Strolling the Streets of Honfleur

All reports called for rain with a chill in the air.  And we packed for it.

Now, I really can’t complain as it would have been worse in reverse.  But, the entire time we were in Normandy, it was 80-90 degrees by day cooling to around 50 at night.  And I’ll take that over chilly rain any day!  What can ya’ do?  At least I brought one pair of shorts along for the ride…and boy oh boy, those shorts are worn out!

This Travel Gal adventure featured my husbands first experience in Europe and my daughters first trip ever.

Some neighbors were pretty jealous of little 11 month old Livy.  “I’ve never even been to France!”  they shouted across the driveway upon hearing the news.  Whenever I hear something like this, I have to wonder.

Why?  Why haven’t you ever been to France?

Why is it so many people spend their time fantasizing about travel and never just up and do it?  If you say it’s because you don’t have the money, that’s just lame.  You can honestly travel anywhere on a budget if you plan.   So please just get past the “I wish I could” BS and figure it out.  I have been lucky in life…but really, I’ve made it what it is too.  And anyone can…I’m not that special.

Livy was quite the star on the flight over.  I was shocked.  It was pretty stressful wondering how she’d respond to being trapped on an airplane for 9 hours.  Plus, I have to admit, I had visions of my single, carefree self traveling in the past.  Shear panic consumed me every time I saw a baby get on-board.  So when we boarded the plane,  sneers pierced the back of my head from everyone just realizing they were about to take off with a baby in the next row.   But the hours of “travel with baby” tips I gathered before our departure really paid off.   As the plane landed, our co-travelers joyously complimented Livy.  And when I say joyous, I mean joyous.  Exuberant even.  Shock and awe came streaming to us…in a good way though.   “I can’t believe how good she was.”  “OMG, is she always like this?”  And my favorite comment (which actually came after our return flight) “You could get 200 letters of recommendation from people on that flight to hand out to other people when you get on planes in the future.  That baby is amazing!”  And yes, she truly is.

So for anyone looking for “traveling with baby” tips, here’s what I did:

1. Made sure she had a bottle for take off.  Sucking on something will relieve the pressure during take-offs and landings.  This is key!  (In spite of my thorough planning though, Livy couldn’t wait to have her bottle at take off.  She pounded 8 oz. while everyone was boarding and passed out.  Unbelievably, she actually slept through the entire take off and for about 2 hours after.)
2. I didn’t purchase a seat for her.  But we lucked out and the flight wasn’t full so we got an extra seat to spread out.  Air France was really awesome by the way.  They also have bassinets for babies that are under 22 lbs.  I strongly suggest getting a seat with one of these.  We had one for our return flight and she really loved it.  She slept most of the way.  Plus, she loved being able to sit up, smile and wave at her neighbors on-board.  For those of you that know me…yes, this is my child.
3. I purchased a Moby Wrap for the flight.  My thought was that if I wanted to sleep without worrying about her falling off my lap, at least this wrap would hold her close to me but allow her to spread out a bit too.  It worked great.  I didn’t find a ton of products for lap flying.  There’s a few but they seem to be more for take offs and landings then for comfortable security mid-flight.
4. Packed snacks and toys.
5. Used bottles with disposable liners so i just had to wipe down the nipples instead of cleaning an entire bottle on the plane.  An impossible task as you can’t use the bathroom water to clean them.
6. Speaking of wipes!  I used pacifier wipes to clean the bottles and facial wipes for her.  I was wipe crazy on this trip and I strongly suggest it.
7. We brought our own stroller with us.  City Mini Jogger.  We opted to check this instead of using a cheap umbrella stroller.  I’m glad we did too.  An umbrella stroller would never have survived the cobblestone streets of Europe.  Plus, Livy wouldn’t have been as comfortable.  This allowed her to sleep when she wanted as we were out on 6-9 hr adventures everyday.
   

   Comfy and Loving France in her City Mini Jogger

8. Everyday while we were out and about, we made sure to find time for Liv to run free a bit.  Most little villages have some kind of park and she truly loved hanging out with the Frenchies by the swing.

Just enjoying the park

That’s about it for this post.  I’ll be posting more with pics from our time in Giverny, Honfleur, Fecamp, Rouen and more.

