Oh the french life........parisians stroll in and out of corner cafes with seemingly nowhere to be, pigeons scatter about looking for crumbs, musicians play in the streets in hope of a few euros.  There is a casual and relaxed feel here unlike the hustle and bustle of London.  Of course we have our action packed agenda, pre-planned and mapped out ready to hit the major sites, but then when you get here you somehow fall into step with the flow of the city.  Y ou find yourself not being able to see everything you may have wanted to see but its fun to get sidetracked.  Ok onto what we did yesterday which has got to be one of the most memorable days for me so far.  We started our tour about an hour and a half outside Paris in the most beautiful city and more importantly the home of Claude Monet.  We got to walk inside Monet's house and around his beautiful gardens.  It was so cool to see so many of the things that were his inspiration for so many of his paintings.  Most of you should know his famous water lillie's and japanese bridge paintings, well we were actually there walking on the bridge with all the beautiful flowers blooming.  Walking in his home was so nice, standing on the second floor looking out the windows was gorgeous, you could get a great view of all the gardens and some chickens too.  

Jeromy and I on the Bridge in Monet's Japanese lily garden.

Jeromy and I in the gardens in front of Monet's house.

The view of the Monet's house from the garden.

Onto Versailles, can we say over the top, ultra lavish, beyond what you ever imagined, well what can you expect for a grand palace fit for a king that bankrupted the country.  The palace is amazing and the gardens are the coolest gardens ever, Jeromy and I got lost in them a little because some parts of the garden are shaped like a maze.  Ok lets start with the palace, the hall of mirrors was beyond what I had seen in pictures, walking down the hall with mirrors lining the whole way and beautiful chandeliers you could see how it was a bit excessive even by todays standards, but it was still gorgeous.  The gardens were our favorite but we didn't have a ton of time to get to see everything since we were on a tour, but they were beautifully landscaped, we could have stayed there all day if we could.  

The Garden's of Versailles, but what's in view is only a small part of them. 

The Palace's Hall of Mirror's

Jeromy and I at the center fountain behind the Palace of Versailles. 

Alright, well it was our last day in Paris today and I am so sad to see it coming to an end.  Today we went to probably my favorite museum the Musee D'Orsay which housed a lot of impressionism.  We saw a lot of Van Gogh, Monet, and Renoir.  We also did another museum which was a must see for us called the Rodin Museum, the most famous work being the thinker.  It was so cool seeing all these larger than life sculptures I had studied about in college.  Well, we will be back in the states tomorrow, so mom or more importantly dad since you are picking us up from the airport, our plane arrives at 2:30 at Charlotte Douglas.  Wow, I will miss Paris, but now I have the challenge of cramming as much as possible into my suitcase, this may be my toughest feat ever.  As the sun sets on Paris's beautiful architecture we too must set on our journey home taking with us so many fun filled memories that truly inspired us, culturally widening our view of what this world has to offer.  See you all soon! Au revoir!!! 

Jeromy posing with Rodin's sculpture of The Thinker 

So we've survived the long journey under the English Channel and over to Paris..  When we arrived we were instantly aware of the language barrier having almost no usable knowledge of the French language, but we've made do.  It's an amazingly picturesque city, full of seemingly endless angles and viewpoints to snap a quick picture. They are all, and I DO mean ALL, are of a style that Charleston or Savannah bends over backwards to achieve, only it's pretty much effortless for Parisians. I guess the best way to describe it would be "Authentic", because it truly embodies the concept.. but I know you're just dying to know some further details, so let's get you caught up to speed.

We caught a cab at the train station, poor guy didn't know what hit him, didn't speak a lick of English.. No problems though.. He was a great guy, and dropped us off right at the hotel front door.. (I know what you're thinking.. "Isn't that his job, driving you to your destination?" And you'd be right, but after being abandoned 7 blocks from our hotel in Mexico City in 2006, and left to navigate our way through a lively protest of thousands with all our luggage, we've come to appreciate some things folks take for granted. But I digress) Check in went smoothly and we took a quick stroll. This is where things got interesting.. When I tell you that our hotel is next to the Louvre, You might think within walking distance.. But in this case it means DIRECTLY NEXT TO THE LOUVRE..  It's one of the most gorgeous buildings and courtyard you'll likely ever find on this planet. Vir and I got to watch the sun set that night behind some beautifully trimmed trees.. It was a real treat after the stresses of taking in a whole new culture, after only barely getting use to the previous one. And these trees, wow.. I don't know how they do it, but they trim them into a square. Not difficult, no, until you get to the top, then you have to trim that too, only it still needs to be tall.. Gardener must be paid a fortune, especially if he hopes to afford anything in this city... Yikes!.. 

