RAY'S BUSINESS TRIP TO ISRAEL WITH A STOP IN PARIS

WHEN YOU ARE INVITED TO TAG ALONG, YOU DON'T SAY NO!!!!

April 27th to May 6th, 2014.......

Ray's business took place in Tel Aviv, so we stayed in the Royal Beach Hotel there, right on the water! Warm, sunny weather was SO appreciated. The Mediterranean Sea was lovely and warm enough for swimming. Tel Aviv is the business capital of Israel and a very lively place. Lots of restaurants, shopping and nightlife.

Tel Aviv

Dinner in Tel Aviv with Ray and his colleagues. the guy in the Notre Dame T Shirt
Is the owner of this restaurant. We had a beautiful feast and a really fun evening.
Thank you Amir!!

On Tuesday, Sharon, our host, arranged a day tour for our group to visitJerusalem. Please do your own research on this town as there is SO much history here. We were first taken to a hilltop fort to view the city from above.

Sign for the Fort in Three languages

This is the Fort... built by the Crusaders on top of the tomb of Nabi Samuel.

The amazing Western Wall with the Gold domed Mosque

Road Warriors looking over the city from the Mount of Olives

2 shots of the ancient Jewish Cemetery at the foot of the Mount of Olives

Beautiful domed temple in Jerusalem

JAFFA, the Ancient Port just next to Tel Aviv. It was kind of slummy, but is now slowly being developed and people are moving in. Ray and I visited this old building which is now a museum and the home of Ilana Goor, an artist. It holds her eclectic collection of art and sculpture.

A building in downtown Tel Aviv

On our last evening in Israel, Ray had a business dinner and I walked out on the beach to a great restaurant called Manta Ray. Wonderful atmosphere and seafood.

On Thursday morning, we departed Tel Aviv and flew to PARIS..... The trip took all day and we arrived in the evening to cool rainy weather. Our Hotel was the SHANGRI - LA ..... and we were happy to stay in for a beautiful Chinese dinner at the Shang Palace Restaurant there. We had Peking Duck!
The Shangri-La overlooks the Seine River and the Eiffel Tower and is a renovation of an old palace that was built by Napolean's Grand nephew, Roland Bonaparte. They have done an amazing job transforming it to an elegant luxury hotel. Check out the website to learn more about it.

Our Bold Photographer at Breakfast at Shangri-La

I Love Paris in the Springtime

Shangri- La Exterior on the Avenue D' Iena

The view at night from our hotel

George Washington at the Place D'Iena just outside the hotel

Cyn models her Paris Hairdo!

Busy Day for the Bateau Mouches... the Invalides and the Tour Montparnasse in the background

A closeup of the same scene

We drove past the Conciergerie on our way to a special dinner at "Le Cinq" in the Georges V Four Seasons Hotel

After breakfast on our last morning at the Shangri -La we wandered into the small but beautiful  hotel garden just overlooking the Seine. Very Peaceful!

I'm in the Garden wearing my real hair

Perfect French village with May Mustard seed meadow. We are about an hour outside Paris taking the back roads to the Loire Valley. This was on Sunday, May 4th, 2014.

The Famous Cathedral at Chartres on a gorgeous day! We had a wonderful Lunch in a bistro just next to the cathedral.

One of the buildings at our Loire Valley Hotel, The Domaine des Hautes de Loire. We checked in on Sunday evening,
May 4th.

The Restaurant. You know you're in the country! Very nice dinner here. And Great pain chocolate in the morning!

The Main Hotel  building. Domaine des Hautes de Loire was an old Hunting lodge that was destroyed during the French Revolution and rebuilt in the 1860's. It is now a privately owned country "Relais et Chateau" hotel. Beautiful wooded grounds and gardens all around.

Chateau hopping on Monday. This is Chenonceau. A beauty!!!

Azay Le Rideau is not in great condition. There is a multi year government project going on to restore it.

The Gardens at Villandry are fabulous and quite famous.

Villandry

On Tuesday, May 6th we drove from our hotel to Charles De Gaulle airport and caught our flight for home. Our stay in France was WAY too short, but we were so happy we got what we did! Early May is a good time to go. The crowds have not arrived yet, and the city and countryside are beautiful!!!