| Monday, June 17, 2013 -- Paris, France -- Day 2, Part 3 | We connected with the LK's and the F's at a restaurant called L'Angle du Faubourg, a couple of blocks off the Avenue Champs-Élysées in the eigth district. It is nice to have the six kids at one table and the six adults at another. Like many places, the restrooms (les toilettes) are in the basement. The basement of this place also had additional seating and a cellar accessed by a ladder through a ...

| Sunday, June 16, 2013 -- Paris, France -- Day 1 | Our flight from Frankfurt got us in to Paris a little before 6 PM without incident. We picked up our one checked bag, unsuccessfully tried to get a SIM chip for one of our phones, and then too tired and hungry to figure out the Metro system, hailed a taxi. The 70 Euro taxi ride to the Hotel Beaugency in Paris' seventh district near the Eiffel tower was pricey but apparently quite relaxing, as the three of us n...

| Sunday, June 16, 2013 -- Frankfurt, Germany| We arrived in Frankfurt on Sunday morning, June 16, after a long non-stop flight on Condor air from Seattle with our traveling companions, the LK family and the F family. We spent our 4 hour layover having lunch and eating various gummy candies, of which the Frankfurt airport duty free shop has a surprisingly large selection. The tools and bike hardware I carried onboard in Seattle (half inch box wrench, peda...

| June 15, 2013 -- Seattle, WA | Today Val, Dylan (11) and Brent left Seattle for a two week vacation to France, which includes a couple of days in Paris followed by 9 days biking through the Loire River valley and its various châteaus. Our traveling companions include the LK family -- Robin, Julie, Jane (11) and Kat (8) and the F family -- Eric, Amy, Jordan (11), Lawton (9), and Maggie (8). The picture for this blog entry shows DB and VS snoozing on the way ...