I managed to get 10:00am reservations for the Fondation LV exhibit combining paintings from Monet and Joan Mitchell. While the exhibits are interesting the star of the show is often the Frank Gehry building. It looks sort of like a fanciful sailing ship. I’ll let you judge the paintings, it is an interesting juxtaposition. After the museum visit a walk around the Jardin d’Aclimitissation, a combination garden, park and very old school classic amusement park type venue. Lots of sort of vintage rides, being enjoyed by kids of all ages. After a long walk and exploration, we landed on a classic neighborhood restaurant for some shellfish and other goodies, Sebillon near Port Maillot. Finishing lunch it was back home to regroup and then dinner with friends at Le Petite Marche, an excellent restaurant of Pl. De Voges run by the same ownership as Chez Janou. (Since Emily in Paris, forget about getting into Chez Janou).

After a quick TGV ride from Tours to Montparnasse, we pushed through the mayhem and out to the 96 bus. Turns out there is a 2 week school break that just started so the Friday evening crowd leaving from Montparnasse was at a very high level. Stopped for an Apero with friend, CC on the way home, and then back on the bus to the apartment. Ended up having a quick dinner immediately next door at a Thai restaurant that does a nice job. Saturday morning it was off to the market at Rue Mouffetard for a few oysters. Then out to the 13th to find Pho Bom, highly rated Pho by MT. It took awhile for them to serve us, but the pho was excellent. From there we walked down to Pl. D’Italie and then to the botanical gardens before hopping on the metro back home. Testing new Air conditioning condensate pumps at the apartment, warm enough to run it for an hour or so. Pump stayed on for long enough to be concerning, but eventually turned off. Dinner with JR at Momoka, a Japanese place in SOPI that brings you course after course of mainly fish type dishes, excellent meal and very reasonably priced for the quality.

Yesterday we headed to the town of Blois for what was supposed to be a market day. That didn’t happen, but nevertheless it is a pleasant town beside the Loire, about a 45minute train ride from Tours. The agent at SNCF sold us a 3 day pass, so we can hop on and off without worry on the local trains. We walked around town, checked out the Chateau, found something for lunch and then hustled back to the station for an afternoon train back to Tours. After a nap, explored the cathedral Gatien in Tours, walked along the waterfront and then time for an Apero and dinner at Pl. Plumereau. Friday, we organized our gear and checked our bags at our hotel, Hampton Inn, and then took the tram up to the train station for trip to Amboise, about 25 minutes. Amboise has a very nice chateau at the top of town and was having its regular Friday market. After walking through the chateau and exploring the town a little, a quick crepe and back to Tours to pick up luggage and head back to Paris on the TGV.

After an early start and a bus ride to Gare Montparnasse, we had an easy on time ride to Tours. Quick check in with the visitor center then the tram to our hotel. Rooms not ready, so checked our bags and headed to lunch. I wanted to go to Chenonceau for the afternoon, but timing was tight. As it turned out, lunch came out quickly and we made it to the station for the train with 8 minutes to spare. After a much longer train ride than it should have been, we made it to Chenonceau. This is the iconic Chateau crossing the river that you see in all kinds of photos of France. Interior is not all that well curated but the gardens are fabulous. Eventually the late afternoon train came and mercifully stayed at speed all the way back to Tours. A fine dinner at L’Atelier Gourmand, recommended by Vero, capped off the day.

Tuesday the 18th was yet another strike day, but fortunately the Metro line 1, the nearest to the apartment is fully automated and reasonable immune to strikes. About 20 minutes east to Vincennes, a village just outside with peripherique with a large forest and a well preserved Chateau/Donjon. After visiting the Chateau, lots of stairs and empty stone rooms, it was off to the local outdoor market and then coffee and lunch at a sidewalk cafe. My friend Emi, who lives in Vincennes and I met on the Camino came to join us. A walk around in the Parc Floral and then back to St. Paul via Metro.

