VYOA Blog

Three out of four waiters in Paris cafes do NOT want Americans to attempt to speak French with them. They simply don’t have the time or patience to listen to us stumble to find the right words. They just say “English, please!” and that’s clearly the end of it. It’s a bit like New York city in that most of the waiters are in a hurry and don’t feel obliged to be overly polite to us. But, ohhh…… the food!  It’s so good that we don’t mind the occasional rude waiter.

Unless you are an avid runner or biker, it’s simply not a good idea to walk down the steps from the second tier of the Eiffel Tower to the ground. Sure, it seems like a great idea at the time, but your calves will hate you for it. It doesn’t matter if you’re 16 or 39 years old, you’ll feel pain every time you walk down steps for the next three days. Also, the avid runners and bikers in the tour group will mock you for not having stronger leg muscles.

Sunflowers! On our drive from Paris to the coastal town of Fouras, we were amazed to see fields of sunflowers on both sides of the highway. I’ve never seen more than a few large sunflower plants growing together in one place, so seeing a field of them with their gorgeous yellow blooms is breathtaking. Our courier, Marianne, explained that they are grown for the seeds to make sunflower oil. For nearly 3 hours, we kept coming across these beautiful fields of flowers.

La Rochelle reminds me of Charleston, SC.  My sister lives in Charleston so I visit there often, and I thought of Charleston as we drove over the wetlands into La Rochelle. Apparently it’s a popular place for bird-watching, and as a beach town with centuries of history it has some similar qualities to downtown Charleston (even though Charleston’s history is a blink in time in comparison).

Caroline Whiddon, VYOA Executive Director     (Photo: Caroline Whiddon)