The Anglo-French Holidays

January 17, 2024 by Nicole Harrison in France, England

When our friend Bella got a new job in France, we decided (with a couple of other friends) to visit her for New Year’s. When we got a deal on flights to London, we decided to add a couple of days in London, since Jason knows a lot about England and loves their media but had never been.

It’s always interesting traveling over holidays, and we didn’t expect London to close down quite as much as it did for Christmas. Luckily we had a friend living in the city who had us over for a delicious dinner (thank you, Sam!), and we spent the next couple of days wandering around and enjoying some of the sights (and even a little sunshine). If you have a specific list of things you want to see and restaurants you want to visit, I wouldn’t recommend a Christmas trip, but if you just want to wander and have a generally weird experience (and see where the locals actually hang out then they’re not working), it’s not bad.

Classic telephone booths in an empty Smithfield Market (photo/Jason Rafal)

The Christmas scene at St. Paul’s Cathedral (photo/Jason Rafal)

A nice collection of architecture (photo/Jason Rafal)

The cathedral dome through the city at night (photo/Jason Rafal)

I wonder if you can monitor depression in London using this box (photo/Jason Rafal)

The Tate Modern, which we don’t love the architecture of (photo/Jason Rafal)

The Millennium Bridge, my personal favorite (photo/Jason Rafal)

A multi-layered tower with a very shiny clock (photo/Jason Rafal)

Black and white photo of a castle wall with a sunstar. — A sunstar at the Tower of London (photo/Jason Rafal)

A crowd of people walking across a bridge, under ornate castle architecture. — The locals were clustered around certain parts of the city, like London Bridge (photo/Jason Rafal)

A large, angular apartment building with a green reflection in the windows. — A weird pointy building with a cool reflection (photo/Jason Rafal)

A tall, ornate, and nearly empty market with a Christmas tree. — An empty Leadenhall Market (photo/Jason Rafal)

The Cannon Street tube station, completely empty. — It was pretty cool to see some of the places so empty (photo/Jason Rafal)

Close-up portrait of a snowman statue. — There were several of these snowmen around…smiling at us (photo/Jason Rafal)

A crowd of people walking toward the London Eye, bathed in golden hour light. — The London Eye was also very busy, with a pop-up market and lots of strolling (photo/Jason Rafal)

Looking across the river at Big Ben and the castle. — Looking over at Westminster (photo/Jason Rafal)

Looking up at the Big Ben clock tower. — The clocktower (photo/Jason Rafal)

A crowd of people walking down a street under red lanterns. — Chinatown in London (photo/Jason Rafal)

On the one day we were in London when attractions were open, we took the train out to Kew Gardens, since we always like to go to a nice garden. It didn’t disappoint. There are two old-school glass greenhouses and one very cool modern one, and lots of beautiful grounds in between. It would be an amazing place to spend a day during the summer when it’s a little warmer, and it could keep you occupied for hours.

A waterfall surrounded by palm trees and other plants in a large glass greenhouse. — An indoor waterfall at the amazing Palm House (photo/Jason Rafal)

An ornate orange flower. — A flower that looks like it was sculpted (photo/Jason Rafal)

Looking up a walkway alongside a row of plants with a plaque that says Africa. — Scenes from Africa (photo/Jason Rafal)

Looking over the top of the tall plants hitting against the ceiling of the glass greenhouse. — We took the stairs up to the greenhouse catwalk, where we could look down onto the greenery below (photo/Jason Rafal)

The modern greenhouse was composed of many half levels, and it was a kind of maze to go through it. It was really fun to wander through, and there was always something new around every corner.

A hanging planter with long, white tendrils hanging down toward the floor. — This plant was amazing and completely unlike anything I’ve seen before (photo/Jason Rafal)

Looking down the tall stalks of a cactus. — Many spikes (photo/Jason Rafal)

A path winding through a glass greenhouse with plants everywhere. — An incredible assortment of plants (photo/Jason Rafal)

A tank with a lot of plants and a tiny orange shrimp. — A tiny shrimp in its tank habitat (photo/Jason Rafal)

Nicole looking at a tree with an orange flower in the foreground. — This is a Brugmansia, and I love them (photo/Jason Rafal)

The other attraction we decided to visit was the Victoria and Albert Museum, which was even more enjoyable than I expected. It’s composed of everything that wouldn’t necessarily go into another collection; it’s a museum of chaos, and we loved it. We wandered around between rooms of jewelry, metalwork, statues, glasswork, paintings, and all sorts of other things.

An old globe that fades out in the northwest of the United States and Canada. — A globe that had not yet discovered the Pacific Northwest (photo/Jason Rafal)

Looking down into a room full of statues, including a statue of David, with art hanging on the walls. — A chaotic room - David, Greek goddesses, religious paintings…and a balcony? (photo/Jason Rafal)

A statue of a white and black dog stepping on a snake. — A dog that is very proud of itself (and maybe still in danger?) (photo/Jason Rafal)

A person under a large statue in a tall, dark, brick room. — A very moody room (photo/Jason Rafal)

After our days in London, we headed to Toulouse to see Bella in her new home. We met Ian and Kelly there for a few days of eating, drinking, walking, partying, and very little sleeping.

