Hotel Particular

I need to get off my French kick but here's one last post on Paris.
http://hotel-particulier-montmartre.com/
This hotel looks amazing! It's in Montmartre, one of the coolest neighborhoods (this is where cubism began!) right behind the Sacre Coure. It's tucked away with a beautiful private garden and it's 30% off if we want to risk a last minute reservation. I'm sure we can find better priced places though to be fair it's not completely overpriced, but hey a girl can dream.

Food, Glorious Food!

A few ideas for dinning and window shopping in Paris.

At least one dinner at a classic Parisian Café. I watched Anthony Bordain eating at Paul Bert and nearly fell off the treadmill with desire to have one of their omelets so perhaps this could be the place.


I'm thinking we spend at least a day just walking around the beautiful streets of Paris without a specific itinerary, ie no waiting in long lines at museums or churches. We can just take in all the beautiful architecture and stop and go as we like. But we will need something to keep us going so why not do a little shopping at a few of the famous chocolatiers in the city.

Such as:
Patrick Roger ( he has five locations so we're bound to be near at least one)



Laduree might be a little tourist heavy but I do want to try one of their famous macaroons while we're in town.


Jacques Genin



And the list continues.....

Tuscan Villa Dreams

Just in case one of us wins the lottery or discovers some buried treasure, we should stay at this Villa which looks amazing.
http://www.castigliondelbosco.com/estate/default.aspx

France

A day of biking to the Chateaux in the Loire valley? It's just an hour by train from Paris and was one of my fondest memories from my trip with my French class. It is really beautiful pastoral countryside and there aren't too many tourists milling around the Chateaux which are really incredible, if my junior high memory serves me I think Chambord and Chenonceaux were my favorite.
Here's a link with some info (though we wouldn't go with a tour company, just rent bikes from a shop)
http://www.bikerentalsplus.com/index.php?id=74&tid=1481#itinerary