It is Saturday 8/31 at 9:35pm local time. The last three days have been a whirlwind and we have finally arrived in Beaune for our first full week.
We left Portland and drove to Seattle to catch our non-stop flight from Seattle to Paris. We gave ourselves what we thought would be plenty of time on a Thursday morning/early afternoon for a leisurely uneventful drive to the airport. We left the house around 9:15, hit heavy traffic through the Sunset tunnel, then slow traffic at Chehalis (bad tanker accident) and then the Tacoma crawl (four miles in 45 minutes - what a mess through that area). Parking the car and getting to the airport was the easy part. And of course the airport security was a crawl as well.
The flight to Paris was only about nine hours which really cut down on the flying time and connection time. Got checked into the hotel at the airport and headed into Paris on the RER. We decided to go to the Luxembourg Gardens. It was a beautiful afternoon and the park was filled with people.
From there we walked down Blvd. St. Michel through the Latin Quarter to Notre-Dame. By then we were running out of steam so we headed back to the hotel. Had to wait until 7pm to eat dinner and crashed about 9pm (no sleep on the plane and a 30 minute snooze over a 30 hour period).
Got a good night's sleep Friday night so we were ready to head south. We picked up the car, filled up with diesel and headed towards Beaune (about 200 miles). We started traveling the back roads but a little after 1pm we realized we still had quite a way to go. We made a quick stop in Fontainebleau and checked out the huge chateau there.
We jumped over to the autroroute where you can go 130 (kilometers, not miles - so 80 miles an hour if you want) and got to Beaune around 4:30. Missed the turn to the apartment so had to go around the town again (the outer cirlce road is one way). Very nice apartment and just a short walk to the city center of the old town. Walked around a bit, bought some rose, had a glass of rose, talked to some folks from Maryland and Belgium and then had a great dinner at the local Brasserie Carnot. Charlotte had a salad, salmon with fingerling potatoes and for dessert Brioche French Toast with caramel ice cream and lots of whip cream. Steve had escargot, entrecote (steak), cheese platter and creme brulee (yes the diet and exercise regimen start tomorrow).
Here are a few pictures from today in Beaune.
Well it was going to be a few pictures but the blog is acting up - more pictures another day.
Not sure what we will do tomorrow - Sunday's can be slow in France because a lot of things are closed. But I know Charlotte will have something planned that involves walking.
Au revoir for now - hope all is well back in the states.
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