France Day 6

On our last full day in France, we actually slept in pretty late. Sam was feeling really sick with a cold, and I was starting to get one. After the delay we headed to Paris anyway all bundled up in warm clothes! We went and saw the Musee Rodin. We walked around the grounds looking at all of his incredible statues.

The Thinker

We tried going to see Napoleon's tomb, but it was closed. Sam was pretty bummed, but we still took pictures! hehe.

Sam's newly beloved "Ponce" pose

We went to a few souvenir shops and Sam bought me a DARLING red and black purse and some other trinkets.

After, we went to the Eiffel tower again at night to enjoy the sparkling of the tower. We sat underneath and ate some delicious French pastries! As we were basking in our love, these guys kept coming up to us with mini eiffel towers (we already bought like 6 from the souvenir shop). It was hilarious, they were like drug dealers! They kept coming up all slyly asking if we wanted any. As we were walking away... Sam kind of kicked a pigeon that got a little too close. hehe. I think it was on accident...? ("Not a chance." - Sam)

And that sums up our last night in Europe. Sad day for the Lentz family! And yes, I am finally done blogging our trip!

France Day 5

We went to the Arc de Triomphe, which was really cool to see. We walked up these circular steps all the way to the top... yea, I was gasping for breath by the time we got up to the top and had to use my inhaler... haha. I'm pathetic, I know. As we were going to walk down again, we saw this elevator. So we just hopped in. The attendant told us that we couldn't go in because it was only for handicapped people, so I whipped out my inhaler and tried to tell him in French that I needed to and he actually let us! I was so stinking excited!

(And yes it kept going and going and going!!)

Next we went to Notre Dame. We had a wonderful time there. It was extra special for me thinking that that was one of my Grandpa Walton's favorite places to go!

The next stop was going to be the Musee D'orsay, which has a lot of impressionist work (Monet, Renoir, Manet, Van Gogh, etc), but we got off on the wrong Metro stop. We were already closer to the Louvre, and it was pouring rain. So rather than walking to the Musee D'Orsay, we just stayed at the Louvre. There was so much to see there, it actually worked out fine. It was so cool to see so many paintings and statues I have learned about my whole life.

France Day 4

Our main thing on Tuesday was going to the Chateau De Versailles. Sam had been there before, but it was my first time and I loved it. First of all, they have SO much damask in the Chateau! I was in love with it! We waited outside in the rain for awhile to get tickets and these guys started to drive Sam nuts with their smoking and umbrellas.

This one guy kept poking Sam with his umbrella (which is why I am not allowed to carry an umbrella around him... I have almost poked him in the eye too many times.... haha) ...so anyways he was already a little annoyed going into the line to get our headsets. Then this man behind us kept trying to sidle up in front of us. Then as we were waiting for a desk to open, he jumped the gun and took our spot, pushing us in the process! We then had to wait a while, because there was family that wasn't really getting headset concept. As we were leaving the line, Sam "accidentally" gave him a little bump and he turned around and started SCREAMING at Sam in broken English. Everyone in the whole palace entryway started staring at him. Sam chuckled and calmly insisted that the man should take the spot in line because it was obviously very important to him. "It is a gift from me to you." Then as we walked away he kept screaming "WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM?! WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM?!"

We finally got past the annoyance of the crazy European man, and started to enjoy the incredibly lavish palace. I can't even describe how beautiful it was so I'll just post pictures.

Sam posing with his ancestor Charlemagne

The palace grounds...

Marie Antoinette's Petite Trianon...

More of the grounds...

After visiting the Chateau, we went to Gordon Ramsay's restaurant in our hotel: Gordon Ramsay Au Trianon. We got in and both decided to each order an appetizer--the least expensive things on the menu, still starting around 40 Euros--but we got WAY more than we bargained for. First of all the waiter kept coming by with different types of bread for us to try. And for the butter they had this cool butter and pepper tower! While we were eating our bread, they came and put these weird silver spikey things. We tried to figure out what to do with them for about 15 minutes until they came and turned them over and put some buttery cod mousse with mini breadsticks. Then they brought out a platter of beef tartar (think raw meat popsicles with wasabi, not tartar sauce). I ate one that Sam wouldn't try (that should have told me something), and he, in turn, tried one that I wouldn't try.

