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Loire Valley Wineries
Read More: Loire Valley WineriesThe last several days have been a blur of winery visits, cafe lunches and picnics in beautiful locations! We stopped by Chateau du Petit Thouars for a tour, tasting and lunch. The family has owned the chateau and its winery since 1634. We met Sebastian, the multi-grandson, and the chateau cat, Biscuit (although he wasn’t…
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Chinon
Read More: ChinonToday we visited the town of Chinon on the River Vienne. Chinon was the favourite dwelling place of Henri II Plantagenet and his wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine. Joan of Arc arrived in Chinon in 1429 claiming to hear heavenly voices telling her that Charles VII, the French dauphin, would give her an army to neutralize…
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Tours to Loire Valley
Read More: Tours to Loire ValleyWe bid a last adieu to Eric (again!) this morning. We left him at his orientation picnic in Tours and headed deeper into the Loire Valley to continue our oenotourism! We stopped for lunch and a wine tasting at Chateau de Miniere, a women-run winery in the country where we had a lesson on the…
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Amboise
Read More: AmboiseThe second week of our trip will be just the two of us, exploring the Loire Valley, touring several 17th C chateaux and tasting lots of wine. The Loire is the longest river in France. It officially separates France into north and south regions. The river was the farthest point the Moors conquered as they…
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Paris to Tours
Read More: Paris to ToursWe said goodbye to Ryan this morning at our local metro station. He is heading off to Switzerland to meet up with a friend in Lausanne. The rest of us took the metro to the Montparnasse train station to catch our hour-long train to Tours. There, we picked up ‘Genevieve’ from Hertz. Over the next…
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Paris Catacombs & Luxembourg Gardens
Read More: Paris Catacombs & Luxembourg GardensToday we are heading to the 14th arrondissement in the Montparnasse district. This Lion of Belfort statue in the Place Denfert-Rochereau is a smaller version of the massive original in the town of Belfort. It was created by Frederic Bartholdi, the sculptor of the statue of liberty. The Paris Catacombs are a massive underground ossuary. …
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Notre Dame & Sainte-Chapelle
Read More: Notre Dame & Sainte-ChapelleEarly this morning we reserved our timed entry ticket for Notre Dame Cathedral on Ile de la Cite. Established in 1163 on the site of an ancient Roman temple, the church took 170 years to build and has a long important history. The first stone was laid by Pope Alexander III. Henry VI was crowned…
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Paris – Louvre, L’Arc de Triomph, Tour Eiffel
Read More: Paris – Louvre, L’Arc de Triomph, Tour EiffelWe started the day at the Louvre museum this morning. The museum consists of 5 levels on 3 interconnecting wings named for important people. Of course the boys wanted to see Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa (La Joconde). The painting was stolen from the Louvre in 1911 and not recovered for two years. Eric’s pick was…
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Versailles
Read More: VersaillesWe took the train outside of Paris today to visit the Palace of Versailles. The palace was originally a modest hunting lodge built by King Louis XIII in 1623. Now it is a Baroque palace and a symbol of royal excess! Louis XIV, who called himself the Sun King, was the King of France from…
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We Have Arrived in Paris
Read More: We Have Arrived in ParisAfter an overnight flight from Montreal, we have landed in Paris. We caught the train into town, switched to the metro for one stop and found our accommodation without too much hassle. Our Air B&B is in the 4th arrondissement, also called Marais/Hotel de Ville. Two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a full kitchen and some hanging…
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Loire Valley Wineries
The last several days have been a blur of winery visits, cafe lunches and picnics in beautiful locations! We stopped by Chateau du Petit Thouars for a tour, tasting and lunch. The family has owned the chateau and its winery since 1634. We met Sebastian, the multi-grandson, and the chateau cat, Biscuit (although he wasn’t…
-
Chinon
Today we visited the town of Chinon on the River Vienne. Chinon was the favourite dwelling place of Henri II Plantagenet and his wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine. Joan of Arc arrived in Chinon in 1429 claiming to hear heavenly voices telling her that Charles VII, the French dauphin, would give her an army to neutralize…
-
Tours to Loire Valley
We bid a last adieu to Eric (again!) this morning. We left him at his orientation picnic in Tours and headed deeper into the Loire Valley to continue our oenotourism! We stopped for lunch and a wine tasting at Chateau de Miniere, a women-run winery in the country where we had a lesson on the…
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