Viva Italia!

Arriving in Vernazza (Cinque Terre, Italy) was a change of pace on a lot of levels!

Hearing people speak Italian vs. French was refreshing! And the size of the town was shocking.

Vernazza is a tiny, I mean TINY town (less than 900 people live here).  Most travel books call it "quaint", what they really mean is "small as hell".  

The town consists of a train station, a small strip of land that begins with stores and markets and 2 feet later ends in a beautiful piazza (Plaza) surrounded my colorful homes, boats, and restaurants (4-5)

We arrived mid day and did not have a place to stay. Luckily we had been talking to a lady that books vacation rentals in this town and we were able to meet with her to find ourselves a spot.

10 minutes, and 50 feet later we were in our new home for the next couple days!

There isn't much to do in this little town, but somehow that was completely ok with us. 

We woke up in the morning, grabbed a pastry and a coffee (its almost impossible to try and be healthy while traveling in Italy) and we would head to the furthest point of the town which was the jetty! The sun would warm up the concrete and the view could not be more beautiful.
It was fun watching the fisherman (yes, there is only one) come in with his catch every morning around 9:30.  Curious tourists with zoom lenses tried to sneak a peak of his catch, but he always covered his bucket up before anyone saw anything .  The fish (octopus, calamari, sardines, etc.) is sold to the few restaurants in town and then offered to the townfolk in the daily street market.
Every afternoon we snacked on a "cone" of fried calamari.  The dark purple tentacles told you how fresh they were.  Light breading, sea salt and fresh lemon (this region is famous for their lemons/limoncello, by the way) make for a really special street food experience.  If they only made a bigger cone....
Florence is next!

Menton by the sea

Arriving in Menton was like being back home. It was warm, sunny and was near the beach! The moment we stepped off the train there was a feeling of relief "okay now THIS is a vacation!!"
The beginning of our trip, (save for a few really great moments), felt a little more like work than vacationing.
Between finding our next place to stay, not speaking the language and wandering around with a map in hand (cell phone data packages are hard to come by), it was a little tougher than we expected. We also got our first fine... we violated a rule about filling out our rail pass, and had to pay the conductor a 25 euro fine on the train... No warnings for us!  Straight to the fine.
Once we stepped off the train, we called hotel after hotel until we finally settled with Princess et Richmond hotel, located right on the water on the main strip of Menton, France.
It was so nice to finally be able to check into a hotel and sit on the beach! Yay.
We spent the rest of the days eating at waterfront restaurants on the boardwalk, walking around tiny cobblestone streets and even rented a scooter one day.  We saddled up early one morning and got to drive through 4 different towns including tiny Eze and Monte Carlo.  Eze was our favorite, like a little island-castle-maze.  Walking paths so small that potbellied tourists had to do-si-do to allow each other to pass without bumping Nikons.  Tiny shops with handmade trinkets and local candies, candles and dresses.  It was really interesting. Its a far cry from bustling Monte Carlo, with Prada, Cartier, Chanel and Louis Vuitton playing bookend to dozens of casinos.  There are more scooters in every Monte Carlo intersection than there were cobblestones in Eze.  Perhaps if our slot machine would have treated us kinder, we would have enjoyed Monte Carlo more, but for us Eze was the day's clear champion.

Menton itself was a beautiful little town, houses clinging to the cliffs, painted different shades of yellow.
It just made you feel warm and welcome.

Breakfast on the balcony!

Ezè

Villefranche-Sur-Mer

Beaulieu-Sur-Mer

Menton

Menton

Gloomy Lyon

We stayed in Lyon for 3 days, which felt like an eternity. Lyon's pace was a slower than Paris. Entirely different actually. Filled with boutiques, shops and stores, Lyon was more about the shopping than Paris was which was surprising. Our first day we walked around to see the historic sites, things like cathedrals and old Roman ruins, parks and other places. Lyon can boast the best cathedral we saw in France. Notre Dame in Paris has nothing on the Notre Dame of Lyon… the ceilings must have taken a decade to perfect. Our photos surely don’t do justice to the artisans who spent thankless hours toiling on their backs with paintbrushes.
After a day of sight seeing we were a little bored. It was cold, rainy and cloudy most of the days here, and by this point, we have not seen the sun for over a week. We decided to ditch Lyon on our last day and visit a town called Vienne (in the Rhone wine country). We rented mountain bikes, as all the cruisers in town were spoken for.  This ended up being a bad idea.  We took them on the local train to Vienne to start our "adventure" (a term oft overused by travel websites, not travelers themselves). Vienne was actually a cute town, we rode our bikes through it on the way to wine country. We spent the day going up hill on various different dirt trails in hopes of finding any sign of wine, but really ended up hurting ourselves on the bikes more than anything. 3 towns and zero tastes later, we realized we had missed everything! (so frustrating) We found a Tourist Office; but of course they were on break when we arrived. Long story short, we ended up finding ONE winery, which consisted of 2 brothers who barely spoke english, Drew tasted wine for 10 minutes and we left for the train station with a grossly overpriced $40 bottle of wine (and a few bruises from falling off our bikes). Yikes! What a day!! We felt completely defeated. Lyon and wine country were not what we thought. Definitely much more suited for older couples who aren't looking to do anything extreme but have money to spend on guided wine tours ($200 each). We then decided we would head to the South of France, where there is water and sun.  Clouds begone, we're done with you Mr. Cumulus Nimbus. Enjoy our pictures we gathered from Lyon, and wine country!

