France - Wednesday the 24th to Monday the 29th.

Even factoring in the almost 21 hours of traveling on both the first and last day (had to get home...) it was an amazing trip. I'd been to France twice, but the last time was 1981!

Here are a some pictures from the first travel day. These are all my pix; Brigid got some great pictures & video - will post some. This is only the first day, so expect to be tortured entertained some more on later posts!

Departing JFK - I thought this was kind of neat - Lufthansa in the foreground, Manhattan in the background.

We got extra drinks on AIR FRANCE - my hat said FRANCE and had the French flag - definitely helpful. Champagne, red wine and a bit of cognac. And the food on flights both ways was quite good.

We landed at Charles De Gaulle airport (Beautiful! Makes JFK look like the Third World) and took the 70 minute train into the heart of Paris. Then went three stops on the underground to Montparnasse station and caught our scheduled bullet train for the 240 mile ride to Nantes, which is southwest of Paris. At this point we'd been traveling for 17 hours.

Looking a little tired in Nantes.

We'd booked a car in Nantes but had to wait 90 minutes - we'd actually arrived early and the car wasn't ready until 2 o'clock. At 2:30 we took off in our Peugeot 3008 - standard shift which I haven't driven in quite awhile. We had to navigate through the city, around many, many small and large roundabouts but I only stalled out about 8 times. At 4:05 we arrived in Piriac sur Mer on the Atlantic Ocean - home for next four nights (door to door travel time - 20 hours 45 minutes). A seaside town with a full time population of only about 2,000, but beautiful. We were at the Hotel de la Plage, which is really more of what we'd call an Inn. I think there were 17 rooms and it was rustic and charming. The staff were super-charming. Not at all used to American guests - the area gets primarily French families and folks looking for a laid back time and a beach.

Here's the view from our room - that is the Atlantic Ocean.

And here's the hotel - our room is second fl. right above the La Station sign.

We got a bit of a second wind, and did some scouting around

There were a many several hundred year old buildings, which are lived in. Our hotel was relatively new, built in 1905.

We had dinner at the hotel, Brigid had mussels and I had a piece of beef which I sent back twice - bit of a disagreement over my understanding of "medium" and how the chef saw it... And I switched from French to Italian with some Compari.

Wow! Can't believe how long this post is. Took me well over an hour to put together.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Comments

[Dennis]

Very enjoyable post! Please continue!

[Dennis]

BTW, JFK is 26 years older than CDG.

[June]

Just a short flight and a quick train ride by antipodean standards. ;)
Looking forward to next instalment.

[tom faranda]

Yes by Aussie standards it was a walk in the park!