Best of the Best 5/8-23/2008

Noyon Cathedral - Charlemagne was crowned here in 768, 37 years after the founding of the cathedral. John Calvin was born in Noyon.
Honfluer - a quaint town on the coast of Normandy.
Looking up into the Eiffel Tower from the ground.
Leonardo da Vinci's concept of a flying machine — Amboise.
Chateau Breze
Marvelous gardens at Chateau Villandry.
Loire Valley mushrooms are grown on select bales of hay in caves hewn from limestone, blocks of which were used to build chateaus. The mushrooms go to select restaurants in Paris.
From the Musée d'Orsay, which houses the largest collection of Impressionist and postimpressionist masterpieces in the world by painters including Monet, Manet, Degas, Renoir, Cézanne, Seurat, Sisley, Gauguin, and Van Gogh.
A lady with ultra heavy makeup, standing stock still, in Paris.
A Normandy restaurant serving local specialties in the quaint village of Cambremer.
German defenses on a Normandy beach.
Trouville-sur-Mer: gigantic prawns (gambas) in the local street market. Normandy's Trouville was a seafood lover's delight.
Deer locking horns in Chateau Chambord.
Chateau Chambord: a cyclist rides around for the entertainment of tourists.
Musée Maurice Dufresne. Maurice dealt with scrap and kept many items now housed a his name sake museum in the Loire Valley.
Closeup showing intricate Egyptian pictographs on obelisk.