Honeymoon in France - October 2006

October 16, 2006 through October 28, 2006

Bon Jour! After much anticipation, the "big day" finally came. We are expecting photos from the beautiful wedding soon. In the meantime, here are a good portion of the photos from a relaxing honeymoon in France. Many of you may be wondering where, exactly, we ended up at. So before we get to the photos, let's go through the itinerary, I'll try to be brief

10/16/06: Fly out of Boston around 6:00 PM (local Boston time)
10/17/06: Land in Paris around 7:00 AM (local Paris time). Get ourselves situated, take a short nap, and walk around Paris for a bit, and have a nice dinner.
10/18/06: After oversleeping a little, rush to catch our train to La Rochelle. Rent a car in La Rochelle and drive out onto the Ile de Re.
10/19/06: Another relaxing day on the Ile de Re.
10/20/06: Drive south. After a brief stop in Rochefort, we continue to Bordeaux. It's raining, and all the people in the city are stressing us out. So we decide to leave Bordeaux and head for a small town. We head to Bazas, a lovely old village. Unfortunately, even though there are many signs for a hotel in Bazas, it is no where to be found. As the afternoon is now turning to evening, we decide to continue on to Casteljaloux. It was easy to find accommodations in Casteljaloux, and we enjoy a nice dinner.
10/21/06: Drive to Carcassonne. Beautiful, centuries old castle. Modern city below. We found a hotel within the old city walls.
10/22/06: See the castle in the morning. In the afternoon, we begin to head back north, and drive to Sarlat. Spend the afternoon and evening walking around this beautiful old town, before sitting down to a full 5 course, hours-long dinner. A dinner that included a course of duck liver. whoa.
10/23/06: Leave Sarlat and stop and go into a few caves. Afterwards, we drive to Cognac. When we get to Cognac, most of city seems closed.
10/24/06: Cognac is much more bustling this morning, and we walk to the river and get a tour of the Hennessy Cognac place. Our tour was at 10 AM and we were the only two people on the tour. After learning about how complicated it is to make cognac, we get some complimentary drinks. Cognac straight-up is some serious stuff. So I mix it with gingerale to make it a little more pallatable. After the tour, we drive back to La Rochelle, return the car, and spend the afternoon and evening in La Rochelle.
10/25/06: We take the train back to Paris, and take a short break after checking into our hotel. We walk to the Eiffel Tower, and go to the top. We reach the top just at sunset.
10/26/06: A day in Paris. The Louvre in the morning, and walking through the neighborhood of "Les Marais".
10/27/06: A day in Paris. The Rodin Museum in the morning, and the "Quartier Latin" and the "Jardin de Luxembourg" in the afternoon.
10/28/06: A long flight home.

Alayne leans over the Seine in front of Notre Dame.

Inside Notre Dame.

Jason by the Seine.

The train station in La Rochelle.

Alayne is standing by the Atlantic Ocean in St. Martin on the Ile de Re.

Alayne is happy in St. Martin.

Jason and Alayne in St. Martin.

Alayne is enjoying the honeymoon thus far.

Jason stands on top of a rock wall. It's about 50 feet down to the ocean. Of course, in France, they'd probably say something along the lines of "Il est 15.24 metres a l'ocean."

Alayne and Jason in St. Martin.

This view of St. Martin is from the top of the old church. We had to walk up a rickety old wood stair case to get the top.
If you look carefully, our hotel (Hotel de la Jetee) is right over THERE. Right on the marina.

Another view from the top of the old church in St. Martin.

Alayne is on top of the old church.

Alayne and Jason in St. Martin.

Jason in front of the Phare de Baleine (aka Lighthouse of whales).

Alayne is excited to see an inflatable donkey at a tourist shop by the lighthouse.

Alayne stands on a big thing on a beach on the Ile de Re. We think that they used to collect the ocean water, and then let it sit in large pools and evaporate, so that that could get sea salt.

Jason stands in front of a beached sailboat.

Jason and Alayne on the beach. It's wicked windy.

Alayne runs along a path in the sand dunes.

Alayne stands in the Atlantic Ocean. Amazingly, the water is actually warmer than it ever is on Cape Cod...

Jason, walking around Rochefort.

In Rochefort, they are building an exact replica of an 18th century boat that took Marquis de Lafayette over to America to help with the American Revolution. When they finish the boat, they are going to sail it across the Atlantic and plan to land in Boston.
After seeing the boat, Alayne posed for this picture.

Alayne eats a midday snack in Bordeaux.

Alayne is in Bordeaux.

The drive from Casteljaloux to Carcassonne went through some beautiful countryside. We stopped by this chateau to take our picture.

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