Granddaughter's Homecoming + Our Travels!

 

Every time I see this bus in Paris it makes me giggle!View of River Seine from our little bus tour in Paris.  I think I have been to Paris 11 times now and last year with my friends from 50+ years The Globetrotting Grannies - and we are all in our 70s and 80s so could be Globerotting Grannies:):)

From one year ago in Paris and we have had 5 Granny trips starting in 2015

I can't believe our granddaughters Rooke and Lucy are 15 and 16 years old and all dressed up for the Homecoming!

A couple nights ago was the usual tour "welcome dinner" and this famous brasserie in Paris.  Total 82 on the tour and we have 3 tour directors and get divided into small groups.  And they always make sure we get with our buddies!

Yesterday Ross and I did a bus tour and only 15 people joined up at 8:30am and it was as usual good with another great local tour guide telling stories.
Then on to a walk one block away to the famous Garnier Opera House aka Paris Opera very famous as Napoleon III requested it be built.  Kind of like King Louis XIV with Versailles.  Money talks!  So the tour guide tells a little "story" about Napoleon Bonaparte buried at Invalides in 6 coffins and then as a funny said "to keep his bones aparte"🥹.  I'm researching and there is lots of speculation but it appears that his coffins are in layers but only first layer has the body.  Layers are soft iron, mahogany, 2 of lead, then ebony and oak.  The Paris Opera opened in 1895 and holds about 2,000 guests and get the tickets early as they sell out. Then we do our "neighborhood walk" with our travel buddies and scouted out a cafe restaurant not far from the hotel and not too expensive as it's on our own buck or euro🤑 - and they have pizza and burgers and all kinds of other whatever things. Next up TGV train to Lyon in the morning then on the Rhone River for 9 nights where the wifi may be a "bit slow".  Au Revoir Paris!

Dinner last night on our own a few blocks away good and not expensive at least on Paris terms!