Saturday.  First full day in Paris.  We woke up to the sun shining and very mild temperatures.  We didn't have any plans for our few days in Paris this trip.  We've seen all the big stuff except David had not seen the Arc de Triomphe or the Champs Elysees.  Claire had asked us what our plans were and when we told her we really didn't have any, she suggested we take the Hop On-Hop Off Red Bus.  Someone else would do the driving and if we saw something interesting, we could, obviously, hop off and then hop back on.  We have done that in other cities but not in Paris so we decided to follow Claire's advice.  

We checked with the front desk of our hotel and the woman told us the closest place to catch it was at the Opera House which wasn't too far to walk.  We had a good map so off we went.  But first . . . we went to the bakery across the street for breakfast!  

David navigated well and we arrived at the Opera House fairly quickly.  That in itself is a gorgeous building but we had both seen it before so we didn't stand in line to go in.  We had a bit of trouble finding which side of the Opera House the bus stopped at but we finally figured it out and got on the bus.  It was such a gorgeous day that we walked up to the top of the bus and sat there.  The bus took us everywhere -- it was a tourist's dream!  Here are a few pictures.  The first one is the Opera House, the second one is the Louvre, the third one is a so-so picture of Notre Dame and the fourth one is . . . us!

  
The next three pictures are of the Arc de Triomphe.  The bus took us all along the Champs Elysees on the way to the Arc de Triomphe and when David saw all of the people hanging out there and shopping and drinking Starbucks, he was not interested in even getting off the bus to walk along the Avenue!!!  I knew it would not be anything he would be interested in.  He did like the Arc de Triomple, tho, and was familiar with its history.  

I am a typical tourist and I love the Eiffel Tower so I made him take these pictures.

We stayed on the bus for its entire route and really enjoyed seeing all of the high points of Paris from that vantage point!  We "hopped off" when the bus returned to the Opera House.

By then, the entire Opera area was swarming with people.  The big, fancy department stores like Printemps and Galleries Lafayette are close by so there were so many people milling around you could hardly move.  That is not David's comfort zone so we headed back to our hotel.  

Saturday night we were hungry for Italian food so I checked Yelp and it showed an Italian place about two doors down from our hotel.  It is called Risi & Bisi and I checked out their website and made us a dinner reservation.  It was quite crowded when we arrived but they did have a table ready for us.  It is a pretty small restaurant but very hip.  There are only tables for about 26 people on the main floor.  There is one more floor down but we didn't see how big it was.

The menu was excellent and they had a fantastic wine list for such a small place!  We recognized an affordable bottle of wine from the Umbria region (Orvietto) which we love so we ordered that.  David had their house specialty which is pasta in a cream sauce with truffles.  I had spaghetti with red sauce and pieces of pork in it.  Both dishes were very good.  For dessert David was very French and ordered a cheese plate.  Not me!  I had ice cream.  

After that we walked back to the hotel in one minute and went to bed!

Friday.  Can't avoid it any longer . . . we have to move out of our beloved La Boulangerie!  We can't even put into words how much fun we've had "Pretending To Be French!"  We got up early because we had to take Yves' car to the train station and hide the key so when Nathalie and Yves get home from Senegal tomorrow, they can just jump in their car and drive home.  It really worked out conveniently for our departure and their arrival! 

We arrived at the train station around 7:30 a.m. and hopefully we successfully hid the key and no one stole Yves' car.  Guess maybe I should email Nathalie to make sure!

The station manager who we had become very friendly with was working so we told him we were on our way back to the United States.  David gave him our card with our email information, etc., on it and he gave us his address and email.  We told him to stay in touch and let us know if he ever comes to the United States.  He thanked us for being good customers and told us it is his dream to come to the States.  So maybe we'll have even more visitors from Saint Aignan.  

Our train left Saint Aignan at 8:16 for Saint Pierre des Corps.  I packed breakfast for us so once again we ate our little baguette sandwiches on the train.  We had about an hour layover in Saint Pierre des Corps before we boarded the fast TGV train for Paris.  That part of the trip only took about an hour and we arrived at the Montparnasse station in Paris around 11:15 a.m .  We followed Claire's directions and used her Metro tickets and easily got ourselves to our hotel, the Relais-Monceau in the 8th Arrondissement.  We have never stayed in this area before but it is lovely and we really like our hotel too!