Nicole and Belly holding hands on a train. — Reunited and holding hands on the train (photo/Jason Rafal)

Our first day in Toulouse, we actually went to Carcassonne, a medieval town and fortress a short train ride away. Its name has a fantastic potential origin story in which Charlemagne was besieging the city for years, and when food and water were running out, Dame Carcas took the last wheat and fed it to the last pig, and then threw the pig over the wall at Charlemagne. Seeing that the city still had enough food to waste both wheat and pigs, he lifted the siege, and the city was free. Dame Carcas was clearly a master of game theory and deserves to have a city named after her.

A street and lightly colored buildings with the castle in the background. — Looking up at the Cité de Carcassonne from the bridge (photo/Jason Rafal)

A stone wall with turrets with green grass on the ground and a town in the distance. — The outer wall and a good example of the choice to replace the traditionally terra cotta roofs with slate, a decision Jason hates (photo/Jason Rafal)

A view of the castle towers from under a bridge. — Looking up from the drawbridge (photo/Jason Rafal)

A window display of pillows printed with cats in medieval dress. — An intensely dedicated window display (photo/Jason Rafal)

A castle wall across from old buildings with a lightly cloudy sky and sunstar in the background. — Inside the city walls (photo/Jason Rafal)

View looking down at children passing through a door in a stone wall with the town in the background. — From atop the castle walls (photo/Jason Rafal)

View from above a stone wall with regular towers, with a town in the background. — The cars in the yards in the medieval driveways were a bit odd (photo/Jason Rafal)

A view down a walking street with old buildings on either side and holiday lights hanging over the street. — Walking through the lower town of Carcassonne (photo/Jason Rafal)

Over the next few days, we explored Toulouse, which is lovely. It’s known as the Pink City because of the brick color used in much of its architecture, which contrasts beautifully with the sky. It’s also the center of the aerospace industry in Europe. The city is transected by rivers and canals, so there’s always some lovely water nearby to walk along.

People shopping for fruit at an open-air market on the street. — One of the street markets (photo/Jason Rafal)

A sunny street with people cleaning up from the market. — The aftermath of the street market (photo/Jason Rafal)

A Japanese garden with a building, carefully shaped bushes, and a red bridge. — The Japanese Garden (photo/Jason Rafal)

Black and white photo of a street with a small car and ivy-covered building through a tunnel. — A photo from our trip, or from a moody noir film (photo/Jason Rafal)

A group of people on the street watching a firetruck lift two people up to the side of a building. — While shopping we walked by…something happening with one of the buildings (photo/Jason Rafal)

The Toulouse capitol building, lit up by late afternoon light, with a stall selling baskets in the foreground. — A market and the capitol building (photo/Jason Rafal)

A sunset view over a river with old buildings, a dome, and a bridge. — A gorgeous sunset from the river (photo/Jason Rafal)

The inside of a church with lots of colored stone and stained glass. — The inside of the Couvent des Jacobins, which was quite beautiful (photo/Jason Rafal)

View looking up from under an arch in a church, with colorful stonework and stained glass. — During the French Revolution, this stone was white washed over, and it’s now partially restored (photo/Jason Rafal)

Bella and Ian sitting in a pew and looking toward the front of a church. — Bella and Ian in Saint Stephen's Cathedral (photo/Jason Rafal)

We also went inside the capitol building, where Bella had heard good things about the art. There was an incredible amount of painting on the walls and ceiling, and lots of statues as well.

Painting of a person with a coral-colored full length body suit and cape sitting with pen to paper and staring into space. — A very moody person (photo/Jason Rafal)

Looking down an ornate room with colorful paintings on either side. — The happy, pastoral wedding room (photo/Jason Rafal)

Looking through a long, ornate room with statues on either side and detailed paintings on the ceiling. — A long room of art (photo/Jason Rafal)

Looking up at a ceiling painted with a scene of a woman in a chariot pulled by lions being pursued by a dark army. — Some of the amazing ceiling (photo/Jason Rafal)

Looking down a mostly empty street with closed shops on either side. — Quiet mornings in Toulouse (photo/Jason Rafal)

A pink building with an art piece of a model train driving off the roof. — Train crash art? (photo/Jason Rafal)

A rounded tower with blue sky behind it, flanked by walls. — More lovely pink architecture (photo/Jason Rafal)

It was a whirlwind trip, and it was so nice to see friends and explore new places. I’m sure we’ll be back to both London and Toulouse, and next time we’ll probably see some more tourists there.

A Few Days in Paris

September 17, 2019 by Nicole Harrison in France

We were in Paris a little over two years ago for our honeymoon, so we weren’t planning to come back this soon. Jason had a conference, though, and when one gets a chance to tack on a trip to Paris, one should do so.

We landed at 8:00 am local, which is never fun, but we dropped off our bags and headed out to drink a lot of coffee and get some food. We also walked over to Notre Dame, which we were curious to see since the fire. It was…a bit heart breaking. There’s a metal and razor wire fence around the cathedral and surrounding grounds, right in front of the rows of cafes that previously had prime real estate. Notre Dame is such an amazing center point of the city, and it’s hard to see it barricaded. They are working hard to restore it, though, and it’s clear that it will be back.

Notre Dame under construction (Photo/Jason Rafal)

We also went to Shakespeare and Company to say hi to the books and the cat, and headed to the Louvre to do some people watching. We didn’t go in - we’re still pretty intimidated by the crowds and the pure size of the building, and we were exhausted - but it’s a fun area to wander.

