Kyriad Beauvais

Je pouvais partir directement à l'aéroport et m'envoler... mais au lieu de cela j'ai décidé de tester l'accueil des Français! Après un départ en TGV à 12h54 de Vannes, une escale à Paris le temps de changer de gare, mon terminus est à Beauvais en Picardie à 18h33, chez une demoiselle prénommée Anne-Laure. Arrivé à l'heure, mon hôte est là pour m'accueillir à la gare et m'amène chez elle. Elle a un gros chat siamois qui ...

... plane. Ryanair claims to be the "always on time airline," and we were on time, but we figured out their scam; they overestimate the time of the flight so that they can always be on time, very sneaky. So we finally arrived in Valencia at about 11. Sunny and Anne met us at the airport and we dropped off our stuff. We were all hungry, and unfortunately Burger King was the only place still open, so my first Spanish meal was Burger King. Afterwards we headed back ...

... dined" us as if we were favorite old friends. They shared 20 year old wine with us! (In the US, we buy wine and drink it that night. The French buy wine and save it for a later date.) I was speechless that they were willing to share such a treasure with us. We enjoyed a very special afternoon with them. Before we left they shared some ...

... took the train to Versailles, which is about 40 minutes southwest of Paris. There was a little town nearby (Versailles) that I went into first because I had read there was a really neat market there on Fridays so I went. It was neat to see all the old people rushng around for their produce. I also went iinto a little shop to buy a smaller umbrella and found one I liked so I then headed to Versailles. I happened to be wearing the wrong ...

... walk out onto the street to find yourself in a street full of pouring rain! Today the group went to visit a few chateaus, so I got to see this cycle all day long...teasing sky, light sprinkle, dark and dreary, pouring rain, bright sunny rays, cloudless sky, clouds roll in and then go back to sprinkling...ominous looking, then rain. The Chateau de Chantilly is located in one of the largest forests near Paris, Le Massif de Trois Forets. The chateau holds one of the finest museums of ...

... and I was exactly 9 minutes late to board. Without exception they only offered me a flight 12 1/2 hours later, to arrive in Rome at Midnight and for a fee of 75 more Euro. SO in addition to the 75 Euro I already paid for my original flight, this stupid fiasco is costing me almost 400 Euro ($650 USD) and that does not include the taxi fee to get to my hotel in Rome. I could not reach Brian at all since his cell phone did not work in Holland and I had no ...

I have always been interested in France. Also in the most beautiful villages of France. One of them is Gerberoy. Close (300 km./180 miles) to my home we went to visit it. It was desolated and abandonned until Henri-Eugene le Sidaner decided to reside there. He was a painter and other artists came and restored the village to its beauty it is now.

... in the woodwork.  One of the chapels holds a lavish astronomical clock built in the 14th century, originally designed to signal the different offices of each day.  It accounts for 700 years of time keepsake and is probably the oldest chiming clock still in working order.   It was getting bitterly cold inside so we exited ...

... and tried to find dry places to rest as often as we could. Well my time on the internet is about done for today!! I will complete the rest of my record of Paris another time. :) I will be getting on a train in about eight hours to pick Melissa up in Nice tomorrow afternoon!!! I can't believe she's here in less than 24 hours!!! :) Thanks for the comments and emails!!! It's really nice to hear from people and have some connection to home!! :)

... usual here. Once we checked in we began the hunt for an ATM. We were just near the Monet house so figured there would be an ATM nearby. No luck and since the house and gardens were closing we figured we had better eat dinner at the first open place we found otherwise we wouldn't eat! So, we took a table at Hotel Baudy - a touristy place but then they all are. Had a salad, turkey and potatoes with cold apple pie. We struck up a conversation with a man at the next ...