Annecy is such a cute town and there is something there for everyone.  First of all it is right on the Lake of Annecy. The lake’s water is so turquoise and crystal clear, it’s unbelievable!

Even though it is in France, Annecy is close to the border of Switzerland so you see Swiss flags around the town.

It has a nice city area, along with a laid back medieval area. The lake runs through the medieval section, which is where are the old architecture and buildings are restored. They are lots of stores and cafes here too.

I liked the fact that Annecy is not a tourist area, but instead it is nice and peaceful — just like a regular town.  Annecy is such a cute little town and is probably one of my favorite places in France now.  You really should check it out — you’ll be glad you did!

The first stop on my journey through Europe was Paris. After an overnight flight from the U.S., we arrived at 9 a.m. and certainly had a full day.  Our day started off with a little confusion since we had to haul our luggage from the airport to the airport using Paris’s subway system, the Metro.

Imagine going across the city not knowing how to use the Metro and having 50lb luggage each?  That was quite an experience!  Once we found the hotel we went to a cute outdoor café and finally had some lunch and then went off on our sightseeing adventure.

First off was Notre Dame.  I was shocked by all the fine detail work, from little things such as a person’s face or the wrinkles on the clothes.  No wonder why it took 200 years to build!

Next we went to Sainte-Chapelle.  It was a holy chapel at the royal palace.  It was absolutely beautiful.  There is stained glass all throughout the chapel.  The stained glass was so colorful and elaborate.

You should definitely go and check out Sainte-Chapelle along with Notre Dame if you’re ever in Paris.

Until next time…Au Revoir!

Okay, so everyone’s taken a picture in front of the White House, gone to the top of the Empire State building, taken a cable car in San Francisco… even if you haven’t, why bother? Gazillions of people have already done it. There’s no point in traveling to all these famous cities because you’re just going to do the same thing every tourist has done before you.

Whoa. Keep your fanny pack on. Traveling is SO much more than visiting famous landmarks and following some rigid itinerary. It’s all about what you make it and what you decide to remember. To illustrate my point, I’m going to travel back (figuratively) a year and a month to when I was in France. Of course I saw the Mona Lisa, ascended La Tour Eiffel, and ate a croissant (scratch that, try three hundred croissants). These are all activities that, arguably, you have to take part in when in France. I’m glad I did. However, I also rode a carousel with a bunch of school-age Parisians, listened to street performers singing a gorgeous duet in an ancient-looking stone archway, followed cross-dressers down the street, and counted the stars sitting on the steps of the Opera.

Sometimes, it’s the little things that really make your trip– the things that can’t be scheduled. Where did you travel last, and what sorts of moments made the trip a great one?

Oh, and P.S.- Happy 300th post, Teen Travel Talk

I’m going to start with a tip: if you want to fit the Eiffel Tower into your Paris itinerary, you have to get an early start. Going to from the bottom to the second level to the top (insert much picture-taking here) then back down to the bottom took almost two hours total, and that doesn’t even include getting there by metro. It’s SO worth all the line-waiting, but if you have anything else planned for the rest of the day, just remember that it’s one of the most popular tourist attractions in the world.

So anyway, that particular day, all of Paris was weeping over Michael Jackson. Under the Eiffel Tower there was a big Michael Jackson mourner gathering, and the occasional outbursts of chanting and singing kept me amused whilst on line. When you get on the elevator for the second level (the first has a restaurant, if you have the time and financial means), try to get a spot near the outer edge for the best view. Once on the second level, after the preliminary ooh-ing and ah-ing, you buy tickets for the top and get in a second line, which isn’t as bad because you can look out on all of Paris while you wait.

The top of the Eiffel Tower, mes amies, is WICKED. I mean, the top of the Empire State Building was cool, but Paris is gorgeous on a sunny day and all of the streets, buildings, monuments, and museums stretch out around you and it’s pretty much indescribable; you just have to go.

With our next destination, the Louvre, closing in 1 hour, we had to take a hasty taxi (haha, try saying that five times fast) across town. If Paris is the most magnificent city I’ve ever been to (it is, hands down) the Louvre is the most magnificent building. Visitors under 18 have free admission, so after my uncle bought his ticket, we set off to see three of the Louvre’s most famous pieces of art: La Victoire de Samothrace, the Mona Lisa, and the Venus de Milo.

The Victoire de Samothrace was oddly inspiring: for those of you who don’t know what it is, it’s a marble statue of the Greek goddess Nike, and she’s missing a head. Then, though I’ve probably seen copies of the Mona Lisa thousands of times, seeing the real thing gave me the chills– I was standing just a few feet away from the most famous painting in the world that Da Vinci himself painted with his very hands. When you go to the Louvre, I highly recommend not only stopping to see La Joconde, but walking in a semi-circle around her; her eyes really do follow you.

Finally, the statue of Venus by Milo was also awe-inspiring. I only wished I had more time to look at everything. We had fifteen minutes before closing time, so I wandered up and the Grande Galerie. Many of the paintings were of biblical events or ancient people like Cleopatra. My favorites were La Mort de Cléopâtre, the double-sided Combat de David et Goliath, and a sculpture of Hercules.