Before Olivia came, I started working on the artwork for her nursery.  I could have just gone a purchased some pieces…but that seems silly since I have all the supplies and talent needed right here at home.  I wanted to share some of the work with you.

Here’s the big one I painted:

Nursery Art by Travel Gal

Now, I was fortunate enough to have some other artists join in.  Her dad was next….

Nursery art by Daddy

And then a truly special treat…my 6 yr. old niece Annika, who actually named Olivia , wanted to have her work featured as well.  Sorry these pics are a bit green…but the lighting today pretty much sucks.  I’ll have to take new pics later.

Annika's art for Olivia

More art from Annika

I do have additional work to feature…but I think I’ll wait til I have better lighting in there.  Now, I couldn’t end this post without a pic of our girl Olivia…afterall…it is her room.

Welcome the best art possible...Miss Olivia

"Fairies of Peace" a painting I started for the Global Art Exchange project...but will end up in the nursery

What started as a painting to illustrate my vision of global peace and meant to exchange with a partner assigned through the Global Art Exchange…will end as a work of art for my nursery.  I still absolutely love the vision and mission of the Global Art Exchange…I just have to admit…I failed in finalizing its execution.  I started this painting in April with all good intentions of exchanging it with my assigned partner.  But I never heard from my partner.  And lost interest in finishing up the piece for her.  I didn’t make the effort to connect with her either.  So I’m not placing any blame.  I’m just being honest about it.  With the baby only 5 weeks away, I figured…why not finish up the work…and display it in the nursery.  The vision behind the work will be a great message to our daughter.  Plus, she’ll have some original art from birth.  Not a bad way to start things out…eh?

A shot from our road trip through Colorado this Summer. More pics to come soon!

Sure I had plenty of groundings in my day as a child growing up in Northbrook. But this grounding is by far the worst. When you love to travel, it’s just unbearable to be “restricted”. Oh who am I kidding. I find any kind of restriction unbearable. Of course this is all for good reason. I am only 6 weeks away from having a baby girl. But I can’t help obsessively surfing every travel website I can get my hands on..checking out fares, hotel specials and fabulous locations still undiscovered by this Travel Gal.

Yes, life is changing. It’s been changing for some time now. I guess that’s why it’s been awhile since my last post. So many thoughts have been swirling around my head. I haven’t been able to focus on one long enough to share them with you.

My original vision for Travel Gal and how I’d execute it needs a bit of a tweek. It’s not dead by any means…I just need to make room for a smaller explorer. Not too long ago I was introducing Rick to his first international traveling experience. Now, I’ll be sharing my passion for travel with two fairly inexperienced adventurers. And honestly….there’s nothing that puts a bigger smile on my face.

Thankfully, my process of purging and merging is finally coming to an end.  And as things get cleared away and move to their proper place in the dumpster out back or the storage space I rented only a mile away, I am left staring at this thronish chair that has occupied the back deck of Rick’s place ever since I’ve known him.  I guess you could say I’m a bit obsessed with this chair.   God only knows how long it’s been sitting back there.  It’s lived through blizzards and hail storms.  It’s felt the harsh Summer rays melting away it’s outer layers.  It’s torn.  It’s leaning over in pain.  And…it needs to be saved.  Now, Rick has learned in the last month that I’m a big fan of the dumpster.  I love throwing out junk and making room for true treasures.  But some things…no matter how beated and broken, have a certain style and soul of their own.  They reach out to you and make you want to save them.  And this chair…or throne as I like to call it…is one of those things.  Take a look at this:

Look at this piece of work...yes, it's beaten up...but you can see it's potential too...can't you?

Let's get some more detail...shall we? Here's it's headpiece.

So sad...it sprained it's ankle.

Okay, so here’s the deal.  I have never in my life attempted to fix a piece of furniture.  Actually, I’m not big on fixing anything.  Usually, once something is broken, I move on.  At least this is the case for anything non-human.  So there’s no chance I could take on this project alone.  In fact, I wouldn’t want to even if I thought I could.  I thought it would be a great team project.  Something we could even document here on my blog and on my ustream channel for Travel Gal.  Why not?  Let’s make it our own little event.

