like an obvious choice, with 5 stops starting and ending in Paris. A visit  to the French riviera for beaching and sun. Provence for food, art, and beautiful vistas. And a stop in Burgundy for, you guessed it, wine, wine, wine.. I know we have a one track mind, but at least we're consistent.

View France honeymoon in a larger map

We start in Paris, 3 nights in the Latin Quarter. Our plan is a nice mixture of cafes and tourist fun, with the obvious major sites. We received lots of great advice from a lot of you, and we appreciate it. One of the really great ideas is hopping on one of those cheesy tourist buses that cruise around the city. After airport hell, we may be groggy and lazy, so doing one of those buses will be a great way to relax and see the city. I'm not going to be ashamed of being a silly tourist, I may even throw on a fanny pack, and the dreaded socks and sandals..

After Paris we're taking a train 6 hours South to Villefranche-Sur-Mer, which is in the French Riviera, 10 minutes East of Nice, and very close to Monaco and the Italian border. Villefranche is a former fishing village.  We're staying at an apartment rental for 7 days.  The plan is beach, lots of beach. With day trips to Eze, Nice, Monaco and a place really special to us, called Menton. Here's a little back story on that.  Menton is a town that borders Italy. There is a restaurant in Boston called Menton, which is where I proposed to Allison.

Our next stop is Saint-Remy-de-Provence, another little village, but this one is more medieval. With lots of shops, art, and food. There is some really nice hiking in the area, some vineyards, and lots of other medieval town in close proximity.

Next we have a stop in Beaune, which is in Burgundy. Obviously there is lots and lots of wine in this region. I've read it's a really great place to rent bikes, and take the vineyard trails from winery to winery, sound like a lot of fun to me, we'll see if I can convince Allison. Also there is a few wine cellars right in Beaune which people really rave about. We're packing Advil, and I expect we'll use it.

Last, we head back to Paris, and this time we'll be staying 2 nights with views of the Eiffel tower. I'm sure we'll be unwinding and trying to soak up our last few days in France. I'm not going to write anymore about that because it's depressing..

We tend to get hung up on finding specific treats on these trips, Pizza in Italy, Conch Fritters in Key West, wine in California. Although wine will play a big part of this trip, I expect bread and Pastry may be the one. I love croissants, so maybe that will be my special treat I try everywhere.  I hope I can keep this fresh and fun for all of you to follow along. It was really great reading your comments on our last trips, so please take a second to comment as we go along.

au revoir!