Philosophical decisions at Shakespeare and Company (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Wedding pictures at the pyramid (Photo/Jason Rafal)

People watching near the Louvre (Photo/Jason Rafal)

While Jason was napping, I found one of my new favorite parks in the city - Parc des Buttes-Chaumont. There’s a pavillion on top of an island in the lake, and it’s quite beautiful. There’s also a lot of sloping lawn where I got to sit and read with the Parisians.

A multi-layered park view (Photo/Nicole Harrison)

On Sunday we took a bike tour of Versailles. I’d highly recommend doing a bike tour, since you’re able to see so much more of the grounds that way. It’s also far less crowded than the palace and garden area.

After we took the train out to Versailles in the morning, our guide took us to an indoor/outdoor market to buy picnic food. It’s probably one of my favorite markets that I’ve been to - it’s very picturesque and has a variety of food and wine to purchase (that being said, Jason didn’t get any pictures of it that he liked, so you’ll just have to go yourselves). We picked up the five essentials of a French picnic: bread, cheese, salami, fruit, and wine (we found a Marsannay, one of my favorite white wines, that I was very excited about). From there, we headed into the grounds.

Starting our bike ride in the town of Versailles (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A very classy classic car (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The grounds of Versailles are used for several things right now - Gordon Ramsey has a restaurant that looks out over the grounds, and there’s a farm to grow the food, as well as sheep and goats. It’s also classically pastoral and quite beautiful. We had a picnic lunch on the west side of the Grand Canal, and it was lovely and peaceful, with only a few other groups nearby.

The Palace of Versailles across the Grand Canal (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Biking through the grounds (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A few hedgehogs climbed out of the hedges at Versailles, juch to everyone’s delight (and the confusion of the Australians in our group, who wanted to know how big they get) (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Our guide told us a lot of French history as we made our way through the grounds. Most of what we learned was about Louis XIV, since he was the one who did most of the work on Versailles during his impressive 76 years of life, but we also heard about Louis XIII, XV, and XVI, making it a little difficult to keep everything straight. We learned about Marie Antionette, who was both very harshly judged and misunderstood (the quote about cake was not from her at all). But, she also made some rather lavish choices, like creating a sort of Bavarian working farm theme park where she and her children could pretend they were in Austria. It was both adorable and very weird.

Several generations of construction on a Bavarian village building (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Another quite out of place village building (Photo/Jason Rafal)

After touring the grounds we went into Versailles, which is a place of excessive opulence. It’s very impressive, but the experience was hindered somewhat by the crazy crowds of people trying to see the most famous rooms. My favorite part (I’m not super into gilding, though it’s cool) was the painted ceilings - the attention to detail from the artists was truly incredible. It was also pretty crazy to imagine living in a place like that. We were only allowed in certain corridors, and we still felt lost a couple of times.

The courtyard of Versailles through the golden fence (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A really incredible map built into a table (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The Hall of Mirrors (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The gardens outside the palace are also amazing and ridiculous. There are double hedges everywhere so that servants could get around without the nobility seeing them. There are also a ton of fountains - I was blown away by the number of fountains that we happened upon while wandering. The fountains were originally gravity fed (which was one reason so many servants had to run around in the second layer of hedges), and they were still having some issues keeping them all running.

Looking out over the gardens and the Grand Canal (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Paris is amazing. It’s always been amazing, and it always will be amazing. We moved over one arrondissement and stayed in the 10th this time, right next to the metro, which was lovely after we walked 31 miles in the first 3 days and were in considerable discomfort. We revisited some of our favorite places and also explored some more of the inner neighborhoods.

An incredibly colorful fountain area in the city (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Layers of murals (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A scene of Paris (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Late afternoon light (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A blue heron in a city park (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The Arc de Triomphe at night (Photo/Jason Rafal)

On Monday we went to the Eiffel Tower (twice, actually - once in the morning and once at night, when it was lit up) and did some general wandering and relaxing. Our feet were in a considerable amount of pain by this point, so we were trying to take it easy (though I still ended up walking over 14 miles, according to my watch). Night walking in Paris is wonderful, and the Eiffel Tower at night is amazing. I have no idea how they light it up so completely, but it’s breathtaking, even when you’re been staring at it for a while.

The Eiffel Tower, all lit up (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Since we had already been to Paris and Jason had a conference and some work to do, we did less touristy things and had some more downtime planned in. I spent hours reading - mostly in parks, but on one occasion in a wine bar while locals chatted enthusiastically around me and kids played soccer outside of the school nearby. Being an introvert in a country where I don’t speak the language is a combination that can be somewhat isolating, but it’s always nice to see the similarities in human interaction around the world. We’re very consistent creatures, and it’s comforting to see such familiar joy and frustration.

On Wednesday we went to the Musée d’Orsay, which is a wonderful art museum in an old train station. They have a pretty amazing collection, including a bunch from Monet, Manet, Picasso, and Rodin, which are some of our favorites. There’s also a light-filled indoor courtyard of sculptures, which I’m always a huge fan of.

Looking down the Musée d’Orsay (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The view of the city through one of the giant clocks (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Pompon’s Polar Bear (Photo/Jason Rafal)

We had a variety of food while in the city - French food, of course, but also some fusions and imports, including Italian, Lebanese, and BBQ that was a mix between North and South American. We also had a ridiculous amount of wine, because how can you not.

Overall, Paris was amazing, as expected. The food, the parks, the views, the absurdly convenient metro system - it’s just a very good city. We’ll be back again.

Also, museums are closed on Mondays. Keep that in mind.

