Paris

We are back from all of our jet setting and I am now finding a few moments to catch up. I have lots to tell so posts per location are my way of sorting through it all. I am so skipping Hawaii right now, cause I am still on my Europe "high". So, I shall begin with Paris.
We got in Thursday morning and hit the ground running. Literally. Our plane was late taking off in Huntsville, so we landed in Atlanta at the departure time for our flight to Paris. So we ran 3 terminals in 7 min with 25lb packs strapped to our backs. I was sweating like a pig when we made it to the gate. Thank you God for listening to me, cause the whole way to Atlanta I was praying for a miracle to delay our Paris flight. We stumble to the Atlanta gate and see ppl boarding. The scanner was not able to read boarding passes so everyone had to get new ones reprinted. Seriously, thank God for answered prayers! After we arrived in Paris, it took us about 3 hours to get all the little details sorted away before we could drop our packs and see the sites. First we started with visiting the crepe stand and having dark chocolate and banana crepes. Talk about melt in your mouth. So fresh, he made the crepe, buys the chocolate across the street and the bananas next door. The pics of the little markets were in the neighborhood we stayed in. We stayed on Rue Cler (in English Cler Street). It is a pedestrian only street and you can take an hour stroll down this little lane to find chocolate shops, cheese and pastry shops, fresh food markets, flowers, cafes, etc. All the locals were trolling around their little shopping bacgs on wheels. Tres Parisian. After that we take a few self guided walks on the left bank, admired the Seine, and took lots of breaks to sample the local fare. Day 2, my 30th birthday!! We were going to hit all the awesome museums. However, all the museums decided to go on strike, so they were all closed! I was seriously like, "Seriously, are you telling me the truth?!" So instead we battle the rain and hit up the churches, Notre Dame, St. Chapelle, and St. Sulpice, The Arc, anything that was free and outside. The weather was great too. If you see the pic of Notre Dame, the sky is completely black. Not more than 20 seconds after I took that photo we get pummeled by pea size hail. Lovely. Thank goodness we brought most of our Alaska gear, so we stayed nice and dry despite the annoying pelting. We left Friday night for Venice and returned to Paris the following Thursday. The museums were off strike so we toured the Louvre, Orsay, Rodin, and Army museums. I could not put all my pics on this slideshow, so when you all take your visits you can see the scrapbook! I loved Paris. I think the neighborhood we stayed in made it great for me. It was such an awesome place, this is where you need to stay if in Paris. The people seemed very responsive to my feeble attempts of having a conversation and everyone knew enough English for us to get by. This is definitely on my list of places to return. Hope you enjoy this first installment. Oh, and check out Kevin's face while he is standing next to the huge painting dubbed, "The Birth of Venus". Too funny!