Avignon TGV station
On Thursday, it was time to leave the house in Fourques and head north to Paris for the last stop of our visit. With the car loaded and our bags bulging from the wine and olive oil additions, we left early for the Avignon TGV station. After finding the carefully hidden location for the Sixt rental car return, we boarded the TGV in the modern new railroad station. The countryside flew by on the three-hour trip north.
From the Catacombs in Paris...you are warned!
The sightseeing continued on our first full day in Paris. We started with a trip through the Catacombs. The tour starts in a rather nondescript building. After we passed a sign threatening police action for bone stealing, we descended deep underground on an extended spiral staircase and ended up in an old underground quarry. We traveled in a nearly straight line along the quarry for some distance. Eventually, we reached the point where the old quarry was used as a place to store the bones from cemeteries. As the Catacombs begin, the tunnel begins to meander. An incredible amount of bones are stored in the area of the Catacombs that we visited. Piles upon neatly stacked piles (more…)
Yum! Frommage on display at Fauchon, another high end deli in Paris.
Saturday was our last full day in France for this trip, at least. Paris has way too many sights to see in 3 days, so we had to be a bit selective, arbitrary, or random, however you want to put it.
Our first destination was the Place de la Madeleine. The visit was not just for the impressive church, Eglise de la Madeleine, which is built in the blocky, rectangular style of a Greek temple. The area surrounding the church houses a number of gourmet food stores. There is a store that sells only mustard. Another store specializes in caviar. Also in the area around (more…)
Pompidou Centre
Our flight left Paris at three in the afternoon. This gave us some time before a noon-ish checkout.
Becky arranged for an in room massage starting at 7 am to get us loosened up for a few hours before we tightened up again on the long plane flight. There’s nothing like a little Shiatsu on floor of small hotel room the first thing in the morning to wake you up.
After the massage, we cruised around the neighborhood, hoping for a brief visit to Musee National d’Art Moderne in the Pompidou Centre. Unfortunately, the doors to the museum opened at the casual time of 11 am, so we had to forgo the visit to the museum and just check out the exterior of the building and the Stravinsky Fountains in daylight, this time.
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