Today, 14 Sept. 2007, is the long awaited day. Tonight we will depart Ottawa, Canada, fly to Montreal and from there fly direct to Paris France! Woohoo!!

We arrive in Paris at 1050 Saturday morning. A shuttle will take us to our hotel, Les Jardins du Marais. Once settled into our quarters, I suspect we may head for a favorite Cafe near the Arc de Triompe for our first glass of le vin rouge.

I'll phone "Paris Parfait" and let her know of our arrival and confirm our dinner date for the 18th. Perhaps Tara will be able to also show D. to some of her favorite Antiquaries. ;-)
We have no other firm plans other than to spent the week in Paris soaking up the ambiance, visit some museums, eat croissants, and drink cafe express, cafe au lait, and sip some red wine.

photo by rel

In a departure from our past trips, instead of traveling to the southwest of France, this time we will be visiting the Provence region. On 9/21/07 we will travel (undecided as yet whether to fly or go by rail) to the Chateau-de-Nans in Nans-les-Pins.photo from website

This locale is about a 30 minute drive north of Marseille. It is also only 1o min. from "Tongue in Cheek" and we have made arrangements to meet up with Corey and her family for dinner at her gracious invitation to share their table. Again plans are flexible, but are sure to include my favorite past time of visiting really old buildings, especially churches and strolling the rural byways of France. Oh, and of course, tasting the local vintage will be on the list of things to do.

On the 28th we will travel back to Paris and stay our last night with Tara and David, a wonderful and kind invitation to blog friends, before returning home on the 29th.

I anticipate that there will be no posts Under the Microscope from now until next month.

Au revoir and bonjournee
A votre sante,
rel

photos by rel