Erin and I have shared an interest in toutes les choses francaises for a while, and we had always talked about going to Paris together... let's just say there was shopping, sir, lots of shopping. We did our best to keep the French economy afloat. We stayed at a cute little hotel in the St. Germain des Pres area on the left bank, which was a really nice area.
Unretouched photo of Erin, actually in Paris!
Oh yeah...I specifically requested that we stop in Starbuck's so I could have a BIG coffee. Yummy! :-)
I had told Erin about the way-cool flea market on the outskirts of Paris, so we went there on Sunday. Erin found some really great vintage buttons for her shop, and it was fun to drool over all the cool furniture (well, not literally!). Erin had a list of knitting shops in Paris, and we managed to visit a couple of them, including one called La Droguerie, which was really cool. We also checked out the sewing "floor" at La Bon Marche, a huge department store in Paris, which was amazing. The had fabric, yarn, crochet, etc, etc...
We spent quite a bit of time just walking around and even managed to squeeze in a visit to the art and design museum before we left Paris.
Notre Dame and the "dame"
We took the high-speed train back down to the south, where it was raining. So not a great introduction to the South of France for her. But, the weather did clear up somewhat over the weekend.
There was more shopping in Cannes one day, with a tour around the old town. In my opinion, Cannes is actually quite charming, once you get away from the pretentious and expensive shops.
We hired a car for the weekend, and on Friday, drove to San Remo, Italy. I'd never been there before, so it was fun to explore. It's not a big town, but the buildings have lots of architectural interest and the sea is beautiful.
The old cathedral in San Remo
The weather gods smiled on us that day, and we had a fantastic sunny day. We had a snack at a bar that was just on the sea...lovely.
It's a tough thing, eating lunch in a place like this. But we were up for the challenge.
The next day, Saturday, all 3 of us piled into the car and drove up into the mountains. We stopped at Gourdon (so cute!!!), so Erin could see the amazing views from the perched village, and then continued on to the Gorges du Verdon, which is a canyon that we saw back in September when we went hiking in that area. The weather was nice that day also, which makes it much better to see the vistas.
The Verdon river in the gorge.
Erin's train left for Paris at 7am Sunday morning, and she went back for one night, before catching her flight back to SFO Monday morning.
All in all, a good visit!
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