Back in Paris

Sherry and I have spend the last week back in Paris.  This is the 5th trip where we’ve rented an apartment in the same general area and to be honest, it’s start to feel like coming home.

Our Paris vacations are actually very hard to explain to most people.  They always want to know what we do while we’re here.  They ask if we went so such and such museum and we say no!  Then they’ll ask if we went to see certain monuments and we once again say no.  So, what do we do in Paris?

The answer to that is as simple as it is complicated.  The short answer is that we simply hang out in Paris.  The longer, and more reflective response, is we try and capture some of the essence of living day to day in the City of Lights.

That means we shop for food and other essentials.  We cook.  We explore parts of the city without tourist sites to see what’s there.  We run errands that take us to new parts of the city.  We visit our favorite bistros and cafés while also finding new haunts.  We sip wine and café crèmes while watching a city in constant motion.  And, when we come in November, we do the majority of our holiday gift shopping.

Without a plan, we also loose track of time.  There are many days we have to calculate what day of the week it is.  We loose track because when we’re here, it doesn’t really matter.  There are also many discussions at breakfast that start with the question: “Well, what are we going to do today?”

As much as we love Paris, we decided to take a break after this trip.  There are other parts of France yet to be explored.  There’s also Italy, Spain, Greece and other countries we would like to see.  However, we will be back as this city captures our hearts and souls like no other.

À bientôt

A Perfect Day in France

I feel I should start by admitting that’s been a while since I posted to either of my blogs.  Let’s just say that life and starting a cycling team have taken up quite a bit of my time.  However, Sherry and I are back in France and I can’t think of a better time get going again.

Sherry and I left for France on 11/11/11 for a week in Provence followed by a week in Paris.  Overall, the trip was pretty routine.  An 11-hour flight to Paris followed by a 3-hour TGV ride to Avignon.  We like to spend the night in Avignon so we can be a little fresher on our drive into the Luberon, in this case to the village of Ménerbes.

On Sunday morning we awoke ready to start our day.  This was probably helped along by a lovely evening in Avignon with lots of great food and wine for dinner.  We took a taxi back to the TGV station to pick up the rental car and a few quick minutes later I was re-acquainting myself with the art of French driving.

The plan was to go straight to the Sunday market at L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue.  This is by far our favorite Provençal market  as it meanders through the town and along the Sorgue river.  The day was made even nicer with stunningly beautiful weather and the fact that we were shopping like locals.  After many hours of buying local vegetables, cheeses, ham, olives, gifts for friends and drinking the occasional coffee, it was time for our next destination.

The guy at the rental car agency suggested we go see Fountaine-de-Vaucluse.  This is where the Sorgue River literally comes out of a cave at the base of a cliff.  We visited there in 2007 but due to the recent heavy rains it was supposed to be spectacular.  However, when we arrived it seemed that every French person in the region had the same idea so we decided to go back another day.

As we left the village, we saw a sign for Gordes.  This may be our favorite village in Provence so we headed that way for lunch.  We tempered our excitement by saying if it was also crazy full of people then we would save it for another day as well.

Fortunately, we found a place to park with no problems and the village was pretty empty.  After a short stroll, we had a lovely lunch at the restaurant that is featured in the movie A Good Year.  After a bit more relaxing and photo-snapping it was time to head to Ménerbes and check-in to the house were we would spend the next 6 nights.

So, there you have it.  Our first full day in France and we’ve already been to our favorite market and village under the bluest skies we’ve ever seen.  I can’t wait to see what comes next.

À bientôt