Presidential Seal of Approval

Saturday night we decided to take my parents someplace nice for dinner. We were looking to strike the balance between quality, value, ambience and perhaps a little wow. It wasn't hard to come up with the right place, but it was a bit harder to get a reservation there. We chose Fontain de Mars - long a top recommended place by those who know Paris and now with a POTUS stamp of approval. The place was packed, but nothing like it was a few Saturday's before when Michelle and Barack Obama had dinner there. Jen and I happened to be out in the neighborhood looking for something to eat ourselves. We noticed that several streets were shut down and the cops were out in force. Clearly the blocked roads were upsetting some French drivers because there were continuous horns blasting from all sides. It was only afterwards that we found out the Obama's were dining 2 blocks away. We had a reservation upstairs - apparently only a few feet from the table they dined at. The restaurant was highly recommended by friends and several guidebooks so we weren't really suprised that they choose this place. It's not the most expensive restaurant in the city by any means, but it's a pretty reasonable bistro. The menu is focused on traditional southwestern food such as confit de canard (duck cooked in its own fat), roasted lamb, beef with bearnaise sauce, veal in its juice and seabass with tomato and tapenade. Needless to say, it was delicious and is one of our favorites. We felt a bit shy asking the waiter about the famous visit before the meal so I waited until we were leaving to ask. He told us that the Obama's dined with the US Ambassador to France (snubbing Sarkozy that night) and laughed as pointed out all the places that the secret service (CIA he called them!) were positioned in the restaurant, exits, on the buildings, helicopters, etc.

We took a little pride in the fact that the leader of the free world picked our neighborhood to dine in. We've been talking up Rue St Dominique for a while and were happy to see it get it's just recognition. For any of those who are still curious, Michelle had the lamb and Barack ordered the beef. Looks like we'll need to go back and order the POTUS special.

Stormin' the beaches

Just as we said goodbye to Adam & Ashley, we were welcoming my parents to Paris. They arrived on Thursday and just after one full day in Paris, we were in a flurry Friday afternoon on the way out of town for our next weekend adventure. This time we put together an ambitious schedule of Normandy and Brittany in one weekend. Since Normandy is spread out and we wanted to do some exploring of the smaller towns, taking a train didn't make sense. Instead we rented a car in Paris and joined the mass exodus of traffic on Friday. We were guided by our less than trusty Tom Tom who had a knack for interrupting conversations by confidently announcing some inane instruction like "ahead, stay straight" on a completely straight road.

We opted for a stopover in Honfleur that night which is directly north of Paris facing the English channel. It made sense to break up the full drive to the D-day beaches in Normandy so that we could at least enjoy a late dinner on Friday night. Honfleur is a great little town with a nice harbor in the middle. It's definitely been discovered, but still felt small enough for us to feel that we had left the Parisian crowds behind. We only had time for a sunset and dinner in Honfleur before it got too late that night. The next morning my dad and I managed to sneak in a short hike to a viewpoint above town before breakfast. It was nice to be able to stretch the legs a bit before we jumped back in the car and headed towards the beaches at Normandy. Tom Tom managed to get us there without much trouble and by noon we were at the memorial museum in Caen. I'd been there 10 years ago and it was every bit as impressive as I remember. You begin with the uncertain peace of WWI and descend downwards into the early years of WWII. The spaces are dark and cramped to create a mood of oppression reflecting those years in which the Nazis had control of France. As you turn the corner, in 1942 the museum opens into a large, bright room with American GI clothing, packs, jeeps and posters to signal the sense of hope that the U.S. finally committing to the war brought. The visit finishes in a movie theater with a split screen. The left showing the preparation of the Allies leading up to and during D-Day. The right shows the Germans digging in along the Normandy coastline. As the two videos meet during the invasion, two screens become one and the story finishes with the first wave of Allies overunning the Germans high up on the hill. I'm not sure who was filming before and during this battle, but it's remarkable that someone did and the footage still exists.

