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We made it back home!

We flew over Greenland on our way back which was interesting to see from the air.




Our bodies are still adjusting to the time change. The house is intact and the dogs and boys survived without us. So it's back to life as we usually know it. We want to thank you for taking this journey with us. We hope that it brought back some memories of your own travels, or maybe inspired you to plan a trip of your own, or at least was a pleasant distraction. We'll soon start poring over our thousands of photos (expect a book or video in the not so distant future :) ... and our memories of this trip will stay with us forever.

Paris, France (Part 2)

We returned to Paris after our visit to the Loire Valley and stayed in a hotel across the street from the Orsay Museum. It was a grey and rainy day in Paris so we spent most of our afternoon in the museum (which does not allow any photograpy). Viewing the original works of the great impressionist painters was amazing stuff. There's something special about walking around the streets of Paris under an umbrella ... sort of a beautiful thing!

To celebrate our last night in Paris we had crepes for dinner.

Chateau Cheverny (Loire Valley)

This estate has been in the same family for over six centuries. Today, the chateau is lived in by descendents of the Huault family whose apartments are located in the right wing.

This was our favorite chateau. It had by far the "homiest" interior.

And if all that isn't good enough...they also have dogs...hound dogs that is!!!

Chateau de Chenonceau (Loire Valley)

This is a classic example of one of the many chateaus in the area. The Chateau de Chenonceau was built in the 16th century on the River Cher. It has moats, beautiful grounds, a chapel, and wonderfully appointed rooms. What's not to love?

Chateau des Ormeaux (Loire Valley)

We stayed two nights in this chateau in the Couperin room with this fabulous bathroom.

The grounds surrounding the chateau are beautiful beyond words. There is a big expansive lawn area, beautiful flowers,

forest, and a vineyard.

And the neighbor's places aren't too shabby either.

Loire Valley

The Loire Valley was Kathy's #1 destination spot for this trip and it lived up to all expectations. Think rolling hills, forests, rivers, green farmlands, gardens, vineyards, and old stone castles and chateaus and you get the idea. Loire River trends east to west and officially separates northern from southern France.

We tried out some local cuisine in the town of Amboise...

...and stopped in the local market and bakery where we were reminded that we were in France.

Versailles

We took the metro and then RER train from Paris to Versilles. Picked up a rental car in Versailles and headed to see the Palace. The Palace of Versaille sand its gardens cover so much area that we were able to cover only a small part of the grounds in an afternoon's visit. It is almost unfathomable how much wealth belonged to just one family. The old brick and stone chateau of Louis XIII was transformed and greatly enlarged by his son Louis XIV.

After touring Versailles, we hit the road in our rented Renault and headed for the Loire Valley.

By the way, most of the cars in Europe run on diesel instead of gas. We searched for the gas tank marked "diesel" but there wasn't one so we almost made the mistake of filling up the tank from the pump marked something other than "gasole". Because obviously "gasole" had to mean "gas" right? Wrong! Good thing we checked..."gasole" in France means "diesel". Ron found this little 6-speed Renault to be very energy efficient, responsive, and fun to drive.