Will any of you join me in this crusade to “Save the Throne”?  Who has a great idea and vision of what this chair could be?  We don’t even know it’s true history.  Let’s write one.  I see a story each and everytime I look at it.  What do you see?

Maybe you think I’m crazy..and you might have a point.  But whatever.  Let’s just have some fun.  Who’s with me?  Anyone?  Bueller?

Yes...what if?

Recently, I went to check out the new Matisse exhibit at the Art Institute of Chicago.  And although I can’t say this particular collection of his work is my favorite, I will say that it did invoke some “deep thoughts.”  In fact, everytime I attend a special exhibit at any art museum around the world, I have one very similar thought.  More of a daydream.  But each time this dream gets stronger.  It stems from one question we’ve all been asked at one point or another.

“If you could meet anyone, dead or alive, who would you choose?”

Of course this question has been recreated in a variety of themes.

“If you could have lunch…” or “If you were trapped on an island with one person…” or my personal favorite, “If you could get drunk or high with one person…”  yadda, yadda, yadda.

For this dream though, mine is more about time travel.  I can’t help but wonder what it would be like to be living in Montmontre in the heart of Paris in…oh…let’s say…1907.  I imagine walking into a cabaret, sitting down at a table with a glass of Absinthe, absorbed in conversation with some of the greatest masters of art who ever lived – Picasso, Braque, Van Gogh, Gauguin, Seurat and Matisse.  Oh if only Toulouse Lautrec was still alive…he’s the only one missing from this mix of insanity.  Just then, easels, paints and brushes are whipped out from the back room.  Each artists claims their own work space and the paints start to fly.  They taunt each other as the competition grows.  Who will create the finest masterpiece in one hour?  Wah ha ha ha…..

Yes, “what if….”  I can’t help but conjure up this whole scene each and every time I am struck with the magnitude of this time period in Paris.  It seems that everyone who was anyone in art was in Paris at some point between 1880-1920 or so.  Can you imagine the open studio tours back then?

Oh to be a fly on the wall.  To be anything…just to be there…

What’s your “What if”?

Loving Paris and our little photo journey

It hit me on Rue du Concorde in Paris.  Strolling through the streets soaking up all the amazing beauty around us I announced,

“I didn’t like Florence. And I don’t ever remember being so passionately in love with Paris.”

“Paris is beautiful.  And all those people who say it’s dirty and ugly should be banned from entry,” responded Lisa.

Yes, it’s official.  All you people who don’t like Paris…you are banned.  For life.  We’ve given up on you.     This certainly wasn’t my first trip to Paris.  I’ve been to and back from this city since I was 12.  Sure I always liked it.  But I think it was the experience in Florence that brought about a completely new passion for this city.

Walking over Pont Alexandre III - beautiful bridge

Now, don’t get me wrong, there is beauty in Florence and some amazing sites to see.  We just spent too much time there.  Most guide books will say that you should spend 3 days in Florence.  But this Travel Gal says…2

close up of one of the statues on the bridge

days max.  In fact, I think you can soak up all that Florence has to offer in a day and a half.  As with all European cities, I mostly enjoy just roaming around.  I’m always taken with the charm and richness of the architecture.  You can’t help but be completely taken with the complexity and attention to detail carved into each nook and cranny of the buildings in Europe.   In fact, I’m a bit disappointed when I see modern architecture there.  I mean think about the time it took to complete many of the structures in Europe.  The Duomo in Florence took 150 years to complete.  150 YEARS!  Imagine getting funding for a project like that these days.  PLEASE.  They throw you out in 2 seconds.

So what did I love about Florence?  Here’s my list of favorite moments:

1) LOVED our little hotel.  http://www.hotelaprile.it/index.php?hotel_florence If you go to Florence, I highly recommend this hotel.  The room we had was quite spacious…including the bathroom which is rare in Europe.  It was centrally located which made it easy to walk around the city.  They had a lovely bar area where you could get on the internet and the breakfast served with our stay was fantastic.  Plus, a stay here won’t break the bank.

