France – MOUNTAINS AND MANTRAS

Reflecions de Paris

I should have practiced blogging well before this trip. I am begging the universe for patience and perseverance right now. I posted 15 photos but they were here and then they were gone. At any rate, we loved being in Paris with family, but are now happy to be in Portugal on our own…as it finally feels like we have embarked on our journey. I want to say first, that we are so grateful that our dear friends Maya and Jessica Smith left Nice a few days before the attacks on Bastille Day. We know that they are home and safe. As we watched the EuroCup Finals match with thousands of people in the The Latin Quarter, it did cross our minds that we might not be in the safest place at that point in time. We went anyway. These times are challenging and cause us to pause as we travel and make future plans. Sorry, let me get back to Paris. I want to say that the main tourist attractions (Louvre, Eiffel Tower,Versailles, etc) were extremely crowded and chaotic. We did not enjoy visiting these sites with everyone else in the world. We really enjoyed the smaller museums and the roads less traveled. The Seine river cruise was awesome. It was one hour and very informative for those of us who did not pay attention during high school History class. The Moulin Rouge was entertaining and, especially, fun for me. The George Pompidou modern art museum was not crowded, had excellent exhibits and was our favorite. If we ever go back to Paris, it will be for the food and the people watching. Perhaps,a little shopping. We do not need to see the infamous tourist attractions again. We are still learning lessons daily and making mistakes on this journey.

Lessons Continued…..

Lesson 6: Never leave your hotel room without your umbrella and or rain gear. Do not trust the weather report or the sky. Be prepared.

Lesson 7: Avoid BIG crowds. It is rarely worth the money or the time to see an attraction with millions of others at the same time. Think small, quiet and off the beaten path. Head out EARLY.

Lesson 8: Remind yourself who you are now and understand and accept that you have evolved and morphed into beings who enjoy life differently as 50/60 year olds. We don’t really like hordes of people and have far less tolerance these days.

Lesson 9: We paid the extra money to check a third bag and had just one backpack for carry on. This not only saved our backs, but our soulful well being too. We still like each other!!!!!!

Things we did right continued…..

#3: WE purchased holiday Orange SIM cards for our phones. We are able to stay connected to each other and family. This has worked well for us and we highly recommend. Sometimes, I have tried to lose Will, but he can always track me down wherever I am in a city. I guess that is a good thing.

We are in Portugal and will post as we move through this country. So, far we find Lisbon to be friendly, engaging, good energy and CHEAPER than Paris. In one week, I get to start a workout routine. I am still healing but have more energy and am ready to get active. Cheers!!!!!

The Blog is Bogging Us Down

Oh My, I thought I would be writing on the blog site everyday and then……..well, it just isn’t that easy to stay on stop of things when you are adjusting to a new time zone, family outings everyday and evening and lots of moving around. Our learning curve is much bigger than we could have imagined. The weather has been unexpectedly wet and cold. We had two days in wet and cold Paris to wander, eat, drink and recover from our flight before we met Will’s family of ten and drove to Normandy for a week. We had a beautiful house in the country, but we spent most of our time away from the quiet serenity sight seeing all that a tourist should see in that area. Mont St Michel, Utah Beach, American Cemetery, Avranches Castle and the Tour de France as it quickly passed by, to name just a few activities. It was a wonderful whirlwind of family and touring which ended with us back in Paris. WE are enjoying all the French hoopla surrounding the finals of the EuroCup Tournament…. France vs Portugal. Of course we are rooting for France to win so that we can be part of the grand party post soccer match. If France loses, we will get more sleep and that would be a bonus as well. We all leave France Thursday with Will’s family heading home and we will depart for Portugal for ten days. Neither of us have been there before so we are hoping for an adventure or two. We also just need some rest!

Learning Curve Lessons (so far):

Lesson #1: Schleping 50 pound bags and 20 -35 pound packs is not the same as it was in our 20s and 30s.

Lesson #2: Family is important and every minute we could spend with them was worthwhile and memorable. We had to leave the “we want to do our own thing” and go along for all the rides.

Lesson #3: Major abdominal surgery takes as long as the surgeon told me it would to recover. My energy is still compromised and my shorter untwisted intestine has struggled to work efficiently….I am waiting! Listen to the doctor’s orders. Follow the doctors orders. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Lesson #4: Check and double check all reservations…especially dates. We (Bon) blew our first Airbnb reservation by reserving the wrong month and we, humbly, had to chalk that one up to…..stomach surgery?

Lesson #5: We have had to learn more about the visa requirements in Europe when we realized that we are overstaying our welcome by 7 days. It is complicated and Will has been researching this like crazy. Good thing we are flexible and have the means to get out of the country…but where to go???? We are considering Cyprus, Romania or Morocco. Anyone have an opinion?

What we did right #1: We have everything we need to charge all of our electronics no matter where we are and we have already been tested. Thanks to Kyle and Dez for getting us our first Tumi device and we bought more. It seems that having our devices is a necessity not just an addiction.

#2: We were prepared when we left for everything at home to run smoothly, our banking to be simple and efficient, extra slush funds for money emergencies, and good medical and travel insurance.