8 December 2025, Paris

We woke up late - real luxury ... and decided to go with Catherine to the Musee de la Marine. 

Located in a stunning building by the Trocadero, we had a view of the Tour Eiffel as we went by on the metro. The museum had a wonderful exhibit on Magellan's voyage, told through video and a graphic novel style, since there were very few artifacts from the trip. The multicultural crew was somewhat untrustworthy of each other and there was a mutiny and at least one execution en route to southeast Asia .At the time there were no maps past Buenos Aires, so after they crossed the Atlantic they were quickly in unknown territory. The connection they found, what became the Strait of Magellan, also included Ushuaia where we were earlier this year. Then on to what he named the Pacific Ocean where they sailed for 105 days without seeing land and with limited food. When they got to the Philippines, Magellan was killed by an indigenous chief, though it was almost a suicide as he was upset to find that the Mollucas, the spice islands which he trying to teach, were in the Portuguese sphere of control and not the Spanish, who has funded his trip, so he considered himself a failure. A fascinating story, and I did not know that he died em route. The rest of the museum was equally interesting, with amazing shop models, figureheads of enormous proportions, information on navigation, shipwrecks, and more.

We headed back to Catherine's to change for inner, and headed to Randlagh station (named after an Anglo-Irish noble, not sure why) to see Yurko and Marynka. We met Yurko and Marynka in Oakland, where they lived a couple doors down from us while Marynka was doing a postdoc at USF. Now she she is based in Paris, at the OECD working on anti-corruption investigations. her recent work led to some arrests in Ukraine of corrupt government officials. They now live near the Bois de Boulogne, so we took the metro there and Yurko met us at the metro. We walked to their apartment and got to meet their dog, Sir Charles who is very sweet. We had a nice dinner at Le Bois, and talked politics until the week hours, than back to Catherine's.

Paris, 7 December 2025

 After a nice breakfast with many delicious jams, the next morning we headed back to Paris, lots of traffic as folks are preparing for the holiday weekend. Nathalie and Thierry were planning to take Margaux to the Tour Eiffel after they dropped us off, and they were so nice to bring us right to Catherine's gate. 

Catherine was home, so we unpacked and chatted about our travels and relaxed a bit, did some email and jst visited for several hours until it got dark.

Catherine is tired these days from her illness, so we went on our own to rue Daguerre to what she always called "headquarters" for dinner. The street was busy as usual, and recalled fondly staying there one some years ago, right in the middle of the wonderful food. We dined inside as it was getting quite cold. Barney accidentally ordered an entire bottle of red wine, which the waiter thankfully took back and gave him just a glass. We had oeufs mayonnaise, a French traditional dish which I liked but Barney did not care for. He had a flavorful lamb with haricot verts, and I had a pasta with jamon and truffled cheese. Skipping dessert, we had a ncie walk in the mist back to 79 rue de la Santé, and headed to bed.

Loire Valley, 6 December 2025

Up early for a lovely breakfast of scrambled eggs, fresh breads and jams and butter and good coffee, and a small tour of the chateau. It has clearly been the work of decades for them to restore this building.

 We headed out to Chambord, our next stop, a home of François, though he never finished it (it took another 200 years!) and did not spend much time there.  It has an unusual Greek cross design with extremely ornate windows and it an impressive, soaring presence. The special double-helix staircase design of da Vinci (who was close to François) means that two people can walk up different sides of the staircase and never meet, though they can see each other through the openings, as we did. 

 

We went through the decorated rooms, each one more beautiful than the last, including one with a tree decorated with teacups and teapots, and ended up on the top terrace with a breathtaking view.  We had a nice lunch at a cafe on the road from the chateau.

