Europe Trip Part 3–Paris!!! (July 22-24)

When we first planned our trip to Europe, Becky said that we could do a girls weekend in Paris while Nate was home from work.  While everything else on our trip was fun, the highlight was definitely spending three days in Paris with my sisters.  We had each been there on study abroad, but we had never been there with all three of us together.  We each had a list of things we wanted to do.  We skipped museums, visited some favorite sights, but most of all just enjoyed being in Paris.  There is nowhere like Paris! 

We got up early Friday morning and took a bus to the train station then took a train and the TGV to Paris. Traveling by train is always so relaxing compared to driving.  We enjoyed visiting with each other while we relaxed on the train and enjoyed the countryside.

  

When we arrived, we went directly to our hotel in Paris and checked in and left our suitcases there.  We were supposed to all be in one room, but they had us in two separate rooms somehow.  After checking in, we headed to the les Tuileries gardens. On our way we got sandwiches by the louvre and found an empty bench to eat on in the gardens. We enjoyed people watching while we ate, and then wandered through the gardens.  After that, we decided to walk to Notre Dame.

   

We walked over a bridge with tons of locks of love and walked along the Seine and found a much needed water fountain.  It was pretty warm!  When we got to Notre Dame, we sat and enjoyed the view for a bit before heading to do a little shopping in the souvenir shops down the street.   

Afterwards we headed back to our hotel to finish checking in.  From our hotel, we walked to Montmartre and visited Le Sacré Coeur. We wandered around the artist’s square, and then headed down the famous Montmartre steps.  We walked around the shops a bit, and then ate dinner at an amazingly delicious Creperie called Créperie Brocéliande. I had a yummy savory crepe with ham, mushrooms, and cheese.  We shared a sweet crepe for dessert.

         

Afterwards we took the metro to the Eiffel Tower.  We ended the evening by sitting on the grass in front of the Eiffel Tower (along with half of Europe – it was packed!) watching the sun go down and the Eiffel Tower lights sparkle.  There is something I just absolutely love about the Eiffel Tower. It is an amazing sight to see. As we left late that night, it was lit up with red and a bright orange-ish moon was rising just to the side of it. Pictures don't even come close to capturing its magic!

 

 

Saturday July 23

Saturday morning, Camille and I slept in.  I think all of the days of traveling and the time change finally caught up to us!  Camille stayed and hung out with Lincoln while Becky and I went on a run.  It wasn’t quite as enjoyable as we were picturing because there were so many places to stop and cross the street, but it wasn’t too busy so it wasn’t too bad.  We even ran until we came to the Madeleine church.  It was nice to get out and run, and to run with Becky.

When we got back, we had some yummy breakfast (delicious French baguettes and hot chocolate for the win).  Then, we got ready and went to Les Halles and did some shopping.  We didn’t go in too many stores, but I did stop in Maison du Monde, which I wanted to buy everything in.  I did buy some cute placemats, and I found a kitchen sign that said Cuisine that I loved too.  It was too big to buy and take home with me, but Becky told me she would check out the one in Luxembourg and see if they had one she could get and bring home for me.

We ate lunch at the Pompidou fountain, brining back memories of many a day eating at the same spot during study abroad. 

Becky Trimble just happened to be flying back to Italy from the states that exact day, and she had a layover in Paris.  When she knew we would all be there, she extended her layover to stay the night, so she and her daughter hope met us at the Luxembourg gardens. We sat on some chairs and chatted for awhile while watching the kids float boats on the water. 

     

From there, we went to the Latin quarter.  We stopped at Gibert Jeune to look at some books, and then we wandered through the narrow streets of the Latin Quarter to find some dinner at a Moroccan restaurant.  It’s always an adventure wandering through the Latin Quarter while all the restaurants try to get you to stop at their place.  I’m glad we decided on Moroccan - I love the couscous with the ratatouille on top. 

After dinner we headed over to the Eiffel Tower. It was getting pretty busy on the metro by then, since it was a warm Saturday night.  At one stop, we got off one metro stop and headed down to another connection.   When we got down there though, we realized that going the other direction would probably be better.  We went up the escalator to go to the other side, but then when we got to the top, we realized this metro stop didn’t have a way to go to the other side without leaving.  We didn’t want to have to use another of our tickets, so Becky said we should just go back down the escalator (that was moving up).  It was quite comical to watch her try to run down, while Lincoln was strapped to her in the Ergo.  Then Cam, 6 1/2 months pregnant, followed her.  I could hardly do it when it was my turn!  I don’t know how Becky and Camille even made it.   We were all laughing so hard we were crying, so that only added to the difficulty.  

