The Passineau Family: Pittsburgh Edition

For our last day in France, we got rainy weather :( No seriously guys, like soaking, misty rain! I wore my poncho the entire day. Luckily, we only had Versailles left on our list of things to see before our departure. We headed to the nearest pastry shop & fueled up with our last pastries in Paris. We took the RER--light rail train from our hotel out to Versailles. One thing I never knew about Versailles is that is was once a hunting lodge in the middle of the woods. So, even though, it is only about a 30 min. ride on the train to get to Versailles & still seems very much like it is still inside Paris city limits, it was once a secluded area. When we arrived at Versailles, there were long lines to purchase a ticket & a long line to enter. After obtaining our tickets for the very basic tour, which included the main chateaux & gardens, we grabbed yet another coffee before heading inside. Everything about the chateaux is over the top, from the golden fencing, to the art, and even the bed linens. One thing I will always remember is seeing the machine-gun armed military presence around the golden fence of the chateaux. Obviously, that made me do a double take...didn't really expect that; however, with such a priceless, historic place I guess security is essential. Once inside, we received a headphone set & digital recorder, which would play a recording of details about the various rooms in which we explored. Louis XIV(the Sun King), was the monarch whom greatly influenced the appearance of Versailles. The over-the-top, ornate rooms were very much part of how he wished people to see him. He united France during a tumultuous time & became a symbol of the grandeur of the country. Of course, his wife, Marie Antoinette, was also a famous part of the history at Versailles. They have matching apartment spaces on two different sides of the palace. Later, Napoleon, his heirs, & Louis Phillipe...he was the monarch who saw Versailles as an important historical emblem for France, called Versailles home. It took about 4 hours to get through the palace & gardens. We truly did not get to enjoy the gardens due to the rain, but you could certainly see where in full sun they would have been quite grand. One of the 1st things we saw as we entered was the chapel. Apparently, all of the monarchs were quite insistent that everything in the chateaux halt at 10AM & everyone attend mass. From there we saw many other impressive rooms, but none, quite as grand as the "Hall of Mirrors". This was used to receive royalty & dignitaries from other countries. Again, I marveled at the ceilings in this most grand of chateaus. The art was amazing! After finishing the gardens, we headed back to our hotel to get ready for our last dinner in Paris. We didn't have a reservation for that night & truly, didn't know how it would go due to the bad weather all day. Around 5PM, the rain began to subside & we decided to take a walk along the Seine. I didn't take my camera that night as I wanted Michael & I to enjoy some time to ourselves without any distractions. We walked through some interesting alley ways in Paris & ended our journey at a cafe near Notre Dame...oddly enough, where we had began our adventure the previous Sunday. As we ordered our last meal in Paris & toasted 10 happy years of marriage, we saw Notre Dame light up across the Seine. It was a picture perfect ending to a magical trip! Thank you to Michael for giving me a wonderful life & for marking our 10 year in such an extravagant way. Thank you to Michael's mom for caring for our girls while we were gone & for making this opportunity possible for us. I am incredibly grateful for all that God has blessed me with in my life & hope that you enjoyed a glimpse of our French adventure. Au Revoir & Merci for reading :)

P.S. The usual overload of pictures of the girls will resume next week!

One last pastry shop

Versailles

The chapel

This is Duquesne---famous explorer & discovered part of Pittsburgh, our electricity comes from Duquesne light

Another view of chapel

Hall of mirrors

This room was dedicated to historical paintings of French monarchy, interesting history

Napoleon saw himself as an emperor, he always had himself portrayed with his signature laurel-leaf crown

This was in the wing dedicated to Marie Antoinette & her servants

The Sun-King emblem is very prevalent

The gardens

Famous Apollo fountain

On our 4th day in France, we awoke with renewed vigor as we knew we'd be leaving our cramped Paris hotel room & heading out to Normandy to see one of the UNESCO world heritage sites. I was so pumped to get out there and see Mt. St. Michel & my expectations were well deserved....it is an amazing place! Before we could see this site, though, we had to get to Normandy from Paris. We debated how we would do this, but after much research (thank you Google), we decided that renting a car made the most sense for us. We looked into a train/bus ride, but due to the length of time required to do this (6-7hrs), a car just seemed better for us. We took the metro to the airport & rented the car at Charles de Galle in Paris. The car ride from Paris to Mt. St. Michel is about 4 & 1/2 hours without stops. Hindsight, it may have been cheaper to take the train out to Caen & rent a car out there....Caen is much closer to Mt. St. Michel. As we found, renting a car in Paris, it is VERY expensive....like triple the cost quoted on the Hertz website expensive. Due in large part to the taxes & tariffs. One thing that we didn't do, but again in hindsight, it may have been cheaper to use an iPhone to navigate rather than a GPS that we rented with the car. We did not pay for the international data plan while in France, so we were out of luck with navigation unless we got the GPS. Again, another expense that was more than expected. **I will say, Normandy, especially near Mt. St. Michel, is kind of backwoods. Once we got back we both wondered about cell phone service out there, so maybe the GPS was the way to go, on so many of the roads we took, it was "unnamed road" in the middle of a cornfield. To me, it was worth it to have a GPS system**. Once we had the car & were on our way, it was great. Due to our short time frame we were unable to stop at many of the sights along the way, but we did get to stop in La Bouille for lunch. We explored the town for a short time & ate galettes (savory crepes) & sweet crepes. The church in this town dates from the 16th century, I think the plaque said 1560. Beautiful, picturesque little french country town. I'm guessing that all the markers along the road way for these towns, would lead to many areas like this.

