Paxtonia: Paxton Visit: Part 2

As promised... The second weekend with the Paxtons was especially fun for us because we did things that we had never done before. Saturday began with a trip outside of Paris to visit a 13th century monastery, founded by Louis IX, the one who built St. Chapelle in Paris. The monastery is accessible by car, but the nearest train station is more than 2 miles away. Since we don't have a car here, though, we decided to follow the advice of our Hour from Paris book again and take the walk. I'm so glad we did. We walked through a small town, woods, and fields and even passed an equestrian center. It was a lovely break from the city:

The monastery itself was beautiful, with immaculate landscaping and reflective canals:

The church had been mostly destroyed during the revolution...

But the cloister and other buildings were still in tact.

We did manage to snap a couple of shots of all 5 of us:

And Oliver was an ANGEL the whole day!

Except for a few minutes while we waited for the train, but in his defense, it was past his dinner time...

That evening we walked past the Hotel de Ville where they were having a concert and across to the Ile de la Cite, lit up beautifully as usual.

Sunday was mostly devoted to the Tour de France. Rather than join the thousands of people at the finish line (where, I'm guessing, we wouldn't have been able to see much anyway), we found a bridge in Paris along the route. Although we had to wait a lot longer than any of us expected, we played around with the camera to help pass the time.

Eventually, a big parade of advertisements came by. Entertaining, but no Lance Armstrong.

Finally, the riders made their appearance, with the leading team out front.

After that experience (which was, unfortunately, rather short lived... the riders came and went in under 2 minutes), we visited Montmartre, the Bohemian center for arts and music, and joined the many people on the steps of Sacre Coeur.