I’ve had the opportunity to do some travelling in the past few months, most notably jetting over to France for some skiing in the Alps for New Year’s followed by a relaxing week in Paris and its environs. Paris, as always, was excellent. Being by myself I was able to take my time walking around the city, exploring areas that I’ve never seen (like Parc Monceau and the open air seafood markets on Rue Poncelet), as well as revisiting and moving very slowly through spots that I’ve been to in the past (like Montparnasse and Saint-Germain-des-Prés)…all the while eating far too many oysters and drinking too much Sancerre (if there is such a thing 🙂 ).
On top of getting down to the high Alps for some great skiing at Serre Chevalier, I was able to make two day trips out of Paris as well, one to the Champagne region and another to Normandy and the D-Day beaches. To see the D-Day beaches first hand was an amazing thing. At Pointe du Hoc, the area situated between Omaha beach and Utah beach where Army Rangers scaled 100 foot cliffs using rope ladders under enemy fire, the German gun posts and bunkers still remain; you can actually walk in and around them.
Serre Chevalier – we took a break from skiing and sat on a snow bank to eat lunch with this view
Near Place de La Concorde in Paris
Looking down Rue de Rivoli and Scallops in theirs shells on Rue Poncelet in Paris
Near Place de la Concorde in Paris
Sunset under the Eiffel Tower
Looking across the Seine (Paris) and Notre-Dame de Reims in the Champagne region
American Cemetery in Normandy
