Last days in Paris

While the weather has been slightly unpredictable, varying between bouts of sun and rain, Paris is a very dreamy place. Everywhere you walk screams romanticism with the beautiful gardens, charming carousels, intricate architecture of both the past and present and the obvious, of course, the eiffel tower.

On our last few days we got the pleasure to see the Palace of Versailles (one of the most beautiful buildings i have ever seen!!), Disney Paris (awesome but not quite as elaborate as ours back home) and Moulin Rouge.

Ohhh and how can i forget?....
We also went to the famous fleamarket in Paris. So many lovely things to be had
.. if i had the funds to ship furniture back to Canada i would in a heart beat.

Onwards to Southern France!

Haiku Lane

Bonjour

Bonjour !
We have been extremely busy in Paris. There is just so much to see and do that we have been using every waking hour to do and see as much as we can. Vacationing in Paris is quite different than in Greece. For one, Paris is a large city with large intricate buildings and monuments and well...rain and the Greek islands are known for their quaint villages, fishing
Ports and beaches and everyday was very very warm! Both countries require lots of walking! We love both countries very much.
Here is a recap of what we have been doing in the city of love
..

Day 1:
Mitch and I checked into our hotel which is located right by the Arc de triumphe and the Champs de Elysses (high end shopping area...so many ladies have given me bag envy...how i would love a chanel purse.. ). We walked up the street until we came upon Laduree (famous for it's macarons) we ate supper there and got macarons to go.

Day 2:
I dragged Mitch out of bed early to head to a breakfast joint called Claus. It is kind of hidden and took awhile to find but was well worth it. Little did we know how much food would be put in front of us. We started with freshly squeezed juice and a coffee,, followed by a basket of pastries and bread. Our main course was eggs and bacon
then came muesli with homemade yogurt and lemon cake. We wrapped up the lemon cake as a snack for later. After our delicious breakfast we went down to the famous Louvre Museum. It is huge!! At first i did not think i could convince Mitch to go. The line weaved in and around the building and looked as if it were 7 hours long. Luckily it was under an hour long and well worth the wait. After the Louvre we went shopping for some new clothing and shoes. We were not prepared for the weather in Paris! After our big day of waiting in lines and shopping we were very tired and rewarded ourselves with a very unhealthy supper- Croque Madam (cheese and ham toast with an egg on top) and a french hot dog (hot dog in a baguette with tons of cheese!). Our very busy night ended with a movie at the cinema where they laughed that we were going to see an american movie in France.... haha whoops...

Day 3:
Our day started in what they call Old Paris- Le Marais. Mitch and i walked in and around the unique shops, cobblestone streets and beautiful architecture. There happened to be an outdoor market in the area which I was very excited about. All the fruit, cheese, vegetables, seafood and bread you could ever want! We bought some raspberries and strawberries to snack on and a fresh peach, mango, orange juice. Afterwards we made our way to the Notre Dame. Words can not describe how beautiful this building is. I did not even bother trying to convince him to stand in line for this one. This wont be my last time in Paris i am sure! Mitch and i then got dresses up and headed to the Eiffel Tower restaurant where we had reservations. It is amazing to be back to the place where we got engaged, on our honeymoon.

Good night !

Haiku Lane
Xo

Paris: day 1

These pictures say everything that I cannot!

Rhodes

Rhodes was our last stop in Greece and probably one of my favourite islands. It is the only one that we visited that is not part of the Cyclades. We stayed neared Old Town which is full of medieval buildings, tourist shops and restaurants. Our hotel was right next to the beach which is covered in brightly colored umbrellas. It was a very windy island. Probably even more so than Santorini which can be known for heavy winds! Most of our days we spent wandering old town and the beach. We found a local family restaurant called Tanam which we frequented a few times. I definitely recommend it to anyone going to Rhodes. They are suvh a wonderful group of people and have amazing food!! On our second last day we took a day trip to Marmaris Turkey. We were very excited to leave the islands of Greece for a day to explore a new country. In Marmaris we visited a gold store, a rug store, a bazaar and a turkish delight factory. All in all it made for a great but expensive day!

Crete

Crete is a very very large island when compared to the previous islands that we have visited. I think it may even be the largest of all of the islands if i am not mistaken. The landscape is very beautiful and covered in green rolling hills, trees and other plants. When we first arrived the cityscape of the port at which we arrived just did not do it for me. This is very much like most of the ports so i knew better than to judge it right away. At a closer glance you will notice beautiful architecture in some of the towns and how vast and green the land is. On our first day, we stayed close to the town that we were staying in -Hersonisos. Hersonisos is a very touristy town full of shops, restaurants and nice (but extremely crowded) beaches. We were happy to find out that our hotel included a free breakfast amd dinner buffet everyday! This is a plus when you have realized how much you
have spent on food alone over the last couple weeks. Also, very quickly we learned that Crete likely has more fur shops on the island than probably all of North America! On each short street we saw at least 5. We did our research and have learned that rich russian tourists come here to buy fur coats for cheaper than back home.... interesting...

Some other things we have done on Crete:
- fed the greek kitties (the kitties here seem more damaged and hurt than any other islands...pretty much every cat we saw had some sort of injury).
- fish spa- very strange feeling....
- cretaquarium- fun but seen one, seen them all.
- rented a car to Chania- best part in my opinion. We visited the old venetian part of town which, of course, was built by the venetians. It resembles Venice, Italy for that reason mentioned. They had some very nice shops and restaurants. We bought a turkish lamp, some pottery and textiles.

Onward to Rhodes tomorrow (our last island before Paris)

Haiku Lane

Summing up Santorini

Tommorow is our last day in stunning Santorini! We are sad to leave the beautiful cliff side villages of the island but i am sure there will be lots to goggle over on the next island-Crete.

June 25- Our beach day! We also had looked up a restauraunt on trip advisor which was called Katharo's Lounge and asked our kind receotionist at the hotel to book us a reservation. We took a bus to Fira and then to Oia and started to wander. It is a good thing we asked the locals because this place is definitely a hidden gem and unlikely to be found by the average tourist. Instead of cabbing like most people would, we took the mostly uphill
hike to get there. The views definitely made this hike worthy and after trying the food we were sold. We recommend it to anyone travelling to Santorini! we tried the Katharo's salad which had grilled chicken, peaches, greens, tomatoes and honey mustard vinegarette (delish!!), stuffed eggplant, spicy pork and creamy chicken and of course sangria to top it all off!!

Yesterday, june 26, we woke up much earlier than our usual starting time to board a boat which would take us to the volcano, the hot springs, the island of Thirissia and then of course a sunset in Oia. We also rode donkeys, not once but two times! Very strange experience... especially when i was not aware i was being photographed the whole time...makes for some lovely photos!

June 27- we visited some tradditional villages like Pyrgos and went to the open air cinema again!! We had three adorable pups following us through the whole tour.

Goodnight my friends!

Haiku Lane
xo