When we got to the Eiffel Tower, it was really busy. We waited in line to get through security and under the Eiffel Tower. Then we waited in line to go up the stairs. While we waited in line, there was a group of gendarmes that started running toward the line of people just next to us.  We got a bit nervous as to what they were running after, especially when several people in the other line started to run too and hope the barricade.  . Becky turned to be and said, "Jess!  We gotta go!" We hurried and looked for an escape, but we were pretty trapped in the line, and no one around us seemed nervous.  Luckily, a man walked out of the line and walked off with the gendarmes without any obvious problem.  Our hearts were sure racing for awhile after that though!

We climbed to the second floor.  Surprisingly both Camille and Becky wanted to stick with that tradition despite the fact that Camille was pregnant and Becky was carrying Lincoln in the ergo.  Once we got to the second floor, we waited in line to get tickets for the top.  When we got the tickets we saw that the line to go to the top was super long. At this point is was already almost 11:00, and the line was at least an hour long, so we decided to just hang out on the second floor. I found a kind employee who, when I explained our situation, went up to the front and got us our money back.  Becky fed Lincoln then we headed back down. We got sweet crepes at the base of the Eiffel Tower. The guys doing the crepes were pretty funny, and the crepes were delicious.  We were lucky too because just after we ordered, they closed down and told the next people that they were out of crepes for the night. We checked in late to our new hotel where we could all be in one room.

Sunday July 24

The next morning, we had another delicious French breakfast before we headed to church at the institute. It was neat to go back to where I spent many hours on study abroad and see the building.  The ward was amazing, and I loved being in sacrament meeting and hearing the talks and everything in French.  It's always faith-building to go to another ward halfway around the world and hear their stories of faith and testimony.

After church, we headed back to our hotel, packed and checked out ,but left our luggage there.  We met Becky Trimble again and her daughter Hope at Notre Dame and walked to the Latin Quarter.  Camille had wanted to get some Gyros and remembered some good ones there.  We tried to find the spot, but finally settled on another one, but they were a bit disappointing. We sat and ate them on some relatively dirty steps next to the Notre Dame.

We then walked to Les Jardins des Plantes and relaxed in a bench in the shade.  Along the way, we stopped and browsed some of the many bouquinistes along the river, and I even found a magnet that looked like the Paris street signs that said “Madeleine.”  It was nice to visit for a bit.  Afterwards we headed over to the Pompidou Fountains again.  Camille stayed with Becky Trimble while Becky and I went on a hunt for a good Mille-feuilles-our last pastries of Paris!  It was a bit more of a search than we thought it would be, but we did finally found some delicious ones! 

We headed back to the hotel, got our luggage then made our way to the airport. We picked up Becky's friend's car and drove home stopping at a gas station on the way to get some bread and cheese for dinner. We got home around 11:30 at night.

While I love all of the amazing monuments and museums in Paris, it's really the little things that bring the magic to Paris - the trees and benches in a line in the parks, the stone bridges, the petit déjeuner, the doors, the buildings with their iron balconies, and so much more. Goodbye in French means until I see you again, so au revoir Paris!

Trip to Europe Part 2 (Strasbourg, France) July 21

Becky had planned out several day trips for us to go on while there in Luxembourg.  One of the options was to go to Strasbourg.  It was about a 2 1/2 hour drive away, but it was a place I thought would be neat to go to because we would always drive through there on our way to Germany to visit my Aunt Karen, Uncle Gary, and family when we lived in France and they were in Germany.  Becky had been there a few times with her family, so she had some good ideas of what to do there.  

We left in the morning, and we enjoyed the view of the Luxembourgish, German, and then French countryside as we drove along.  When we arrived we ate lunch on the square next to the cathedral. I remembered the cathedral from when I was young, especially remembering the long winding staircase to the top of the tower.  We didn’t climb tot he top, but after lunch we visited some of the souvenir shops and each bought a French doll for our girls. We also went inside the cathedral to see the clock the go off. It was an anatomical clock that was huge on the back wall of the church.  However, after waiting for it to go off on the hour, the actual chiming was a bit anti-climatic.