Le Big Mac

So, Paris…

It’s been done a thousand times before.  Twenty two thousand, three hundred and twelve just last week in fact.  The world loves Paris, and why not?  Hundreds of years of history, passion, culinary tradition and art.  Add one part difficult language, along with an incredibly difficult accent, and you’ve got the City of Light.

There is too much too see in Paris.  Even those who live here don’t know the entire city.  An inevitably, someone asks you “Hey! Did you go to the xyz I told you about?”.  To which we always have to reply “Oh no! We tried, but we just didn’t have time.”  What we really want to say is “We found seven other xyz’s that are better than the one you suggested, and three others that were just as good.” 

Trying to “do” Paris in a week would be like trying to grasp the depth of culture in America in the same amount of time.  One couldn’t possibly eat the country's best Louisiana gumbo, enjoy fresh wild-caught Washington (state) salmon,  grub on a fresh Maine lobster roll and tackle a plate of authentic Chilaquiles in a week.  Without the help of a private jet, of course.  Throw in seeing iconic things like the Grand Canyon, Statue of Liberty, San Diego Zoo and Golden Gate Bridge, and you have an idea of what you’re trying to take on by “doing” Paris in a week. 

And in the end; Paris is really about slowing down.  Enjoying that perfectly baked, caramelized, crunchy, chewy  Savoring a hand-made pan au chocolate.  The two itineraries are completely at odds with one another.  “Doing” the city requires hurrying through the list of landmarks and icons; “living” the city requires one to slow their pace to a crawl.  To focus on the mundane and enjoy what one finds fulfilling.  Ultimately, we chose to do things that were important to us, even if that didn’t correspond with the items we found in the list of “1000 Places to See Before You Die”. baguette.

When we arrived in Paris, our host had recommended that we walk as much as possible.  The neighborhood we stayed in was the number 10 (10^th Arrondissment).  There are a total of 20 in Paris; each as complex and chalk full of restaurants, bars, coffeeshops, boutiques and landmarks as the last.  We began our week staying locally.  We went to a French Marché near our house that offered a cornucopia of fresh fruit, cheese, meat, fish and flowers.  Really incredible quality and super friendly vendors.   Our first night in town we took our host’s suggestion and procured some items and made our way to the Saint Martin Canal.  Locals gather weeknights around 7:00 and weekends all day to sit on the edge of the canal, enjoy the views; sip (or chug) wine and beer and converse.  What they converse about… we don’t know.  But they do converse, sometimes loudly.  The evening was as close to “magical” as one could ask for.  The clouds lingered above our heads long enough to turn pink as the sun set, and the temperature never got below 65 (that's Fahrenheit, yankees).  Bellies full and spirits calmed; we retired a bit early our first night, a bit jet lagged from our flight from Iceland. 

Day two was all about landmarks.  We went ahead and did them all in a day.  First was the Louvre.  We didn’t go in… we can have a lot of fun for 39€; and standing in line for 45 minutes, walking 1.74 kilometers on marble floors and staring at paintings by artists (75% of which) we never heard of is not our idea of it.  So, the Louvre was a 15 minute adventure; took some photos and forged onward.  Next was the “Lock Bridge”.  We purchased a lock from a street vendor (certainly licensed) and wrote our names on it, along with a special message and the date.  After that, we secured it to the fence on the bridge and banished the keys to the bottom of the Seine forever.  What a cool experience.  Notre Dame was next, it was as beautiful as expected. The air inside cathedral feels unlike that of the outside. We snapped a few (dozen) photos and enjoyed every wall, ceiling and painting in there. After that it was off to the Tower.  You know, the most recognizable building in the world? Yeah, that one.  Seeing it in person for the first time is really one of those great moments in traveling.  A moment you realize that lugging 49.9 pounds of luggage (to avoid the heavy bag charge) and eating Dominos instead of real restaurant food are worth it.  It’s enough to bring someone to tears.  (And it just might have, but my lips are sealed).

After about 5 miles of walking, we trudged onward to the Arc De Triomph.  With very little gas (read 'baguette') in our stomach, we snapped some Instagram shots and headed home. 

Paris overall was amazing.  We had great food.  We saw amazing sights.  But what I think we both remember most are those “Parisian Moments”; sitting on the Canal with wine and cheese, perusing the farmers market and hanging at our rented apartment listening to the rain tap on the window.  Sure, the Eiffel tower is crazy cool, and the Louvre collection of impressionism is second to none.  But at the end of the day, I’ll take my Parisian memories over TripAdvisors “top 10” list of landmarks any day.  Until next time, safe travels everyone!

Sacrè Couer

Canal Saint Martin

Versailles

Notre Dame