Kelly and the kids road the ferris wheel and said that it was a stomach dropping experience!
We walked up to the second level. Thanks to P90X, I was able to hike the stairs without having a heart attack! The kids loved it!
The Louvre. I was worried that Bailey and Noah would be board but they actually really enjoyed the art, sculpture, and underground ruins! We were exhausted after about 2 hours!
Some of my favorite paintings were of Napoleon and Josephine. I read a series about their life together and so these painting brought it all home! Beautiful! I love art!!!!
Tuileries garden near the Louvre. We fed the birds croissants and ate our lunch while people watching!
The enchanting river Seine! I love all the bridges but especially Pont Neuf.
This crepe man has been on Rue Cler FOREVER! He was there last time we were there! Our favorites, ham, cheese, egg on buckwheat crepe and banana Nutella!
Across the street from Arc de Triompe.
I had to go to Maison du Chocolat. It is a gorgeous shop with amazing chocolates and pasteries.
The Roman aqueduct in Pont du Guard.
Outside of the chapel of Mary Magdalene. Her supposed skull can be viewed in a cript under the church.
Nice, and the French Riviera!
One of my favorite hill towns, Eze, near Monaco. Such a site! Too bad my photo is aweful! Look it up online!!!
The kids outside our friend's apartment.
Tons of olive orchards in the country!
The lavender had been harvested already, unfortunatly. You see it sold EVERYWHERE! Bailey's bag still smells like it since I stored some purchases in there!
The market in Aix. I just kept thinking how unfair it was for my friends to have this right near their apartment and how much I'd love to come here to get my produce everyday! Each stand is a work of art.
Many ruins, crumbled castles, old walls fill the country side. The kids loved exploring! So did the adults!
Arles.
The Roman Arena, gladiators, and 20,000 people hungry for some bloody action!
The swords we purchased outside the arena were a favorite with these two! They couldn't take their eyes off of the gladiator demonstration and afterword acted out what they saw. For days!
Some crazy drunk men were playing this game and we stopped to watch. Very entertaining.
We ate a ton of gelato! Practically every day!
One night at 2:00 A.M. Kelly and I got talking about missing the beach. It hits us every summer, that longing for the open sea. We thought about just packing up and going to San Diego on a whim. Well, it ended up being the French Riviera! Our good friends were getting ready to move there and we wanted to join them but hesitated. Kelly and I planned on going to Portugal in October and with school starting for both Bailey and I, I felt it was too late. But one night as we sat with our friends, we just couldn't resist the opportunity so we started planning with only a week and a half before our departure date. We decided to take Bailey and Noah with us since our friend's children and ours are close friends. We wanted to give them the experience of a foreign country and also make leaving a little easier on who ever watched our other 2 children. Well, we rushed to the post office to get our passports renewed and get Noah his first one when we found out that they couldn't expedite fast enough for us. So we drove to Denver to get them! Crazy, I know! It was actually a fun trip with Bailey and Noah. They were so good and patient. We got to see beautiful landscape and talk and basically just have quality time..in the car! We flew into Paris, stayed 2 days, saw all the major sites (Eiffel, Pont Neuf, Notre Dame, Arc de Triomphe, Louvre, Sainte Chapelle...). The kids loved it all! They got in miles of walking when we weren't taking taxis. It was so nice to be back to Paris! I love the Tuileries Garden and Notre- Dame areas. I love Rue Cler and the Seine River. It is a beautiful city!!!! I wished I had more time for more art. I would love to go to Musee d'Orsay someday. We had a great hotel room in a great location. We ate amazing food, crepes from Rue Cler and Latin Quarter, croissants from boulangeries, dinners in cute cafes. It was dreamy! After two days we took a train down to Aix en Provence. We got our rental car and had a day in Aix to wander and shop at the street market. That night Bailey got sick with diarrhea and vomiting. We were so worried about her and hoped it would pass quickly. She was such a trooper! She had a 12 hour stomach bug or food poisoning and then it passed. We were able to go to Isle Sur La Sorge for their famous Sunday Market. It was HUGE! They had everything you could imagine! These markets have Provencal wares, lavender, honey, soaps, linens, flower stands, fruits and vegetable stands, meat, fish, clothing, antiques, you name it! The narrow streets were lined with tents and hundreds of people! After the market we drove to Point du Guard to see the amazing Roman aqueduct. It was incredible! Still standing and in mint condition after thousands of years! A glorious sight! That night we finally met up with our friends at their apartment in Aix. Their apartment is spacious, very French and in a great location to shopping, restaurants and the hub of the city. We loved staying with them! So, the rest of our trip was spent driving around to various hill towns that made you want to take a million pictures. One of my favorite was Eze. This little hill town overlooks the Mediterranean Sea. It is nestled among lush green mountains. Unfortunately we got there as the sun was setting so pictures weren't really an option. I took some anyway but they aren't great in the low light. It was so fun wandering through the quiet cobblestone streets that wound up the mountain town, getting lost in the rustic charm and golden light of street lamps. I would go back to this place any day! It is simply unforgettable! We had two days on the beach. One of which gave us plenty of people watching, National Geographic topless women, sun burn and a good laughs that made my stomach ache and my mascara run down my face! James found a treasure that he was proud to show us adults who were laying on the beach. It ended up being a water logged poopy diaper! Yuck! But his total innocence and excitement over finding something in the ocean was priceless! We got to Arles (home of the Cafe Terrace, Bedroom in Arles, and other Van Gogh sites portrayed in his paintings.) We were in Cezanne territory as well. (His studio is in Aix) The tree lined streets, vineyards, sunflower fields, orchards of olive trees, tile roofed, shutter clad stucco farm houses, rolling green hills, rocky cliffs, would inspire any painter! We ate way too many gorgeous pastries, crispy pain au chocolat, crepes filled with nutella and banana, jambone and fromage baguettes, candy sweet farm produce found at fruit stands on the side of the road. One day dinner was my first real meal of the day because I had filled up on pastries all day long! We were able to leave the kids home with a movie and have 3 nice meals out at cafes to enjoy peaceful adult time, amazing food and the nightlife of Aix. It was nice to have two almost 12 year olds watching the 3 boys so we could go out! We had many laughs in the car, many theme songs to highlight our various activities, and serious picture taking! I felt teary eyed leaving our friends and leaving such a wonderful place. I feel like we really got a feel for what their life will be there, a feel for the town, people, places. We'll be back someday for sure! Next time, Dordogne!
