41st Anniversary in Paris

Technically Monday is our anniversary, but the party began Sunday morning. An early start from Kingham to Oxford, then a train into London's Paddington Station and a London Taxi to St. Pancras International Station and then the Eurostar through the Chunnel to Paris. A Paris Taxi to the beautiful Marriott Champs Elysees. Here's the lobby...

Here's the glass roof above the lobby. Our room has 16' high ceilings and is actually on two levels; the entry area and bathroom on one level and then you step up several steps into the bedroom suite itself with 16' tall windows cover one entire wall. Here's the glass roof above the lobby below...

We walked a block or two around the hotel passing every expensive store you can name from Luis Vitton, Gucci, Cartier and 1000 others. We came across this quaint Lebanese restaurant seen below which has been a consistent Michelin award winner. Dinner was superb!

When you step out onto the street in front of our hotel and look right standing at the curb, here's the view...

A 10 minute cab ride took us to the Eiffel tower...

It's DRAMATICALLY bigger than I would have thought from photos. We PLANNED to go up in the elevator to the top. Ummm.... no. One of the elevators is broken indefinitely and the FIRST AVAILABLE TICKET to ride to the top was for June 20th!! YIKES!! PLAN AHEAD NEXT TIME!!

These guys are EVERYWHERE with hands always in firing position. Only their finger needs to move 1/2" to the trigger and they're ready to rock and roll! They taking security SERIOUSLY around here.

Footnote- next weekend is Queen Elizabeth's 60th year of reign Jubilee and then of course the Olympics are coming to London in August. The entire city is being readied at the highest security level for terrorism. We talked with a commercial pilot at some length the other day and he said the entire London area is now a no-fly zone and will remain so until after the Olympics in the fall. Failure to file a full flight plan (even if you're in a Cessna flying VFR) and failure to authenticate properly means getting shot down by the surface to air missiles which have been placed strategically throughout the city; on the roof of Buckingham Palace, etc. There are Typhoon jets constantly circling at the ready and everything in London is on hair-trigger alert. MANY London streets are already being shut down for security purposes and our London cabby yesterday said it's already becoming a nightmare to navigate through the city and will only get worse throughout the summer. We live in strange times...

At the foot of the bridge in front of the Eiffel tower we had a quick crepe au chocolat' and then jumped on a large tour boat for a cruise of the Seine near sunset- passing 22 of the 23 bridges.

The occasional descriptions from the guide were all in French so we don't now most of what we saw- but it was ALL magnificent! LOL! This is the Grand Palais built from 1897-1900.

Sculpture and statuary is EVERYWHERE in Paris; on the streets, on the bridges, on the buildings. Breathtaking...

I couldn't resist this little doll who was sitting in front of us on the tour boat. I snapped a photo of she and her parents with her dad's DSLR and he snapped the photo of Jane and I you saw earlier with our camera.

You can see the Grand Palais again in the distance with the evening light through the glass as we moved further down the Seine.

A close-up of just one of 1000 buildings along the Seine with the amazing sculptures...

People were EVERYWHERE! 1000's and 1000's and 1000's of tourists walking, talking, taking photos. And 1000's of locals sitting along both sides of the Seine with blankets and bottles of wine just enjoying a summer Sunday evening.

Notre Dame Cathedral looked amazing from the River below. It sits on an island in the middle of the Seine.

Just some high dollar real estate for those who want to look out of their living room onto the Seine.

More detail of Notre Dame...

As you can see, the buttresses were mind-blowing as we moved further downstream looking back...

This is dramatically zoomed in. This is the top 15' or so of a sculpture along the river that stands perhaps 75' high in all...

Two more views back at Notre Dame...

Every single bridge is unique- and each is a work of art...

Sunset brought everything to live with that wonderful golden glow...

Another sculpture on one of the bridge faces. Amazing...

And yet another. Just grabbed this shooting upward as we passed beneath this magnificent bridge...

You can see yet another unique bridge style as we return to the Eiffel tower...

This is the exact type of boat we were on, sitting below the tower. We went on past it, turned around and came back to dock and by then this boat was on it's way. The boats fill every 30 minutes and there must be 100 or more boats on the river at any moment from 20 different tour companies.

Arriving back at our hotel we came into the lobby and sat in a balcony coffee area overlooking the Champs Elysees. You can see the Marriott also has an outdoor bistro on the street below. The lobby balcony is actually atop a Sephora store as you can see in the signage...

Jane had a cup of coffee and their dessert sampler while I enjoyed a Pastis- one of several French drinks that all taste like anise.

They say that Paris is the city that never sleeps. We now know that's absolutely true! The streets were VIBRANTLY alive all night long beneath our window with laughter, shouting, honking, sirens and the roaring engines of exotic automobiles; Lamborghinis, Ferraris, Aston Martons and Porsches. It actually never stopped even at 4:00 and 5:00 in the morning on a Sunday night. And BECAUSE nobody on the streets ever goes to bed, those who are staying in hotels nearby don't get much sleep either. LOL! But that's another story. Today marks the beginning of our 42nd year and we'll celebrate at the Louvre.

No photos- just thoughts

We set out this morning and left the camera behind so nothing but thoughts and observations to share.

We've found the most marvelous restaurant in Stow-on-the-Wold...

http://www.huffkins.com/

This is one of several locations and the bakery is utterly amazing and the food is truly remarkable. I've become addicted to their "Full English Breakfast" which consists of an oven-roasted tomato, a mound of beautifully browned mushrooms, two poached eggs sitting atop a slice of 'fried bread' which is thin, white bread drenched in butter and browned in a skillet, English 'bacon' which is really what we would call fried ham, a large Cotswold sausage and two enormously thick slices of handcut artisan bread that's been toasted and is served with fresh butter, plum preserves and marmalade. My mouth waters just writing it all down; AMAZING served with freshly squeezed juice.