Although we arrived before check-in time our room was ready so we were able to get into it right away.  We were both tired and sleepy so we decided to take a little nap.  We didn't sleep very long, tho, because the Paris weather was gorgeous and we wanted to get outside and soak up Paris!

Just down the street on the corner is a wonderful bar/cafe called La Bastide Blanche and there were many tables set up outside so we decided to park ourselves there to people watch.  We sat on a busy corner and there was a lot of activity: business people, joggers, dog walkers, mothers pushing babies, and so on.  It was Halloween and we hoped to see a lot of costumes but we did not.  Maybe only 15 or so.  The bartender is a very nice guy who speaks English and he made us delicious gin and tonics!  It was such a nice evening that we sat outside there for about two hours.

Finally we got hungry for dinner so we left our perfect location to find a restaurant.  Our hotel had recommended two restaurants but they were too fancy and French for us.  We found one on our own called L'Auberge Rouge and it was wonderful!  We were seated at a very private table near the window which we enjoyed; a large, wide column separated us from the rest of restaurant, so we felt like we had a private dining room.  We decided to split a salad that was made with radicchio, blue cheese, tomatoes, cucumbers and pine nuts in a dressing made with walnut oil.  Then we each had baby ravioli stuffed with parmesan cheese in a cream sauce.  For dessert David had an apple tartine with vanilla ice cream and I had creme brulee.  All very delicious!

We had a leisurely walk back to our hotel and fell into bed.  I. Love. Paris.

Thursday.  Oh my!  Reality sank in today.  We actually have to leave "our French home" tomorrow!!!  We are NOT happy about that at all.  So today had to be a work day.  We went through the house and gathered up all of our belongings (we think).  We purchased a few things while we were here -- for me, of course -- so we packed a small box and walked up to the Post Office to mail it home.  Sure hope my boots will be safe!  We did a few other chores just to be absolutely ready to leave early tomorrow morning.

Christina and Claude stopped by to say goodbye and give us bisous and that was very hard on all of us.  I am admittedly a mush ball so I cried and I noticed the others had tears in their eyes too!  We asked Christina if she would mind taking home the food we had left.  She said "no problem" in English!  It was pretty funny!  We have their email address and we promised to email them and send them copies of the pictures we took together.  That was a difficult goodbye!

Claire asked if we would join she and Douglas at Aux Cepages around 7:00 for a last glass of wine so we did that.  It was as much fun as usual and we will definitely miss them.  Claire explained to the owner, Michelle, that we were leaving the next day and she came around the bar and kissed us.  Claire said that when we return to Saint Aignan Michelle will speak some English because Claire is going to teach her!  Michelle looked skeptical.

When we left Aux Cepages we told Claire and Douglas that we were going to stop at Fun Doner for dinner.  They decided to join us which was very nice.  They did not believe me that Fun Doner had cheeseburgers and were amazed when I got one.  Claire said she will order one next time.  It was a very good dinner.

Just when I finished eating Thessa called to say she was coming over (in Nathalie's absence) to "check us out" of La Boulangerie.  I left the others at the restaurant while they paid, etc., and walked home to meet Thessa who, by the way, had her very cute boyfriend with her!!!  We walked all over the house to make sure we didn't break anything and she gave me instructions for what to do with the key in the morning and we said goodbye to them.

Claire told us at dinner that she would give us subway tickets for the Paris Metro and bring her Metro map over and show us how to get to our hotel in Paris without paying for an expensive taxi.  She went home and returned with the tickets, her map AND a pitcher of wine.  We had to have one final drink!

All too soon they left with a touching goodbye with promises to stay in touch by email.  We think they will visit us in North Carolina before too long!  David and I quickly went to bed because we had to get up early to get to the train station in the morning to go to Paris. 

Wednesday.  David and I have been to a nearby city, Tours, a few times since we've been in the Loire Valley.  It is much larger than Saint Aignan but it is still charming and has so much character.  It is a university town which means a lot is happening there all the time.  So today we decided to take the train there one last time to explore it a little more and to do some shopping.

We took the 8:16 into the city (that comment is for Kema and Steve) and we ate breakfast on the train which we always enjoy.  I packed a few little sandwiches and we had a bottle of water with us.  Even the train ticket taker walked by and said bon appetit to us as she watched us munching away!  

