Here we are in Venice.  The place is wonderful once again.  Bunny has done a great job getting us wonderful  places to stay.
We wondered around venice.  These streets are unbelievable.  Of all the places we have been the pictures of venice dont give you any idea of what it is actually like to walk around this city.  We went down several streets which you could reach out and touch both walls of the street.

With the streets and the canals it is a city which must be seen to believe.

After our walk around the city we were tired and hungry so we hit the market and came home to the airconditioning.  It is hot out.
We saw several venice traffic jams.

This is a traffic jam in venice.

Do you see the italian loafer in this picture?

We left our place in frehand-voltare at 10:00 am.  We got to The Large Hadron Collider at 10:30.  We were hoping to get added onto the 10:30 am tour.  It was full.  So we did the self guided tour.  It is a facinating place.  Most of it I actually understood. 

We hit McDonalds for breakfast on our way out of town.  After breakfast we hit the road for Venice.  The drive to venice has been the worsy so far.  We were gping very fast on the freeway with speeding trucks and cars going very fast.  I felt i had to be payong attention ALL the time.  I enjoyed driving in Paris much more than doing 130km on the freeway weaving in and out of trucks.  The scenery for the drive was beautiful.  We drove thru the little towns in france .. switzerland and noryhern Italy.  We went thru a tunnel which was about 7 miles long.  Kind of spooky.  We finnally got to the parking structure at venice at 8 pm.  We got our belongomgs and catch a 5 minute train ride to the city.  After about 30 minutes of walking we arrived at 759 santa croce.  Fredrico was waiting for us.  He let us in and showed us around.  Gave us some tips as to places to eat … grocery stores .. and bakery.  He then began to show us how the airconditioning works.  When he turned it on in the kitchen to power went out.  We all had flashlights on our phones so we were following Fredrico around the house helping him turn the power back on.  After about 45 minutes he got it turnedback pn.  Turns out scott started some wash.  Apparantly you cant have airconditioning and do wash at the same time.  Fredrico was a great guy and the place is wonderful.  Looking forward to some relaxing times in Venice.  Less museums and more family interaction time.  We went down to the gtand canal for beer and pizza.  We wound up with ice cream and beer.  But it was 11:00 pm and there was tons of people out doing stuff and having fun.

We were all up early.  I took off at 9 am to pickup the rental car.  I finally found the place at 10:15.  They wanted to give me a bmw 1 series.  I walked over and realized it was going to too small.  So i walked back to the rental car counter and told them i  needed a 7 passenger loke the one i reserved.  They fonally gave me a 7 passengerer Renault.  They handed me the key and told me where to find the car.  I wandered around thatgarage for 30 minutes.  All of a sudden i realized they had given me keys to a fu___ing car which wasnt fu__ing there.  I felt like Steve Martin.  Well i did finally find it. 
I picked up bunny ben and scott and soon we were leaving Paris.  We recaped the things we saw and the things we missed.  Hopefully we will be able to get back and see some of the stuff we missed.  But what a wonderful city. 
Once out of paris we ran into heavy traffic.  They had shit down a big part of the major highway we were using to get  to our next destnation.  We foundourselves on backroads in a line of cars that was over 5 miles long.  No kidding.  It took us an extra 2 1/2 hoirs toget to frehand- voltarewhich is near Genevabut still in France.  Once we got thru the backup we felt pretty luck because the line of cars goinv to other way must have been 15 miles long.  No kidding.  Those people are probably still not home.  The stereoin the car has bluetooth.  So we were able to hook up my cell phone and lsren to Episofes of The Colbert Report.  I know we were the only ones in that line smiling and laughing.
We finally arrivedat our place for the night.  Went into town and had chinese food and came home.  Looking foward to getting to Venice tomorrow.  Happy 4th of July to everyone back home. No fireworks for us this year.

I am exhausted.  Last night Ben . Scott and i climbed to the second level of the Effiel Tower.  Thats 371feet or meters not sure which but it was a ways up there.  So this morning i was sore.  Paris has been a lot of walking.  Which is good but at some point we need to rest.  The third week of the trip starts tomorrow.  It will be a lot of driving.  I didnt realize when we were planning the trip how much i would be looking forward to driving and less walking. 
Today we walked over to the Arc de Triumph and down the Champs de Elysees (or something like that.)  Then went to Montmartre.  Which is an old catherdral on a hill overlooking Paris.  It was a great view from the top.  We stopped at a great little csfe on the backside of that hill.  Ben… scott and i decided we would go to the catacombs in the afternoon.  Bunny said she wasnt interested in seeing the bones of old dead people.  So we took the metro bunny got off at the stop closest to our apartment and we got off at the stop for the catacombes.  We were walking towards the catacombs and ran across a line of people.  We walked by the line and about a block into the line we realized these people were waiting for the catacombs tour about a block later we found the end of the line and a representative from the catacombs.  He let us know that it would be about an 11/2 hour wait to get in.  We smiled said merci and caught the metro back to the apartment.  Later bunny and scott went to see the odesay museum.  Ben and i just sat and relaxed.
Later we all went down to the park next to the Effiel Tower to watch it light up.

