Let's go to.....Luxembourg?

We saw the movie, "Julie and Julia", last week-end and thoroughly enjoyed it.  I have read that the French really don't know much about Julia Child, so the movie has their curiosity.  We enjoyed identifying with her dealing with moving to France and what she did, as an ex-pat wife, to keep busy.  She cooked.  It made me feel a bit guilty that I haven't learned how to cook "a la francais", except for a few measly recipes.  I haven't even taken a cooking class, which are offered all over Paris.  I am determined to do it before I leave.

But the movie also was about Julie, a blogger who became famous with her cooking hundreds of Julia Child's recipes in a year, and writing about them.  I thought about this blog and have decided I need to write more about my experiences in Paris, which was the intent, rather than posting dozens of pictures of our trips. After all, who really wants to follow our travels?  I was doing it mainly for us, I told myself, and that they would be a journal of what we did while we were here.  But posting dozens of pictures is probably somewhat boring and I am going to make some "smilebooks" albums of our pictures anyway (someday).  I figure that if I didn't have to take the time of posting pictures all the time, maybe I would be more motivated just to tell our stories.

So.....about Luxembourg. I will try to be more brief.  Yes, we did go there a few weekends ago.  We had never been there, but wanted to see what it was about.  It was an impromptu trip that was decided on a beautiful Saturday autumn morning and Lyle had the itch to get away so he wouldn't be tempted to work all weekend.  We found a rental car online,  told them we would pick it up in an hour, and threw in a few things into our suitcases. Cheap and Cheaper got on two metros and walked 8 blocks looking for the Budget office across the river, to save 100 euros over the Avis a block away.  We were on an adventure.

We picked up the car by noon and headed out east out of Paris, taking a map and headed to Luxembourg.  Traffic was heavy and the tolls were mounting up, and after a few hours we decided to take some backroads. We drove through the Lorraine, amazed at the dry, limestone landscape, filled with champagne caves. But we didn't take the time to tour one, this time.   Still, a  two hour trip turned into 4 hours, but we finally got there.  Parked the car, did some exploring and were impressed with the upscale stores in the quaint center of town, filled with a few plazas and parks.  The city is one of the wealthiest cities in the world, being a financial and banking center. But we had no hotel and figured we better find one, only with a few in mind that we had hastily seen on the internet.  We found one, were charged 40 euros more than the internet (lesson learned), dropped the bags and walked to find a restaurant.  And walked.  We were in the mood for Italian and finally found a little place that we both enjoyed.

Lyle kept telling me he wasn't impressed with the city of Luxembourg......until we saw it the next morning.  In the warm autumn sunshine, the town showed off its mix of old and new.

It is set on two levels,  part of the city perched on cliffs above a deep gorge carved by two rivers.  There are high bridges and old viaducts that connect the parts of the city, and you can still see parts of the old wall.  The views were beautiful.

But we didn't stay very long.  Lyle discovered that the Moselle Valley was an hour away, on the border of Germany.  Vineyards, white wines, and something he wanted to see.  We stayed on our journey east, stopping at the American cemetery, filled with over 5,000 graves of World War II Americans, including General Patton.
                                                                                                                                                                        The Moselle River Valley was picturesque.  The banks of the river were lined with fully-ripened vineyards, just waiting to be picked.

 

Of course, we had to stop at a "cave" and sampled the delicious reislings, gevurtztraminers (my favorite white wine), and pinot blancs.  This time we couldn't resist the tempting low prices on the bottles, and brought home a case.

For a quick trip out of Paris, it worked out just fine, without my spending hours on the internet researching cars, hotels, and other travel guides.  I did, however, feel a little uninformed.  I still don't understand what a "duchy" is.