Paris

My trip to Paris this weekend was amazing. It was definitely quite the adventure. While Brandon went with his brother and a couple of friends to Amsterdam, I made plans to go hang out with his brother's wife, Carrie. I met her at the train station in Paris late Friday afternoon and spent the next 24 hours on a whirlwind tour of the city. I don't know what I would have done without Carrie. She'd been there before, so she knew her way around well enough, and knew of a few points of interest that I would never have known about otherwise. Also, she has the amazing abilities to read a map, and to navigate the Parisian Metro system. I would have so gotten us lost! Ok, maybe I would have figured it out eventually, but I would have wasted a lot of time in the process.

So, in almost exactly 24 hours, I: took my first international train ride, was introduced to the Metro system (and rode my first sub-way train), spent my first night in a hostel, consumed earth-shatteringly exquisite creme brulee, saw Sacre Coeur, the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, St. Sulpice, and Notre Dame, visited 3 other smaller but equally gorgeous churches in the city, shopped for souveniers along the Seinne, visited a large night time market, witnessed a large scale protest complete with cops decced out in riot gear, wandered through an art gallery, and hauled a back pack around Paris until I thought my shoulders would crumble and my feet spontaneously combust. Did I miss anything? Oh yeah!! How could I forget about the best ever burger and cup of hot chocolate in all of Paris??? That was at an Irish pub near St. Michel's Square, and fell somewhere between visiting churches and picking up gifts for my family back home. It was crazy and wonderful and enlightening and moving and AMAZING! I loved it!! I would not want to live in Paris, but I definitely enjoyed visiting and would like to go there again. Preferrably, with my husband. (You might have noticed that I did not see the Arc de Triomph, and I did not actually go into the Louvre. Both ofthese oversights must be corrected.)

Whew!! After all of that, Carrie and I took a train back to Rheims, where she will be living and teaching for the next six and a half months. We spent Saturday night in her little apartment at the school, made a breakfast of croissants at a nearby bakery the next morning, and spent the greater part of Sunday afternoon napping. The boys (Brandon, James, John and Tony) woke us up when they got back from Amsterdam around 5:30. We all crashed in Rheims, then got up early Monday (well, it was early by the boy's standards) to head back to Stuttgart.

It was a blast, but I am glad to be home. I took a ton of pictures of my adventure, and I am already looking at them and thinking, 'hey, remember that time...' There are a lot of the pictures that I took largely for my mom's benefit. Of course, I want to share them with everyone, but I know that the photos of the churches will carry a special resonance for her. The Sacristy pictures, and the lady arranging the flowers, all for you, Momma. :) I will be getting more, onceI can get my hands on the pictures from Carrie's camera, but given that I have just under 150 already, I'm not too worried about it.