Froid Paree (translation: We're freezing our butts off in Paris

February 12, 2017

As we write this posting we are sitting in a hotel room in Clerveax, Luxembourg after a wonderful weekend in Paris.  As the title of the post indicates, it was cold all weekend. As a matter of fact, there were snow flurries both Friday and Saturday.

We left Barcelona Thursday morning on a high speed train to Paris.  As we expected, it was a smooth, comfortable ride.  There were monitors in our carriage that gave pertinent information including the fact that at times our train was traveling at close to 300 kilometers an hour. That is roughly 180 mph.  Traveling by train in Europe is a joy, although Lynda did complain that the train never goes through the nice parts of the cities we traveled through. Our Paris apartment was not nearly as nice as the one in Barcelona, but, in all fairness, the Barcelona apartment was one of the nicest we have rented.  Thursday night we strolled along Blvd. St. Germain loving being back in Paris.  Paris is Tim's favorite city in the world; for Lynda it is 2 or 3. We found a nice brassarie and had a typical french meal of Boeuf Bourguignon and red wine.  We did not do any actual sightseeing in Paris on this trip. Rather we visited Galeries Lafayette and Bon Marche, both high end department stores similar to Bloomingdales or Marshall Fields in the states. We did not buy anything but it sure was fun wandering through the different departments. Part of Bon Marche is the La Grand Epicirie du Paris, a food market, that we had not heard of.  Lynda's California cousin, Beverly, had suggested we visit it.  We are glad we did. The highlight of the weekend was Tim's birthday dinner at L'atlier du Joel Rubochon. See the preceeding posting for more details.  We spent a lot of time in the apartment just reading and relaxing. Saturday, while we were out and about, we picked up a baguette, cheese and wine and stayed in Saturday for a light dinner.

Sunday morning Tim picked up our rental car, drove to the apartment to pick up Lynda and the luggage and we headed to Bastogne, Belgium, the site of the Battle of the Bulge during WWII. Tim had been there in 2009 with the Holland American Legion Band and thought Lynda would enjoy visiting the museum there. Unfortunately, the last admission to the museum had occured before our arrival.  We did see the impressive Memorial nearby and found the plaque for the 35th Infantry that Tim's Dad was attached to during the war. The 35th Infantry was a part of a number of units involved in the Battle of the Bulge.  From Bastogne it was a short drive to Clervaux. Tim had stayed in Clervaux on the 2009 Band tour and had always wanted to bring Lynda here because it is such a picturesque city. Lynda registered for our room while Tim brought in the luggage and was suprised when she was informed that Tim's name was in the computer as a former guest.

Tomorrow we head to Nunkirken, Germany to visit cemetaries where some of Lynda's relatives are buried.  You won't want to miss that blog posting.☺