Drumroll, please.....

I'm FINALLY posting about the France trip!!! We’ve been back a few weeks now and I’ve been busy sorting through the 1300+ pictures I took while we were gone. I kept a journal and intended to go back and type it up to post here with pictures, but the more I read over it…it’s just not that entertaining! I ended up writing up the day’s activities just before going to bed and every entry is essentially “We went here. We saw this. I need to get some sleep.”

So instead, I’ll go day by day and throw up some pictures and keep the dialog to the high points.

DAY ONE – PARIS
We landed in Paris about 9ish. Getting out of the airport was interesting… The taxis were on strike. They were all lined in the right lane, and driving slowly in the left – just enough to keep things at almost a standstill. Apparently this is what they do over there…they get in the way for a day, then it’s back to work as normal the next day. Not sure how effective it is, but nice that they don’t drag it out forever.
First stop was Notre Dame. The bus parked in the Latin Quarter so we walked around the neighborhood, across the river and over towards the church. Here's some random scenery from the walk and the neighborhood around Notre Dame...

Before we went into the church, we walked over to the Holocaust Memorial. It’s hard to describe…you walk down a narrow stairway and eventually into this little cave-like stone room. Very dark and claustrophobic. Down the hallway, there are jewels on the wall for every French person who lost their life in the Holocaust. “Appropriate” is the only word I’ve been able to come up with to describe it. When you consider the atrocities that took place during that time, it’s hard to imagine ever being able to sufficiently memorialize it… But they succeeded in making it uncomfortable and beautiful and moving all at the same time.

The entrance:

The crystals representing those who died:
A sculpture outside:
Above the door: Forgive, don't forget...
Then we went into Notre Dame.....






After Notre Dame, we headed back through the Latin Quarter to meet the bus and went back to the hotel for the night.

And there's Day One! Only how many to go? Any bets on how long it'll take to get the whole trip posted?