France, The Tour That Wasn't, Part II

To recap, if you missed my previous post...We were suppose to be on a tour in France when Covid struck.  So while we were in France,  NOT  on our tour we were in isolation in our hotel room and this was our standard fare.  Room service with wonderful baquets, french cheeses and meats with wine of course.

Once back in Paris (in order to fly out after isolation), we lucked out...finally something went our way.  Our Marriott was at the airport, but right next to the airport was Roissy-en-France.  A commune in the NE subburd of Paris with a population of 2,883.  Part of the Charles De Gaulle Airport (formerly known as Roissy Airport), is on property that was part of the commune.  This little historic village was within walking distance to the Airport Marriott.

Through out the village, you see historic pictures next to buildings showing you what it looked like back then.  This is The Church Eglise Saint - Eloi.  Then and now.

At least we were able to get outside and go for a walk staying well away from people and masked.  (Though I took my mask off for the picture, you can see me holding it).  Cobblestone walk ways, cute little houses with painted shutters, and a fair number of cafe's dotted this little commune.

As we made our way back to our hotel it was getting dusk out and all the lights in the village were coming on.

If you're on your way to or from other sights in France, do yourself a favor and stay a night at the Airport Marriott so you can spend an evening in this historic quaint little village.  Unlike us though, stop and eat in one of the cafe's, they all looked so inviting, and presumable you won't be isolating due to Covid.

PLEASE leave me a comment when you come visit, so I know you were here. Your visits and comments are very special to me. AND remember, leave your name and url and not your google+ profile link or your blogger profile link. Name and url takes me right to your blog post so I can reciprocate the visit. Profile pages do not.

France, The Tour That Wasn't

A round about just half a block away from our hotel, Novotel Chateau de Versailles.  We didn't make it across the street to read the inscription to know what the momument is.  But it was quite large and intresting.  We took a quick snap with our phones in between car traffic.

One view of Versailles.  On day one of our arrival to Versailles after a 45 minute car ride from the airport (Charles De Gaulle) in Paris, we went walking just to explore.  Versaille was just a couple of blocks from our hotel.  We arrived just as they were locking the gate as the inside tours were done for the day.  We were ok with that as we would be touring this with the tour group later.  We arrived a day earlier than the tour to have extra time to adjust, and recoup after the long flight.  So we were able to see the outside.  Even in this one picture, you can tell how large and grande it is, and that rehad is in process.  After all, it was re-built by King Louis XIII, back in 1631...or at least that's when he started with his grand plan.

We continued to walk around and explore looking for a little cafe for an early dinner.  The little patio area where the green awning is attracted us.  We had a couple of glasses of wine and a lovely light dinner as we enjoyed the good weather.  We chatted about what we would do the next day before meeting up with the tour director and the group.  We planned an early dinner, walk back to the hotel and have a nightcap at the hotel bar before calling it a night.

Covid had other plans for us!  Had we met up with the tour group the next day we would have had wine and gotten to know the group and director, and then headed to our first savory French dinner.  The following day we would tour the private apartments of King Louis XIV, The Sun King.  We would have seen the Hall of Mirrors and opulent bedchamber of the queen.  That evening we would have viewed the Royal Gardens of Versailles with a twilight promenade and enjoyed the Baroque fountains.

As the tour group continued on their merry way, we spent 5 days of isolation in a hotel room, scrambling to make alternative flight arrangements to return home once the isolation period was over.

The tour was through Collette, a 12 day tour, "France Magnifique" using Marriott Vacation Club Points.  We added a day in front of the tour and 2 days after.  Now we wait to hear back from the travel insurance folks in hopes of getting our money back.  I might add this tour was apparently doomed from the start, as it had been scheduled 5 different times thanks to Covid.

PLEASE leave me a comment when you come visit, so I know you were here. Your visits and comments are very special to me. AND remember, leave your name and url and not your google+ profile link or your blogger profile link. Name and url takes me right to your blog post so I can reciprocate the visit. Profile pages do not.

Appomattox, The Battle, The Village, The Surrender

There are many momento's, older photo's and signs filled with wonderful informtion about Appomattox.  A very historic time for our country.  A long battle,  Robert E. Lee's surrendered to General Ulysses S. Grant on April 9th, 1865 at The McLean House.

