Family Visit Pt. 1

My mom and aunt are here to visit! On Friday night, I took the train to Paris to meet up with my friends the Alexes who happened to be in Paris. It was such a relief to see familiar friendly faces! I didn’t meet up with them until 11pm, and mostly we spent time just catching up. We took a walk down the street to see the Moulin Rouge and the… colorful adjacent street filled with neon lights, and then ended up at a café for some wine on a more reputable street. It was just what I needed since I’ve been feeling pretty homesick. I was too excited to see people I knew, so I forgot to take pictures.

We were on the tippy top floor.

Spiffy place. My aunt is even more of a crazy planner than me!

Saturday morning I met my mom and Aunt Carolyn at a hotel around noon, and we were off to explore Paris! We stayed 2 nights and hit up a lot of the great sights – Notre Dame, Berthillon ice cream (It really is that high up on the list), the Eiffel Tower, and the view from atop the business office tower at Montparnasse, among others. There was also lots of delicious food. Everyone talks about how awesome Paris is, but I didn’t have high hopes for the visit. I just don’t love huge cities, and most of them all seem alike to me. I’ll say that I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed it.

Arc de Triomphe!

Tour Eiffel!

Why yes, it really is huge enough to span a 4 lane road.

And wow, there really ARE armed guards everywhere!

The Pantheon!

Paris from Above.

Can I have this staircase? I don't care if it comes with a church.

Monday morning, we hopped on a train to Rouen for a rental car, but not without stopping at Giverny to visit Monet’s Garden and the nearby Impressionist museum! Honestly, I was disappointed with the garden as a whole, for most of it just seems like a jumbled, overgrown mess to me. But the waterlily pond was quite stunning. My expectations of the day were turned on their head, because I had a great time at the impressionist museum. Almost all of their space is for changing exhibits, and the current exhibit is by a Japanese artist that has taken an immense amount of inspiration from Monet and created a lovely mix between that and more traditional Japanese painting techniques.

Monet's garden.

Plenty of art students sketching at the water lily pond.

This part was actually worth it.

After some trouble getting a hold of the rental car, we were on our way back to Acquigny so my family could see where I was working. We had an amazingly smooth trip out of the city and I’m proud to say we found our way without getting lost once!