France – Our Trips Around The World

吃在巴黎 (Eating in Paris)

7月3日星期二 Tuesday, July 3

离开了巴黎，现在已经达到了比利时根特的民宿住处，简单的总结一下在巴黎的吃。

We’ve left Paris and have now reached the B&B residence in Ghent, Belgium. I had planned to simply sum up the food in Paris. Turns out, it is easier said than done 🙂

我想问～～是谁～～给了“法国大餐”那么高的名声的？我已经尽力给法国菜一个公正的接受品尝的机会了，可是为什么我俩的感觉是没～有～味～道～？？ PJG和我尝试了两次正宗的而且总是坐满了人的法国饭店的晚餐，两次的经验都是 “为什么菜没有什么味道？” 甚至似乎连盐都缺失？总之，或许是因为我们没找到好的餐厅，或许是我俩已经被重庆火锅和味道超级丰富的泰国菜给毁掉了，我对“法国大餐”失去了兴趣 😂 PJG似乎也没有很享受他的法国餐，但是他还是不会放弃法国大餐的。

I want to ask this~ ~ Who is the one ~ ~ that gave the “French” such a high reputation for cooking? Granted, we never ate at a high end French restaurant nor even real “French Food” but I have tried my best to give French food a chance to accept the taste, but why do we feel that there is … no taste there!? We tried two supposedly authentic dinners at French restaurants that were always full of people. The experience twice was, “Why doesn’t the food have any taste?” It even seems to be missing salt! In short, perhaps because we didn’t find a good restaurant and maybe we have been forever ruined by awesome Chongqing hot pot and super-rich Thai food but I’ve lost all interest in the “French feast”. PJG didn’t seem to enjoy it either (nb but he tried his best to pretend), but he still won’t give up on the French myth.

巴黎的门和门环 (Doors & Door Knockers)

7月2日，星期一

Monday, July 2

欣赏一下巴黎这个大博物馆的街头展出：门和门环

Enjoy the streets exhibition in Paris: Doors and Knocker

塞纳河游船和巴黎街景（Boat tour & Paris streets views）

Sprechen sie Deutsch? Inline translation below:

7月2日，星期一 July 2, Monday

今天是在巴黎的最后一天，我俩决定去坐那个站点停靠间随上随下的塞纳河游船。今天上午天气多云，又下了些小雨，所以意外的气候宜人，我俩便下船上船又有机会看了卢浮宫周边的景色和一些没去过的街区。意外的发现了一片儿有很多日本饭店，非常思念亚洲菜的我俩就在那里解决了午餐。傍晚时分，我俩又在一个咖啡馆来了两杯这里流行的超浓咖啡，坐在那里欣赏过往人群。晚上，又去了蒙马特高地，欣赏了一下红磨坊的夜颜 😁😁 话说这里太阳下山的真晚，快到11点了才有些夜晚的感觉。今天没有进行什么大项目，所以贴一些大街小巷的照片以作纪念。

Today is our last day in Paris and we decided to use the Hop-on-Hop off Seine River cruise. It was cloudy and drizzled a little this morning so the weather was pleasant and we had a chance to stroll around the scenery near the Louvre and some neighborhoods that we had not been. One area we were surprised to find was a large asian restaurant area. There were many Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese restaurants and I very much was missing Asian food so we decided to have lunch there.

巴黎歌剧院，万神殿葬礼 (Opéra de Paris, Pantheon Burial)

7月1日，星期日 – Sunday, July 1

今天记录的顺序有些颠倒，其实是万神殿葬礼在上午发生，参观巴黎歌剧院在下午发生的。

Today the order of this post is reversed. Visiting Pantheon Burial took place in the morning and visiting the Opéra de Paris was in the afternoon.

Driving through Cathedrals towns North of Paris

One of my goals on this trip is to recreate some of the paths that my father took on his trip to Europe in 1949. On Thursday we rented a car in Paris and set off on a day long journey that would take us to Soissons, Laon, Peronne, Amiens and Beauvais. I ended up cutting out visits to Coucy-le-Château and Château de Chantilly to save time, but the Cathedrals we saw were all worth it!

Screenshot 2018-07-01 20.05.39 — Our 400km route through northern cathedral towns

徒步慢游 – Paris Walking Tour

6月30日星期六 – Saturday, June 30th

PJG和我今天决定进行自己的巴黎徒步慢游，四处看看巴黎的大街小巷。虽然今天天气很热，我俩还是斗志昂扬 💪

We decided to do a walking tour today to leisurely look around the streets in Paris. Although it is very hot today, we are filled with excitement.

What are these symbols?

