audreyh1
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
We had a really great trip to Europe - already home!
We spent about 3 weeks in France - a bit on the hectic side.
First we celebrated DH's 60th birthday in Paris - the Eiffel Tower lit up just for him, LOL!
Then we joined a small group for a week tour of the chateaux of the Loire Valley and a couple near Paris. The castle/chateau visits were great. We stayed in a neat chateau B&B accommodation as the base for the trip, and saw an amazing amount of stuff. My first visit to France (as an adult) so I wanted a little primer first. On our own we would have only visited one chateau a day, but I wasn't ready to do the driving in France yet. Really amazing places to visit, though - every single location was worth the visit (excepting Versailles - way too insanely crowded).
It had been over 10 years since we joined a week long group tour. And, I think this will be our last excepting boat cruising. The group travel, not so much. Van too small for the group (not what was advertised!) and looooong evening meals with people confused about what they ordered. Our group was small - 8 people plus guide - so that was really nice - but it didn't keep the evening meals from taking hours!!! The guide was great, but it didn't make up for the annoyances.
After that we were off on our own - yay! We took three additional minivan day tours (max 8 people) - each with a different group. Each one of these was just excellent. Outstanding, extremely knowledgeable guides, (I think that's what they mean by licensed guide!), terrific daytime agenda and great execution. It's hard to say which one we enjoyed the most.
Returning to Paris from the Loire Valley we took a minivan day tour to Monet's gardens in Giverny, and where Van Gogh last lived in Auvers-sur-Oise. Terrific, even though it poured while we were at Monet's gardens.
Then off to Alsace. Strasbourg is a lovely city and we really enjoyed the Petite France section where we stayed. We joined an Alsace sightseeing tour for one day that included castles, villages, and wine tasting. It was terrific. We then moved to Colmar for several days. That was OK - but I enjoyed the small towns along the Alsace Wine Route much better and would opt for staying in one of those instead. Strasbourg isn't so big, and renting a car from there and driving the Alsace region looked very doable.
Then on to Reims as our base in the Champagne province. Great base city. We happened to catch the "Joan of Arc Festival" a medieval festival and parade at the Reims Cathedral AND the cathedral light show at night - WOW!!!! We joined our final mini-van tour for a champagne daytrip to Epernay and sightseeing the wine region and vineyards, visiting several champagne producers, Dom Perignon's church/abbey, and a champagne tasting lunch! Again - absolutely fantastic tour with a super knowledgeable guide who is 3rd or 4th generation in the champagne business.
Then went to Amsterdam for a week visiting family after that. A nice rest after our hectic French weeks. There we mainly did stuff that would amuse our young nephews - the zoo, a pancake cruise on the River Ij, cycling out to a goat petting farm, etc. LOL!
There are several more areas in France I would like to visit, and I think depending on the location I may rent a car for a day or three. We did enjoy using the public transport, especially the trains, so when feasible we prefer that. We would definitely return most places we visited. We will continue with the occasional day-tour by minivan, or even hire a private guide in some cases. It's really nice to do that when you are doing regional wine tastings.
We ate a lot of foods that we had never tried before, and tried several new wines most of which we liked. In the Alsace region you pretty much have whites available, and there were delightful, and I'm not really a white wine drinker (excepting champagne!!!!). Much drier than the German/Austrian versions and I found much more palatable.
I spent a little time learning French before we left, and I really used it. My French was just barely enough for greetings, ordering food and asking very simple questions, but it did really help. It did help me decipher French menus - enough to get by. People were super nice. Great service in the restaurants and very good food in general. Very enjoyable country to visit.
We spent about 3 weeks in France - a bit on the hectic side.
First we celebrated DH's 60th birthday in Paris - the Eiffel Tower lit up just for him, LOL!
Then we joined a small group for a week tour of the chateaux of the Loire Valley and a couple near Paris. The castle/chateau visits were great. We stayed in a neat chateau B&B accommodation as the base for the trip, and saw an amazing amount of stuff. My first visit to France (as an adult) so I wanted a little primer first. On our own we would have only visited one chateau a day, but I wasn't ready to do the driving in France yet. Really amazing places to visit, though - every single location was worth the visit (excepting Versailles - way too insanely crowded).
It had been over 10 years since we joined a week long group tour. And, I think this will be our last excepting boat cruising. The group travel, not so much. Van too small for the group (not what was advertised!) and looooong evening meals with people confused about what they ordered. Our group was small - 8 people plus guide - so that was really nice - but it didn't keep the evening meals from taking hours!!! The guide was great, but it didn't make up for the annoyances.
After that we were off on our own - yay! We took three additional minivan day tours (max 8 people) - each with a different group. Each one of these was just excellent. Outstanding, extremely knowledgeable guides, (I think that's what they mean by licensed guide!), terrific daytime agenda and great execution. It's hard to say which one we enjoyed the most.
Returning to Paris from the Loire Valley we took a minivan day tour to Monet's gardens in Giverny, and where Van Gogh last lived in Auvers-sur-Oise. Terrific, even though it poured while we were at Monet's gardens.
Then off to Alsace. Strasbourg is a lovely city and we really enjoyed the Petite France section where we stayed. We joined an Alsace sightseeing tour for one day that included castles, villages, and wine tasting. It was terrific. We then moved to Colmar for several days. That was OK - but I enjoyed the small towns along the Alsace Wine Route much better and would opt for staying in one of those instead. Strasbourg isn't so big, and renting a car from there and driving the Alsace region looked very doable.
Then on to Reims as our base in the Champagne province. Great base city. We happened to catch the "Joan of Arc Festival" a medieval festival and parade at the Reims Cathedral AND the cathedral light show at night - WOW!!!! We joined our final mini-van tour for a champagne daytrip to Epernay and sightseeing the wine region and vineyards, visiting several champagne producers, Dom Perignon's church/abbey, and a champagne tasting lunch! Again - absolutely fantastic tour with a super knowledgeable guide who is 3rd or 4th generation in the champagne business.
Then went to Amsterdam for a week visiting family after that. A nice rest after our hectic French weeks. There we mainly did stuff that would amuse our young nephews - the zoo, a pancake cruise on the River Ij, cycling out to a goat petting farm, etc. LOL!
There are several more areas in France I would like to visit, and I think depending on the location I may rent a car for a day or three. We did enjoy using the public transport, especially the trains, so when feasible we prefer that. We would definitely return most places we visited. We will continue with the occasional day-tour by minivan, or even hire a private guide in some cases. It's really nice to do that when you are doing regional wine tastings.
We ate a lot of foods that we had never tried before, and tried several new wines most of which we liked. In the Alsace region you pretty much have whites available, and there were delightful, and I'm not really a white wine drinker (excepting champagne!!!!). Much drier than the German/Austrian versions and I found much more palatable.
I spent a little time learning French before we left, and I really used it. My French was just barely enough for greetings, ordering food and asking very simple questions, but it did really help. It did help me decipher French menus - enough to get by. People were super nice. Great service in the restaurants and very good food in general. Very enjoyable country to visit.
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