Paris and Beyond!

On October 6th, Charles, Holly and I met twelve of Charle's thirteen siblings and their spouses in Paris. Our ten day vacation included a 7 day "Viking River Cruise" down the Seine. It was a fun and fabulous reunion!

Holly was SUPER happy to be our young "tag along," on this "adults only" trip.


In addition to seeing the awe inspiring Tour d' Eiffel, we visited the usual suspects: Musee Louvre, Notre Dame, Sainte Chappelle, Sacre Coeur, San Sulpice, Musee d' Orsay, Musee Rodin, l' Arc du Triomphe, Champs Elysee (where I fell flat on my face...but arose unharmed. How do you spell, KLUTZ? Gloria Pope! Oui, Oui!

We loved visiting "Musee Rodin." This amazing French sculptor captured so many emotions of mortality.





I could post photos of the Venus de Milo, Mona Lisa, or Athena, but you know all of those so well.
Here are my personal favorites from the Louvre.
Forgive the uninspiring quips, but I couldn't resist. :)

"Should I ram this dagger into my eye or try to understand how Congress expects to pay off the National Debt by spending more money?
.......The dagger's lookin' like a good choice."

"I swear, Lydia, if you mention politics around me one more time....."

No quip on this. Just nice art. :)

We spent a day touring crazy self indulgent VERSAILLES!
Got some ideas of how I can ramp up our decor at Wildflower. :0

Our stops with the cruise included Vernon and Giverny, the venue of Monet's village and garden;



Roen, the city where Joan of Arc was killed;



Normandy Beaches and the American Cemetery; a very emotional and sobering experience;





Les Andelys, where Richard the Lion Heart built a fortress;


and finally, Conflans, where we succumbed to MANY temptations at France's #1 Patisserie shop! YUM!




All in all, it was VERY hard to say, "Au Revoir" to France and to our fun family! (By the way...this mini-Statue of Liberty was very nearby when we docked and it was a great opportunity to shoot both the Eiffel and the Statue together. On our last night there, they shot fireworks from the base of the Statue and that was very pretty! Someone said, "Look! France is rejoicing about the Pope Family's departure!" :)

After a 27 hour journey, we finally arrived at our second destination: Chennai, India. All I can say is, "Toto, we are NOT in Paris any more!"

I'll keep you posted! :) Gloria