Luxembourg and Beyond

Leaving Germany was hard.  We really enjoyed meeting new friends and seeing the town!  We drove several hours that night to a hotel and decided not to drive all the way to Normandy.  TOO FAR!  We were avoiding toll roads, and driving just takes a long time.  Instead we drove through Luxembourg, Belgium, and on to a suburb north of Paris for the night.

Luxembourg was by far the most beautiful city we have seen.  It is clean, lovely to see, museums, a fantastic park, a castle, rivers, hidden streets down the hill and elephants (?!)... but we only had a
few hours to enjoy it.

Cool Park

Romanian Embassy (if you are reading
Laura and Dorin, taken in your honor)

Geocache in the center of the city by the Palace

Elephant 

Lunch- pizza is cheap everywhere!

More Elephants

Driving through Belgium we were looking for a boulangerie (bread store) to buy something for breakfast.  The only one we found only had bread left, no breakfast things.  The next town only had a frite stand (french fries)- we stopped because the kids needed to try frites in their birthplace!

Belgian totem pole?

Yum! Good Belgian Frites!

As we left southern Belgium and entered France, the houses were all cream or white, and in France some had shutters again.  There seemed to be many newer homes and very few old places.  I think this area was hit hard in the war.  I missed the Savoie region of France with homes of colors and mountains!  When we drove through Reims, we missed our turn to skirt the city and I was glad!  That is a cool city - all kinds of interesting buildings and castles.  I looked it up after we passed through.  Definitely a place to visit - very interesting city.  They used to crown all the French kings there.
We arrived very late at our hotel, ate our customary bar of chocolate ( 1 bar split 6 ways) and went to sleep.

In the morning I could see the Eiffel tower and Sacre Coeur in the distance from our room!  Cool!  (We got 2 rooms.  All the rooms of this hotel have a larger double on the bottom and a twin sized bunk above.  So, 3 and 3 in each room- no fridge, no microwave, very small, but clean and with a bath in the room. And of course inexpensive.)  We ate and planned a route for the day, packed picnic supplies and water and headed out.


Three days in Paris- each day we drove around the Arch de Triumph.  Day 1 was Musée d'Orsay, Luxembourg Gardens, and a drive by of Montmartre.

First time around...

Clock tower in the Musée d'Orsay

Happy Bee Keeper at the Luxembourg Gardens, Paris

The famous boats at the gardens

Noah helping kids at the park

First time by SacreCoeur

Day 2 was the Louvre, sight seeing on the Seine, a souvenir, and Sacre Coeur/ Montmarte.

Day 2 around....

The Louvre

Dungeon of the Louvre- very cool!

We saw the Mona Lisa, sort of....

The rest of the people who saw the Mona Lisa...

Statues at the Louvre

Lunch

Art- I bought a small one-

More art.....

Dinner

Art at Montmartre...

Entertainment at Montmartre- watch for pickpockets
my backpack was unzipped after this
nothing missing though....

Kristin's souvenir

Day 3 we met my old friend Dirk and his family at the Eiffel Tower (we walked up to the 2nd level), Climbed to the top of the Arch de Triumph, Notre Dame, walked the Isle de la cité, and the Isle Saint-Louis and the final - and best thing of the time in Paris - was an evening boat tour of the city. Not too expensive, beautiful views, and so nice to do with Dirk and his family!

Below

Above

After with the Sieber family

On top of the Arch de Triumph

Lunch

Notre Dame's famous windows

The bridge with locks

Sunset from the river

New friends 

No longer strangers....

So blessed and so much more to write- but another day...

Glad we have had all the practice walking!  But my legs hurt for 2 days after climbing both the Tower and the Arch!