*Driving Across France: Trip Journal & Francophile Heaven

[appalachiablue]

[Post by Mr. Kong of Daily Kos, 6/10/19]. Mrs. Kong and I are celebrating our 15th anniversary and we wanted to do a “big” trip. Since I’m a cheap bastard who still lives in his starter-home, we can afford to do something like this every so many years.
We spent the first couple days in Paris to clean up a few loose ends. The last time we were in Paris the Seine was so flooded that a lot of the museums had been closed. We wanted to see the Musee d’Orsay, which has one of the largest collections of impressionist art. We also wanted to go up in the Eiffel Tower, which I have never done as many times as I’ve been here..
Now the TGV isn’t perfect. There are only so many high-speed lines. Getting from Point A to Point B might require changing trains or even switching to a “regular” train for the smaller cities. I figured some city pairings might be better served by car, so we elected to drive the rest of the trip. At the TGV station in Aix we picked up our rental car for the rest of the trip..(Read More at the Link below).




You don't realize just how big the Eiffel Tower is until you get close to it.




Impressionist art at the Musee d'Orsay.





Boarding the TGV, high speed French train.





Roman aqueduct at Pont du Gard in Provence, in southern France....Con't.


*READ MORE, https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/6/10/1860453/-Driving-Across-France?utm_campaign=trending

[msongs]

1. read that on kos. nice diary. avoid paris as much as possible nt

[tymorial]

2. Jealous.

I spent some time on a tour and as an exchange student in France in 1995. It was the best time of my life. I visited Rouen, Bayeux, Concale, Le Mont St Michel, Paris, Giverny. My host family lived in a home built out of an old Roman wall. The basement had original Roman columns.

My favorite place though was Saint Malo. Walking the ramparts and looking out over the Atlantic was just an amazing experience.

Someday I am going to recreate that trip and take my wife and daughter with me

[appalachiablue]

4. That's a wonderful base for a future return trip, smthg.

to plan with family. I never made it to Brittany but liked what I saw of Normandy briefly, also Paris and other areas. THis enjoyable diary is a delight but I don't have another French trip in the cards, dommage. It's ok.

[BigmanPigman]

3. I went to see the aqueduct too

and was with a tour (only time I ever did that but I don't drive so well so....). I couldn't figure out how the water went down the aqueduct with no barriers to direct it and keep it from spilling over the sides. No one on the entire bus could answer that question. When I got home I checked it out and apparently the original walls that did direct and hold the water fell apart over the years and no longer exist. This was all done with gravity. Brilliant engineers those Romans.

[appalachiablue]

5. You mean walls were once on the very top of a structure like this?

[BigmanPigman]

6. Not quite walls but sort of.

They weren't high like walls but tall enough to form a trench on the top. The Romans invented a kind of concrete that would be hard in water and a zillion other building and engineering techniques two thousand years ago. Their empire was partially harmed when the Huns destroyed the aqueducts they had built throughout Europe and their empire.