Chateau Fontainebleau.  The forecast for January 25 was a brutal 26 degrees, by far the coldest day of our stay.  We gave thought to whether it was a good idea to stay in Paris for the day, roaming, or get on the RER and head out to Fontainebleau.

G.H. Mumm Champagne. Here’s to the day of the bubbly!  Talk about a once-in-a-lifetime experience; touring the caves of the G.H. Mumm champagne cellars and then tasting and comparing pourings of the beloved bubbly.  Yep, makes for a pretty great day.  Oh, and what topped it off?

Paris.  Is all it’s cracked up to be or is it just another city?  If you’re a fan of Sex and The City you know how much Carrie romanticized life in Paris.  She turned down flying off to Paris with Mr. Big but did, after much deliberation, accept the offer to go with Alexandre Patrovsky and Paris was in fact all she dreamed it would be, until it wasn’t.

Versailles. How do you describe that which is beyond description?  That’s what I’ve been trying to figure out for the past 10 days.  We visited the Palace of Versailles on January 17 (2013) and I’m still trying to wrap my head around what we saw.  The Palace of Versailles is the epitome of opulence and a lesson in what can go wrong at the same time, while it has stood for centuries as a showcase of French history, art and culture.

Sacre Coeur.  Yesterday, our day did not start off very well but somehow it transformed itself into one of our best days here in Paris.  We are walkers and thus far we have managed to walk to every place we have visited.  Yesterday though, we wanted to visit Sacre Coeur and it’s way too far to walk so it was our first experience with the Paris Metro system.

Parisian life. We’ve been in Paris for nine days now. I think we’re finally getting the lay of the land and figuring out how best to fit in.  Yesterday, we took our first day trip out of the city and managed to get on the right train without getting lost.  We only had to ask for help twice.  I would like to “lift the lid” off of the city and see the whole underground world known as the metro/RER system.

 The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. I first saw this movie last summer when it was released in the theaters.  I’m not sure how well it did with the greater theater-going population, but I for one, loved it.  I loved the story lines of the different characters and I found the overall theme of the movie inspiring.  And, for those of us with an itch to travel, this movie will let you escape to India if even for a short time.

The Electronic Pickpocket.  You know how when you’re getting ready to travel everyone has an opinion; a word to the wise tidbit for you?  Mostly, you tend to smile, nod your head and feign interest in what they’re saying.  Today, I was given a tidbit that was awesome, something I had never thought about but will definitely do before we leave for Paris.  But before we get to the tidbit…

I googled the phrase, “How cold is it in Paris in the winter” and I am baffled by the number of different opinions out there.  But, before we get to the answer, how did we get along before we could use the word, Google, as a verb?  Remember encyclopedias?

One of the things we noticed almost immediately at Bryce Canyon National Park was the small trees growing on top of some of the hoodoos and we were pretty amazed by that.  How did the trees seemingly grow out of stone?