Our guide was Margaret, who has been with Rick Steves for a very long time. She is pictured at lower left. We are standing in front of Chambord, a chateau that is best described as ridiculously excessive, with over 400 rooms.

That’s the basic construction of the tour. Now I will describe some of the adventures along the way, some of the “new impressions”.

Paris

Paris is amazing in every way. We stayed at a small hotel on the left bank of the seine. We dropped our bags at the hotel after arriving there about 10 AM, and hit the streets until check-in time. After meeting the group about 5 PM at the hotel, we decided to walk to the River Seine. It was twilight and we walked the two miles and checked out the sights along the shore. We got lost on the way back and found out that Teresa’s phone didn’t work on the internet, so we looked at our map with its tiny print, using the light for the phone and the illumination from the shops. The streets are completely random, seeing as how they have been there since 400 AD. We made guesses using the stars for navigation, and finally we asked at a bookstore for assistance. The impeccably dressed owner, a lady in round glasses and a scarf, pointed down the street and so we went that way. We walked down a busy street another mile and finally trudged to the hotel about 9. We had been awake for 36 hours at that point. We were exhausted.

The weather in Paris was about 55 degrees and there was mist, and sometimes rain. The next day we donned our raincoats and took the metro to the Eiffel Tower. I was awestruck. It is so impressive, a great achievement of metal working and design. We did not go up in it. We then took a metro train to the wonderful Musee D’Orsay. The D’Orsay is in the old train station, and the building alone is jaw-dropping in its beauty and huge scale. The exhibits focus on art mostly from 1820 to 1920 or so, with a big space devoted to impressionism, which I cherished along with the 5000 other people from every country imaginable. I have started dabbling in painting this past year, so I got my nose right in there for a good look at the brushstrokes and composition. We had bread, cheese, jam, and wine for supper in our room, all purchased on the street nearby from little shops. We then returned to the Seine for an after-dark champagne cruise on a big tour boat. It was cool and a bit misty, so I had on two pairs of pants and three hats (ball cap, stocking cap, rain jacket hood) so I was comfy. Most everyone else on the boat had shorts or dresses, nothing on their heads, and while they retained their excellent French sense of style I was more comfortable dressed like a bum. The Eiffel Tower is lit up in glittering lights for five minutes each hour, so our boat went very close to it as it lit up. The experience could not have been richer. So many things about French culture simply can’t be improved. I have read that they are a people who are hard to impress, and I can see why. Paris is a place I would love to revisit.

The Bus

The bus, by design, is only half full. Our driver for the week, Harvey, is about 55 and a bit shop worn, one of the few overweight people we saw on our trip. The bus was newish, with a small bathroom which we were told to only use in emergencies. I found the bus rides rather uncomfortable. I am not used to having my bladder on a timer. I had to watch how many tiny cups of coffee I drank at breakfast. We stopped every hour and a half for a bathroom break. The roads were generally excellent, and people didn’t speed much. (There must be some stout penalties for road infractions.) I enjoyed seeing the countryside, which I had seen already in Van Gogh paintings. We were assigned a “buddy” who we had to check in with before the bus rolled at any stop. Mine was “Bud”, a very well traveled man from Savannah, GA.

Food

We had our first French lunch at a nice café, where I had a sausage made from tripe in a mustard sauce. I had watched a lot of YouTube videos describing how to order food in France, and what to expect in restaurants. What I learned from traveling there is that very little is different. The service is as fast and generally better than the states. The waiters are paid well and don’t expect tips. They didn’t introduce themselves or describe the specials, but they were cheerful and professional, and reasonably attentive. They also served tiny coffees with no refills. Every restaurant, by law, has the menu posted outside on the street so you can peruse the offerings. We had big lunches and small suppers, and avoided fancy places. The hotels all provided a large and interesting breakfast buffet. We had good cheese for breakfast. The French simply excel at bread, pastries, cheese, crepes, and wine. The French are not different from us in the speed that they eat lunch. I had heard that they linger over meals for hours and such nonsense. They do use the knife and fork method which makes me feel like a cave man, as I shovel food into the pie hole with only my fork. I watched a guy eat a huge hamburger with a knife and fork, but he ate the fries with his fingers. I had lunches of lamb shank, fish soup, onion soup, crepes, sausage, bread and cheese, fish, and it was always an intriguing experience. We visited many food markets, and we bought a large chunk of nougat from a talkative nougat seller in Annecy. We shared the sweet taffy-like almond treat with the group at a picnic at a Roman aqueduct the next day.