Views from drinks on the Seine (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Views of Paris at night (Photo/Jason Rafal)

An incredibly decorated bench area off of the Promenade Plantée (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The Painted City

July 16, 2017 by Nicole Harrison in France

Story by Nicole

We both liked Lyon immediately. It’s a decent sized city that is walkable, hilly, colorful, and has a few big, lovely parks. We arrived late morning and went to our Airbnb, where a very nice older French gentlemen showed us around his apartment and offered us refreshments before leaving for his country house. After we went to a pedestrian street full of restaurants for lunch, we headed off to explore.

It was hot, so we first went to the Musée des Beaux Arts de Lyon. It’s a really wonderful museum with a large room of sculptures and a very impressive Egypt collection.

The sculpture room (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A great dog statue (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Painting the paintings (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A very, very, very old wall (Photo/Jason Rafal)

We then went to Le Quartier Saint-Jean, which is in the old city. It’s full of beautiful old buildings in varying shades of yellow, orange, and pink, and it was bustling with restaurants, gift shops, and random museums (we walked past the puppet museum and the museum of movies and miniatures). We stopped at a gelato shop with too many flavors to resist and then began the formidable climb up to La Basilique Notre Dame de Fourvière, which is a beautiful white cathedral on top of a very steep hill. Fortunately much of the hillside is shaded by a park of gardens and mature trees, which is beautiful enough to distract from the calf burn. From the top of the hill you get a great view of the city, and the day was clear enough that we could even see mountains behind the city’s few skyscrapers. The cathedral was under construction, like many of the monuments we’ve seen.

Le Quartier Saint-Jean (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Looking up the hill at the Basilique (Photo/Jason Rafal)

One of the trails up through the park (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Skywriting next to the Basilique (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The view from the top of the hill (Photo/Jason Rafal)

After the cathedral we walked down the hill slightly to find the old Roman amphitheater ruins. The amphitheater was being set up for a concert, which somewhat disrupted the view but was very interesting, especially since there was a musical accompaniment to the experience.

A lovely concert view (Photo/Jason Rafal)

On Friday we took another all-day wine and medieval village tour, this time in a van. Our group consisted of five Americans and three women from Spain, so our very impressive guide, Olivier, spent all day explaining everything in both English and Spanish without even a pause to reset in between.

We were touring the Beaujolais region this time, which is said to be France’s Tuscany. I expected to be somewhat less impressed by the scenery because we had already spent a fair amount of time in French wine country, but it really was gorgeous. The grapes are Chardonnay and Gamay. Beaujolais produces a lot more regional and village appellation wine than borgeone, but they only have one cru level.

Us in front of a pigeon house (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Beaujolais (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Beaujolais vineyards (Photo/Jason Rafal)

After we drove around and talked about wine, we went to a local producer in the town of Oingt. The vineyard owner, Dominique, did not speak English, so Olivier translated from French to English and Spanish as Dominique told us about the processes of growing, harvesting, and making wine from the grapes. He also made a half-joking request for us to come back in the fall and help harvest, because every year he needs about 30 people to harvest grapes for a few weeks. He feeds and lodges people and pays them 60 euro a day to pick grapes, and Olivier noted that he had harvested for one season in his youth. He recommended against it.

A view of the vineyards (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Dominique showing us how to smell the vines (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A well-behaved vineyard dog who was told to lay down (Photo/Jason Rafal)

In the afternoon we went to the tiny medieval commune of Pérouges. The town was dressed up for a medieval fair that weekend, and it was fun to see everything set up to look like the olden days.

Preparations for the medieval fair (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A street in Pérouges (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Heart shutters (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A beautiful well (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Old buildings (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A tower (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Flowers and a butterfly in Pérouges (Photo/Jason Rafal)

When we got back from our tour, we spent the evening walking around the city. When we walked through the Place des Jacobins, there appeared to be some sort of protest going on. We had noticed lots of police and security in all the cities in France, but the square was surrounded by local police and what looked like the French National Guard. They all seemed fairly relaxed, so after looking around for a minute and trying to figure out what was going on, we decided to avoid the area where some officers with shields were facing some citizens and move on.

The Place des Jacobins (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Officers in the square (Photo/Jason Rafal)

On Saturday we walked to the neighborhood of la Croix-Rousse, where we found the most massive farmers’ market that either of us had ever seen. It stretched on for at least 10 blocks of stands selling fruits and vegetables, cheese, meats, and various cooked foods. On the other side of the street there were dozens of people who had set up mini garage sales to sell clothes, toys, and household appliances. Around a corner we found a jazz band playing.

Typical farmer’s market fare (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Rotisserie chicken and fat-cooked vegetables (Photo/Jason Rafal)

We found this stand amusing (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A surprise jazz band (Photo/Jason Rafal)

We headed next to the Parc de la Tête d'Or, which is one of the largest parks in France. As expected, the park is awesome. It features a large lake with rentable paddle boats. The lake also has an island, and Google Maps indicated that there was a way to reach the island without a boat. I was expecting a bridge, but as we drew closer a bridge did not appear. Once we got to the crossing area, though, we noticed an impressive tunnel under the lake to reach the island. On the island is the monument aux morts de l'île du Souvenir, a massive statue honoring the French individuals who died during World War I.

Geese in the park (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The tunnel under the water (Photo/Jason Rafal)

For lunch we went to YAAFA, a very good local fast food place that serves falafel sandwiches and salads. After lunch we did some more wandering around Lyon. One wonderful aspect of the city is the fact that everything is painted - there are full-wall murals on the sides of many buildings, and graffiti everywhere as well. In many areas the stairs are even painted.

