Now that’s a title I never thought I’d be typing! Paris. I went to Paris.
Dave and I went to Paris on our honeymoon. Pinch me!
I’ve wanted to travel to Paris possibly my whole life. My love for France and the French language started with my mom who would speak French to us all the time, “Maintenant! Vite Vite!” (Now! Quick! Quick! when we were trying to get out of the house.) She also gave me the middle name Renée. Trés Français.
[ on my way to the Louvre ]
I took French in middle school and high school. I remember this high school trip to France that I really really wanted to go on, but there was no way I could even ask my parents because I knew we didn’t have the money. I saw pictures of the trip the next year and I was practically drooling. One day I would go.
[ Notre Dame ]
I went on to take some French classes in college, read books about life in France, obsessively watched the movie Julie and Julia and read and re-read the book. I imagined myself moving to France and becoming an author, tip-tapping on my typewriter while looking out onto the French countryside and eating pastries. *sigh*
[ at a French cafe people watching. are you kidding me. ]
Of course when I met Dave, I continued my mom’s tradition of saying random French phrases. My favorites include, “Je ne sais pas” (I don’t know), “Je t’aime” (I love you) and “Qu’est-çe que tu fais” (What are you doing). #nerdlife
I feel a little dramatic when I explain how much it means to me that we took this trip, but really, it meant a lot. Going to France or even out of the country seemed like this lofty dream at times. It’s funny, too, because it’s not like it is outlandishly expensive. It’s something you could literally put on a credit card if you really wanted to go. This may be something to talk to a therapist about, but it was almost like I didn’t think I deserved to go on such a fancy trip.
[ tour guide: touch the star and one day you will return to Paris. me: ]
Aside from needing therapy, there were a lot of cool things in Paris. We explored the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame and the Louvre.
[ fun fact: Notre Dame isn’t the biggest or most ornate cathedral in France…it’s just the most famous. ]
[ Notre Dame. fun fact: they took this glass down to clean and got all the pieces mixed up so those aren’t originally where they were placed. ]
We also walked around gawking at all of the old architecture and taking pictures of pretty doors. I posted this on Instagram, but if I could, I would pack it all up and make my job be taking pictures of windows and doors in Paris and London.
[ had to get a picture of the teal Parisian door ]
I’ve tried to write this post recap a number of times, and I just can’t seem to do it justice. I’ve slowly recapped some of the travels on Instagram, but we took hundreds of pictures on the trip. I haven’t even started to go through the pictures that Dave took on his fancy camera. Lots of tourist-y ones like with me “leaning” against the Eiffel Tower or “holding” the pyramid at the Louvre. (fun fact: I thought the entire Lovre was in a big pyramid…it’s actually just a thing out front!)
I didn’t want time to go by and not do a post though, so a less-than-perfect one it is! (plus the blog is not happy with the crazy amount of giant photos)
Overall, I’m just SO grateful (we both are) that we were able to take a trip like this.
[ in a constant state of “is this really happening” ]
I’ll be back sometime to share more…hopefully some photos of London as well!
So tell me…
Have you ever gone out of the country? Where to??
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