My Last Day in Paris!

Trying to figure out the right thing to do on my last day in Paris was kind of hard. I was trying to decide what I hadnt done, what I wanted to see one last time, who wanted to do these things with me....

First thing on the Last Day List: Climb to the top of the Eiffel Tower. (No, I havent done this yet)

Could these boys look more American?! LA Dodgers and Texas Rangers...wow!

Pre-climb shot

About 300 steps later, we made it to the first level!

Since we got there early, and took the stairs instead of the lift, we skipped a HUGE line!

668 steps later, we made it to the second level!

In Paris, people do love locks on bridges around the city. They lock the locks to the bridge and then throw the key in the river. Ben thought it would be nice to be original and put a lock on the Eiffel Tower instead. And no, even though Ben wanted to, we did NOT throw the keys off the side of the tower!

Next stop, the top level. You are not permitted to take the stairs to the top, you have to take the lift. You have to buy a separate ticket to get to the elevator to go to the very top. Ben, Luke and I learn this after waiting in line on the second level for about 20 minutes. Then, every single ticket office was closed.....one of the security guards told us to "just wait" until they open again. He said it might be 30 or 40 minutes until it opens again.....We could not make sense of this wack system the Eiffel Tower has going on here....we didnt make it up to the top after all due to the poor running of the tower ticket office. Maybe next time!

Lunch was at an Asian restaurant that I have come to love and dont even know the name of! We get the same thing every time: Bo Bun. It is basically egg noodles, ground beef, onions, and chopped up egg rolls. So tasty and gets you very full for only 5 euro!

Next, we biked around the city, made a pit stop at the Luxembourg Gardens

The boys left to go to Germany on a night train and I went to dinner with Mary Cameron at a souffle restaurant I ran across a week ago....the menu looked good and the place looked fancy so I thought we would try it out!

I got the tomato basil souffle. When it arrived, the waiter poked holes in it and poured tomato basil soup into the middle of it! 

None of my clothes fit anymore....this is probably why....I wont be eating like I have these past 3 months ever again :(

 Chocolate souffle for dessert. Again, the waiter poked holes and poured in piping hot chocolate syrup

 Im going to miss ya MC! Youve been such a great friend this summer

 We took an evening stroll after dinner and I fell in love with the city all over again. It is a completely different city at night when everything is lit up. I cant believe how beautful this city is and how blessed I am that I got to live here for 3 months!

A Few thoughts looking back:

Paris smells as bad as it is pretty. People use the public walkways and stairwells to do their business. Also, Europeans dont shower or wash their clothes. Oh my gosh, does this city smell bad. The only cure to this was walking by a bakery at just the right time when the pastries have just come out of the oven.

French children might be the cutest children in the world. Their parents dress them like little adults but they run around (obviously) like the 3 and 4 year olds that they are. Too cute

I will never be able to have this kind of traveling freedom again. But I think I took advantage of it as much as possible

I have the best friends and family in the world and they are in Texas :) You never know how much you are loved until you leave and get sweet messages begging you to come home

My clothes are fitting very tight these days...so this means no more drinking, no more bread, no more cheese, lots more running, lots more spin classes

My Only Regrets: 

I wish I had biked more and took the metro less. You learn the city so much better when you are above ground rather than below it.

I wish I had learned French over here....like hired a French tutor or something. Seems like a missed opportunity to be over here for so long and not at least get a grasp of the language

I wish I had taken one or two more cooking classes. Those are some of my favorite memories!

I cannot believe that this summer it is over. A chapter in my life is ending and now I return to reality....a new apartment and a real live j-o-b. Yikes. A far cry from my strolling life I have been living in Paris.

Im so happy to be going home though! I have missed everyone so much and it will be so nice to be back to my American life I have been delaying for 3 months! My flight leaves at 1130am tomorrow morning!! Get me back to the Texas heat! 

Geneva, Switzerland

Pure coincidence: Ian was picking up Mark, Tamsin and Lena in Geneva, Switzerland the morning I was leaving Burgundy. Ben had heard great things throughout the summer about Lake Geneva and the surrounding area and it was a small 3 hour train from Paris. So I rode with Ian to Geneva and met Ben at the train station in Geneva and did some exploring in the lake town....

For dinner we went to Hotel Edelweiss (Sound of Music anyone??). It was very cheesy, very Disney-esque, but so fun! There was live music, yodeling, St Bernard dogs everywhere, Asian tourists galore, and the most delicious fondue! Gave Simply Fondue a run for its money

The famous flower clock in the English gardens

We decided to leave the sunbathing by the lake and take a bus tour around the city. The tour actually costs a pretty penny so we were looking forward to some good sights and a good tour guide....oh wow. Wrong on all counts. First off, here is a picture of our bus driver...texting! Second, as we got on the bus and Indian family of 4 had taken 4 window seats in four different rows...taking up 8 seats! So Ben and I couldnt sit together...

 Our tour guide then showed us around the city...ugly buildings and a bad accent didnt mesh too well and Ben and I became very antsy. We knew it was a bad sign when she showed us the "2nd most important building" on the tour and it was a horrid looking Dept of Labor building. The #1 building was neat though...the United Nations:

The guides accent is very strong and it is hard to understand what she is saying. The Canadians behind us kept yelling up to the front asking her what she said, and what was the building to the left? The guide got so frustrated with them she began saying "maam I already told you twice! thats the XYZ building!!!" It became pretty comical

The head of the family of 4 thought that the 45 Swiss Franks spent on the tour was a good price for a 2 hour nap....

Ben being very tacky....

Overall, Geneva is a very neat city, but really only because the lake is so gorgeous and because the entire town has a beach culture feel to it with people picnicking, BBQing, drinking, lounging and laying out at all hours of the day. Interlaken and Gimmewald beat out this Switzerland city.....It is pretty fun though to say I have been to Switzerland twice in one week :)

Tomorrow is my last day in Paris.....

If God Were French....

.....this is what Heaven would look like.

The Henderson Family lovingly invited me to their beautiful home in the heart of Burgundy, in a small village named Creot. Their home is, as Ian describes it, a crumbling old winemakers home. It is a perfect place for family from all over the world (literally) to come together and enjoy each other's company and TONS of wine :) 

The trip was filled with eating, drinking, reading, relaxing, laughing, cuddling with Molly Rose, and catching up with family. 

Molly has moved to solids!

A lunch party in the garden

It was so fun to hang out with these 2 for a couple of days

Chloe in the window!

Grandma time

Loving being with Grandpa

Sweet Aunt Chloe kisses

 Lunch in the Garden

One afternoon we took an adventure into different neighborhoods of Burgundy to do a little wine tasting with some local vineyard owners. We stopped at a woman's home in Volnay and tasted nice red wines in her living room. She then took us town to her cave to show us where the wine was stored beneath the house.

This bottle is from 1954! or was it 1959? I cant remember, but either way....its a pretty neat thing to have in ones basement

 With our purchases. Mom and Dad, you might be benefiting from the fruits of our wine tasting :)

The second night I was there, the Hendersons threw a dinner party for a couple of families in the neighborhood. We drank all different wines from the area and ate a proper BBQ dinner! 

Wine tasting-Ian Henderson style...

One of the families from the village who made gazpacho for the party.

Best shot of the weekend!

I cant wait to return to Creot. Thank you Hendersons for being incredible hosts and making me feel so welcome into your home! Hopefully we will see each other during the Christmas holidays! I love yall!