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We mostly put together this webpage in order to document everything for ourselves. So we're including a short summary for each day, but then you can click on any of the thumbnails to expand and view every obnoxious photo, video, or detail for each day. All of these extras will take a minute to load, so you may want to view everything while you're close to some good wifi. Hopefully those who want can scan through quickly, and those who enjoy more detail can spend as much time as they'd like viewing everything.

Tuesday, July 12

Travel Day!
We left Shreveport around 8:30 AM, went through Starbucks for breakfast and got on I-20. Stopped at Buccee’s in Terrell for snacks and restroom. Drove to DFW, made a wrong turn, then found our way. We pre-paid for covered parking but, when we arrived, they said the lot was full and directed us to a lot on the other side of the airport. Oh well. Made it through security pretty quickly and sat and waited and charged our devices. Our flight left at 3:40 PM and landed in Paris around 8:00 AM (1:00 AM our time). Nobody slept much, if at all.

Wednesday, July 13

Amboise

We landed in Paris some time around 8:00 in the morning. We made our way through the airport, through the passport checks, and onto a train to the city. Fatigue was catching up to us and it was a rough trip. We finally had to abandon our hot crowded train and find something to drink. We found a McDonald's and got hydrated, then caught an Uber to Gare d'Austerlitz, where we would catch the train to Amboise. Paris traffic, with mopeds zipping between cars, is an adventure in itself. We hopped on a train and most of the family got a little nap in. We arrived in Amboise, walked across town, and found our house for the next three days. Kim, a New Yorker who has been living in France for 30 years, showed us around the place, and recommended some spots around town. From there we made a grocery run, cooked some dinner at home, and enjoyed the bottle of champagne that the Airbnb left for us.

Thursday, July 14

Amboise

After a night of rest, we walked to Café Bigot for a late breakfast, coffee, fresh OJ, pain au chocolat, an omelet, quiche etc. It was delicious!

After we ate, we took a tour of Château Royal d'Amboise, the town castle which was right by our house.

We ate dinner at a pizzeria with a patio on Rue Nationale. That evening, we watched the Bastille Day fireworks from a tiny balcony at our house.

Friday, July 15

Amboise
Friday we toured Château du Clos Lucé, the chateau where Leonardo da Vinci spent the last three years of his life (1516-1519).

Saturday, July 16

Paris

We took our train from Amboise to Paris and took the metro to our house in Paris. We were shown around and the place was kind of a dump with ratty old furniture. We decided to make do until we tried to run a bath and the cold water in the tub didn't work and it was dirty and had a big spider in it. We cleaned out the tub, but then found that the drain kept adding dirt to the tub. With a growing list of issues, that was it. We got on the phone with Airbnb and made plans to get out. We did enjoy a nice little restaurant around the corner that ended our meal with some lemon liqueur aperitif. We also went to the grocery store and couldn't find the milk until somebody pointed out an elevator that went underground where there was another floor of groceries. We had no idea!

Sunday, July 17

Paris

Sunday we took all of our luggage, grabbed an Uber van, and moved to a hotel in the north part of the city. When we got there the streets were packed with this crowded outdoor flea market. It was not very inviting at all. We dropped our bags off and headed to Ile de la Cite. We bought some coffee and used the restroom in this cafe with a restroom that was just dug out of the wall past the kitchen. We bought some souvenirs and caught a small glimpse of Notre Dame. We ate dinner at the restaurant bar. It was on the 8th floor with an outdoor section with a beautiful view of Paris. The bar food was good. They were playing techno music that didn't really have any lyrics. Then, at some point, a deep voice in the song says "turn around baby and let me see your ass shake." It was hilarious for a family dinner. The line has been repeated often since then.

Monday, July 18

Paris

Monday was our last full day. Danielle and James went to the post office to mail some souvenirs and clothes home. It was a long, sweaty, expensive ordeal at the post office, but we managed to do it (provided that those packages show up soon).

After that, we all went to the Eiffel Tower. There were walls up everywhere and you had to go through security just to walk under the tower. When were here in 2004, everything was wide open and you could just walk right up to it.

Tuesday, July 19

Travel Back Home

On Tuesday, after a 10-hour plane ride, we finally made it back to DFW. We got out of there, loaded up on McDonald's, and made it home by 7:00. Home never looked so good! We were starting to feel bad, so we took Covid tests. Yep, we came home with the 'Rona. Blech! It's been mild, so we just relaxed at home for awhile, which is what we had wanted to do anyway.

Conclusions

This trip happened to coincide with a record breaking heatwave in Europe. We will definitely try to shoot for traveling in cooler weather next time, but we managed ok this time. We just had to stay on top of hydrating and being careful to get a hotel WITH air conditioning when we had to move to a new place in Paris. It was kind of horrifying to realize that most people live without A/C there. Even the post office didn't have air conditioning. It's mostly not needed throughout the year, but we sure felt like it was needed when we were there! I can't imagine trying to sleep at night with highs in the 100s during the day. The interesting part is that it doesn't get dark until really really late at night. France is just so much further north on the globe than Louisiana is, so the sunrise is early and the sunset is late in comparison. So when the sun was a problem, it seemed to linger longer than it would have at home. On the flip side, we didn't really see any mosquitoes anywhere.

One kinda silly thing we missed was wash rags! In every place we stayed (nice Air BNB, crappy Air BNB, and nice hotel) they allotted us one bath towel and one hand towel apiece for the whole stay.

While we managed the language barrier just fine (France is full of places that cater to tourists) it was lovely to return home and be able to understand every word that a fast-food employee says to you. We noticed that we heard and read a ton of English or American music or advertising all over the country. We don't typically think of seeing other languages and such at home. Right as we were all relieved over getting back home to the all-English world, we spotted some French on the way home! Ha!

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