Paris

On Monday morning, we took the chunnel from London to Paris. We checked into our hotel, grabbed lunch at a little Cafe and headed to the Louvre

The Louvre was incredible, we didn't have nearly enough time there. It is huge! We were able to see a lot of incredible art in the short time that we were there. I loved the Winged Victory and the Madonna and Child by Raphael

I expected the Mona Lisa to be a little bit underwhelming...and it was. The whole room was packed with tourists and smelled really bad. It was pretty entertaining standing back and watching all the people clamoring to get a picture of the Mona Lisa and then leaving without a second glance

The biggest superstar of the Louvre that day was not the Mona Lisa it was actually...Carter. We carried him around the museum in the Baby Bjorn and the Asian tour groups LOVED him. On four separate occasions, an Asian person stopped and (without asking permission) took a picture of him and walked away. The Asian tour group's love for Carter became a recurring theme during our time in Paris, it was pretty hilarious. After leaving the museum, we spent some time walking around the Tuileries Gardens.

We also managed to find Laduree and stopped to get some macarons. We got chocolate, vanilla, salted caramel, and rose flavor. They were amazing.

The next day, my mom, Jeremy and I took the train to Versailles. When we got there, we were blown away by the line. We had purchased the Paris museum pass with the understanding that we would get to skip the lines...apparently not at Versailles. It would have been at least a three hour wait. Luckily, Carter came to the rescue. I asked one of the guards if there was anywhere I could sit to feed Carter, and he just kind of whisked us in front of everyone. I was so glad that we didn't have to wait. Versailles was pretty incredible.

It was really interesting learning more about Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. It seems like there are a lot of misconceptions about them, it doesn't seem like they were intentionally cruel, just kind of oblivious. With all of the excesses at Versailles, it wasn't hard to understand why the French revolution happened the way it did. Here we are in the hall of mirrors

My favorite place at Versailles was Marie Antionette's "cottage" and hamlet. here is a picture of her "cottage" where she lived during the summers

nearby, she had a little village built where she could pretend to be a shepherdess (I don't think this helped her image with the French people). It was such a cute little place.

I think Wednesday was my favorite day out of our whole trip to Europe. We took the train to Normandy to go on a private tour of the landing beaches. If you know me and Jeremy well, you know what big history nerds we are, so needless to say, we were pretty excited. Our guide picked us up at the train station and we drove to Ste Mere Eglise. Ste Mere Eglise is a little village near the Normandy coast that was one of the most important objectives that needed to be captured on D Day. The paratroopers from the 101st were supposed to get dropped about a mile from the village  but instead many of them got dropped right on top of it. A lot of them were killed before they even hit the ground. The paratroopers were able to hold the village and prevented reinforcements from getting to the landing beaches. A lot of my heroes from the Band of Brothers Books fought here. It was so cool to see it in person.

You can see a dummy paratrooper hanging from the church steeple. This actually happened, and the soldier survived by playing dead. There is still a little bit of evidence from the battle that survives in the village today.

that chunk taken out of the fence was from a bullet. Next, we drove to Utah beach.

I love that picture of Carter and my dad in the museum at Utah beach. After Utah, we stopped a little museum/cafe for lunch. This home used to be the German headquarters in Normandy. Several years ago, when the man who lived there was removing the wallpaper, he discovered a mural painted by the German soldiers who lived there during the occupation. One of these officers was really hated, he is the one with his face scratched out.

The whole time we were eating, the cute little French man who owns the museum kept bringing us artifacts to look at, he was so proud of his museum.

I am really glad our guide brought us there for lunch, it was fascinating. After lunch we drove to Pointe Du Hoc. It is truly incredible what the rangers accomplished here. They scaled basically sheer cliffs from the ocean to capture the big guns pointing a Utah and Omaha beaches. When they got to the top, they realized that the guns had been moved. Two of the rangers tracked down the guns and blew them up, right under the Germans' noses...pretty amazing. Before the rangers landed, Pointe Du Hoc was bombed really heavily and so there are incredibly massive bomb craters everywhere. Seeing the cliffs in person gave me even greater respect for what those men accomplished here. Seeing the bomb craters made me feel sorry for the German troops who were stationed here. It was interesting to learn that many of the "German" troops stationed along the Atlantic wall weren't really German at all, many of them were Polish or Russian prisoners of war forced to fight. Our guide had an interesting point...they are really casualties of the invasion as well.

After Pointe du Hoc, we drove to Omaha Beach.

In  the first picture, you can see the sea wall that was there during the landing. During the first few hours of the invasion, thousands of soldiers took shelter here when they were pinned down by enemy fire on the beach.We got there during high tide, so you can see there is basically no dry land against behind the sea wall. It is so heartbreaking that so many wounded soldiers actually drowned as the tide came in. They estimate more than 2,000 American troops died on this beach. Our guide did a wonderful job explaining the significance of what happened here, as well as helping us appreciate the heroism of the men who prevented the landing at this beach from becoming a complete disaster.

Our last stop of the day was the American cemetery  It is a really beautiful, reverent place. I really liked what our guide said about the veterans of D Day. He said, "They don't ask much of us, all that they ask is that we remember and that we help others remember."

We plan do this with Carter. I am so glad that we were able to visit Normandy, it was truly a life changing experience.

On Thursday, Jeremy, my mom, and I toured Notre Dame Cathedral. I loved looking at all of the gargoyles at the top.

After Notre Dame, we got crepes for lunch and walked to the "Love Lock" bridge. Here is is, you can see Notre Dame in the background

I thought this was the coolest place, there were thousands and thousands of locks. You write your names on a lock, put it on the bridge, and then throw the key into the river. Here we are putting our lock on the bridge

After the bridge, we met my family at the Musee D'Orsay. This is the main impressionist museum in Paris. I especially loved all of the beautiful works of art by Degas and Renoir. After the museum, we took a stroll along the Seine and went for a quick visit to Sainte Chapelle. Once again, Carter saved the day by helping us to cut the line.

