First Port - La Havre, France

After sailing all night, we landed in La Havre, France on July 17th. That was the pattern of most of the days. We would leave a port in the evening and sail all night to the next port. We didn't stay in La Havre though. We had signed up for a shore excursion to the Landing Beaches of Normandy. We had to endure a two hour bus ride, but it was well worth it.

Our first stop was at Musee du DeBarquement. This museum was built at the site where the British built an artificial port, which was an important part of the Allied success. This picture shows remains of the harbor still located right off the beach. This was interesting to me because I, sadly, knew nothing about this artificial port.

Sad to think of the tragedy that took place off these shores 67 years ago.
Our next stop was the American Cemetery, located on a bluff overlooking Omaha Beach. We entered the cemetery at 2:00 in the afternoon. On the hour, the Star Spangled Banner is played over the loudspeakers, followed by Taps. I can't express how moved I was to hear our National Anthem as I gazed out at the thousands of white crosses.
There are 9387 American military personnel buried in the cemetery, most of them killed during the invasion of Normandy.
There is also a Memorial Wall inscribed with the names of the 1557 servicemen whose bodies were never located.
Looking down to the beach from the cemetery.
After we left the cemetery, we drove to Omaha Beach. We saw this large stone sculpture, with the flags of the United States, France, England, and Canada flying alongside.
We were intrigued by this steel sculpture, Les Braves, done to honor the American servicemen. I would have liked to have seen it at high tide when the water covers the bottom portions of the sculpture.
Looking down Omaha Beach.
Our final stop was at the cliffs of Pointe du Hoc, a point of attack by the Army Ranger Assault Group.
I am glad we were able to go visit the Landing Beaches of Normandy. We weren't able to make it there from Italy, and it had been one of the places I wanted to go. My father served in World War II, and his brother was part of the D-Day Invasion, so I had heard stories from that era. I'm glad we have these memorials so we can always remember the sacrifices made by so many military personnel from so many countries.

Paris, France - Days 3 & 4

Here's what we did on days 3 and 4 (April 30th and May 1st) in Paris, France.

Technically, we spent most of day 3 outside of Paris. We took the train to Versailles that day. I can truthfully tell you that visiting the Palace of Versailles was my least favorite part of our whole trip. A lot of it had to do with that fact that it was sooooo crowded. Between waiting in line to buy tickets, and then waiting in line to get on to the grounds, we waited over 2 hours. And while cobblestones may be picturesque, they are not fun to stand on or walk on for long periods of time!

I did take this picture of a beautiful gate as we waited in line.

Here's a picture of part of the palace. As you can see, it's pretty big....
Our admission included a tour of the upstairs living quarters of the palace. I'm not really sure what we saw. I'm not one who usually gets claustrophobic, but there were so many people crammed into those rooms, I couldn't handle it. I pushed my way through the crowds and waited for Robert and the kids downstairs. It may have been pretty, but I don't even care. I don't find rooms filled with wall to wall people fun.

The grounds were better, although you can see they were also crowded. The grounds didn't impress me. They were big. There were some pretty fountains. The bushes were shaped into nice geometric patterns. But I have seen some beautiful gardens lately, filled with lot of gorgeous, colorful flowers. There was very little color in their gardens.
I took this picture of Kimberly as she was posing for Scott.
After we made it back from Versailles, the kids went and climbed the 284 steps to the top of the Arc de Triomphe. Scott was ready to go again, although he would have been on his own the second time!

Sunday was our last day in Paris. We took it easy that day, since most of the major attractions were closed for a national holiday. We did one thing I had wanted to do - a boat ride on the Seine River. We sat on the open air top deck. It was a gorgeous, sunny day - perfect for a boat ride. I took some picture of buildings I saw along the way. Don't these look so very French?

Here's a couple of pictures of Notre Dame. These were taken from a different angle than the one I took our 2nd day. Still no Quasimodo....

