Tam & Peg’s Excellent Adventure

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We didn’t post a blog yesterday because the tennis went so late that, by the time we returned to the hotel and then searched out a market to buy some salami and cheese to eat in our room, it was 11PM and we were exhausted. Of course, if we had stayed up to post, our blog would’ve spoiled the suspense
Semi Finals yesterday were beyond exciting! Nadal handily dismissed Djokovic in three sets. Federer defeated the French crowd-favored Monfils in four sets. Both were so fun to watch because the crowds were so thooughly engaged and excited, especially the Federer match. See photos.
Today we have Women’s Finals: Ivanovic vs. Safina. Tam is predicting Safina will win.
The weather is still gray and it is quite cool today. Rain is forecast, but we have the lovely hospitality suite to escape to, if necessary. Lunch is provided there each day. So far, we’ve had 2 lunches, both cold lunch plates, dramatically and beautifully presented. Yesterday we were served cold salmon, crab with glass noodles, cold shrimp served over a fruit and squash salsa (it sounds awful but it was lovely), blanched asparagus, pate, caviar…. Amazing! Desserts are as extravagant; both of us completely devoured yesterday’s Napoleon and neither of us ever eats dessert!
OK. Since we know that some of the folks who may check in on our blog may not be keeping up on the French Open, we are recording some interesting crowd shots. Irreverent? Oui! Great fun for us, though.
We want to point out that tomorrow is the day that our 7-day internet access code expires and we may be unable to post for a few days. Tom made sure, during all of his planning, that all of our hotels would have internet access, but we didn’t realize that it would be a very costly “extra.” Nothing is “free” here, and now we know what to expect in the land where it is common to be charged 10€ ($16+)for cup of coffee! Voila!

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Today was our first day at Roland Garros. The weather was overcast, but warm and dry.
What an exciting venue! We arrived via the tour group’s chartered bus and were taken to a beautiful hospitality suite, located very near our seating area. This is where we stored things we didn’t want to carry, had a nice clean washroom, dropped in and out for snacks and/or drinks and where we were served a magnificent lunch which was beautiful and elegant as well as delicious.
After walking around the grounds for a while (and visiting the official gift store, of course), we dropped in on a Men’s Doubles match before returning to our assigned seats for the two Women’s Semi Finals matches scheduled for today. Both were exciting, but the second match (Jelena Jankovic vs. Ana Ivanovic ) was a nail-biter; great fun to watch! The winners of the two matches we watched today, Ivanovic and Safina, will meet in the finals on Saturday. Tam says she thinks Ivanovic won’t pack the gear to defeat Safina due to the way she is currently playing.
Tomorrow we hope we will watch (rain is in the forecast) the Men’s Semi-Finals between the world’s #3 Novak Djokovic and #2 Rafael Nadal. Nadal is heavily favored as he has won 109 out of 111 matches on clay, but who knows??? The second semi-final is between Roger Federer #1 and the surprising Frenchman, Gael Monfils, who is unseeded.
There are several people here, mostly couples, who remember Tam from her Australia trip. All are glad to see her and to catch up on one another. They’re very pleasant people and it’s fun to interact with all of them. Most have been on several of Steven Furgal’s tours… sounds like a traveling hobby to me.
After Peg updates & posts today’s blog, we’re going to wander a few blocks to where our street meets the Seine River and find a place to eat dinner and watch the Eiffel Tower light up. Hurry up Peg!

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Today we remained in Paris. We went to Versailles (ok, 20 kilometers N of Paris) for a half-day tour, then we embarked on a walk that lasted the whole afternoon.
We strolled generally to the east, along the Seine where we found a delightful sidewalk café. We’re pretty good, by now, at recognizing ham and cheese sandwiches when we see them on the menu; they’re constructed on wonderful baguettes with only butter, ham and swiss cheese. Today, Tam ordered a glass of Chardonnay, but I decided that, while it sounded good, I didn’t want to get sleepy, so I opted for a less-expensive iced tea. It was a great lunch. We laughed when the bill came and we realized that the iced tea cost us 2.5 times what the wine did! (Tam says, “don’t we just LOVE Paris?”)
We continued walking around and happened on beautiful structures… one was “Hotel National des Invalides,”, an old soldiers home, built by Louis XIV, completed in 1676. It was funded by a five year levy on the salaries of soldiers currently serving in the army at that time – that Louie was one generous guy!
We continued on to the grounds of The Louvre. Tam was thoroughly awed by the size of it and took lots of photos of the buildings and of the many folks who come to enjoy the grounds with their families and friends.
Heading back to our hotel, we walked along a straight path to the northwest, approximately 2 miles in distance, that lines up the Louvre, L’ Obelisque and The Arc de Triomphe. From the Louvre, we walked through gardens, past fountains and sculptures to L’ Obelisque. From there, we walked along Champs Elysees toward The Arc, till we turned off to hobble back to our hotel.
Tam met up with some familiar faces from her Australia trip this morning and they decided to go out for pasta. I’m staying in to blog, manicure and maybe take a hot bath.
Tomorrow is our first day at Roland Garros.
What an Excellent Adventure so far!!!!!

