The last of Paris.

{Napolean's Tomb in Les Invalides. There are 6 separate coffins in there, made of iron, mahogany, two of lead, iron, and the outer coffin made of red porphyry. Surrounded by 12 pillars of victory.}

{Cassy is so photogenic. She always knows what to do for the camera. This was her defiance, in essence saying "I'll give you something to take a picture of, crazy paparazzi man." My brother in law Seth did an awesome job of catching just the right moments.}

Au revoir, Paris. Merci.

I love you.

first day of summer...

Looney Tunes.

Paris: the Louvre and Montmarte

We did the audio tour for part of the Louvre. It was fascinating, but there was so much information we couldn't possibly take it all in. After 4 hours, we quit. Seth and Cassy are listening intently to the audio description of the Mona Lisa (I think), which is at the other end of this hall.

{There she is, surrounded by a huge, pushy crowd.

I was trampled. Barely made it out alive.}

{The Winged Victor of Samothrace}

Next was the Opera House (I think. I can't remember the order we did everything, but my outfit is the same in these pictures so I can safely deduce this was all in the same day). It was absolutely beautiful.

Then we headed to Montmarte. This is where Paris became less "city" and more "quaint Parisian streets". There were artists in a big square selling their artwork (beautiful) and nice little shops scattered everwhere. Still, a busy area so the shops were pretty touristy. But fun. At the top of the hill is the church Sacre Coeur, or the Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Paris. There were great views of Paris.

man, I've got a ton of pictures. There are a couple more posts coming from Paris, because I love it, and then we go to Rome, because it's incredible. And then a giveaway, and then I sew. Hopefully. Because I need to make something soon or I'm gonna bust. This blog will return to its crafty roots...eventually. maybe.

It's officially summer, which officially means one thing:

Eiffel Tower.

{This is under the tower. iphone Photography at its finest.}

{Sunset over Paris from the 2nd tier of the tower. See that thing lit up at the bottom? MmHmm. Carousel. I'm so glad we didn't go all the way to the top - I got sicker than snot just on the 2nd level.

You could feel it sway...}

Arch de Triomphe

A walk down Champs-Elysees. dinner (at an Italian place. go figure). metro home. bed. we're tired.

Paris: Notre Dame.

Tuesday morning, we dropped the kids off at school, delivered their bags to the babysitters (Aunt Lori and Grandma Kay. Bless you.), cleaned, packed, and then Conan and I drove to the Atlanta airport to meet the sisters and husbands.

There was a news report on the radio about finding the black box of the AirFrance flight that crashed into the ocean two years ago. Uh...sure, I'm not scared. Actually, I was super scared. I am terribly afraid of flying over the ocean and was secretly trying to pretend I wasn't. But I was. Am. Luckily we left late at night so I slept through the whole flight. When I woke up I noticed that the little cartoon airplane on the screen in front of me was flying over land, not ocean, so I got up the guts to look out the window. And there was Ireland:

That was my first moment of Oh my goodness.

We landed in France around 2:00 in the afternoon, jumped on the train and headed to Hotel De La Porte Doree in the 12th arrondissement. It was such a fantastic place to stay. I loved it.

We dropped off our luggage, checked out the internet connection, and the bathroom, and headed for Notre Dame. eek! So exciting.

This is what we see coming out of the metro:

Beautiful, Beautiful buildings. with History.

hello little boy.

Every building was beautiful. And these carousels...all over Paris. I couldn't stop taking pictures.

Enter Queen Picture Bomber:

It's Corrie's favorite thing to do. And she's good. She's real good.

(She has a good, quick recap of Paris, here.)

So we're walking down these beautiful streets when I see this sign:

"Uh...wuh? Is this Notre Dame? Like the real Notre Dame? As in Hunchback...of Notre Dame?"

Oh yes, there it was, right in front of me. The real deal. I had to catch my breath and check my reality ticket to Avenue Wonder and Amazement. I was staring at a building built over 600 years ago. (Esmerelda sang in there.)

Notre Dame took 182 years to build, and was finished in 1345. During the French Revolution, rioters beheaded the statues of the biblical Kings of Judah, thinking they were kings of France. A school teacher watching the destruction collected the heads and buried them on his property. They were found in 1977 and are now on display in a Paris museum. There were so many stories like this that just came to life for us. It was fascinating.

Once we were done in the church, we got crepes.

I asked for un jambon et fromage (ham and cheese), but she didn't hear the jambon part. Probably because I was nervous to order in French and mumbled a bit. Luckily, even though I had studied French Recipe Books and French Culinary Dictionaries for months, most everyone (who works around the tourist areas) speaks English, so I didn't have to use it much. But alas, I ended up with a cheese crepe. Which was good at the time, but I didn't realize until later, upon eating delicious crepes, that it wasn't that good. But it was French. Who cares.

We strolled...

And then headed to the Eiffel Tower...

{I only had my iphone for pictures. Not bad, eh? All the photos that include me were taken by my Brother In Law, Seth. I quickly learned to use and abuse his nice picture taking skills and sweet camera. Thanks Seth.}