day 3

Instead, we decided we should go to the Eiffel Tower first thing in the morning and go up then. We still had to wait in a line (about an hour total), but we got to go to the very top of the tower, took about a million pictures, and even ate lunch up there (baguette sandwiches).

After we got done at the Eiffel Tower , we headed toward the Rodin Museum (which we had tried to visit the prior day, but it was closing time already (it closes at 4:45!) to see The Thinker.

The Rodin Museum was really neat overall. I got to see several sculptures I’d been looking forward to (Hand of God, the Kiss, Gates of Hell, etc.), and lots of the sculptures were outside, which was really neat. It was also a much smaller museum… so I think we spent about 30 minutes there… and that included a bathroom break! After that, we headed to the Louvre. Wow. What an impressive place the Louvre is.

We entered through the glass pyramid…

And I had a list of masterpieces I wanted to see (the Mona Lisa, the Winged Victory, the Wedding Feast at Cana , the Venus di Milo, etc.), so we worked our way through that list…

And then we had a Starbs break… And then we headed back out to see the Egyptian artifacts that Lance wanted to see. By this time, it was getting close to 6:30 (or whatever time the Louvre closes), and I was trying desperately to get back to the gift shop before it closed. It seemed like every which way we turned, there was more Louvre! We made it to the gift shop and then decided to go into the Carrousel mall attached to the Louvre to eat dinner (and, of course, to take pics by the inverted pyramid). As it turns out, Mary Magdalene’s final resting place (ala Dan Brown’s DaVinci Code) is somewhere between the Virgin Music megastore and the Apple store…

Anyway, we ate dinner in the food court there (quiche and bread)… and then I read that the Louvre is open until 9:30 on Friday nights, so we ventured back in! We spent HOURS there... and still didn't see even half of what there is to see. Just amazing!

day 2

We went to Giverny (Monet’s home) on Thursday morning with Edie and one of Edie’s friends. It was an hour or so outside of Paris , so we just enjoyed the views of the French countryside on the drive out there. Honestly, Giverny was something I really wanted to see, as I have long been a fan of Claude Monet… but Lance wasn’t too keen on the whole idea, so he was mostly going just to be sweet. However, Monet’s home and garden were far more beautiful than either of us had imagined, and Lance was as overwhelmed by it as I was. He spent the entire time we were there with our new fancy-shmancy camera glued to his face, taking pictures of all the incredible flowers.

One of my favorite parts was the Japanese footbridge and the water lily pond. Those have always been my favorites of Monet’s paintings, and it was incredible to see them in real life.

Then we ate lunch a little café near Monet’s home (we both had omelettes and frites) and then headed back into Paris. After we arrived back in the city, we headed toward Hotel des Invalides.

Since that weekend was a military holiday in France , the courtyard of the museum was blocked off, so we ended up just kind of passing through it to get to Napoleon’s tomb. The building itself is just unbelievably beautiful…

And the rotunda in which his coffin rests is just impressive all the way around.

Then we went over to the Eiffel Tower … where we wasted a good 30 minutes trying to capture my joy mid-air.

We were going to go up into the tower, but the line was just unbelievably long (had to have been at least 3 hours) because they only had one pillar of the tower open. Anyway, we ended up scratching that idea, ate dinner, and then went back to the apartment.

frustration!!!

Okay, so I have now tried to post about Day 2 on three separate occasions, but blogger just will NOT let me upload images. I'm hoping it will stop hating me and allow me to post pictures.... but if not, I guess Day 2 will just have to be a narrative. I'm giving blogger two more days to play nice, and then all of you will just get a lame story with no pictures if it can't get its act together.

Sigh.

day 1

Okay, so, we flew out on Tuesday, May 5th at 5:10pm. My sweet friend Jocelyn and her preshy little Levi drove us to the airport (thanks again, Jocelyn!!!), and we made it through security in like 7.5 minutes and sat at the gate (or maybe at McDonald’s in the airport…) for almost two full hours until time to leave. Our doctor had prescribed some sleeping pills for us, so after a not-so-tasty airplane food dinner, we each took one and planned to sleep our way to France . No such luck. I think we each slept for maybe an hour or so total… out of a 9.5 hour flight. It was a bummer. Anyway, we landed in Paris at 9:30 in the morning (on Wednesday, May 6th), and our friend’s mom (Edie) picked us up at the airport and took us back to their adorable Parisian apartment – with a view of the Eiffel Tower! – and we showered, ate, and changed clothes… and then headed out for the day. Edie showed us how to use the metro and helped us buy our 5-day metro passes, and then she dropped us off at the Arc de Triomphe.

Lance and I headed up to the top for some cool views of Paris (and some chilly wind gusts!).

Here are the stairs we climbed to get to the top…

Then we walked back down all those stairs (a dizzying feat, I assure you) and headed down the Champs Elysses. Obviously there were all kinds of high-end retailers…

And we stopped and bought world-famous macaroons at the intimidatingly fancy Laduree.

They were amazingly delicious... especially that vanilla one. I believe my exact words were, "I'm going to marry this cookie."