Big cat mural (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The amazing book mural (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The mural of famous people from Lyon (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A fancy fish (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Another great thing is the passageways and stairways throughout the hilly city.

A stairway between buildings (Photo/Jason Rafal)

An archway in the city (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Looking up (Photo/Jason Rafal)

After a lovely last meal at a French restaurant, we went home and packed up. In the morning, we took the train back to Paris and flew through Iceland to Denver. For those trying to spend some time in France outside of the top tourist destinations, I highly recommend Lyon.

A bridge over the Saône (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Always Take the Bike Tour

July 09, 2017 by Nicole Harrison in France

Story by Nicole

On Wednesday, we hired a French conspiracy theorist to guide us on bikes around the Côte de Beaune.

The above is true, but it happened because we booked a day trip around the region on bicycles to explore and taste wine, and because there was a last-minute cancellation, we ended up by ourselves on the tour, This meant that we had the day to ourselves with Eric, an electronics salesman turned self-taught botanist who now works for the bike tour company. We had a delightful day biking around the vineyards and forests with a local who told us about vineyards, wine, and French culture, and sometimes spontaneously sang or whistled American songs that he played with his band.

Just the awe-inspiring French countryside (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Green and cliffs (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Looking down over Saint Romain (Photo/Jason Rafal)

We started biking around Saint Romain, where we stopped periodically to talk about vines, grapes, and wines. Eric reiterated some of what we already knew and taught us some new facts as well. Three wine facts for the day: apparently Bourgogne is also an exporter of oak wine barrels. Rosé is made like red wine, but the skins are not kept in long enough to develop the deeper red color. White wine can also use red grapes, as red grapes have white juice, they don’t add the skins back in during the winemaking process. We paused at a giant stone table at the top of a hill to eat some cheese with a glass of white wine.

Biking through Saint Romain (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Saint Romain (I think) (Photo/Jason Rafal)

An old clothes-washing area (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Biking along country roads (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Snack break (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The fortress of Château de la Rochepot (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Our first tasting was at Chateau de Chassange-Montrachet, where we tasted three white wines and one red. These were newer wines that had not fully matured in flavor yet, but the somaliers taught us what to taste for. The red needed a little time to develop its taste, but the smell was amazing, and it definitely didn’t taste bad, it was just lacking some layers of complexity. We also explored the very impressive cellars full of wine barrels (white wine is aged in metal and red is aged in wooden barrels). The barrels were color-coded to denote the year, and thurs the characteristics, of those barrels.

This cellar is very old (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Color-coded wine barrels (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Eric walks through the wine barrels (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The original vehicle for selling Chateau de Chassange-Montrachet wine (Photo/Jason Rafal)

We had lunch in the village of Puligny Montrachet, where we were welcomed to the Olivier Leflaive restaurant by the owner himself. We paired our three-course lunch with a delicious 2011 Marsannay Premier Cru. There was much time spent discussing wine, politics, and the world at large over the meal.

After lunch, we headed out for the last leg of our biking tour. We rode for a few minutes with a woman from the Netherlands who was biking to Spain, and Eric gave her some general directions before we parted ways. I considered for a moment how both incredible and lonely her trip would be.

Eric pointed out the soon-to-be-defunct national postal service (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Beautiful biking scenery (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Our fearless leader (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Eric and our temporary travel companion (Photo/Jason Rafal)

We finished in Pomard, where Eric left us at a local winery and biked up the hill to get the van and bike trailer. There we tasted nine wines, 3 white and 6 red, that ranged from regional appalation to Premier Cru. Obnoxiously, Jason has learned to taste the difference between a regional appellation wine and a Premier Cru wine, which means that his wine tastes have become more expensive. Prompting a moment of small-world revelation, a couple who was from Denver randomly happened to walk into the winery when we were about to taste the wines and asked to join us.

The garden at Chateau de Pommard (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The cellar at the winery in Pommard (Photo/Jason Rafal)

After Eric drove us back into Beaune, we walked around the medieval town for a while before dinner. If you’re in Beaune for a bit, do yourself a favor and visit the Parc de la Bouzaise, which is a short walk outside of the old town. Flanked by vineyards and featuring instructional signs about the plants in French and English, it’s a beautiful break from the usual medieval architecture. It also has resident animals including chickens, rabbits, sheep, goats, a pig, and a gorgeous coop filled with some of the less usual types of pigeons.

The Collégiale Basilique Notre-Dame (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Looking back at old town Beaune (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A fantastically fluffy tree (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Vineyards next to the park (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The pigeon coop (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Amusing pigeons (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Looking down into the pond (Photo/Jason Rafal)

So Much Knowledge About 3% of Wine

June 29, 2017 by Nicole Harrison in France

Dijon was a challenge after the never-ending activity of Paris, especially because we arrived on the Sunday of a holiday weekend. Dijon has about 150,000 inhabitants, but at the old city center where we were staying, at least two-thirds of the restaurants and shops were closed on Sunday and Monday. This turned out fine because we spent most of our time walking around anyway, but the transition to forced relaxation was a little difficult.

