letters signed always: September 2014

Holy cow, we spent 15 days in France. Filled with fun, walking (and more walking, walking, walking), relaxation and exhaustion if that's possible, and family. A little bit of back story first. My husband's family on his father's side lives in France, specifically Paris and Toulon, which made it easy to decide where to visit. When T was growing up, he spent time in France and cherishes the memories that were made there. When we were first getting to know each other, I mean on the first day or two of us meeting, he spoke of France, catching urchins and octopus in the Mediterranean Sea, the crystal clear waters of the South (I think he was trying to impress me), the crepes he ate from Paris, and just being able to spend times with his family, specifically his cousins. As things became more serious between us, T started to talk about taking me to see this beautiful country. After being together for four years, we were finally able to take the trip! It was very special for me for us to experience France hand in hand.

The night before we flew into Paris was filled with excitement! I was so eager to get to sleep to start our journey, however, at 11:45 PM, we received news of another journey my family was about to begin. After a Skype session with my parents, I found out my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer. Words I never expected to hear, hit me like a ton of bricks. The strongest, most hardworking, beautiful woman I know, now has the burden of a horrible sickness. The hardest part was not being able to hug her. Being a world away, I've never wanted anything more than to hug my mother than in that moment. Thankfully, she will have an extremely strong support system to help her through and kick cancer's ass!

For those of you that know my mom and would like to keep up with her story, here is her link to her blog; http://evillumpsandwoozles.blogspot.com/ I'm proud of her for sharing her story and also hoping writing will be therapeutic.

Needless to say the first few days of our vacation were a little rough. Really, through out our whole time in France, I thought only of my mom and my family. How much I wish I could share this life with them, how much I want to be home to support my mom, and even guilty for spending time in a beautiful place while my mom spends her days in doctor's offices. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed our adventures, and kept composure all but when the Micheal Buble song played when I was in the nail salon, "Another summer day has come and gone away in Paris and Rome, but I wanna go home. Surrounded by a million people I still feel all alone,and I want to go home. Oh I miss you you know." I basically lost it. The woman doing my nails was trying to talk to me, in French of course, to which the only words I could say to her in between sobs were "Je nes sais pas," which means "I don't know." I mean seriously, why was that song playing in a nail salon in France?

We spent the first week in Paris, the city of romance! And Siggggh, did it live up to that name. EVERYTHING is beautiful in this city. Well, except sometimes the metro smelled of pee, but every building, bridge, statue was ornate and detailed! We are lucky enough to have family there to let us stay at their home, and give us the true Parisian experience! T's aunt and uncle were definitely the "hostest with the mostest." So as we arrived at their metro stop on day #1, there was this moment that I feel as though I will remember forever. Also can I just say how freaking awesome the metro is?! America needs to jump on board with the train system. Okay so we are walking up the stairs from the metro to enter into the streets of Paris and as I took each step the more excited I became! We got to the top of the stairs, and T says, "Welcome to Paris, baby!" This was the view I had from those steps, a beautiful church, fresh flower stands, accompanied by the smell of fresh baked bread.

It was the typical "European look," but it just felt different, almost magical in that moment! Cheesy, I know, but I loved Paris from that second on!

We spent our first day checking out this baby! It's totally bigger than I thought it was going to be.

The area around the Eiffel Tower was soooooooo crowded with tourists which made the lines for everything extremely long, we decided to save climbing to the top for next time. Because there will absolutely be a next time! Instead we walked through the parks surrounding the tower taking in all the beauty of this place! After lunch we decided to take a cruise down the Seine River, which runs right through Paris. Totally romantic! And a little selfie action to prove it happened.

Best part of this photo? The Pont Alexandre III Bridge protruding from T's head. It was one of the most extravagant sites we saw yielding it to be one of my favorite landmarks! This is a picture I snapped as we passed under it on the cruise!

You know I base so many of my travel decisions off of the glamorous pictures I see on Pinterest. Such a girl, I know, but Pinterest has so many photos of Paris cafes. You know, with all the tiny tables with both chairs facing toward the street and two glamours women drinking their champagne and smoking their cigarettes?

I loved these spots! I basically pretended I was Audrey Hepburn every time I sat at one of these places. T and I stopped to grab delicious dinner at one of those cozy cafes while we people watched. Because lets be honest, why else are the chairs facing toward the street?

