In celebration of our 30th anniversary my wife and I spent two weeks exploring France, as always with travel you will encounter complications with things but it all worked out and we shared many special moments. On this trip to Europe we decided to rent an apartment through Air B&B. We arrived in Paris after a 16 hour day ready to check into into our apartment. Three apartments later we finally settled in. It was a long day to say the least but AirB&B and the owners were very apologetic and accommodating. We stayed in the Montmartre section of Paris where we found many great restaurants, shops and sites. We decided to take a walking tour with Secrets of Paris, Heather our guide was fantastic, an American who moved to France some years ago she was able to communicate to us the rich history of Paris and gave us a behind the scenes look at the markets. We ended our tour with a surprise I planned for my wife a picnic over looking the Seine. A great day indeed! We ended our stay in Paris with a fantastic dinner cruise. Paris is truly the most romantic city in the world. On to Normandy. We took the train to Caen and rented a car for three days. (More about driving in France in the transportation thread). We wanted to visit Mont St. Michel and decided to stay on the island, making our way to Mont St. Michel we ran into a bad storm with 60+ mile an hour winds and heavy rain. We stayed at Hotel Le Mouton Blanc a great small hotel. We made the trek to the abbey and visit the many shops and sites. Mont St. Michel is a true marvel and a must see. I have always wanted to visit D-Day sites and as an American I can tell you that it was an extremely moving experience. We visited the Caen museum, Omaha Beach, Gold Beach and Arromanches and the American Cemetery. We stayed in Bayeux and decided to try an Ibis hotel, although small it was fine. Bayeux is a great town which we enjoyed very much. A treat for us is when we stumbled across a free light show after dinner at the liberty tree which was located at the cathedral. It was a moving experience dedicated to celebrating peace and freedom.
On to Provence by train and Arles our home base. We rented a car and made day trips from Arles. We stayed at a B&B in Arles and its was great. Our host Francois was fantastic. With the help of our host and our Rick Steves guide book we took in all we could in 5 days. We explored Arles where we met two new traveling friends from Australia. We went to the bull games, visited museums, roman ruins and had some great food. The market in Arles was a treat very large with a variety of shopping and eating opportunities. We found a beautiful park where we enjoyed a picnic. We visited Aix- en- Provence a great city with wide boulevards shops and restaurants, we also toured the hill country and did the Cote du Rhone wine trail. Gigondas was my favorite. We visited Les Baux a medieval city once inhabited by the Celts in the 2nd century BC. Today it is a monument that has been preserved to honor the past and transformed to a must see tourist destination. We ended our trip in Nice, a lot more cosmopolitain and very busy rich with museums and Italian heritage. We toured the coast line and visited Villefranche Sur Mer an extraordinary harbor town nestled on a hill over looking the Mediterranean. If you can overlook the cruise ship crowd this is a special place that will take your breath away. Monaco was beautiful and showed off its Mediterranean wealth and extravagance with luxury yachts and cars. We loved our visit to France and will look back with fond memories of the places and the people we met along the way.