Writing about our France trip has turned into a long project for me...This will be my last post about it. We drove to the Loire Valley and stayed at a lovely B&B, La Maison Blanche, in the town of Amboise. Amboise is on the Loire river and is, as are all of the towns around, really quaint and smelling of fresh bread everywhere. After being deprived of great cheese here in Turkey, it was wonderful to be able to walk into any grocery store, or even quickie mart and find some artisanal French cheese, wrapped in paper with an AOC label. The second night we were Loire (the only place we stayed for 2 nights) we just got a bunch of bread, cheese and wine and stayed in for dinner. We actually discovered possibly the best goat cheese we'd ever had, in some small grocery store, but of course we don't remember the name, nor is it likely that we could ever find it outside of the Loire. The first night we were in Amboise, we went to dinner at a place our lovely B&B proprieter recommended. It was a perfect recommendation called Les Ramparts. The website is in French, but you'll get the idea. It was tiny, maybe 10 or 12 tables, and they had a great multi-course menu, along with local and fabulous table wine, that cost maybe $50 or $60 total. Unfortunately, that night I was feeling ill (I think my body was confused by being back into contact with such good cheese!) and I couldn't finish my meal or (shock of all shocks) my cheese plate. The waitress (owner?) was so concerned that I didn't like the food. It was all very sweet. Anyway, back to our B&B...It is owned by a lovely woman named Annick, who is so chatty and friendly. We had breakfast in a lovely room with windows on a whole wall, overlooking her wooded property. When the WiFi that we were supposed to have in our room turned out to not work, she gladly opened up that room to us, at any time, so we could organize the tickets we needed to buy for the rest of our trip. Also, she has 2 horses and 2 adorable dogs, Snoopy the Golden Retriever and Taylor (like Elizabeth) the deaf Great Dane. They were the best part of our stay! In and around Amboise, we did some wine tasting, visited Chateau de Chenonceau that was really beautiful, situated over a river. The most impressive part of the chateau was the kitchen, or kitchens, i guess. Really understated, gorgeous light coming in. Definitely a kind of kitchen you'd want for yourself! The rest of it was quite nice too, but that was the most impressive part to me. We also visited Clos du Luce, where Leonardo DaVinci lived his last years and where he died. In the basement of the chateau are models of many of his inventions and then there is a big park, with life size models. You can actually test them out, it was really cool! After the Loire, we visited Versailles, which of course is amazing, but almost tooooo big to walk through and stay interested the whole time. The gardens are great too, but it was kind of a rainy day. We got the idea of it though and then got back in the car, drove to Paris, where I unfortunately directed Chris to drive right through the center of the city, which he claimed was far worse that driving in NYC and even Istanbul, the city in which I cringe, with eyes closed, every time I'm in a moving vehicle. From that awful Arc du Triomphe experience to finally arriving at Gare du Nord, to drop off the car and catch the Eurostar, took us on a long journey through the city. We got to go up to the Montmarte area, which we weren't able to really tour once we got back to Paris, so that was a positive, and we got to see "everyday life" in Paris...or something like that, to make me feel better about my poor navigation. Anyway, we got to our train just in time to go to London to see Tamar and Pete and for Chris to go to some interviews for next year. While poor Chris had to dress nicely and sit in interviews all day, I was lucky enough to spend time with Tamar, and do some all-important shopping and the most important...wedding dress shopping for her! It was a really special weekend. After a whirlwind London trip, we got back on the Eurostar (at 5am, I believe) and headed back to Paris for a few days. We stayed in the Latin Quarter, in an apartment for which we had high hopes but was really just so-so. The best parts about it were, a) we were two minutes walking distance from Notre Dame Cathedral and a relatively short walk or Metro ride from everything else we wanted to see and b) we were in close proximity to one of our new favorite restaurants, Les Papilles (the photo in this article is in that restaurant). It is in a small gourmet shop and there's not menu, just a set meal for the night. That night we had a creamy carrot soup, which I never would've tried before, but it was amazing. Then a curried chicken dish over penne, a cheese course (certainly) and an unbelievably good orange creme brulee! The best part is that the store stocks some food but is mainly a wine shop and when you get there, you can stroll and find a wine that looks good to you (or rely on the suggestion of one of the owners, because you have no idea) and they tack on a 6 euro corking fee, to the shelf price of the wine. He selected a reasonably priced Bordeaux that was so delicious we were practically holding the bottle over our mouths to get the last dregs when we were finished. I'm going to try to remember the name of the wine and I'll post it back here if i can...The rest of Paris was just doing the regular touristy stuff - Louvre, Eiffel Tower, some shopping, etc etc. It was lovely but I think both of us were excited to get to the last part of our trip, Boston, to see friends and family, and for Chris to again sit in interviews all weekend...Boston leg of the trip to come...