We were so lucky to have good friends, Jen and Terry Capsey come to stay with us this November for 10 days!! We had two very fun weekends with them and while we worked, they went to Barcelona and Amsterdam. They were hard core traveller’s from Day 1 when I met them at home on my lunch and they seemed bright eyed and bushy tailed after such a long day of travel! They even hit the village food market an hour after they arrived and Terry jumped right into speaking French with all the locals!!! I’ve been here over a year and here he was showcasing better French skills in his first hour here! Put me to shame…
Chris and I took turns the first few days touring Jen and Terry all around Paris. We hit some main historical sites, like The Louvre, Notre Dame, Arc de Triumph and The Pantheon. We walked the Champs Elysees, Latin Quarter, and Le Marais to see Victor Hugo’s home. They enjoyed the views from Montmartre and Trocedero while the Eiffel tower sparkled at night! They were troopers with all the walking and got the hang of the train system and different lines very quickly!
One major highlight was going to an 11pm show at Moulin Rouge to celebrate the two girls birthdays!!! That was a wild night with an interesting pre-show line up and then amazing front and centre seats with champagne flowing~ it was seriously the craziest thing I’d ever seen; from the roller skating act to a dancer swimming naked with 5, 18 foot boa constrictors in a pool that rose out of the floor in front of us! We got to dress up for kicks and have lots of laughs; what a memorable night!!!
Just walking along the Seine was an adventure all on it’s own one day. Terry wanted a painting of the Eiffel Tower and worked his magic on a vendor to try to cut a deal. He actually did very well since we saw them selling a block up for much more!! It’s one of the reasons we made him an honorary ‘Parisian’ by putting a scarf around his neck for a photo op! We also took a very nice walk all through Saint Cloud Park to see the ruins of Chateau de St. Cloud which King Louis the 16th bought for Marie Antoinette as a country escape. We just happen to live across the street from this royal acreage that the kings hunted in and the grounds are now winding with paths that we can bike or picnic at when the weather is right! There are sculptures and gardens that are magnificent in summer! To see a reconstruction of how the Chateau once looked got to his link.
Finding quaint French cafes to eat in was so much fun with Terry and Jen and then the food and drink made it even better! One day after we had some wine and cheese in the park, Jen and I went to a PSG soccer game at Parc de Prince and it was totally new to both of us! It was an ASP night so I saw lots of familiar faces ~ what a great atmosphere!! Later we met up with Chris and Terry in Montmartre for dinner. We’ll never forget switching restaurants 3 times on the artsy square at Montmartre because of the wind and the waiter and the menu…LOL We ate outside everywhere we went, whether it was Italian, French or Greek fare. We also had many laughs at Caravaggios and the food was excellent everywhere we went (especially the French cheeses and wines picked up at the markets)!! I will never forget Jen eating her frog legs and Chris popping breaded anchovies with eyeballs into his mouth ~ such culinary courage! Terry and I were happy sticking to the familiar ‘French’ Soup…lol
On the first Sunday, we went to Versailles for the market and then to tour the Palace. Chris and I hadn’t been inside the Palace since we moved here; it has been about 12 years since we lived in Switzerland and it was like seeing it again for the first time. We took our time and enjoyed learning about the history of the Palace and then toured the stables as well. The image featured at the top of this blog is Jen and Terry at the top of the Versailles gardens overlooking the fountains. We loved the Hall of Mirrors where the Treaty of Versailles was signed. You can see the boys contemplating which ‘sleigh’ would be theirs if they had lived in those times…equivalent to dreaming about cars I guess…
There was a weeknight that we went into La Defense to the Christmas market and had hot wine while Jen shopped around for some gifts. That night was the coldest it has been here yet this winter, maybe -3. I nearly froze (the hot wine helped!). We did some Christmas shopping and teased Ava and Ayden with our photos of candy booths. 🙂
The last weekend of their visit we decided to leave the kids on their own and go for a little road trip to the Loire Valley! We borrowed a friend’s little Nissan and took off on a Saturday at about 1pm (after I coached volleyball and Jen and Terry went to the Garches market). I had booked an Airbnb near Chateau Chambord that was a 17th century farmhouse with an apartment now built into the ‘attic’. After our first day, we had a late night at our Air bnb. This was because when we returned from dinner we saw two identical doors on the building we were staying in and we were not sure which one was ours and which was the private residence of the owners! It was dark and none of us could remember which door we left from. We didn’t want to wake the owners, so we were in a holding pattern for a while. Then later that night, we couldn’t get Jen out of the bean bag chair in our living room~ it was a material that just sucked you into it 🙂 Great breakfast in the morning though to get us started on our way ~
Day 1 we had planned to go to Chateau Chenonceau and then Clos Luce (Da Vinci’s house) in Amboise, before going for dinner in Blois, where we had reservations at “L’assiette au boeuf”. {In the end, we didn’t make it to Clos Luce in time and had to go back that direction the next morning before hitting Chambord}. Chenonceau was beautiful and it was a first for us visiting there too! An amazing castle run by women, even if one was the mistress…Day 2 in the Loire Valley, we toured Clos Luce and then Chateau Chambord a majestic castle very well preserved with a magnificent staircase in the centre. You can get a sense for it in the previous link.
We arrived home on the Sunday and ordered ‘Uber Eats’ so that Jen and Terry could pack for their flight home the next morning. They really packed in a great deal of fun and special memories over the 10 days they were here. Considering this blog is only about the two weekends they were with us! Amsterdam and Barcelona are entirely separate stories from the week, that we will not write about here since we were not with them 😉 We know they travelled ‘hard core’ in those cities too so we applaud their energy and spontaneity. We miss their positive energy and smiles ~ we are so very grateful they made it over to see us and that Ayden and Ava were kind enough to let them go. It made our November feel like one big vacation! Bravo Capseys!
C M G B Overseas 