After lunch, we headed to our last stop, Vaux-le-Vicomte not far from Paris, a truly stunning place with a difficult history.  The owner and builder, Nicolas Fouquet who was Louis XIV's finance minister, brought together architect Louis Le Vau, landscape designer Andre le Notre, and decorator Charles le Brun to put together a stunning place to honor the king. Unfortunately, the king saw it as competing, and had Fouquet arrested by his successor (Colbert) and imprisoned  for life. Louis XIV then went on to use the same three luminaries to design his new place, Versailles. The gardens are enormous and particularly spectacular. The interior was even more amazing than the other we had seen. The animated polar bears, the undersea-themed giant tree and huge anemones, and much more We arrived in time for the wonderful light show on the side of the building, which was of course stunning, and then had the chance to tour the interior. Like the other châteaux, it too was decorated beautifully with different themes in every room.   Afterwards, I got a squirrel ornament for Larry, the squirrel being Fouquet's symbol and a favorite of Larry's.

That night, we stayed in a fairly modern B&B Nathalie had selected, and had dinner at a local place near an 14th century tower and fort in Entourloupe. Again, we were the only English speakers in the room, which was great, and we did our best to stay in French with Nathalie, Thierry, and Margaux.  Barney has the chocolate volcano and we share the paté maison. Back to the B&B for a good night's sleep, after 17,000 steps!

Loire Valley, 5 December 2025

Up early and ready, we meet Nathalie and Thierry around 8:00am, it has been 8 years since we've seen them and they look unchanged!  We headed off in their car to drive to the Loire Valley for two days of visiting châteaux. We drove about 5 hours, chatting in Franglish all the way, then had a lovely lunch at a bistro in Amboise. We then headed up to the château Cheverny. They had told us that the châteaux were decorated for the holidays, but we had no idea how utterly gorgeous they would be, each with different themes in different rooms. Leonardo da Vinci has spent time here, so I got a decoration of him in the gift shop.

After Amboise, we headed to Chenonceau, where Barney and Madeleine and I had been 30 years ago. it spans the river and is a pleasure palace, not built for defense, although it served as a served conduit for Jewish citizens during WWII to get to the other side of the river and safety. 

It too was decorated in the most amazing way, with a long hall of white trees spanning the river, a penguin overseeing the table in the kitchen, and a lighted jellyfish in a sitting room.

Nathalie and Thierry's daughter Margaux then met us, driving up from her university in Pontoise to meet us. We headed out into the middle of what seemed like nowhere, to a 13th-15th century manor house/chateau where we would sleep that evening. Nathalie and Thierry had stayed here early in their relationship, and it had been lovingly restored by a couple for the past 40 years.

What a delight! We felt like the lord and lady of the manor in a room so large it was about 80% the size of our house (Barney paced it off). A huge fireplace, a non-working grand piano, a beautiful four-poster baldocchino bed, a sitting area, and windows onto the interior courtyard, plus a modern bathroom. It was very special.

For dinner, we drove about 20 minutes to the only open restaurant in the area, recommended by the woman who runs the chateau. It was wonderful, attuned to the local reputation for hunting and game and area called La Sologne. We had stewed hare and beautiful desserts, no one spoke English, and I got a couple of new circle towels with the motto of the area. Back to our chateau and the enormous room for a really good night's sleep.

Lyon, 4 December 2025

This morning we got up early to met Benjamin Morin, Nathalie and Thierry's son, at a cafe near where he goes to college (he is a senior). We found our way there via metro and a nice walk, and it turns out that the cafe/breakfast area was part of a nice hostel. Benjamin has grown so much, but of course it has been 8 years since we've seen him. His English is quite good (better than my French which I try for a while), though he kept apologizing for it. He is in the final stages of preparing to be a PE teacher, and is apparently an awesome skateboarder (and surfer) who helped design a new skate park in Echiré. He is a very nice young man, and we understand he has a serious girlfriend who will accompany them for winter break skiing this year. Once he graduates, he will be assigned a school somewhere in France for three years, and after that he can choose new location; his girlfriend is also planning to become a teacher, so I hope they can be posted together.