We've had several other items from their menu as well including an oak-smoked salmon sandwich with prawns in a Marie-rose sauce (Google it!) with gem lettuce and tomatoes on toast. WOW!

Their 'fruitcake' is absolutely NOTHING like what we know as fruitcake in America; delicious. And their granary rustic breads, croissants, pan au chocolat and 100 other delicacies are all to die for. We wish we could bring Huffkins home with us to America!

While we were eating there we saw a busload of costumed 'eccentrics' moving into the town square. Turns out these were "Morris Dancers" (Google it again!), a sort of pagan folk-dance group that are popular throughout Britain- particularly in May. The tradition dates back a few centuries and is as strange as it sounds.

While we were in Stow we stopped at a travel specialty shop to buy an extra suitcase for the return trans-Atlantic trip. We've accumulated a big of 'muck' while we've been here and are going to need another suitcase to haul all the treasure home to America. (sigh)

Then, to make our 'odd morning' complete we stopped at another local site: The Rollright Stones. Here's the link for you...

http://www.rollrightstones.co.uk/

This is kind of the local version of Stonehenge and dates back nearly 5000 years. That said- it sits on the high point of two counties: Warwickshire and Oxfordshire. (The dividing line actually runs between the various parts of the Rollright Stones.) The view from this magnificent hilltop easily stretches 40+ miles in nearly every direction and it's easy to imagine why ancients found the place to be worthy of memorializing. In America today of course, a savvy real estate developer would simply buy it all up and put in a golf course and McMansions on such a beautiful hilltop.

Turns out in buying train tickets from Oxford to Paddington to Paris and back this coming week I somehow bought return Tuesday tickets for 08:50 (AM) instead of 20:50 (PM) so we stopped by the local Kingham station of the Great Western Railway to see about exchanging them. The local station operator said he couldn't help us since they were purchased online, but assured us we need only board the CORRECT train this coming Tuesday and explain to the ticket agent or guard that we had made a simple mistake and all would be well. We'll see. LOL! I may be buying a second set of Paddington-to-Oxford Tickets on Tuesday night.

So we're test-fitting clothes and souvenirs into our now THREE suitcases and two carry-on bags in hopes of balancing them all out so that none exceeds 50 lbs- a challenge when you don't have any scales! (Sigh)

We both agree this has been a perfect trip in nearly every way. 31 days has given us long enough to really absorb much of England including the local Cotswold flavors, the Lakes District, the Yorkshire Dales, Oxford and at least a bit of London. We can't imagine having had only a week to hit a few high points. Three days in Paris will give us a taste of that historic city and help us decide whether we want to return there on some future trip for an extended tour.

Moreover, our first trip abroad has given us a taste for travel and adventure outside the United States. We've nearly exhausted the USA after traveling for 30-60 nights each year for the past 20 years; there's not much we haven't seen or done.
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And while "the world" seems large and daunting, we've thoroughly enjoyed our time in England and it's given us both the courage and the desire to see more of France, Italy, Ireland and more. We'll see what the Lord has in mind for us in the years to come.

One other random thought: I'm LOVING having a small local 'store' (groceries, beaverages, staples, newspapers, etc.) only a block away to walk to, and a FANTASTIC pub with world-class food less than two blocks away. I've NEVER lived within walking distance of anything except other houses. Amazing!!

They shall mount up with wings like eagles...

So said Isaiah in Chapter 40:31. More on that in a moment. 

Jane and I spent the day today at the Falconry Center in Moreton-on-Marsh in the Cotswolds. There were lots of birds of prey to see of course, and three hours of fight demonstrations which we sat through and enjoyed in perfect, 70-degree weather with a gentle breeze.

Just as at the Warwick Castle display several weeks ago, the demonstrator was absolutely AMAZING and informative and the birds themselves were breathtaking.

Here was the guy who demonstrated all day with one of more than a dozen birds he flew for us including buzzards, vultures, kites, eagles, owls, hawks and more. He did a great job of teaching while demonstrating, showing how each of the birds hunts using wind currents, the sun, speed, strength, endurance, patience, sense of smell, eyesight or hearing to his best advantage. 

Lots of cool birds as you can see...

This VERY weird bird is a Secretary Bird, btw. Reminded us of Big Bird with the long legs and crazy feathers on the back of his neck!

This baby owl was only five weeks old and sat on the grass about two feet from us on the grass for 20 minutes or so- bobbing and weaving his head and watching us carefully.

An owl circles beautifully just over our heads, hovering before pouncing on his prey.

Now resting after a successful dive.

The owls repeatedly flew so close over our heads that wing tips and tail feather's brushed Jane's head. WHOOSH!

Motionless, hanging in mid-air watching as he prepares to dive straight down.

Several eagles were flown extensively.

Several kites flew as well...

This guy was an amazing flyer.

He landed 18" in front of Jane and looked us over carefully as you can see in the following photos...

We got to see several falcons fly in traditional falconry demonstrations, zooming downward at 150mph from 1000' to attack the falconer's lure. AMAZING!

So Jane and I were talking about Isaiah 40:31 on the drive home. Here's what the demonstrator told us: "Eagle are rubbish flyers!" (That's English-speak for 'lousy flyers') He explained that eagles are really designed to flap their wings for not much more than 30 seconds- 60 seconds is a max output, exhausting effort for an eagle. They are UTTERLY DEPENDENT on flying into uplifting thermals and strong headwinds to gain lift and altitude. Unlike falcons, kites and owls they simply can't haul themselves skyward with their own strength.

THAT ought to give us something to think about if we're called to 'mount up with wings like eagles'. At least it gave us pause to think more deeply.