Bosco, Italia

On Monday, we drove from France through the mountains to Bosco, Italy. It's in Reggio Emila, close to Parma, Modena, and Bologna. We're staying at an agritourismo, basically a farm that also has a B&B. This farm grows grapes for wine and balsamic vinegar, fruit for jam, and various vegetables. They also have a few animals, but not that many. The breakfasts here are delicious cakes plus local parmesiano reggiano and prosciutto. This region is known for their pasta - the problem is that you are expected to get both a primi (first course) and secondi (second course), plus antipasti (appetizers). The end result is that we leave restaurants completely stuffed. We've resorted to only eating 1 meal a day (plus breakfast) and then snacking. They're a few weeks ahead of Wisconsin here so certain fruits are starting to be in season. We've eaten some very good strawberries. Plus there are oranges from Spain and Sicily all over the place which are amazing. Today we drove up into the mountains (that divide this northern region of Italy from Tuscany) and toured the ruins of a castle. We got some amazing views. Unfortunately, we don't have a wireless connection right now so we'll have to upload pictures later. Tomorrow we drive to Tuscany where we stay for 5 days. I'm hoping we'll take a day trip to the coast. We got great views of the Mediterranean on our drive here (at Cannes and Nice) but haven't gone down to the beach yet.

Lutry est très belle

We have spent the last few days in Lutry, Switzerland, a "suburb" of Lausanne. It's on Lac Leman and it feels a bit like Lake Geneva. Super cute and expensive. For being old buildings they are really well kept up. Our hotel is contemporary and plush. The streets are narrow and cobblestone.


Our first night here we ate at a restaurant right around the corner and ordered the nightly Menu which was a salad and a mixed shish kabob skewer with coucous. It was delicious. We were the only ones in the whole place.

Yesterday we hiked in the Alps. We took this cute cog-driven train up into the mountains where we picked up the trail. We hiked for a couple hours in the rain and got great views. This picture is when we were on our way back down and were waiting out the rain under a carport.

We've spent a lot of time on trains and in train stations. This guy at one station got my attention because he has a baguette sticking out of his backpack. We've actually seen baguettes in all kinds of strange places. I think their motto is "don't leave home without your baguette. "

Where are we?

Turns out that the espresso in Paris is just as delicious as advertised. Thanks to whoever gave us the advice to order at the bar -that's definitely the way to go. It is both cheaper and you get to hang out in the locals. Yum.

We climbed to the Sacre Coeur and got one of the best views in Paris. So far we have not actually been inside any tourist attractions, we just walk around them. The crowds are big and we don't like waiting in lines.

From the top of the hill, I did a double take thinking this was the Capitol.

Paris!

After some flights cancellations, weather delays. and a rebooking, we made it to Paris without major incident. The metro system is something else. The train from CDG was beyond packed, but Adam navigated the 4th different train routes successfully and got us to our hotel by the Opera. We took a little nap and then spent the afternoon walking around and eating crepes and macarons. Yum! Pictures to come.