The French Riviera, Paris and home

Our last week in France was amazing! We spent 4 days at the French Riviera and we loved soaking up the sun! We stayed in Le Lavandou, a smaller beach town between Bandol and St. Tropez. The crystal blue water was a welcome sight, as was the cooler temperature. During our time at the coast we went to visit the vineyards of Bandol, the calanques of Cassis and the wealth of St. Tropez. In Bandol we went wine tasting at some very small, but very amazing wineries. We drove out to Bandol and had a picnic while we waited for the wineries to open. Our little car climbed into the hills to visit a winery that had the most amazing view of the valley we had seen our whole trip. At the next winery we went to the owner's daughter didn't speak English, and of course we don't speak French. We thought this would be a problem, but she really wanted to help. She spoke Spanish, and we can understand some, so she gave the wine tasting in Spanish! It was so fun! Her father who was probably 75 (and still filling the wine bottles) came over to talk to us too. He didn't speak Spanish, but he didn't seem to mind that we didn't speak French. He told us all about how he loved the Discovery Channel and about how he watched a special about Yellow Stone and the volcano that is under the ground and could explode at any time. Very random, but he was so animated when he was telling us his little tid bit about America, it was priceless.

We also drove out to Cassis to see the port town and the calanques (inlets) that are found there. We took a boat tour out to the calanques and they were so amazing! The cliffs drop sharply into the ocean and the inlets are filled with bright aqua blue water.


When we finally flew to Paris for the last leg of our trip, we were very excited to get back to big city life. Paris is so beautiful. We loved the city, and it actually reminded us a lot of Seattle. When we were there the weather was very similar, as was the general feel of the city. We stayed in the Marais district and we enjoyed every slow breakfast at the street side cafes. We did a little bit of shopping on the first day and we both realized that we are too big for French clothes! Both of our sizes were off the charts for what they carried in the stores! It was pretty funny actually. We went to the Louvre park for a picnic and wandered through the amazing garden. Jordan took me on the biggest Farris Wheel I have ever seen. It was actually a little frightening, but an amazing view of the city. We also we to Notre Dam and got to see the church treasury. The valuables they had in the treasury were so crazy. There were items with more diamonds on them than I have ever seen in one place at a time! One of the days we took the metro to the 10th district to stroll along the canal and had lunch back in the Jewish quarter where I had my first falafel at one of the most famous falafel places in Paris. On our last day we took the metro way out to the Eiffel Tower. There were so many people there it made me a little bit nervous. It was very cool, but not quite as big as I thought it would be. Then we got dressed up for the last dinner of our trip. We had dinner on one of the islands in the Seine and slowly walked back to our hotel, taking in all of the Paris lights.

Now that we are finally home, I am so thankful that we had such a wonderful time. We have been able to get back in the swing of things as much as possible. I am not back in the swing of doing dishes, but all things take time! We are already planning our next trip!