Tomorrow its off to Geneava

Bunny and i were up early and went down to the neighborhood cafe shop which had wifi free.  We sat and had cafe and checked email and planned the day.  We gotback to the apartmentand got ready and out the door to the Paris war museum.  we went thru the ww1 and ww2 stuff and its noon so off to lunch.  We went to rue cler.
After a lunch of kung pow chicken and  a beer we explore rue cler.  Stopped at a couple ofbookstores and otger shops.  We then stopped fot an afternoon cafe at our local cafe shop with wifi.  Then ben and i went to finish the war museum and scott and bunny went to see if they could get into the louvre. 
Ben and i finished the museum and it was great.  Bunny and scott never made it to the louvre.  We met back at the apartment for dinner and Scotthad downloaded the movie French Kiss for us to watch.  Bunny really wanted to watch it in Paris.  After dinner and a movie bunny was tired and off to bed.   Ben scott and i went to explote the Eiffel Tower.  What an experience.  First walking up to the tower there were TONS of people picnicing in the park next to the tower.  We got to the tower and we already knew we were nor going to be able to ride the elevator up.  So we got in line for the stairs.  The lone moved very fast and within 15 mibs we were climbing the stairway to the first floor of the tower. 
We got to the first floor and took some pictures
  We decided to go on to the 2 nd floor.  We got to the 2 nd floor … took lots of pictures.

We stayed about 20 mins and then started down.

What a beautiful day in Paris.  About 70 degrees f and a slight wind.  Just a beautiful day for walking around Paris. 
First we walked up to the Effiel tower and saw a huge line.  We then walked over to The Louvre.  There was a huge line there.  We then continued along the siene to the Notre De cathedral.  Another line but it was moving quickly.  We went thru the cathedral.  We went to get some late afternoon lunch.  We found a great little cafe with pizza and pasta.  After a bottle of wine we made our way over to the paris war museum.  We got there at 4:45 and the were closing in an hour.  So we are going back there in the morning on monday.  It was Sunday in Paris and a beautiful day for a walk along the siene.

We were up at 5:30 and out the door of our place at Bayeux at 6:20 am.  We are on our way to Versailis which is 3 hours drive.  We are going to the palace of versaillis.  From there we will be driving into Paris and going to the apartment we have rented and then drop off the rental car in Paris. 

That all sounds easy. 

We got into Versaillis at the perfect time.  Bunny had set up a tour so we were able to walk by a huge line and into a waiting area and the tour started 15 mins later. 
It was a tour of the bedrooms of Louis the XIV and Marie Antoinet. 
When that tour was over we then toured other parts of the palace such as the hall of mirrors.  There were TONS of people going thru this place.  At around 1pm we determined we had seen enough and we went looking for a place to eat lunch.  Before we found a place to stop at we were on the freeway to Paris so we figured we would find the apartment and park and then find a place to eat. 
Well driving on the streets of Paris is difficult and exciting athe same time.  There really doesnt seem to be many traffic laws in Paris.  Or at least they are not adhered to or enforced.  We had someone reach out of his car and bang on the side of the car and several motorcyclist cus at us in french. 
We had finally found the street we needed to turn onto .. we got into one of those whirl gigs and i missed it the first time by.  The next time around the policehad coordoned off that road.  So we went to the next street over and the police had cordoned off that one also.  We kept trying to turn towards our apartment and kept finding that the police had closed that road.  We made a big circle and tried to come down to the apartment from the other direction.  We finally found a parking spot which we thoight was close to our apartment.  We got out of the van and then realized that we had parked right in front of the apartment.  There was a little sidewalk cafe right there and we sat down and the kids had hambergurs and we called the apartment owner to come down and lets us in the apartment. 
We settled into the apartment.  What a spectacular view.  We can see the Effiel Tower from the balcony. 

Yes this is the view from our balcony!!!!!

WOW …  Well the van has to be back by 6 pm so we left at 4:40 to get it back … We drove around and around and around looking for the place to drop off the van.  We FINALLY found the sign to the Europcar office.  It was down a back alley and the sign was about 1 1/2 ft sq.  Not only that but the office was located four floors down in a parking structure.  I am very surprised we found it at all.  Bunny and i dropped off the car and we got groceries on our 20 min walk back to the aparyment.  We got back at 7:30. 

You would think we would be tired of museums.  Well you would be right.  We went to the Caen WW2 was museum.

  Reading and walking slowly from room to room full of interesting stuff is great for an hour.  For 3 hours it gets a little wearing.  I love this stuff but its great to be gome with my bagette in one hand and a glass of wine in the other. 
We found a great bakery.  Although they dont seem to speak english so we communicate thru sign languge.  You should see my sign for bagette.  Well were out of wine.  Got to go….

Wow. I think we are officially “museumed out” if there is such a thing. This place is amazing but my head is going to explode. In a good way. 🙂 posted by bunny

We continued our exploration of the beaches at Normandy.  Our first stop was Utah beach.  One of the 2 american landing beaches. 

They had a wonderful museum with a plane, jeep and the landing craft used to deliver infantry onto the beach.  It also gad lots of personal accounts of what transpired on that historic day.  It really made us all proud to be americans. 
We then drove along to shore and spoted numerous gun sites still there along the beach. 

We then drove inland to St Mere Eglise where one of the paratroupers on d day got his parachutes caught in the church steeple and hung there for 2 hours until the germans cut him down.  They have put a parachute and a fake soldier hanging from the church steeple.  As seen in the movir ‘The Longest Day’
We then sat at a coffee shop in St Mere Eglise trying to plan out the last day in Bayeux.  We wanted to see the castle in Mont St Michel and the museum at Caen.  We figured out we still had time to drive to the castle and tour it that evening.  So we made the 1 1/2 hour drive to Mont St Michel to see a catle built on an island in 708 ad.
It was incredible. 

We spent 2 hours touring that and we were in the van and hit the road for home at 8:30. 
We got back to Bayeux and had pizza .. beer .. and wine. 

It was a big day but GREAT….