Paris to Bordeaux

Our riverboat returned to Paris. We enjoyed a bus tour of the city. It was wonderful to see so many iconic "Paris" locations, but we didn't get off the bus too many times and most of my pictures had glare from the windows. I could have gone on a walking tour, but I wanted to see more of the sights this time. The next time I'm in Paris I'll get up close and personal with more of the historical buildings! But, I ventured out on my own to find a Pharmacie as Mr. Dreamy acquired a cold and needed some medication. I enjoyed walking into a shopping district and getting what he needed at the pharmacie and at the market, fantasizing about living in a nearby apartment and doing my marketing there.

That evening we went up on deck to catch the Eiffel tower doing it's hourly light show. It was a nice farewell to this lovely city. The next morning, we were on our way to Bordeaux. 

We boarded a bus that took us to the rail station, and we found our car on the TGV - Train à Grande Vitesse, "high-speed train". The trains can reach 200 mph. Our trip took about 3 hours and we traveled 580 Km, or 360 miles. This means our average speed was 120 mph, impressive when you also include 3 stops. The track on the southern part of our trip is not up to TGV standards, so that part of the trip was a bit slower. They are working on upgrading the tracks and this summer the new line will be open and it will take 2 hours, 5 minutes for the trip - the average speed will be in excess of 180 mph. The train was amazingly smooth and quiet, except when trains going opposite directions passed. Then, there was an amazing "POP" of sound as the air was buffeted by such large, fast objects passing so closely together. 

A bus transported us to our next ship, the River Royale. We Dreamers were on this ship previously... in 2010. Here is a shot of my dad and brother, staring in awe at the walls of the deepest lock on the Rhône River.

Since that trip the ship has been refurbished. Tt was moved from the Rhone to the rivers in the Bordeaux region. I was intrigued about just how they would move a ship of that size from one area in France to another. I asked A.J., the Cruise Director, and he found a picture of the River Royale in transit onboard a huge ocean going ship. The ship has doors, similar to a lock, that allows another ship to be sailed inside. Then the doors are shut and water is pumped out. Amazing!

The River Royal on her way to Bordeaux

We arrived at the ship just in time to catch the tail end of a market on the quay. Bordeaux has a long expanse of river front that has been renovated as a lovely open area park. The buildings on the other side of the street used to have storage on the main floor for wine merchants, and residencies above. The merchants would roll their barrels down the slope to the river to get them aboard freighters. 

Bruce (a new friend from Rochester) and Mr. Dreamy slurp down oysters at the market.
Mr. Dreamy is looking verrry Frrrrench in his new hat. Oh la-la!

Our view of the Garonne River waterfront in Bordeaux.

Serendipity

The crowds at the Palace of Versailles were too much for me and Mr. Dreamy. We didn't pause in the last three or four rooms on the public tour, we just marched on..., more like we did a slalom course around crowds of onlookers. We made our way out to the back, only to find that the gardens were not part of the tour. We only had about 30 minutes and knew we wouldn't be able to see much of the gardens, so it wasn't worth plunking down another 7€ each. However, as we walked back to the exit I noticed this sign:

Rough translation:

The Gallery of the Carriages

Grand Stables of the Kings

Our tour guide had mentioned that we would see some grand buildings as we got off of the bus, but we were not to be confused... those were not the palace, only the stables! So, I knew which way to go.

The carriages are displayed in one of the wings of the original stables. You can see the hay racks on the left in this picture. The stables were almost as opulent as the palace!

This was one of many carriages that were used for the wedding of Napoléon to Marie-Louise in 1810. The carriage was later used in 1853 for an event for Napoleon III.

There were many children's carriages on display. This one would have been pulled by a dog or a goat.

Sleds were used in the winter. Horses would have studded shoes, and harnesses with silver bells  to alert others that a sled was approaching. 

This was the carriage used for the coronation of Charles X in 1825.

Another view of the coronation carriage drawn by 8 horses. 

This is the funeral hearse for Louis XVIII

There were several display cases with harness and saddles from times gone by.

Even more exciting than finding the Galerie, was seeing some women working horses in the front of the stables. It turns out that the National Equestrian Academy and Versailles creates artistic equestrian programs with music. These women, with their coach on the right side, were preparing for some sort of show.  I loved watching them.

Palais de Versailles

We had a tour of the Palais de Versailles. This edifice was built by Louis XIV and the seat of government moved here in 1682. The buildings are so large, it was hard to capture them with my camera! We had two tours. One of the private rooms of the King and his family, and the other of the public rooms. Join us on our tour!

It was hard for me to wrap my head around all of the opulence, and to imagine living with such grandeur all around, that many years ago. Wow!

Countdown - Week 7

I'll take a break from posts about France to review what we accomplished in getting read to move this week. Last Sunday we arrived home from our trip to Europe a few hours early. Originally we had a 5 1/2 hour layover in Minneapolis. Luckily, we were able to catch the last two stand-by seats on an earlier flight. As we were out of bed on the ship by 3:15 AM, and it was 10 PM by our body clocks when we got home, we were understandably tired. However, we realized going to bed at 2:00 PM just wasn't going to work well, so we got busy! Within a few hours I had the lawn in the back and around the barn mowed, Mr. Dreamy had begun mowing the front acreage and I used the weed whacker to whack weeds along the garden fences and the barn.

Other happenings this week:

• removed wire "cages" from around the trees and rolled the wire into smaller bundles for the estate sale (they said, "throw out nothing"!) . I put the wire and the "T" posts (metal fence posts) in a staging area for the sale. (We have large herds of mule deer that wander around all year. They chew on tree branches, and in the fall they rub against the trees, none too gently,  to remove the velvet on their antlers. Trees in this arid part of Colorado have enough to contend with without dealing with damage from the deer.)

• determined sale/no sale items in the guest room and bathroom upstairs. I have a pile of things under a sheet that are designated for wherever we end up.
• doctored Malachi. When I went to feed the horses on Memorial day I realized Malachi had a HUGE lump between his jaw bones, and more inflammation on his neck. Clear yellow fluid was leaking from pores in the skin. Bleech! After discussions with his owner I cleaned up the area, and waited.... ugh! The abscess ruptured during the night and I began a cleaning routine.  The Vet came on Wednesday. She is not sure if the abscess is the result of a tooth infection or a disease called Strangles. He was put on a course of antibiotics and cleaning treatment 4 times a day.  If the infection returns after the course of antibiotics he will need x-rays to determine what tooth/teeth are involved. His owner agreed to take him to her house as she knows how crazy my days already are. If you want to see pictures... scroll all the way down. If you'd rather not... stop scrolling when I tell you to!
• yard work. We all did a bit in the yard. We contracted with a company to remove 20 dead trees, which they did while we were gone. However, they left two standing, so they came back to finish the job. The company removed our pitiful lawn in the front and brought in soil to prepare for sod. (unfortunately, there is now a shortage of sod so we have a beautifully prepared expanse of dirt.)

• The landscape guys replaced rock and the turned my vegetable beds, I worked on turning and weeding the back garden. It is planted. I even put some flowers in there.

• I trimmed some dead branches from trees and weed whacked around the trees, and around the garden beds. I sprayed the back yard for weeds. My sprayer broke and I've ordered new parts. Mr. Dreamy finished cutting the front acre.

• I'm making decisions and making piles. What to take? What to sell? I'm moving stuff from Point A to Point B and sometimes back again. I've packed a total of 24 boxes now - need to get more.
• we decided on the date for the sale. It's further off than I had hoped, but with our whacky schedule there was just no way to move it up. The sale begins on July 13 and ends that Sunday. We hope to have last minute things lined up so they can be done the next week and our house can be readied for going on the market. 
• Mr. Dreamy got a quote for paint work. He went out to buy the paint and do it himself! He finished painting the front fence. He started to scrape the picket fence. Ugh! It's awful work!

• Mr. Dreamy also bought baseboard molding for the basement and he began installing it. The baseboard pieces are 12' long. It was awkward to try to get them into the basement by traditional means. So, I went down and opened one of the basement windows sand we simply put the boards through to the basement that way. 
• While dealing with the basement window I realized how disgusting the windows were so I vacuumed all of the dead bugs and loose dirt out of the tracks of the windows. I washed the windows, inside and out and cleared out trash that had blown into the window wells. We put 2 bags of gravel into the wells and they now look much nicer.

Until I wrote everything down, I didn't think we had accomplished much of anything. But on paper, er... on computer screen... it looks like a lot! I wonder what next week will bring?



I hate to say how relieved I am at not having to attend to Malachi 4 times a day. Taking care of him takes a lot of time, and I'm feeling a real time crunch now. I am so thankful that Sharron recognized this and trailered him back to her house. She was going to move two of her horses anyway, she just changed which horses went on the trailer.

Stop scrolling if you don't want to see yucky pictures! 

The weeping lump before any treatment.

This shot shows the swelling on Malachi's neck, as well as that under his jaw.  He also seemed swollen  along the lymph node area moving up the jaw. 

By the morning the abscess had ruptured. It looks awful. It smells terrible. But, the pressure has been relieved! Oh, and this picture was taken after I cleaned it up!

Along the Seine

The Seine River has three locks between Paris and the mouth of the river at Honfleur. Here we are approaching one of the locks. 

We are slowly pulling into the lock, moving under the gate. This is called a guillotine lock.

The captain keeps a close eye on the ship and the sides of the lock. This ship has electric motor pods fore and aft, powered by a diesel generator up front. The controls let the captain swivel the motors in whatever direction he needs to control the ship's movement.

This is the lock master's house. It has signs pointing either direction, showing the distance to the locks east and west of this one. 

The crew hops off to do a little cleaning

The gate drops down behind us

There are controls on both sides of the boat, and off we go.

Heading downstream....