They had some of the most beautiful bridges in Paris.
Here's the kids on the boat.
After the boat ride, we were walking back to the Metro and stumbled upon this. Officially it's a copy of the top of the torch of the Statue of Liberty - a monument to French-American friendship. Unofficially it's become a memorial to Princess Diana, since it stands right near the opening of the tunnel she was in when she was killed.
After a leisurely lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe (Scott needed another t-shirt) and some shopping at the few stores that hadn't closed for the holiday, it was off to the airport to head back to Milan. Paris was a lot of fun. It's a beautiful city. I think we tried to do too much, but that's what happens if you don't know if you'll ever go back again. You want to see it all!

Here's one last picture of the Eiffel Tower, taken from the boat. I did love that tower!

Paris, France - Days 1 & 2

We spent four days in Paris, France. It was, for the most part, a wonderful trip. Here's what we did April 28th and 29th.

After getting settled in our hotel, the Hotel Elysses Union (which was very nice), we headed for the Metro. The subway is the only way to get around Paris, although it can be a bit confusing. On the way there we saw the Arc de Triomphe.

Our first stop was the Musee Rodin, home to the sculptures of Auguste Rodin. One of his most famous sculptures, The Thinker, was found in the gardens of the museum.
The museum's gardens were beautiful. I am not a big rose fan, but they were growing some of the most big, beautiful roses I have ever seen. Here's just one example.
Inside, we saw another of Rodin's more famous works, The Kiss.
Here's Kimberly and Scott in front of a giant door in the courtyard.
Next we walked across the street to Les Invalides: Napoleon's Tomb and Military Museum. I didn't go in. I wasn't really interested, so I sat on a bench in the courtyard. Robert and the kids didn't stay in there very long. They went and saw Napoleon's tomb, which they said was very grand, and then left. Scott took some pictures with my camera, but it doesn't work very well inside dark places. I meant to get a picture from Kimberly, but I forgot.

After that museum, we went on to another museum! (FYI, three museums in one day is too many.) This one was the Musee d'Orsay. We waited over an hour to get in, although we already had tickets. The Orsay is a wonderful museum filled with works by painters such as Monet, Manet, Renoir, Degas, Cezanne, and Van Gogh. It's also a very large museum, and trying to see all of it about killed us! It would have been better to have just gone to the Orsay one day, but when you're only in Paris for 4 days, and you discover right before you go that all of the museums will be closed on May 1st, you do what you have to do!

One of the things I loved about Paris was that we would be walking down a street, turn a corner, and have a view like this. The Eiffel Tower, which is truly beautiful, would suddenly be right in front of us! I never got tired of looking at it.
The next morning, was Eiffel Tower day. We walked first to the Trocadero. I'm not even sure what the Trocadero is, but it's where you go to get great pictures of the Eiffel Tower! Robert and I even had Kimberly take our picture!
And here I am with the kids. We didn't hang around the Trocadero as long as we would have liked. We had to leave to get away from the guys who kept bothering us with their tacky Paris souvenirs!
We waited in line about an hour to catch the elevator to the top of the Eiffel Tower. Sadly, the day was overcast, so our pictures aren't very exciting. But here's a picture of the Seine River.
After the Eiffel Tower, we headed to Notre Dame. We walked inside, and while the stained glass windows were beautiful, we thought the inside of Milan's Duomo was prettier. Scott wanted to climb to the top walkway area they have, but the lines were very long and they were only letting in groups of 20 every 10 minutes. He didn't want to wait that long. I was disappointed I didn't see Quasimodo...
After a late lunch and some touristy shopping, it was on to the Louvre. Here's the famous pyramid.
And here's the reason many people go to the Louvre - the Mona Lisa. I had to elbow my way to the front of a large group of people to get this picture! The Louvre is the only museum (with paintings) I've been to over here that allows pictures. The Louvre is a massive museum. We didn't try to see it all, we just picked out what was important to us.
Here's one last picture to make you jealous - this is what we saw every time we stepped out of our hotel.