France
Bonjour to Beaune - in the Burgundy region of France!
Wednesday September 21st - We packed and bundled up in our light layers as we prepared to leave Switzerland in the early morning hours. We took our gondola one last time down the mountain and back to our bus as we left Lauterbrunnen Valley. We don't make it very far before we are slowing down - it's that time of the morning where the cows are walked out to the pasture and they take priority on the road, this is one traffic jam I don't mind getting stuck behind. We took a couple of stops on the road, one for lunch, and arrived in Beaune in the early afternoon. We have made it to the last country of the tour, France! We checked into our hotel and got ready to meet our group for the town orientation walk. While we walked the quaint town, Dimitri pointed out his favorite spots to grab dinner, or wine, or just a snack later since dinner will be on our own tonight. We arrived at the Hôtel Dieu, a medieval charity hospital, and were provided with audioguides. After the tour, we popped into one of the recommended restaurants and made a dinner reservation for after our wine tasting with the group. Then we stopped in at a local wine shop, and not knowing a lot about wine we were intimidated of what to ask for, but everyone was so kind and helpful AND spoke English. We made it back to the hotel, opened our wine to let it breathe and headed down for our wine tasting.
Our favorite way to sample the culture is through the food and wine!
Thursday September 22nd - As we packed up this morning, it was a little bittersweet. We are off to our last stop, Paris. This last time on the bus seems to fly by; Dimitri was so helpful, sitting with each group to make sure we knew what we would do with our downtime in Paris and making sure we hit the spots that were important to us. Before we knew it, we have arrived a little after noon. We say our goodbyes to Matt and checked into our hotel. We are on our own for lunch but our hotel is right by Rue Cler and there were endless food options just outside our door. We walked the street taking in all our choices before making our decision. We opted to sit outside and watched all the action of Rue Cler at lunchtime. There was a local grocery store just down the street that we popped into and grabbed some wine, crackers and cheese for a picnic at the Eiffel Tower later. We met back up with the group and got our orientation for the Metro and headed off to the Louvre. Once inside, we were ready with our Rick Steves' app to hit the highlights. Since the Louvre is Europe's biggest museum, we knew we could not fit everything into this one visit. The rest of the day was ours, so Steve and I were off to the Eiffel Tower and our sunset reservation to go up and see the City of Lights! It was another PERFECT day!
A tip we learned, the hard way, the individual paper tickets for the Metro can get demagnetized easily and will not work when you put them through the feeders. We learned not to keep our tickets near our phones since they have magnetic charging cases or my day pack that had a magnetic closure.
Friday September 23rd - Today was our last day with our tour, these past three weeks went by in a wonderful whirlwind! After breakfast we headed out for our tour of historic Paris and the surrounding neighborhoods. I was blown away at Sainte Chapelle - after all of the churches, cathedrals, basilicas, etc we have visited on this trip - this one is by far my favorite! The only thing I would have done differently on this trip would have been to make a reservation to a concert in Sainte Chapelle. After our tour, we were free for lunch and the afternoon. For our downtime we strolled through the Palais Royal, grabbed some crêpes for lunch, walked the Tuileries Gardens, visited the Orangerie Museum and the Army Museum. Then we headed back to our hotel to meet up with our group for our last dinner together.
The Notre-Dame Cathedral was still undergoing the restoration project from the fire in April 2019 so it was not available for touring.
The Orangerie is home to Monet's Water Lilies. The only light in the two rooms that display the eight panels comes from skylights so the time of day and type of weather can change your experience. It was like you stepped into Monet's garden at Giverny.
We will forever cherish the bonds and connections we made on this tour! It is hard to believe that just three weeks ago we were all a bunch of strangers and now we leave as friends.
There are no words to describe what this trip meant to Steve and myself. As we planned our honeymoon, we kept referring to this big trip as a once in lifetime voyage for us, but then we went on our 'Best of Europe' trip and to say our thinking about travel changed is an understatement. This was an introduction to a new way of thinking, planning and figuring out how we see as much of the world as we are able. After exploring the history, art, food, culture and heritage of these countries and it's people we have a new perspective on the world and cannot wait to immerse ourselves again on our next trip!
With much love and dreams of future travel,
Steve and Hannah Masleid
Steve and Hannah Masleid