Paris, October 2011

I am late getting my Euro trip posted. I just needed to help with a Grandchild being born, really just helping her mom, and moving. It's been a crazy year altogether, but since August it has been unreal. I wanted to at least do the post in the same year as I went on the trip. It was wonderful! Seven of my eight brothers and their spouses, and my five sisters and their spouses, and I went. I wish Stan would have been able to come, knee surgery didn't go as well as he thought it would. That is the only thing that would have made it a better trip than it was.

Below is Nortre Dame. There are so many ancient cathedrals in France. They are amazing in the enormity and their structure and their stained glass.

This is the gate in front of a large government building, which also has the cathedral with the most stained glass in it, in all of France. Pretty amazing. The pictures do NOT do it justice in any sense of the word. I found out that stained glass that is almost all red and blue was made in the 1400's. So you are looking at some old glass! The bottom picture of this section shows the windows from the outside. You really have no way of knowing what the beauty is from the inside looking out.

I have always loved the movie "Sabrina". In it, Sabrina talks about choosing a bridge in Paris and writing in your journal. There are a lot of bridges in Paris. Being from America, it is amazing how young our country is. Going to Europe, it is not just the amazing architecture you see, but how old it is, and then wondering how they made these massive structures without all of the modern technology we have know. Truly amazing!

Then there is the Louvre... I did not know that the Louvre used to be the king's residence. Wow. We were not supposed to take pictures in the Louvre, but everyone was. We, Gloria, Holly and I, forbore, but wondered why, everyone else was taking pictures! On the 2nd trip, I decided to take a few. I saw the Mona Lisa the first trip, but didn't get a picture. It is truly amazing. The architecture is more amazing to me than a lot of what is in it!

In Ukraine, I truly loved the open markets, the small markets in the streets, the food, etc. It was wonderful to see similar things in France. Truly a lot of fun.

These are a few of the pictures I DID take in the Louvre. Not sure what the sculptor was saying with this first one!

At the end of the trip, we came back into Paris on the boat. We passed a lot of yachts, I'm using that term very loosely! It was a wonder that some of them are not at the bottom of the River Seine! These are actually homes where people live year round. Under the bridges you can see where some of the homeless have set up housekeeping. Some of them, it looks like, for a very long time.

Coming into the center of Paris, you see the small 'Statue of Liberty'. So, Paris was the beginning and end of our trip. What a wonderful opportunity. I truly, truly thank those who made it possible!