Anniversary in Paris- Days 4 and 5

Well we are two tired Trusty's!! It has been an incredibly long two days for us. Lets start off with Wednesday. We decided to start using the 4 day Museum Pass that we had purchased since most of the museums seemed to be done with the strike. We started with the Catacombs (not on the pass but a definite must-do). I was super excited about this one but after starting off on the trek, I got a little scared. Not of all of the macabre, but of being underground in such a small space for so long. Here you can see how I was feeling as we started out.

This was the widest and most open part of the path. It was 1.47 miles worth of paths, 130 steps down and 83 up (these were tight spiral stairs and seriously hell).

Ben got scared (okay, not really).

A bunch of bones, and what looks like a sacrificial bowl.

Once we reentered the world of the living (not to mention fresh air and light), we headed a tad north to the Pantheon. Unlike the Roman Pantheon (which is one of my favorite buildings, despite not seeing it in person yet), this was more of a French Renaissance inspired version of the Pantheon. Still very pretty!

A short, crowded Metro ride later we were at the Rodin Museum. He was the sculptor who did "The Thinker". Here is a smaller version in the gift shop.....oh and a slightly smaller replica. The similarities are uncanny!

Across the street from this is the National Military Museum which contains the tomb of Napoleon.

Such a large sarcophagus for such a small man.

At this point we planned on taking the Metro to our next stop but started walking and kept going (we will get to our total mileage at the end of this day). We walked along the famed Champs-Elysees.

We ended at the Arc de Triomphe. Like the Eiffel Tower, it is huge and grand in person. So we finally get underneath it and are done taking pictures of the outside, and we see the door where you enter to go up and it is closed. There is a sign saying that it is closed due to the strike. We are little bummed but figure, we got to go to the top of the Eiffel Tower, which is higher, so this is no big deal.

We are getting ready to leave and all of a sudden the door opens and they tear the sign down. So we rush to the door, show them our passes and begin climbing the stairs. Remember the 83 spiral stairs at the catacombs we did this morning.........well this was 200!!!!!! It was worth it though because here is a great shot of Monmartre and Sacre Coeur (where we were the previous day).

We then walked down the 200 stairs and back to the opposite end of the avenue to the Louvre. We stopped for some dinner and then went into the Louvre to poke around for an hour. It is only open two nights a week and it was so cool. It felt like being at a sleepover with a bunch of strangers.

Not sure if anyone has ever heard of this little known artist Leonardo Da Vinci, but this is some chick he painted named Lisa.

And the "Venus De Milo".

So after all of the walking, we can accurately account for 6 miles that we walked, not including all of the stairs and other times where we retraced our steps and walking through the Metro stations.

So starting off Thursday, we were already pretty exhausted and sore. We got up and hunted down a patisserie to find some stuff to bring back with us and breakfast. Then we headed out to the suburbs to look at this adorable little hunting lodge known as Versailles.

The Hall of Mirrors.....well and us.

Isn't is cute!?!? Please, this place was obnoxious, ostentatious, gaudy but so awesome.

This was the little hamlet that Marie Antoinette built because she wanted the experience of the simpler country lifestyle within the confines of her palace. It actually was cute.

Looking back towards the house from the gardens.

So between the day o'stairs the day before and walking all over of this small country of an estate, I have two toes that are about to fall off. While we are sad to have to start winding our trip down, we are looking forward to resting when we get home.

Anniversary in Paris- Days 1, 2, and 3

So we made it through Amsterdam and to Paris with no problems. We checked into our flat at 2, got settled and took a nap. Around 6 we woke up, and went out to see the area around us. We are just a block away from the Tuileries Gardens so we took a stroll through there, over the Seine and back to the Louvre. This all took a couple of hours and by this time we were too tired to sit in a restaurant for supper so we settled on a street vendor and got 3 different kinds of crepes. Here is our little dinner back at our flat.


We started out our first full day, and our actualy anniversary at a cemetery. Yes, that is morbid but it was actually kind of cool. It is the Pere Lachaise Cemetery and it is practically a small city. There are so many people and families buried here and in an array of tombs. This also includes some famous people including, Jim Morrison, Oscar Wilde, and Chopin. This picture shows how they are just stacked on top of one another.

