I arrived in Paris Wednesday 11:20 AM and have already done enough in just two days to
fill up an entire week of activities. While flying into Paris the guy sitting next to me
(we had a long talk about traveling etcwhile looking out the window was going on and on
about how beautiful the surronding countryside of Paris is. He was flying onto Romania and
only had a stop over in Paris. Said he would be back to visit Paris on another occasion
and would never listen to anybody about anything negative concerning Paris.

At any rate my friend picked me up on time.(I'm staying at his place.)
What a beautiful warm day without much humidity. Just like California. The next
day was over cast and cool. Just like California.
He lives 15 miles outside of Paris and sure enough the Paris surrounding countryside
is incrediblemente bella with beautiful forests and lakes. Just imagine Switzerland
without mountains. Fresh clean air. It rains in the summer so everything is such a
gorgeous green. There are also beautiful fields of wheat still green and fields of
strawberries and green lettuce. I'm in a small town called Thorigny Sur Marne. The
Marne river is the one that runs through Paris. Just take the train from Paris and go east.

My friend takes the train to work.(so does his wife)
Just 25 minutes. The train runs along that same Marne river(becomes the Seine river)
that goes by the Eiffel Tower. Kind of a smaller version of the Mississippi river.
I've already rode the train to Paris twice and have been two times on the Paris subway.
(This is my third time in Paris and fourth time in France.)

You know the French people are very intelligent. Even the little French children can speak
French. And they look just like the people back home in California. White, black, brown,
Asian and all colors in between and all speaking French. I like France because it reminds
me of Italy. After all France is really just another region of Italy. The Romans were in
France for some 400 plus years. How would it not be similar to Italy!

Will be heading on down to Switzerland presto in treno and then onto Italia.

More to come. But right now I'm enjoying a great case of jet lag.

sounds like fun villa, it's great not to stop at one place for a long time as it forces you to enjoy every single second of your time there making your trip unforgetable and most enjoyable,
buone vouyage (I know the spelling is most likely to be wrong )

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"you can't please all people, but you can please yourself" the great philosopher NOURAN

Villa I envy you! I hope you are taking pictures of every place you visit and everyone you meet. Hearing your description reminds me of when I took the kids to Costa Rica,I thought I took enough pictures but realized once home, that there were not near enough. Cant wait to hear of your ventures in Italy. : )

Ciao jeanette and Nouran.

Have taken well over 100 photos gia.(already)
My goal is 2,000+ photos.

Yesterday evening we went for a walk along the Marne river. There is a paved path way where
people walk and fish. The river and the town are 15 miles outside of Paris and it is something
like out of a fairytale book. Didn't see any tourist other than me. They have all these beautiful
swan birds in the water and the people come and feed them bread. Got lots of pictures of
the river and the swans.

The Marne is a river in France, a right tributary of the Seine in the area east and southeast
of Paris. It is 514 kilometres (319 mi) long. The river gave its name to the départements
of Haute-Marne, Marne, Seine-et-Marne, and Val-de-Marne.

The Marne starts in the Langres plateau, runs generally north then bends west between Saint-Dizier
and Châlons-en-Champagne, joining the Seine at Charenton just upstream from Paris.

In the Champagne région part of the water is led through the artificial lake Lac du Der-Chantecoq,
in order to regulate the water discharge. This way large inundations or low river
levels downstream are prevented.

The Marne River was the site of two battles during the First World War. The first battle was a
turning point of World War I, fought in 1914. The second battle was fought four years later, in 1918.

Then today we went to the largest bookstore in France. Have never seen a bookstore that big anywhere including the U.S.

mmmmmmmm I think I'd have to put Thorigny Sur Marne on my list of places to visit, it's just like a dream

__________________
"you can't please all people, but you can please yourself" the great philosopher NOURAN

Sono molto afortunato di non stare a Parigi! Non vero? O per lo meno not be stuck there.

mmmmm i need some help, you say "I am very fortunate of not being/standing " a parigi" (what does parigi mean)! not true? or for less not be stuck there."
I actually like that you answered in italian, even though I don't understand most of the words at least am learning the language

__________________
"you can't please all people, but you can please yourself" the great philosopher NOURAN

I think the last part is "or at least not be stuck there" not for less

__________________
"you can't please all people, but you can please yourself" the great philosopher NOURAN

I did a seminar in Paris, France yesterday and one of the participants speaks fluent
Italian, French and English. I was so happy that there was somebody who spoke Italian
there. His mother is French ma suo padre e Italiano. He was born
and raised in France but he often goes to Italy. We spoke Italian at the seminar.

In the seminar he traslated for me from Italian to French, English to French and sometimes
I would speak in French and he would still translate to French. We laughed a lot about
this because my other French friend said I ws speaking perfect French that
everyone was understanding.

See if you can understand what he says here:

"Grazie a te per avere condiviso il tu sapere con passione ed attenzione dedicata a tutti partecipanti.
E stata un'ottima esperienza per tutti."

condiviso=share