2)Galleria Dell’ Accademia – Yes, this is where the Statue of David lives.  I honestly didn’t expect him to be so massive.   You do actually need to sit down for a few and marvel at Michaelangelo’s work.  I was blown away with it.  Carved from one block of marble (one utterly massive block of marble), I just couldn’t believe it.  I can’t even imagine what goes through an artist’s mind when they create such a masterpiece.  And apparently, he had a natural skill to be able to just look at a block of marble or whatever medium he was using…and immediately see what it was supposed to be and start carving.  Now, David is really the only thing to see in this museum.  Unless of course, you’re traveling with your crazy friend giggling like teenagers as you critique the room of Medieval art featuing various renditions of the Madonna and child.  This little scene should have been on video…but then we probably would still be in Italy working our way out of a cell.  Yes, we had a smirky comment for each and every baby Jesus in that room.  For some reason, the artists illustrations of the baby just came off freaky to us.  No one wants to see a Man Baby Jesus crushing the life out of the bird of peace.  Well, now that’s not entirely true.  We did.  Oh did we.

3) Uffizi – I’m not a big fan of Medieval and Renaissance art.  After you look at a few, they all start to look the same to me.  Sorry high end art people.  But that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.  I was completely taken with Botticelli’s Primavera.  Definitely my favorite painting in the whole building.  Whether you’re an art history buff or not, you simply can’t miss this incredible collection of art.

Statues line the walk to the Uffizi

4) Piazzale Michaelangelo – Damn this climb was a bitch.  But as I’ve said a million times.  Whenever traveling, if you have a chance to climb up a tower or to a high point in the city, do it!  The views will take your breath away and Piazzale Michaelangelo did not disappoint.  Now, in addition to the great photo ops available here, you can also grab a bench and participate in some high quality people watching.  OMG!  Hours of enjoyment.  HOURS!  We saw it all from the panaoramic views of the Piazzale.

The Duomo in Florence seen from Piazzale Michaelangelo

5) Osteria Del Centopoveri – This small little restaurant is tucked deep in the via veins of Florence and we just LOVED IT!  Known as the ”hostel of the hundred poor people”, these guys serve traditional Tuscan dishes with their own creative spins.  It’s a cozy place with dim lights, great house wine and you can even order up a pizza if you want.  It’s also located about a half a block, if that, from the hotel we stayed in…so it was an awesome choice, close to home.

Things we didn’t do but probably would have enjoyed:

1) Fabio Picchi’s Teatro del Sale – Fabio is known as “one of Florence’s living treasures”.  His restaurants have taken over almost an entire block near Mercato Sant’Ambrogio.  In 2002, he opened a truly unique institution, Teatro del Sale.  This members-only club is housed in an old theatre and serves breakfast, lunch and dinner, culminating at 9:30P in a live performance of drama, music or comedy arranged by his wife Maria Cassi (a famous Florentine actress).  Apparently, at dinner, you grab a chair, serve yourself water, wine and antipasta and wait for Picchi to yell out what’s just about to be served before queuing at the glass hatch for your primo and secondo.  We would have experienced this first hand but by the time we discovered it, it was Monday and they were closed.  If I ever do visit Florence again, I’d definitely want to check this out!

2) Giardino dei Boboli – This massive renaissance garden is located directly behind the Piazza de’Pitti and supposed to be truly amazing.  It’s a prime example of a formal Tuscan garden and offers many fun things to explore. However, we spotted the garden on one of our many walking adventures throughout town.  Typically, most cities have free gardens to explore.  We were so irritated with the lack of public parks in Florence, that we just couldn’t muster up the will to pay to enter.  Looking back, I think I would have enjoyed it.  But at the time, it made total sense to blow off this garden and move on.  Again, if I do return to Florence, I do think I’d pony up the fee and venture into this garden.

Yesterday, Lisa and I headed out on our much anticipated journey into the Tuscan countryside.  This was the whole point of coming out here and renting the car.  We couldn’t wait to hit the road and see what Tuscany had in store for us.  We carefully mapped out our route which was to take us through tricky, wiggly roads in the hills that offered up the best views of the land.  We were to make stops at Buonconvento, Montalcino, Pienza, Montepulciano, Montisi and Asciano. All in all, it was a full day of touring little medieval towns, venturing into tiny, expat communities of artists and sampling the fine cuisine of the country.  Nothing would stop us now!

