"Paris is always a good idea."

Our 1st Anniversary... in Paris :)

The next stop in our European tour was to the city of romance and the location of hundreds of cheesy chick-flicks.... Paris, France. We traveled by bus/ferry from London to Paris. It wasn't as long of a trip as I thought it would be. (Traveling through Europe made me realize the massiveness of the United States.)

In London, across the street from the bus station

Crossing the English Channel

Prelude to the Journey

But I need to take a few steps back and explain something. Paris is how this whole trip started. I wanted to do something really special for Jenni on our 1st anniversary, but I couldn't pick any one thing. Then, one day we were watching the Discovery Channel (don't laugh) and there was a special on that was all about famous fountains around the world (ok, now you can laugh). Jenni has a bizarre obsession with fountains (and several other water-related things). One of the fountains was called the Palace of Versailles and is located on the outskirts of Paris. It was this huge compound full of huge fountains that used rather old technology. It looked like the kind of place where you would find a life-sized maze with the walls made from the bushes. Jenni thought this was probably one of the coolest places on Earth, so that's where I got the idea. We would go to Paris for our anniversary and on July 14th, we would visit the Palace of Versailles. I did some research and then presented my idea. Jenni loved it! Two minds are better than one, so Jenni said, "Why don't we stay longer and see more of Europe?" Genius! Why don't we?! So we turned a few days in Paris into about a month in Europe.

Fast forward...

We stayed in Paris through our anniversary, July 14th, and had an amazing experience. After this stop, we both decided that living in Paris some day would be pretty cool. We were totally impressed by just about everything... the attractions, the cleanliness, the public transportation, the helpful people (maybe we just got lucky on that one, but everyone was really nice) and the food, oh my God, the food :-P


We arrived in the middle of the night at a metro station. It was so late that nobody was working at the time. We had to ask some fellow passengers how to get to our hotel and how to navigate the metro.

We got off at our stop, Republique... I think, and used a map and my trusty compass to get to the hotel. The compass worked better than the ipad :) Jenni teased me for bringing it, but I ended up using it several times. She said I watch too many survival shows, which is true, but none the less, it was useful.


We found our hotel rather quickly considering the hour. The city was beautiful, even in the dead of night :)

"I think it's this way..."

"...or maybe this way"

It's been so long since the trip now, that I'm sure I won't remember every little detail. So I'll just put up some pics with captions and add what I can remember:

I will say that I was rather surprised by the amount of French I knew (We thought we didn't know any, but we were at least able to be polite and ask a few questions in French.) I give most of the credit to Disney cartoons and random movies we've seen over the years :)

This was July 13, 2013. This was a day of walking. We took the metro to the Eiffel Tower, and it was all on foot from there.

Eiffel Tower 

We just walked all over the place. We stumbled upon this enormous arch. After checking the map I realized that lots of people probably stumble upon this place, because it is the center of an absolutely massive roundabout (intersection). I think about a dozen streets intersect at this point.

I thought the Marble Arch was pretty big, but this thing is ridiculous! 

It looks gigantic from far away, but you don't realize how big it is until you are right there. It might be high enough to do a base-jump off the top!

Arc de Triomphe! 

The Arc de Triomphe is a war memorial.

There are scrolling and other intricate details everywhere on this thing.

The tunnel that goes underneath the arc.

The monument was a pleasant surprise. I'd never heard of it before and was really impressed. Did I mention that it was HUGE? We stayed and stared for a long while before we decided to move on. On the way out, we discovered the underground tunnel you are supposed to take to get to and from the arc. To get over there the first time, we just crossed the huge, busy, dangerous intersection on foot... like dumb tourists ;)

So, we started walking again. I checked the map and saw that the Louvre Museum was a straight shot down one of the streets. It ended up being a really long walk, but there was plenty to look at along the way. Maybe it was such a long walk, because we stopped every 30 meters to look at something :)

In the distance we could see the Luxor Obelisk! (sometimes called, Cleopatra's Needle)
It was shipped in from Egypt.
It is a symbol peace... there used to be a guillotine there that was used for public executions.
There are lots of crazy stories about this monument :)

Strolling through a park

So close!

Amazing architecture!

I didn't catch the name of this one, but I found it quite interesting.

It's a centaur, riding away with a woman. It's bizarre, but I liked it.

Another eye-catcher!

Jenni had fun playing with the new camera. She has a fascination with the panoramic feature :)

Entering the Louvre courtyard :)

There is the famous pyramid! Now I'm really getting excited!

Epic panoramic!

The entrance is surrounded by these walls that are covered with statues.

The Louvre was closing , so we decided to leave and come back earlier tomorrow (Tomorrow is our 1 year anniversary)

Inside the glass pyramid

Sad that we don't get to go in today :(

Jenni had to take the cheesy pic before we left :)

You can see these statues from outside the museum

We saw this guy on the way out... pretty cool :)

That night, we went out to this goofy fondue place. We had a great time :)

One the way there, we could see the Basilique Du Sacre Coeur

It's a beautiful church. We were only in Paris a few days, so we didn't get to go inside.