A small part of the Louvre (Pronounced Loove)

It was getting a bit dark, so we called it a night, and got a head start on the next day by getting ready for it.. We woke up in the morning and slugged out of bed.. We're about 6 hours ahead of you guys (formally 5 hours in England), so you can see why. Taking a walk in Paris is an amazing thing.. It's not like on the movies, there are some parts of paris they don't show you on movies. I don't mean the parts they DO show on "Taken" either.. I mean the drugstores, the overflowing street trashcans, the occasion al scaffolding covering up the inevitably needed restorations of these centuries old buildings.. But even WI TH all that, it's amazing on a lazy Sunday morning.. The There's a statue about every 4 blocks, somewhere.. and where there isn't, there's a cafe.. Actually there is a cafe (or 3) about every block.. No exaggeration. 

Heading back to the Louvre, we found ourselves beyond it and taking a bridge over the Seine river to stroll along the walkways down the river. We got tickets for a riverboat taxying service for the next couple of days and they dropped us off at the Notre Dam Cathedral. You think you've heard all about it, seen it's hunchback, and what's the big whoop about one more church? All pales in comparison to the shear elegance and striking architecture of this building.. Interestingly we got the privilege of visiting the church and it's interior during Sunday Mass, and I can tell you confidently that they've kept the organ pipes clean, as well as the tower bells in working order. But as amazing as it was, we had to move on.

Notre Dam.. Sans hunchback..

Next was the Champs Elysees (pronounced Shah-ns Eli-say-s).. This is a long straightaway, flanked by high end department stores, culminating at it's end with the Arc de Triomphe. We'll get to that in a minute.. Firstly... Louis Vuitton.. This store (which we sadly have no pictures of) was amazingly lavish. It was also more expensive than any department store (That's right, a Louis Vuitton department store. It's that big..) I've ever been in.. their MONEY CLIP was equivalently about $300.. It all went up from there.. So after the tour, because that's basically all I could afford to do in the store is look around, we headed up to the Arch.. The Arch looks like a big arch, sure.. like any big arch you've likely ever seen.. only this one is a BIG ARCH.. kind that would make baby arches to give away to every other country that proudly displays one. Now heading on to the Eiffel Tower.

The Arc De Triomphe. Those ants in the back?... those are people.

The Eiffel Tower is supposed to be big, and it is, but the impressive thing is that you can see through it. It's the size of a skyscraper, and it's feet span a square city block, but being able to look up through it and each of it's giant feet rooting to different parts of the block makes it look like a prehistoric animal that you snuck up on while grazing.. like it's gonna get up and walk off any moment with booming effect.

The Eiffel Tower.. 

We headed back to the Hotel after all that, took a couple of snaps of random beautiful things along the way. And there are a LOT of them... But that was our Paris so far.. Miss you all in the states, and just for the heck of it, go out and treat yourself to a good Mexican meal.. you miss a good burrito after it's gone.... Au revoir.

Yesterday was an action packed day of visiting all the various museum's of the city, and there are a lot of them.  We went to the Victoria and Albert Museum and my personal fave the British Museum.  We've learned how to navigate the underground pretty well and are feeling like locals......kind of..........but on the tube(subway) you have to be careful and mind the gap as they call it because there is sometimes a big gaping crack between the station and subway, wouldn't want to fall under there that's for sure.  So the museums took up pretty much the whole day because they are huge and could literally take a full day to tour each.  The highlights of the British Museum was seeing the Rosetta Stone, Parthenon sculptures, and the Easter Island sculpture. 

The Rosetta Stone.. Crowded with everyone trying to get a closer look....if only I could 

Easter Island Statue.. 

Half of the Parthenon pediment.

Today we pondered over what would be the best way to spend our last day in London and came to the conclusion of Afternoon Tea and shopping of course.  Afternoon Tea is a big thing on this side of the pond, it is a production that could take 2-3 hours of happily wasting away the afternoon.  They bring out an endless supply of all the scones, biscuits, finger sand which's, and tea you could possibly eat.  They also come around with a tray of the most delectable pastries you've ever seen and you can pick whatever you'd like.  After our relaxing teatime we hit the shops.  We shopped in an area called Piccadilly Circus which is like the mecca for all the shopping you could ever want.  We went to the oldest bookstore in London called Hatchard's that was founded in 1797 and we are headed to a local pub tonight to bid adieu to the city.  We both had such a good time in London and I am so excited to be going to Paris tomorrow.  

