Paris

whoa. It has been a while. A couple weeks ago, Julie and I went on a trip to Paris. Paris gets a lot of hype, and it lives up to it. I had been there for a few days while in college, so I remembered a few of my favorite things. But it was so fun to be there with Julie (she hadn’t been before) and cover almost every inch of that city in about 4.5 days along with our buddy Rick Steves.

If you didn’t already know – Julie is pregnant (baby girl coming on Dec. 26th or thereabouts). We got the serious itch to take one more fun trip together before baby and Paris was the place. Julie was like 7.33 months pregnant while we were there and I had a hard time keeping up with her as we walked around the city. Last time I went to Paris, I remember a couple of occasions where I felt the truth of the “French don’t like Americans” thing that you always here. The secret to getting around this is to go with your pregnant wife. People were SO nice to us. As is usual on our trips – Julie was patient with me while I took a ton of photos. Here is the first slew of them –then I will post some more later.

We rented a little studio apartment near Republique which was a great launchpad to get all over the city. The day we got there, there was a farmer’s market going on in the street right in front of the building we stayed in.

They sell Rabbits at farmers markets in France. That was weird. This guy is burning all the feathers off of one of these game hens or pheasants or something like that.

 

First stop was Notre Dame. Beauty.

 

Baby girl really liked Paris too. Especially all the yummy pastries and Quiche Lorraine.

I think my favorite part of Paris – is just wandering the streets. Every single street is smashed full of character and history.

Another church on the way to Saint Chappelle.

Inside Saint Chappelle. Pretty much the most beautiful stained glass in the world. It was amazing to just sit and look at the detail. Thank goodness for Louis XIV and his need for opulence.

Julie thought this was so funny since I like gummy bears so much.

Next we headed over to the Louvre.

The Mona Lisa! I bet that lady would think it is so weird how many people come and look at her through bullet proof glass.

We went back to our apartment and crashed after no sleep on the plane the previous night – and walking 29.4 miles (not really but it felt like that).

Next day we started at the Tuileries. These flowers were so dang pretty. Why can’t Americans have public areas like this?

The Musee d’Orsay – Julie and I both love Impressionism and this is the Mecca for that stuff. Love the museum – and the fact that it is inside of an old train station.

Next – walked up the Champs Elysees. And up to the top of the Arc De Triumph.

You can see it was kinda rainy – luckily it was just the first day and a half. But Paris in the rain sure is pretty. Look at all that history.

We then walked (a long way – I thought it was closer from the top of the Arc) to another huge church that I can’t remember the name of, and then over toward the Eiffel Tower. We walked along Rue Cler and had some seriously tasty Quiche Lorraine. Our friends gave us the advice to avoid the restaurants and just eat street food – we took their advice and would give the same advice to anyone going. There is just so much to chose from, and by sampling here and there, we were quite content.

We passed Napoleon’s tomb (on the right below) and a giant inflatable Stone Henge. You could actually go jump on it like a bouncy house.

The foggy/rainy weather made for some sweet photo ops.

After another awesome long day – we walked to the Trocadero (a great spot for photos of the Eiffel Tower) – and stared at the tower for a while and headed back to our apartment and crashed.

Keep an eye out for photos of the rest of the trip. Hopefully it will be up soon. Seriously though, isn’t it awesome that we have a baby girl on the way?  We are getting so dang excited. Can’t wait to meet her! Got any name ideas?