With the history of D-Day fresh in our mind, we drove from the museum in Caen down to the American cemetary and with the beaches below. On the way there we passed the town of Arromanches where the allies created a massive man-made harbor just days after the invasion. You can still see many of the large cement barriers a couple hundred yards off the beach. We drove onwards and finally arrived at the American Cemetary that sits high above Omaha Beach. As you walk through the gates into the cemetary, you look out across the green hillside at the nearly 10,000 brilliantly white and perfectly aligned headstones. The endless rows that lead all the way down the hill is an overwhelming sight as you realize that each really did represent a young American life lost in a very short period of days 65 years ago. The violence of those few days is long gone and now the American cemetary there is one of the most serene places I've been. It was a sunny day with a light breeze blowing, quiet except for the sound of birds and the ocean far below and the grounds were perfectly maintained. It's deserving that the government of France long ago gave this piece of land that was fought so hard for to the U.S. government. We followed the path from the cemetary down to Omaha beach to get a better perspective on what it looked if you were landing in one of those Higgins boats back in 1944. We were amazed at how far it really was to make it all the way up the hill where the Germans were dug into bunkers. By the time we made it back up to the cemetary and into the parking lot, we were the last car to leave for the day. It was a long drive from there west towards St Malo and with Tom Tom in the navigator seat we were hoping for the best. As it turns out, Tom Tom wasn't on her game that night and we ended up on the scenic drive to St Malo. I might have been better just relying on the direction of the setting sun to lead me west to our destination. As we were pulling into St Malo later that evening, we all knew that the drive had been worth it. St Malo is a walled city that sits on a small peninsula in Brittany. It's a lively place and at 10pm that night the streets were full of people dining, strolling and playing music. The interior town was quite large considering there was a 50 ft wall all the way around it and had cobblestone streets throughout. It definitely took a lot of people a really long time to put all of it together. St Malo was only supposed to be a stopping place for the night, but the next morning we decided to stay a few hours longer and explore some of the town just after breakfast. We walk around the city on top of the wall that was perfectly suited for strolling and picture-taking. It's shame we didn't have more time there because St Malo certainly deserved at least a full day, but we had one last destination for the weekend that we just couldn't miss. Mont St Michel rises high above the flat sandy beaches at the border of Normandy and Brittany. We could see it from 15 miles away as everything in that part of the country is completely flat. Mont St Michel almost doesn't seem real until you are walking up the steep steps inside of the little village that is at its base. It appears even higher because a large church with a tall spire sits atop the highest point. The land itself is an island - at least before a modern road was built to it - and experiences dramatic tidal shifts twice daily.

(Mont St Michel is the dark triangle shape near the center of the photo)

During mid-day, the tide is out and it leaves behind literally miles of sand extending to the horizon. During the evening, the tide rolls back in and completely surrounds the island. The tides, the steepness of the mountain and heavily fortified walls meant that no invader had been able to forcibly take Mont St Michel for it's 1000 year history - until the advent of the modern tour bus. Every year millions of tourists of all shapes and sizes trudge up the steep steps of Mont St Michel to the abbey and vistas at the top. Along the way they are greeted by non-locals hawking every type of souvenir imaginable. The streets and steps are narrow, so during the mid-day crush, the streets are all one way pedestrian traffic leading up to the high point and then back down the other side.

We took our time exploring Mont St Michel but I couldn't convince anyone to join me on the sandy/muddy flats below. In the end, it was enough for one weekend and we still had a ways to go before we were back in Paris that evening. While it was only 3 hours away, I added another 2 for Tom Tom mishaps and weekend return traffic to Paris. Five hours later we were back in Paris and had just enough energy to meet up with our Italian friends (Chiara, her mother and sister) and grab some creamy gelato for an evening Eiffel Tower stroll!

Normandy

St Malo

Mont Saint Michel

Bretagne trifecta

My brother Adam and his wife Ashley visited us in Paris last week. We hadn't seen them since their wedding in November and were excited about seeing the newlyweds on their second honeymoon. They arrived early on Tuesday morning and minutes later we were all eating fresh croissants and sipping coffee. They hadn't slept much on the flight and were on a temporary high when they left our apartment a couple hours later. We had given them an ambitious walking schedule to start their trip, but only two hours later Jen heard a knock on the door from two weary travelers. Like all of our visitors though, by the second day we had shifted them fully into the Parisian schedule when we finished dinner at 12:15 at night!