Jeromy and I enjoying our afternoon tea

Alright thats all for tonight, we are packing now so we will be all ready to take the train tomorrow for Paris.  Packing is getting pretty tight, we packed a lot of coats and jackets thinking it was going to be chilly, but its been about 70 degrees and sunny here lately and this beautiful weather should continue on into Paris.  Well, we will report next in Paris, can't wait, miss everyone back in the states and Pippin too, but we are having a blast!  

Hello again, we have so much catching up to do since our last post and we have been going a mile a minute.  Lets start by catching everyone up to what we did on Tuesday.  It was another day of hopping on and off our double d ecker bus seeing all the sights in true tourists fashion....ie.....top deck of the double decker with my camera flashing away!  We first hopped off to see Buckingham Palace and the changing of the guards and wow that was equivalent to paparazzi storming a celebrity in the states.  People were everywhere and we could barely get a good pic, but Jeromy managed to get a good video of it.  Then it was on to the Tower of London.  We had a beefeater giving us a full tour and telling us some of the bloody, gruesome stories that went on in the towers, our very own Sir Walter Raleigh was sadly tortured in this very tower.  We had so much fun with the beefeater (or Yeoman Warders as they prefer to be called) and learned all sorts of cool stuff, there are 35 beefeaters that live in and guard the castle, and to become one you must serve in the military for a minimum of 22 and become a Sargent major before even applying for these highly coveted spots.  After the tower we got some dinner, and we are starting to question London's bad food reputation.  We have liked everything we've eaten so far and I've been able to find good veggie stuff for me too!

Me and the Beefeater outside the Tower of London.

Jeromy in front of the Tower of London.

Ok......on to Wednesday..........We were so excited to go on this tour and what a day to do it.  It was a truly london day, cold, windy and rainy oh my! We tried the whole umbrella thing, it just kept blowing inside out, most Londoner's wear a good rain jacket with a hood.  But I digress, we got on our tour bus and headed about two and a half hours outside the city and started our tour at the beautiful Windsor Castle.  This is the Queen's residence, they say this is her home while Buckingham palace is her office, soooo cool!  There were some awesome gardens around the castle and Jeromy was making sure I took a ton of pictures.  There is something about an English garden that evokes a sense of old world charm, a lushness thats hard to replicate.  So, at the Windsor Castle we saw the very lavish State Apartments and Queen Mary's Dollhouse.  I was quite taken by the very intricate dollhouse and ohhhh the clothes for these dolls were high fashion couture made in France, I was lovin it!

Palace guards marching up to the Windsor Castle for the changing on the guard.

Now onto Stonehenge...... this has got to be one of the coolest things Jeromy and I have ever done.  Ok I am going to create a scene for you all...........bear with me..............as we drive up to the sacred site a picturesque pasture full of sheep sets the scene, it is all so peaceful and enchanting, then we turn a corner and we see the stones come into sight, its drizzly, cold, and wet but it holds off as we walk a full 360 around Stonehenge in absolute awe in every step we take............birds fly in and out of the stones in a lyrical dance as we try to capture the moment..........wow, don't you feel like you were there with us:)

Jeromy and I in front of Stonehenge.

All the cute sheep that surrounded Stonehenge.

Ok, last but certainly not least was Bath.  These ancient Roman baths were amazing and were thought to have properties that could cure ailments of all sorts.  Many people would travel great distances to take the cure as they called it.  You could literally see the steam rising from the waters.....too cool.....beyond that Bath itself is a gorgeous city, we did a little shopping and could not resist the cute boutiques and cafes that lined the streets of this city.

Jeromy and I at the Roman Baths.

OMG! How could I forget we ate lunch at an adorable pub in quite possibly the cutest village I've ever seen, Laycock.  This is the most quant picturesque village where a lot of filming has taken place including Harry Potter.  Cobble stone streets, thatched roofs, and amazing gardens.  

High St in Lacock Village

Well I think that catches everyone up to speed.  Today we spent some time just walking around the city a lot and oh how the feet are feeling it now.  We went to the Tate Museum of Modern Art which was right up my alley and then to Harrods which is like the mother of all department stores in London, also right up my alley.  We had an awesome day and will report next on Friday.  Tomorrow we head to the British Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum and of course a little shopping.  Goodnight everyone!

So we woke up this morning, angry taunting voices echoing through the window.. Whistles chirping again and again.. Couldn't see anything out the window so I got up, got ready and went downstairs.. We were pretty positive that due to some recent legislative changes here, rioting had broken out on the block, and we'd have to be prepared for it... We read about it last week when we were getting ready for the trip.. So, we had to know how bad it was.. I crossed the lobby, fully expecting the bellman to stop me, protect me from the angry throng of protesters. No, he simply smiled and opened the door to my approaching doom. Out on the sidewalk though, I heard nothing, saw nothing.. London on a Monday morning.. Beautiful weather, chirping birds, well... "Chirping" pigeons anyway.. But no riot, no angry protesters.. a few construction workers, but nothing like the angry voices floating through our room window..

