GO: Amsterdam & Paris with Michele & Dave Gilley!
Michele and Dave Gilley were off to Amsterdam and Paris in July, 2026, and luckily blessed with perfect weather! No extreme heat or smoke.
Amsterdam
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In Amsterdam you don't just open the window to get fresh air,
you sit in them, half way in and half way out!
you sit in them, half way in and half way out!
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The Van Gogh Museum
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We thoroughly enjoyed the Van Gogh Museum's collection of Vincent's art!
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Anne Frank's House
We also visited the house that Anne Frank stayed/hid in during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands.
Dutch Food
Indonesia was a part of the Dutch East Indies for 300 years. Amsterdam has numerous restaurants featuring its cuisine. We enjoyed the Rijsttafel, a classic dish which means "the rice table", paired with a variety of tasty choices for pairing!
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The Dutch equivalent to pancakes, crepes! Pictured is a smoked salmon with poached egg crepe which made for a delicious breakfast!
Lodging
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Our cute room and view at the Kimpton de Witt hotel.
Paris
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We meandered around many of the Parisian arrondissement classic sites.
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Jazz
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Dave is a pianist, and we had to check out some jazz at the renowned Caveau de la Huchette. The final scene in La La Land was filmed here.
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Lodging
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Daily breakfast in the cellar.
French Food
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A delicious spritz in Germain.
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Versailles
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Marie-Antoinette's Hamlet at Versaille
King Louis XVI bestowed Marie-Antoinette with her own private quarters on the Versailles Palace estate. It is called the Petite Trianon (in the past the housed previous King's mistresses). It is located around 1.86 miles away from the grand palace. She hired landscape architects to redesign a large portion of the surrounding land around the Petite Trianon from a French Parterre into an English Country garden style and added a hamlet (small village) with a dairy, fishery, working farm, mill and more. Visually it eked of storybook charm!
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Veuve Clicquot in Reims
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The steep stairwell down to the chalk cellar. There is a lift too for people that cannot manage the steps.
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The Widow "Veuve" Clicquot - Widowed at 27, she took over her husband's champagne house and invented the Riddling Table (placing the bottles at an angle and turning them each day to get sediment to go into the neck) which causes the champagne to be clear vs. cloudy, Vintage Champagne in year 1810 due to perfect grape growing weather, and in 1818 she added red wine to white champagne to create a more perfect sparkling rose.
What a fabulous getaway!
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GO | Amsterdam & Paris with Michele & Dave Gilley | Issue XLIV
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