Their 3 day Parisian visit flew by and A&A were wishing for more time in Paris as we boarded the TGV for Brittany on Friday afternoon. Brittany is the region on the Atlantic cost that's famous for seafood, especially shellfish, crepes, cider, dairy and a number of creamy cheeses. The coastline is mostly rocky and reminded me more of Newport or parts of Maine in the US. The trip to Brittany was a bit of a gamble for us. We didn't have much in our guidebooks, so we had to rely more on independent research. We only had one weekend with Adam and Ashley and we wanted it to be a great trip for them and us. Perhaps it's a bit selfish, but we are trying not to repeat any trips this year. With so much of France to explore, we decided that with the warming weather it was time to check out the coast. I picked the town of Quiberon which sits on the tip of a peninsula jutting far away from the mainland. Quiberon is in a great spot - right in the middle of the "wild coastline" stretch, 15 miles from the secluded Golfe de Morhiban and directly facing the gem of Belle Ile en Mer.
View Larger Map We arrived Friday night at the train station and took a taxi to our hotel since the rental car places were all closed. After a few minutes of silence, our taxi driver started explaining the history of Brittany to me in French. I did my best to translate for the rest of the passengers and converse back some with our driver. Since our plans were tentative, I laid out our schedule for the weekend for him. His advice was to change things up and spend more time on the island of Belle Ile and less driving the coastline. Who am I to argue with a Breton taxi driver? We checked into our seaside hotel and met the wonderful woman who ran the place. She also took an immediate interest in our plans, confirmed the taxi drivers advice, and gave me glossy handout after glossy handout on ferry schedules, car rentals, sites, maps, etc. We dropped the bags and set out to find dinner at 9:45pm. It didn't feel late though as we watched the sunset on our walk back into town. Adam and I woke up early the next morning and set out to rent a car. It's probably not worth the time to describe how difficult it was to find one, but let's just say we got lucky and managed to have something back in the parking lot of our hotel in time for a late breakfast with the girls. We jumped on the high speed ferry shortly after for a daytrip to Belle Ile en Mer which translates to Beautiful Island in the Ocean. Out ferry landed in the touristy town of Palais and within minutes I was standing in another rental car line signing papers for my second rental car of the day (the first was left in Quiberon). Not wanting to waste a minute, we drove straight to the port town of Sauzon. It's a picturesque town with a shallow harbor that strands the boats on land during low tide. We explored the town, took some photos and grabbed a quick lunch. Our next stop was a the tip of the island with a famous lighthouse and rocky cliffs called Poulains. It was really spectacular and we spent well over an hour just mesmerized by the rocky cliffs, crashing waves and the color of the ocean. We really hated to leave, but were on a tight schedule since the last ferry departing back to Quiberon left at 6:30pm that night. I had read about a secluded beach and since it was a hot day, we decided to check it out and try going for a swim. Adam and I couldn't convince our wives to swim in the frigid waters, but that didn't stop us from jumping into the waves. At this point in the day, we were all amazed by the island and having a great time. But before heading back to the ferry, we had one last stop - Aiguilles Port Coton. I had heard that this was a pretty special place and as we drove up, I would describe our first views as jaw dropping. The hour we had was simply not enough. We wandered the cliffs high above the ocean and tried to soak it all in. You can try to take pictures of things like this, but they never come close to capturing it all. After a while, we put the cameras away and just took a seat to marvel at how beautiful it all was. On the ferry ride back that evening, we were all amazed at this little island and all the things it held. Perhaps though, in our quest to see it all in six short hours, we pushed a bit too hard. That night we had a great seafood dinner back in Quiberon and ended up talking quite a bit with our waitress (who spoke English). She was really friendly and outgoing and told us about her year working at a creperie in Key West, FL. On our way out, she showed us a painting hanging in her restaurant. It was a copy of a famous painting given to her father by an American he had become friends with years ago. The subject of the painting was an old U.S. vessel from the 1780s that was just offshore of Brittany. The story was that the Bretons were the first foreigners to recognize the newly independent United States. The message was clear though from her - that the U.S and the French have been close friends and allies for a very long time.

The next day we packed up and headed towards the Golfe de Morhiban. It was another truly unique area and another beautiful day to enjoy it. The Golfe is almost completely closed in from the sea and has over 100 islands inside. Since it isn't exposed to the ocean in most places, it is pretty calm. That was good for us because we decided to take a two and a half hour boat cruise through the Golfe. Most of the 100 islands are private and have homes built on them. Some of the larger islands such as Ile des Moines have some hotels that the savvy travelers book up well in advance. Sailing and kayaking seem to be the popular sports as we always had at least several on the horizon during the cruise. It was really a perfect afternoon just exploring the different islands on a bright sunny day. All of us came to the conclusion that if you were going to retire somewhere in France, that this area would have been under serious consideration. In fact, we even found the home that would work for us. I think we really lucked out this weekend. We had beautiful weather, few logistical problems and three big winners in Quiberon, Belle Ile en Mer and Golfe de Morhiban. Adam and Ashley even thought it was the highlight of their French vacation. I think this weekend only confirms that some of the best places in France still don't make the guidebooks and reaffirms our desire to keep finding them.

