Paris
Our 4th trip to France to visit the area and Jane's parents. This time we went with Steve Cannady & Betsy Bauer and we shook things up a bit, we arrived in Paris and stayed there for the first week before taking the high-speed train south to Beziers.
We met Steve & Betsy at Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport, and took the RER Train into Paris. We stayed at the Hôtel Observatoire Luxembourg again. It's across from the famous gardens, a really great hotel and only one block from a Metro/RER line stop, so getting around was easy. We once again had a room in the 'flatiron' part of the hotel looking out over the Latin Quarter. After settling in, we hit Paris, who needs sleep? We walked to the Cathedral Notre Dame for a quick tour inside, saw the Pantheon, the Latin Quarter (where we would spend a fair amount of time), and took the Metro over to the Eiffel Tower, and walked back in the sunset along the river Seine for a late dinner.
Our first day pics here

A rainy Tuesday, our second day, saw us taking the Batobus river boat for a tour of Paris via the Seine. The boat allows you to get on/off, so we walked around a bit at each stop. The rain was pretty fierce at times, but wasn't a hindrance to enjoying the area, that's what LL Bean rain gear is for! In the afternoon, we walked up The Avenue des Champs-Élysées, with the Arch de Triumph at the center. We visted the Eteral Flame and climbed up to the top of the Arch for an incredible view of Paris at night. Window shopping along the avenue was incredible, Ferrari dealers, Ducati, you name it, if it was expensive, it was there! We visited the Toyota showroom and I got to drive the Formula 1 simulator. Apparently I did so poorly, Toyota announced the next day it was pulling out of F1! Tuesdays pics here

On Wednesday, we took a narrated tour bus of the city, visiting some of the same sites (although viewed from the road not the water) we saw the day before. We climbed the Eiffel Tower for an unbelievable view of the city on a birght sunny day. Spectacular! In the afternoon, we spent the rest of the day viewing the Louvre Museum and an evening roaming aorund the old part of the Latin Quarter. Wednesday can be viewed here

On Thursday we took an RER out to Versailles to visit the palace. It's one of the largest palaces in the world and the visit was an entire day. The rooms, the grounds, the buildings, everything is incredible. This year we were able to visit the Hameau, a miniture village built by Marie-Antoinette, which was under restoration in 2003. View our last day in Paris here

On to Faugeres
We took the TGV (Train à Grande Vitesse, French for 'high-speed train') from Paris to Beziers, where we met Jane's parents for lunch, and the a drive to Faugeres. Steve clocked the train speed with his GPS, and it travels at 192 MPH, and our speed averaged 173 MPH. We had a relaxing evening with Pete & Anne and an early bedtime after our 4am departure from Paris. Yes, we had our usual trauma getting to the train station, starting with a Hire Car that forgot to pick us up. We barely made an RER train out to Degaulle, and arrived 20 minutes before our train left, and we still did not have our tickets/boarding passes yet! The train manager let us board with our web site printouts, but he didn't know where our seats were, so we had to keep moving around. This is a cool train, and a great way to travel.

On Saturday, we went to a market day in a small town, drove thru the mountains on some goat path Jane found on our way over to the Mediterranean and a relaxing drive up the coast. We bought some food and supplies at the market to prepare a meal in the Gite and spent the evening teaching Jane's parents how to play Greed. Much wine was drunk and a good time was had by all!
Saturdays pics here

Auberge de Combes! On Sunday, we drove to one of our favorite restaurants in the world, Auberge de Combes for Sunday lunch. We have had some incredible meals here over the years. See what we ate!

We left on Monday for a Cathar Trail adventure with a stop to the walled city of Carcasonne, a World Heritage site, or Cité de Carcassonne. We've visited there before, and the city is stunning with lots to see. After exploring the city, we stayed at a really cool castle B&B just north of the city in St. Martin de Villereglan, Chateau de Villereglan for 2 nights while we explored the area. See our pics here

On Tuesday morning, we took a detour from our planned Cathar Trail tour plans on a suggestion form our hosts to visit Rennes le Chateau , the place made famous by Dan Brown in 'The Da Vinvi Code', and it was worth it!. We then visited a keep, Chateau d' Arques and had a private tour guide for the visit, and then a drive thru the mountains to Chateau de Durfort, whic was closed. We had some blocked passes in the mountains, so we spent a fair amount of time back tracking to re-route, trying to visit more castles. Near the end of a long day, we stopped at Termenes for a walk around the village.
On Wed, we visited the ruins of Chateau Peyreperteuse. The drive up the side of the mountain in the fog was tense, and then we had a bit of a climb up the side of the mountain to get to the ruins. Then, a short drive over to Queribus, across the valley, both are high up on mountains with incredible views, and you can (ona clear day) see both castle ruins. Our last stop was at Aguilar before we headed back to Faugeres. Tuesdays and Wednesdays pics here

Thursday was a gorgeous sunny 80 degrees out, our first really nice day in the south, so we took advantage of the weather and toured the Orb river area in the south. We started with a hike up the the Colombiers Gorge, and then followed the winding river down with a stop for a picnic and some more exploring. See our day trip here

Friday was our last day in the south, and we wanted to see Pont du Gard again, so we got up early and headed over to Montpelier thru the mountains. We spent the day checking out the 2,000 yr old aqueduct, and we took the long way back thru Cirque Navacelle to see the oxbow. We didn't plan well, and we arrived there towards dusk, so the treacherous route down into the bowl was somewhat scary.
We had dinner reservations with Jane's parents at Chateau Grezan in the evening, so it was a busy day. Grezan is also a family vineyard/winery. The verdict is split on whether Grezan or Auberge de Combes was a better meal, but for sure, we did not suffer for good food at any meal the entire trip! See our long Friday here

Saturday morning was spent cleaning and packing up for our departure to Beziers and another train to Paris. We spent the evening in Paris, had another good meal, and stayed at the Sheraton at Charles DeGaulle for our flights home Sunday morning. Our last day in France>

Here are three panarama shots that Steve Cannady took. They are of the grape fields near Faugeres, the fog at Chateau Peyreperteuse, and Pont du Gard. They are rather large. View them here (Press F11 to view in Full Screen Mode)