We get to spend a couple of days in Midway with my family! I wish Dave could have stayed with us a few days longer in Utah but he had to fly back to Cali to get back to real life. On our first day we stopped into my Dad's work to say hi and he pulled out an RTV and let Tenley drive around the shop. Don't let the cranky face fool you, she thought it was awesome and got so excited!

The next day we drove up the canyon and found some fall colors! I miss the Fall so much! California weather is just hot, really hot, and then not quite as hot. That's it. No changing leaves, no sweater weather.  I was in heaven being in the mountains with my family. It was a quick 2 day visit but I am so happy I got to spend some time with my family before going back home.

Back to my Baby!

I missed this little girl sooooo much! She stayed with Manya & Baca Madsen. I am so grateful to have so many people around us willing to help watch her so that Dave and I could go on vacation together. We came back to a little French speaking bebe. Cathy & Megan taught her to say "bonjour" and "merci" and it's pretty much the cutest.

Paris Tourists

We started our day out at the Eiffel Tower again, because I really wanted to see it in the daylight and walk to the top.

 We didn't want to wait in the long line for the elevator so we took the stairs and walked as far up as we could before we had to take the elevator all the way to the top. It was crazy to watch the people below us slowly turn into little ants. 

View from the top of the tower. You can see just a hint of fall beginning in the trees. 

We then met up with our friends and walked over to the Musee de Louvre and also stopped for a crepe....because it just felt wrong not to have a crepe in my hand. Also, you can imagine how much fun Dave had with the word crepe, over and over again. *insert emoji smirk here*

The Louvre is the worlds largest museum and we spent a good part of our day here roaming the halls and looking at all the art and sculptures.  There is so much to see that it can be overwhelming, but a few pieces really stood out to me. I loved seeing the Winged Victory and learning more about the story behind her. The statue was created to honor a naval battle victory of the people of the island Samothrace in the early 2nd century BC.  It was found by Charles Champoiseau in 1863.  He also discovered a the ruins of small building and a pile of large blocks of marble. He thought they were from a tomb and so he just left them in place not knowing that it was actually the ship portion of this sculpture. 

The Mona Lisa was the other piece that I really enjoyed seeing. It's so much smaller than I expected and they keep the lights so dim (to preserve the art) that it was kind of hard to see. The Mona Lisa is one of the most famous paintings in the world and it was awesome to see it with my own eyes. 

The rest of our tour through the Louvre looked a lot like this.....haha! So many strange statues!

We Louvred that Louvre and were pretty happy to be back out in fresh air!

We then followed our tour guide and walked along the Seine over to the Notre Dame. As much as I love seeing the museums and cathedrals, I think I love just strolling the streets just as much. There is so much beauty everywhere you look.  We forgot to bring our lock to place on the love lock bride, so I guess that just means we have to come back! 

A beautiful structure, but the atmosphere inside the Notre Dame Cathedral was the same as the lighting: dark. I felt a strange uneasiness as I walked inside.  Maybe it was just the creepy gargoyles staring down at me. 

Touchdown Jesus! Apparently  I need to watch the movie Rudy to understand this.

We then walked around the calm streets of Île Saint-Louis. Most of the shops were closed for the day but several flower markets were still out in full bloom. 

Then we went back to our hotel to clean up before going to our last dinner in Paris before heading home.  We had the most magical 2 days in Paris! I could spend several more days here and I can't wait to come back one day. 

Je T'aime Paris

Oh Paris I love you already! We arrived mid afternoon and checked into our swanky hotel Bel Ami in the Saint-Germain area. This was our view out our window. I loved how the windows opened all the way without any barrier or screen protector.  Anytime we were in our room (which wasn't all that much) I had this window open and sat on our little green chair just people watching. Creeper much? Whatevs. 

 

We took off wandering the streets and it didn't take long before we found a crepe stand. The crepes here are to die for! My favorite is just a simple lemon and sugar. 

We were making our way to the Eiffel Tower and had to stroll down Champs-Élysées.  Dave is so sweet and bought me an amazing souvenir from Tiffany's.  I love that man and I love gifts that come in little blue boxes. 

We continued our stroll down to the Arc de Triumph before finally making it to the Eiffel Tower. 

Watching those twinkling lights while sitting along the Sienne & eating another crepe just felt magical.  

Palma de Mallorca, Spain

Today we woke up in Palma de Mallorca which is a beautiful island of Spain.  We had so much fun in our tiny little twizy yesterday so we rented another one today to explore the city.  We met up with friends at the Santa Maria Cathedral and our cars were so tiny we may have just parked right on the sidewalk. haha! There was a group of about 16 of us, so 8 cars parked right up on the walkway and people were looking at us like we were a bunch of crazy Americans.

We then cruised over to the Bellver Castle which overlooks Palma Bay.  The Bellver Castle has been standing for almost 700 years and it still looks so good! It was once used as a prison but is now used as a museum full of history of the city. 

We heard that Majorca was famous for their beaches so we wanted to go spend some time at the beach. We had to hop on the freeway in our little twizy which I'm pretty sure was illegal since we couldn't go nearly as fast as the speed limit! We were dying of laughter the whole time but I was also praying like crazy we wouldn't get run over by a semi truck! I was really happy when we made it safely to the beach!

Adios Majorca! Now onto Barcelona to catch our flight to Paris!

South of France

Looking out our balcony the next morning we had arrived to Cannes. We rented this tiny blue car and went exploring over to Antibes.  We drove all along the coast and passed a few nude beaches where I had to kindly remind Dave to keep his eyes on the road. ha!

I don't even know how I fit in the back of that thing.

We drove over to Cap d'Antibes and the streets were empty and it was so calm and relaxing. I love when I can escape all the tourist traps.