Sylvia's Scenario

There's no place like Paris.  We returned after our first visit in 2023  and it never gets old. I listed all the things I loved about Paris in my first post:  the sidewalk cafes, the amazing food that you eat at all the sidewalk cafes, the beautiful trees and parks, the shopping, the architecture and fairytale-like buildings, the people watching because the women dress so chic and so do a lot of the men. I loved watching people with their dogs, too, because there are a lot of dogs in Paris and they are so well behaved and relaxed, just like their people. This time during our visit, we just wanted to soak it all in. We enjoyed every minute of our time there. First of all, our hotel was right next to the Odeon Theater in the left bank near the Latin Quarter or 6th district (districts are called arrondissement) and we were also just a block away from the gorgeous Luxembourg Gardens.  We could look out our hotel window, which was the size of door and nearly as heavy sin...

We finally got our chance to experience the blue chairs of Nice. We've had several family members visit Nice and rave about it so now we finally got our chance, too.  It was our next stop after we left Venice on the road to Nick's house in Spain. And what a lovely Mediterranean spot. This is part of the French Riviera on the Mediterranean and while we were there we also visited Monaco, the home of the Grimaldi dynasty who have run Monaco since the 1200's and most notably known for when Grace Kelly married Prince Rainier.  We got a slight taste of the French Riviera last summer when our cruise stopped at Marseille and we met up with my brother who was also there at the same time that I wrote about  here .  Of course, we always wanted to go back, just like Venice, so we decided to plan a stop here on this trip and we're so glad we did.  We loved it here.  Our favorite part was the long four mile Promenade you could walk everyday.  We loved walking it....