I actually liked Sainte Chapelle better than Notre Dame. The huge stained glass windows were incredible. That night, my mom babysat Carter

and Jeremy and I went out for a nice dinner.

It was delicious! On our last day in Paris, we visited the Eiffel Tower. The Eiffel tower wasn't really my favorite thing, the lines were just too long and it was kind of a hazy day. Here we are at the top.

After the Eiffel Tower, we went shopping along the Champs Elysees. I found some yummy smelling citrusy perfume to remind me of Paris. We stopped and got lunch and a strawberry tart. I think I ate my weight in croissants and pastries during our time in Paris

After our shopping trip we went to the catacombs. They have the bones of six million people down there. They moved them there from cemeteries to conserve space.

This is probably one of the strangest places I have ever pushed a stroller through...

After all of our adventures, we were all pretty exhausted and ready to come home. There were a few things that we wanted to do in Paris that we didn't quite have time for, so I guess we'll just have to go back again someday! What a fun trip!

Europe Trip: Part Two

Early Wednesday morning, we took the train to London. After we dropped of our bags at the hotel, we went to Hyde Park and the Orangery for tea. The Orangery is right next door to Kensington Palace (where William and Kate are going to live). Unfortunately we didn't see them.

Our afternoon tea was good, but really small and really pricey. I think we calculated it was 3 dollars a bite. The Orangery is also really close to the BYU London Centre, so after our tea, we walked there so that I could take a little trip down memory lane.

The caretaker let us in and we were able explore a bit because the spring group hadn't arrived yet. I got to see my old room. It was so fun to be back there. The London study abroad program was definitely my favorite thing that I did during college. Afterward, we went back to the hotel and got settled in. Our hotel was in a pretty great location, right next to the London Eye and Big Ben.

Here is the view out our window at night...pretty magical.

I called Jeremy over to the window that night to ask if he could see Peter Pan flying around Big Ben. I think he wondered what they put in my tea at the Orangery...On Thursday morning, we went to the Tower of London. Here we are on the way to the tower.

I think the Tower is my favorite place in London, there is so much history there.

When we first got there, we went on a Beefeater tour. The Beefeaters are the ceremonial guards at the Tower of London. 

They give you a really colorful tour of the highlights of the tower. They take you to the place where Anne Boleyn and Lady Jane Grey were beheaded, the "traitor's gate," where Queen Elizabeth and so many others entered the tower. My favorite thing that our beefeater said was, "After this tour, you all need to go visit the crown jewels. Ladies, take a look at the jewels, then take a look at your left hand, then take a look at the man standing next to you, then punch him. You deserve better."

Jeremy and I reenacted this. The crown jewels were amazing. It was hard to believe they are real. Here is a picture of Carter and Jeremy with tower bridge.

In the background, you can see a cage of ravens in the courtyard. The legend is, that if the ravens ever leave the tower, England's monarchy will fall, so they keep six ravens there at all times, plus two spares. One of the most interesting exhibits that they had going on while were were there was one about all of the animals that were kept at the Tower of London. It used to be really fashionable for kings to give each other gifts of exotic animals. Whenever a monarch received an animal, they would bring it to the tower. At one time, they had lions, baboons, an elephant, and a polar bear.

They tied a rope to the polar bear and let it go fishing in the Thames river. It made me sad learning about all of the animals that had to live there. Here are a couple of pictures of us at  the Tower. I actually really love the candid one that accidentally got taken, it captures our trip better than most!

That night, Jeremy, Heather, my dad and I went to see The Tempest at Shakespeare's Globe.

It is a pretty close replica to the theater that existed during Shakespeare's time. The play was awesome. Caliban's character was great. During the play, he stole one of the "groundling's" beer, drank it, belched, then spit it on the audience. On Friday, we toured Westminster Abbey in the morning.

In the afternoon, Jeremy, Carter and I went to the British museum. 

I love looking at all of the Greek statues. Carter enjoyed them as well.

That night we met up with the rest of the family at Harrods for dinner. They seriously have EVERYTHING there. Jeremy told me he would give me five dollars to act like I was going to breastfeed Carter on one of the 25,000 Fendi couches. It was a pretty tempting offer, but in the end I decided against it...even though I did end up nursing Carter in some pretty odd places by the end of the trip. The toy department at Harrods was really fun. They have a little nursery of baby dolls. 

As I was holding Carter near the dolls, a women walked by, did a double take, and then said, "Oh look, a real one!" In the chocolate department at Harrods, I got some salted caramels and a chocolate macaron. They were divine. Jeremy got some chocolate covered pistachios.

On Saturday, all of us took the train out to Hampton Court, the palace of King Henry VIII. It was really fascinating to learn more about King Henry and all of his wives.

The next morning, we had to take a little time out to do laundry. Jeremy loaded up all of the dirty clothes into the bottom of the stroller and walked to the laundromat. Since the beginning of the trip, Jeremy had stopped shaving, and by this time, he had some pretty good scruff going. The combination of the beard and stroller made him look extremely homeless. This was one of my favorite moments from the trip.

When he tried to come back in the hotel, the doormen asked him, "Sir, can we help you with something?" hahaha. Later that day, Jeremy and I went on a walk to Trafalgar Square and the National Gallery.

I love this picture of me, Carter, and the random photobomber in the background. You can also really faintly see Big Ben. Here is Jer in Trafalgar Square.

After the National Gallery, we went to Evensong at St. Paul's Cathedral. 

Carter wasn't a huge fan of Evensong, so we hung out outside and sang songs from Mary Poppins until it was over. It was so great to be back in London!