This April, Dan and I took a highly anticipated trip to France with Ken and Nola. It was an awesome vacation to Paris, the Normandy beaches, and Loire Valley. We settled all of the Storm children with Grandpa Glen and Grammy Sharon {Forever grateful to these 2 for holding down the fort in Wisconsin!} and crossed the Atlantic. I was messaging on my flight wifi and happened to scroll by my weather app - kind of wild to see your location pop up as 'North Atlantic Ocean'
We mad it to Paris and caught an Uber to our lodging - the Hotel les Jardins du Luxembourg. Here is a plaque stating that Sigmund Freud once stayed here back in 1885.
It was super early in the morning when we arrived so we got coffee right away - nothing better than a European coffee. 10 out of 10.
Annnnnd ... when you have a coffee in Paris, you must pair it with a croissant. Delish!
Our hotel was right next to the Luxembourg gardens so of course we went for a stroll.
You know that we have to take pictures of lions to send home to our little Leon. ;)
The French gardens were lovely!
We take photos of lions for our Leo and snap stags/deer statue pics for our Daniel.
After a long winter it is so, so good to see things in bloom!
We spotted a little reminder of the US of A.
Tiny sailboats and blooming tulips? Spring day of champions.
We loved the Parisian parks!
Next up was a visit to the Pantheon.
This is the view across the street at a University - I just liked seeing the Liberte, Egalite, and Fraternite carved in the facade.
I mean look at how beautiful the inside of the Pantheon is!
This building has flipped between church and secular temple honoring great French thinkers.
Here lies Rousseau & Marie + Pierre Curie.
Here is Victor Hugo -
He shares a final resting room with Dumas.
And Mr. Braille.
It was a very remarkable building! This place also holds Leon Foucault's pendulum experiment that visually demonstrates the rotation of the Earth.
We continued with our neighborhood walks through Paris - we stayed in the in the 5th Arrondissement which is the Latin Quarter.
We loved seeing the markets in the streets - cheese, berets and caps ...
...sardines and pies...
Escargot and flowers - WOW!
Have you ever seen such beautiful mustards?
I had a goat cheese and bacon salad for lunch - so good! The rest of the crew got French onion soup. Be prepared for a lot of food pics coming up in the next few blog posts.
We crossed the Seine to get to the Notre Dame.
We also had plans to tour Sainte-Chapelle later that day.
So very thankful to have a chance to visit this extraordinary place after that big fire a few years ago.
We are glad that we were able to snag timed tour tickets in advance because the lines were bananas!
The stained glass was extraordinary! Can you believe that construction started on this building during the 12th century. Amazing.
Two exhausted Americans listening to a Saturday night mass at Notre Dame.
An absolute masterpiece of a building!
We got word from Wisconsin that the kiddos were having a great weekend on the other side of the Atlantic. They explored the Ice Age Trail with Grammy and Grandpa.
Eeks - Zero green to be found in Wisconsin during mid-April!
Our next stop in Paris was Sainte Chapelle.
This chapel has the most beautiful stained glass - these windows have over 1000 scenes from the Old and New Testament.
It was the most beautiful and peaceful place - maybe an unpopular opinion but I liked it more than Notre Dame. I can't believe that these spaces are just a short walk apart.
After our time in holy places - we headed out for dinner.
Steak and frites and lamb chops - yum!
And a crepe for dessert - Chefs Kiss!
Our bellies were full and we were very jet lagged - what a relief to get to the hotel and crash for the night! We needed a good rest because the next day was a trip to Versailles!