I went around the corner, greeted by the most gorgeous Aston Martin I'd ever seen, and still nothing.. Entered the hotel's private courtyard and the suddenly heard the voices... Rioting in a private courtyard? Was there a dignitary at the hotel.. But still no bodies with the voices.. Finally I look across the courtyard, all the way to the exit at the other end, through a closed gate.. I see a boy, around 8 years old, a little husky, angry and taunting someone.. I walked over, peak through the gate, and it's recess.. Just recess.. 

A local school holds it's gym class out in the courtyard adjacent to our hotel, and they were in the heat of an intense battle of football (That's soccer for you guys in the states).. The whistles were the teachers.. obviously making calls on the game.. and the rioting protesters turned out to nothing but loud... angry.... 8 year olds.... So much for the armed guard I was thinking of hiring for a day... Cheer's folks.. 

PS: We wont be posting tonight.. It's about 15 pounds a day to use the net, so we'll be posting again after our trip to Stonehenge on Tuesday. 

So we made it in, the plane was fine, but we, it's passenger's we're bed headed, jet lagged, and sleep deprived... That said... It's FANTASTIC!!. Took us a little while to finally get through customs and onto the rail shuttle that runs straight into London, but we managed that with only a limited amount of frustration.

After what seemed an eternity, we FINALLY made it into London proper, landing by train not four blocks from our hotel.. but with bags of luggage and a grand total of a spotty 4 hours of sleep four blocks might as well be back in the States. So after walking a block, we walked back, hailed a cab and paid a massive 3 bucks for instant delivery.. On the note of money, it's odd here.. some things make sense to the conversion rates, others don't... Buying a 20 oz coke? Works out great.. Buying a chicken dinner?  then it's priced the same as it would be in the states, only its in pounds, which means mucho mula.. We're figuring it out.. Anyway, on with the day.. Oh yeah, and it turns out that today is Mother's day here.. So happy mother's day mom.. Love you. 

We first got ourselves tickets to a bus tour for two days. You get on, you get off, you get back on, all the while they're telling you all the nifty tidbits about London you thought you knew, only you really didn't because it's a LOT different when you see something like Margaret Thatcher's condo for yourself.. Or Prince Charles's for that matter. And did you know Michael Cain, the famous actor, use to have a totally different nerdy name and toss fish for a living? Who knew?... The tour guides.. that's who.. So we hopped off the bus, and hopped onto the London Eye.. It's awesome, but a lot more elegant looking when you're not dangling 150 ft above the Thames. we got some pretty sweet pics.. and also some other sweet pics of the rest of the city from a river cruise tour.. And without further ado... 

This was a pretty awesome English jet setter we met while shopping. Notice the keen sense of style.

This is Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament. 

Tower Bridge..

The happy couple in London on a river cruise!

And finally the London Eye!.. Goodnight everybody.. 

Bags, check.. Passports, check.. Excitement, check, check!! Virginia and I are sitting at the gate now waiting on the boarding call.. Wont be for a while (Somewhere around 3 hours), but at least all the roadblocks are out of the way and its just a matter of time before we're London-bound.  We're not the only one's waiting on the flight either, there's a few British accents flying around, and it's getting me thinking I should be boning up on my cockney slang.. But anyway, we're HERE!.. sort of.. here before we're there anyway..... Hang on.. Virginia wants to type something.......

There is also a lot of children on this flight, I am so hoping they don't sit behind me kicking my seat the whole way to London, but I've got my liter of water, about to pop an antihistamine, so I should sleep like a baby.  We will report when we arrive so everyone knows we have gotten there safely, until then..............Cheerio!!!

Afternoon tea, Big Ben, possibly a prince William and Kate sighting?  Who knows what we'll post as we embark into the journey of a lifetime.  We first arrive in London, albeit jet lagged and a bit out of our element we will begin touring the city.  Hello red double decker bus!!!  We will be spending 5 full days in London, one of the days we will be taking a tour outside the city to see Stonehenge, Bath, and Windsor Castle.  After that we jump on a high speed train to Paris.  Ah, love will be in the air as us newlyweds get carried away with all this beautiful city has to offer.  It is an Art lovers paradise for me and a food lovers paradise for Jeromy.  We both can hardly wait and will be posting regularly with pics and details about our adventure.  'au revoir!!!