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| Can your husband do a toe touch? This was news to me. |
Alex and I went to France. He served his mission there and we just graduated. End result, we gifted ourselves with a trip before starting "real life" jobs. We spent 4 days driving through the south, and 4 days basking (or running around like chickens with our heads cut off... both adjectives work) in Paris. The trip of trips.
It was perfection in its most imperfected form. That doesn't make much sense, but that is simply the way to describe it. Not every french pastry was amazing, unfortunately freezerburn made an appearance. Two of the places we stayed at had horrible cases of overdue-for-clean-up kitty litter stench. And simply getting there consisted of 13 hours of flying, 16 hours of layovers, two red eyes (but three flights in total), and topped off with a 4 hour train ride. With our determined budget we had our fair share of imperfections and it was perfect for us, basically it made way for a lot of unexpected adventures.
However, what WAS perfect included: witnessing Alex speak French (so hot right now), baguettes for lunch, fields of vibrant yellow, and how can you forget the crepe stands? My husband's heroic patience to pull over at my (and my camera's) every whim cannot be overlooked, and the beautiful miracle that my ipod actually hooked up to our rental car whom we lovingly called Taloola. I guess you could say that blasting Billy Joel while driving through the gorgeous south of France was easily a top 5 moment.
Another top 5 was riding our bikes in Paris. Riding past the Louvre I kept screaming to Alex, "THIS IS THE COOLEST THING I HAVE EVER DONE!!!" I couldn't help shamelessly embarrassing myself over and over again. We rode everywhere, because not only was it the most fun- but much cheaper. We got lost constantly, and then bought more baguettes. I also biffed it a few times, but that was expected. Stumbling around looking for a pharmacy clad with ripped pants exposing a bloody knee was another top 5.
And Monet's Water Lillies in the Orangerie. Have I exceeded the 5 limit yet?
Meh, who's counting. I've got more. The lady we stayed with in Marseille (we went through airbnb.com) made us a complimentary breakfast of homemade bread with a variety of 5 different homemade jams, clafoutis, and rich hot chocolate. Clafoutis made such an impression on me that it was the first thing I made when I got home. Delicious, but somehow it is better eaten in France.
Another was passing out on the lawn of the Eiffel Tower. Later than night we were waiting for the lights to come on, and randomly started chatting with this awesome couple that just so happened to be professional photographers. When I sarcastically remarked that we have been hoping to find someone to follow us around Paris with a camera, they offered to do a shoot for free. Let me tell you, I couldn't have been more thrilled and ridiculously giddy about it. So we met up the next day and took pictures at the Louvre, Eiffel Tower, Love Lock Bridge, and Alexander III Bridge. I couldn't believe their generosity and couldn't be happier about the pictures. Alex and I never got our engagements done (his mom took the perfect shot and it was all I needed) so it was so fun to do it two and a half years later. Can't wait to post them!
To be honest, I was terrified that France wouldn't live up to Italy. But no need to worry, I fell whole heartedly head over heels. And I would definitely give an arm and a leg to live there, seriously.
And here are some more, because I obviously can't help myself.
