Anniversary in Paris

Mary's mom Cathy came to visit us in Germany and somehow got roped into watching the kids for a weekend so Mary and I could go to Paris and celebrate our anniversary. I'm still not sure if she volunteered to watch them or if we pressured her into it, but either way we're extremely grateful. It was the first time we've been anywhere alone since before Abby was born.

We got to Paris by high speed ICE (intercity express) train. It was a pleasant ride through the French countryside at a mere 315 km/h.

Our first stop was Sephora, a gigantic perfume store on the Champs Elysses. We sampled just about everything in the store before deciding on some French fragrances to bring home with us.

The Arc de Triomphe, a war monument built in Napoleon's time, was a cool stop. The views from the top were amazing.

We ran into Quasi Moto at the Notre Dame cathedral, another very cool place and the point from which all distances are measured in Paris.

We happened to be in Paris on the first Sunday of the month, which meant free admission to the the Louvre. The crowds were crazy inside, and we had to elbow our way to the front of a huge group to see the famous, but not all that exciting, Mona Lisa. The Louvre is so massive that we only saw a small part of it in the two hours we were there, but what we did see was pretty impressive. More on that in a future post.

We froze our butts off going to the top of the Eiffel tower at night, but now we can add ourselves to the long list of people to have kissed at said location. Totally worth it.