We travelled by hovercraft across the English Channel to France and made our way to Paris. John dusted off his high school French for communications, while Lynn adopted the phrase "je ne comprends pas" whenever spoken to in French.
Mealtimes were among the highlights of each day spent in France. With the strong US dollar, meals were both inexpensive and delicious. We fell in love with profiteroles, and fortunately walked enough on this vacation for it not to show.
Dormitory rooms at the Universite de Paris were adequate summer hostel accomodations. The main downside with these rooms was being kicked out each morning and not being able to return to the room until evening. Thus we lugged around a backpack of stuff we "might need" each day.
Paris is, of course, Paris. We had to see the Eiffel Tower, but had limited time and could not go up to the top. We enjoyed time at the Louvre realising for the first time where the Nike logo comes from, and managed to squeeze in a tour of Notre Dame.
There were 14
World Heritage Sites
in France at the time of our visit in 1985. That number has grown to 49 in 2021.
We visited many places along the
Banks of the Seine, which subsequently became a WH site in 1991.
After Paris we travelled by train and stopped long enough to take a nice look at Nice and dine on Salad Nicoise. Nice subsequently became a World Heritage Site in 2021.
We had a little more time to take in Marseilles. We soaked up the ambiance at Chateau d'If, thought to be the inspiration for Alexander Dumas' Count of Monte Cristo, and took in some impressionist art at the museum.
Return to the Salmons' European Vacation adventure.
Lynn & John Salmon <>{