We’re seeing them all over Paris …

蒙马特高地 (Montmartre)

6月29日，星期五 – Friday, June 29th

今天PJG和我去了一个拥有艺术灵魂的一座130米高的山丘－蒙马特高地。这里可以说是浪漫与艺术的完美结合体，曾经有很多著名的画家，莫奈，毕加索，雷诺阿，梵高等都在这里生活和创作过，他(她)们很多著名绘画也都在这里诞生；很多电影也都在这里取景拍摄过，艾蜜莉的异想世界，红磨坊，午夜巴黎等；白色圆顶的圣心堂圣和彼埃尔教堂显示着浓郁的宗教气息，在小丘广场作画卖画的众多画家们散发着这里的随意的艺术气息，狡兔酒吧（很多像毕加索般著名的画家的常去之处）和洗衣船（毕加索很穷的时候居住的地方）使这里弥漫着神秘的气息，爱墙又见证了现代人的浪漫气息。漫步在这里的有百年历史的鹅卵石的大街小巷，想象着当年那些或落魄潦倒的艺术家们在这里创作和挣扎，感觉似乎和他们擦肩而过一般。

Today we went to Montmartre, a hill 130m above Paris with an artistic soul. This area is said to be a perfect combination of romance and art. Many famous painters from here: Monet, Picasso, Renoir, Van Gogh, etc., all lived and created here and many famous paintings were born here. Also many movies were filmed here: Emily’s Wishful World, Moulin Rouge, Midnight Paris, etc.

巴黎周边教堂 – Cathedral Towns North of Paris

6月28日星期四 – Thursday, June 28th

开车巴黎周边教堂游 – Driving Through Church Towns

PJG租了一辆车，我俩要去看巴黎周边郊外的几个教堂，还可以看一下法国郊外的景色和小镇。PJG的父亲在他1949年的旅行中，也是和朋友们开了一辆车去了更多的教堂，当年他们在巴黎周边开车转了两天，我俩今天只去转一天，所以只能去他们去过的其中的几个教堂。在巴黎开车似乎比英国容易些，至少是在和美国一样的同一边开车。大家也都遵守同一个驾驶规则，右边车道开车，左边车道超车。唯一一个难点是带文字的交通路牌看不懂，哈哈 😅 一些国际通用的标示的路牌没有问题，幸亏有google地图啊！

We rented a car and we went to see several churches in the outskirts of Paris. We also had marvelous views of the scenery and the small towns in the north of Paris. In 1949, PJG’s father also drove a car with his friends to these churches on his trip. While they took two days for their drive, we only had one day, so we could only go to about five churches. Driving in Paris seems easier than in the United Kingdom, at least they drive on the same side as in US. Everyone also follows the same driving rules as in the UK: the right lane is for normal driving and you pass using the left lane. The only difficulty is that there are many traffic signs we couldn’t read, although there was no problem with most of the internationally-recognized road signs – Also many thanks to Google Maps! 🙂 Our biggest problem was driving in the city of Paris – I think there will be a post of this later. (it was more similar to driving in China!!!)

卢浮宫, 埃菲尔铁塔 (Louvre, Eiffel Tower)

6月27日，星期三 Wednesday, Jun 27th

终于在巴黎了，PJG的许诺终于实现了 😀

I’m truly in Paris! PJG’s promise finally came true 😅

昨天下午离开伦敦，坐了欧洲之星火车直达巴黎，火车的行驶时间大概2个小时，非常轻松，一路上有很多隧道。到了巴黎后，我俩买了2套10张一套的地铁车票，坐了两班地铁到了民宿的住处。房主来到楼下接我俩上去，简单的介绍了一下她的公寓，厨房，卧室，洗手间看起来都不错，她还给我俩准备了一个法式面包棍。这里的床是一个特别的床因为它是圆的！还挺舒服的。房主好像是一个专门给小丑演员化妆的，所以她的房间有很多各种小丑的画，海报和小雕塑等，很有意思。这个民宿位于拉丁角，是一个比较热闹的地方，5分钟走路的路程就有很多咖啡馆，饭店和酒吧等，特别方便。这个楼里有一个老式的电梯，只能容纳两个人，和赫尔辛基那个差不多，稍微先进一些，因为电梯门是自动开关的。我俩的房间在三层，有一个小阳台，可以坐在那里喝杯茶或是红酒，然后观赏楼下来来来往往的行人和车辆，很有意思。

Heading to Paris!

Arrived 🙂

汉普顿宫，泰晤士河游船 (Hampton Court, River Boat)

6月25日，星期一 Monday, June 25

今天是在伦敦的最后一天，PJG和我上午去了位于伦敦西南方的汉普顿宫，做火车大概有一个小时就到了，往返车票14.7英镑。

Today is our last full day in London and we went to the Hampton Court Palace in southwest London. It took about an hour to get there, and the return ticket was 14.7 gbp.