Next was a trip to Notre Dame. It is just a grand and beautiful as imagined.

Gorgeous stained glass.


We walked up north to see the Pompidou Museum (it is an architecture thing). We did not get to go inside but might try to later in the week.

We finished off the day with the Eiffel Tower. Ben wants it to be noted that this picture is not photoshopped.

Here is the view on the river from the 2nd floor.

Looking up from the 2nd floor.

This is us from the top, unfortunately you can not see the city behind us.

This is at night at the top of the hour, when it "sparkles" for 5 minutes. We were up at the top when it did it at 8, and we made it down to the bottom just in time to see it at 9 (yes it took us an hour to get down). I have to admit that the Eiffel Tower is so much bigger and more impressive in person than I ever imagined and we both loved going up to the top (despite the freezing temperatures, massive crowds and hurricane like winds).

Today began a city wide strike so a lot of the museums were closed and the Metro system was packed (had a major claustrophobia moment this day), so we did a self guided walking tour of Montmarte, major area for artists. Here is one the the famous Guimard's Art Nouveau signs.

We trudged up hills and alleys no wider than the two of us (yet cars managed to maneuver it just fine). We arrived at Sacre Couer, the Byzantine Basilica at the top of the hill, with majestic views of the entire city.

This is also the area where the Moulin Rouge is located. This is kind of a seedy part of town but one we can now say we have been too (and will probably never go to again).

We went to Les Deux Moulins, which is the restaurant featured in the movie Amelie. Here I had a hot chocolate and Ben had a super dark cafe which he loved.

We took 2 cramped Metro trains down to the Latin Quarter, which is where the university is located. Here is St. Severin's. It is basically a smaller, not as touristy or taken care of Notre Dame, but still nice.

Here is a fantastic view of Notre Dame from across the Seine in a park.


The Palais Du Luxembourg and gardens is basically a gigantic park, but where it differs from our parks in the US is that there are some benches but most people are sitting in chairs that are scattered around. Some people are by themselves and others in large groups.

See the chairs and the people just hanging out, despite the chilly temperature.

Finally we went to dinner at a cafe. We had wine, cheeses and beef bourguignon, just as we should in France.

Now we lay in bed exhausted after a day of walking at least 6 miles (and no clue how many miles the first few days). We are praying that this strike is over and we can visit some museums and not sit on overly packed subway cars.

Reunion Weekend in Memphis

This past weekend was Ben's 10th high school reunion. We arrived in town on late Thursday evening. Friday, Ben went to an alumni breakfast and then I met him over at his school and finally got to meet a good friend of his from high school. We walked around and got to see where all the stories I hear took place. We then went to my favorite burger place and I got my Huey burger, first time in over a year. Ben's best friend, Scruggs joined us and we talked for hours. I felt so bad for our waiter!

That night we attended an alumni BBQ and I got to meet so many more people from his class. We hung out and watched the football game that night and Ben talked with his old professors. After the game we headed over to a restaurant for an after-party. I felt like I did the small talk conversation (What do you do....Where are you from....Where did you all meet) a million times. Finally Ben found another old friend of his and I got to talking to his wife and we never stopped. It was good to find someone to chat with!

Saturday we finally got to see Ben's parents that morning before jetting off to hang out with Scruggs. We went to lunch at an awesome Tex-Mex place (an upscale Moe's) and watched football. Here are the boys at lunch.

After that, we went to the botanical gardens and walked around and had so much fun.

How pretty is this?!?!

I am in a cocoon.

Ben staring down a squirrel and the squirrel staring down a nut.

Gingers in the wild!

The massive koi in the pond. It was seriously a feeding frenzy.

Ben, me and Scruggs

That night we went to dinner with Ben's parents finally. Then we went to visit his Grandmother and Aunt on our way to a party at one of his classmates houses'. It was so much fun to get to know some of the guys and hear stories about when they were in school. It just puts a whole new perspective on Ben's upbringing and stories.

After a very late night, we got up early (for us) and went to the zoo with Scruggs. He used to work there so he knows a lot of random things about the animals and exhibits. He is quite the comedian and had me crying laughing with some of his animal tidbits. Like, did you know that red pandas climb in the trees, spin webs and trap young children?