Back on the major roadway, we were again on our way like so many before us to see the famous Mt. St. Michel. Normandy is beautiful, especially the coastal region where the site sits. This area of Normandy is known for the highest tides in Europe & we certainly experienced this. You would see boats on their sides in no water & then an hour later they are floating. In fact, before the causeway was built out to Mt. St. Michel, you could only get out there during low tide, during high tide it was completely cut off from the mainland. I think something that will always be memorable to me is seeing Mt. St. Michel for the first time. Once you get off the main highway, you are in the middle of cow pastures, sheep grazing land with tall grasses, & corn fields. It's beautiful in it's own right, but then in the distance you see something that resembles a mountain with a pointed top rising from the coast...that's it! The closer we got to our destination the larger it gets & the more impressive it becomes. We stayed at Mercure Mt. St. Michel & this is the place to stay if you ever have the opportunity to visit. They control the causeway out to the monument pretty tightly & you must pay to enter if you are not staying at this hotel. Because we were staying at this hotel, they e-mailed us the night before with a code to enter at the gate. The other thing that was great about this hotel is that the rooms were huge compared to Pairs & very comfortable. It seems very westernized. The staff all spoke English & the hotel restaurant was good. We ate breakfast at the restaurant, but we were told the dinner was great also.

Once we were checked-in, Michael spoke to the concierge about exploring the nearby towns. We drove out to St. Malo, which is about 2 hrs. from Mt. St. Michel. Totally worth it. The coastal drive along the way was beautiful. St. Malo is a walled-city from the Middle Ages which is preserved. This was previously an area controlled by French Pirates & they were known for looting the English. During WWII, 80% of this city was destroyed, but has been completely restored. Speaking of WWII, you were probably wondering if we were anywhere near the beaches of Normandy....we were about 2 hrs. from the memorial site, but again, due to our short time frame, there was no time to see it. On our way back from St. Malo, we stopped and had dinner overlooking the Normand coast. This restaurant, Le Perle Noire, is perched high on a cliff & gives you a great view of the beach & ocean below. Plus, the food was delish! They are, of course, known for the seafood in this region. For my starter, I had a crab dish, which truly was the best crab I've ever tasted. Michael ate all of the seafood in this region. No seriously, he had a sample of all of the local seafood on one plate. Ridiculous amounts of food, but he loved it!! I went more land lover & had a great steak, it was local grass-fed beef & it was fabulous. I finished my meal with a chocolate/pear tart also great! We got back to our hotel in time to drive down & see the Mt. St. Michel lighted for the night. Breathtaking....so wish I had taken a tripod for this one, but you just can't photograph everything.

The next morning we had breakfast at our hotel & hopped the bus, which had a stop right across the street from our hotel to head down to the site. I was more than annoyed that it was raining & cloudy when we began our journey out to the monument as I had wanted a really great picture of the monument on a sunny day :( I actually bought a poncho to wear due to the rain. We made the best of it & walked through the Medieval village that is at the base of Mt. St. Michel & climbed our way to the top where the abbey sits (1300 years old, actually). A statue of St. Michael defeating the devil sits at the top of the spire of the Abbey's church, not that we could see it that day, but we saw pictures. We even brought a replica of the statue home with us as a souvenir. The Abbey is amazing, great architecture, beautiful stained glass, & amazing views of the Normand coast! The chapel in the abbey is considered the jewel of the site & it's true. Just outside of the chapel is the cloister, where the monks would pray & meditate, also something to see. It's about 100 ft. up & they have added glass to keep tourists safe...but at one time, there was no glass & it was all open air, all the way down....dizzying height. We completed our tour through the abbey & headed back down in the rain...boo, hiss. I was thinking all the way down, I won't get my picture I wanted. Then, all of a sudden, the rain cleared & the sun began to shine. I was ecstatic! I think I got a framer ;) Plus, it was just great to see the site in all it's glory in the sun. Our trip back to Paris was spent talking about all we had seen over the last 2 days & how much we enjoyed Normandy. When we got back to Paris, it was rush hour, so poor Michael had to fight our way through traffic to return the car to the airport. Then we had to carry all of luggage through the various train stations & finally check in to our last hotel in Paris, Vice Versa. This hotel is a bit out of the way, but it's got large rooms & luxurious bathrooms, so it was a great way to end our time in Paris. Due to the late hour, we went to the same restaurant we had been to previously, called Jadis, which just happened to be right across the street from the hotel. There I had the most delicious thing I've ever eaten in my life, a truffle tart. We slept quite well that night after our Normand adventure & knew we would spend our last full day in Paris the next day. Our last sight to see was Versailles!

La Bouille

Road between St. Michel & St. Malo on Normandy coast

You see that in the middle of this picture, that's Mt. St. Michel

Low tide, you see those boats in no water, you see that to the right of the picture, that blue pointy thing, that Mt. St. Michel

St. Malo

St. Malo from afar....not mine, got it off Wikipedia to show everyone the city from a distance, my husband is patient with my love of taking pics, but he wasn't going to allow me to go out on another island to take a picture like this :)