This post may be a bit photo heavy, but I hope you'll enjoy the photo's.

Please click on the pictures to read the details.

These printing presses printed parole passes for all the Confederates to allow them safe passage home.  These passes also entitled them to free passage on any Federally owned Railroad or steamship to help them return home quicker and safer.  Additionally it allowed them to draw rations from The Federal Government they had broken from and fought.  Grant was extremely  leniant with the enemy.  The passes were printed and hung on the line to dry and distributed.

There were 700 total casualities for both sides.  There were 27,805 paroled Confederates the day Lee surrendered; but while this surrender took place on April 9th, 1865; it was NOT the end of the fighting.  Surrenders continued into the month of May from other Confederates.

Mother Daughter Travels and Yarn

Darling Daughter and I almost always start our week together with a massage (and no pictures for sure), and a mani-pedi.  In the previous post you can see the fun we had with trying new recipes and our really lovely Airbnb.

In between tasting bourbons, we sought out a favorite thing for both of us...a yarn shop.

Look how cute the shop is.  Was in a small little house in a residential neighborhood, painted  pink and green.

ReBelle (click for their webpageJ)

Located at 225 Rosemont Garden, Lexington, KY  40503  859-389-9750.  They are closed on Mondays.  Tuesday - Friday  open 11 am to 5 pm, Sat 10-4, and Sunday 12-4.  They are the ONLY yarn shop around the area.  It's about an hour from our Airbnb in Danville, Kentucky to the yarn shop; and well worth the drive.  

437 yards of wonderful Heritage Silk (the pink/rose), and 435 yards of hand dyed self striping variegated yarn jumped into my hand and a lovely handmade wooden shawl pin.

And 420 yards of Craft The Park (Grand Portage National Monument colorway).  The cards flip side is like a bingo game where you can fill in your park yarn purchases.  I haven't been to Grand Portage, choose it for colors.

As well as things you've done while on vacation connected to being outside and or knitting.  These were my purchases, didn't get pictures of Darling Daughters purchases; but they were far greater than mine.  To be fair,  my stash is much larger than hers so she was stocking up a bit.  We love buying yarn while we travel as souvenirs.  AND, each of us have lost our favorite yarn shops at home.

Yes we were in Bourbon Trail Country; but there are other things to do as well; besides you can't drink Bourbon all day long.   Next post will be about Bourbon and one of the distilleries we toured, stay tuned.

PLEASE leave me a comment when you come visit, so I know you were here. Your visits and comments are very special to me. AND remember, leave your name and url and not your google+ profile link or your blogger profile link. Name and url takes me right to your blog post so I can reciprocate the visit. Profile pages do not.

Quality Mother Daughter Time, Danville, Kentucky

Darling Daughter and I had a Mother Daughter week.  We rented an Airbnb in Danville, Kentucky (part of the Bourbon Trail area).  We really had fun picking out our house and were very pleased with it.  I would love to have known how old the house was, but look at some of the details...the flooring, the woodworking throughout.  We did lots of knitting here in the living room.

The furnishings were all antiques which added to the feel of the place.

The kitchen was well appointed, giving us the ability to have fun cooking together.  We had selected a handful of new recipes to try and that added to the fun.

Even the bathroom had the antique feel.

Two nice sized bedrooms with comfortable queen beds.  This was my room.

This was my Darling Daughters Room.

Night one

Night 2 or 3, can't remember which.

This was nice and refreshing on a hot day.

Don't know which night this was either, lol.  

Our last night.  I seem to be missing a few pictures.  Darn

**We toured Bourbon Distilleries

***We tasted Bourbon, and bought Bourbon

****We found a yarn shop

*****We knitted

******We cooked

Stay tuned for more of our trip to Bourbon Country!

Danville is a nice small town with a pretty university, lots of history, and right on the Bourbon Trail.  Check it out.  It also has a nice selection of Airbnb of varying sizes to accommodate different sized groups.

PLEASE leave me a comment when you come visit, so I know you were here. Your visits and comments are very special to me. AND remember, leave your name and url and not your google+ profile link or your blogger profile link. Name and url takes me right to your blog post so I can reciprocate the visit. Profile pages do not.

