Sabbatical Activities (Part 3 of 3) - France

The Eiffel Tower, Paris, France.

With the long flights through Europe from Africa back to the States, we thought we'd break up the trip with a stopover in France. The first visit, for both of us. Sarah was able to find an apartment rental in the area near the Sorbonne, so it would provide a great spot for our touristy excursions throughout the city. The plan was to stay in Paris for 3 days, then rent a car and drive down to the South of France for 5 days before catching our return flight home.

Notre Dame Cathedral, Paris

Notre Dame Cathedrale. An amazing work that took 170 years to complete. Somehow, even if there was a desire to rebuild something like this today, the craftsmanship no longer exists to do so.

one of the 37 bridges in Paris

The Palace at Versailles

Interior of the Chapelle Royale, Palace at Versailles.

Salon d'Apollon (Louis XIV's throne room), Palace at Versailles

View from the Eiffel Tower, Paris.

While in Paris, we visited all the usual touristy attractions - the Louvre, Notre Dame, took in a river cruise of the Seine, visited the Palace at Versailles, the Eiffel Tower, the Gardens at Luxemborg, and the Catacombs (creepy!). Then we rented a car, and started our drive south towards Lyon & the south of France. In retrospect, perhaps we could have taken the train down, and rented a car down south instead of navigating traffic in Paris, but that would have taken too much planning. Fortunately, we were leaving early on a Sunday morning, so traffic wasn't too bad, and we consoled ourselves with the thought that we'd see more of the country this way. :)

Pont Bonaparte, Lyon

Cafe La Nuit - subject of a famous Van Gogh painting, Terrasse de Cafe la Nuit

So we picked up our rental car (a Renault Scenic), and headed south. Initially, we took the motorway (toll way) and were quite surprised by how expensive this was. From Paris to Lyon was about 35 euros. (Granted, this was about 300 miles, but we were still expecting it to be about 10-15 dollars!). Oh well. After we chatted with some fellow travellers at the Bed & Breakfasts we stayed at, we opted to take the local roads for a little more intimate views of France's smaller towns, which admittedly, we kinda zoomed by on the motorways. An interesting side note on food - I had the chance to try a Lyon speciality - Tablier de Sapeur - literally translated as "Fireman's Apron" - tripe that is marinated, breaded and grilled. Ordinarily, I think I would have liked it - but this particular place didn't prepare it quite right - more on the raw side of medium rare. I felt a little queezy afterwards.

Onward to St Vallier (a small town by the Rhone river) and to our next B&B stop over in Arles, an old roman town made famous by Van Gogh, then off to les-Baux-de-Provence, a medieval citadel overlooking the Val d'Enfer (Infernal Valley). I think this is where L'Occitane en Provence gets all their stuff.

Colorful pottery typical of the Provence region, Les-Baux-de-Provence

Le Cathedrale de Notre-Dame-des-Doms & Le Palais des Papes, Avignon

After Les-Baux-de-Provence, we headed to Avignon, where the Papal court resided from 1309-1377. After that we headed for Nice & Cannes - down in the South part of France. I wish we had more time here, but the next day we had to head back to Paris to catch our flight back to the US. Note to self: Next time, fly into Paris, fly out of Nice! :)

Sunset at Cannes, France - view from a public pier.

More pictures of the vacation in France here.
Postscript. In retrospect, this was a really long vacation. We were gone almost a month from home, and truth be told, we were getting a bit homesick in week 4. Maybe next time we should consider 2 weeks in France on its own...