Paris!

In an effort to catch up on the blog... I am going to stick to pictures with short headings:) Here is a re-cap of our trip to Paris in August! 

Eating a crepe in the park!

Arc de Triomphe

There were quite a few steps to the top... but totally worth it!

                    

Being in silly in our Air BnB flat!

Viewing the city from the open air bus!

                

                       

putting our lock on the bridge and throwing away the key!

              

Touring Notre Dome!

Enjoying some french classics... escargot, french onion soup, and some famous macaroons!

Dinner before Moulin Rouge!

What a great way to top off a wonderful day!

We did a walking tour in the neighborhood we stayed in.. Montmarte. 

The is the famous Amlia cafe from the movie... 

It was good luck to rub her breast...

This used to be one of the famous windmills that still remains in the neighborhood

A famous french book, with the key character being able to walk through walls.... very interesting!

This Montmartre Vineyards - it is used to generate money for the community, one of the last vineyards in the city... but apparently the wine is no good according to our guide

The tour ended at the Sacre-Coeur Basilica

Despite the drizzly rain, we wondered over to the Luxembourg Gardens, Paris' second largest public park after our walking tour

I got to experiment with the different settings on the camera and didn't have to worry about people in the way because of the rain... it was quite nice!

After a few days wondering around the city... we did an excursion outside of Paris of castle hopping and wine tasting!

First stop on the list was Chateau Chamboard  - Beauty and the beast Castle

It was built in the middle of forest as it was meant to be a hunting lodge... but the place ended up to expensive to get food and supplies to the castle, it was never used. It was also really really hard to keep it warm... so it has sat empty for most of its time. 

We went to the top of the castle and wandered around.. fun fact we learned was that the Mona Lisa was stored here during WWI and WWII. There was a plane that was suppose to crash into the castle, but at the last minute diverted and crashed out into the front year (in the picture above.)

On the way to the next stop we say some good sight seeing opportunities.... 

 Saw the place where de Vinci was buried....

it was all blue sky and sunflowers from here on out... no more rain!

The next full stop was a working vineyard and castle. The family that owns it and works the vineyards, still lives in the castle. We got to do wine tasting before a family style lunch (which was delicious!)

We learned about the pigeon holes... each hole used to represent an acre of land. Sales of land and farms were based on the number of pigeon holes in the pigeon coup. The saying 'I was really pigeon holed' comes from here. Basically when they sold land they were suppose to fill in the holes, but they didn't always do this. So when they sold the land and didn't fill in the holes, the new owner got screwed because they paid for more than what they actually got. 

The last place was the beautiful Chateau Chenonceau!

It is known as the castle for the ladies, with several queens and mistresses having lived here. 

It was one of the first places that had a garden with both vegetables and flower... it was a sight to see!

We did a mini wine tasting in a cellar..

It is by far the prettiest sight in the whole of France!

It was built over the river Cher

Here is a view from the balcony looking back at the land. You can see the 2 floor gardens on the right and left. The queen had one and the previous mistress had one. 

We gave equal treatment to both and got a picture with each :) They were both gorgeous 

    

Being silly before heading back to the bus!

Overall - Great Trip!

Enjoying the Fringe - Edinburgh!

Shortly after Mum and Randy left, we went off for a weekend to Edinburgh. The summer was slipping by quickly, so we decided to take a train Friday after work and check out the town for the weekend. Not only was the fringe happening, but we had heard a lot of good things from others that had visited. 

The Fringe is an annual festival that happens in August. It is one of the biggest arts festivals in the world. They have everything from music, comedy, plays, dances, street performers to tricksters. I think they are most known for the comedy though. Most events are 1 hour so that you can fit in many throughout the day. 

We got in pretty late on Friday, so it was early to bed and early to rise! When we got up on Saturday, we headed toward the castle and got some really good breakfast on the way.  On the way to the castle, we stumbled across this market that is held on Saturdays. 

It turned out great with the castle in the background!

 

A few more pictures on the way to the top!

The queue was too long to wait that morning, so we headed back down Royal Mile. It was quite pretty with the historical building and the mix of the modernness of the Fringe all around. 

We saw the Scottish Monument

This Man of Danger was our first street performer... 

he laid on a bed of nails and some man stepped on him... 

You can tell by just looking at him that he is crazy!

Next we wondered into an old church was had been turned into a bar and live much was playing. This event was free and a great place to rest the feet and figure out the next moves. And as a bonus... he was actually pretty good!

Later that evening, we had bought tickets to events that we wouldn't normally see. They turned out great! We arrived early, so we hung out in the  BBC tent beforehand. 

The first event was a dance that was a dance performance that focused on the animalistic side of humans.  There was very little sound to the program, but it was really powerful and the dancers were great.

Jeff and I love some good Jazz so when I saw this guys was playing I was excited. On his description blurb, he had played for a few celebrities so I had a feeling he would be good. Pretty interesting guy... check out how long his hair is too - It almost touched the floor!

The next morning, we learned our lesson and bought tickets online and were able to skip the queue at the castle. It gave us some pretty awesome views of the city!

We also got to see the Scottish Crown Jewels! Here is a picture outside that building in the castle. They were not as impressive as the Crown Jewels in Tower of London..... but they did come up quite often in the big Scottish debate recently (Ps Thank goodness Scotland voted no!)

After the castle, we wondered around a bit and 

we stumbled across the oldest pub... love this sign! 

We ventured over to the Scottish Parliament and got a great picture with Arthur's Seat in the background. We had no idea the Scottish Parliament would become such a topic of the news in the weeks to follow... otherwise we would have been sure to get a picture of it.  

Overall - We enjoyed Edinburgh! I hope we get to see more of this 'United Kingdom' :)