Paris Day 3: Notre Dame and the Louvre

Today we made it to the Cathedral of Notre Dame, The Louvre, The Rue de Rivoli and The Jardin de Tuileries. We actually went to Notre Dame twice since James had left the card to his camera in the laptop after uploading pictures last night. Here are the pictures after we went back to get his card.

For some reason neither of us could get a good picture of the Mona Lisa, the only thing either of us really wanted to see in The Louvre, can you tell we aren't art nuts? These were the best off of James' camera.One of the long hallways in The Louvre, we read somewhere that there are over 16KM of hallways in the building, that's almost 10 miles, we didn't walk all of it since we were having issues with Macen's stroller and all of the stairs.

The Cathedral of Notre Dame. Once again we walked all the way to the top of the towers across the front of the building and then down again. I don't remember how many steps but James did carry Macen.A close up of a couple of the gargoyle rain spouts. Kind of scary looking huh?Inside the Cathedral, it was huge. When we went in the morning there was actually a mass going on around the altar. Macen riding one of the carrousels, this one in the Jardin de Tuileries.

Angelina's Tea Room Restuarant. We stopped in here for some hot chocolate and chocolate candy, the hot chocolate literally tasted like melted thick rich milk chocolate and the chocolate caramel candies were to die for. This was a recommended online if you love hot chocolate so this was a must stop for me.

We also tried the chocolate mousse (okay, I'll be honest, I tried it 4 times) It was different every time and really, really good each time. The French are also famous for their macaroons but they don't make them with coconut. We aren't coconut fans so these were also on my list to try. We weren't overly impressed with them. There is quite the variety but we tried the strawberry, chocolate and what we thought the guy called caramel. We must have misunderstood him because we think it was coffee. I stuck with the mousse the rest of the time.

Paris Day 2 Cont'd

This is underneath the Arc.

View of the Eiffel Tower from the top of the Arc de Triomphe. I had read online to go to the top of anything you get a chance to for a great view of the city. And we did.

We are close to the top here going back down all the stairs. And there were alot of them. Thankfully they had several resting spots, aka souvenir/info spots along the way.

Macen playing below the Arc.

Anyone want to start making wagers on how long it's going to take me to enter a Louis Vuitton over here, lol? Or maybe we should start making guesses on how long it's going to take me to make a LV purchase. This one was huge so I wasn't as tempted but I will succumb while we are in Europe. James just doesn't know when or where and he isn't going to want to know how much. Ha ha!

Versailles

This gives you an idea on how each of the rooms were displayed.

Majority of the ceilings were masterpieces themselves.

These last 2 are the backside of the Palace. I think the Versailles was my favorite part of our trip other than the Eiffel Tower. I was hoping the flowers would be in bloom in the garden that James posted previously but we were a little too early in the season. It's definitely beautiful without flowers but can you imagine it with them?!

Paris Day 2: Versailles and The Arc De Triomphe

We got up bright and early this morining and headed for the Palace of Versailles.  Talk about extravagent.  I can definitely see how the French had a revolution after seeing the opulence here.  The Palace was built by Louis XIV and improved by several French Kings after him both before and after the French Revolution.  There is more information on it here.

Here are some of the 50+ pictures I took at Versailles.

This was the gilded gate at the front of the Palace, our entrance was to the left of it here.

Macen sitting on the steps right in front of the Palace.

A look at the front of the palace those are the steps that Macen posed on.

The famous Hall of Mirrors.  This is where the Treaty of Versailles that ended World War I was signed.  It is flanked by the War Drawing Room and the Peace Drawing Room.

A look out the backside of the Palace at a reflecting pool and some of the gardins

Macen and Shantel in front of the one of the pools in the garden.  In case you couldn't tell Macen was all wound up today.

After returning from Versailles we all took a nap, Macen didn't get one yesterday and Shantel and I were pretty beat as well.  After our nap we headed out to see the Arc de Triomphe and the Champs de Elysees.

Here is the Arc, we couldn't get very good pictures of it because they are doing restoration work on all of the sculptures on it.  It was commissioned by Napoleon after he crushed the Austrians at Austerlitz, but it wasn't completed until the 1830's long after Napoleon and France had been defeated and suffered a series of military setbacks.

Shantel at the top after climbing the 287 steps.  She didn't even carry Macen!

The view from the top of the Arc down the Champs de Elysees.  This is the traditional finish route of the Tour de France.

The French honor their unknown soldier from World War I, just like the US, with an eternal flame under the Arc de Triomphe. 

