On the road again!

You know me--- I love to travel.
My dh and I are now vacationing in the Burgundy region of France, exploring the history and culture (and some wine!).  We are staying in a very small town, having rented a fabulous house that is just steps away from all the basic needs--- bakery, wine bar and restaurant! ;-)

I spent just a couple of days in Paris before taking the train to Dijon (supposed to be the mustard capital of the world), renting a car and driving about an hour to the town of Beaune, although we are staying a little south.

I thought you'd enjoy some of the pictures I've been taking.  What I found amazing, during my short time in Paris, was I saw two different furniture stores displaying furniture with quilt patterns!




One of our first stops in Paris was to a coffee shop for my husband's beans.  He can't go without coffee in the morning.  vbg!  We went to a favorite place and I saw these great mugs from England.  They were definitely too expensive so I just took pictures and didn't buy one.  Bone china?  No thanks.




One of my favorite things about Europe is the architecture.  I am a real sucker for the old buildings.  This is the Hôtel de Ville, which is like our city halls.  The apartment we rented this time was very near this building so I walked past it several times and never tired of looking at each section.




Whenever I see any kind of sculpture, I imagine how much time a person back then must have spent creating these images.  Speaking of that, one of my favorite sites in all of Paris is Notre Dame. This is from the back, which doesn't show any details.   Notre Dame sits on a small island, which you can see  from the picture.

 Sadly, Notre Dame is always very crowded with tourists and gypsies, begging for money.  It's unsafe; there are pick pockets galore;  and we have become very sensitive to the risk of terrorism (sadly) so we generally have been avoiding crowded places.  So we avoided walking across the front of it. Sorry.



Here it is all lit up.  Pretty dramatic, don't you think??


I also can never pass up a great view of quintessential Paris.





Couldn't pass up a picture of this pianist playing for money on one of the bridges adjacent to Notre Dame.  Obviously there were no cars allowed:


One of the other delights of Paris is their shop windows.  We usually go at Christmas time and enjoy the very elaborate displays.  This year, we are obviously not going to see that.  But we passed by a store selling eye glasses (very big business in Paris, by the way--there are shops just about everywhere).  Isn't this a strange one?? 


We are now in the wine country and I'll show you pictures from this area next... I have to admit that I'm missing my handwork.  I didn't bring any sewing but did bring some knitting so that'll have to suffice. Hope everyone is well.

I have heard from many of you asking about our welfare with the fires in Northern California.  Fortunately we are not close but the smoke situation, even in San Francisco, where our daughter lives, is really dire.  She is keeping her kids inside;  school was cancelled as was soccer, of course.  And the pictures of all those homes and cars burning up is just heartbreaking.  I feel for all those people.