From Paris With Love

Greetings after a long hiatus, readers!  I am back with lots of lots of photos to share.  Todd's parents, Bob and Angie, left this morning to head back to Holland (Michigan).  We had a jam-packed 10 days filled with lots of fun, food, and French-speaking.

Before I jump into Part 1 of the recap of our adventures, I thought I'd share a couple of photos from a concert we attended in Antwerp the night before Todd's parents arrived.  We saw Mumford and Sons at a huge arena, and we had a great time.  Marcus Mumford is one talented dude, playing multiple instruments at once while singing.

In unrelated news, I got bangs!

Now on to the past 10 days. We picked up Bob and Angie at the airport in Amsterdam and headed directly into the center of town where we would spend 1 night and 2 days.  Our hotel was in the heart of the city, near Dam Square, where the original dam on the Amstel river was built.  It made for some easy commuting to the sites we were visiting.

Over the 2 days, we went to the Anne Frank House and the Van Gogh museum as our main tourist attractions.  At twilight, we took a stroll through the Red Light District, which is always a rather shocking sight to see, especially if it's your first time.

Here's a couple of nice shots of the city:

Grabbing a drink at a brown cafe.

A highlight of our time in Amsterdam was a delicious meal at a Thai restaurant.  This actually turned out to be one of our favorite meals of the trip.  We went for the "surprise" menu, meaning we didn't actually order any particular items.  The chef, a hilarious guy who loved to stop by the table, did a great job of surprising us with tasty dishes.

I have no idea what this is called, but boy was it good. 

In addition to the great food, we even enjoyed a celebrity (albeit minor) sighting.  Any 'Dancing with the Stars' fans out there?  We had the pleasure of dining near Louis Van Amstel, a Dutchman, and one of the pro dancers on the show.  Todd spotted him first (he will also watch the Bachelor with me from time to time folks), and then we had to pretend not to keep looking at him for the rest of dinner.

Angie was pleased as punch to see him, so she asked to take a photo with him as we were leaving.  He willingly obliged.

The next morning we had a nice breakfast, did some additional sightseeing and then headed south to Eindhoven.

On our drive back home, we were trying to figure out where we should stop to grab a bite to eat.  We didn't get to a pannenkeukenhuis in Amsterdam, so I google-ed to find one on our way.  It turns out that there is a very cute pancake house which is close to our house. It's located at an apple orchard that we didn't know existed, and they served up some delicious pancakes.

Warm cherry pancake with ice and whipped cream.

At night, we used a bunch of our Frank's Red Hot, fresh off the plane from the States, to make wings.  They were heavenly.

Fall off the bone goodness.

We continued our breakneck pace the next morning by setting off for France!  As unbelievable as it may sound, this was our first trip to France since moving to Europe.  I was very excited to get back.  It has been a long time since I've gotten to speak French, so it was a delight to use the language again.  I actually couldn't believe how well it came back to me.  Of course, there were a few times where my vocabulary recall was a bit lacking, but overall it went very well.  There were multiple situations we encountered where my skills were put to use.

Our first stop in France was Paris.  Ahh, Paris, you do not disappoint.  We were only spending 1 night and 2 days in Paris, so we tried to make the most of our time there.

Our hotel was a great spot with lots of charm.

I call my look, "Jennifer Lawrence in Silver Linings Playbook".

Our first day was filled with lots of the must-sees for first-timers in Paris like Todd's parents.  

Notre Dame:

Sainte-Chapelle:

The Arc de Triomphe:

Coffee on the Champs-Elysees:

And of course the Eiffel Tower:

We stayed busy, to say the least.  Dinner was at a nice spot we happened upon and that was luckily open on Easter Sunday.

We finished up the day with some time by the Eiffel Tower and a boat cruise along the Seine.

The Eiff getting all sparkly at the top of the hour.

On the lovely boat cruise.

The next morning, we started pretty early with breakfast at our hotel.

Then we headed straight to the Louvre to try to beat the lines.  We succeeded and were able to get right in.  There is a lot to see in this museum, and it's probably impossible to see each of the 35,000 objects inside in one day.  We did make it to some of the most famous pieces.

The Mona Lisa.  This picture shows just how ridiculously small she is.

Venus de Milo.

Following a couple of hours in the museum, we grabbed a cup of coffee that had a nice view of the Louvre and the Jardin de Tuileries.

Then we headed to a great bakery that was recommended to Angie by a friend.

This place smelled great, and we snagged a loaf of bread and fistfuls of pastries to enjoy later.

We followed our trip to the boulangerie with our best lunch of the trip.  We sat in a great corner window table at an adorable cafe.

Yum!

We certainly could have spent a lot more time in Paris, but Epernay in the Champagne region was calling our name, so we hit the road.  I'll be back later this week with the rest of the recap. A bientot mes amis!