Okay, since this is confession time, we have to get it out there. We landed in Paris, we departed from Paris, and spent 6 days in the area. But we barely got to the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame Cathedral, and the Arch de Triumph, and did not get to any one of the many destinations that people spend thousands of dollars to get to and years dreaming of visiting. For us, Paris was a layover, just a long one!

We did find one of the most impressive grocery stores we’ve ever been in!

Our room was about 20 miles north of Paris in a residential community. We rented a room in a house where the people were on holiday so we had the whole place to ourselves. Oh, plus two hens out back that clucked around the yard night and day, and left us fresh eggs for breakfast.

I already shared the story of the pickpocketing, so we took the time to get over that and just relax and veg out. Since the cost of getting in and out of town was expensive, we rented a car for 2 days, put on about 380 km/236 mi., and checked out some of the smaller towns and the iconic castles in the area, including Chantilly, and Fontainebleau. Even though we did not tour inside, from the exterior they were magnificent. No question, there is something distinctive about French architecture versus other parts of Europe.

We are now back in the US for 2 weeks, and then we head to the Far East via Hawaii and Australia with a repositioning cruise. Overall, it’s been an eventful year, and we look forward to taking it out with a bang