PS – A little note about our photos: We are both shooting photos with our own camera and we choose the few images that we like best for our blog. They insist on appearing out of order because they arrange themselves in numerical order no matter what I do! Tam and I have a new sub-motto for our trip: IIWII (It Is What It Is). We try to deal with the small stuff.
Love to all!!!!!

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We’re only on Day 4 and we’re already out of adjectives.
We took an early morning train to Caen today and were met by a lovely young woman whose name, Aurore (meaning “dawn”), we were unable to pronounce with the beautiful lilt it deserved. So, “Dawn” became our guide for the day.
We drove about 30 minutes to the Caen War Memorial, which is beautifully constructed and professionally managed. Dawn walked through many of the exhibits with us, carefully adding her personal narration. Her knowledge and easy, confident manner made the experience a joy. We decided that even the men in our family would have appreciated and enjoyed her presentation.
We lunched with Dawn and the other two members of our tour group (a lovely couple from Palo Alto) in the museum restaurant, which was very nice. A father and son from Minneapolis joined us and then drove to the coast of Normandy where we saw several very important sites involved in the invasion on D-Day and the Battle of Normandy.
Of course, we could go on for pages with details, but, by the time we viewed everything, parted company with Dawn, rode the train back to Paris, ate some dinner and taxied back to the hotel, it was 11PM. It’s now midnight and tomorrow’s another day: Versailles.
We hope you will enjoy our pictures. We wanted to post hundreds… what we saw today was so powerful and moving……

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Today’s tour was amazing! We left the hotel at 6:30 AM for the train station where we boarded the train for a 2+ hour trip to Rennes. We were met by Marc, the tour guide, who took us to three beautiful locations, Dinan, Mt. Saint Michel and St. Malo. All are small cities that have existed within walls for centuries, protecting themselves from invaders – usually British. Cobblestone streets, leaded glass windows, granite stone structures. …

In Dinan we wandered the winding cobblestone streets to view a beautiful canal, wonderful clock towers and “Place du Ducjean IV” a 16th century Chateau where dukes resided. It is a component of the wall that surrounds the city.

We climbed 190 feet of stairs to view the Abbey at Mt. Saint Michelle (actually in Normandy), built beginning in the 11th century, completed in the 15th. Also a fortress, this monument is a “part-time” island, according to the ocean’s tides, but is accessible by a man-made causeway. It will, in the next 10 years, be returned to a full-time island as the ocean is allowed flow naturally and access will be via a bridge currently in its initial construction phases.

In St. Malo, another walled city in Brittany, built to protect invaders during the One Hundred Year War, we strolled atop the wall and viewed the harbor, ocean and city from the wall, then wandered the lovely, small city shops and cathedrals. (Also, we had a drink before the tour guide retuned to collect us for our return trip to the train station).

Our weather left a bit to be desired, but our travels went without a hitch and we are planning our execution of tomorrow’s trip to Caen, where we will visit the Caen War Memorial, take a D-Day Tour which will include a visit to the harbor at Arromanches, a German gun battery, an American Military Cemetary, Omaha Beach and Points du Hoc.

Gotta get up early!

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After Mom and Loretta dropped us off at DIA we had a smooth check-in and flight to Dallas where we had a terrific visit in the Admirals’ Club in Dallas with Patrick and Raquel . We had lunch there, and then we boarded our flight for a 5:30 PM departure and 9-hour flight to Paris. The trip was smooth and we arrived a few minutes ahead of schedule and were met by Alain, our chauffer, who transported us to Hotel Prince de Galles, which is a short distance from the Arc de Triomphe and Champs Elysees.

We unpacked our belongings and took a walk around the neighborhood, hoping to find a food market where we could purchase some “picnic” fare to keep in the room. We weren’t successful finding the market, but we saw many blocks of Parisian architecture and enjoyed a few sunny hours.

We ate supper at a small nearby Italian restaurant where we learned (in no uncertain terms) that we may order what is on the menu; nothing more, nothing less. (We Americans thought we might like some pepperoni on half of the pizza!)

After having had 2 very, short sleep nights, we made the decision to have an early dinner before returning to our room for showers, preparing for tomorrow’s 6:30 AM pickup for our day at the Brittany Coast. Now, we gotta get some sleep.

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