Paris! (Part I)

First of all, let's set the mood....

There...isn't that better? That second song is for you, mom. She burst into it whenever someone said "I love Paris!"...which was often. :)

So how was Paris, you ask? Well, let's just say we're putting on our berets, tying on our neck scarves, and planning our trip back as we speak (or as I type I guess). So yes, we had an amazing time in Paris. And here's how it all played out...

Sunday - Monday: Our flight was at 9pm out of Toronto, so we got all packed up and headed out. (Mind you, the night before, Joshua and I were in the after hours medical care center until around 10pm. Josh had to have a nebulizer treatment for wheezing and was diagnosed with an ear infection in his right ear. Not such a good way to start the trip!) Joshua wasn't feeling all that great still and threw up a few times on the way up. Finally at the airport (and in outfit #3 for Josh), we got on our plane and thankfully all seemed to get some sleep.

After a brief stopover in Reykjavik, Iceland (where we almost missed our connection because we had to go through customs), we arrived save and sound in Paris. We picked up our luggage and waited outside for our ride. (Interesting sidenote, we didn't actually go through customs in Paris. Weird, huh? They just let us walk through the doors and out into France. So the only stamp in our passports is one in and out of Iceland. Canada didn't give us stamps when we returned, and France didn't recognize that we had arrived!)

We had a short ride to John & Shelley's apartment, and after climbing the 55 stairs to their apartment, we had a wonderful cup of tea and started to unwind!After a brief rest and a bite of lunch, we headed out for our first walk around Paris. John & Shelley's apartment is in the most amazing location. It is about a half mile from the Eiffel Tower, so we walked by there on a daily basis! I have more pictures of the Eiffel Tower than anyone should really. So anyway, back to our walk. We walked out of their apartment, wandered down the street, turned a corner, and this is what we saw: Ohh, ahhh! Then I heard an all too familar sound, and turned around to find this: Booo! :( So we took off the sweater and continued our walk. We got closer to the tower and I snapped a great photo of my guys in front of our favorite Parisian landmark.We got even closer to the tower, taking pictures all the way. We walked under the tower, took some more pictures and then wandered into a cafe for dinner. When we came out, it was dark and we decided it was time for bed! So we took a few more pictures of the tower and headed home to climb the 55 stairs to our bed.

Tuesday - Tuesday dawned bright and sunny and we decided to do some sightseeing (duh, what else were we going to do?!). After a breakfast of pain au chocolat & fresh baguette, and a hot shower for us all, we headed out. Shelley thought it would be a good idea to take the bus so that we could see things as we were traveling, and it was a wonderful idea indeed! We hopped off the bus at Pont Alexandre III, Shelley's favorite bridge. It's easy to see why, it's magnificant! Our next stop was Notre Dame. But before we got there, we stopped for a crepe! I had been dying to try crepes, and they did not disappoint. I had a lemon and sugar crepe, Ben had rum & sugar (seriously, the rum was crazy strong...Ben loved it), my mom had nutella & Grand Marnier & Shelley had bananas & honey. Are you drooling? Yep, me too. :) After our crepes, we walked the short distance to Notre Dame and simply enjoyed the beauty of it. (Reason #102,938,403 I love my new camera...it takes amazing pictures indoors with the flash turned off!) About half way through our wandering around the church, Joshua decided that he had had enough of stained glass windows and being inside. So we took him out back to a beautiful little park behind the church. The children were playing, the couples were sitting on park benches smooching & we sat down and fed Josh some lunch. It was wonderful. After Joshua was done eating, we wandered around Ile Saint Louis, looking at all the different shops until we were tired. So we headed home, stopping for a few picturesand some cheese along the way. Dinner that night was salad, fresh baguette, and the most delicious cheese ever.

Well, that's all for now. I know, I know...I've only given you the first few days and I'm ending. But it's taken me over a week to get this one up and I'm getting impatient calls from a few of you who will remain anonymous (JODI) so I thought something was better than nothing. I'll keep working on the rest of the days and post them when I'm done. Remember, patience is a virtue. :) What's that you say? You have no patience? You used it all up waiting for this post, darn it all anyway? Oh alright. If you can't wait anymore, you can go HERE and HERE to see all the pictures. But I'm warning you...there are 800 pictures to go through! Good luck.