David studied the map of Tours carefully because we wanted to go to the medieval, walking part of the city.  As you exit the train station, across the street is a McDonald's.  For some reason this rhino is in front of the McDonald's!  It is pretty cool.  We have eaten so many baguettes, pastries, and other good French foods that David and I decided that from now on we are only going to take photographs of us with objects that are much bigger than us to camouflage the girth we have acquired during our stay.

Tours is a very walkable city with much to see.  We headed over to Place Plumereau which is apparently the hip part of the city.  It is historic, filled with half-timbered houses and many, many cafes, displays of art and eclectic shopping.  We stopped at a cafe there for coffee and tea.  We took our time walking and exploring the area.  No doubt it is very popular with tourists and the local students!

There was a flea market set up on one of the squares and we stumbled upon an outdoor market.  These pictures are for Rachael who seems to like our market pictures!

As you can see it was a beautiful day.  It started out chilly but ended up about 70 degrees fahrenheit!  We cannot get over the fabulous weather we've had since we've been here!

Across the street from the outdoor market we discovered an indoor market, Les Halles.  This place is incredible -- very upscale.  Beautiful stands of meats, cheeses, vegetables, bakeries, wines -- everything you could possibly want.  All of it beautifully displayed.  Of course we couldn't take anything home but we enjoyed "window" shopping. 

Shopping in Tours is plentiful and a good mix of prices and styles.  I, of course, wanted to visit Galleries Lafayette again which we did.  We then headed back towards the train station for lunch and some shopping on the pedestrian street close by the station.  Our route took us past the beautiful Hotel de Ville with this incredible display of flowers.

We were getting a little hungry by then so we looked for a cafe where we could sit and rest and have a treat.  We had a lot of choices but we picked the Continental Cafe because there were so many people there it had to be good, right?  We chose ice cream for our afternoon treat and it was delicious!

Of course then we needed to "walk off" the ice cream so we checked out as much of that part of Tours as we could before we had to catch our train.  Believe it or not, we didn't buy a thing!  We just browsed and enjoyed the ambiance of the city!  We arrived home around 5:30 p.m. after a very fun day!!!

For dinner we decided to visit L'Amarena one last time.  I was hungry for spaghetti and David was hungry for pizza.  I made a reservation for 7:30 and our favorite table was set up and waiting when we got there.  I was a little disappointed because they did not have their bolognese sauce that night which I had been looking forward to so I had to settle for pasta carbonara instead.  Ha!  It is an excellent dish there!!!  David ordered his pizza and we were enjoying a glass of wine when Christina and Claude walked in!  We talked for a while but there were no other tables available for them.  The owner noticed us talking and told us if we waited for a few minutes we could be seated together at a table for four which is exactly what we did.  The kitchen held our dinners until Christina and Claude ordered theirs and we were all served at the same time.  They also ordered more wine.  Then dessert.  Then champagne.  OMG!  By then I was definitely full and mildly intoxicated!!!  But we had a very fun evening with them and somehow Claude sneakily picked up the check.  

After dinner we practically rolled across the street and fell into bed!  It is going to be very, very difficult to leave the friends we've made in Saint Aignan!!!  

Tuesday.  We relaxed today.  We know when we get to Paris for the last few days of our trip we will not relax so we are taking advantage of our time here.

First off we went to the bakery (of course) and came home for breakfast.  Let me tell you how much we're going to miss doing that every day!!!

David has befriended the woman at the bakery, Marie, and the woman at the news stand, Carine, and they have been very helpful to him (and me) while we've been here.  Marie is always very patient with David speaking French and never tries to rush him.  Carine speaks very good English and we've both enjoyed talking to her.  She receives one copy of the International New York Times daily and for the last few weeks has saved it for David every day.  The kindness of the people in this town is unmatched!  Anyway, I tell you this because David decided he wanted to get bouquets of flowers for Marie and Carine to thank them.  After breakfast we walked over to one of the gorgeous flower shops here to order them.  The owner speaks no English so David really had to work hard to order the flowers but it worked out great!  

I'm sorry I do not know the names of flowers but the bouquets were gorgeous.  The one for Carine was ready first so we took it over to her when we went to buy the newspaper.  She was so surprised she was in tears!  That made David and me tear up so it was quite the scene.  We just wanted her to know that her extra efforts on our behalf made our stay here that much better!

