Area: 551,000 sq.km.
Population: (1995) 57,188,000 People per sq.km. 105
Capital: Paris 10,660,000
Exchange rate: $1 = 6 Francs
October 16, we rode the hoverspeed craft across the channel from the white cliffs of dover to calais, france. it took a lot longer getting across the channel and getting our rent car than what we expected, so we got a day behind. We finally got our car, a fiat station wagan. and we drove from Calais through the outskirts of Paris to Versailles. Stayed the night there and drove to Orleans the next day.
It is now Monday, the 18th, we just got our house for the week, which is costing 950 francs for the week (which is about 150 dollars). This is the cheapest way for a family of five to stay anywhere.
Now we are seven hours ahead of you (when it is noon at home it is 7 in the evening here)...
6 francs is about a dollar... if you want to know the excange rate...
The keyboards here are very messed up :-) of course they dont think so. but it is very difficult to get used to, the q is switched with the a and the m with the , ...ect...so were using the delete button (suppr) ALOT!
We plan to be touring in France until Saturday and then will take the train from Paris to Italy. So pleqse keep us in your prayers, for divine appointments and perfect opprotunities to witness!!
we love you all!! give everyone hugs for us.
God bless,
the putnams
10/19/99 Tuesday
Today we went to Versailles Palace. It was amazing! Julie, we did not see the parana goldfish : ) we forgot to bring the bread and it was too cold for them to be out! 35°and raining!! Mrs. E the art was great! Every wall and ceiling covered in murals. We hope the pics come out okay. There was so much gold overlay on the walls and carvings. It is hard to imagine that someone could live in such opulance. Of course, he was the King.
We found a home to stay in yesterday. It is in a small village named Boiscommun. It is near Bellgarde; France, in the Loire Valley. It is a remodeled 400 year old farmhouse. The outside looks 400 years old from the courtyard(not from the street) But the inside is very modern with a dishwasher, washing machine and a fully equipped kitchen. There is only a tabletop oven though. We lit a fire in the fireplace last night. It was very cold and the home must not have very much insulation. But for less than 2hundred dollars a week it is a very good deal considering hostels cost about 20 dollars a night per person and hotels cost us one hundred dollars a night.
We just stopped in a cute internet cafe while dad finds a place to change money and make some calls. So, we have to go now. It is great to get your emails! thanks for your prayers, we miss you!
Tomorrow we should be going into Paris; Pray that we have good weather and that we will be able to find our way around. Bye for now.
October 20, Paris.
We got up at 3 AM to drive to Paris to beat the traffic. By the time we actually got to Paris it was around 6:45 and it was still dark outside. We were under ground buying our Metro tickets and rode the metro to a place near the Eiffel. We went across the street to a cafe to wait till it got a bit lighter outside. It was 7:30 by this time and Paris was still asleep! So we saw the Eiffel from a distance first. It was a bit foggy and we couldn't see the top of it. We walked a few blocks to it, crossing the Seine river. After that we saw the Arc de Triumph but didn't get to go inside. We took the Metro to the Louvre station. We got there so early that the lines were short..THANK GOD! but once we got inside it was packed. We got to see the Renissance paintings, the Egyptian antiquities, and greecian pottery and antiquities in the Dennon and Sully wing. There we saw Mona Lisa, the mummy, and the sculpture of the angel without a head. They had egyptian artifacts from 400 years before Christ. There were people in the Louvre with their pallets copying the paintings of the masters. We were in there for three hours...we got a bit lost on the way out and ended up going through the midieval section as well. Then we came out from the glass pyramid and walked to a sidewalk cafe. Near the sidewalk cafè was a square with live statues performing for the tourists. There were so many squares near there... perfect places to perform Spellbound! Attracting many tourists from the Louvre.
Mom has a perfume that she likes very much that can only be found in France now because the states stopped carrying it. So we looked up the address of Fernand Aubry's offices and called them. We got her another bottle of perfume from the corporate offices. Then well... we asked the lady at Fernand Aubry for a good salon to get a hair cut. She recommended Franck Provost a few blocks away. So we went there not knowing that it was the main salon of his chain from around the world. Franck Provost's son, Fabien, greeted us at the door (of course we didn't know that he was his son until the next day). Sylecia got her hair cut there by a stylist named Adam. It was a designer cut to fit the shape of her face. Daddy filmed the whole thing...
We went to Notre Dame after that. Unfortunately the whole front of it was covered under restoration. We did get to go inside and saw the rose stained glass windows, intricatlly carved woodwork. We got outside and it was cold and rainy but we went to the Eiffel Tower to see it lit up at night once more. The lines were very long, it was raining and cold, so we decided not to go up. We rode buses, metros and our car back to our humble abode in Boiscommun where we slept quite soundly!
The next day, October 21, we got a late start on the day because we had to do laundry and get it hung out to dry because it was sunny outside! and we were leaving the next morning EARLY. But later on we went to Sully-sur-Loire chatèau built in the 1400s. We got to go inside and all through the towers and chambers. A lot was under restoration though. But it was still fun to see th inside of a castle, it even had a moat! We then went to Chatèauneuf and Gien to look for other castles but didn't find any whole ones that we could go into.
We got an early start the next morning, the 22, for Italy. Go to the Italy page.