We ended our night walking around the lit up tower holding hands and smootching because seriously who isn't overcome by the love bug from this sight?!

Okay, honestly, I was so exhausted by the end of dinner, I was ready to head home and not walk back to see the sparkly tower. But T was dying to go to this one specific place right under the tower to get a lemon and sugar crepe. Using my research knowledge and common sense, I asked him if we could maybe (heaven forbid) wait until tomorrow to buy a crepe so we could avoid spending all our travel money buying dessert directly under the tower...hello tourist trap!! Apparently he always gets crepes from this one stand, so we couldn't break tradition. 20 euros later, we headed back to the metro, crepes in hand. I'm lying, it wasn't that expensive, but still!!

The next few days we spent wandering the city, a couple days with his aunt who was the best tour guide, and a couple by ourselves. One of those days was spent at the Louve. T has always told me how monstrous this place is but I didn't truly understand until I saw with my own eyes.

And some artsy pics from the inside,

This painting was one of my favorites because he is telling his friends to talk to the hand because tha face ain't listenin!

When we entered into the gallery that held the Mona Lisa, I laughed.

Art lovers, please don't be offened. I truly do not know what the hype is over this painting. First of all, it is tiny and secondly, it is in a gallery with other breathtaking pieces. For example, this painting of the wedding at cana. I don't think you can understand the grandeur of this painting without seeing it in person but it was probably double the size of my house.

The Louve wore us out! After we left, we took a little rest in the courtyard outside....Paris almost killed me. I have never walked so much my entire life. Notice in the picture below the bulding that frames the entire picture?? That all is the museum! Not even half of it actually!

And a few more just so you can really see how big!!

Just the detail of the building is unbelievable!

Like I said before, T was so thrilled to be my "tour-guide" around this city. He had a few places that were on the top of his list, and of course, walking the Champs-Elysees, ending at the Arc de Triomphe. The Champs-Elysees offered so much shopping and the neatest place to have drinks which I did not get a picture of! I did however, take the touristy picture next to the arc!

This was really important to my husband because his mother has this exact picture from her first trip to Paris with T's dad many, many years ago. Carrying on family traditions.

Who goes to Paris with their significant other and doesn't go to the love lock bridge?! Not us! There are thousands and thousands of locks! There was a grumpy old man next to us trying to take the locks off, yelling in French about how these are ruining his city. Shout out to Theo's cousin, Mehdi, who translated that for us. Ha! We didn't let that ruin our lovey dovey mood. We locked that baby on there and threw the keys in the water. Looking forward to finding our lock each time we visit.

Some other highlights from this Parisian adventure!

1. Carousels. Before we moved to Europe, my dad told me I had to ride every carousel I saw. So, we hopped on and dedicated the ride to my Papa!

And one of my new favorite pictures of all time, gotta love a man that keeps you laughing.

2. My aspect of Europe I enjoy the most, the churches.

These pictures do no justice to the opulence of these cathedrals. Notre Dame was more beautiful than I could have ever imagined. While we celebrated morning mass, there were people still touring the church. I wasn't a big fan of that, but still very thankful I had the opportunity to attend mass here.

We walked by the Sacre-Coeur (also the most difficuly word to pronounce in French EVER), but did not get to go inside because the line was extremely long. Add that to the list of things to do when we visit next!

3. Can we take a minute to talk about the French bread and pastries?

This is one area that France has Italy beat (in my opinion)! My absolute favorite thing I ate in France, actually maybe one of my favorite things I've ever eaten in my life is a breakfast pastry called a "chouquette." A little ball of heavenly, airy dough sprinkled with sugar. It's actually embarrassing how many I ate during my 6 days in Paris...

And what do I even need to say about French bread? It totally lives up to it's reputation.

We brought home some many beautiful memories from our time in Paris. It was a trip I will never forget! I am already dreaming of going back. I feel so blessed to have had the opportunity for T to lead me around the city and share some of his most cherished memories with me and create new ones as husband and wife!

After our 6 days in Paris, we headed to Toulon located in the south of France. Holy moly the south is beautiful. Saving those stories for another post!

Here are a few more pictures from our trip!