Fun times in France with Terryl

The past 10 days have been filled with exciting travel adventures.  My childhood pal, Terryl Gardner, came to visit us from Boston!  I took the high speed train from Stuttgart to meet Terri G in Paris.  

We purchased the 2 day Museum Pass which gives you entry to over 60 museums and attractions.  Thanks to friends (Laurie!) we narrowed down the museum list and hustled all over the city in the rain.

We loved Sainte-Chapelle Cathedral with it's beautiful gothic architecture and it's peerless stained glass.

I was not too excited to see the Louvre museum since it was packed and miserable waiting in lines when I went during Summer 2003.  Traveling in less-touristy March coupled with our Museum Pass allowed us access thru a special entrance with ZERO lines.  The Louvre, formerly a royal palace, is the  largest museum in the Western world.   

Above we are inside the famous glass pyramid designed in 1989 by world renowned Chinese-born American architect I.M. Pei (Terryl is obsessed with this stuff).  Many Parisians disliked this architectural masterpiece at first just as they disliked the Eiffel Tower when it was built 100 years earlier.  
A Frenchman named Patrice shared this fun fact: there is so much artwork that if you spent just 30 seconds with each painting/sculpture, it would take an entire 3 weeks straight to see every piece of art in this massive museum.  We did not have 3 weeks so we sprinted around to the main attractions.

Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa (La Joconda, 1503-1506) was a bit anticlimactic (thus, no desire to throw elbows and get up close for a better pic)

Opposite the Mona Lisa is the massive Renaissance painting The Marriage at Cana (Les Noces de Cana, 1562-1563) by Venetian artist Paolo Veronese. This is the famous painting of a wedding celebration at which Jesus turned water into wine. 

Terryl's favorite painting (typical)

My favorite museum was the Musee de l' Orangerie which was built for a special exhibition of Claude Monet's Water Lilies(1914-1926). The full installation spills from one pond-shaped room to a second, each made up of 4 six-foot-tall curved canvas panels (no cameras allowed so you must go see it live!).  

Paris is a great walking city even in crappy weather.

Thats me in the center sporting pony tail & running shoes (so un French)

Some areas reminded me of the DC Mall with the monuments and public parks.

We walked up the stairs of Arc de Triomphe for a beautiful (hazy) view of Paris. 

We also spent time in cafes enjoying espresso, french onion soup and delicious quiche.

The seafood and oyster bars were the best for evening meals!

The horrible weather motivated my pal to buy a ridiculous "Paris" umbrella from a local tourist stand.

Unfortunatley, the umbrella was worthless and poor Terryl got drenched!

 I didnt have much sympathy since I had zero desire to go "touch" the Eiffel Tower.

(we could see it already from the ARC)

Anyway, we got to stand under it - YAY (sarcastic)

Our most exciting night was totally unexpected.  First, we met a family friend for a drink at Falstaff (great bar with Belgian beer) and he took us to a local spot (Chez Pa Pa- highly recommend for inexpensive country south west French food) with the most amazing duck salad.  Then, Terri and I ventured to a random bar and quickly bonded with a group of local French folks (age range 27-77)

One is a base player in a jazz band and Stan, below, was an artist, professor and dance machine.

 By the end of the night, Terri was calling him "Jean Valjean" (he didn't take this as a compliment and apparently had never seen Les Mis).  All of a sudden it was 6 am and we were starving so we strolled to a cafe for cheese plates, smoked salmon and a bottle of Prosecco.
Only in Paris - now one of my favorite cities!

Trying to read the french menu at 6 am

On our last day, we spent time at Notre Dame Cathedral

We made it just in time for the 850 year celebration

It was breathtaking and we got to walk around during a mass.

The organ sounded beautiful 

Stained glass galore-imagine on a sunny day

We left Paris the next day and took the metro (easy and cheap) to our high-speed train for Strasbourg, France.

Strasbourg is located in the Alsace region of France along the German border so it was an easy place for Scott to meet us for the weekend. 

The first thing that caught our eye was the local French specimen below

Sexy grey mullet and spandex walking his horse down the street (Too bad Tash is already engaged)

Terri had her handy Rick Steve's travel books that suggested we do the walking audio tour.  It was a great way to learn about the history and architecture (mix of German & French)

The Strasbourg Cathedral is known as one of the most beautiful gothic cathedrals in Europe.  Construction began in the year 1015 and during the next 4 centuries it was the tallest structure in the modern world due to the height of it's tower.

Scoots wearing what he calls his "french disguise"
I have another name for it

Astronomical clock from 1842 invented by mathematicians, artists, swiss watchmakers, sculptors and painters

 We walked along the river for many hours listening to our handy headsets (rented from the tourist office for a measly 5.50 euro)

Terryl grasping her journal- she diligently took notes the entire trip

We had a fabulous meal along the river at La Corde a Linge' in the neighborhood known as Petite France.

duck, saurkraut, cheese, fish= delish

I got to hold the basket of fresh baked pretzels 

After our walking tour, we freshened up and decided to check out the night life.  We went to a few bars near the hotel.  Bar Exils (motto: Jugs and Beers) was a great place to start the night.

The bartenders were very friendly and gave us tank tops and samples of various beers (Kasteel Red 8% was superb)

Later, we spotted a Karaoke bar - hooray!!  

Bunny's bar was perfect

I truly enjoyed singing with the locals!  I nailed the French pop hits in my authentic accent thanks to the words on the screen above us.  One impressive performance in English was a goateed man who belted out Tracy Chapman's hit "talking bout a revolution"

My favorite memory was when Scoots sang one of his favorite classics, Genesis' "I Cant Dance."  As he screamed "I cant sing" into the microphone, the French girls went wild!

Terri also passionately joined in for this glorious rendition

Next blog coming soon: Traveling with Terri around Germany (Black Forest, Dusseldorf, Cologne, Munch & Stuttgart)