The fountain at Jardin Darcy, near our apartment (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Selling art at Jardin Darcy (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The white bear, one of the representative animals of Dijon (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Dijon is the capital of Bourgogne (Burgundy = Bourgogne in English) and was home to a line of four powerful dukes, rich in wine, who led Bourgogne to rival central France in power. The region lived as a separate state for many years. Dijon also has many animals woven into its history, and the city has adopted the owl as its spirit animal. The tourism board put little owl markers across old town, and for three euro you can buy a booklet that will guide you to see the different historical points of interest across the old city, which dates back to the 1000s. Unfortunately, I have learned to associate the old timber and stone construction with the new, fake facades at the Colorado Renaissance Festival, so it was a little difficult to fully appreciate the age of the medieval buildings.

Symbols of the Owl’s Trail (Photo/Nicole Harrison)

Cathedrale Saint-Bénigne (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Medieval architecture (Photo/Jason Rafal)

On Monday, we climbed the Tour Philippe Le Bon, followed the owls around the city, and visited the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Dijon, which was partially closed (everything is going to be opening up again in 2019) but led us through the history and culture of the Dukes of Burgundy.

The view from Tour Philippe Le Bon (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A gargoyle on top of Tour Philippe Le Bon (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The tombs of the Dukes of Burgundy in the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Dijon (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A dog jumps into a fountain while accompanying its person on a run through the center of Dijon (Photo/Jason Rafal)

We also walked to the edge of the old city and found fountains, the lovely Jardin de l'Arquebuse, and the natural history museum, where we browsed halls of informational (but in French, so we didn’t learn much) placards and taxidermied animals.

A fountain on the edge of the old town (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Many cabinets of birds (Photo/Jason Rafal)

On Tuesday we went to the market in the morning and then walked around and went into some of the shops that had been previously closed. Bourgogne is known for its spiced bread, which we tried a few forms of. It ranged from a weird, spongey, air pocked-filled cookie to loaves of what was essentially soft, sweet fruitcake. Not surprisingly, some of the bread was shaped like owls.

Owl bread (Photo/Nicole Harrison)

On Tuesday afternoon we had a half-day tour through the Cote de Nuits with another Coloradan who was working from Paris for the summer, a couple from Japan, a woman from Taiwan, and our guide, Stevie. We drove a small VW van through the vineyards, stopping to talk about wine and vines as we went. Bourgogne produces about three percent of France’s wine, and the grapes used are overwhelmingly chardonnay and pinot noir. Unlike American wine, French wine is named for the region, not the grape variety, which makes it rather difficult to know what you’re buying unless you’re familiar with the regions of France. In addition, French wine has four classifications, called appellations, which describe the potential of the land to make a great wine (this is challenging to describe without a map, so bare with me). The first two are regional appellation, a designation which includes about 50% of Bourgogne wines and is usually grown lower on the hillsides, and village appellation, which is usually slightly upslope from the regional appellation area and represents about 30% of Bourgogne wine. Sometimes a certain village appellation is surrounded by a wall, or clos, which protects the grapes and allows the seller to list the designation of walled vineyard on the bottle, Premier Cru is the higher-quality wine produced in the areas that have more challenging conditions higher up on the slope. The most valued appellation is Grand Cru, which comes from the ideal point of the hillside and accounts for about 1% of the 3% of wine that comes from Bourgogne.

A walled vineyard (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Bourgogne has fields and fields of agriculture, but most of them are wheat and canola. Only some areas are used for the vineyards. The vineyards are also dotted with rosebushes, which provide a sort of canary in the coal mine to warn of impending molds and diseases (the rose plants will be affected before the vines). Bourgogne gets about 30 inches of rain a year, and it’s actually illegal to irrigate.

We went to a wine tasting in a cellar in a small town, where we drank six white and red wines of various appellation designations and compared them. We were guided in our tasting by Stevie, who had a great understanding of American mannerisms and made a lot of jokes. We paired the wine with some delicious cheeses and crackers.

The amazing wine cellar we visited first (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The older bottles of wine in the cellar (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Learning about labels (Photo/Jason Rafal)

From there, Stevie took us to the Château du Clos de Vougeot, which had traditionally been run by Cistercian monks. There were some incredibly large old wine presses that the monks used, one of which is still in use. The machine exerts about 20 tons of pressure on the grapes to sufficiently squish them. The room where they put the giant vats of grape juice to ferment has to be large and airy to prevent the offgassing CO2 from killing the people making the wine, so the ceilings were vaulted. The whole thing was rather impressive.

The exceptional vineyards of the Clos de Vougeot (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Very old winemaking equipment (still in use today) (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Decorations made from baskets formerly used to carry grapes (Photo/Jason Rafal)

After the French revolution, the vineyards were taken from the church and sold to private owners. The chateau is now run by a brotherhood, who produce some wine the way the monks had been doing it for centuries and rent out the beautiful medieval building for private parties and events.

Below are a few more random photos from our visit to Dijon.

A fantastic Rapunzel tower (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A baguette vending machine in a small town (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Yes, the style of mustard is from this town (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The view from our IKEA-showroom apartment (Photo/Jason Rafal)

An Overindulgence in Parisian Food and Drink

June 19, 2017 by Nicole Harrison in France

Story by Nicole

On Thursday we slept in (it’s challenging not to sleep in when the earliest you can end dinner is about 9:30). We had some pizza for brunch and went to Sainte-Chapelle, which came highly recommended by several people. We walked past a ridiculously long line at Notre Dame and straight into Sainte-Chapelle, which was a nice feeling of victory. The cathedral is behind the guarded gates to the courthouse area, which made for an odd mix of suited professionals and confused tourists.