Quiberon

Belle Ile en Mer

Golfe de Morhiban

D-day

Yesterday marked the 65th anniversary of D-day - the day in which 150,000 Allied troops crossed the English channel and landed in Normandy. The invasion was eventually successful although it cost the lives of 10,000 American, British and Canadian soldiers. Our friend Max was flying back from the states to Paris on Wed and sat next to one of these incredible survivors. He was an 87 year old American veteran who landed on the beaches of Normandy when he was just 17. He was on the flight in his military uniform and as Max put it, "was thanked by nearly everyone on the flight, French or American, who walked past". It gives me the chills to think about what that day must have been like and immense pride in those that fought there and elsewhere in ultimately defeating the Nazis. Jen and I plan to go to Normandy in a few weeks with my parents to pay our respects in person, but decided to stay away from the crowds on the anniversary weekend. Obama, Sarkozy, Brown and Harper were all there to mark the occasion and I can only imagine how jammed the small towns and roads in the area must have been.

Instead, we decided to make our own D-day as in Disney-day. Our friend Marin jokingly accepted our invitation by saying "What better way to celebrate Americans' victories in France?" than going to Disney. It was our second trip and probably my last this year. This time we had Max, Marin, Ale and Chiara with us. Chiara is a huge Disney fan and had to miss our first visit. She has been asking to go back since and we finally had an open weekend to make it happen.

Unfortunately, it was raining on Saturday so it wasn't an ideal day to be walking around the park. While we had done most of the park last time, there were still a few new things for us to do:

Jen met a new friend. Ale, Max and I recalled the sugar overdoses of childhood with a tasty Minnie Mouse treat. Ale proved he has no driving skills when he overheated his car at Autotopia. And Eurodisney proved that times are still tough as they cancelled the big parade and evening light show and replaced it with this kinda lame dance number. While I day was in stark contrast to the serious of the ceremonies going on in Normandy, we managed to have a lighthearted day with all the French kiddies running around Disney. For one of the last rides of the day, we returned to Space Mountain II. Max had never been and Ale and I convinced him in was no big deal. Jen and Marin meanwhile skipped it. While we made our way through the line and got "briefed" on our mission by a TV monitor with Star Trek dressed actors. They warned us that our trip across the galaxy would include 360 degree inversions. Max looked at us and we passed it off as something that was confused in translation. "Yeah, I don't remember that", Ale said with a slight smile. The last part of the line is in near darkness. With nothing to see you focus on the sounds of screaming voices coming from people riding the coaster. This time around, I could make more sense of the ride. One dramatic upward "launch" up a steep hill to start, two full inverted loops, several barrel rolls, and a final sharp drop - all in complete darkness with only faint stars all around. Needless to say, it was every bit as intense as the last time we rode and probably worth the return trip to Disney by itself!

Planes, trains and vaporetti

As Jen and I discussed our options for her sister's only weekend in Europe, we needed something that could hold its own against Paris. There aren't too many cities that made the short list...Rome, Barcelona and Venice. In the end, the art and food of Roma lost to the romance and charm of Venice.

The only difficulty with Venice is that it was a bit harder to get to. Since the few direct flights from Paris to Venice were really expensive, we "optimized" our route economically - but not necessarily against practicality.

We started our journey early Saturday morning at 6am and left the apartment to walk to the metro. From there, we changed lines twice to get to the RER (suburban train) that we then took to the airport. Of course, at the airport we had to check bags since American carry-on luggage is still too big for European planes. We flew Paris to Milan and waited to collect our luggage and then found the commuter train that connected the Milan airport to downtown Milan where the train to Venice left from. We got on the train to Milan, but had to take the Milan metro from the terminus of the airport train to the central Milan train station. Once we got to the Milan train station, we waited in line for 30 minutes to buy our tickets to Venice. We tried to do this in advance, but were unable do it online. Unfortunately, the next train with open seats was three hours later, so we grabbed a quick pizza at a nearby restaurant and then jumped on an early, but fully booked, train. I normally do this for work and there are always a couple of open seats that you can find. Luckily we found two seats together for Melissa and Jen, but I ended up standing for 2 hours. We made it to the Venice train station by 4pm and then bought a vaporetto (boats that operate like buses on Venice "streets")ticket. We took the vaporetto down the Grand Canal to St Marks Square and had to change vaporetto there. Since we were staying on the island of Lido, we needed one more vaporetto to get us to our hotel. Twenty minutes later around 5:30pm we ended our journey at our hotel, dropped our bags and headed back on a vaporetto to Venice. I think that makes a nine segment journey over 12 hours time! Other than saving quite a bit of money, we took some pride in the fact that we could manage such a trip with relative ease. As this was Melissa's first trip to Europe, she probably wondered if all of our trips were this complicated.

