that I blogged about our trip to Paris last October. Not as in October 2010 – we’re talking about October 2009. LAST October. The October that we celebrated (2 months early) our 10th wedding anniversary in Paris while my dear mother-in-law watched the children here in Heidelberg.
You may wonder why I’ve taken such a long time to document such a FABULOUS experience (and fabulous it definitely was). Well, the morning after we got back from my trip picked up my unbelievably jet-lagged father-in-law from the airport, finished an R2D2 cake, decorated the community room and played hostess to a gaggle of hyper-energetic 9 and nine year old boys. The next day was Ian’s baptism. You can read all about it here. We then rushed head long into the holidays, ski season, spring break and soon were beyond the point of reasonable blogging.
A couple of weeks ago we celebrated Ian’s ninth birthday. I have great pictures from his party, I have an interview for him to complete and I’m dying to write all about it. I would like, however, to share a few images from our Paris trip first. I just can’t bring myself to get THAT far behind. (As if it would make a difference at this point, but there it is.) So, Paris….
La Sainte Chapelle is without doubt my favorite church in Europe. It truly is amazing. If you ever go to Paris, you MUST make a stop there. It’s kind of a pain to get to because it is in the same area as some government buildings, so there is a security checkpoint that everyone has to pass through in order to get to the chapel. We got stuck behind some really neat person that apparently had never gone through airport type security because he wouldn’t take off his watch. Unfortunately, he complained loudly about the whole process in English the entire time. It’s really fun to be around people that improve our global image.
Actually, the people in Paris were incredibly helpful and friendly. I don’t know if this is because I spoke French the whole time I was there or if it was because nobody guessed that I was American. (Actually this is probably because I spoke French, so I guess it boils down to the same thing.)
We spent a day at Versailles.
Finally we had success.
Here’s the non-mirrored side of the hall of mirrors…
Thoughts anyone? I must say I’m torn between the large ostrich plumes on the left and the scalloped canopy on the right. Decisions, decisions.
One of the best things about our trip is that we were able to spend eight (yes, that’s 8) uninterrupted, child-free hours at the Louvre. Bliss! I confess to being a total museum nerd. I love museums. Love them. We still only saw a fraction of the museum, but that’s fine with me. Now I still have reason to go back…
Our last day in Paris was beautiful. The weather was gorgeous and we took advantage of it. We went to the Orangerie (a small museum which houses some of Monet’s large water lily paintings) but other than that spent the day walking the city and taking in the sites. (Oh, and we had the most DIVINE (and most expensive!) hot chocolate I have ever had in my life.)
Le Sacré Coeur…
The Louvre and the Tuileries Garden…
L’Arc du Triomphe…
and the Champs d’Élysées…
Au revoir!