Crazy Blue Bird Out My Window

Meet my crazy little Blue Bird Friend.  I say crazy because.  He or see, was trying to get into my villa while I was vacationing recently with two lady friends at Marriott's Monarch in Hilton Head.  I'm on the inside taking the picture with my cell phone through the glass (dirty) and screen door (dirty).  You hear of birds flying into really clean windows, but this sliding glass door and screen were anything but clean.  There was construction being done on the balcony (which was off limits to us as a result).  So, lots of extra dirt due to the construction and a good amount of yellow pollen from the Pine trees.  Soooooo, pretty sure this little guy wasn't confused about it.

Clearly he is staring right inside.  It was early, I wasn't yet out of bed and heard a tapping, and frankly thought the workers were early.  Quickly got up to look out on the patio when I see this bird jumping up from this dirty lounge chair (notice bird droppings), and hitting his head on the glass.  Over and over, thus the noise I heard.  I ran towards the glass hoping my movement would make it stopped, fly away or something.  Was afraid it was going to hurt itself.

It would take flight to the other side of the balcony and perch on the ledge.  Good I thought, problem solved.

He turned around and flew back.  Again perched on the chair and started jumping up/flying up and hitting it's head...tap, tap, tap.  

He did this multiple times.  Each time I thought I had him chased off, he'd come back.  This went on for about 10 minutes while I was standing there.  Obviously longer considering I could hear it before going to the door to see what was going on.

I kept taking pictures, at various stages.  Finally several other birds, coastal bird types landing on the balcony ledge and when they flew off, the Blue Bird joined them.  I was relieved.    

I was surprised to see a Blue Bird on the coast.  We were ocean front for one and for two...as I mentioned how dirty the glass and screen were wouldn't think it would be confused...AND once it tried to fly through and hit it's head......why didn't it stop?

Later that afternoon, the Blue Bird returned; but by then the chair had been moved (due to construction) and the bird couldn't sit on it to fly up to hit his head.  He perched awhile on the ledge, and flew off.  We didn't see the bird again for the rest of our trip.

I'm not a birder, but enjoy watching them at times.  Blue Birds are in the Turdidate Family.  They are a North American medium sized bird that is primarily insectivorous and omnivorous.

This link will take you to a site where a link to click to hear the pretty chirp.  CLICK HERE

PLEASE leave me a comment when you come visit, so I know you were here. Your visits and comments are very special to me. AND remember, leave your name and url and not your google+ profile link or your blogger profile link. Name and url takes me right to your blog post so I can reciprocate the visit. Profile pages do not.

Gullah Geechee Corridor, Hilton Head Island, South Carolina

The 2nd Floor at The Westin Hotel on Hilton Island houses a wonderful display to learn about the history of the island.  There's information about the environment, history connected to both The Civil War and The Revolutionary War.  Information regarding Mitchelville and the large Gullah Geechee Corridor.  

It was hard to try and take pictures without getting the reflections from the lights.

If you click on these pictures, you'll see them enlarge.  I hope you can see the information about the 2 brothers, Thomas Drayton and Percival Drayton.  We all know from our school days about families being divided during the Civil War.  He's an example.  Thomas was a Confederate in charge of Ft. Walker and Ft Beauregard, while his brother Percival stayed in the Union and was the Commander of The USS Pocahontas, which was the ship that fired on Ft. Walker and Ft. Beauregard.

Mitchellville was a self governing Black Community that was located at the North end of the Island.  It was far more than a refugee camp.  At the north end of the Island you see lots of signs stating it's part of the Gullah Geechee Corridor.  The Gullah Geechee are descendants of slaves.  The Corridor was established as a Federal National Heritage Area that runs from just north of Wilmington to as far south as St. Johns County, Florida on the cost.  

The exhibit is free and well worth the time. There is much to learn, and more to do on the island then just enjoying beach time.  Add this stop to your vacation itinerary.

There are guided tours of The Gullah area's as well.

PLEASE leave me a comment when you come visit, so I know you were here. Your visits and comments are very special to me. AND remember, leave your name and url and not your google+ profile link or your blogger profile link. Name and url takes me right to your blog post so I can reciprocate the visit. Profile pages do not.