Napa 2

Day 1 (Friday 25th July)

We started our few days in Napa with a lazy morning and a quick walk into town, which is only 10 minutes away. It's a small town but has a nice centre with lots of boutique shops. We went to a winery for a picnic lunch on their lawn (leurs pelouses) and then went to Robert Mondavi Winery, a fairly large company that made many different wines. we had a tour and a tasting of three wines but here in napa you have to pay for most tastings so it's not as good as France! Plus it's all very modern so there are no impressive chateaux to look at, although the scenery is still beautiful. (it is also very very hot in the afternoons).
After this visit Florian and I took the convertible (decapotable) car (I felt so cool driving a convertible in California!!) to a factory outlet store, where major brands (les marques) sell their products cheaper than in normal shops, plus there was a summer sale (les soldes) so we got some great bargains: Levis jeans at 20 euros, Calvin Klein shirts at 18 euros, Quiksilver shorts at 20 euros... Florian hasn't bought so many clothes in one day in his life!
That evening we cooked lamb on the barbecue and enjoyed a late night hot tub with Nick and Kate, including beer, chocolates and cool underwater flashing lights.

Day 2 (Saturday 26th July)

Florian and I hired a tandem today and rode along the Silverado Trail, a road that runs north-south along the valley and has many wineries along the way. It was hard work riding the tandem, especially up hills and in the burning heat. To refresh ourselves we stopped at a winery and tasted champagnes and wines for free, the last free tastings in the valley apparently. That was nice and gave us enough power to head to Mumm for a look at their art gallery (air conditioned thank god) and to taste their champagne in the little bar overlooking a vineyard. It was very nice to cool off for an hour before getting back on the bike and heading back to the hire shop. It was a great (40 mile/60km!!) ride and we are happy to have finally ridden a tandem, we always wanted to!
We went to a restaurant for dinner and went to bed with sore bums and aching legs (les fesses douloureuses!!)

Napa 1

Just arrived in our beautiful new home which looks like something out of a decoration magazine. we have a hot tub (jacuzzi) in the garden again, along with huge flat screen tv and a gazebo in the garden (tonnel).

We have internet here so will write more often and put more photos of Napa soon!

thanks for all your messages, keep them coming, we'd like to hear what you think of the photos!

Yosemite 2

Day 1

We had a trolley tour around the base of the valley and took in all the amazing sights of this incredible place, then walked up to Yosemite Falls and on to Mirror Lake, after a picnic lunch with the squirrels. Unfortunately Mirror Lake was more of a stream at this time of year but the walk was pretty nonetheless. On the way, we saw a group of people looking in to the forest and they were watching.... a mother and baby bear! We were so close it was impressive, Florian got a few great pictures (check out Flickr, the link is on the right).
We tested the hot tub (jacuzzi) back at home and thoroughly enjoyed relaxing our muscles!

Day 2

Florian and Dad went on a photography walk in the morning to learn how to get some great photos of the valley, while the ladies had a leisurely walk and a soak in the hot tub! After lunch we went to Mariposa Grove, a forest of Sequoia trees and saw a huge one that was 2700 years old called Grizzly Giant. There was a tunnel cut through another, see the photos!
That evening we drove to Glacier Point to watch the sunset and listen to a very enthusiastic park ranger talk about the different mountains and their names. It was so beautiful to watch.

Day 3

Florian and I got up at 4.45am this morning to watch the sunrise and we were not disappointed: it was blue and pink and really stunning (beautiful). We all drove out to Tuoloumne Meadows in the east of the park for a complete change in scenery, the rocks up there were whiter and trees more sparse, very moon-like.
Eventually we arrived at the trail (chemin) we wanted to follow up to Dog Lake, which involved a mile of very steep incline fit for mountain goats. Luckily the trail flattened out and led us to a beautiful lake where we strolled around and admired the beautiful view of the mountains in the distance.
That evening, Florian, Dad and I made one last trip into the valley to say our goodbyes to Half Dome at sunset. The red face of the rock never gets boring, it is so amazing.

We left this morning and have spent today in the car heading for Napa.

San Francisco 2

Hello again, we have finally made it back to civilisation after a few days in the wilds of Yosemite National Park, so I can tell you all about San Francisco, since last time the keyboard was rubbish!

We had a day in the big city, and saw some of the main sights: the Golden Gate Bridge was very impressive, but it was foggy (as everyone assures me san Francisco always is in the summer...).
We also climbed up 400 steps along some beautiful gardens, you can see a photo of me on these steps on my flickr page (click on the link to the left to see all the photos from San Fran). We also ate a traditional San Francisco ice cream which Florian's cousin Juliette is demonstrating in the picture with it all around her mouth!

Our hotel was very lovely, in a beautiful residential area, and we even had complimentary wine and cheese in the evenings.

My San Francisco highlight has to be the cable car ride though, the driver was very funny and it was amusing to hang on the side of the tram!

Yosemite

We are now innn the worst internett placee ever so excusee the multiple letters!!!
Yosseeemmiitee iis soo beauttiful and big!!!! Florian has hundreds of photoo whiich wee wiill put up sooon..

We wiilll write again iin Napa, wheen we haveeee goood internet access!!

San Francisco

It was foggy and cool in san fran, we saw marianne, florian's mum's cousin, which was nice. We wennt to fishermann's wharf and saw crabs, alcatraz and boats. we walked on the golden gate bridge with marianne and her family, photos will come soon!!!

We took a cable car too which was excellent!!!!

The itinerary

Just so you know the plan...

Friday 18th July: Fly Paris- San Francisco

We spend saturday in san Francisco with Florian's relatives.

Sunday 20th July: Drive to Yosemite.

Thursday 24th July (I think): Drive to napa Valley and drink vast quantities of Californian wine!

Monday 28th July: say goodbye to Kate and continue driving with Mum and Dad to Santa Cruz.

Tuesday 29th July: Mum and Dad continue south, we stay in Santa Cruz.

Thursday 31st July: return to san francisco for a night with Florian's relatives.

Friday 1st August: Fly to Chicago and spend weekend there with Alexandra and Josh.

Sunday 3rd August: Drive to Madison, Wisconsin to stay in their house.

Sunday 10th August: Fly Madison - Paris

First post

This is a new experience for us as we have never done a blog before so bear with us...
For the Frenchies reading, sorry but I am the one doing the posting so it will be in English, if Florian wants to he can write in French but don't hold your breath...

Anyway come back and see what we have been up to and look at Florian's beautiful pictures, now he is an expert photographer.

We leave Paris tomorrow so you can imagine my excitement is growing and I can't wait to arrive in San Francisco tomorrow night (we will be going back in time, which is also quite cool).

Leave comments or send us emails if you have any news, hopeuflly this blog lark isn't too difficult!