Two Weeks

Just eight more work days until I depart for Paris! Mom arrives here in Chicago on the 7th and we take the red-eye to Paris on Friday night the 9th. I'm getting really excited, but realized in a panic last night that I really haven't done the preparation I need to.

First, I called about my iPhone and activating the $25 international service. I'm not so worried about the phone, but the Internet, the apps and the GPS will be a great feature. Until I found out that it's $25 for 20 MBs of data and I use on average over 700 MBs per month. Ouch! Looks like I'm gonna pass on that.

Mom really wants to do some wine tasting and I looked into going down to Burgundy for a wine trip, but instead have decided to do an over night trip to the Loire Valley. We'll stay the night in the town of Blois at this hotel. Then we'll hit the Château de Chenonceau, the Château de Chambord and the Château de Blois. I'd also like to visit some wineries, probably in Vovray. Eek, so excited!

I also booked us a wine class at O Chateau in Paris. I found it myself, but then saw that David Lebovitz recommended it, too. I love him and plan to take several of his recommendations.

On Sunday we'll be visiting the Place des Vosges and probably the Picasso Museum. Plans are to attend an organ concert at Notre Dame and eat dinner in the Marais.

We'll be visiting the Louvre at some point, too. We've both been, but you can spend a lifetime and not see everything. I also just found a private museum that I wasn't familiar with, the Musee Jacquemarte-Andree and it's just a block from our hotel, so we'll be hitting that for sure.

Between houseguests, traveling and being sick, I haven't been to the gym in three weeks! Yikes! So, today is my first day back and I plan to hit it everyday (except the four days I'm out of town next weekend). And, I've made the decision to bring workout clothes and shoes with me on vacation. The hotel we're staying at has a great gym and I really need to take advantage of it. Sure, we'll be walking plenty, but I really need to work up a good sweat at least every other day while I'm there.

Now, I haven't started planning the Dublin leg of the trip at all.

Do you have any suggestions for Paris or Dublin? I'm open to everything!!!