Paris Highlights

Since you've been on picture overload lately, I decided to only post some of our photos from Paris (which might end up being picture overload, too).  Casey's FAVORITE place in the whole world is Paris.  Mine, not so much.  I'd say Colorado is my favorite place because no matter where I am in the world, I'm always missing Colorado.  

Casey took me to Paris for the first time 18 months ago.  It was my first trip out of the country ever; I didn't even have a passport before that trip.  I had a sort of love/hate relationship with Paris because while it's incredibly beautiful, it's also smelly and smoky and kind of scary in some places.  I LOVED the countryside outside of Paris, but Paris itself was just okay to me.  I was hoping this trip would be better so I could share Casey's love for his childhood home, and it was.

"Hey, Mom, I'm in Paris!"

Notre Dame.  They put up new bleachers right in front of it, so this was the best we could do.

Side view

Casey and the Louvre

This is the "Stop taking pictures of me" look.

Paris has the prettiest buildings.

Shakespeare and Company, cutest little bookshop ever.

 Brasserie de I'Isle St Louis (or something like that).  Casey's dad told us we had to go here because they were very nice to Casey when he was a kid.  It was delicious :)

 Look!  We're in a Dali painting!

There was a Salvador Dali exhibit at the Pompidou Centre, which is one of the coolest buildings ever.  After standing in line in the freezing cold for an hour, I learned that I don't really like Dali's paintings.  They're very strange.

 Pretty roads :)

Macaroons and a cute little park by the Seine, these are the things I love about Paris.

The Mona Lisa!

She's so tiny.  We got a lot closer this time, but it was so crazy I didn't want to get any closer.  This is probably the last time I'll see her, and I'm okay with that.

The statues in the Louvre were my favorites.  They're incredible.  This warthog statue was my favorite-favorite.

Look at that adorable face!

 I'm not one to get all excited over a building, but this one sure is beautiful at night.

Look at her glow

 I live right next door to the Eiffel Tower, no big.

The Eiffel Tower

The Eiffel Tower + Casey

The Eiffel Tower + me

And our last Eiffel Tower photo ever

The Arc de Triomphe

Lots of Arc fanciness

 The 5,000 stairs we climbed to get to the top.  They seriously went on forever.

 It was worth it, though!

:)

 The bluest sky we saw all week.

We found our favorite bar from our first trip!  Doesn't it look cute?  It wasn't the same without the amazing bartender, but we're hoping she followed her dreams and moved to New Mexico to work on her boyfriend's winery.  She traveled all around the world, and New Mexico was her favorite place :)

This one's for you, Dad.  This guy was AMAZING!  He held himself out perpendicular to the pole juggling a soccer ball and doing all sorts of fancy tricks.  We were too slow with the camera, but I'd say it's one of the most impressive things I've ever seen.

Van Gogh's house

I'm guessing it's the one with the sunflowers hanging out the window...

Pretty old windmill

The famous steps crowded with people.

Casey and the cafe from his favorite movie, Amelie

"And if I were in Paris, I would say ooh la la la la la la la la..."

Sacre Coeur, my favorite building in my favorite neighborhood, Montmartre

The Louvre

And our last picture from our favorite night of the trip, a dinner cruise on the Seine.  We almost got each other the same Christmas present, but I backed out at the last minute because he always surprises me with things like this.  Two dinner cruises on the Seine isn't the worst thing that could have happened.  It was my favorite, favorite part of our trip.  We got to sit right by the window with no neighbors and had tons of good wine and amazing food.  We liked it so much we bought this picture for 20 euros!  20 EUROS!  That's like 97 dirhams!  Most expensive picture I've ever paid for, but I suppose it's worth it :)

Now, friends, this concludes our posts from our Christmas-y vaca in London and Paris.  

Trip highlights:

1.  Hanging out with his dad in London.

2.  Stonehendge.

3.  London sightseeing.

4.  Christmas Eve carols at Royal Albert Hall.

5.  Breakfast in London.

6.  The London Eye.

7.  Finding our London hats.

8.  Rainy cold weather in London.

9.  Roald Dahl's writing hut!!

10.  Meeting Mark in London.

11.  EVERYTHING London!

12.  Wandering the streets of Paris.

13.  The catacombs, Casey liked this one.

14.  Amazing food.

15.  Hanging out with my love for more than 2 hours at a time :)

16.  The dinner cruise on the Seine, the single best part of our trip.

17.  Getting out of Dubai for a few days.

18.  Touching snow in the Ukraine.

It was the perfect winter vacation and exactly what we needed after a busy and sometimes stressful semester.  Thank you to Jerry for meeting us in London, and an extra special thanks to Agnes for letting us stay in her beautiful home!

Time to go back to blogging about boring things.