I re-read the one I did with my 2008 trip and really enjoyed the read. Blogs not only help keep friends and family up to speed with what your are doing but also acts as a journal of your trip and a handy reference point for remembering the things that you do. This trip I think I'm going to be much more diligent recording details of the places we go and the things we do. There were restaurants last trip for instance that I would like to go back to but can't remember their name or address etc. Or what I ate. In most cases I have pictures and that helps but it would also be nice to have a more permanent record of what we did or where we went.
If anyone has any favourite restaurants in Paris that you recommend please take the time to send me information on them ... send them to my e-mail address though ... dennis@desrosiers.ca. I've got one week in Paris then about two weeks travelling with arrival on June 23'rd and will be in Paris until July 29'th. The apartment we have for the longer part of this trip has six bedrooms and we have a number of people coming to visit over the almost six weeks we will be in Paris. Indeed I still have one bedroom fully open if anyone is interested??
My itinerary is shaping up nicely.
Depart Toronto on Wednesday June 1'st with arrival in Paris on Thursday June 2'nd. I have a small one bedroom apartment until the following Sunday although I'm leaving on Friday morning for Vilnius Lithuania mostly for pleasure although I have a half day of business on the Monday. On Monday afternoon I get back to Paris and I stay in Paris until the following Sunday. Now you may ask why I would take an apartment for 12 days when I am going to be away for the first three of them? To store my luggage and things that's all. Because I'm gone for two months I actually have to bring a fair amount of luggage with me and I don't want to lug it around Europe on these side trips. It was actually cheaper to rent an apartment for an extra three days than to pay for storage.
On the Sunday the 12'th I head to Stuttgart for three days of touring. I become quite good friends with the President of Mercedes Benz Canada over the last number of years and when he found out I was going to Europe this summer the insisted that I come to Stuttgart for what he called a Swabian tour of South Western Germany. I gladly obliged and am really looking forward to it.
Ken and Renata catch up with me or I catch up with them on Wednesday June 15'th and we drive down to Switzerland for two days. On Saturday June 18'th we drive to the Loire Valley to visit castles for a couple days. The group that is coming from Canada to stay in Paris for a few weeks want to see castles in the Loire Valley so this is partly a scouting trip to figure out how to maximize the second the trip to the Loire Valley. We then head to the West Coast of France to see first and foremost Mont St. Michel. Google it and you will recognize it immediately. They say it is one of the most visited places in all of France so it may be over run with tourists but it is on my bucket list so we have to go.
My sister in law in London, Ontario and her two children ( Simon and Julia ) are coming for the last two weeks of the Paris leg of this trip and Simon wants to visit the beaches of Normandy. So I'm also going to scout out Normandy with Reg and Ken for day while in the West. Ken is interested in this as well so I won't be encumbering them.
I'm not sure how long we will be on the West coast but we get the apartment in Paris on the 23'rd so at some point we will drive over to Paris and get settled into our apartment.
And then I just plan on being Parisian for six weeks.
Will post a few times again before I leave.