Shortly after our breakfast at the hotel, we loaded up the car and headed out.  Yes, there were a few snowflakes coming down..but hey, we’re from the frozen tundra of the midwest.  A little snow.  Hogwash!  We drive! 

The snow storm starts to take over the countryside

At first the roads weren’t so bad, we made it to Buonconvento in record time.  But as the drive progressed, we noticed the pile up of snow.  Although we were thrilled to have the roads all to ourselves, it did seem a little odd.  But not TRULY odd until we started the climp up to our first medival town of Montalcino.  This is when I started to get that sinking feeling.  Huge snow banks on both sides of our car has been piled up to about 3 feet .  Maybe this wouldn’t have been so bad on normal American roadways.  But in Europe.  You don’t have much room to navigate.  Most roads are smaller than the alleys I’m so familiar with back home.  Driving in our little tic tac car with tires that should be mounted on my bicycle, a growing fear started to rise up.  Traction wasn’t working in our favor and with each incline, I wondered…

“will I be able to get down from here?”

Lisa whipped out her camera to take some video of our adventure up the narrow, steep roads.   As the tires started to slide to the right, we reached the top.  The road made a sharp turn downward and I stopped to catch my breath.  “Lisa, I’m scared.”  I don’t know if we’ll be able to get down from here.  No one was out.  Windows were boarded up.  Stores were closed.  We were the only ones out and about.  We made it down our first sloap and had a minute of level driving before the next decline.  This road ended in a cliff off the boardering medieval wall of the city.  As we reached the end of the road, the bicycle tires started to slide.  Holy shit!  I can’t stop.  Now here’s where your midwest upbringing really comes in handy.  I gently started to pump the breaks just hoping we’d come to a stop before we hit the next road.  Visions of our car flying over the wall and headlines in the paper of two tourists determined to see Tuscany taunted me.  But we made it.  “Lisa, let’s just head to the next town.  Maybe it’ll be better.”  We set the GPS to Pienza and all was well again.  The snow started to break and views of lush green hillside appeared.  Until we started to make our climb to Pienza of course.  Pienza was hit even harder then Montalcino.  Road markers had been plowed up to the top of 6 ft.  piles of snow.  Determined to experience something other than the road, we still headed into the town.  Maybe we could just park and walk around.  But again, everything was closed up.  The only people in the streets were armed with snow plows and orange jackets.  There would be no touring Pienza today so again, we set the GPS to the next town and headed back out on the road. 

A great sign of what's to come!

This was starting to get ridiculous.  Especially for two girls from the midwest.  And we just kept thinking…

“Man, if only we had our snow shoes.  This wouldn’t be so bad.  We could park somewhere and just plow through this mess and see the sights.”  How completely naive of us.  I mean really.  Every town was completely shut down.  There was nothing to do but trek through crazy piles of snow.  I’m sure it would have been quite an entertaining sight for the locals to see us trying to navigate the tiny roads by foot.  Even with the weather being as it was, we were completely perplexed.  Why in the world were these towns shut down?  Was it a holiday we didn’t know about?  Had the black plague come back to rear it’s ugly head once more?  What up? 

Fortunately, all wasn’t lost on this outing.  We did actually get moments of pure Tuscan spendor.  But after 6 hours of driving through 6 towns,  it was time to get back to Siena.  Afterall, at this point it was 3PM and we were STARVING!  We headed back to town determined to investigate this seemingly rare occurence.  We had to figure out WTF was going on. 

Maybe not ideal, but still...you can't deny the beauty of Tuscany. If only it were sunny out.

Lisa booted up her computer to find this gem of an article:  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1256974/Shock-British-holidaymakers-Majorca-island-hit-freak-snowstorm.html  And there you have it.  Our adventure struck down by a FREAK SNOWSTORM across all of Europe.  Now, we were completely delirious.  We could not stop laughing.  Especially at our completely naive comments while driving.  Imagine us…racking our brains tring to figure out what was going on.  Why no one was out.  Why we had the roads all to ourselves.  And our Midwest optimism had us continue our drive from town to town hoping for the best. 

Yes…if only we had our snow shoes…all would have been right.  LOL.