Is it bad that the best part of my trip was George Clooney?

Isn't it great when you get together with a friend you haven't seen in a long time and it feels like no time has passed?  Alison's visit was just that...we started talking the second I picked her up at the airport, and we literally didn't stop until I dropped her back at the airport a week later. 

There were two major highlights of her visit.  The first was our trip to Bordeaux with my friend Lauretta.  On our first day, we set out to visit a medieval wine village - St. Emillion.  I had an idea that it could literally be in the middle of nowhere, but I definitely was not expecting what we saw when we got off the train.  We stepped off the train onto a dirt path (this is no joke!) and were literally 4 feet from a vineyard.  It felt like a movie!

This is what greeted us upon exiting the train!

We set out on foot from the train station in the middle of nowhere to our first wine tasting.  It was at this beautiful chateau!

We were so excited that this was the chateau we had reservations at, that we literally skipped all the way up the long path.  Lauretta and Alison before skipping...

A beautiful room in the chateau that overlooks the vineyards.

After touring the chateau and tasting some wine, we went exploring in the medieval village of St. Emilion.  It is one of the cutest villages I've ever seen!

We toured one more wine chateau before heading out.  This one was know for its underground cellars.  Check out that wall of wine bottles!

Alison and I with some bottles of vintage 1981 wine. 

After an amazing, but exhausting day, we went back to Bordeaux for dinner and to spend the night.  The next morning, we explored the city of Bordeaux. 

We checked out this church at the absolute perfect time.  The sun was coming in at such an angle that the stained glass was reflected pretty much everywhere you looked.  It was stunningly beautiful...pictures really don't do it justice.

After a day of shopping and being tourists in Bordeaux, it was back to Paris.  We had plenty of other adventures, including touring the Opera House (which I will write about in another blog).  But really, the grand finale was our George Clooney encounter.  Our plan that afternoon had been to go to Laudurée for macarons and champagne on the Champs Elysées, and then head home for a quiet evening with a movie.  Well, let's just say our evening turned out quite differently than expected.

We got off the bus on the Champs Elysées and started walking towards Laudurée, when we saw a whole bunch of American flags on the other side of the street.  Our curiousity got the best of us, and we found ourselves crossing the street to check it out.  We were SUPER confused when we got to a little stage area that had been set up, and the backdrop said something about the Ohio presidential primary.  What?  And that's when some woman yelled out, "This is the premier for the Ides of March!  George Clooney will be here in 3 hours!"

We weren't sure what we wanted to do...was it worth standing outside in the pouring rain for three hours?  It was a hard decision to make, one that we felt we couldn't make on our own.  So we turned to facebook of course and took a poll...the results came back overwhelmingly in favor of us staying to see George.  And that is exactly what we did.

Alison waiting in the rain!

We waited for what seemed like FOREVER.  We were cold, we were wet, we were hungry.  And then, we caught a glimpse of him.  THE. GEORGE. CLOONEY.  More beautiful in person than I could have imagined...seriously, has he had work done?  At first I was excited to be able to get this picture of him:

Then I was excited about this one...

And all of a sudden, he starts walking straight for us (and Jody and Alison start FREAKING out).

This is right after George looked right at us and says, "You guys ok?"  To which I responded with a click of the button on my camera.  Seriously...no words came out.  What is wrong with me?!

Here George (we are on a first name basis now) is telling people to chill out.

What was going to be a quiet night in, turned out to be one of the best (and coldest) nights ever!  When Alison went to bed that night, she said, "Is it bad that the best part of my trip was George Clooney?"

ABSOLUTELY NOT!