Fin de France: Paris

Upon our arrival in Paris, we took a metro train to a station near the hostel that we stayed at near the Louvre. We had free range in Paris to do whatever we wanted.. which was quite nice since we had been on such a strict schedule during the last two weeks. We all toured around Paris, some went to the Palace of Versailles, took boat tours, and double-decker bus tours. Everything was very beautiful and had so much history. For the most part the people were fairly nice. Here are a few pictures to highlight some of the tours.

The Seine river that flows through Paris, you can basically get to anything from the river. And the boats were the guided tour that most of us all went on.

Here is the east side of the Louvre Museum which was only a couple blocks from our hostel. If you take 30 seconds to look at ever item in the museum it would take you 3 months to walk through the entire building!

Emily, Regina, and Haylie hanging out at the river the first night we arrived in Paris.

Palace of Versailles

Notre-Dame Cathedral, absolutely beautiful.

Inside the Notre-Dame Cathedral

Eiffel Tower at night around 9:45 pm.

On the hour the tower starts a light show and the tower just sparkles (around 10:00 pm)

Even in Paris you can find a Husker "N" : )

Charles de Gaulle-Etoile  (The gate into the city)

The view from the first floor of the Eiffel Tower.

Alexander the third bridge, the most luxurious bridge in Paris.

 Thanks to all who read the blog and traveled along with us as we explored France, Germany, and Switzerland. It was so much fun, but at the end I think we were all glad to be back home! 

Day 11 & 12 Southern France and Back to Dijon

 Our last couple days of the tour with Pascal seemed to go way too fast! After spending a night near the Mediterranean Sea we went back to our hotel in Orange. The next morning we were up early to head out to a Crocodile Farm in Pierrelatte before we drove all afternoon to get back to Dijon. Upon our arrival in Dijon we unloaded our things at a hotel downtown and then the sponsors had to return our vans. We later then had our end of the tour farewell dinner with Pascal.

On Saturday we had the morning free to explore the farmers market in downtown Dijon and do whatever shopping we wanted before having to check out of our hotel. In the afternoon around 3:00 pm we boarded on the TGV train to Paris and arrived around 4:40pm. The TGV train travels around 200 mph so we made it back to Paris in a short amount of time.

The crocodile farm

They even had an albino crocodile.

Here a female is in heat and making vibrations in the water. This is how they choose the male to mate with. The crocodiles become very hostile during the mating season.

Our last diner out with Pascal in a fancy restaurant downtown Dijon. On the menu was snails, beef, chicken, pork, or veal. Everything was fairly good, the snail soup not as good as the buttered and garlic snails in the shell.

Snail soup.

Creme Brule

Day 9 & 10 Southern France

Thursday and Friday we spent our time in southern France, Provence actually! Everything we have seen has been absolutely great and keeps getting better. Thursday morning we went to a Lavender museum, and an olive oil mill in the morning, then had a very nice lunch in Les Baux a cool tourist town. After that we traveled even further south to the Mediterranean Sea at Saints Maries de la Mer. We had time to walk around and visit the cool shops, the beach and then took a boating tour before having a great supper at a restaurant right near the water.

In the morning we went to a Lavender museum in Coustellet. This is actually Lavandine... Fine Lavender only grows above an altitude of 800 meters.

Here our guide explains the process of distilling the lavender to make fine lavender oils.

After the Lavender Museum, we visited an olive oil mill. We tasted some yummy olive oil and olive pastes.

In the Afternoon we headed down to Saintes Maries de la Mer and took a tour of the Rhone river delta to the Mediterranean Sea.  These are some cattle that live along the river valley.

Here is a view of the city and the church which is the highest building of the city.

Along the our tour we also saw these wild horses.. Once the young reach adulthood, their hair will change from brown to pure white like the other horse shown above.

Regina, Haylie and Emily dipping their toes in the water.

Since we were right along the sea what else would we have but fresh sea food. Included was full shrimp, oysters, scallops, calamari, and a piece of chicken with bed of rice.. Very good if you like seafood!  

Day 7 & 8: The Alps and Southern France

Our Tuesday morning started out with a brief 5 minute drive to a small pasture that was home to a group of Heren mountain dairy cows, near Trient, Switzerland. The sound of the bells that the cows wore around their necks was absolutely great. The cows have short legs and can survive on minimal food, which is perfect for the region in which they are grazing. After some time with the cow herd we traveled through the rest of the mountains and back into France where we saw the summit of Mont Blanc (White Mountain) which was at 15,000 feet. We stopped in the town of Chamonix which is a main ski town for the area and held the first ever Winter Olympics, very cool place. Later we toured the Chartruese Distiller where we were able to try a couple different kinds of liquors made from plants and herbs. Two bottles of liquor have a secret recipe that only two monks are allowed to know and produce at the factory.

