A Paris Holiday

We took advantage of a break between semesters at Gonzaga and hopped a plane for the first time since September. We spent a week in Paris, just long enough to want to stay longer.

The grandeur and elegance of this city's buildings and boulevards made us feel like we were visitors from the old world of Florence.




If we weren't walking the Paris streets, we were getting from here to there on the excellent, Paris metro system. (Paris seems to have spared no expense in moving their people around town.)

We ate our way through the city, taste-testing yummy French croissant and crepes. 

We loved the art in the windows and on the walls...

...and appreciate how Paris, like Florence, conceals the scaffolding of construction sites with a cover that matches the building. (Can you tell where the building ends and the cover begins here?)

 

We enjoyed great sites of Paris... 

 

...and smaller sites of the neighborhood where we stayed, never tiring of its' cafes, patisseries and street markets.

 

The Champs-Elysees was full of action, day and night, and hosted a full Christmas market with a rides for the kiddos.

(As you can see, Sophia and Josephine are having a terrible time coaster-riding and bungy-jumping.)

 

Although we found Notre Dame busy with visitors at this time of year, we also found it mystical. Awe and wonder filled its' vast nave and it's many portals were condicive to prayer, including this lovely scene set for the Nativity.

 

 

The Orlando highlight, for sure, (or it least next in line to the art and croissants) was this 984-foot, 7000-ton tensile masterpiece. We assume that the "Tour Eiffel" must be the most recognizable and loved monument in the world. On this trip, our family could certainly see why. 

Since the very top was closed due to weather,

 we settled for ice-skating on the first floor of the tower.

Like daddy, like daughter!

Why all of the Parisian smiles? Je ne sais quoi!

We wish you every happiness this New Year and pray that hope and peace brighten all places and people of our world!