Amsterdam

So Tyler and I went on a 2 day trip to Amsterdam. We took a train out of Paris at 6:45 a.m. and arrived in Amsterdam at 10:30 a.m. While we were there we walked all over the city, did some really good shopping (Tyler is such an amazing husband to enjoy shopping with me :)), took a bike tour of the countryside, ate some good food and TONS of ice cream.


We were SO tired on the train ride there!


Our Lovely hotel room.


On one of our hotel room walls was a copy of a giant Van Gough painting. Since one of the largest Van Gough museums is in Amsterdam.


I had to take a picture of one of the windows from all the vintage stores we went in. There were so many amazing vintage shops. Tyler got some killer outfits I am sure we will blog about eventually. :)





This is one of the many canals that runs through the streets of Amsterdam. You could see people and families out on their boats having parties or cocktails just cruising around. It was really cool to see all the different boats.


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Getting ready to take off on our Bike Tour of the Amsterdam Countryside.


We were able to see how they make Gouda cheese- and taste lots of it!


We also saw how they make cloggs.


There were TONS of different designs they had made. I was tempted to buy some- but when we tried them on we looked like clowns. They were GIANT.


L.


These were the dairy cows that they used to make their cheeses. Wow- they smelled AWFUL!




When we were walking back to the train station at the end of our trip we noticed this HUGE bike parking garage. I have never seen so many bikes in my life. Amsterdam is the Bike Capital of the World.

Fete de la musique- June 21st

Fete de la musicque is an event which takes place on June 21st- the longest day of the year. The sun doesn't go down until 11:00 p.m. and the French celebrate by having a huge music festival all over France. There are bands and musicians lining the streets of Paris.

We went with Fat Tire Bike Tours on a progressive dinner bike ride all over town, which has been named "Flat de la music.". It was at several different FTBT (Fat Tire Bike Tours) employees flats. The first stop had cheese and baguettes, second we had some "famous" egg rolls, third we had a feast that included- chicken, rabbit, potatoes, carrots... and maybe a few other things, and we ended at Mike Franz flat for dessert where we made yummy banana splits. We took over the streets of Paris when we were going from flat to flat. People were looking at us like we were crazy- group of about 30 loud and crazy dressed American's on bikes just being silly. It was such a fun night!





Mike giving us the "official plan" for the night.










Someone thought it would be a clever idea to stack all the bikes on top of eachother instead of locking them all up. It was lots of fun to get them all back down.


And then someone just HAD to climb up all the bikes and stand on them.

Champs-Elysées and Arc de Triomphe

Champs-Elysées is the most famous avenue in the world. Its sidewalks are lined with cafés, cinemas, 5-star hotels and shops. Tyler and I love to walk up and down the avenue, do some people watching and eat amazing macaroons from LaDuree.

The Arc de Tripmphe is at the far end of it the Champs-Elysées . It was commissioned by Napoléon to honor his army after their greatest victory, the Battle of Austerlitz in 1805. Napoléon promised his men, "you shall return home beneath triumphal arches." 544 generals from French and Napoleonic wars are written on the inside of the Arc and a direct decendent of our family was a general under napoleon and is written there. Pretty cool!


Arc de Triomphe


Champs-Elysées

Wine Tasting

Friday night we went to a wine tasting in the wine caves of King Louis XV. We tried five different wines and a Champagne. Our sommelier (wine expert), Olivier, and has gotten to be friends with Tyler over the years. He took us to a great dinner after the tasting.

Versailles

On Thursday we rode our bikes to the train station to spend the day riding around the grounds of Versailles. Versailles was the French King's private hunting grounds until Louis XIV moved the Royal Residence out of Paris and out to Versailles, where he built the Chateau de Versailles. Louis XIV, XV, XVI and Marie Antoinette all lived there until the French Revolution. 

If you can imagine the biggest and most beautiful ranch- with a private lake, perfectly aligned trees, everything is dark green, rustic farm land with horses and sheep,  white huge urns and sculptures throughout, and a massive castle in the middle- that is just a taste of what Versailles is like. Here are few pictures of the beautiful grounds, gardens and canal. 

Train ride from Paris to Versailles

Our Apartment!

I hope everyone had a great weekend. We moved all day Sunday and love our new little home. I took lots of pictures so that I could share them with you. Take a look:

All of our luggage.

This is the sidewalk in front of our apartment building. The trees everywhere are so beautiful.

Entrance into our building. 

We get to walk up these stairs all the way to the 5th floor. We better be in the best shape from all of these steps.   

The Apartment Key.

Our front door.

Living room

More living room

Our Closet

Our bed

View from our room. We have 2 balcony's

This is how we dry our laundry

After a long day of moving we were treated to an amazing dinner! 

Family in Paris

On our second day here Tyler's Mom, Grandmother and Auntie Anne came to Paris. They are here to celebrate Grandmom's 80th birthday. It has been so much fun having them here. They invited Tyler and I over to their unbelievable apartment last night for some wine and cheese. You can view the Eiffel Tower from every room. We were there until about 9:30 p.m. and it was still bright outside. It is the strangest feeling, the sun does not go down until about 10:45 p.m. right now- and it rises around 5:30 a.m.

Also, last night Tyler and I got to take a peek at the apartment we will be moving into this weekend. We are excited about it. I was a little nervous because nowhere has A/C, but it is actually not bad at all since you always have your windows open. Plus the weather is perfect- about 45-50 degrees in the morning and gets up to the mid 60's in the afternoon. I feel like I am in Colorado summer weather.

This morning I woke up and went for my first jog in Paris. It took me about 5 minutes to walk to the Eiffel Tower then I ran the track that goes around it. It is probably 1.2 miles all the way around it. It is fascinating to run around the Tower and hear all the little French children playing. Also, there are Army men walking around the Tower holding machine guns.

I am excited about our time over here. Tyler and I are excited to be away from our "comfort zone" for a while to try and grow in our faith and marriage. It is going to be awesome, I already don't want to leave!

We have arrived in Paris!

Well, Tyler and I finally made it to Paris. The flight was great- we were so excited that we did not sleep at all. Needless to say, we were exhausted and went to sleep at 8:00 p.m. last night. Tyler left for work around 7:00 a.m. this morning, and I didn't leave the hotel until 1:00 p.m., lazy. We are staying in a hotel room until Sunday- when our apartment is ready. Paris is amazing! I love just walking around, trying to speak French, eating baguettes, visiting Tyler at his office/Fat Tire Bike Tours shop. I would love for any friends or family to come visit us! We have started taking lots of pictures and I will post them throughout the blog.

Thanks for checking our blog out and I am excited to share about our time and adventures over here in Paris, France. Love you all!