Paris!

We were so happy to have my brother, sister-in-law, niece and nephew fly over to live like Danes with us in Copenhagen for a few days and then we all traveled to Paris together for their Texas spring break. The kids loved their cousin time and we all had such fantastic time together.  

I hear many friends say that Paris is amazing or that it is their favorite city on Earth but I can't say that I was absolutely dying to go see it - with all the other places within a 2-3 hour direct flight of Copenhagen - it just hadn't made the top of the list. It was definitely on my bucket list of places we must see while we live abroad and now I am SO glad we went there. To say it is beautiful is just about the biggest understatement you can make. And we got so many fantastic photos but I have to say that they don't do the detail of each and every building there justice. A random apartment building has the most ornate detailed trim work - nothing is plain. We would be walking to a big site and we would all the sudden  come upon a magnificent building and the group of us would look at each other and ask 'What is this?' and it would not even be on the map. Everything is that amazing! I suppose that is the great thing about visiting a very old city that was not destroyed by recent wars.

Dome Church

We did the Hop on Hop off bus tour to start out the trip and would definitely do that again! Not only did it save the kids legs, but we got to see the city and learn about each of the big sites to help us figure out which ones we wanted to spend more time at.

The Louvre - the size of this place is completely overwhelming! We opted not to spend a day in there trying to find the Mona Lisa but instead just marveled at the beauty of the outside. The kids also made wishes in the fountain.

I'm not a big fan of this horrible pyramid they put in the center of the beautiful building! It's one of the entrances to the museum and quite tacky!

Notre Dame - Such an amazing cathedral - wow! The first stone was laid in 1163. It is such a wonder how they built these tall beautiful structures with no machines. How many people died during the building? There is a model in Notre Dame showing how they lifted big stones high up - there is literally a guy running in a hamster wheel sort of contraption which moves a pulley that lifts the stone. No wonder it takes hundred or thousands of years to build some of these buildings!

The kids enjoyed a cupcake from the cupcakery around the corner from Notre Dame

 So outside Notre Dame one of the street performers would put bird feed in the kids hair and on their hands so that the birds would fly all over them. The kids thought it was great. We paid for this of course - to have what Jackson refers to as 'flying rats' landing all over our kids! Sadly it was the highlight to their visit of Notre Dame.

The Eiffel Tower - Clearly, we could not visit Paris without a trip up to the summit of the Eiffel Tower! I didn't realize how nervous I would be going up. I have been up in many very tall buildings without worry - it has to be the glass elevators and the fact that the structure is mostly open. We braved the cold winds though to enjoy the view from the top.

Cousins!

you may not be able to tell that Raegan is laying down on the glass floor on the first floor in the tower - those ants are people below

View from 2nd floor

from 2nd floor

from 2nd floor

Some of us made it to the Summit! As you can tell it was quite windy and cold

View from the summit

The kids enjoyed the carousel at the base of the Eiffel Tower

A Seine River cruise - We can never seem to pass up a chance to see a city by water when offered. Plus this one had a bar! Drinks well deserved after braving the trip all the way up to the top of the Eiffel tower I have to say (I say that as if we walked up the stairs - ha!)...

This is what the little ones did while we enjoyed the cruise. If you can't tell, each has their own device.

Such a beautiful bridge

The back side of Notre Dame

We took a day trip to Reims in the Champagne region. Highly recommend it! The TGV is awesome. 45 min to go100 miles - not bad!

the TGV train displayed the speed - maxing out at 310 km/h or 192 MPH! A very smooth ride too

Enjoying 1st class

While we were very thirsty and itching to try the champagne, we were detoured by this amazing cathedral - dating back to the 1200's. I personally think it is even more magnificent than Notre Dame.

A visit to G.H. Mumm Champagne house - in a 25km long series of tunnels underneath the house they have 25 million bottles of champagne. very impressive. It was interesting to learn about the 2 phase process that goes into making champagne - the additional second fermentation to create the bubbles and the process to remove the sediment. Now it makes more sense why it's so much more expensive than regular wine!

 Our second tour was at a small family run champagne house - while G.H. Mumm was interesting, I think I am partial to visiting the small houses.

The kids had a blast there too ;-)

Old Roman in Reims ruins dating back to 180 and 230

The girls, in their matching outfits, were singing their hearts out to Frozen 'Let it go' while waiting for champagne tour #2 

We packed a lot into this visit - we also took a day trip to the Palace of Versailles - hundreds of years ago this was the capital of France and the cradle of the French Revolution. Hard to believe it started out as Louis XIII’s hunting lodge.

Including this photo only because I have no idea why Wyatt is making that face ( maybe he's about to get squished by the crowd??) - all while Raegan is clearly posing as if she is on stage

Other places!

Arc de Triomphe 

Place de la Révolution - where Marie Antoinette was beheaded

Conciergerie - the old prison of the Reign of Terror - where Marie Antionette was kept waiting her execution

Conciergerie

We bought the kids a lock to keep on the bridge. We put the keys safely in their souvenir key chain collection!

Les Invalides

Dome Church - tome of Nepolean

Jardin du Luxembourg

  Other miscellaneous photos...

at our favorite cocktail bar for happy hour (thanks to Jackson babysitting for us!)

And the random end of night candy truck stop

Our street we stayed on!

Our street - fantastic location for seeing Paris

Waiting for the train to Rue de Bac after a day in Versailles

We might have had a bit to drink when we took this one, but really this was our table for dinner one night and Tonya and I felt it was more natural to duck under whatever sort of platform they shoved us against than actually sit up straight and pose normally

Zonked out on the very crowded loud train from the airport

Jackson loved his baguettes!

The girls made an American Girl mansion out of the book case in the apartment

Paris at night

The kids typical evening in - thanks again Jackson!!

Some worn out girls...they dreamed of visiting Paris for months prior

Waiting for the TGV

Our Paris trip was really fantastic - definitely one of the top trips we have taken.

And now I will close with a montage of Ron's selfies, Because that is what I found on my camera when I went through these photos, so I thought I would share. Maybe I won't be so lucky next time??