Gallivanting Grandma

Aix-en-Provence

August 5th, 2016 . Posted in Family, France | Comments Off

Friday – August 5, 2016

One of my favorite places in the world is Aix-en-Provence and it’s always great fun to visit! Tony parked the car and we walked toward the historic district of the city. We stopped to see an amazing library that Em found on the internet: the Biblioteque Mejanes. There are three colossal books in front of the entrance to the municipal library.

It must have been very difficult to chose only three volumes from all of French literature. I’m sure there was much discussion and philosophical theories about how and why these were chosen: Saint-Exupery’s The Little Prince, Moliere’s Imaginary Invalid, and Camus’ The Stranger.

The building had been an old match-making factory which was repurposed into a library. There were many separate rooms inside which were connected by a central hall:

Nearby was an opera house and a modern shopping mall and several new apartment buildings.

The fountain is in the middle of the traffic circle leading into Aix:

Cours Mirabeau is the main boulevard:

We had fun shopping, walking, and browsing in Aix-en-Provence:

Nicole, Tony, Em and I were joined by our other cousins, Fabienne and Cloe. We had a fabulous outdoor dinner of les savers de la gastronomique marocaine traditionnelle at Le Riad.

Marseille, France

August 4th, 2016 . Posted in Family, France | Comments Off

Wednesday, August 3rd was a travel day for all of us. Jeff and Han flew home to New York; Em and I continued our summer holiday by flying to Marseille. It was an easy hour-long flight from Paris and our cousins, Nicole and Tony met us at the airport.

Thursday, August 4th: Nicole took us on a tour around Marseille to see the city under an incredibly bright blue sky! We saw: Palais Longchamp, Vieux Port (old harbor), Fort Saint-Jean, Parc Borely, and the St. Charles railroad station. We drove up a steep hill to visit the Basilique Notre-Dame de la Garde which towers over Marseille.

Vallon des Auffes is a traditional fishing village in Marseille:

We explored the coast and stopped for a delicious Corsican seafood lunch at a beachside restaurant called Manu Beach New Yorkais Brasserie:

One of many beautiful beaches in Marseille:

Last Day in Paris

August 2nd, 2016 . Posted in France | Comments Off

Tuesday, August 2, 2016

It was overcast and raining softly in the morning so we took the Metro to the Madeleine station.

We stopped in several shops: Maille for French mustard, Laduree for macarons, and Fauchon just to look, on our way to Galerie Lafayette. We found their fabulous ‘food court’ and spent several hours sampling, looking, and snacking.

We crossed the street to Galerie Lafayette’s main building to see the fabulous atrium and stained glass ceiling. We rode the escalator up to the roof to see the view from the terrace.

For our last celebratory dinner, we walked to Passage Panoramas and ate a delicious supper at Noglu.

Château Chantilly

August 2nd, 2016 . Posted in France | Comments Off

Monday, August 1, 2016

The chateau is a beautiful castle surrounded by a wide moat. We took a 30 minute SNCF train ride out of Paris to get to the village. It was a 30 minutes walk from the station to reach the chateau.

We rented a golf cart and drove through the forest and around the huge gardens which surround the chateau.

After a snack in the castle, we explored the decorated rooms. Part of the building is a museum which exhibits a large collection of paintings.

Back in Paris, we enjoyed a Chinese dinner at Xin Gainian restaurant and had Amarino gelato for dessert.

The City of Lights

July 31st, 2016 . Posted in France | Comments Off

Our time in Paris is flying by, the weather has been perfect: sunny and 60s to 70 degrees. Friday morning we took the Metro to Sacre Coeur and walked around Montmartre:

After a snack and cold drinks, we went to the Louvre Museum. We ate a late lunch was at the museum cafe.

Saturday was our day to visit the Palace of Versailles so we took a commuter train out of Paris:

After we walked through the rooms in the Palace, we had fun exploring a small part of the formal gardens.

We took the Metro to l’Odeon station and enjoyed an outdoor dinner at a French restaurant named Un Dimanche a Paris.

We had an early start to the Sunday market near the Bastille which runs along the Boulevard Richard Lenoir. It was a big local market filled with vendors selling a wide assortment of fresh fish, fruits, veggies, meat, bread, honey, wine, clothing and shoes.

We had an early lunch of buckwheat (ble noir) gallettes, made fresh for us by a vendor from Brittany. Delicious! We took the Metro a couple of stops to Cite to see the Sunday “bird market.”

As we passed Notre Dame Cathedral, we noticed the line outside was short and moving quickly, so we joined and entered the huge Gothic building.