Farnsworth Travel Blog

Dear Friends and Family,

Getting far behind. Blindsided by unexpected and unwelcome covid.

Quickly, thru Paris.

Recycling station.

Gorgeous weather.

Notre Dame missing its top pieces and being worked on.

You’ve probably seen this before, but he’s still on display.

Deb had told me that the Cluny has been redone, and she was thankful that they had done a great job. I would have to agree.

We were relieved to hear that Deborah did not catch covid from us or anybody.

In 1977, these heads and about 15 others, along with other pieces, were found under the hotel Moreau, the headquarters of a former bank, located at 20 rue de la Chausee-d’Antin. They were buried during the Revolution. 1977 was after my first visit to the Cluny.

Meh, that gesture looks Italian.

We took a walk on the Promenade Plantee, a raised walkway, nicely planted that goes from roughly the Bastille (above) to almost the Bois de Vincennes. This was created from a raised railway before NY’s Highline. Artisans and makers have opened up shops under the street level archways. We bought the first of one of my birthday presents, an incredible bracelet at a shop by jewelry artist Tsuri Gueta.

The evening before we left Paris for our hiking and trekking in the French Alps, Don started to feel not so good. He took a Covid test and was negative. So as we were 5 times vaccinated, including with the latest Omicron vaccine, we hoped for the best and got on the train the next day with our masks plastered to our faces.

When we arrived in Gap, it was drizzling. This didn’t bode too well for our hiking. One of the weather sites showed that it was going to rain every day. Another showed that there would be showers occasionally. It turned out to be pretty gorgeous weather.

We had a wonderful dinner, cooked by the very talented Meg, and the next day Don tested positive.

Jean, Meg’s husband, with the cheese course. We can’t believe we didn’t get any photos of the lovely Meg. Or the very attractive Sally, for that matter.

It was Tom’s birthday: Tom, Jean and Jan with a sparkler candle on a beautiful raspberry tart which was baked by Jean.

The next day it was drizzling on and off, so we took a shortish hike around the guesthouse. Don stayed in bed.

All the animals look so healthy and happy.

The next day I tested positive, and the weather turned glorious. The following photos were taken by the guide, Bernard, who is a very good photographer. Don and I took a short hike, but spent much of the day either in bed or hanging out at La Grange, Jean and Meg’s guesthouse.

Jan, Tom and Gary in front.

Squeak, surveying what we missed.

Happy trekkers.

Tom and Jan above. We were sorry to miss it. For those of you who haven't had covid, there is little chance that one can summon the energy to hike up mountains.

My photos might leave the reader with the impression that all we had was cheese, but Meg prepared fish, meat, delicious spring rolls, a great variety of foods.

Nevertheless, Jean showing off a beautiful local cheese from which we will make Raclette in an upcoming dinner. You can barely see Meg through a window into the kitchen. Don and I both thought we had some photos of Meg and were surprised that this is the only one we came up with. She was often busy in the kitchen.

Chicken, which I believe was a first course.

The meat and pickles part of our Raclette.

Potatoes in the bowl above the special Raclette pot. The melted cheese — delicious, which is eaten with the potatoes and everything else.

Leaving Meg and Jean’s place, La Grange des Ecrins, we took a short hike, and then had lunch at a restaurant known for their cheese dishes. Cheese is big here.

Don getting a call from our granddaughter, Mia.

The ever-changing sky over the Southern French Alps. Views from Sally and Bernard’s guest chalet.

So despite missing out on all of the beautiful all-day hikes, we did manage to have an enjoyable time because of the kindness of our hosts, Sally and Bernard, and Meg and Jean, and our great travel companions, Tom and Jan, and Squeak and Gary.

After 3.5 days my Covid test was almost negative, just a very faint gray line, and I felt much better. I had a much lighter case than Don. His episode lasted much, much longer. More on that later.

