There's no place like home.....

there's no place like home......

and how I wish I could have just rubbed my dirty, tired tennis shoes together and transported myself home in an instant, rather than 15 hours of flying - oh wait - make that a couple hours waiting on the plane at the terminal for some people with late connecting flights. Seriously - in the states, they would NEVER do that - sorry, but those people would have had to catch another flight. But, apparently at Air France they do things a bit differently :) I do have to say, they had a much better movie selection than Continental, and with our flight being so long, I got to catch up on a bunch of flicks I never got to see in the theaters :) It was a long day of flying though, and I was sooo grateful to get home safely, and that all was well here too!

The trip was amazing! A once in a lifetime kind of trip, and it was so much fun to be with the hubs and Big K :) I can't believe all the things we saw, and how old and majestic and amazing they all were! We have so many pics, and I don't mean to bore y'all with my travel log, but I want to have it here, for my OWN memories - so if you're not interested, feel free to skip - but there are some wonderful sights and beautiful pics, if you're interested :)

Resizing is a pain in the hiney, and so time consuming - so I'm going to break up the trip :) So - for today - here are days 1 through 5 of our adventures (and yes, there were some adventures!) in France :)





Here we go!!!





We had a lay-over in Newark, then off to Paris!

















First stop - Paris - then we hopped a flight to Nice!!!! Off that plane, grabbed the rental car and hit the ground running!!!!


Get a load of this playground - they'd never have equipment like this in the US - it's a lawsuit waiting to happen LOL


In the Vielle Ville (old town)


We loved this sign - except that it didn't exactly tell us where "ici" was :) Good thing we knew where we were going (at least at that point LOL)





Dinner at the smothered meat place- Big K - not so much into the smothered meat - she thought she'd have a "slice" of pizza :)








What's left of the old chateau in Nice.....


The Mediteranian - soooo pretty!!! The beaches in the south of France aren't sand though - just small rocks/pebbles





The car Big K was hoping was our rental..... although I'm not sure where she thought SHE'D be sitting LOL


The hideous green safari jeep that actually WAS our rental!



Day two - off to Monaco and a little jaunt into Italy :)


The huge and famous Oceanography museum up by the Palace in Monte Carlo - we didn't go in this time around, but did the last time we were there - about 9 years ago. It's pretty cool, but Big K wasn't interested in it :)


We all live in a yellow submarine ;)


Look at the size of that thing ;)


I love all the tiny streets and little vendors and market places in the old villes - they're tourist traps for sure, but so very quaint!!!!


Confessional in the Cathedral in Monaco. This is the cathedral where Prince Ranier and Princess Grace are buried, but there was an art exhibit going on so you couldn't take pictures :(


The palace in Monaco! We didn't get to go in on our last trip there, but it was open this time, so we got to tour :) It was very interesting and elegant - but - no pictures inside, due to the fact that the royal family still resides there......


The changing of the guard.....





One of the best things about France - ORANGINA!!!!


The hubs had a "classic Monagasque " lunch - Big K and I went for something a little more traditional :)


Not quite this traditional though LOLOL Not sure what it is about this place - but they are EVERYWHERE in France - even in some of the smaller towns - go figure......


We slipped into Italy after dinner for a spot of dessert.......





Italian Gelato - sooooo yummy!!!!



Day Three - lots of stops on our way to Carcassonne!!!!

The Romans did some great work in Arles :)


Cool Ampitheater dating back to the 10th century!


The Arena..... It was an adventure to find this venue - involving lots of tiny street/alley driving and seriously getting lost in the wrong part of town ;)


The towers inside this place were HUGE!!! It really is amazing what the Romans built with the technology they had. Their architects were some seriously talented dudes :)











Look at those cool statues ;)








Van Gogh even lived in Arles for a while........








How Big K spent the majority of our driving time...... She missed the best parts - all the times the "autres directions and toutes directions" took us the wrong way, all the incredibly small streets we had to negotiate, the beautiful French countryside that we got to see on all our side "detours" :) On average, I'd say we usually got lost for at least an hour a day, sometimes more LOL But hey - it's an adventure - right????


The Abbey at Montmajour (more info here ) It was built on a rock starting in the 900's. The graves had to be carved out of stone....














View of the graveyard from the top towers....


No coffins for these guys, just a custom grave carved out of stone.....