Sainte-Chapelle is just as gorgeous as everyone tells you. It has amazing nearly floor-to-ceiling stained glass panels on three sides, and an incredibly intricate rose window on the fourth. They are just finishing a painstaking stained glass restoration project (doing glass restoration on something so old and well renowned sounds terrifying), and almost everything was back in place.

Sainte-Chapelle (Photo/Jason Rafal)

From Sainte-Chapelle we headed to the Panthéon - which we did not go inside of, you may be noticing a trend - and sat on its steps for a while contemplating the day. From there we headed to Shakespeare and Company, one of the oldest English bookstores in Paris. And it is a fantastic bookstore. It’s loosely organized on two floors, and the upstairs experience included a sleeping cat, a man playing the piano, and a donated library and reading room. Definitely worth a stop if you’re in Paris and love books.

Shakespeare and Company (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Another great thing about Paris is the water fountains everywhere. Frequently while wandering the city you’ll see a beautifully carved water fountain, and you can hold your hands or water bottle directly up to the lips of an engraved god to receive your drinking water.

One of the city’s many water fountains (Photo/Jason Rafal)

We then got on the metro and went to Montmartre, where we got off the train partway up the hill and climbed up several flights of stairs on residential streets to reach the Basilica. It was flooded with tourists, as expected, but the view is lovely. It’s fun to people watch and hear all the different languages as well.

Climbing the steps to Montmartre (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The view from Montmartre (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A view of the Eiffel Tower from Montmartre (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The Basilica of the Sacré Cœur (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A garden in a ball in the park below Montmartre (Photo/Jason Rafal)

We had our best meal in Paris that night at a little restaurant called L’ange 20. When we first arrived, the waiter told us that we were out of luck without a reservation, but then offered that if we came back in half an hour, he would seat us if one of his 7:30 pairs didn’t show. When we came back, he gave us seats near the bar, where Jason enjoyed his view into the kitchen. The food was French with a creative spin (my entree had guacamole in it, along with angel hair pasta-wrapped shrimp and a delicious spicy sauce), and everything we had was amazing. We would highly recommend it.

On Friday we did a cooking class, which was great. We went to a market, walked to the ruins of a crumbling Roman amphitheater, and then spent several hours preparing a three-course lunch under expert and teasing guidance. We learned useful facts, including how you can dye pears brown to cover any unsightly brown spots by putting a tea bag into the water while they are poaching. We also learned a cheater way to sous vide chicken. At the end, we enjoyed our lunch of cauliflower soup; chicken with mashed potatoes, deglazed vegetables, and red wine sauce; and poached pear with chocolate sauce and homemade ice cream.

Chef Jason (Photo/Nicole Harrison)

Our fancy kitchen (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Meal in progress (Photo/Jason Rafal)

After our cooking class we went to the Jardin des Plantes, which is Paris’s botanic garden. It’s beautiful and an excellent example of why Paris is so good at parks. I would highly recommend it, and it’s free so you can just stroll in and out on your way somewhere else.

At the Jardin des Plantes (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A talented bug (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Skeletons of varying sizes in a building at the Jardin des Plantes (Photo/Jason Rafal)

I’m really not quite sure whether to recommend the night cruise to people. I will say that if it’s your dream to get really drunk and enjoy a good view of the Eiffel Tower when it’s lit up at night, the cruise is probably worth it. If those things don’t interest you, you can probably skip it and save the money.

The cruise gave us aperitifs when we got there, and then we had an entire bottle of champagne and a bottle of wine. Because champagne is too sweet for Jason and we didn’t want to waste the alcohol, I ended up drinking an entire bottle of champagne by myself over the course of two hours. We were planning to take the metro back, but when we got off the boat we were drunk enough that it seemed like too big of a risk to attempt to navigate the metro correctly, so we set off walking. I became progressively more drunk as we walked, and because I’m the automatic navigator when around Rafals, this resulted in us walking at least an extra mile trying to get home. We did find some delicious ice cream on the way, though.

Walking to the boat in the rain (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The Eiffel Tower all lit up (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A lot of drinks (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Boat selfie (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Nicole getting tipsy on the boat (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Wandering home after the boat ride (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Amazing midnight ice cream (Photo/Nicole Harrison)

On Saturday, we nursed our hangovers at breakfast (crêpes are delicious) and lunch (Italian food for variety). Then we boarded a bus to see Monet’s garden at Giverny.

If you only have a couple of days in Paris, I wouldn’t use five of those hours to explore Giverny. It’s a lot of travel time. But because it was rainy, we had already been in Paris for a few days, and we were too hungover for museums, it was a good side trip.

Monet’s gardens are really wonderful. There are a variety of colorful flowers scattered everywhere - I was amused to see columbines, colorado’s state flower - and there are many trellises that make the garden feel cozy and secluded, even when it’s filled with tourists. The water lily pond is also incredibly beautiful, and in a much softer way than the impressive historical monuments in the area. The light rain just made everything even more soft and welcoming.

Monet’s gardens (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Soft water (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Monet lived in Giverny with his second wife, and children starting in 1883. It’s a lovely house. The kitchen was especially great, with beautiful tiling and copper pots everywhere. There was also a pot filler, which Jason argued was grounds for getting one ourselves.

Monet’s kitchen (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The rain was lightening as we got back, and we enjoyed a last night in Paris.