I don't know why, but cobblestone roads make you feel good :)

We have arrived at the goofy fondue restaurant :)

The walls were covered in money from all over.

I don't really like wine, but it's does seem to taste better when you drink
it out of a baby bottle :-/

:)

That's one way to avoid a temper tantrum ;)

Jenni's favorite food group: CHEESE

We got to put up the first Vietnamese bank note in the restaurant!

Time for bed. Today was busy, but tomorrow will be a big day, too

Here's a totally random one for you. I have no idea when we took this, but
it's another pic of me with a coke zero written in another language :)
I don't know why I find this so amusing.

An Awesome Anniversary!

On t.v., they said that the Palace of Versailles was on the outskirts of Paris, and they weren't kidding. My God, it took a long time to get out there. Two metro cars, one long train ride and a nice little hike on foot is what it took to get there. It is in the middle of nowhere! And it's worth it ;)

This place could have been used to film scenes from Alice and the Wonderland. While walking around the greenery, it wouldn't have been terribly surprising to see some giant, walking, talking, playing cards :)

Anyhow, we got there and snaked our way through a pretty long line that cut through a lot of the palace. The line let us out in the back of the palace, and we didn't know where to begin. This garden was massive. We walked all over it. The perfectly manicured lawns, shrubs and flowers were stunning.  There were fountains everywhere. Then, later on in the day, all of them turned on at the same time. There was a music/dancing fountain show throughout the whole place. It was quite a sight.

My herniated disk really kicked my butt that day :(
I took a few breaks, but I still got to see a lot of this place.

There are a few truly impressive trees/sculptures in the garden.
This one is of a young tree growing inside the shell of an older tree.

All of this was King Louis XIV's backyard.

Here are the other interesting trees. One is gold plated, and
the other is planted upside-down with a small tree growing up from it's roots
(You can't really see that tree very well in this pic. It's in the back on the left side)

My cutie on our one year anniversary!

I still find it a bit mind-boggling that we went somewhere, because it looked cool on the Discovery Channel :)

To the Louvre... again

It was a hot day, so everyone was soaking their feet in the fountain outside. 

The Louvre was the busiest museum I have ever seen.

The line to get in was intimidatingly long, but it moved very quickly.

Smiling with the Mona Lisa :)

How cool is that?

The place was so big, that we got lost :)

After the museum, we got ready for dinner. Jenni got all dolled up and we went to place that was recommended by our hotel concierge. The best lasagna I've ever had in my life! We went to Italy after Paris, and this place still has the BEST LASAGNA I'VE EVER HAD IN MY LIFE!

;)

If you are in Paris, go here for Italian food!

After dinner, we went on a night boat tour of Paris along the Seine. It ended up being a lot more exciting than we thought! We had a few clues that something was up, but we didn't know what was going on until later in the night. As we walked to the pier to get on the boat, we couldn't help but notice the masses of people that were everywhere. Seriously, thousands and thousands of people were on the bridges, sidewalks and streets, and there were police everywhere. It seemed like a big party, but we didn't know what they were celebrating. We weren't sure if it was a special occasion or if Paris was always like this in the summer :)

We also noticed that the Eiffel Tower was lit up like a Christmas tree, but
again, we didn't know if that was normal
(   I'd never seen it like that in the movies ;)   )

We got on the boat next to the T-Rex :)

L'Assemblee Nationale

Notre Dame

What a beautiful city!

As the boat came back to the pier, we started to hear fireworks in the distance. They were going off next to the Eiffel Tower, which was going crazy with blinking lights. It was about this time that Jenni figured out what all the celebration was about. We remembered that we got married on Bastille Day!! (which is pretty much French Independence Day...I think) And we celebrated our 1st Anniversary in Paris, France!!! How freakin' cool is that?!!!! 

Then, I couldn't help myself. I told Jenni that I planned the fireworks for our anniversary ;) She said I must of really pulled some strings ;)

It was the coolest fireworks show we ever saw. The fireworks were in sync with the lights on the Eiffel Tower and it was perfect! They even had fireworks that blew up in the shape of the French flag. (I love the U.S.A., but yes, I can appreciate other countries and cultures without being unpatriotic :P )

The finale was intense. That show must have cost an insane amount of money.

I said this probably 50 times, that month, "It's crazy to see and touch the things we only read about in our history books at school. If I had done this when I was younger, I definitely would have been more interested in history."

I know I said this already, but both of us really felt like we could live there for a couple of years someday. We finished off Paris with a bang... literally ;) It was a very welcoming and spectacular experience. Paris set the bar high for the rest of the European tour! It was the perfect way to celebrate our 1st year of marriage. We wouldn't have changed a thing :)

Next stop.... Barcelona. It's time for some rest and relaxation on the beach :)

-Johnny