More pics from Paris...

Just a few more shots from the day I didn't cover...



This seemed appropriate...




And a Salvador Dali.




This'll drive ur eyes a bit crazy...



Street scene












Notre dame








Pantheon.

Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Last full day in Paris; Roland-Garros

I've always thought 'bucket lists' were a little silly, but a while ago, Kevin and I resolved to see all the 'majors' tennis tournaments. At that time we had both seen Wimbledon, and the U.S. Open, so we were half way there.

It just so happened that our biking vacation in France overlapped with the beginning of the French Open, so we seized the opportunity. Also, being the ever thoughtful husband, I knew Ann wanted a day to shop unencumbered by a spouse looking over her shoulder (;)).

So, we grabbed the no. 6 metro line to the no. 10 and hopped off at Porte D'autueil Station, and followed the line of people to the fabled red clay courts of the french.

As we worked our way back to through the grounds, we felt familiar sights and sounds of tennis fans excitedly talking about the day's matches, and hawkers of expensive tennis clothes in fancy shops scattered throughout the grounds.



But there the similarities faded. Our (inexpensive) grounds passes were only good for the non-stadium' courts. The grounds were very compact and the pathways were narrow, making movement between courts very slow. Also, the arbiters of entry, nicely dressed in suits and dresses, were very stingy about letting people in the courts. So we were glad to have arrived at the red clay of court 17 early for the match between Tommy Haas and a Turkish player (rank 123) named Ilhan. It was an entertaining match, but we concluded Haas was not 100 percent, because he seemed to basically concede the match after a while. The tennis was good quality, but not great. The seats were very nice, being only a few rows above the court and fairly near the middle. The sun was getting intense by the end though, and we were hungry and thirsty.



The food prices weren't too bad, though it was clearly mass produced fare; a baguette with ham and cheese, chips, beer, and cookies.

Next we were off to court 7 to cheer on American Mardy Fish (rank 10), a player both Kevin and I like. Mardy was playing high level tennis for the most part, and despite some spirited rallies from a guy named Mello, including a 20 point tie-breaker which Fish lost (11-9), the americans had something to cheer about in the end. I especially liked it when the French umpire said 'jeu Fish' after each game he won.



We next tried to get into court 2 where Marcos Baghdatis, another entertaining player, was playing his first round match. But it seemed everyone wanted to be in that court, so there was no room. Instead we watched the end of a women's match between Kirilenko and American Coco Vandeweghe. I'm afraid I was not too impressed with Coco's demeanor after she got a questionable (and critical) call from the umpire's chair on set point. She lost rather quickly after that. Kirilenko's fitness was superb.



We happened upon an entertaining match between journeyman frenchman Banoit Paire and Romanian Hanescu. Paire had taken a set from Hanescu, and despite being a crowd favorite (natch), he was a far inferior tennis player, and a bad sport to boot, so it was satisfying to see him lose.



I thought we might be done for the day, but Kevin's iPhone app told us a match was still in progress between a spaniard named Granollers and an American I had never heard of; Alex Bogomolov. We snagged fantastic court side seats to watch the last hour or so of this entertaining match! They were both superb baseline sluggers, and they had some long rallies that featured some of the best, most grueling tennis of the day. Despite playing calmly and trading shots equally with the spaniard, Bogomolov finally lost because his serve just didn't match Granollers.



So, my conclusion was that I was really glad to have visited the French open as the red clay really does provide a different kind of game. The sliding, the entertaining falls, the slightly slower traveling balls, all add an element of difference between this and a hard court tournament. I don't know if Wimbledon or the French will ever change surfaces, but I kind of hope not. While standardization of surfaces might be 'fairer' to assess who is the best tennis player, in fact the diversity of surfaces makes it doubly amazing when someone gets a career grand slam, or even more impressive, wins all four majors in one year. When that happens, I suspect you are seeing the best athlete on the planet at that that point in time.

All in all, an entertaining day at the French, celebrated later with a beer and European style pizza on Rue d'Auteuil late into the evening.

Cheers!



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Another day in Paris-dise

Today was a 'free' day in the city of love.

Kevin and I had our usual fresh oj, omelette breakfast with cafe au lait at a local place; the waitress recognized us from the week before! Guess we're regulars now.

Meanwhile Ann and Laurie ran 8 miles (seriously!) along the seine and champs élysées!

Then we wandered together down to the most famous museum of the world to be once again overwhelmed by the sheer size of the famous building and art collection. Here we are waiting for tix.