         

From there, we walked over to La Petite France to see all the little neat buildings. I think I could’ve spent hours walking among the streets there.  It was amazing!  We made our way through some of the small streets, and headed up to the river to see some neat bridges.  We walked across the top of one of the bridges and enjoyed the view of the city from there.  

                           

Becky then had to feed Lincoln, so we found a little park for the kids to play at, and then we took the kids to get some ice cream while Becky finished.  Eliza of course wanted the “pink” flavor, and as we walked back an older couple stopped us and and exclaimed how “super jolie” she was.  She was pretty cute!  

Trip to Europe–Part 1 (Flight Over & First Days in Luxembourg) July 17-20

A few months after Becky moved to Luxembourg for two years, my mom gifted my sister Camille and I some money towards a ticket to go visit her, as well as an offer to watch our kids while we were gone.  Camille had young baby Dallin at the time, and then I was expecting and had Madeleine.  Our schedules were finally able to coordinate this July when we planned a trip to Luxembourg for ten days.  Camille brought her kids down from Seattle, and my mom flew in on her way back from Luxembourg and just got off her plane in Portland to begin watching the kids. 

I left church just after teaching my Sunday School lesson and we drove straight to the airport.  My mom drove us out while Shane finished up church with all the older kids. Everything seemed good with our flight when we arrived in Calgary to change planes, but there was lightening and we had to stay on our plane for over an hour. We got off the plane and our flight to Frankfurt hadn't left yet. We rushed out, and a lady helped us get our bags, go through customs, recheck our bags then go through security. Just as we got to the other side of security, the lady told us we didn't make it. We were so frustrated!  We were only minutes away from our gate.  We went back to the ticket counter and the lady who rebooks tickets was on break. We waited 30 minutes for her to get back, got rebooked for the next day, and got put up in a hotel. We made it to our hotel around 9:00 p.m., then ate dinner at the restaurant there and went to bed.

 

Getting ready to leave from Portland, and our yummy crepe breakfast before leaving Calgary. 

We woke up too early the next day, got some breakfast, and then headed back over to the airport to catch our flight to Toronto and then on to Frankfurt, then Luxembourg.  We made it easily to Toronto, then had another delay before finally boarding our flight to Frankfurt.  We were disappointed about losing a day with Becky but tried to make the best of it.  When we got on the plane, we were super excited because we were in the middle, with four seats, and only Camille and I were sitting there.  With Camille being almost seven months pregnant, we thought it would be great so she could lie down and put her legs up.  We took this picture, and when we looked at it and saw the look on this lady’s face, I told Cam I should scoot over so that she didn’t want to move over by us.  I did right away, but despite that, as soon as the plane took off, she asked if she could move over and sit right next to me because there was more “leg room?!?”  I don’t know how there was any more leg room on our side, but I didn’t know how to say no, so she sat right next to me the whole flight, and Cam sat on the other side and tried to get comfortable with the two seats to rest on.  It was a long flight, with lots of crying babies and not much sleep, but we made it. 

 

Getting ready to board in Toronto, and our two empty seats with the lady who moved over right after this picture.

When we landed in Frankfurt, we were supposed to wait six hours before we could catch a flight to Luxembourg, but when we landed, we saw there was an earlier flight.  After much work, and going in and out of security yet again, we were able to get on the earlier flight that got us in at 10:30 a.m..  We were so happy to see Becky and her kids when we got to the Luxembourg airport!  We went back to Becky's place to eat lunch and relax and have naps.

After resting for a bit, Becky showed us around downtown Luxembourg. We saw the plazas and the palace and the golden lady. Camille and I of course had to get a pastry and Becky and her kids got ice cream. Then we went to the pirate ship park and the kids played for a bit. It was fun to see the park that I had often heard her talking about.  For dinner we had tacos and relaxed for the rest of the night.

The next morning, we rode the bus to the market and bought some apricots. They were delicious! 

   

Then we visited the case mates. It’s an older fortress built into the wall of the city.  Later that afternoon, went to Auchan (a large grocery store in Luxembourg) and bought some food for dinner.  I went a little crazy with all the fun stuff they had there, and I bought some books, chocolates, notebooks, and other fun stuff for the kids.