Well, you already know how much I love Paris. This was trip #10 for me. I love nothing more than sharing my favorite city with some of my favorite people!
We took the high speed train from Brussels to Paris. Ninety minutes of pure fun! We had our own little cabin on the train. Worked out great for excited kids who couldn't keep their voices down. I have a feeling the nice lady who booked our tickets knew that would be the case.
We met up with Chris's cousin Lindsey and her boyfriend Jeff for lunch. It worked out great that our trips overlapped.
After lunch, we were off to Notre Dame!
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| Good Morning gorgeous! |
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| My favorite doors. |
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| I'm fairly certain I've blogged the windows of Notre Dame more than once (maybe twice? three times?) Just in case you missed it…. |
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| I know Buddy….It's good to be back! |
We spent the afternoon on a Fat Tour Bike Tour. I highly recommend this company. The tour was terrific, great for the kids, and very informative. Yours truly pretty much knew all the answers to the guide's questions. Shocker I know! ;)
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| Every bike had a name. This was mine. |
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| La Tour Eiffel |
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| Les Invalides |
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| Crossing my favorite bridge Pont Alexandre III! |
We stopped for a snack in the Tuileries.
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| That's our tour guide Mark. He's Irish and clearly has a very cool job! |
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While riding, you're encouraged to spread out and take up the whole street to keep cars behind you. Just a bit intimidating in Paris, but we were awesome at it! And, we only saw a few hand gestures and grumblings from pedestrians.
The final stop on our tour (of course!!) |
Andrea's high school friend Trisha has been living in Paris for several years. We met up with her, and she took us to one of her favorite local restaurants. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of Andrea and Trisha.
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| Highly recommend! |
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| We had escargot! |
I loved it, Thomas loved it, and Allison loved it too!
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| Andrea just seemed to analyze it…. LOL! |
And of course, we ended the day with the Eiffel Tower to see it sparkle.
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| Andrea and I were playing with some settings on our cameras. I'm sure this is picture #5,748 that I've taken of the Eiffel Tower…. |
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| But, I'll never get tired of it! |
Saturday morning it was time for the Knepp family pictures. Andrea is going to kill me if I don't get those finished soon. I am working on them….slowly but surely. :)
For those of you who think my children always cooperate for pictures…..
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| Finally! |
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| A couple with Mom. Love them! |
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| Instagram fun! |
The Knepps were off to the museums, so we headed to Luxembourg Gardens for lunch. This was something new for us!
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| Unfortunately, the weather was not so great. |
Then, we headed back to the Tuileries for some unexpected fun!
They have asked to do a carnival ride every single time. I finally gave in.
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| Only 10 euros for them to do one ride (that's $13!) Robbery! We skipped the Ferris Wheel since that was 10 euros EACH! And, I thought the Pumpkin Festival was expensive! |
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| They said the view was amazing! |
Thomas had some old fashioned entertainment with these boats. I think he could have stayed there all afternoon.
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| Not a bad way to spend the 4th of July! |
That evening, Chris came in on the train and joined us for dinner. We went up to Montmartre for dinner (one of my favorite spots in Paris.) Then we went over to the Basilica. I was not allowed in because I was wearing my camera and didn't have a bag to put it in. I'll put it nicely and say the guy was a total jerk. So be it. I stayed outside like I was asked. I've seen it anyways, so HA! Grrrrr…...
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| Ummm….this is called the vulture king. I really can't explain it other than they break into this, and then they can be deactivated. They. Are. Strange. (but it entertains them for hours) |
Oh the view!
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| The Fault in Our Stars re-enactment. ;) |
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| The Knepps at Montmartre |
We decided to take a family stroll to see the outside of the Moulin Rouge. With kids in tow we obviously had no plans to go in. I had walked that neighborhood before (during the day) and knew it wouldn't take us too long to get there. Funny thing is that neighborhood is quite different during the day. It seems it is more of a family environment…say around…noon. Around nine o'clock it is a whole different story. We must have passed by twenty inappropriate shops and establishments. Whoops! Those aren't open at noon! Sorry Knepps for scarring your girls for LIFE!
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| But alas we made it to the Moulin Rouge, grabbed a few pics, and got the heck out of there! |
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| The most notable thing in this picture, other than the amazing Arc de Triomphe, is Ilyse's ability to lean on her hand the wrong way. I still laugh every time I look at this picture. |
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| "FaceTiming" on the metro |
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| The most delicious French breakfast! |
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| The kids' favorite playground behind Notre Dame. |
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| There was a scuba diver swimming along the wall of Notre Dame. I thought it was just some insane Frenchman swimming the Seine. Andy said he was probably looking for bombs. What?! No way! Sure enough, there had been threats made against major landmarks in Paris around that time. Whoa! |
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| The lock bridge |
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One final pic in Paris. See you again soon!
Until next time,
Wendy |
