It was so much fun having sweet friends to spend the day with today! Everyone woke up systematically this morning. Stan woke first and made the coffee. I woke next and was first in the shower and first to dress; then I began work on yesterday's blog. Stan got his shower and came out looking all fresh and handsome as ever! As I finished the last upload, Mary and Greg woke up and came to see us, still in pj's. We chatted for a bit then made some breakfasts....

While flying from Paris to London is less expensive, making this trip via Chunnel was on our list. I do not like and will not use the term bucket-list - it's so conclusive. I prefer the term, our list. The Chunnel is fast! We clocked speeds of over 200 mph and only about 20 minutes of the trip is actually in the tunnel under the English Channel. Most of the trip is through rather flat French farmland where we saw brilliant green fields of new crops, sand...

I'm not sure why we never visited Versailles before but we finally did today. We grabbed a subway to a station where we could catch the C train. After about 45 minutes on the train we popped off the train almost at the foot of the chalet - what an understatement. This palace, the Chalet de la Versailles, began its growth and development in 1682 when King Louis XIV (the most famous guy) began construction of his "King's house". This, the world's largest roya...

Moulin Rouge is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Paris. It has entertained guests with its famous dazzling shows and also hosted international stars on its stage for over 126 years. Tickets are expensive. In our past visits to Paris, our evaluation was it's probably a tourist trap and not worth the time and money. But this time we looked at it a bit differently. It's the Moulin Rouge. It's only here and we have heard it about it all our liv...

While we fall in love with every small town we visit like Rapallo, Como or even Beaucaire, a big city has a certain attraction. It is enticing, and captivating and almost hypnotic, saying, "Come to me, come to me." And I want to. I fall under the spell and I think Stan does too. We start thinking about moving here, maybe just for a year or two. And should we someday, we won't live in the suburbs; no, we will live in the city. Maybe not in one of the most ex...