Heading back downtown from a different metro station, we got to use the cogwheel part of the metro for the very hilly areas, which was interesting. Off to the Musée des Beaux-Artes for an exhibit of Courbet, Monet, and Matisse and their interpretations of Etretat.  A lovely exhibit pairing painting with photographs of the area as it transitioned from fishing village to artists' enclave to tourist spot. As always, we patronize the museum cafe (supporting the sector), and Barney has a nice quiche Lorriane, while I had a smoked salmon filled eclair which was new, and squash soup which seems everywhere right now. 

Davidson then  joined us to go to the local history museum, tucked away in a 17th century building and a modern annex. The Lyon Historical Museum has a terrific set of exhibits from its early Roman days through the middle ages and to modern times. It has a really good explanation of the silk industry, which at one time employed almost 100,000 people in the Lyon area, and brought great wealth to the region. We saw a photo of a 19th century silk factory, where young women spent their days with their hands in warm water, soaking the silkworm cocoons and then gently pulling the thread out, to be spun into silk thread and eventually cloth. Whole families were involved in this trade including children, which was of course was underpaid, and the invention of the jacquard weaving loom caused a disruption in the silk workforce similar to the introduction of mechanical looms for wool in England (the Luddites).  We walked in the rain to see the 6-story buildings where the silk-weavers lived in the 19th century, and the 19th century headquarters of their eventual guild. On our way back we saw more of thr light and laser show preparations for the weekend fete.

Back on the metro, and then we reconnected with Edwin for dinner at Cafe Marcelline a few blocks from their apartment. It was a traditional bistro, filled with locals, and we had a lovely dinner. I had a smoked salmon salad, Barney had steak frites, and we shared a dessert.  I can see why Davidson and Edwin have landed here and why they might want to stay ... with financial resources, this is a wonderful place indeed.  We headed back to the apartment early so we could back to be ready to be picked up the next day at 8:00am!

Lyon, 3 December 2025

We had a comfy night in the bedroom niche next to the living room, and had some yogurt and granola for breakfast. Davidson then took us to the metro and onward to the funicular, always a fun thing to do. Up we went to the Basilica Fourviére at the very top of the hill overlooking the river and the older part of Lyon, known as the Presque-Ile. The view from the terrace outside the church was magnificent, greater Lyon and the two rivers down below. We walked through the church which was covered in gorgeous mosaics, with the filtered light streaming in the tall stained glass windows. We went into the small chapel next door, which was the original 16th century church and lit a candle; the large church was built next to this in the 19th century. A story about a storm delaying the opening, only to be rescued by the townspeople bringing lighted candles, is the source of the current Fete des Lumierés, which brings a quarter of a million people to Lyon on the coming weekend. Davidson and Edwin are preparing for more guests then.

We had lunch at Bulle, the wonderful restaurant that Kristen recommended to us, which had the same spectacular view as from the church terrace, and wonderful food. An amuse-bouche followed by duck ravioli, lamb chops, and a beautiful caramel dessert with a traditional pattern on the plate. Mr. Darcy (their dog) was with us, and he had a water bowl and a tiny bit of cheese. In the middle of the dining room was a half-life-size polar bear model.

We then walked down to the Roman ruins of an amphitheater and an Odeon, in a heavy mist. We visited here almost 30 years ago with Madeleine and Barney's parents; we were walking by the theater when a painted flat nearly fell on Barney while he had Madeleine on his shoulders. Keeping up my tradition, and since it was a Roman amphitheater, (and few people around in the rain) I sang "Porgi amor."

We headed back to the metro and the apartment, as we had done a lot of walking that day. we saw some of the preparations for the upcoming fete, with beautiful lights everywhere, and we strolled through the Christmas market again. Since everyone was a bit tired, I dug around in the refrigerator  and was able to make a nice salad and we had some frozen paella. Somehow we managed feed the five of us, including Falas, their Lebanese friend who lives there while awaiting his French citizenship.