The second bouquet was ready later in the afternoon so we picked it up and took it to Marie.  She, too, was very surprised and very pleased.  She displayed it on her counter and it looked very pretty.  She came out from behind the counter and gave us bisous.  Exchanging bisous (kisses) is such an important part of the French culture so we felt very French!

We wiled away the afternoon.  David took a nap and I watched a movie on Netflix.  I must say it's been fun watching some "girl movies" and resting on the days we stay home.  We had invited Claire and Douglas out for dinner at the Chinese restaurant so we waited to hear from them.  They had been in Italy for a few days so we weren't sure if they were going to join us for dinner or not.

Claire knocked on our door around 7:00 p.m. to let us know they were back in Saint Aignan and that they did want to have dinner with us.  David ran over to the restaurant to secure a table for us and we walked over together at 7:30 p.m.  One of the owners, Julie, has become very friendly with us and we enjoy going there for dinner.  They were quite busy (on a Tuesday night!) but she had a table set for us.

The food was delicious and the company even better.  Here are a few pictures of Claire and Douglas.  What fabulous people they are!!!  You can look at their faces and see how much fun they are!

When Julie delivered our bottle of wine, she gave us a present.  It was a wine bottle cover -- embroidered silk -- that she had brought back from Shanghai!  It is beautiful and we were really touched.

As usual, the Chef made David a vegetarian dish not on the menu.  It was beautiful and delicious.  He has really been spoiled there!

We had ice cream for dessert and called it a night.  Claire and Douglas were tired from traveling and David and I had one last adventure planned for Wednesday. 

Monday.  We are down to our last few days in Saint Aignan.  We slept in a little bit and had cereal and toasted baguette for breakfast.  After breakfast we had some errands to run -- we filled Yves' car up with gas and we took the recyclables to the recycling center.  

As you know, everything here is closed on Monday so we took a long walk all around Saint Aignan filling our hearts with pictures of the town we love so much!  We have truly had a most amazing experience here.  Here are some pictures David took around the square where we are living. This is our favorite wine bar, Aux Cepages. 

This is Douglas and Claire's house.  Don't you love the sign outside of it?  It was formerly a cabaret!  It looks so small from the outside but inside it is huge.  They combined two houses to form their house.

This is the Italian restaurant, L'Amarena.

Ohhhhh, Fun Doner restaurant.  This is where I had the good cheeseburger and fries!

This is the home that we visited two Saturdays ago which is being renovated currently and will be a gite.  It is quite large and has a very nice hidden courtyard/garden.  I mentioned in an earlier post that we met the new owner, Marc, and his wife whose name I do not know.  They hope to open in May of 2015.

The rest of these pictures are just random shots around the square so we won't forget how beautiful it was.

Monday evening we were invited to Claude and Christina's home for an aperitif at 7:00.  We were just about ready to leave to walk there and there was a knock at the door.  Claude had walked over to escort us to his home.  So sweet.  They are the kindest people you will ever meet and they live in a beautiful home.  Once again, from the outside their home wasn't huge but from the inside it was.  They have four floors and the bottom floor (basement to us) had a garage for 2 cars plus an entire room for storage or whatever.  Christina is a very good gardener and she had many flowers inside and outside her home.  

When we arrived they had wine and appetizers on the table for us.  It was beautifully displayed and we felt very fancy!  They had taken the trouble to go to Aux Cepages to ask Michelle what our favorite wines were and they had a bottle of each on the table for us.  We felt very welcome, that's for sure!

The conversation was interesting and taxing because, of course, our French is only OK and Christina speaks no English.  Claude speaks some English, which helped.  But the language was absolutely no barrier to our good time!  We found out that Claude is a champion billiard player and he has a regulation table in his home.  We also discovered that they both like to sing and dance.  They sang for us -- together and separately -- and they have beautiful voices.  They sang fun, rowdy songs so we could clap along.  

We ended the evening with champagne!  One of my favorite things.  It was delicious.  And home-baked Madeleine cookies that are cake-like and taste of almond.  Very, very good.

It was a delightful evening and one more reason we will hate leaving on Friday.   When it was time to leave, Claude and Christina both put on their coats and walked us home.  They could not possibly be nicer people.  Here are a few pictures from our evening.