These birds kept sweeping down and flying just over our heads.

Ben had to stare it down too.

Scruggs swears the little one is not his. However, I do think Ben got his hairdo from the adult monkeys.

Meerkats. They are so cute but there is something so creepy about the way they stare at you.

Penguins are so adorable. I want one!

Scruggs, Ben and me.

We went back to Scruggs house and took a nap and then went out to dinner at Bosco's so I could have chocolate bread pudding. We also talked for hours here, after we had already had to move inside because we were too cold, and I felt terrible for our waiter.

The next day we got up, got ready and Scruggs came and ate lunch with us and Ben's parents. We then went on a small shopping excursion to Costco with Ben's mom. Our flight was supposed to leave at 5:10 PM so we got to the airport around 3:20. We sat and waited to leave and we were quickly approaching 5:00 and not being boarded. It turns out that Atlanta was having some bad weather and we would be delayed. We ended up not being able to board until 8:00. Then once we did board, we did not take off for 30 minutes once we pulled back from the gate. We circled Atlanta a couple times in the air and when we did land, our gate was occupied and it took another 40 minutes until we got to get off. The one good thing was that our luggage was already on the carousel when we got there. Then we had to wait 20 minutes for the train to get to the station and ride it all the way to the other end. All in all, when we were supposed to get home at 8:30 maybe 9:00, we got home at 1AM!!! We greatly appreciate our good friends Heather and Steve for being so patient and kind to pick us up so late. Hopefully our traveling to Paris next week will be uneventful!

At least the sunset at the airport was pretty.

Labor Day in Knoxville

This past weekend we went back to Knoxville for the long holiday weekend. We spent the weekend hanging out with family, watching the football game, getting my haircut and watching awesome fireworks at Boomsday. We headed downtown and grabbed my favorite pizza (that is easy because I do not like pizza), salmon pesto, at Tomato Head.


Ben enjoying the pizza, sorry it is blurry.


We then walked down towards the river and decided to settle down away from the crowds up the hill next to the courthouse. It was a pretty good view! Just me, waiting for the fireworks.



Ally is afraid of fireworks so we had to drag her down there, kicking and screaming, literally. She had cotton balls in her ears, a hoody over her head and my mom and her own hands over her ears. In the end, she confessed that she liked them.


So as you can tell, our life is pretty boring. Nothing much has happened that is worth blogging about but life is getting ready to get crazy. In a few weeks we head to Memphis for Ben's high school reunion and then 2 weeks after that we will be going to Paris for our 2nd anniversary, then a week after that, a quick trip to Knoxville to see some family. After that, it is all downhill to the holidays. Hopefully I will be posting more then.

DC- Baby James and old friends

This past week I went to DC to help out my sister-in-law Myra who is recovering from a heart attack by taking care of my almost two month old nephew James. Look how cute he is!!

He loved taking long afternoon naps on aunt Whitney. Uncle Ben was jealous...of both of us.

While there I was very fortunate to get to meet up with some friends. First was dinner Friday night with some old friends, whom I had never met. They were friends of mine that I had met on a wedding message board years ago but never met in person. It was fabulous to finally be able to put a voice to the face and personality.


Saturday, my sister-in-law, Liz drove up from Lynchburg to hang out with me. We went down to the town centre (same on I had dinner at the night before, different restaurant) to walk around. We had fun walking, shopping, talking and finally eating lunch. It was so good to hang out with her. I missed her!

Sunday, I went down to the same town centre (different restaurant) to meet our old college roommate Brandon for brunch. I have only seen him twice since graduating three years ago so we played catch up.

I got home Tuesday and was greeted by Ben at the MARTA station with flowers in the car. Then he took me to Best Buy to surprise me and buy 6 seasons of "Golden Girls" on DVD because "he knew it would make me happy". I think it is because we do not have cable and he is tired of me watching the same shows that we already have on DVD over and over again. Still, what guy would willingly buy his wife "Golden Girls" if he was not a sweetheart.

I am glad to be home but definitely missing little James! I hope he miss aunt Whitney a little.