Jen and I have both been to Venice before (this was my third time), but there is always something new to see. On our way back into Venice from the hotel, we passed a massive cruise ship carefully being tugged out to sea. The giant ship was striking against a background of buildings that were smaller in size that the ship itself. Venice is really one of many islands that sit in a lagoon open to the sea in a few points. The lagoon is closed in almost completely by a long, thin island called Lido. In most places in the lagoon - especially the canals in Venice - the depth of the water is only 15 feet. As Venice itself is overcrowded and overpriced, we have opted to stay in Lido our last two visits. Since it's only a 15 minute vaporetto ride from Lido back to Venice, it's not much of a hassle. Lido is more of a small beach community than an international destination but usually plays host to some of the tourists visiting its famous neighbor. The other thing we like is that it has a identifiable local population and some decent restaurants. View Larger Map (Venice is the fish-shaped island at the center, Lido the long thin island on the right)

Venice is a small island, however, it's a maze to navigate. There are endless narrow alleyways, many that deadend in a building or a canal. You can try to use a map, but you usually spend longer identifying your location than it takes to walk somewhere. Getting lost is a rite of passage that every tourist to Venice must go through at least once per trip. That means, in effect, that you've left the main arteries where all the people crowd and have decided to either find your own way or explore some of the back neighborhoods. Amazingly, both Jen and I did have a very good mental map from our last visit and only once found ourselves lost when we tried to cross the island on return from a trip to another island.

We spent the first night in town getting reacquainted with the main part of the city - St Marks square. If you looked at Venice from above, you would see tourists as ants moving through the network of streets that all converge into St Marks square. It always seems to be crowded in St Marks square and nearly impossible to take a photo without someone else in it.

The next morning we took the boat trip to Murano to check out the famous glass factories. We missed these the last trip and wanted to see where the ubiquitous glass jewelry is made. Jen and Melissa had a great time jumping from shop to shop picking out pieces for themselves and others.

That evening, we returned to one of our favorite things from our last trip - a Vivaldi concert at the beautiful church of San Vitale.

What better way to hear Vivaldi than in the city in which he originally composed his music. It was as good as we remember and set us up for an evening of classical music as we finished the night listening to the "dueling orchestras" that perform in St Marks square. We sat outside, sipping drinks and listening to music for another hour.

The next day we spent more time exploring Venice by foot and returning to some of our favorite places. We even managed to negotiate a gondola ride after walking away from the initial offer of 150 euros for a one hour ride! The last time Jen and I were in Venice, we did the gondola ride at night. It was really nice and quiet and we felt like we had the canals to ourselves. This time we went during the day and were got caught in canal traffic jams. Still, I think we prefer the daytime ride because you can see so much more. As we passed one of the other gondolas, we saw a couple who had also hired a singer who was singing "O sole mio" as we passed. His voice reverberated off the sides of the buildings and down the canals. Our gondolier was whistling some of the Italian classics as we made our way around and wasn't too shabby himself. Jen and I thought we might just pay him for another ride so Melissa, who's single, could be serenaded alone by her personal Italian fantasy! Venice might be overcrowded with tourists and the worst place in Italy to get a good Italian meal. Good hotels are hard to find without paying a lot of money and everything is pricey. And it probably isn't the easiest or cheapest place to get to either. But Venice is such a unique and beautiful city that we will certainly return again some day. At every turn there is a postcard worthy photo. The city is so picture perfect that I think it almost looks fake sometimes - like a real life Disneyworld.

We were sad to leave when the time eventually came. Not only because we were really enjoying ourselves but also because we had two vaporetto's, a bus, a flight, another bus and a taxi before we finally got back home.

Venezia

(click for our Venice photos)