Then they brought out our meals--braised pork and lobster ravioli--which were both delicious! Later they brought out this INCREDIBLE sorbet that was mint with pineapple and green apple chunks... sounds weird but sooo good. Then they brought us these things that look like Ferrero Rocher candies but they actually ice cream. They brought them out in this container with dry ice that filled our whole table with a mini cloud of fog! THEN they brought by a candy cart! We could pick out any of these delectable homemade goodies to eat. Then the waiter came with our check and gave us this gift bag filled with a really good loaf of lemon bread. So, to sum up, we got 7 courses even though we only ordered appetizers!! How cool is that? Good work Gordie!

France Day 3

Ok, so this is going to be done in bullet point format--there is just too much to cover for this day! And I am so behind on blogging!

Bike tour through Paris (again, best way to tour a city!)
- Eiffel Tower
- Montparnasse Tower
- No rain on the bike tour! (We were blessed in London to have no rain, but it rained about the whole time in France.)
- Napoleon's tomb
- Dome Church (one of Sam's favorite landmarks--an icon for the French revolution)

- Invalides
- Musee D'Orsay
- Alexander III bridge and the discotheque beneath it (Did you know they actually use that word? I always figured it was just our high school French and Spanish books from the 80s. ¿Dónde está la discoteca?)
- Ecole Militaire

- National Assembly
- Place de la Concorde
- Luxor Oblisque

End of bike tour... now the rest of our journeys of the day:

- Shopping on the Champs Elysee
- We went to the view points at Montparnasse Tower and saw the Eiffel tower looking gorgeous at night. There was a little tourist attraction to take a picture in front of a green screen (then they would set the backdrop as a view of Paris), but Sam was wearing a green shirt and apparently it was close enough to the same color that the picture was pretty funky. It seemed like an inconvenience at the time, but now we seriously regret not getting it. Hindsight's 20/20.

- Dinner at Montparnasse Tower (For those of you who don't know, this is the only skyscraper in Paris. After they built it, everyone hated it and thought that the Eiffel Tower should always be the centerpiece of Paris). We got to watch the tower sparkle while we ate!

- At dinner Sam ordered escargot (snails) and made me try it. It was my first and last time eating it--that is for sure. I had the oddest lasagna that was primarily made of cabbage and carrots. (I think Maria would have loved it! hehe) We had an incredible view of the Eiffel Tower during dinner.

France Day 2

The Versailles Ward was completely in French. We got to wear these headphones that looked like black olives and a missionary translated for us and the other English speakers. It was pretty entertaining! I was really surprised at how big the ward was. I was expecting the Versailles ward to be more of a branch.

We then went to the laundromat. (I know, I know laundry on a Sunday--but we were desperate and traveling!) As we were doing our laundry, it started to sprinkle outside. I suggested we call a cab to take us back to our hotel, but Sam insisted that we would be fine. ("I'm such an idiot." - Sam now thinking introspectively) By the time we started walking it was pouring. Sam put his coat on over our laundry bag, so there he was in the POURING rain walking in his church dress shirt down the streets of Versailles. It was about a mile away. By the time we got back, we were both wet and miserable, and sure enough Sam agreed that we should have called a cab... hehe. He started to catch a cold the next day too... no bueno! (Brittany, I'm pretty sure that's Spanish.)

When we got back to our hotel, we found out all the elevators in our building weren't working--along with our room phone. So Sam worked his magic and got us upgraded to the other building, which was SO incredibly nice. I had never even stepped into a hotel that was that chic! Plus the view from our new room looked directly into the Chateau Versailles' gardens! Lots of little sheep to look at all day! So gorgeous... wow.

Finally, we went down to the pool and steam room. I soon realized that steam rooms do not mix well with my asthma!

Some photos of our hotel:



(Not gonna lie I thought these padded walls on the elevator were awesome!)





The view from our hotel room looking out in the gardens of the chateau:

First Day in France

We took the Eurostar train from London to Paris REALLY early in the morning. We took a cab from Paris to AMAZING Versailles. The drive was beautiful! I was trying really hard to conjure up any French I remembered from high school, and realized it was not going to get me very far at all. We got to our hotel and headed straight to bed for a nap.



When we woke up in the late afternoon, we walked through the streets of Versailles, which were absolutely gorgeous. We stopped at the Quick Burger (which I definitely remember talking about in high school French class), then went to a bakery and picked up the best loaf of bread I have ever had, as well as some desserts that were to die for. Sigh... I miss their bread.

(The pathway we walked everyday into town!)