Moulin de Daudet - Fontvielle.....This French writer took up residence here in this windmill (Moulin) - well - in his writings he lived there, but in reality he stayed with some friends in a near-by Chateau, and wrote short stories about country bumpkins :) The hubs says they are hilarious - he must have read them in college in some French literature class :)


In the distance you can see one of my favorite Castles in all of France - Tarascon!




More on Tarascon here











The King's Potty!!!!


Neighboring Fortress across the river.....





The cathedral - I guess for the commoners since all the Chateaus and castles have their own private chapels......

Day Four - Lourdes and Pau!

The Hubs spent about 8 months of his mission in this region, so he was happy to show off all the places he'd been :)This is the street front of the park that leads to the Lourdes Cathedrals and Baths..... More on Lourdes here.......





Not to offend anyone, but in some ways it reminded me of the Disneyland Castle :) There is enough gold in this place to feed a third world country for years :) It is the largest pilgimmage in France, and there were TONS of people there!








The stations of the Cross was a very interesting walk (and very hilly!) We were walking it with some very devoted Catholics. Most of the people I know who are catholic don't really practice the religion, but these people were very devout, reciting prayers the whole way up and the whole way down.


The lines for the baths - sick people go and bathe in the Holy Water to cure them of their maladies. There were people all over in wheelchairs and stretchers. It was a cold and rainy day, but the hubs says on a nicer day, there are so many people you can't even move.....


Big K getting some Holy Water for a souvenir :) I don't think she's planning on drinking it though..... It apparently comes from a spring under the rock....





The story of Bernadette and her vision......


One of the AMAZING mosaics in the lower chapel. These tiled frescos were unbelievably gorgeous. I just have to get past the fact that the entire focus of all the cathedrals is Mary, and the crucifixion of Christ. So different from my religion where the entire focus is on Christ, His life, His teachings and His resurrection. There were people praying to different Saints in all the alcoves. This chapel was HUGE!!!


A statue of Bernadette in the garden of the Chateau at Lourdes.



The Fort/Chateau/Castle at Lourdes - lucky for me, it had an elevator ;)


Lunch!!! Croque Monsieurs for Big K and I, Croque Madame (hence the egg on top) for the hubs!








The Pyrenees in the background!





Pau!!!!We got to Pau too late to go into the cathedral or chateau, but we took some outside pics. The hubs drove us past his apartment building from when he served here almost 25 years ago!












Dinner back in Carcassonne - who knew a shrimp cocktail included heads, legs and all????



Day Five - Carcassonne and Avignon!!!!

Our hotel in Carcassonne was in the center of the walled city - it was sooo cool!More on Carcassonne here.........




























The outside of a royal potty :) The hubs is so intrigued by these ;)





The double ramparts of the city.....








Cathedral in Carcassonne - it is so old and very cool!


Beautiful stained glass!!!





Crepes - YUM!!!!


Even French kids like Chicken Nuggets :)


Those knights - they're everywhere!!!!


We took some time in the morning to go to church in Carcassonne - the hubs was so surprised that there was a branch here - it even had it's own church apartment. It was mother's day in France (June 7th) so the meeting was about mothers :) Interestingly enough, apparently no one in their branch plays the piano, but they had a family with several daughters who played the cello, violin and flute, and they provided all the music for the church meeting. They even played Little Purple Pansies for the primary kids who sang and gave their moms roses. It was very cool. I understood most of the first speaker, but the second speaker was more soft spoken and spoke much faster and it was harder to grasp what he was saying :)


Heading out!!!!

Avignon -

In the 14th century the Pope moved the center of power from the Vatican to Avignon and 7 different popes resided here between the 14th and 15th century - the Palais of Popes is immense and super cool :) More about Avignon here......

The Bridge at Avignon - there is a song - Sur le Pont en Avignon......There is a chapel in the middle of the bridge - it's pretty neat.....





"they are dancing all around" :)





Only outside pics were allowed at the Palais - so no pics of the great huge halls and rooms - they are so amazing. These guys really knew how to live!








We hurried back to Nice and found our hotel by midnight. I'm not sure what happened to the pics of it - Big K's bed was practically crib size LOL It was pretty funny - good thing we were only there for 6 hours before flying back to Paris :) The South of France was AWESOME!!! When we went before we only went as far west as Avignon, so it was very cool to go further, and I have to say Carcassonne was one of the coolest places we saw. I read a book called Labyrinth and it made me really want to go see the city, and I am soooo glad we did - it's definitely a must see if you're in France!