Paris and beyond...

First of all - apologies for taking so long between posts. We've been crazy busy making our way around France. After arriving in the port town of Cherbourg on the Normandy coast on Monday the 20th we headed to beautiful and amazing Paris where we spent Tuesday and Wednesday night. For those of you who have only experienced Paris with Hollywood assistance I can assure you that no movie has truly done this incredible place justice. Everywhere we turned there was something else to see or do. After spending our first afternoon checking out some of the architecture we ended up at the Eiffel Tower as the sun went down and the lights came up. It is so much bigger in person than I had imagined!! Here are a few picutures to enjoy:

The two of us from the ferry as Ireland drifts away in the background.

Arc de Triomphe Etiole in the setting sun.

Fountain in the Place de la Concorde with Eiffel Tower in the background.

The Eiffel Tower all lit up. This taken looking south from across the River Seine.

Looking down to some of the garden area from the Chateau de Versailles.

Back in Paris looking at the Glass Pyramid - the main entrance to the Musee du Louvre.

On our second day we took a day trip to Versailles to check out the cool palace (chateau) and even cooler (and ginormous) gardens. Then it was back into Paris where we went to the Louvre and checked out as much as we could - including of course the Mona Lisa and the statue of Venus. After the museum we headed east along the Seine to the Cathedral Notre Dame. And then had a killer dinner at a little cafe that we finished with French coffee (with Cognac) and a delicious crepe.

On Thursday it was off to Nantes (birthplace of Jules Verne for all you literature buffs) where we spent a night and checked out a very cool castle built by the Dukes of Brittany in the 1500's. We are now down further south in Bordeaux planning the next stage of our adventure... we'll keep you posted...

All smiles in Paris!!

Sunset in Paris on the River Seine.