Guten Tag, Arrivederci, au Revoir

Well, we are on our way home, after an AMAZING 2 and a half weeks. It will be great to get home though!😄

Goodbye Paris

As a final good bye to us, Paris decided to give us a send off fireworks show...well, maybe not! But we did get the opportunity to watch fireworks over the Eiffel Tower last night. Yesterday was the Bastille day France's National  Holiday. We watch them from the street about five minutes walk from our hotel. They were lovely. Some of these pictures we took, Other I had to get off the Internet.

Normandy tour

We went on a tour up to Normandy this morning. We went to the D-Day Museum in Caen first. We went to Omaha Beach where the United States Army had landed. We toured some old German bunkers that had been on the cliffs since France was occupied by Germany during most of the second world war. We then went to Juno Beach where the Canadians landed on June 6, 1944 during the D-Day invasion. It was amazing to see what faced the soldiers as they got off their boats and had to climb into the water and then run up the beaches and in many cases up the hill or Cliff's to reach the enemy. All the while, there is heavy German artillery fire bombarding towards them. There was a great loss of life.

Recreating the statue outside the museum at Caen.

Walking on Omaha Beach.

Meeting some Ranger reenactors.

Some of the German bunkers.

Vimy ridge memorial

We were off bright and early this morning to the Vimy Ridge memorial in the north of France near Arras.

We stopped at numerous cemeteries with row upon row of fallen soldiers. 

This was the actual gravesite that during the year 2000, the body of an unknown soldier was exhumed and transported to Ottawa to be commemorated in "The Tomb of the Unkown Soldier".

The bumpy terrain was caused by the trenches as well as artillery shelling, still evident 100 years later.

We saw the Great War memorial. You could look out on the fields around the ridge and understand why capturing this strategic location was important. For those of you, who like me, high school history lclass was a long time ago, the capture of Vimy Ridge was done by all Canadians. It was the first time in history that all four Canadian divisions work together...and it was successful! April 9, 1917

We got a tour of the recreated trench system-both the allied forces and the Enemy trenches. In this location, the trenches were a mere 30 m apart, not normally this close!

The tunnels were dug by welsh miners to transport men, supplies and, ammunition so that on the day of the attack, many soldiers could arrive at the front as a surprise. In this area, there were 13 km worth of tunnels, just for this battle! 15 to 20,000 Canadian soldiers participated in the battle of Vimy Ridge. 10,000 soldiers were killed or wounded in the four days of the victorious battle.

We did see poppies blooming along the road.

By ourselves in Paris!

Well, the tour has officially ended. What an AMAZING 2 weeks. The weather was hot, but no rain. Kind of funny, today, it sprinkled a bit in Paris. We took a beautiful walk about 45 -50 minutes alongside the Seine, past the Eiffel Tower to the Musee d'Orsay. It is like the baby brother to the Louvre, housing more contemporary pieces of artwork. I was thrilled, we got to see pieces by Renoir, Rembrant, Monet, Manet, Van Gogh and Degas. My highlight was getting to see the sculpture by Degas " the Little Fourteen Year Old Dancer".

Degas

Monet's japenese bridge.

Vincent van Gogh's self portrait.

Once we left the Musee, we took the Paris subway to the Montmartre area. Initially, we were not impressed, after we exited the subway, and came onto the street, it was like running a gauntlet with a series of cheap souvenir shops, African refugees selling products (they get in your face), swinderlers, peddlers, aggressive panhandlers  and lots of potential pickpockets. It was a bit overwhelming, despite the constant police presence! We walked the many stairs to the top of the hill-the highest point in Paris. The views were beautiful.

View of the city. 

On our way back down the hill, we took a different route, and were relieved to experience an entirely different feel for the area. No one pestered us, and there were lovely stores and restaurants. It was easy to see why people like the Montmartre area. We took two subways and got "home" in time to fall into bed. Tim's iPhone keeps track of how much we walked...14 km today! Tomorrow is a full day tour to Vimy ridge. 

Cabaret night

Last night, we went to a cabaret night. It was near the famous moulin rouge called "Le Nouvelle eve". We were packed into a little theatre, and were served a wonderful French meal. Then we were entertained by a mixture of acrobats, jugglers, ventriloquist/magicians and dancers (sometimes with no tops on!!!!) It was a super evening, by times, we were rolling on the floor with laughter. We were unable to take photos, so I had to get some off the internet, but that is exactly how it was. A great evening to say goodbye to our European travelling family😢

Grand Paris

We did a guided tour of the city today. Then, we traveled out to Versailles for a tour of both the gardens and some of the castle. What a place! Versailles was built in 1661, and took 50 years to complete. This was the palace to Loius the fourteenth, fifteenth and sixteenth. Eventually, at the start of the French Revolution, Loius the sixteenth, and his wife Marie Antoinette were captured and beheaded. The Versailles gardens are 2000 acres, one third of their original size! There is so much opulence, it was easy to see why the inhabitants of Paris and France who were starving might be disillusioned with their monarchy!

An example of how many of the ceilings of the rooms inside the castle were painted. There were 2000 rooms in the castle! 

Marie Antoinette's bed chamber.

An example of the walls, in winter, the walls would be covered in velvet, and in the summer, they would cover them in silk.

This is the famous "Hall of Mirrors". This is the locations of the signing of the Treaty of Versailles that ended the First World War.

The gold around the windows is real gold!

What a place!

After, there was a bit of time to wander around the Arc de Triomphe and the Champs- Élysées.

These are the beggars on the street, Muslim women who lie down face down on the very busy sidewalks with their McDonald's cup out front!!!

Sur le pont d'Avignon and Paris

This morning, we set out for Avignon to catch the TGV (train grand vitesse-high speed train) for Paris. We stopped in Avignon for a bit, and saw the famous bridge. During an earthquake hundreds of years ago, half the bridge fell down, so it is less than impressive!

The train was very quick, it travels through the French countryside at about 200 km/hr. We were amazed at the fields and fields of wheat we went passed. Tim liked spotting the occasional herd of Charolais cattle! We arrived in Pars around 4. Boy, it is a busy, large city! There are so many old, majestic buildings.

We had a farewell dinner at a fancy Parisian restaurant. Tim tried escargot!

We then ventured up the Eiffel Tower. Views were spectacular!

We went on a twilight boat tour on the Seine. It was perfect timing, as we were out in the water, the lights on the tower turned on, then began to twinkle. 

Our tour guide finished off the evening with a bus tour of the city at night. It was very well lit up.