Paris for Our 15 Year Anniversary!

For our 15th wedding anniversary, we went to Paris! I had been wanting to go since high school, and convinced Danny that it needed to happen this year. One of our friends watched the kids and we headed off on June 21st for the airport.

To our horror, they turned us away at the check-in counter because my passport expired in 80 days. You cannot fly to France if your passport is going to expire in less than 90 days. I guess I haven't traveled enough to know these rules. You would think I would have been alerted by the travel agency when I put in my passport information, but no this was not our luck. Ugh!!! I was crying from anger and sadness, for not only did we have a sitter in line for the kids, this was the week Danny had taken off, we had tours and museums booked that didn't give refunds, and now we have to pay all of the airline cancellation fees. Even with paying for insurance for flights, it is very expensive to pay the fees. We now had the decision to make to wait and reschedule for August, or drive 5-6 hours up to Washington D.C. to the passport agency. I did not have an appointment, so I didn't know if they would even take me. They also will not see walk-ins if you are not flying out within 3 days. You have to show proof of the flight. So while talking on the 2 hour drive back home, we decided to take the chance and drive to D.C. and if it worked, we would fly out of there. We couldn't try this until Monday, though, as this was a Friday night. I booked a flight to Paris from D.C., and we left Sunday night, and got a hotel walking distance from the agency. We got to the Passport Agency at 6:05am (doors open at 7:30, and appointments start at 8am), and there were already 10 people there! That scared me because I was unaware of how many walk-ins they would actually take. Thankfully I got in pretty quickly, and they agreed to give me a renewal but they couldn't guarantee that it would be printed before they closed (our flights were that night). They told me to come back at 11:00am and check the status. By 2:00pm I had my passport and I was jumping for joy! I only had to reschedule a few things in Paris, and had to find a hotel for the first 2 nights because I had cancelled it. The hotel could only rebook our last 5 nights. Finding a hotel ended up being a nightmare in itself, but after lots of hours searching, we found one. Our flight that night flew out at 10:00pm, so we went ahead and headed to the airport. After getting checked in, we were stopped by four Air Marshals! At this point, we were thinking everything rough happening to us was hilarious. Thankfully the Air Marshals were looking for another couple trying to use an old boarding pass to get on the plane.

 This was the line by 6:30am at the passport agency!

 FINALLY!

We landed in Casablanca in Morocco on the way. Too bad we couldn't see anything more than the airport :(. They also require passports that will not expire in under 6 months. Good thing I got a new one!

 This was our first sighting of Paris! We could spot the Eiffel Tower in the distance!

This was our first hotel in Paris for two nights. It sat right next to the Louvre. It had just been finished being remodeled two weeks before we got there! It was so nice!

We arrived in the evening, so we just walked around the area we were at and took in all of the sights.  We were surprised that it didn't get dark in Paris until 10:30/11pm! Pictures didn't do it justice. Paris is beautiful.

 A whole van of cheese!

The next morning, we took a group tour to Normandy to see the D Day beaches. It was a surreal experience standing where so many lost their lives 75 years ago. The first stop was where the Germans were stationed on the cliffs between Omaha and Utah beaches. They left the German bunkers how they were after the bombing from the Allies. You can see the craters in the ground along with some bunkers that were or were not destroyed.

 The rangers came up the sides of these cliffs and a lot lost their lives.

This was Omaha Beach where the most lost lives. There were 3,000 alone that died on this one beach. There were 5 beaches. There were small hills behind with German bunkers hidden in them.

We then went to the American cemetery and we were in awe of this place. France had given this land to the U.S. to build this memorial. There are 9,000 buried here at this cemetery. This year marks the 75 year anniversary of D Day.

Driving to and back from Normandy was beautiful. We drove through these beautiful villages. Our driver was really fast, but I tried to take pictures anyways. It was everything I imagined the French countryside to be.

 In the picture below, this was the only house that was standing there 75 years ago.

 The town of Juno.

If you look really closely out in the ocean at these pictures, you can see where they created a wall with huge cement slabs by sinking old ships (I think he said it was Churchill's idea). They put floating bridges out to these slabs so they (the Allies) could unload tanks, machines, supplies, etc. from ships. They created this massive wall in 14 days.

 This is the restaurant where we ate at for lunch. It was delicious!!

 Lastly, we stopped at Utah beach before heading back to Paris.

After we got back to the hotel, we took a walk to see the Notre Dame Cathedral. It burned just 2 months ago. It was so depressing to see it this way, and it hurt my heart to not see inside! The first picture is of a boat we saw as we walked there. The building behind it was gorgeous as well!

