Live from Paris

As for my last post, you might be wondering what is going on. She is MIA for weeks and now she is typing from Paris??

Let me explain!!!

My husband is now working for a French Automaker. As a result of his new job duties, he has to spend sometime in France, like a training on the job kind of thing.

So we closed our house in Bahia and traveled to Sao Paulo on June 1st. He started to work on June 4th. We spent the weekend seeing friends and his family.

On June 5tjh, I went to Curitiba to visit my family and finally to meet my niece. she is so cute and everyone is charmed by her.

I stayed in town until June 7th.

Sorry my friends from Curitiba, but I couldn't visit you. I will do it on my next visit.

On June 10th, we traveled to France. My flight was from Sao Paulo to Milan and then to Paris and Paulo's flight was Sao Paulo to Paris.

As I arrived at the Charles de Gaule Airport, there was an abandoned bag in the hallway and they suspect there was a bomb inside. While we were waiting for some kind of answer, there was a mild explosion. I am not sure, it there was a bomb or the police exploded the bag. Nobody told us anything.

When Paulo's flight arrived, the airport was up and running again.

We went to our apart hotel. it is a small apartment with a kitchen, a hidden bag and a living room.

I am really happy because I can cook with all this amazing ingredients.

I already walked around and I sign-up for French classes at Alliance Francaise. The classes will start on June 25th. And I saw the Jardin de Luxembourg and the Antique Fair in Saint Germain.

But I will come back later with more news.

Au revoir

Germany - 5 of 5

Our foster parents were waiting for us in Dusseldorf main station. they were so happy to have us at their house and as usual they were restless hosts.

When we got there, they took us to this wonderful Mongolian Restaurant.

they made a city tour for us in the city and we finished the day at the English Garden. The place was done in between wars.

One third of the Garden was done by the British, the second third was done by the French and the third third was done by the Japanese. The place is really beautiful and you just want to sit back and relax.

On our second day with them, we drove to the Keukenhoff.

The Keukenhoff is this amazing garden. so many tulips, all the color that you can possibly imagine. But the most beautiful ones are the simple one, like the white, yellow and red tulips.

We walked, for more than four hours in this place and we ended our journey with a typical dutch dessert: the porfeits, rich with flavor as well with calories.

Then we drove to Amsterdan. We took a city tour by boat in the canals. It is amazing how many boats they have and how many people live in boat houses.

Another thing that got my attention was the amount of bikes they have. There is this huge 5 or 6 story building that is a bike's parking lot. No wonder the ducths are so slim.

On our third day in Dusseldorf, we drove to Cologne.

I went to Cologne especificqlly to see the Cathedral. We walked our way up the 519 steps. When we got there we were more than tired, but in at the same time we couldn't be more impressed with the view and all the man labor that was used to build the Cathedral.

On our foruth day we went to see the Dusseldorf Old Tozn. We walked most of the day and just looked around.

We closed the day with an aspargus - German Obssession - and straberries dinner. It was just perfect.

On our last day there,we went to see the Barba Rossa ruins. h was a ruler in the 17th century and he started this fortune charging every boat that pass through his premisses. He was a tyran as well.

Then it was time to say good-bye and go back to Brazil, but not for long.

Kisses and hugs

Fabiola

PS: I am typing this in a cyber Cafe in Paris

Germany - 4 of 5

We drove all the way from Munich to Berlin. As we expected, the landscapes were perfect and of course we got lost on our way there.

The road work has closed the exit that was proposed by the Michelin Guide, so when we realized we were in the midle of the old East Berlin.

We could tell right away that place once belonged to East Germany. It is not much diferent from dowtown Detroit or dowtown São Paulo.

Our faithfull Hertz map got us out of there. Our hotel was in this trendy neighborhood that once belonged to East Berlin and now is receiving major amounts of private investmnets and it is becoming one of the hippiest in town.

We went in all the major touristic spots as well in the historic placeslike the Brademburg Gate, the Reichstag, the Berlin Wall, the Holocaust Memorial and the Victory Column. But as a junkie museum as I am, I chose the Pergamon Luseum this time to see.

We walked for 5 hours and the museum was breathtaking.

They have part of a Greek Sacrifice altar planted inside of the museum, loads od Greek Statue. My favorite part was the Greek Icon Exhibition. some of the icons date back 700aC and it is really impressive how well restaured thjeyare.

A quarter of the museum is dedicated to the Persian Empire, rugs, photos, dishes. the pieces are so intricated that is hard to believe that a human being did it. Most of the techniques are from one of the Persian dinasty or some kind of tribe. All the techniaues have been pass through generations.

The last aurter of the museum is dedicated to the Mesopotamian and Egiptian history. they hav part of ancient cities planted inside of the museum. It is really impressive, but not as impressive as the Greek and Persian parts.

another chapter of the Berliun sightseeings ae the churches. they have so many churches and sinagogues that you can do a whole tour only visiting them.

My favorite one is the Saint Edwiges church. if you look from the outside, the building does not look like a church and on the inside the church is even more different from a normal church.

The altar is not in the front of the church, but it is in the underground and the benches are situated around the church underground and on the street level. It looks like more with a theather then with a church.

The altar is the main stage and they have a lot of chuch leader buried in there.

When our Berlin visit we went to Dussseldorf.

Kisses and hugs

Germany - 3 of 5

When I was a teenager, I used to dance in a German Typical Group. It was a nice period of my teen years. We reharsed twice a week and we danced at least twice a month somewhere in the city or in the tri-state in south Brazil.

When we got in Munich, I was overzhelmed with so many memories that I had. The food and the music were more than perfect for me.

A part of the Haufbrauhaus , another thing that amazed me was the amount of museuns that the city has to offer. It is really impressive.

We chose 2 of the Pinachoteks andwe spent the hole day there.

the modern one is way to modern for me. I really appreciate those people who can stop by in front of those weird art work and they can get the artist's idea and they can even compliment them. Oh, well maybe in another life for me.

The second one was the oldest and in my opinion the best museum I've ever been. they have this impressionist collection that drove me crazy. I could live there.

My favorites are the Van Gogh Sun Flowers. I've seen 3 of them: Chicago, Detroit and now Munich.

Another beautiful spot was the English Gardens. the plants are so perfectly planted that we justwonder they are for real or they are just like a paint.

Kisses and Hugs