Paris

Our first stop after Connie and Hannah joined us was Paris. None of us had been to France before, so we figured Paris would be the perfect starting point even though we are not “city people”. As you can probably tell from everything we’ve done on this trip so far, we would rather spend our time surfing, hiking, fishing, etc than walking around a large city visiting the museums and other sights with all the tourists.

Even though we’re not big city fans, Paris did not disappoint. We spent 2 ½ days visiting some of the main sights…taking in Notre Dame, the Louvre, the Arc de Triomphe, and the Eiffel Tower among others. In between, we explored some of the quieter areas and enjoyed the great food. (Escargot or foie gras anyone?) The city was amazing, with beautiful, historic buildings everywhere and something to see around every corner.

At the Eiffel Tower (in case you couldn't tell):

In front of the Venus de Milo statue at the Louvre Museum:

One of the highlights of Paris didn’t even involve anything French…On our last night in the city we decided to pick up some food and have an evening picnic at the Eiffel Tower. Since we didn’t have a corkscrew for our wine we found the nearest group with a few open wine bottles and figured they had to have one. Instead of letting us borrow theirs, they insisted we join them. They seemed friendly enough…plus they had an endless supply of cheese, prosciutto, bread, fruit and wine, so we couldn’t say no. Turns out they were a United flight crew (one of the pilots and five of the attendants) based in Washington, DC, but in Paris on a one-day layover. Seven hours later we had a stack of empty wine bottles almost as high as the Eiffel Tower. We’ll just leave the story at that.

The picnic that turned into a party with the United flight crew:

We’re currently in Switzerland soaking in the fresh mountain air and back to exploring the great outdoors.