A man dressed as orange juice for no explicable reason (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Outside a typical Paris cafe (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Sunset light (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Goodbye to Notre Dame (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Let’s Go to Paris

June 17, 2017 by Nicole Harrison in France

Story by Nicole

Let’s be honest: I’m not going to be able to tell you anything that is new or particularly insightful about Paris. Incredibly talented writers have been coming here for centuries and attempting to explain the city’s charm to others. What I can do is reiterate some of the elements of the city that I found so wonderful (because all those writers have been absolutely right; Paris is a gem).

Part of it is the dichotomy. You’ll be walking down a normal city street and happen across an absurdly old church, or a Roman amphitheater (we saw the Arènes de Lutèce). Even the normal buildings here are interesting, with their old world charm and hidden courtyards.

The Temple du Marais, about a block from our apartment (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Stumbling across pretty things (Photo/Jason Rafal)

An adorable old Fiat 500 (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Varying levels of antiquity on a street corner (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The fastest pizza (Photo/Jason Rafal)

One great thing about Paris is that groups of friends take bottles of wine, sit in a park or by the Seine, and talk for hours. When we were sitting in a park near the Eiffel Tower, someone carrying an ice bucket of champagne bottles offered to sell us one. The parks themselves are amazing.

Hanging out at the Place des Vosges (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A walkway on the Seine (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A tiny corner park (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Sitting and drinking along the Seine (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The wine bottle recycling bin was too full (Photo/Jason Rafal)

One of the beautiful canopies in the parks (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Our apartment in Paris was perfect. Located in the 4th Arrondissement near the Place de la Bastille, it was a great central location for exploring and also provided a charming place to nap and regroup. To get there from the street, we went through a large, old external door on the street, then opened a gate into an interior courtyard. Then we walked through the courtyard, climbed four flights of stairs, and found ourselves in a 400-square-foot flat with lovely windows.

Our apartment courtyard (Photo/Jason Rafal)

In a shocking twist, Nicole made friends with our courtyard cat (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Since our apartment was fairly close by, we visited Notre Dame on our first day. You already know it’s incredible. Here are some pictures to further solidify that thought.

The rose window (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The courtyard area (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A giant cathedral, a lot of sky, and a bird (Photo/Jason Rafal)

One of the things we decided before coming on the trip was not to spend hours waiting in lines to see the famous monuments. It’s more important to us to wander around the city and get a feel for the culture than to see the inside of a specific cathedral or museum.

Wednesday was our big walk around the central city (17 miles of walking instead of our usual 8-10). We began by walking to the Louvre to see the impressive exterior. Even from the outside, the Louvre is insanely large and imposing. From there we backtracked slightly after realizing that we had missed Le Palais Royal and explored that area as well. From the Palais we headed to the Jardin des Tuileries, which is a wonderful park in the center of the city. It’s lined by shops and restaurants, like most of the big parks, and includes the ever-present green Paris park chair that we grew to love.

The Louvre (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A banner promoting the 2024 Olympics in Paris at the Hôtel de Ville (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Art in Le Palais Royal (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Water fountain selfie (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Along the north side of the Jardin des Tuileries you can find Angelina, home to some of the world’s best hot chocolate. It’s more of what you’d call a drinking chocolate in the United States – very thick and intense. It was delicious, but I had to put some milk in mine to tone it down a little. From Angelina we headed toward the Champs-Élysées, but quickly got distracted by the aptly named Grand Palais.

Pouring the hot chocolate (Photo/Jason Rafal)

I convinced Jason to go into the Grand Palais because I wanted to go under the large, greenhouse-style roof, but when we couldn’t read French we guessed that the exhibit that we wanted to buy tickets to was the garden exhibit, which was actually not in the main exhibit area. However, the gardens exhibit turned out to be really cool. Surrounded by older French people, we wandered halls displaying various sorts of art relating to gardens. This included a couple of paintings by Monet and a Picasso, as well as sculptures and plant samples. To our amusement, they were also playing garden-related clips from a few American movies, including The Godfather Part II and Edward Scissorhands. Overall, it was a very pleasant surprise.

An art exhibit of French soil samples (Photo/Jason Rafal)

From there, we began the walk down the Champs-Élysées to the Arc de Triomphe. It’s a broad street, lined with expensive shops, that ends at the huge stone arch, which is in the middle of a roundabout. We couldn’t see any way to get to the Arc, but there were people there, so we decided to run across traffic. Two notes: 1) if you’re going to run across a Paris roundabout, go fast; 2) if there’s a touristy monument in the middle of a busy roundabout, there’s an underground way to get there. We found the tunnel under the road in order to go back to the street and continue our walk.

The Arc de Triomphe (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Someone had told Jason that the best view of the Eiffel Tower was from the Jardins du Trocadéro, so we walked there next. It is a great view. From across the Seine, you can see the whole tower in all of its glory, as well as the cars bringing people up and down. We sat in the park for a while to rest in the shade before heading across the river to walk through the Champ de Mars.

First real view of the Eiffel Tower (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Another view of the tower (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Our last stop on our city stroll was the Luxembourg Gardens. On the way there we stumbled upon an adorable small park full of Parisians and their kids. The tiny parks scattered throughout the city are wonderful to wander into. Once we finally got to the Luxembourg Gardens, we sat in the ever-present green park chairs to contemplate dinner.

The Luxembourg Gardens (and the green Paris park chairs) (Photo/Jason Rafal)