A Passport is a Girl's Best Friend

People from Lyon pride themselves of being the birthplace and the center of French gastronomy. By walking around, you can see the pride they take in their food. Today we stumbled upon an open market that was selling lots of tasty treats.  Cheese stand Yummy veggies Meat stand Duane and I walked over the Le Parc de la Tête d’or’ or ‘Golden Head Park’ which is the biggest park in France and is upwards of 150 aches. Inside there are botanical gardens, a free zoo, a lake, where Santa keeps his reindeer on the off season, a rose garden and oodles of children's actives. A Red Panda! Santa's reindeer Off to Zurich tomorrow!

Our first full day in Lyon! The weather is so much nicer here, while a little humid, it is sunny and warm. Today we walked over to the right "old" side of Lyon. In the morning we climbed a GIANT hill to get up to the basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvière. It sits on the biggest hill in the city which gives you an awesome view. Right next to this is the Ancient Theatre of Fourvière which are Roman ruins/theater dating back to 15 BC. You can still climb around in it, so we decided this was a pretty epic place to have lunch. Our view of the ruins, Notre-Dame and the city below Ancient Theatre of Fourvière After exploring Fourvière hill, we walked down into old town to explore some of the hidden passage ways, or  Traboules ,  and secrete courtyards that the city is famous for. This evening has been a quiet one. Reading, drinking wine and of course, listening to game 5 of the Giants! The A's game is on too late, but you better know that I will ...

This morning we said goodbye to our little  apartment  in Paris, and jumped onto the train for Lyon, France. Lyon is much more of a "small" town in comparison to Paris. Less traffic, slower pace, shops close for an estimated 2 hours each afternoon for lunch and people are not out on the streets past 10 pm. Today we only got to wander a bit due to random rain showers. But no complaints here, we just made dinner and enjoyed the bottle of local wine we bought and chatted. Tomorrow there is lots of exploring to do! Our living room! The ginormous kitchen, or so it feels after our last apartment  Bedroom Our view The center square. And no the thing in the middle is not a castle, it is a GIANT church

The last few days have been a little slower as our stay in Paris comes to a close. We have hit our main spots and the remaining days we are squeezing in new discoveries, finding new foods and things we thought we wouldn't get to. We have wonderful bakeries, butcheries and fruit markets all down our street giving us plenty of tasty treats to try each day. One of my favorite things has been choosing a dessert each night to share with our after dinner espresso. Sundays Dessert  Raspberry Cheese Tart Mondays Dessert Apple Tart Monday, Duane and I went to the Louvre for a mind blowing experience. Last time I went (4 years ago), I did it alllllll wrong. This time, I was determined to do it right. We set aside a whole rainy afternoon to explore the 3 wings, which all have 4 floors, with nearly 35,000 objects from prehistory to the 19th century exhibited over an area of 652,300 square feet. Overwhelming does not begin to describe it. One of the most amazing exh...

We have been having so much fun wandering this amazing city, and stumbling upon all of the treasures it has to offer. Here are some pictures of our adventures so far! Chrissy and Max came to visit our first night Pont Neuf The Musée du Louvre and the Louvre Palace Wine tasting at Caves Saint Vincent We went to Note Dame on Saturday and to our surprise, we walked in on mass! We stood on the side of the giant alter and listened to the prays and songs surrounding communion. The choir was singing, the giant organ was playing, and together their music was all encompassing, which was just overwhelming. I have never been in a church so large for anything like this. Notre Dame Cathedral Inside during mass Eiffel Tower Moulin Rouge We went to musee Pompidou during the Nuit Blanche (an event where there is art all of the city and some museums stay open till 2am). By the pink lights there w...

Today we traveled outside of Paris to explore Versailles. We got a park pass so we could explore everything! Versailles Palace Hall of Mirrors The Palace is amazing, but the gardens are BY FAR my favorite part of this estate. I have been telling Duane for some time, that the last time I went, I wandered around the right side gardens for 8 hours. This was my attempt to explain how absolutely ginormous the grounds are. Well I failed. We were standing inside the château and he looked out the window and was aghast at the sheer size of what he could see. As we were walking around (we totaled 9 miles today) we were just in awe about what people could create with such imagination, thought, talent and with so little technology. At the top of the gardens Our picnic lunch  Marie-Antoinette's farm Besties

We are here! After a long, yet uneventful train ride from Munich to Paris EST, we are finally here! Our apartment is adorable! Right in the middle of a fantastic lively area of Paris called Le Marais, but our apartment is quiet and quaint. Very romantic. The Kitchen Bedroom (with alllll the technologies) My Parisian Window :) Our wonderful friends Chrissy and Max and his friend Alex met us at our apartment for a reunion! We then headed out to dinner at a small cafe near our apartment. After, we decided there was so much more celebrating to do, we went back to the apartment with more wine (I love that good wine costs 9€) to drink, hang out and enjoy our first night in France. I am so happy to finally be here! Where our apartment is in Paris