Two Days in Paris

Where did all these people come from? Isn’t this the low season? We do not remember these crowds. Can’t even imagine what it was like earlier this summer.

Yesterday we found our way to Norte Dame Cathedral to have a late breakfast across the street.

Like so many things, it’s sadly not the same as last time we were here. But hopefully it will return to its former glory.

Afterwards we strolled on down to the d’Orsay which, in spite of modest crowds, is still so very beautiful.

We weren’t sure if we wanted to go back to visit the Louvre today…especially when we checked on line and there were no tickets available. But this morning we decided to head on over anyway. There were long lines outside; but we got into the orange queue for visitors “sans reservations” to see what would happen, and we were inside in 20 minutes. Yay. Of course so was everyone else. Yikes. 

Spent a couple hours wandering. Up and down stairs galore. Said hello to Mona Lisa and Venus de Milo. And then worked our way to the Latin Quarter for an absolutely delicious late lunch at Restaurant Narro

Might have had a bit too much wine on top of all the walking. We are pretty beat. But we had to make the most of the day because tomorrow we wind our way back home. 

There is no doubt traveling is a different kind of challenging than it was when we were younger. But we are so still grateful that we have gotten to do as much of it as we have. Here’s hoping there are still a lot more experiences to come.

For now, au-revoir.

Old Friends and Old Haunts

 Yesterday we left Quimper and drove along the coast stopping in Benodet for a stroll along the water.

Had lunch in Fouesnant and then found our way to Combrit to spend the night with an old friend from Anguilla, Philippe Kim. He moved back to France a long time ago (18 years ago or so he says but I don’t see how that is possible). What a treat catching up. Good food. Good wine. Good friends.

Today was early up (first alarm set in weeks) for the three hour drive back to Nantes. Returned the car at train station (750+km driven. Well done, Michael). Then 2.5 hour train to Paris.

Has it really been 22 years since we were last here? How is that possible either? But yes, we returned  from touringVersailles to rest, turned on the tv and saw the twin towers fall on 9-11. So yes, 22 years. We always thought we would come back. But life gets away from you. So many places we thought we would get back to or even to in the first place. To quote myself in the initial creation of this blog, “so much world. So little time.”

So again, travel when you are young. Or perhaps start traveling when you are as young as possible and continue for as long as you possibly can.

The view from our room tonight.

Lazy Day

 The latest installment of what can go wrong in Quimper finds one of us stumbling to find the bathroom in the middle of the night accusing the other of turning off the lights and shutting the bathroom door when in fact there was, upon awakening fully and making a closer inspection, a far reaching (aka as far as the eye could reach) power outage. After unplugging and turning off all devices to save their batteries, we managed to get back to sleep. By the time we awoke this morning, all was back to normal. So I decided to toss a couple items in the little washing machine only to have it lock, agitate a couple times, flash an error code, and then refuse to give me back my stuff. The door would not unlock again. Translations. Cancellations. Frustrations. Etc etc until something literally and figuratively clicked and it opened.  At which point I decided, that I really didn’t need to do any wash after all. 

Off we went exploring again, by which I mean strolling the river again.

Having a light lunch while taking in the table tennis/fitness day activities. And checking out the inside of the cathedral with its presumably inexplicably off-angled (8% they say) nave.

Then back to our same creperie from last night at our same table for more cidre maison and Michaels now favorite foie gras crepe. (with healthy greens, of course).

Finally, since I see no one answered the question about the wall-e esque statue atop the Lion tower in Rochefort-en-terre, I am offering up two new art quiz questions:

These four foot tall artificial flowers are in front of shops all over Quimper. What kind of flowers are the supposed to be and why are the there? (The philodendron greenery on this one is not standard.)

And this lovely is displayed on the staircase to our apartment. Does it speak to you? And if so, what is it saying?

That Was All So Very Unexpected

 The day started with a drive to Douarnenez and then on to Quimper. Michael remains steadfast and strong in his ability to propel us ever onward while supported by my mostly competent navigational skills. That first night in the dark was harrowing; but daylight and an appreciation for the fact that French Google is often ever so slightly behind our actual position has smoothed out the process.

Continuing with this theme of reminiscing back on the travels of our youth, we regaled each other with tales of our skill and our conquests from the days of large AAA paper maps to our first Garmin and then Google maps (which is still dependent on cellular connectivity). We fondly (in retrospect) remembered:

Phuket in the late 80’s getting lost at night and nearly running out of gas. And Bali on a whim when we landed with no reservations.

Athens in the 90’s getting out of  Athens and to Delphi and around to Volos (was there snow at the top of the peak?) up to Makrinitsa and then back to Athens.

Rome (Jesus Christ!) to Tuscany to Venice to Cuomo to Verona. Possiamo parcheggiare la macchina qui? (That one is firmly embedded)

The Yucatán, Chile, Namibia and that time we lost connectivity leaving Madaba, Jordan and just kept the sun over our right shoulder at any intersection and rolled right into Petra as planned,

Of course, the fates will always knock you down when you start to feel too cocky. Enter Quimper with the direct response from the Airbnb “concierge” that there is parking next to the unit.  But after four circuits around and around, messages back and forth (Airbnb app translates and neither of us are bilingual) awkward fruitless conversations with friendly folks on the streets and finally a call to the Quimper Tourist Office we realize that the old town is pedestrian only and that’s where our apartment is. And that the closest free parking lot is the one we have passed five times already.

But here we are safe and unscathed. We had a lovely stroll along these beautiful streets with lovely flowers everywhere. And then went specifically in search of a Creperie which was very fortunate in as much as our little street boasts one every 20 ft or so! I had Serrano ham and cheese and Michael had foie gras. Yummy. Only three tables on the ground floor. So we made a party of it chatting with the French couple from Avignon with their little Yorkie and the French Canadians who live in New York. The latter husband asked us if we found, as he apparently does, that driving in Brittany is quite difficult.What?

 Tres fou. Or as the kids apparently say, tres ouf. Driving here is a piece of Breton cake!

Douarnenez

Quimper

Quimper

 Not up for a long blog today. More tomorrow.  Will just post these two pictures of Saint Corentin Cathedral from our window upon arrival and at bedtime. Good night.

Rochefort-en-terre

 Weather forecasts for today were dismal. But we shall likely never pass this way again. So we grabbed our umbrellas and bravely ventured out stopping for a coffee and pastry at a little place with the biggest croissants we had ever seen before. Apparently their pastries are well known as two of these little guys were also grabbing a snack and even had called in a third friend to join them by the time we left.

Really too bad that we didn’t think to take them with us on our trip into the surrounds because once we got to Rochefort-en-terre this is what we found. I think they might have been happy there.

We were never rained upon after all. Sunny mixed with clouds. And lots of adorable little signs.  If you saw our previous Brittany blog from out last trip here, we love these signs.

And if you have followed the blog in the past, you also know we like to throw in a quiz from time to time. So…see the sign that says La Tour Du Lion? Well coming up the street we saw the statue on the top of the building from the side.  Using our well-honed powers of deductive reasoning, we assumed that the statue was a Lion….it looked like it could be from the side. But even assuming he lost his head at some point….who can fill in any missing bits and make this into a Lion?

Because all I can see is Pixar’s Wall-E.

Market day

 Other than our travel day, today was the first day that was overcast and raining. Can’t complain.

Our Airbnb was chosen to be directly on Place des Lices for its central location in the old town, and that’s where the market is set up.

Today was our day to explore Vannes. The market. The cathedral. The ramparts and the gardens.

Just a nice easy day with a croissant and coffee, some lunch with rose wine, and some dinner with some Chardonnay.