Day 2- Paris/LoireValley

Well, here is day two of our trip. At this rate, I'll have our trip posted by Christmas. Wednesday morning we enjoyed a nice French breakfast of croissants, bread, butter, jam, fruit, yogurt, and hot chocolate. Then after checking out, we stowed our bags at the hotel and took the Metro to the Musee d'Orsay, the impressionist museum. I had purchased tickets over the internet to the museum, and the special exhibit on Cezanne and Pizzaro. We went right past the lines waiting for the museum to open, and entered. We first visited the exhibit, using audioguides. We weren't allowed to take pictures, but saw room after room of paintings by Cezanne and Pizzaro. They were contemporaries, although Pizzaro was older, and mentored Cezanne. They often painted the same scenes, and side by side paintings contrasted their styles. Pizzaro's paintings were warm with soft light, and peacful scenes. Cezanne, on the other hand used a harsher, darker technique, and the tortuous shapes of the trees, with their dark outlines revealed his often tortured emotions. It was very interesting. After the exhibit, we toured the main museum, visiting room after room of Manet, Van Gogh, Monet, Renoir, and others. It was so fun to see some of my favorite paintings live, and up close.


In the afternoon, we spent several hours in the Louvre. We didn't try to see everything. Here is Spencer in front of "Winged Victory". We visited the "Venus de Milo". We went through the Italian and French Renaissance paintings, and the large format French Paintings. I especially liked David's paintings. Around 4:00 we returned via the Metro to the Gare du Nord, and picked up our rental car, a four-door BMW diesel with lots of pep. It took us a few wrong turns to find the hotel, where we loaded our bags, and took us a few more wrong turns before finding the Autoroute south to the Loire Valley. The Loire Valley is only an hour or two from Paris, so we had plenty of daylight to see a few of the castles.
Our first stop was Chambord, a large castle situated on several thousand acres of land, that boasts many intricate towers, windows, and chimneys. This gives it almost a magical feeling. It was closed for the day, but we were able to walk around the outside. As we drove through the grounds, we saw mountain bike trails. We made a note: next visit, mountain bike the grounds around Chambord.


This is one of the small French Villages through which we drove, as we went from castle to castle. It was nine o' clock at night, and everything was closed. Families ate their late supper behind shuttered windows. I love the flowers along the homes and streets.


As we drove through the countryside of the Loire Valley, going from castle to castle, the sun sank into the green fields in a blaze of glory. There was very little traffic, and everything was so quiet. At 9:45 p.m. we found a little hotel. The restaurant was closed however, and we had to drive to three different villages before finding some place that stayed open past ten o' clock. Why can't life here be that peaceful?




Our day ended in a small restaurant in Amboise on the Loire River. They served large drinks made with different fruit juices. These were non-alcoholic of course. For dinner, Katherine had a quiche. Spencer and I had a plate of cold cuts. This concluded another late night. Next: Castles and the Alps.