Day 16 Paris to Atlanta to San Francisco

After 15 days our trip is finally coming to an end. Day 16 is our travel day back home.  We packed up one final time and boarded the bus at 4:30 a.m. and headed to the airport.  We checked in and passed through security with plenty of time to spend our last remaining Euros at the duty free store.  One final Brookfield photo with the Stiehr's and our tour guide Frank Carcassonne.

Planes departed on time.  We are on our way home!!

Special thanks...

Susie and Patrick Stiehr - thank you for planning (at least 20 months in advance) this wonderful trip for the Brookfiled middle school students.  This was a once in a life time opportunity for these kids to experience so much of France including its rich history, language, geography and culture.  While the trip was exhausting for all the travellers, there was no rest for the two of.  Despite how exhausted you were you took responsibility for all of us and especially the students without their parents, and you always remained calm and organized.

Frank Carcassonne - thank you to Frank our wonderful tour guide who had to coordinate two school groups in one combined tour.  Our schedule was designed to be jammed packed and as our tour guide it was his job to make sure we stayed on track and stayed safe.   I am going to miss your "ok, let's go" command!

Pascal our motor coach driver - thank you for driving us (literally) around the country safely.  We were amazed at your maneuvering skills and how you can parallel park and Y turn the motor coach like you were driving a compact Citron or Renault!













Stephanie and I will have fond memories of this tour that are priceless and that no souvenir can replace.  We will be back again!

If other travellers want to post comments, please use the post comment feature and share your memories. We were a fun group!

Au Revoir! À Bientot!

Day 15 Rouen and Paris

Rouen is France’s fifth-largest port and Europe’s biggest food export (mostly wheat and grain) and this is where we stayed overnight. In the morning we packed our bags and boarded the bus for a walking tour of Rouen, part of the Normandy area. After reading up on Rouen I learned that it's a poorer city with many panhandlers. That explains why during our parent meeting outside our hotel (see photo from prior day) we were approached for money and saw the food bank truck pull up to a large gathering for food distribution.

Rouen has some interesting history like most cities in France, history dates back over 2000 years. It is here where Joan of Arc was tried and convicted as a witch and burned at the stake on May 30 1431. In 1920 the Catholic church canonized her as St. Joan of Arc. There is a monument where she was burned in front of the Joan of Arc church built in 1979

During WWII Rouen experienced heavy artillery and some of the old stone churches still have pock marks from machine gun fire,

 We made a quick stop to visit the Notre Dame Cathedrral. Claude Monet painted 30 different views and  renditions of this church. I found in one of the stained glass windows the dedication for the Cannonization of Joan of Arc in 1920.

We made a quick walk through the market where vendors were selling fish, cheese, fruits, vegetables and bread.  So French!

After the morning in Rouen we hopped back on the bus for Paris...our last day.

Our journey would not be complete without a visit to the Louvre.  We coukd have spent a whole day there but we only had time for featured attractions.

After dinner we made one last stop to Mont Parnasse for a panoramic view from the 56th floor of an office building in Paris.

Our adventure is nearing its end.  Tonight is our last night and out of the hotel by 4:30 a.m. for the airport.

Day 14 Normandy

One night stay at Dinan in the Normandy area and we packed up the bags and headed to the beaches of Normandy, famous site of D-Day.  It was quite moving to stand in places on the beach where amphibious boats landed ashore to drop off troops or stand in bunkers or near bomb craters in fields were soldiers died. All along the drive through the Normandy area are fields and hills where just 70 years ago allied forces were moving on foot.  Today homes and shops proudly display French, American and the British flags in honor of the allied troops.

Our first stop was La Pointe du Hoc, the Ranger Monument.  Pointe du Hoc sits on a cliff 100 ft overlooking the English Channel.  The German army fortified the area with concrete bunkers. On D-Day the U.S. army rangers assulted and help capture Pointe du Hoc after scaling the cliffs.  The ground is pitted with huge bomb craters and reminents of bunkers.

Next stop was Omaha Beach where stands a monument commemorating D-Day.  We walked the beach were the Americans stormed Normandy.  It is a beautiful beach but haunting to think of that day when the water was red with blood and dead and injured bodies everywhere.  Chilling...

After our quick stop we were off to the American Cemetery and Monument.  The cemetery is lined with rows and rows of marble Crosses and Star of David headstones for fallen soldiers.  The two Niland brothers (2 of 4 brothers) are buried here as told by the movie Saving Private Ryan.

We stopped in Arromanches for lunch, a small town on the water known for their seafood.  Stephanie and I and a few other families enjoyed seafood lunch at a local restaurant.  Trés bien!

Our last stop was the WWII museum in Caen.  Could have spent a few hours there but time was cut short due to our tight schedule.  The interesting part for me was the view point of the war from the French and the devistation to their country.  Unlike the history we have been learning about from Roman and Medieval times in other parts of France, this history is recent and tied closely to our U.S. history.

Tonight we are staying in Rouen for one night.  Cannot believe that our trip is almost over!

Another parent meeting...

Day 13 -St. Malo

After a two night stay in Azay-le-Rideau in the Loire Valley we dragged our luggage down stairs (remember no elevator) and rolled it two blocks down a cobblestone walk way to our bus.  (I will skip the details about the innkeeper sleeping in and forgetting to put out breakfast.) Anyway I am sure the neighbors appreciated all that clamoring at 8:00 a.m!  We hopped on our motor coach and headed up north for a four hour drive to the St.Malo area of northern France.

