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OK…this post took a while, because there were just sooooo many pictures to wade through. I’m not sure I did a good job of filtering…I love them all 🙂 These shots are from our tenth day in Europe (Wednesday/Mercredi, October 31)…it was a really long day…a great day…my birthday. The original blog notes are HERE.

We awoke to our first morning in Paris…a brilliantly sunny morning. These shots are from our apartment on the Seine, and our walk to the train.

We spent the majority of the day at Versailles. One of the most prominent features of the grounds at Versailles is the placid Grand Canal.

Another hugely popular area is Le Domaine de Marie Antoinette, with its idyllic hamlet, small farm, and Temple of Love.

We toured the Grand Tianon…

…and the Petit Trianon…

In between, we wandered the majestic gardens, past elaborate fountains, and hidden whimsy. The entire day was lit by warm sun with a sky laced with delicate clouds. In the late afternoon, some of the large fountains were running.

Being late fall, most of the statues were wrapped up tight in preparations for winter. I snapped dozens of shots like these…because they amused me 🙂

We returned to Paris for a birthday dinner on the Ile Saint Louis.

With patience and some help from Jeff, I finished up my images for the Ft. Mason Holiday photo show tomorrow night. I always have a little bit to do, but this year seemed more hectic than normal. (Frankly, every time I frame my own work, I remember why framing stores are in business…and swear “never again, never again” 🙂

Anyhow, the work is done. This will be my 13th or 14th show? The work is a variety of images that I have never shown before, although attentive readers will recognize these images from various graffiti posts…and a couple of recent Amsterdam shots.

I’ve reposted the series as a set here.

Elmo Shropshire–the guy who wrote and sang "Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer"–lives right here in the Bay Area.

Talk about useless dinnertime trivia!

The skies lit up for our last day in Amsterdam…Tuesday/Dinsdag, October 30…the blog recap is HERE. We spent fleeting couple of hours in the morning walking along the brilliant canals to and from the Hermitage Museum.

Our train ride to Paris was equally beautiful. The tinted windows created some rather interesting false-color scenes.

We had dinner tonight at Lime…one of our favorite spots in SF. Tonight was notable, because we met up with some friends of Jeff–Brad and Brian–who had recently moved to SF. (We also ran into our SF friends Chris and CP while eating…small world.) The meal was extra special, because our delightful waitress Shannon was able to get us two off-the-menu items: BLTs and a prawn tempura with avocado and garlic aioli. She was bubbly and wonderful.

But the funny part of the story was when we were politely asked by the maitre de to move to a new table, because the restaurant owner was coming in, and we were at his favorite table. We moved…FYI, no free drinks or deserts offered by the maitre de to offset the disruption. Then we watched as the table sat empty for 15-20min. Finally, the owner’s three-person entourage arrived first…and then sat for 30min waiting for the owner to grace the world with his presence.

I’m sorry…that’s just not how you treat your loyal customers! I’m not even sure if that’s how you treat your DIS-loyal customers.