Hi Rita,
Very enjoyable trip report! Thanks for the memories!

A great trip report - am avidly reading all info on France at the moment so thank you!

Oops.......I didn't realize the last 2 days weren't fully posted, I was just so excited I finally had it done and could share my experiance with everyone,so here it is:

Sat May 24/08

We got up early this morning for the optional to Giverny to see Monet’s gardens. We needed to get there before the crowds so that we could get the water gardens to ourselves and we did. The first thing Virginie did was take us to the Japanese garden, we slowly strolled through taking pictures every step of the way with almost no one else around. By the time we made it to the house and gardens, there were crowds of people around, but those gardens are absolutely beautiful and I can only imagine what it looks like as the seasons change.
We were back to Paris for lunch and then at 1:30 left for our city tour with a local guide. By this time it looked like it was going to rain, and rain it did, on and off during the rest of the day. Not everyone joined us as some preferred to do their own thing, I knew from our first day in Paris that I would need to return and stay and few days to actually see the city, so I took this tour as a nice relaxing way to end the vacation, instead of trying to cram everything in on our own. (Okay, I made up the excuse so that I would have to return, same reason I threw coins in the Trevi fountain in Rome, both times I was there). We stopped in front of the Eiffel tower, just when huge drops of rain started to fall, I jumped off the bus for a quick picture and my sister took one of me with my eyes closed!(Further reason to have to go back!) . We then lined up for the boat cruise down the Seine, what a lineup! By the end my sister and I had to push our way through 10 people and the local tour guide had the guys let us on with the rest of the group. It was raining when the cruise started so everyone sat inside, my sister went outside and then after a while I went too to take pictures, the rain had stopped and this would be my only opportunity until my return.........someday. We then went to see Napoleon’s tomb and then back to the hotel.
Tonight is the farewell dinner in a local bistro. Almost everyone joined in for the final farewell, those that didn’t said their goodbyes in the lobby before we left. The dinner was quite nice, appetizers offered included escargot, terrain and something else; someone else on our table ordered the escargot so we all got a taste of that while we shared our appetizer with her. The main course was a choice of steak, duck l’orange or fish, and a really good dessert which I again can’t remember, but all the desserts were good.
At the hotel we said our final farewells, we gave our thanks to Virginie and had our picture taken with her, and then took off to our room for the final packing as it would be an early morning for us.

Sun May 25/08 (back home to Canada)

Bags out at 6am, breakfast at 6:30 right when the breakfast room opened and then onto the bus for 7am-but where’s the bus? Thankfully Virginie was there to send us off, and after a few phone calls, our bus arrived just before 7:30am, and it was time to say the final goodbye to one of the best TD I’ve had so far.
We boarded our flight for our thankfully uneventful flight home, on Air France again of course. I thought we must have caught a really good tail wind as we arrived ½ hr early even with the delay in Paris when they had to take some suitcases off the plane; but then when I went for a walk during my lunch hour, I saw the plane landing at around 12:30pm-so this must be a regular thing.(Yes I work right by the airport, my office building is located across from the runways and the planes go right above you in the area of the parking lot right in front of the run way.(No buildings are located here)

I really, really, really had a good time on this vacation. France has made it to the top of my list for a repeat visit and every time I see that Air France flight land, I have this urging to hop on the plane and go back.
The chocolates that I bought in Annecy taste amazing, I actually ended up with almost 32 pieces in the box, so the 15 Euros was well worth the price. By Wednesday, the swelling in my feet was finally gone; my feet were swollen from the plane ride going to Paris and remained that way to a lesser degree though out the trip.
I always heard that people in Paris and or France were rude; I didn’t encounter a single rude person on the trip, everyone we encountered was helpful and nice, but then we always made an effort to speak French, even if it only was Bonjour,Au Revoir and Merci.

I started the tour thinking that I wasn't going to take notes or do a tour tale as there were enough posted on the board; but by day 3 I realized that if there were 20 tour tales on the same trip, I would read all 20 of them-so then I started taking notes as often as I could.
Thank you to everyone who have written tour tales as I love knowing how the trips are, what people encounter as every one is different.

many thanks, Rita, I have printed it all out and will make notes to study before our CRF in October.

I thought the tale had ended suddenly!

quote:

I started the tour thinking that I wasn't going to take notes or do a tour tale as there were enough posted on the board; but by day 3 I realized that if there were 20 tour tales on the same trip, I would read all 20 of them-so then I started taking notes as often as I could.

Hi Rita,
Well I'm one person who is glad that you decided to take notes and post a tour tale. This tour has been on my 'to do' list since 2000 and it's finally reaching the top of the list, so I really appreciate reading about the latest experiences of travellers.

ZGordon, I look forward to reading your tale too, after you return later this year.
(Can't remember if I have told you before but I love your Natural History Museum, especially when taking a tour with one of the volunteer guides.)

Yes, Pauline, I plan to write one, and I hope to include photos again, now that Phil and Dragon have taught me how.

I will also write one for the Normandy tour we are also taking. There aren't many of those to choose from yet.

Thank you everyone.
Pauline, ZGordon, IrishMist and PennyE?-enjoy your trips to France, I really did have a good time and look forward to a return trip someday as there's still so much to see.
RoniSK, I know what you mean about the memories, I can't wait to read everyone's else's tales to see how they liked it.
Marie56-are you back now?

Rita, we came back home last night. I have quickly read your tale, I will reread it again soon.
Our experience was very much like yours, we did stay at all the listed hotels, the ones first on the list. Unfortunately the weather wasn't the greatest, we had quite a bit of rain and we never did see Rocamadour since it was pouring.
Also I picked up the tour bus cold after about 8 days and DH several days later and he is still not over it.

Virginie was excellent, very informative and helpful.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Marie56,

Hi Marie,
I'm glad you had a good time, too bad about the weather (I guess we must have used it all up). I caught that bus cold too, fortunatly I had cold medicine with me and it was actually quite mild compared to what I get at home. My sister on the other hand caught the cold right at the end and it was a bad one - but then again, she said she didn't have one all year, so it was bound to catch up to her.
We did get pouring rain in Monaco, and then showers the afternoon and evening on our last day in Paris.
Were you able to see everything else?
Virginie is a great TD!

Rita I have just reread the beginning of your tale, you were lucky to see Mont Blanc and go up to the glacier. The cloud was lowlying and even more so the next morning. I don't think anyone from our group went up. I think we arrived later than you in Chamonix. We went on the walk with Virginie and bought some snacks and drank a bottle of Chablis we had bought at the wine tasting place in Chablis on the balcony before the optional meal.

We took most of the optionals except for the Monaco evening one and the cabaret. We went to the Louvre that evening instead.
The Bush's were in Paris while we were there so they closed several of the bridges across the Seine and we arrived a little late at the hotel.
The next morning Laura Bush arrived at Giverny just as we were about to enter, we were allowed to enter shortly afterwards but they closed the water garden for a while and I was politely walked out of the kitchen by a secret service man and then I think the house was closed. I got a quick snap shot of her. We still had enough time in the gardens but it became crowded as we were shuttled about.