New Year’s Eve in Paris
Tuesday, December 31, 1991
New Year’s Eve - Slow work day for David today. I mistakenly slept until 11AM and then rushed around with house cleaning, grocery buying, and meal preparation for our dinner guests tonight, Coskun and Sema from Turkey. They arrived on the train about 7:30pm and after a French/American style dinner we invited Ray and Maura up for some New Year cheer. (Their baby is due this Saturday).
After bringing in the New Year with our close friends, it was time to get Coskun and Sema back to their hotel in Paris. Since the trains stopped running at 12:15 AM, we proceeded to drive our car. Christmas lights of the cities were still beautiful. As we approached Paris toward the Arch de Triomphe (the big roundabout with about 20 lanes across and no lines), the police had blocked off several streets.
We circled around, managed to get to the Arch heading toward their hotel, and the going-ons were about the same as Times Square in New York. Some cars were crosswise of the traffic and others were just sitting there. We were going nowhere. Everyone was partying in the street, having a grand ole time. we opened our sun roof so as not to miss any of the commotion and Coskun proceeded to take a lot of pictures. It was great! Somehow we managed to inch our way around. Coskun and Sema walked the rest of the way to their hotel and we proceeded to make our way to our street back toward home.
We were glad we happened to be there to enjoy the festivities and top off our evening of bringing in the Ne Year 1992 in Paris style.
Trails in the Forest of St. Germain
Sunday, October 27, 1991
David drove to Church for a second time. More cars on the road now but David did good. In the afternoon we walked the tails in the Forest of St. Germain in the midst of beautiful trees turning to their fall shades.
A Tour of Northern Italy
Tuesday, October 15, 1991
We grabbed a couple of croissants and departed at 7am for Northern Italy - a detour on our drive home. The drive from Lausanne thru Southern Switzerland took us around Lake Geneva and into the beautiful snow covered Swiss Alps.
We crossed into Italy via the St. Bernard tunnel, 4 kilometers long, politely being waved thru customs, not even checking our passports. Now we are really into some gorgeous country - Northern Italy and the Italian Alps. The road is small and curvy and the towns are old and quaint, houses with rock roofs, chateaus (castles) every way you turn your head, old churches with murals painted on the front walls.
Oh, so many pictures we’re taking. The trees are beginning to turn as Fall is approaching. We leave Italy and back into France via Mont Blanc tunnel - 11 kilometers long (about 6 1/2 miles).
Again, we’re waived thru customs and my plants are on their way home! The mountains are so awesome. Mt. Blanc is 16,000+ ft. tall, snow covering a large part of it, and a glacier on the French side. We had to stop just to admire the beauty and, of course, more pictures. We continue our drive toward Paris, arriving home about 6:30pm. A stop at the office for, oh so much mail - just like Christmas again!
Editor’s Note:
Sorry I have been shy on the photos lately, I actually just forgot until I read her post saying how many photos she had taken, and yes, she took a lot of pictures of their drive home. Here are a few starting with David in the booth.
I will try to remember to include more photos in the upcoming posts and I might go back to some of the previous days posts when they were at the show and update the photos there too.
Tuesday, October 1, 1991
Tuesday, October 1st
Attended “Bloom” with about 300 other people. A very informative program.
Wednesday, October 2nd
I met Ellen (a British lady whom I met while preparing food at the Church) and 2 other ladies at Galleries La Fayette for coffee in St. Germain.
Friday, October 4th
We’ve just learned we must have an International insurance sticker on our car to drive between the countries, so David rushes downtown arriving one minute before closing time and gets the necessary sticker from our insurance company for our trip to Geneva tomorrow.
Saturday, October 5th
It’s off to Geneva, Switzerland, our car full with suitcases, brochures, computer, monitor, ice chest, etc. Where is my motorhome?? After about 5 hours of driving in pouring rain we stopped at Bellignat, France for the night.