We are guessing that this tent is holding items they pulled from the fire that they are going to try to restore back to their original place.

After leaving this area, we walked to find dinner and came upon a great area with tons of restaurants, a neat candy shop, ice cream and crepe shops, and there was music playing---it was a great way to end our evening.

 Our walk back to the hotel by the river-- La Seine.

The next day, we walked to the Louvre. We had no idea how big of a place this museum was. It gave us a new appreciation for art. Everything was breathtaking (even the ceilings!). I don't think we even saw 1/3 of the museum and spent most of the day there.

 Here is the Mona Lisa. Danny took a pic from the back to show all of the people crowding around it.

 Another painting by Da Vinci

 The next 2 sculptures are by Michelangelo.

 It was very busy there!

 Hieroglyphic tablets.

When we exited, we came up by the small Arc de Triomphe, called the Arc de Triomphe de Carrousel. This one was finished before Napoleon died.

The next morning we moved to a hotel over by the Eiffel Tower. As you can see, from our balcony, you can see the Eiffel Tower!

That night we ate at a French restaurant across the street and Danny ate Escargot (snails)! I even tried one! We then walked to the Eiffel Tower and sat in the lawn and waited for it to light up. Because of the time difference from the states to there, staying up late was so easy for us!

The next day, we walked to Champs Elysees (the ritzy shopping area) and got to enjoy more sights. We also walked up to and took some pictures of the Arc de Triomphe

 That night we had Italian food for dinner.

 They gave us free dessert!

The next day, we took the metro to Versailles. It was simply gorgeous. Before we headed out we stopped at a patisserie around the corner from our hotel. We ended up going there most mornings for our breakfast. I also added some pictures of macaroons and some other sweet treats. We saw macaroons everywhere, and every kind of flavor. We definitely bought some to try!

 The hall of mirrors

 The King's quarters (above), and the queen's is below.

We didn't get to see the gardens (I had a blister from my sandal and it cost more money as well). I hear that the gardens are breathtaking though!

 That day for lunch---don't judge us---we had Japanese food in Paris.

That evening Danny had fish and chips, while I had a burger at a restaurant around the corner. We love how the Parisians sit outside of restaurants for hours to socialize every evening. They rarely stared at their phones and really enjoyed conversations with one another.

On Sunday, we went to Disneyland Paris! I had to convince Danny to go, but we had a great time riding rides TOGETHER without children! After 90 degree days there, it was actually nice weather and overcast as well! We now have been to all Disney parks. This was never something on my bucket list, but it just worked out this way! We've been to Tokyo Disney, HongKong Disney, Paris Disney, Florida Disney, and California Disney. This Disney had a Ratatouille ride and restaurant. The restaurant was really neat in that we were "miniature" and everything else was huge. My favorite ride was Crush's Coaster (from Finding Nemo).

That night we found a cute area near our hotel with a market. In one of the stores, we saw that they sell itty bitty strawberries, and the tomatoes looked like little pumpkins!

 ..and a cheese store of course!

The next day, we slept in and then attended the Van Gogh experience across town. It was so much cooler than we expected! They made his art come to life in a digital video on all of the walls and floors. 

I love the doors in Paris! I only took a few, but they were so gorgeous! I also loved that there were no bugs in Paris! They had no screens on their windows, even.

On our last night in Paris, we finally got to go up the Eiffel Tower. We had a 9:30 pm guided tour (everything else was booked and we lucked out to get this one). We were actually excited to go up when it was light and come down as the sun was setting. The Eiffel Tower at 11pm sparkles for 5 minutes and we got to see that as well. I was a nervous Nelly taking these elevators and going to the summit, but I made it! It is so much higher than I thought. I told Danny that I couldn't stay up there too long...I was too nervous. 

 This is a pic on the first elevator going to the 1st floor.

 These are pictures from the second floor.

If you look really closely at this picture, you can see the miniature Statue of Liberty past the 3rd bridge.

 In these pics, we are at the summit. Everything is very symmetrical in Paris.

Mr. Eiffel actually lived at the top of Eiffel Tower and would bring important guests up there! This was new to me. He also paid for 80% of the construction of the Eiffel Tower because the city wanted it there temporarily. He said he would pay for it if they would leave it there longer. He paid 38 million Euros and received that money back within 6 months of it opening. It has also been many colors. It has been green, red, and yellow. When up there, where people have picked at the paint in certain locations and you can actually see the different colors.

 Here it is sparkling at 11pm!

We were sad that our trip was over, but we were also so anxious to get home to our kids. This trip was so great, and I will never forget the beauty of Paris.