Started out with a quick metro ride over to Rue Mouffetard, of Moveable Feast fame. Saturday is a market day on this street and there is a great fishmonger with oysters and a glass of wine at a reasonable price. After a half dozen, I headed out to do some walking on the Paris high line trail, coulee Verte. In this case, went out to Belair Metro and linked on there, walking the roughly 2km back to the Marche d’Aligre. After a brief walk around the market had a nice goat cheese salad at Cafe Charlette followed by a stop at Le Baron Rouge. Then, various tax forms needed signing and what a hassle that was. Printer at the apartment was out of ink, and wouldn’t print all the layers of the document, located a print shop that looked like it would be able to help me and was open on a Saturday, took metro there, was able to print out the 6 pages that needed signing, then scan them and send them back. Then off to find an ink Cartridge. Finally referred to an Office Depot in the 5th which had the necessary cartridge. Back to the Apartment to get that working. Then glass of wine at Deux Magots and a few bites at L’Avant Comptoir de Terre. Met a nice Thai/French couple and ate a little Foie Gras and some risotto, then home for early trip to Airport.

Started off with a coffee at my nearest good coffee shop, Le Peloton, run by New Zealanders. Then off to NoGlu for some GF croissants. Then it was off to the 17th arrondisment to explore the Market of Batignolles and Rue de Levis. This is a favorite street of one of the French facebook group leaders, Vero, who is also a Rick Steves guide. Weather here is off and on rain, not particularly hard, but enough to need an umbrella. Fortunately, mid 60s temperatures are relatively comfortable. Unfortunately, they are remodeling the commercial space below my apartment and so they are drilling concrete most of the time during the day, not very relaxing. For lunch, I headed to Rue de Montorgueil one of the great pedestrian restaurant streets in the center of Paris. One of my favorite terraces is a place called Le Compas and they had a wonderful shell fish and rice meal, perfect with a glass of Sancerre. After that, tried to track down a Melita filter cone for making coffee, eventually found a ceramic Japanese made one at BHV and am giving it a test drive, also found real heavy cream, which makes all the difference. For the evening, hopped the bus over to Deux Magots and then some risotto at Les Editeurs.

Had a pleasant evening wandering around Bordeaux, with an appetizer at Vins Urbains wine bar and then some risotto on the terrace of the Intercontinental. Stayed at a somewhat fancy hotel, but apparently got the one room in the hotel with no real shower, not exactly what I was after. Nevertheless, quiet, comfortable temperature and slept well. Got up fairly early and packed and then went out to find a breakfast crepe. After that, Tram to the train station and then the super high speed train to Paris, about 2:20 to go almost 600km! 15 minutes from Paris it started raining and the forecast is for rain all week, a definite contrast from the sunny cheariness of Bordeaux. Apartment seems to be in excellent shape and is truly a pleasant and well located space. Did a load of laundry, picked up some groceries etc.

Today was a travel day where it looked like things were going to get messed up at every turn, but it all went well. First a taxi to the station in Sarlat. A bus was substituted for the train, At the next connection the bus was late enough to leave the following connection in doubt, but the driver made up the time. Funny as we were waiting for the bus, there were two older couples, one set from outside of Bellingham on set from Bellevue. Anyway, made the train to Bordeaux, it was slightly late, and then got stopped due to someone on the tracks, luckily that cleared and all in all about 15 minutes late. In an interesting small hotel in Bordeaux, large bath tub in center of the room with one of the hated hand held shower heads. Only got some of the room wet! Bordeaux is hopping as usual and nice weather and comfortable temperature. Went out on a ramble to try and find some lunch and ended up with the default place of Charcuterie. Stopped at a couple fo wine bars and the a plate of risotto for dinner. Bordeaux has a nice pedestrian relaxed feel to it.

I spent the day wandering around Sarlat, checking out the nooks and crannies. This is very much a tourist town, with the good and bad that implies. On the good side, there are lots of shops and restaurants, and after about 10:00am most of them are open for the day. After checking out various streets and alleys, found a nice looking restaurant a little off the beaten path for lunch. Decided to do the big meal at lunch as the food in this area is very rich. A piece of Foie Gras with some Monbazilliac to start and then some roast pork with a fantastic mushroom sauce and potatoes for the main course. That pretty much filled me up, and it was back to the hotel for some downtime. I realized tonight will be the first night that I’ve been in the same place for 2 nights in a row in about 14 days. Although it is fun to move around that does end up being a bit tiring! Anyway, tomorrow, much time on buses and then a train to get to Bordeaux for the night. That puts me one direct fast train ride from Paris on Thursday.