Campanile - Chantilly

Only 1 bag out of our 3 made it to CDG but BA were paging us even before the other bags were on the carousel to let us know they were arriving soon & they would deliver them to our hotel. Annoying & inconvenient, but better than losing them completely. Found our way eventually to the Citroen car leasing office & got a transfer to the car yard ...

... I found over-rated. I've seen much more impressive works in Greece, both of Venus and of others. The statue of the Adonis for example is much, much more impressive and has a certain something to it. Perhaps because the cult for it had oiled the statue, but the real statue just this utterly strange feeling to it, like the artist actually captured someone in motion. The Venus left me pretty cold. I was quite excited that they had a selection of Bronze Greek statues, because the ...

... Morocco. Last year , while I was visiting Milan and the surrounding region for a couple of days, I came up to a young woman and asked for directions to a church. She ended up walking with me to the church, helping me order coffee at a small coffee shop, showing me her university, having lunch with me and generally spending the whole day as my personal guide, in addition to teaching me a thing or two about Italian customs, politics and culture. Just yesterday I was on ...

... huge theater with marble and murals and mosaics everywhere you look. As for the ballet itself, the music is basically a random selection of Chopin pieces and the story is based on a novel by Alexandre Dumas about a courtisan and a man who falls in love with her. The costumes, music, and theatre were all brilliant. The choreography was a little off here and there in my opinon. There seemed to be a huge focus on lifts (guys lifting girls ...

... named from his book "The Count of Monte Cristo"), Well we caught the #10 bus in front of the castle to Marly le Roi and got off at Monte Cristo Square. This was only with the help of some very nice French people, I will tell you that God sent nice people every step of the way to help us out! Well, we got off the bus after one young lady, one old lady and the bus driver made sure we were where we needed to be and told us where to meet the bus on our ...

... was painless. The Eurostar ride was fast (2:15), smooth and on time (only 20 minutes in the Chunnel). I didn't have a passenger next to me until the train made a stop in south London to pick up a few riders. My seatmate turned out to be French but has been working in NYC for the past 1.5 years at a global financial services company. We chatted for a bit about my visit to London and other topics, and eventually Jeremy asked me if I was visiting anyone in Paris. When I said no ...

Well........not really.  The first stop on the 24 hour journey is Charles de Gaulle airport and a taxi ride across Paris to Gare du Sud for the train to the South. After  13 hours in the air, this leg of the journey is all a bit of a blur. Nonetheless, the taste of that first cup of strong Parisien coffee, a baguette jambon / fromage and jus d'orange provides ...

... the next day and took pictures in the Tuilleries and in front of the Louvre. But we didn't end up going in the Louvre because it's trez overrated. So we went to Versailles instead. GOOOD FREAKIN' CHOICE HOLY ***** J'AIME VERSAILLES. Sooooo gorgeous and sooooo big we spent the whoooollleeee day there. I got to see the hall of mirrors and I fell in love with the gardens. We got gelato and sat by the lake. There were ...

... had to start pronouncing my words more accurately). Blank stare. Finally, "Paris", I say, with an English pronunciation. Finally, with a frustrated sigh, she prints me off a ticket for eight euros. It wasn't for the Roissybus, but I think we had finally effectively agreed that I wanted to go to Paris, so I trusted she knew best. I had read in my travel guide that the French occasionally like to go on strike without any sort of notice. They decided to do this on the day ...

... occurred to encourage this hard sale technique. Going up in the tower is amazing. The Elevator goes up sideways instead of straight up. From the top there is a beautiful view of the city. You can see everything from the top. Paris is so beautiful at night with all of the monuments lit up. www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRLIYha5V0E will take you to a clip of the Eiffel Tower. The Metro is the central nervous ...