The Burglary

Joyce and I went to dinner the evening of Day 6. We had decided to go to the cafe at the corner for the second night in a row. As we were sitting there at dinner, I saw a rat run across the floor a few tables behind us. It must have been an omen. Because there was a rat in our room at the same moment burglarizing our stuff. We lost the laptop computer with which I was blogging and emailing my travelogue home. The thief also took our digital camera that already had over 300 Paris photos. The only pictures we have are the ones on this blog and a few others that were emailed to friends and family. The burglar also swiped a bag of souvenirs we'd purchased for friends, family and work colleagues.

My first reaction to the robbery was "I wanna go home... now!" But we were booked the next day to travel on the TGV, France's bullet train. Our destination was La Tortiniere, a small chateau hotel in the Loire Valley. It's right out of a fairytale. It overlooks the most amazing vista of hayfields, a lovely French village with an ancient church. We reserved a room for the night.


We arrived early that day and took a walk on the wooded estate. The ground was covered in wild hyacinth. We had wine on the terrace overlooking the valley. They serve a sumptious 5-course gourmet dinner in their dining room. The next morning they bring you breakfast in bed. It was truly a four-star experience. By the time we left to go back to Paris, we were back in the spirit of the vacation.

We're home now. We saw more Paris sights including museums, churches and Versailles. We walked a lot! It was an amazing trip with a little bit of everything. It's good to be home, but Paris was truly wonderful. The photos of La Tortinere are from their website. I'm sure they won't mind me sharing them with you.