Our Family Blog: October 2013

Paris, France !!!

* I'm going to give up on trying to make this the awesome blog post I hoped I could do and instead just "get the pictures up" before I forget all the awesome things we did on our trip to Europe!

Lane needed to travel to France and Spain for work and called me from his office a week and a half before asking me if I wanted to go along. Who doesn't want a phone call like that to perk up your day ;) I scrambled to find babysitters (thank you wonderful mother-in-law and awesome sister) and align flights (we had been saving up miles for just an occasion) and within a few days we were off to Europe!

We flew to Paris our first day.
Checked into our Novotel hotel .
Visited with some work friends, took the metro to Notre Dame, had lunch, toured the Louvre, walked along the Seine river, had dinner, visited the Eiffel tower and rode to the top. (quite a day!)

Paris at night

Oh the pastries!

The Louvre

Leonardo da Vinci artwork

The Mona Lisa!!!

Notre Dame

Seine River

Top of the Eiffel tower

Palace of Versailles

The second day in France Lane had to travel up to Normandy for work so I along with one of the wives spent the day visiting the Palace of Versailles.

It was enormous and it was beautiful!

The hall of mirrors where the Treaty of Versailles was signed ending WW1.

Part of the Queen's Hamlet

Afterwards we took our time and just strolled along the Seine River enjoying the beautiful architecture, lots of people watching, visited the Eiffel tower again as well as Notre Dame.

In the evenings, locals would congregate along the river and just hang out with wine and a picnic basket.

We found some yummy crepes down this street in the Latin Quarters.

Lots of walking but a wonderful day 2!

Birthday in Paris

Our third day in Paris (which we actually did after we went to Barcelona, Spain for a few days) happened to be my Birthday! I can't think of a better way to spend one!

We took an hour flight back from Spain (soon to be blogged also) and took a nap at our hotel.

We decided to do a boat cruise along the Seine river, that way we were able to see all the major sights once again.

After our boat cruise we walked over to Place de la Concorde (a major Paris square).

Did some shopping at Zara (love that store) and a few other stores on Champs-Elysees.

Walked up Champs-Elysees to the Arc de Triomphe.

The view from the top looking back on Champs-Elysees.

We made it just as the sun was setting and the view was beautiful! For those of you that don't know, the Eiffel tower twinkles for several minutes on the hour and I must say this one below is my favorite picture from the trip!