Paris, France Romance...

What a wonderful husband I have, that would take me all the way to the 'most romantic city in the world' for our 2nd Anniversary! I guess it's partly to make up for us not spending our first anniversary together last year (due to another deployment, of course, though that wasn't anything he could have avoided). We left Germany on Monday and decided that we were going to be 'ballas' and get to Paris the old-fashioned way...by renting a car, using a GPS, and driving ourselves there...through foreign countries....for our first time ever. lol. We had the option to take what they call the I.C.E. train, but opted out after we saw the ticket prices. Although, now that we know how much it was to do it the way we did it, we would absolutely be willing to ride the ICE next go-around. It came out to the same expenditures in the end & it would have saved us almost 2 hours of traveling. But seeing the French countryside was beautiful and worth it, so no worries.


We got to 'fly' down that autobahn (which is their equivalent to our Interstate), at a fabulous driving speed of between 85mph and 110mph, if you wanna. I was so surprised at how fast we would be going, but it didn't feel like it at all. Sure made going 65 and 70 feel different & SLOW when I got home though! Ha. It was soooo easy getting to Paris from where we were in Germany, we were really pleasantly surprised. So, we got there on Monday afternoon & got settled into our hotel room at Hotel de Cadran, grabbed a bite to eat at a little corner bistro called La Terrasse, & walked over to see the infamous Eiffel Tower. That evening, we decided to be a part of an American-ran Paris tour offered by the Fat Tire Bike Tour company. So, we met the group at the Tower, walked to their office, loaded onto our bikes, and got to ride through the city streets of Paris in a group of about 25. It was so much fun. We made several stops at places like Notre Dame, The Louvre Museum, the best ice cream shop EVER, & the fair grounds. This was all happening as the sun was setting which was beautiful and when it became dark, we loaded onto a big tour boat & were offered ungodly amounts of wine while we browsed the beautifully lit up buildings from the water and watched the Eiffel Tower do it's sparkle dance (see video below by tilting your head to the left...SORRY, it wouldn't rotate, ha!). We met a lot of really cool people on this tour, some from Australia, Canada, & oddly enough, North & South Carolina. Makes you realize how small this world really is! To finish off the night, we grabbed a bite at the local McDonald's (which was delicious!) with our 3 Aussie girl friends & eventually headed home around 1:30am. We were pooped!

The next day was our anniversary. We walked around the corner from our hotel to an outdoor bakery where we ate chocolate croissants and drank a coke to get our day started off right...SO HEALTHY! :) We then spent the day walking around Paris. We checked out the Eiffel Tower again to get a couple souvenirs, caught a train to the D'Orsey Museum (which we didn't actually go into because of a really long line), ate some lunch at an Asian cafe, walked through the shopping streets, went to Notre Dame again so we could do the internal tour (which was awesome), & eventually headed back to the hotel to get ready for our Anniversary dinner. I believe prego (that'd be me) had to catch a nap after all of that walking & then we headed out to eat. We ate at a super nice restaurant called La Suffren. It was delicious. Then we grabbed a gelato ice cream near our hotel, enjoyed that, & sang-along to some American music inside the cafe. Chad was quite entertaining. I got it on video, but he said he'd kill me if anyone ever saw them....so I can't post them. There are two very important lives at risk at the moment, ha. :) Then, we sat for a tea & Coke in a different bistro before heading back up to the hotel room for the night.

The next morning we revisited that lovely bakery for breakfast and packed things up to head back to Germany. We had a lot of fun hand-holding, loving time to spend together & it was fabulous. He got to catch me up on a lot of the cool places he's been and all of the cool stuff he's gotten to see while he's been there. I can't lie and say I'm not jealous of a lot of it! :) But, I'm glad he's happy and not miserable in the desert like he is on all of the other deployments. And, I'm glad we are blessed enough that I was able to go see him. That was something I never expected I'd ever get to do. Here is the link to our Paris pictures for those who haven't seen them yet: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2041193&id=54100340&l=5d4ccfc3f8

Switzerland is yet to come...:) See ya then!