C'est la vie

Our trip to France. We had an amazing week of Paris in the spring. First of all a HUGE thanks to Heidi and Dwight for watching the kids and taking care of them while we were gone. The kids had a blast! Our first day down in Paris we went to the flea market and then headed to the La Sacre Coeur (the Sacred Heart) church that is on a hill.

We walked about 300 stairs to go up to it and go through it. It is probably my favorite church in Paris. After seeing the interior Nathan and I paid to walk all the stairs to the top of the dome like we did in Italy. It was an amazing view. After we walked around the streets and saw the painters and sketchers. We ate lunch and headed to the Arc d'Triomphe.

We went to the top of the Arc as well and enjoyed seeing more of Paris. On the way up you are inside the Arc and can see some examples at how large the sculptures on the outside of the Arc really are. We then walked down the Champs Elysee and enjoyed seeing all the expensive stores.

The second day in Paris we went out to Versailles and saw the home of King Louis the 14th. We enjoyed the grounds and gardens, it was to bad the flower beds weren't planted. On our walk back into Paris we stopped of at the Eiffel Tower.

We ended up waiting two hours in line to go up to the top but it was worth it. We got to see the sun set from the tower and see all the lights of Paris turn on. When we got down we were walking back to the Metro and turned around to find all of the lights on the exterior of the tower flashing, giving the tower a glow of glittering. It was beautiful and amazing. The third day we went to the Louvre and got to see the Mona Lisa, the Venus de Milo, Cupids kiss, the winged victory, and the dying slave.

The Louvre is HUGE and we had a fun time walking around and seeing some of the amazing works there. After we walked down the garden of the Tuleries and went to the Place de la Concorde where they had placed the guillotine during the revolution, we then also walked up the street and saw the Madeline a Greek looking church in Paris. The next day we came back to Paris for our last time and we went to Notre Dame.

We walked across the Seine River and went through Notre Dame and saw the amazing Rose windows and stained glass. We then went to the Musse d'Orsay which is a much smaller museum of impressionist works of art. We saw some amazing paintings. My new favorite was a work by Jean-Francois Millet called the Shepherdess with her flock. Having grown up with sheep most of my life I loved it. The other days we spent in the small village by our villa that we were staying in. We were out by Disneyland Paris and spent some time at downtown Disney. The village by our villa was so fun and everything I had always learned about France with the Bakery, the Butcher shop, the flower shop, the post office, the Fruit and Veggie stand, and the Grocery Store all right there next to each other. Nathan and I had fun going and buying some of our food at the grocery store and preparing our meals. I loved translating the packages so we knew what we were getting, and having fresh baked chocolate croissants for breakfast from the bakery. We also feel in love with the Mustard and Pickle Lays potato chips we found there and I have already called Lays and requested that they sell them in the US. We also drank as much Fanta Orange as we could. We fell in love with it in Italy so we loved having some more. It is an Orange soda but different from the US version in that it isn't as carbonated and has some grapefruit in it. Its delicious. We had an amazing time, and feel blessed to have gotten the opportunity to do it. I loved being there with Nathan and am so thankful for him, and his amazing ability to find ways for us to travel and create new experiences for us. Being able to experience something like France with someone you love so much makes it all the more amazing. Thanks for a wonderful trip Nathe, Je t'aime (I LOVE YOU)!