Our first stop was Mont St-Michel. One of France's most recognized landmarks. The monastery sits on an island in Normandy France. Low tide made the island accessible to the pilgrams and during the high tide stranded or drowned assailants during wars. Mont-St Michel has remained French territory through the ages and earned the nickname "resistence".

We hopped back on the motor coach for a 45 minute drive to St-Malo a port town on the north east side of France. By the 1100s, St-Malo was a powerful fortified island guarding access to the Rance River and the English Channel. St-Malo is fortified by ramparts and surrounded by beautiful white sandy beaches. The fortified island was built during the 100 year war in the late 1600s to fend off England.  During WWII St-Malo 80% of St-Malo was destroyed. Today much of the city has been restored to its original architecture even though many of the buildings date from 1945 or later.

Off to hotel for a one night stay in the city of Dinan.

Day 12 The Loire Valley -Amboise

We started this morning with a visit to a local winery in the Amboise area called Plou et Fils. This winery was established in 1508 and is run by 20th generation of sons. We were given a tour of the wine cave where the wine is stored.  We received a quick lesson on how wine is produced,  aged and corked. After the tour the adults did some wine tasting while the kids drank sparkling grape juice.  Great way to start the morning!

note... kids are drinking sparkling grape juice!  Drinking age is 18.

We hopped on the bus and continued to the town of Amboise. In 1516 Leonardo da Vinci packed his bags, including the Mona Lisa, and left Rome for better working conditions in Loire Valley. He was offered a position of engineer/architect/painter by France's King Francois I, who only 22 years old, employed Leonardo, then 65, to engage in intellectual conversation.  Leonardo lived out his last three years here in Ambroise.

While we did not enter into the building where da Vinci lived, the Chateau du Clos-Luc.

After a quick walk around Ambrois we took a lunch break then off to the first of two chateaus on our tour today.

Chateau de Chenoncean is a chateau spanning the Rover Cher in the village of Chenoncean in the Loire Valley. The chateau was built in 1514-1522 on the foundation of an old mill by Thomas Bohier and his wife Katherine Briconnet. The expansive grounds and garden makes it the second most visited palace in France, Palace of Versailles being the most visited.

Castle exterior

Elegant interior decor

1535 the chateau was seized from Thomas Bohiers son for unpaid debt to King Francois I

Onward to the next chateau called the Chateau Ambroise. The royal chateau was confiscated by monarchy in the 15th century and a favorite royal residence of the French.  It is here where King Francois I invited Leonardo da Vinci for intellectual conversation.  It is said Leonardo is buried in chapel of the chateau.

After two tours of chateaus, the kids were getting tired.  So back to the hotel after a great day in the Loire Valley.

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Day 11 The Loire - St-Emilion and Tours

One night  in Bordeaux and we are off to the Loire Valley. Before we started our four hour drive to  Loire we visited St-Emilion one of the principal red wine areas of Bordeaux. The Romans planted vineyards in this area as early as the 2nd century. The town was named after the monk Emilion. It was the monks who followed him that started the commercial wine production in this area.

Back on the bus for our four hour drive to the Loire Valley in central France. Our next stop was Tours (don't pronounce the s). The architecture of the old town is characterized by 15th century buildings made of red brick and wood beam supports. Much of these structures were burned in fires set by German air raids during WWII when the city burned out of control for several days.  Today the town is filled with shops and restaurants.  After a quick walk through old town we were given some free time to explore.

In 1492 Joan of Arc slept in a room in this building which is commemorated with a plaque.

Back on the bus to our hotel about an hour away in a town called Azay le Rideau. Although our building is over 500 years old, the hotel for the most part has been modernized. The streets here are so narrow that our bus had to be parked a block a way while we dragged our luggage uphill over cobblestone to the hotel. Since there are no elevators we had to carry our luggage up the narrow staircase.  Good thing we are here for two nights.

The upside to our hotel was its location.  We were a block away from the Azay le Rideau castle and there was a music festival going on this weekend.  With the sun setting at 10:00 p.m. we had extra day light hours to walk the town and listen to music.

Day 10 Bordeaux

After one night at the hotel in Carcassonne, we packed up and headed west to the Atlantic Ocean.  It was a long 4 hour drive to our first stop at the Dune du Pilat.  Dune  du Pilat is the largest sand dune in Europe located in the Arcachon Bay 60 km from Bordeaux. It is 500 m wide and 2.7 km long running north to south.  On the east side of the dune is a grove of trees and when you reach the top of the dune you are treated to a spectacular view of the Atlantic Ocean.

See map.  Find Bordeaux in the middle of map and the Arcachon Bay is just south west.







The kids had a lot of fun climbing up the dune, some chose to climb the stairs but most trudged through the hot sand like they were in the Sahara desert.  After making the trek up to the dune we headed back down for some lunch.

From Dune du Pilat we headed east 60 km to the beautiful city of Bordeaux. Here we had an architectural walking tour. Relative to the medieval ruins we have been seeing, Bordeaux is a rather young city developed in the 18th century.  While Bordeaux is steeped in history from the first century, the golden era of Bordeaux began in the 18th century with roughly 5,000 buildings constructed in this era.  Architecture is quite different from the Roman ruins and medieval castles.

Tomorrow we continue up north to the Loire area.