Where to Take Your Parents in Alsace-Lorraine

Colmar, France

In typical PorterBall fashion, we packed a lot into my parent's last trip. After trying out Swiss life, we swung through the Alsace-Lorraine region of France on our way back to Berlin. I wanted to give the P's a taste of French life - even if it was German flavored.

The Alsace-Lorraine region (or Reichsland Elsaß-Lothringen if you're feeling especially Germ-y) has been tossed back and forth between Germany and France several times. Though it currently is in France (and has been since 1922), this mishmash of cultures has resulted in some of the best of both sides.

• Must Eat: Flàmmeküeche - basically a very thin crust pizza, typically with lardons (bacon), white onions and a cream-based sauce.
  
• Must drink: Wine, of course! But Germany's influence means you won't get sniffed at for ordering a beer. Sadly, I could have neither. Another apfelshorle s'il vous plaît.
• Must see: Serious cuteness. Hubsch. Mignon. No matter how you pronounce it, this region is filled with towns straight outta a Disney set.

Our visit to the Museums of Paris

During our trip to Paris in December, we got all cultured. We did this (primarily) through buying the Museum Pass and going museum crazy.

We are museum lovers and prefer to visit a museum over & over, slowly absorbing the incomprehensible displays of grace and beauty BUT a week long trip to Paris only affords a precious hour or two in each place. Even then we missed some must-sees. We're sorry. This action packed museum itinerary was exhaustively carried out over 2 days and was so incredibly worth it.

Foucault pendulum

A glimpse at some greatness.

First stop:

Panthéon

This was the major landmark by our airbnb apartment. Located in the Latin Quarter in Paris, it is a secular mausoleum containing the remains of distinguished French citizens such as Marie Curie, Victor Hugo, Voltaire, Rousseau, etc. Modeled on the Pantheon in Rome, the building is known for Foucault's pendulum a simple device conceived as an experiment to demonstrate the rotation of the Earth. While it had long been known that the Earth rotated, the introduction of the Foucault pendulum in 1851 was the first simple proof of the rotation in an easy-to-see experiment.

10 Things we Didn't Know about Paris

Rocking some 'stache for France

 1. People smiled! I can't even explain how this lightened our already luminous moods. While the stereotype of Germans being cold and humorless is far from totally true, they don't smile much, especially in the blustery NE corner. The first time we went to London was after a month in Berlin and there too we felt the friendly vibe we didn't realize was missing in our Berlin lives. Obviously this is just our experience, but we always laugh when people talk about how unfriendly the Londoners are or about the rudeness of the French. 

Disneyland...in Paris!

We had an epic time the last time we went to Disneyland in California. Both of us had been as kids (Ian went many times as his family is Disney obsessed) but our first trip together was during our 1 year anniversary (Married - yea!). We road tripped all the way to SoCal- visiting fam AND to visit the "Happiest Place on Earth". And we were deliriously happy. A week before Halloween, the place was decorated like never before and lines were almost non-existent. We rode every ride in the place in one day and rode some of our favorites back-to-back, gleefully getting off a ride only to run right back on.  Best. Disney. Trip. Ever!

remind us to tell you about....

Angry German hiker and child (strollers are evil)
Pooping on a fortress (everyone should try it)
Hammer pants on a train (emotional frenchmen have the best taste)
Amazing "complete meal deals" (not a thing like spag)
Friends on boats, hostels, and trains

Girl with helmet rain coat and painted teens (crazy french)
Fat, whiny Americans - Rick Steves book in hand (not us for once)
...and other good times

"Same Bad Trip"

....says French youth on train from hell. Before boarding the train, many were told, "no reservations necessary." Upon arrival of the train, Romanians and Hungarians alike fought to gain entry first onto the train. One scared American couple were quoted as saying, "these bastards are crazy, let's go over to that one!" Alas, no relief was to be found.

After being shoved out of one compartment that was reserved, the afore mentioned couple took refuge in two seemingly open seats. They soon found out that one seat was reserved by a kind Romanian woman; however, due to her niceness, she allowed them to stay. It wasn't to last long. Crazed French rollerblading youth soon bordered the car, singing out of date American pop music and drinking beer and vodka, and started terrorizing the peace loving inhabitants of the train.

At this point, said train was completely full, and Romanian woman requested seat back. American girl sat with American boy and other nice on one seat, thanks to another nice Romanian woman scooting over. American boy was very uncomfortable. After being told by a French youth, "speak English. Same bad trip." No shit thought American couple, or no merd.

This was basically a short news clip of the train we took from Budapest to Sighisoara, except with less sleep, more angry ticket and border police, and one ridiculously hot porn star Romanian border guard... yikes! Reservations... ha, methinks yes next time.

More stops on the TRIP.....