On the way out, we pass a lot of Greek sculptures. Somebody please remind me to reread Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods by Edith Hamilton. Seeing all of the gods, goddesses, and heroes was also a great chance to apply what I read in The Odyssey last year. See if you can recognize the two figures below:

Another metro ride brought us to the Théâtre du Palais Royal and Jardin du Palais Royal (pictures below). From there we walked down Avenue de l’Opéra towards the Paris Opera to see Angela Denoke, a German jazz soloist. On the way, we stopped at a chocolate store called Foucher (30 Avenue de l’Opèra), where you absolutely must go if you ever find yourself in that section of Paris. A box of macarons, chocolate morsels with ground espresso, or chocolate truffles would make the perfect souvenir for a friend (or in my case, the perfect pre-dinner snack). We had dinner at the Bistro Romain on Boulevard des Italiens, where the food was pretty good, but not excellent.

Finally, the Opera. The building itself was gorgeous. It came in a close second to the Louvre. The ancient architecture made it seem like we were in a royal castle. The show was excellent, even though most of the songs were in German. Both Angela Denoke and the band were incredibly talented.

Et voila! My action-packed weekend in Paris. The only thing I didn’t get to do was go shopping. In France, there aren’t clothing sales constantly, like there are in the U.S. Clothes are on sale very rarely, but in the beginning of the summer, there are HUGE sales. Fifty percent off, seventy percent off– you get the picture. “SOLDES” (sale) decorated the windows of clothing stores throughout Paris while I was there. However, clothes are still more expensive then in the U.S., so don’t blow all your money on something you can get back at the mall in your state.

***

I had such an amazing time on that trip. Where is everybody going on vacation this summer?

When I was a child, I loved to travel with my family.  The trips I took to Italy with my parents and grandparents have become cherished memories.  I looked forward to taking my children to Europe when they were old enough so I could expose them to a foreign culture and share the pleasures of European travel with them.  My husband and I agreed that our twentieth wedding anniversary would be an extra special reason to go.  So for our twentieth wedding anniversary, when my daughter was almost 15 and my son was 12, we ventured to France.

I chose France because we have family there, including cousins with whom my kids are very close.  These cousins come to America almost every year, and it was time for them to acquaint us with their life in France.  The trip was planned so that we’d spend a little time at the beginning and the end in their city, Lyon.  I made sure that we avoided museums and cathedrals, attractions to which my kids have expressed aversion.

Instead, during our first week we: toured the Gorges du Tarn, a deep, narrow, beautiful river canyon where we stayed in a castle and spent time navigating the river in kayaks; explored Carcassonne, Europe’s largest preserved medieval fortress town; and spent time at the lovely Mediterranean seaside town of Collioure. The second week we were joined by one of the French cousins and stayed in a gite (a rented cottage for tourists) in Provence. We spent our days visiting villages and their markets, hiking, kayaking and swimming, and our nights playing cards and watching movies.

I had a very memorable time and am glad that we went.  Unfortunately, my children were unmoved, and other than expressing that it was nice to see their cousins, I heard little positive feedback.  It has caused me to seriously re-evaluate any future trips to Europe with them.

THE DAUGHTER’S OPINION:

Hi mom.

I think you’ve misunderstood my issues with the France trip. I had a lot of fun, but there were some things that just weren’t things I liked. (Which is fine, not everything is about me having fun.)

What I enjoyed the most was staying at the gite in Provence for a week and everything we did there. We went to restaurants, a flea market, our cousin Tristan (and a new fan of teentraveltalk.com) was there, we played cards, watched movies, went swimming, canoed down a river, ate ice cream advertised by Eva Longoria, and had a whole cottage to ourselves.

What wasn’t that fun for me and my brother: visiting way too many villages, spending more time than necessary in medival Carcassonne, time spent lounging around, hours and hours and hours of driving, going to fields of lavender. These are things I consider boring. (Though I must admit the car rides were funny. The problem was they were so long.)

My biggest issue: 16 days, Mom. 16 days. And all the time we spent driving from one region to another added together was probably equal to 5 days. As much as I like to travel, I don’t like being away from home for more than a week. 16 days was too much for me.

Although this wasn’t my ideal type of vacation, I still had a lot of fun and we got a lot of family memories out of it.

MOM’S POSSIBLE RESOLUTION:

Well I am really glad to hear that there were some parts of our France sojourn that you liked.  That vacation, however, confirmed that Europe is not the optimum type of trip for our family.  As a result, afterwards your Dad and I took a trip there on our own.  But I have not totally given up on the idea of our family returning to Europe — especially Italy.  While I am not ready to concede that two weeks is too long for a European vacation, I do agree that we did too much driving in France.  (It’s hard to resist the urge to see as much as you can when you are in Europe if you don’t get there too often.)

Taking your feelings into consideration, if we do go to Italy, it may be best to rent a villa with family or friends.  This would eliminate a lot of driving and include the camaraderie you enjoyed at the gite.  If there were people remaining at the villa, you could pick the side trips you would like to accompany Dad and me on and which ones you’d rather skip.  If the villa is in walking distance to a town or village, you and the other kids could do some exploring on your own.

Check out other bloggers who share their “Travel Tensions” below:

Erik and his mom in Vermont

Caroline and her dad in Chicago

Tyler and his dad in Quebec