Our hotel in Senlis

Well, we have the final quest of our trip figured out. Our final night in Paris we will be staying at this B&B in Senlis, France which is 25 km from the airport. It is a very old small medieval village complete with narrow stone streets. It is also near Chateau Chantilly which is our final stop in our adventure.

Only 35 more days before we leave!!!! (yes, I am counting the night that we go up Seattle to spend the night before we fly out - we will be starting our vacation that evening!)

Carry-On Luggage

So..... after I spend two months figuring out how to fit two weeks of vacation into one carry-on sized bag, Elle says, "I guess we could probably check a bag. That would be OK." Needless to say, I said a few 'bad' words. I *have* figured it out and I am going to fit everything in the carry-on bag. Actually, I am looking forward to seeing it all work together when I get there.

Yesterday, I bought three French history books. I am now reading through all kinds of details about the places we will see.

Today is the 19th.... that means 36 more wake-ups.

Some pics from Rue Cler, the area of our apt in Paris

Our hotel near Chenonceaux

We are staying at this small "chambre d'hotes" outside of Amboise and 8km from Chenonceaux for 1 night.

Check out this Paris tour.... Click on this for the page XXXXX

A tour based around these funny, cool little French cars!

Tiny little bottles of things....

So.... this is a reminder of one of the places we will see.... Sacre Coeur. My major acquisition of the week revolved around some tiny bottles of things. I am trying to work through the essential things I want to bring in a one quart bag and in little tiny bottles that are 3oz or less. I should finish with this part of my packing this week. Next, I will figure out the whole camera and electronics piece.

I can hardly wait. Tomorrow, I will officially submit my vacation time at work. It is already written on the calendar and approved, it is just a formality.

Oh... and this week, I got a written confirmation of my cooking classes at Le Cordon Bleu. I am all set up. They have all sorts of instructions on what to wear, when to be there, completion certificates, etc. Too exciting!

45 Days before we leave for . . . !!!!!

45 days before we leave for Seattle (where we are flying out). I will definitely be ready for a martini (or 2) or an umbrella drink after this trial!!!
We will be visiting Fontainebleau (pictured) and Chantilly on our final day in France.No I am not excited - and neither is Lori. I am still waiting to hear from the chambre d'hotes in Senlis and Amboise to finalize where we are staying our last 2 nights.

Here is the cool little car Elle rented in France

Low Cal, Low Carb Paris

We have only 51 days to this!!! We have a slight change in our flight schedule (for the better). I discovered when I went to book our seats that the flight we were schedule on did not exist (panic!). So I called Alaska Airlines air miles desk and they did say there had been a change but they checked and found us better connections. So instead of flying out at 5:45am Seattle to Chicago (2 hours in ORD) to Boston (1 1/2 hours there) and then onto Paris, we are flying at 8:45 am (as we know EC does not do well too early) to Kennedy NYC and then we only have 55 minutes to get to our gate for CDG (Charles de Gaulle airport Paris) so we will have to husle. But we get into Paris 10 minutes earlier without the same headaches. We have booked our hotel for Seattle and reserved our parking. Bon appetit!

Concern about Segway... Click Here XXXXXX

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CeBL4Odluug

And one more thing....

The SEGWAY TOUR!!!!!!

Imagine...... Elle and I, buzzing around the city on a Segway.

I know there is some concern and I promise to not get into Elle's path :).

Here is the link..... Take a look.


http://www.citysegwaytours.com/paris/

Ongoing plans

Only 55 days until we head to Seattle! Thank goodness we have this to look forward to!!!!!

We have settle the apartment in Paris (we will blog pictures once we get there), Lori has scheduled the cooking school, and I emailed the French tutor. All that is left is . . . settling where we stay in the Loire, the car rental and where we stay on our last night in Paris.

Lori has already packed and me . . . I am waiting until the day we leave. I have narrowed down the book selection to 5 and will have it down to 2 by D-day. That is the biggest decision of the trip . . . hmmmm.