Paris Day 1 Cont'd

Dora, Boots and Swiper made the trip with us to Paris. But they were forgotten after this meal because James bought Macen an Eiffel Tower keychain this night. It went everywhere with us for the rest of the week

We've Made It To Paris....France That Is

You know I'm not always the brightest light bulb in the chandelier but something finally clicked the other day and I told Shantel that if she wanted to go to Paris so bad I could of saved a lot of money by taking her to Paris.....Missouri that is, heck I might of even sprung for a trip to Paris, Texas. Oh well fortunately for Shantel I'm not always the quickest thinking guy.

We've made it to Paris and we've done some wandering around already. The serious sightseeing starts tomorrow but here are some pictures of what we've done so far.

Macen on the tarmac at the Nuremberg Airport waiting to get on the plane.

Of course where is the first place we head? Got to get that pilsner glass!

The proof no chocolate milkshake out of this glass!

The Eiffel Tower before the lights come on.

And after all the lights come on.

OK we'll flesh out the posts a little more after we get back home, we just want to show a few of the pictures after each days adventure. Look for more posts the rest of the week and then revisions and additons after the weekend. I hope everyone enjoys.

Kallmunz

James did a half marathon down near Regensburg in a town called Kallmunz. The race was right around the Naab River and Macen enjoyed watching the water flow and the ducks swim. They also had a bounce house for the kids and he spent a lot of time in there.

James signed Macen up for the kids race that took place before James'. It was for a quarter of a mile and Macen had been talking all morning about going to run with dad. Well guess who didn't want to run when it came time? He cried and cried and refused to get out of his stroller when all the kids were lining up. Once they shot the gun, he jumped out of the stroller only to not go anywhere. He had a number, a timing chip and running shoes but none of it mattered. He loves running and is a fast runner already so we were shocked he didn't want to participate.

Kallmunzer Fruhlingslauf Halb Marathon

For those of you who don't read German, that's the Kallmunzer Spring Run Half Marathon. That was the race that I did on Saturday. Here's the review.
This was a great race in a picturesque little village on the Naab river in Central Bavaria. A friend of mine recommended that I do the triathlon that the local sports club here puts on but I'll be deployed when it takes place so I did the Spring Run Half Marathon instead. The route takes you through the cobblestoned village center and over the Naab on a stone bridge that was built in the 1500s and then along the Naab until the turn around point and back.

We ran down river so it was mostly downhill on the out leg with a tailwind to push you. It was a little chilly at the start of the race so I ended up leaving my half zip Nike waffle jacket on over the top of a long sleeved running shirt. At about the 4 mile mark I was starting to heat up pretty good and was beginning to wonder if that haden't been a tactical mistake on my part. But when I turned around and headed back up the river and I caught the wind full in my face I was really glad I had it.

I really struggled on the return leg with the generally up hill grade as well as the head wind. In combination they really cut into my average that with the lack of any significant distance in the last few weeks was telling as I hit the well at about mile 10 and I was forced to speed walk a couple of times. Overall I only finished 29 seconds off my personel record for the half marathon with a time of 1:55:26. I'd really wanted to go under 1:50 and probably could have if that darn wall hadn't popped up. Here are some pictures.

Feeling good at the start. Little did I know what I was in for.

I don't look like I'm enjoying it quite as much as I was in the earlier picture, do I? That darn wall took it all out of me.

A beer and a putensteaksemmel (grilled chicken breast sandwich) at the end of the race. Damn the beer tasted good. I went back for a second and since there were no putensteaksemmels done I got a bratwurstsemmel and another beer. We didn't make it all the way home before I started feeling quesy, Shantel had to make two emergency stops, one for me to hurl and then one for me find a bathroom. I didn't even drink a quarter of the second beer. I'm blaming the grease from the bratwurst.A beer and a putensteaksemmel (grilled chicken breast sandwich) at the end of the race. Damn the beer tasted good. I went back for a second and since there were no putensteaksemmels done I got a bratwurstsemmel and another beer. We didn't make it all the way home before I started feeling quesy, Shantel had to make two emergency stops, one for me to hurl and then one for me find a bathroom. I didn't even drink a quarter of the second beer. I'm blaming the grease from the bratwurst.

This was the sight that dominated the last couple of mile of the run. The castle ruins at the top of the hill with the picturesque little village at the bottom. We actually finished in the open area just beyond the tree line in the mid ground (I stole the picture from the town's website).