By this time, we had had a VERY long day (since we’d only catnapped on the plane) and we both started getting cranky, so we headed back to the apartment… and went to bed. At 7:30. Yes, it was still quite light outside. Ha. Anyway, we slept a solid 12 hours, so that was great. We were much less cranky on Day Two.

home!!!

Although my passport does not necessarily show it, I am officially a world traveler! On Thursday, Lance and I returned from a nine-day trip of Paris , France and Rome , Italy . It was really fantastic… and definitely an interesting experience! Oh – and about the passport comment: Since Italy and France are both a part of the European Union, we only got stamped once instead of twice. I was really disappointed by that. I wanted two stamps!

We did and saw SO much on our trip! I’m sure it will take me several days of blogging to go through the entire trip, but I wanted to at least give it a go…

But then Blogger decided to take FOREVER to upload pics... So stay tuned later I guess.

i'm in a glass case of emotion....

We officially had our first day at Pleasant Ridge on Sunday, and it seemed to be a great success. Lance got such wonderful feedback (as did I) about the entire day, and I am so thankful for that. It seems like we’ve been saying “goodbye” forever; it was prime time to get to the “hello” part.

It was a long day – we left our house at 7:10am and returned home at 9:30pm. We went to first service, Bible class, second service, lunch… then Lance played basketball with some kids from the church from 2 to 4, and then there we had a youth thing at 5:00, church at 6:00, and a reception for us at 7:00. The reception was wedding-style: Lance and I stood, and everyone lined up to shake our hands. I would venture to guess that we met probably 200+ people yesterday. I think I remember 3 names. That’s 1.5%. Oops. Anyway, it was just a very long day. I told Lance that by the end of the day, I wasn’t sure whether I was smiling or just baring my teeth at people.

It definitely made me want to move closer though. We packed multiple changes of clothes as appropriate for each of the day’s activities since we knew we couldn’t make it all the way back to NRH between things. Literally – it was like we packed for a weekend trip. We had changes of clothes and the dog and all of his stuff (he played at Patty’s house) and Lance had all of his toiletries so he could shower… it was a LOT of trouble. I mean, obviously, we will make it work until we can move down there, but it was a strong affirmation that, yes, we do need to move.

I just feel like I’ve got so many different emotions jumbling around inside of me. I’m so happy and thankful that Sunday went so well. (I think we would have been terrified and distraught if Sunday had gone poorly, wondering what on earth the Lord had called us to.) I’m still exhausted from spending a whole day on my feet, shaking hands, smiling, introducing myself, etc. I kind of felt like I was campaigning for something. I should have kissed some babies or something. Anyway, I’m still sad to be leaving some really precious friends (and not LEAVING leaving – I know we’ll still see each other… just not as often as I’d like). I got a phone call and a text from some of our Legacy friends on Sunday, and at the same that it was such a blessing, it got me all choked up. I’m scared that we won’t make new friends, and I’m nervous about having to fit into a new group. I’m confused about a lot of things because our churches operate very differently, so I can’t figure out some things. I’m incredibly excited that our vacation is getting close (although I am not saying how close because I don’t want to announce when we’ll be leaving an empty house behind…). Honestly, knowing that I’m going to have a break and be able to spend so much time with Lance without all the stress of packing, house-hunting, starting a new church, starting a new job, working in our house, etc. is what’s keeping me going at this point. I can’t wait. He’s my bestie.

I am incredibly blessed. Thank you, Lord!

catching up in pictures

I'm trying to learn how to use our new camera before our trip, so I thought I'd do sort of a picture update of some things that I've been up to lately while practicing my crazy mad photography skillz. (HA.) (Also - as I'm posting these pictures, I'm realizing that they are mostly of things I've been BUYING, not things I've been doing. Or maybe all I've been doing is buying....)

First of all, this past Friday, my friend Emily and I went down to the Main Street Arts Festival in downtown Fort Worth (and ate Reata tenderloin tamales for lunch! YUMMO!), and I bought these adorable earrings. The lady makes them out of antique tins, and she cuts them out by hand. I just love the bright colors and whimsical patterns. I almost bought a necklace of it, but the pendant on the necklace was about as big around as a coaster, so I thought that might be a bit OTT.

I think they are just presh. Can't wait to wear them.

I also bought these little black books. They are called City Notebooks, and they are made by the Moleskine Company. (There is one for Paris and one for Roma, in case you can't read the bindings.) They each have subway maps, city maps, places for information about the place you're going, a little pocket to hold ticket stubs, and more. They are really neat, and I thought it would look LESS touristy to have a little black book with a map than a giant fold-out one. Plus they give you places to journal, etc. so that we can keep notes on where we go and what we see.I also purchased our four-day museum passes for Paris. They are such cool little passes. Okay, so it's the size of a credit card but thicker like a tiny book...Then it magically unfolds...And there's a giant fold-out booklet inside the tickets that tells all the museums the pass works at and the dates and times each museum is open.
Please excuse my beginner photography skills. I just needed the practice. :)