The following is a video of the the cattle and the sound of all the bells:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9g0Og8513Y

The detail on the leather was so cool.

Mont Blanc

Chartruese Distillery- Voiron Where a special liquor is made that only two monks know the secret recipe for.

On Wednesday we drove to Southern France to visit a truffle farm near Grignan, have lunch in Nyon and then later tour ancient ruins of a Roman city in the afternoon. Truffles is a type of mushroom that grows near the roots of Oak trees. They are considered a delicacy in French cooking and are very expensive. The truffles have a very strong smell and the producer uses a lab canine to search out the truffle.

Lab searching for truffles in the dirt. Once she retrieves one, the owner rewards with a treat.

A fresh truffle.

Our lunch in Nyons of ravioli filled with shrimp and fresh vegetables, with a pesto basil sauce.. Very good!

Back side of the Roman theater.

A room in an old Roman mansion.

They had beautiful flooring with exquisite detail.

They would plaster the walls an paint them very vibrant colors, but not much was able to be preserved.

Tomorrow we are off to a lavender museum, olive oil mill, rice fields, and then a boat tour on the sea to the Rhone river mouth.

Day 6: Switzerland

Today we traveled through German to a wine cooperative in Efringen and had yet another tasting, then had lunch at an organic farm where we had ham and white asparagus that was very delicious. In the afternoon we drove to Switzerland and stopped at the lake of Geneva, before heading off the the Alps. The Alps are absolutely breathtaking, we then took a very windy road up the the mountains. We are staying in a hotel in the mountains where we had a good supper of chicken, fries, cauliflower, and a mixture of peppers and other vegetables.





The internet connection is not very fast here so I am not able to upload pictures tonight. Tomorrow I promise to give you a glimpse of the views we have seen the past 24 hours.

Day 4: White Wine and Off to Germany

The lady that gave us a tour and led our wine tasting. We have been very fortunate to have tour guides that speak very good English, only twice have we had to have an interpreter.

Morgan, Haylie, Emily and Regina enjoying the white wine!

The awesome view from the Chateau!

Chateau du Haut Koenigsburg

The castle was so cool, and pictures do not do it justice. Wish you all could be here with us!

This is my favorite picture.

Last night we stayed at a beautiful hotel in Alsace. This morning we took off to the village of Riquewihr where we toured the Dopff & Irion winery and had some delicious white wine! After our tour and tasting we were able to walk around town and buy many souvenirs, then had a good lunch at a local restaurant. In the afternoon we went to a castle: Chateau du Haut Koenigsburg, from there we crossed the Rhine river into Germany.

Tomorrow we will travel along the black forest to a large wine coop group and tasting in Efringen, then off to Switzerland to the Lake Geneva and the Trient alpine glacier. We will stay in a hotel in the Alps near around 5,000 feet.

Day 4: Jura Mountains

Today has been our 4th day in France and we left early this morning to go to the Jura Mountains. The countryside reminds me much of Colorado, with rocky ledges and very green grass and many trees. Our first stop was at a Comte cheese factory and a Montbeliard dairy farm in Bouverans.

This is Taz, the owner of the Comte cheese factory that we got to tour in the Jura Mountains. We sampled some the cheese, which had a very strong taste, and of course we had more wine!

Calves are removed from their mothers moments after birth and they still have a desire to suck so they are given a nose ring with spike to prevent from the suckling.

The beautiful countryside in the Jura Mountains. Everything is very green even though they have been quite dry for the season.

Here is the milking parlor, which is exactly like the dairies in the states.

We had the chance to tour a Comtois horse breeding farm near Maiche. The horses were trained very well and could do many tricks... like the one seen above.

More tricks.

The horse farm that we visited also had a dairy just down the road and here was the huge pile of hay that they stored to feed the cattle.. there were two more storage areas like this.

This was a grapple fork that moved along the ceiling of the building from the pits with the hay in them to the other side of the shed where they cows were fed. It is mechanically operating by someone sitting in it and then runs up and down the building on rails.

Tonight we are staying in a very nice hotel in Alsace. Tomorrow we will traveling to the Dopff and Irion winery and then a tour of the Chateau du Haut Koenigsburg. We will then be crossing into Germany and staying there for the night.