Paris Travel Stories Travel Articles

Les Trois Mousquetaires go to France, Italy and maybe a few other places #5

Day 4: Monday, June 5 – Paris The day is still overcast and it’s even a bit chilly. Our first step is The Gap on the Champs-Elysées that the girls spotted yesterday. They each buy a jacket and a long sleeve shirt. They didn’t believe me back in Dallas when I told them that summer [...]

Les Trois Mousquetaires go to France, Italy and maybe a few other places #4

Day 3: Sunday, June 4 I can’t get over how small the city of Paris really is. Small and so compact. One can literally walk from one end to the other in just a few hours (not including the suburbs, of course). All the monuments and interesting places are all so close to one another; [...]

Les Trois Mousquetaires go to France, Italy and maybe a few other places #2

Day 1: Thursday, June 1 We leave for Paris today. The girls are getting really excited. I would be, too, except that I have to work until almost the minute I leave. We get to the airport to learn that the flight is overbooked and that several volunteers are needed to give up their seats. [...]

Les Trois Mousquetaires go to France, Italy and maybe a few other places

Name Hotel Restaurant Hôtel de Normandie 4, rue Amiral-Courbet 14700 Falaise Tel 02/31 90 18 26 Fax 02/31 90 02 17 We didn’t stay there but would have liked to. We already had a reservation somewhere else. Great simple, local food. One of our fond memories!

Les Trois Mousquetaires go to France, Italy and maybe a few other places #14

Versailles and the Loire Valley châteaux The châteaux of the Loire valley were unbelievable! The U.S. thinks of them as triple mansions. Before that, Versailles was HUGE, you can hardly see everything in a day, and it is so popular it is overcrowded. My mom kept losing me. But you know, big is not always [...]

Les Trois Mousquetaires go to France, Italy and maybe a few other places #10

And how do you pay for everything? In the summer of 2000 the dollar is very strong against the French Franc. Ten years ago, I got 4.6 francs for every dollar. This year: between 6.8 and 7.2 francs! That means that our average hotel room (450FF) cost us $64 instead of $88! A big difference! [...]

Les Trois Mousquetaires go to France, Italy and maybe a few other places #12

France so far France and the U.S. are totally different!!!!! People are allowed to smoke inside everywhere! When we got off the plane all I could smell was smoke. It wasn’t very pleasant. You have to pay to go to the bathroom! I couldn’t believe it. The cars here are really weird. They look like [...]