Here are a few images from inside. Sorry for all the nudes, but it was hard to avoid!



Victoire de samothrace ( one of my faves).



David and Goliath.






I like this perspective on Venus de Milo.



The rooms themselves are often works of art.



It's a tradition, right Kate?



I really like this; studying nature.



dedicated to my wonderful daughter.















The three graces.
After a too short time in the Louvre, we crossed the Seine to the Latin quarter and were enthralled by the numerous galleries, restaurants and shops, not to mention the people watching.



We ate lunch here.






couldn't help but think of Dad as we strolled by the hotel where he stayed in a past visit. Given how much we liked this area, we also wished we had called earlier for reservations so we too could have stayed here, because the location is absolutely ideal.



Laurie buying out the place.






No wirework, no beadwork, but feather jewelry is here in Paris as well.



Next we visited St. Chap Elle, a gorgeous little church on isle de la cite.



the highlight of course is the stained glass windows, which transport the eye heavenward.



I have no pictures from the end of our day, but it was great. We had champagne on the terrace at our hotel and the boys presented some anniversay gifts to a stunned, and appreciative, couple of the most amazing women on the planet.

Then, we whisked said women to a wild restaurant called Dragons Élysées, where we enjoyed Asian/Thai food while looking through the floor at an aquarium!

It was probably the most perfect city day I've ever spent.





- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Day 6- all good things...

Today was the last day of the biking portion of our trip. I'm including a few photos of us and our guides from yesterday as well.



Here we are in front of one of the support vans. These met us at strategic places (often 'easy to miss' turns) and provided drinks and snacks. What a luxury!



Here is Anna, one of our guides, clowning around at the van. Anna was fromSalt Lake City, and is an experienced guide. She always had an interesting story to tell and was always so wonderful, smiling and supportive. We all just really liked both our main guides as warm caring human beings. I'm sure they are as nice to each group, but we really did feel a genuine warmth from them and it was greatly appreciated.


Here we are riding along through typical Loire scenery; gently rolling farmland filled with wheat, barley, canola, sunflowers, etc. This was a particularly quiet (little traffic) ride that eventually ended up in Montrichard, a quaint little town with ancient ruins and a lively market.



Unusual tomato variety in the market.



Gorgeous produce.



Smiling and chatty local vendors.



And perhaps a fitting last picture from the market; flowers.

I will always remember the sight and smell of the flowers here, especially the poppies in the fields and the roses in the towns. It inspires me to fence the deer out of our front walkway and really make a serious planting effort.

I will also remember the bird songs. Wonderful wren like calls, mimicids, warblers, cuckoos that sounded like the clocks, and many more.

And I will remember the kind French people we met; the hosts at hotel Diderot and at chateau de Nitray stood out - I would love to have spent more time with both mending my broken French.

After a farewell lunch, we boarded a large bus which returned us to St. Pierre decours and the TGV train to Paris. In the blink of an eye, the 185 mph train whisked us back to the bustling city, where an excellent taxi driver crammed all our luggage into his citroen and returned us to the Best Western Regent Park, where we were last week.

Now the Paris part of our adventure continues...






- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Day 5 biking

Day 5. After a so so breakfast (we're getting blasé about croissants, good butter, jams and strong coffee), we hopped on our bikes for a short ride to Chateau de Chenanceau, a crown jewel of a castle full of regal intrigue, especially between king Henri II and his wife, Catherine de Medici, and his mistress, Diane de Poitiers.

But pictures are again worth a thousand words so...




Here is the walkway to the castle lined by what I think are 'plane trees' which are closely related to sycamores.



This is the the famous view of the castle.









The symbol, not coincidentally, includes a C, a D, and an H.



They pride themselves on flower arrangements.










Here is a portrait of the lovely milk skinned Diane...not a hottie by today's standards but a Rennaissance cougar, by all accounts (she was 20 y older than Henri!).



Here was our guide. Too persnickety to be likable, but she had lots of info.



One of several royal bedchambers.

We then biked ca 12 miles to lunch at a winery; a nice sit down affair with chicken and beef, and wine of course. Delightful hosts, who showed us around chateau de Nitray. I especially liked the owner who had a wonderful sense of humor and a twinkle in his eye.









Here is monsieur showing us the inside of the pigeon building! This is how they accessed the roosts to get eggs! (the ladder swings around the inside of the round building).

A couple of biking scenes from the day...







- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad