I had purchased Louvre tickets for early this morning. A few days before, I received an e-mail stating that a possible strike would delay the opening until 10:30, and the tickets I had would be good for anytime. We decided to alter the route and start towards the Latin Quarter instead of finishing there. We … More Musee, I see, we all see da Vinci

Day two put us on a train out to Versailles. We stopped at a nearby boulangerie on the way to the station and did a marvelous job of interrupting the constant flow of normal customers, because the one person behind the counter seemed to have orders memorized. We stood, deciding, while several came through, hurrying … More Versailles or: How I Learned to Stop Budgeting and Love the Opulence

We arrived to Paris late in the evening. I had marveled at the rotary around the Arc de Triumph on Google Maps, blissfully unaware that the GPS would dump me into this washtub on the way in. Everyone else in the family loved taking the arch in up close, while I was fortunate enough to … More Hon Hon Hon Oui Oui Baguette

The next day involved a lot of driving through the French countryside, from our place in Chemery to St. Malo, then to Mont St. Michele, then on to Bayeux. We were on the road early and stopped at a highway petrol stop for gas and breakfast. More croissants and pain au chocolates, coffees and hot … More Pirates, Abbeys and The Longest Day

The next morning, Mom and I walked next door to the local boulangerie, arriving about 5 minutes before they opened. The smells were incredible. There was a bit of a communication gap, but it’s not too hard to end up with croissants and pain au chocolats when you are in France. It may have been … More I say, “Lwahr”; the kids say, “Shut up, Dad”

The trip to France would be a busy one. We had Disney, the Loire Valley, Normandy and Paris on the agenda. And we had someone from the States joining us, my Mom! We decided to fly out of Jeddah thanks to a great airfare from Qatar Airways. This meant a 3 hour drive tacked on … More Roi Disney