We all took what Squeak dubbed the Covid train from Gap to Marseille because so many were coughing. Of course, almost no masks to be seen. Tom and Jan got off in Aix en Provence.

Marseille was sweltering! This is the view from our hotel room in Marseille. We had paid extra for this view back when I made the reservations, but we shut the blinds and hardly looked at it. Sadly when you’re not feeling great, you don’t get a lot of pleasure from lots of activity and people having a good time.

We can say, we don't wish you were here -- unless you were far away from us. Hopefully we will be back to our normal pretty good health when next we meet.

Love, Era and Don

Dear Friends and Family,

First of all, I've got to say, that was amazing tv theater last night, the last day of the Jan 6 hearings: Nancy Pelosi's cool under fire; the jaw-dropping actions of the Jan 6 insurrectionists invading Congress, whooping it up while hunting our Congressmen and women; shitting everywhere, literally shitting on the floors of the halls of Congress (unbelievable!!) - modern-day barbarians at the gates; Liz Cheney principled and so strong, whether you agree with her or not.

Now, back to our story.

The train from Cambridge to London arrived 1 hour before our Eurostar train was to depart for Paris. Same station, thankfully. The crowds waiting in line for the Eurostar were blocks long and snaked back and forth, packed with people. We had to clear customs, which was relatively quick, but the whole process took so long that we made it to our (reserved - Thank God) seats with about 2 minutes to spare. I’m certain some people were left behind, as there was a long line in back of us also.

We saw about four other people wearing masks. They all appeared to be Americans, probably from California. The other thousand or so were maskless. I think this is probably where Don and I got infected, but more on that later.

We are staying on Rue Ste. Anne, the area near the Palais Royal and that is how it is known, which turns out to be a street with a lot of small Asian restaurants and stores, many Japanese, so pretty tasteful (excuse my bias, please). We are also very close to the Louvre and Galerie Vivienne. Above Don is walking between the Louvre and the Palais Royal gardens (below).

Nice light fixtures.

We had lunch at a wonderful little restaurant called Eels. Unfortunately, we forgot to take a photo of the menu or any information, as we ended up meeting a curator from the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, who was in the EU for a press check and stopped off in Paris. I noticed her as she came into the restaurant wearing a mask (unusual in Paris), had a lovely smile and manner, and ordered exactly what I had ordered - smoked eels and fish. So we got into a conversation.

The smoked eel dish was fantastically good. Sweet corn, diced apple, delicious sauce which I remember had some slight licorice flavoring. I probably would not have known if I hadn’t read it — very subtle.

Don's aubergine (eggplant) with delicious sauces. All sauces at Eels were delicious.

My fish. I think it was sea bass. Maybe Leslie can confirm or correct me.

Don's duck.

Dessert was a quince tart — a hard choice, but as Marisha has a very healthy quince tree we were curious to see how the restaurant prepared it. We had already tasted it when we remembered to take a photo. Very yummy.

Then we got back to our apartment and discovered that my old friend Deborah from high school, and my first traveling companion to Europe — we were only 17!! - was in Paris. So we ventured out once more and met her half-way. She was staying near the Canal St. Martin. It was great to see her.

We didn’t eat here, but we walked Deb to the nearest metro and Don snapped this photo. Over 50 years between trips; and many trips and life experiences since that time. How lucky we were and are! Boy, we had generous and understanding parents. Our other traveling companion in 1968, Erica, ended up marrying a French man and staying in France for a long time, although she is now in Sausalito.

The next day we went to Versailles.

This is about all we saw of the gardens on my first visit to Versailles, which I think was with Deb and Erica. If you wanted to see the vast outer expanses you had to walk.

Now you can rent bikes or board a sort of zoo train.

We rented bicycles which was so fun. As you can see, we got away from the crowds. Don said I only fell off twice, but it was more like I clumsily jumped off without fully braking and tipped my bike over. A bad habit from my days of riding a coaster-break bike as a kid.