Home again, Home again ... and catching up.

A week plus later, and we're almost caught up with mail, bills, and the new house. Our Paris trip was just great. We said over and over that it was the longest three weeks that went by in a flash. Our original idea was to find twelve photos that represented the trip - no way! So here are many more than a dozen - and we still wanted to add more.

We stayed at the Hotel Parc Saint Severin. It was wonderful. A few steps away from the Latin Quarter (The area gets its name from the Latin language, which was once widely spoken in and around the University since Latin was the international language of learning in the Middle Ages). We cannot imagine a better hotel or area in Paris.

The Latin Quarter is a warren of streets, bistros, and shops of every style and price-range. The food was fantastic - the photo below is the first of many Salad Niçoise.

If you can blow up the photo, look at the meal choices for 10ɛ. Not bad at all.

One of the amazing delis.

After 3 days alone in Paris, we met friends from California and Virginia for a pre-river trip visit. We met Margaret and Pidge at a recommended restaurant. Below is our salad course! Added to that, we misunderstood and thought the appetizer bar (cheese and preserved meats!) was our whole meal. Oh, and all the wine we could drink. After consuming a month's worth of salt in the meats, they offered us a fantastic array of dinners. Needless to say, the wine and the guitar player helped!

We took a boat ride on the Seine - and now know our Left Bank from our Right Bank. It was our first view of the Eiffel Tower.

This couple was having their wedding photos along the way.

Of course I love the Apple ad - but the rest of the building facade is fake. It's a covering over the actual building while they renovate. We saw these coverings all over Paris.

We took deep breaths and climbed to the top of the Arc de Triomphe.

Incredible views of Paris fro the top.

D'Hénin LaCroix, P.

Unfortunately we didn't have time to make the show. Darn.

Part of the LoveLock bridge. Couples bring a lock, add it to the bridge, and throw away the key to pledge their everlasting love. Of course, there are some combination locks as well as the

menage e trois locks! The locks are so heavy that some of the bridge sections were falling into the Seine! So much for love!

Rodin's "The Thinker"s backside!

Goodbye dinner in Paris and on to the next phase!

Our riverboat trip from Paris to Paris aboard the Viking Neptune.

The three on the right are high school classmates. The two on the left are nurses who served in Vietnam.

We had a fantastic guide at The Louvre. Betsy renamed Venus as "Farewell To Arms"!

My favorite side trip was to Monet's home in Giverny. Actually, we'd love to stay in that village for a few days. The gardens are wonderful, and we were so lucky that flowers were still blooming. The guides said it was unusual for this time of the year. There is no wonder where he got his inspirations.

Speaking of being lucky -

Jeff being Jeff at a WWII outpost.

We went to the cemetery for US soldiers who died in WWll. They had a special service to honor veterans in our group. Margaret and Pidge are in the second row. They gave each of us a flower to put on a serviceman's cross. There are 7000 soldiers buried here.

We went to the beach at Normandy. It's so hard to imagine what happened that day when you see this peaceful place.

Here's 'the group' after a hike to the castle below.

Betsy's 39th birthday!

One more farewell dinner, and we're off again to St. Paul de Vence for a week at Villa St. Paul - about 10 km from Nice. Al & Jackie at the train station. We took a train from Paris to Avignon and rented a "minivan".

It looks smaller that it really was in person. We could have delivered milk!

Views from our room - our patio

The pool - Jeff swam almost every day.

The front gate.

Villa St. Paul is a B & B with 2 bedrooms and one basement apartment. We rented them all so the guys would have a hangout while Jackie and I slept in. A perfect arrangement plus we had a kitchen. Most days we had our included breakfast, a very late big lunch and then cheese, meats, bread, whatever before we played cards - "Oh, Hell" marathon.

Here is our beautiful host, Jeanette, and one of her pet geese.

Lovely LoLa. Our cuddle companion when we were missing our puppies.

More of Jeanette's pets - and they really are pets!

The village of St. Paul du Vence. It was built in 1538 and is one of the oldest medieval towns on the French Riviera. Now it is home to lots of art galleries, restaurants, shops, and it's share of tourist traps!