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Au revoir, la France!

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Le vendredi 14 juin Bon matin de Nice!  Today we slept well into the morning, catching up on rest from previous late nights in Paris.  The sun made its way into our studio window, which overlooked an alleyway leading to Rue Massena. Once we were dressed and had packed our swimsuits, we headed out to find a boulangerie or fromagerie to get some picnic fare for the beach.  The forecast showed sun and we wanted to spend the entire day soaking in the Mediterranean rays.  We found a spot where we purchased an olive-filled baguette, a fresh-squeezed orange juice, a tomato foccacia bread, some waters, and a cup of fruit. Our afternoon consisted of burrowing down into the pebble-covered beach, searching for a comfortable position on our towels, and trying not to burn our toes on the scalding rocks as we made our way to and from the salty seawater. (A restaurant nearby was named Le Galet , literally meaning “The Pebble”.)  The warmth from the sun on our skin ...
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Taking le TGV to Nice

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Le mercredi 13 juin Our train to Nice left around 7h00 from Gare de Lyon. We dropped off our Airbnb keys and caught an Uber to the station, my cheeks turning red as the driver graciously hoisted my heavy luggage out of the trunk of the car.  We rolled our luggage into the large and crowded train station, squinting to find our train on le tableau des départs .  I had never been in a train station this large or crowded before, except for maybe South Station in Boston.  This gare reminded me of Grand Central Station in New York in its hey day.  I was grateful to have experience with train travel via Amtrak, because now I had to navigate our next moves, but in French.  This would be my first time taking le TGV and it required some research on my part through the SNCF (Société nationale des chemins de fer) website. TGV stands for train à grande vitesse and it can be a very convenient way to get through France and connect to other parts of Europe. I have done ...
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A castle out of a fairy tale: Chenonceau

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Le mardi 12 juin Today we rose bright and early for our tour.  We would be visiting two castles in the Loire Valley - one that inspired the castle from La belle et la bête ( Beauty and the Beast ), and one that inspired countless other contes de fées (fairy tales).  We boarded the bus outside of the Denfert-Rochereau metro station.  Claire and I had grabbed two pains au chocolat at our boulangerie-patisserie across the street from our apartment and ate those on the tour bus as we waited for departure. Quite tired from the night before, having only four or so hours of sleep after the cabaret, we leaned back and unintentionally dozed off to the drone of our tour guides’ voices. We had booked our tour through TripAdvisor, just as I had done with the Claude Monet house and gardens tour. For the TripAdvisor tours, the guide will give an intro to the history of the destination you are going to visit and then will generally allow you to tour the monument on your own....
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Touristes au Cabaret Lido

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Le lundi 11 juin The rain visited Paris for the next few days, which set a nice ambience but also limited the options Claire and I had to tour around town.  We decided to have a late breakfast at an organic bagel sandwich shop with fresh pressed juice.  Everything was delicious until, I kid you not, Claire opened her bagel sandwich to show me a live tiny slug slithering through her arugula.  Both of our jaws dropped and I wondered for a moment if a live snail was part of the cuisine culture in France?  A sign of good luck?  Ehhh...I think not. I showed the woman behind the sandwich counter.  She gasped, said she would make another, and brought us a new sandwich with the amount it cost.  Thank you, kind lady!  We are not upset - we know l’escargot vivant was probably living in the fresh arugula you picked from your terrace garden, and for that we cannot fault you.  But it sure makes one heck of a story! With the rain falling steadily...
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