Paris (and Normandy)

Paris was our third stop on the trip. I really enjoyed Paris. Part of it may have been because I was just happy to be back in the French culture again, back where I could speak French, back to something I knew but I think the biggest reason was because of wonderful and plentiful pastries, bread, and crepes. I may have spent a lot of money making sure I was satisfied with my intake of these three essential parts of a healthy diet. :) But beyond the food Paris was amazing. We got to see many of the great sites including the Eiffel Tower (of course), the Louvre museum, Notre Dame Cathedral, the Champs Elysee, the Arc de Triomphe, and Versailles. I wasn't impressed with the Champs Elysee and I'm not a huge art fan so the Louvre didn't impress me much but all of the other sites and places we went were way cool. I really enjoyed seeing them all. Versailles was by far my favorite of all of these. The palace was pretty cool but the gardens and grounds were amazing! They took up approximately 8 square miles in total area and were astounding. And perhaps the best and coolest part was Le Petit Hameau. Marie Antoinette wanted to remain down to earth and remember her peasant upbringing so she had built a small peasant village back in the corner of the grounds of Versailles with stables, farm land, and many houses similar to those peasants and commoners would have lived in. They are all still there and were amazing to see. I really enjoyed it.

We were in Paris for the 4th of July but wanted to celebrate our American-ness so we decided to spend Independence day doing the most American thing we could in France so we went out to Normandy and spent the day seeing Omaha beach and the American Cemetery that is there and honoring some of the fallen heroes of WWII. It was a pretty emotional place and when you walked around there you couldn't help but feel respect for the great men that fought and died for our country over in Europe. It was quite an amazing experience there.

Paris was a lot of fun and we got to spend a lot more time there than anywhere else I went. I would definitely go back there someday if only just for the pastries. :)