European Vacation 

09 Jul 2013

Not of the National Lampoon's variety, but instead a trip to Tuscany for a wedding, followed up by nearly a week in Paris. Aside from a couple of challenges (ahem, Air France not delivering our delayed luggage), it was a pretty remarkable 10 days or so.

We stayed in a town called Bibbiano in the Tuscany region of Italy for a wedding, on a little vineyard. It was simply a beautiful location for a wedding (and a vacation). The only downside was a lack of working wifi—it existed, but you head to stand in exactly the right spot to use it.

(Yeah, yeah. I know I shouldn't be on the web while I'm on vacation, but given that my Celtics had the NBA Draft and announced a trade of the remaining members of the Big Three, I'm pretty sure I had every reason to be slurping down those handful of bytes that would get through the slow wireless connection.)

After a train ride from Bibbiano to Florence, we caught a flight (via Amsterdam) to Paris. Our tight connection in Amsterdam meant that our luggage did not make the flight to Paris with us. At some point, when I've had some time to process my anger, I'll relay that story.

We stayed in north eastern Paris, in an apartment we got off of Airbnb. It was very near the Metro and in a sort of hipstery neighborhood. Our first couple of days were spent just walking around a bit, relaxing, and waiting for our luggage. We were able to see Sacré-Cœur and eat lots of good food on our first two days. On Wednesday, we were finally able to really explore the city, and we did our best to hit up every touristy place you might want to see—I've never been to Paris before, so it was an opportunity to see all the big stuff.

On the trip, we ate way too much meat and cheese (well, if there were such a thing as too much cheese), but balanced that off with walking miles each day. Thankfully, Katie knows enough French to help us get around without too much trouble, though Paris is very very easy for an English-speaker to get around (and most folks speak at least a little English).

One of our last dinners in Paris was a great dinner with some friends who'd also attended the wedding in Italy. After dinner at Le Relais de l'Entrecôte (so good), we ventured over to a Canadian bar to have a nightcap. There we met a couple of great people which lead to a few too many beers being downed. (Getting good beer in Paris is hard to do, and I was pretty wined out after spending four days at a vineyard.)