Beaune, France

What a cute little slice of French pie! Or croissant, whatever. Beaune was adorable.

Beaune, France Wins the Award For: Foodie's/Wino's Paradise, Tied for Most Friendly

Day 5: After a quick train ride southeast of Paris, we arrived in the heart of the Burgundy wine country. We got in later in the day, so we had just enough time to walk around the city center before going to get charcuterie, cheese and wine at a cute little wine shop, Les Vins de Maurice. After this, we went to the most INCREDIBLE dinner at Caves Madeline. Everyone here was so nice!

Day 6: The next day, we woke up early to start our adventure of biking along the Route des Grands Crus - The Burgundy Wine Road. We choose to bike along the picturesque Cote de Beaune section of this 60km road. So, you can see below that the roads are very well-paved and very easy to follow. I definitely think the California wine country needs to take note of this. Also, we had incredible timing as it was the start of harvest season! We got to see the workers carrying the grapes down the hill after they had collected them. It was surprising how labor-intensive the process was - it felt like the whole town was out collecting grapes.

We made our way through the towns of Pommard, Volnay, Meursault and Puligny-Montrachet making a few stops along the way. In Pommard, we literally got off our bikes and walked into a 300 year old wine cellar. Talking to the man (thanks to John and Mallory and their French!!), he told us it had been in his family all of those years. He then let us taste the wine and showed us the cellars...FOR FREE.

We kept biking along and ended up in Mersault. By this time, our butts were HATING us for putting them on the tiny bike seats, so it was a good time for lunch!

Those colorful rooftops are typical in the Burgundy region.

This meal was incredible. Jason's first course was the most interesting I think - eggs poached in what else? wine :)

Those potatoes were to die for, mmm!

After eating this amazing meal, it was a little difficult to get back on our bikes. We continued on and made our way to the last town of the day, where we sampled some amazing Pinot Noirs and Chardonnays. That is what the area we were in was known for. We then began the exhausting trek back. What was previously a fun, downhill ride, was uphill hell. Good thing we had some amazing views to look at!

If you look closely, you can see those white buckets. Those workers are carrying them and they are FULL of grapes.

We ended our night with a stroll around Beaune to see the Hospices de Beaune. This was former hospital for the poor and needy - and also what Beaune is known for besides wine. It is still used as a hospital today! We were walking around and heard singing, so of course we stopped by to see what it was. We think it was an ode to Beaune of some sort? Only in Europe :)

That night, like good Aggies, we stayed up (for most of the game) and watched A&M BTHO SMU! What a great little town - we definitely enjoyed our time in Beaune.

Up Next: Geneva, Switzerland!

Versailles, France

Day 4: Going in reverse a day, we visited the Palace at Versailles. We actually hadn't planned on making our way here, but after seeing how long it was going to take to get to Normandy and the D-Day beaches, we altered our plans to stay a little closer to Paris. It was only about a 30 min/$10 train ride round trip.

Let me just start by saying - this place was ridiculous. It started as a "humble" hunting lodge, but once Louis the 14th got a hold of it, he turned it into a palace in honor of himself. He moved the court and government to Versailles and then proceeded to throw extravagant parties to distract officials from their job. It would have worked on me, that's for sure!

Me and the front of Versailles

The one and only chapel in all of Versailles

So this chapel above is interesting - Louis the 14th would stand above all of the "commoners" on the second level and instead of them looking at the altar, they would turn around and look up at him! Also interesting is that, in the French monarchy, the king was chosen by god. That made anything Louis the 14th said, god's official word. No wonder all of this extravagance and craziness went on so long - no one in those times would want to go against god himself! Anyways, on to more pictures...

The Venus Salon in the King's Apartment

Hall of Mirrors

The King's chambers

So that's the palace. There are also the gardens, summer palace and Marie Antoinette's estate to visit! We had a long day, that's for sure.

The gardens were spectacular - the most photographed part being the Grand Canal. Louis the 14th wanted to bring Venice to himself and all his entourage. We rented a row boat and Jason paddled us around the canal. We also almost got killed by an angry/hungry swan.

Orangerie

Grand Canal in the distance

In the middle of the Grand Canal

In the middle of the Grand Canal

Angry Swan - he was pecking the boat!

After that, we walked around the Grand Trianon (summer palace) and Marie Antoinette's Estate. The summer palace was for when court life just became TOO much and they needed a getaway. The estate was kind of amazing too - she built it to be "like a commoner". As you can see, it was a hamlet complete with vineyards, stables and a fish pond!

Outside the Grand Trianon

Marie Antoinette's Estate

Marie Antoinette's Estate

Marie Antoinette's Estate

That was our day in Versailles. I would definitely recommend it to anyone going to Paris. It's a nice little getaway from the hustle and bustle of the city and also extremely interesting to visit. It's a UNESCO World Heritage site for a reason!

Next up - our trip to Beaune, France!

Paris {Days 3 - 5}

As you can see, our days were packed...here is the rest of the Paris portion of our trip!

Day 3: Wednesday, we climbed to the top of the Notre Dame (and convinced Mallory to for the second time) and went to Sainte Chappelle (stunningly gorgeous). This stained-glass masterpiece was originally commissioned to hold the Crown of Thorns - which is now housed at the Notre Dame. After that, we walked to the island in the middle of the Seine - Île Saint-Louis, where I had one of the best meals of life...Eggs Benedict. Jason got the Croque Madam (Croque Monsieur with a sunny-side up egg). We ALSO went to the Louvre today. We hit all of the major highlights and thankfully it wasn't even that busy. We definitely didn't see everything there is to see, but I think that might be impossible in 1/2 of a day. The night ended at FISH - where we ate...you guessed it, fish!

Back of the Notre Dame

At the top of the Notre Dame

At the top of the Notre Dame

Eggs Benedict at St. Regis

Eating Berthillon ice cream on Ile Saint Louis

Inside Saint Chappelle

 Louvre!

Me and the Venus de Milo

Day 4: Thursday, we went to the Château de Versailles. I will discuss this day in the next blog post...there was too much to see to fit it in here. We ended the night at a tapas place with John and Mallory. Since I had never seen the Avenue des Champs-Élysées or the Arc de Triomphe, Jason and I grabbed the metro and caught a glimpse at night.

Arc at night

Day 5: Friday, we visited the Sacre Coeur in Montmartre. This was Jason's favorite place when he went to Paris for work a few years ago. So, I realized that I forgot to mention that part - Jason's already been to Paris. He went for a week during his E&Y days and got the chance to explore after work. His opinion was...less than stellar last time, but we kind of got to the heart of that issue one night when he mentioned that he mainly ate with his coworkers on the Champs-Élysées...super touristy and probably not the most friendly either! After this, we stopped by the Galleries Lafayette, which is the best department store ever!

Sacre Coeur

Us and Paris!

Galleries Lafayette - 10 stories of shopping magic

So after everything you have read, I have something to confess. I have to say that Paris didn't capture my heart. I know, WHAT? I loved every minute that we spent there - there is SO much to do and see. I love all of the history the city has. The food was divine. Everywhere you walk is beautiful. I just didn't get butterflies. Neither did Jason. Maybe it was all of the build up. EVERYONE falls in love with Paris, so I just figured I would too. We really did have a GREAT time though...special thanks goes out to John and Mallory for hosting us and showing us around!

Here's a link to their blog if you want to follow along with their ex-pat life:

http://please-excuse-my-french.blogspot.com/

This ends our time in Paris - after catching a quick pic in front of the Eiffel Tower, we packed up and caught a train to Beaune, France for a weekend in the Burgundy wine country...

Up Next: Our Day in Versailles