Well, it's only been a full year since I have updated this blog of mine. Something about 4 small kids and a husband that travels a ton that has made life extremely busy and me...one tired momma at night. I have felt lately that I need to start journaling our lives again and keep this family record going. There is no way I am going to go back in time and attempt to catch up on the past year so I'll just start with where we are in life right now. Life is busy but good!
I'll start with our latest trip we took and hopefully will be able to keep up with the small, everyday things on this blog in the future.
About a month ago, Justin and I took an amazing trip to Paris, Israel, and London.
I mean really.. it was ahhhh-mazing! We had Caryn and Shawn (Justin's sister and her husband) fly down from BYU-I to watch our kids for 9 days. I really couldn't think of someone I'd rather have watch our kids than these two. They are amazing and our kids love and adore them! In fact, they still ask if Caryn and Shawn can come back to babysit them. Win win!
Our first stop was Paris.
I honestly had a completely different picture of Paris in my mind. I was kind of expecting really cool sight seeing spots, like the Eiffel Tower, surrounded by a big, dirtier city but it wasn't like that at all! Paris is beautiful! At least the parts we went to.
Big, beautiful trees covering cute, old roads. Quaint, street restaurants covered by the said beautiful trees with Parisian accordion players serenading the guests. Guys, it was magical.
We only had 2 full days in Paris and in typical Justin and Ashleigh travel fashion, we crammed in as much as we could during those days. I think the first thing we saw, which was close to our hotel was Notre Dame.
The first thing I noticed though while look ing at these pictures was not necessarily the medieval Catholic cathedral in the background, but that sky! It looks fake! It was such a beautiful day.
Notre Dame de Paris was completed 1345 AD and has of course been restored many times since. The inside was kind of dark and honestly wasn't one of the prettiest cathedrals I've ever been in but it was still cool! The stain glass and crypt were a few of the highlights inside.
We walked around a lot that day and I was in heaven taking pictures of all the beautiful architecture near the Seine River.
It was fun to see the Parisians enjoying their Saturday relaxing, eating, and letting their kids play in the fountains and sand areas here near the Seine.
We made a stop at the Sainte- Chapelle, which I thought was more beautiful with it's 13th century stained glass windows than Notre Dame.
I didnt have the camera lens or the time to capture the true beauty of the 360* stained glass so wikipedia is providing me with the image below to give you a better idea.
We visited Palais de Justice right next door from the Sainte- Chapelle where Marie Antoinette and other important people were imprisoned while awaiting execution from the guillotine.
I should've took a close up of this building, it was beautiful!
We saw a few cells that gave us a good idea of how the prisoners were kept but none were as nice as Marie Antoinette's as shown below.
We then walked down the Seine River on our way to the Louvre. I'm serious when I say the trees, the river, the beautiful sights make Paris!
Now don't hate us all you art lovers out there but Justin and I opted not to go in to the Louvre to see the art inside...i know...we should be ashamed. But, while Justin and I can semi understand and enjoy art, we don't love it enough to spend hours in there looking at art we most likely wouldn't appreciate as much as we should. Plus, there was more we wanted to see in Paris and it was kind of expensive. :)
We had no problem taking every cheesy tourist picture we could in front of the pyramids. I found it interesting though that those pyramids were not part of the original museum and were only completed sometime in the late 1980s. They are pretty iconic though!
An afternoon storm quickly rolled through with some strong wind and made for some fun pictures!
We took a bus to see the Arc de Triomphe. This place was much cooler than I though it would be! We climbed to the top and enjoyed a beautiful view of the city and all the avenues running to the monument. It was constructed in honor of all the soldiers who fought and died for France in the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars.
The top also gave us a pretty nice view of the Eiffel Tower. I love how a lot of tree lined streets (I cant remember how many) all meet together with the Arc as the center.
When we came down from the top we were able to watch the ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown soldier that they do every day at 5pm. One thing I found interesting is that Jacqueline Kennedy was inspired by the eternal flame that they have burning here so much that she wanted to have one at her husbands grave site, which can be found at John's grave. 
We then walked to the Eiffel Tower and climbed all 669 steps to the halfway mark. We were too cheap to buy the elevator ticket :) From there you have to take a elevator all the way to the top.
Luckily we grabbed a baguette before we made the climb to get some energy. The background view wasn't too bad either!
The Eiffel really doesn't look too high from the ground but at the top, I totally got vertigo! My stomach isn't quite as tough as it used to be. It was so high!
By the time we got down from the top, it was dark outside and the tower was all lit up. I'm so glad we didn't miss seeing this. Every hour, on the hour, they have a short 5 min flashing light show that makes the tower sparkle. Worth the trip to see!
The next day we decided to see more of Paris from a bus. I think we walked like 15 miles and 67 flights of stairs the day before so our shins and quads needed a little bit of a break. We took the bus to the north side of Paris and saw Moulin Rouge and went up the hill to the Sacre Coeur Basillica. It is a relatively new Roman Catholic church, finished in the early 1900s but it was still a beautiful place to visit. It is situated at the highest point in Paris which makes for a pretty view too.
We continued the bus tour to see some sights that we had already seen but we enjoyed hearing a little bit more of the history and stories behind these places. I think learning more about history is one of the things we enjoy most about traveling. That's why we almost always do walking and bus tours. It's the best if you love history.
The bus also took us through the Champs-Elysees street, which the Parisians call "the worlds most beautiful street". It really is gorgeous with big trees lining the street for miles. At the start of the Champs- Elysees is the Place de la Revolution (shown below) where many, many beheadings took place during the French Revolution, including Marie Antoinette and her husband Louis XVI. There was also a random Egyptian obelisk that I can't remember what it's significance was.
Later in the day, we rented some bikes and headed to Luxembourg Gardens which building started in the early 1600s. It is such an elegant and quiet place, or at least it was when we were there.
The flowers, the fountains, the architecture! It was gorgeous!
I'm not sure why, but this picture below is one of my most favorite pictures of our whole trip to Paris. Quiet and serene.
We ended the night with watching the sparkling lights of the Eiffel Tower from the top of our hotel. Paris really is such a romantic, beautiful city and is one I definitely wouldn't mind visiting again. I loved walking around Paris holding my sweethearts hand laughing, talking, and just enjoying every minute together.
The next day, we barely made our flight to Israel due to a shut down of the only subway line that runs to the airport because of a bomb threat...apparently they must happen often because no one seemed alarmed by it. We waited for ever to find an open taxi and paid wayyy too much money to have it take us to the airport. Oh, and I'm pretty sure I left my phone sitting in that taxi too. That was pretty sad. But we made our flight to Israel! Barely!
No comments:
Post a Comment