The Winns Take Europe - Part One

Jason and I were so excited to have the Winns arrive in Belgium last week.  We have been planning this trip with them since last fall!  We managed to keep them awake until ~ 7:45 p.m. on Thursday, the day of their arrival.  On Friday, we woke up to cool, but dry weather to begin their European tour.  First stop was downtown Brussels.

We took public transport into the city and toured the Grand Place and surrounding area a bit.   We headed to Chez Leon for a lunch of mussels and frites.  Jenna tagged along for our city tour as she was a bit sick on Friday and stayed home from school.  She was a tropper and also a great photographer for our group shots!

Of course we managed to fit in some chocolate tasting...

and also a few hot waffles covered with Nutella! 

Saturday morning we were up bright and early for our 7:30 high speed train to Paris!  My good friend, Tracey, graciously agreed to look after the children so we could enjoy an adults-only day in the city.  The train ride was excellent and provided a wonderful chance to catch-up with our friends who we have missed so much over the last year. 

Our first stop in the city was a quick look at the Arc de Triomphe.  We decided to skip the hundreds of steps for the view at the top and headed straight for the Eiffel Tower.

By 10:00 a.m., we were standing in front of the Eiffel Tower enjoying the view.  It was surreal and exciting to see such a beutiful and iconic site with our very dear friends. 

 

We snapped all the necessary photos and made our way to the base of the tower.  We were all amazed standing under it!

 We made our way down the paths of the Champ de Mars, taking a few pictures and enjoying the views.   Then we headed up toward the Seine and the Musee D'Orsay to take in some of the great Impressionists.   

Strolling around the halls of the museum left us all pretty hungry.  We found a few baguettes and paninis for lunch and headed for the Tuilerie Gardens and the Louvre.  After quickly polishing off the sandwiches, we made a bee-line for a Nutella Crepe!

It was the perfect finish to our French mid-day meal. 

Because our time in Paris was limited to 12 hours, we decided against touring the Louvre and only explored the outside grounds a little.

The next stop on our grand tour of Paris was Île de la Cité to catch a glimpse of Notre Dame.

Around 5:00 p.m., we called it quits with the sight-seeing and decided to head to the Saint-Germain-des-Prés area of Paris.  It is home to two of the most famous cafes in Paris, Les Deux Magots and Café de Flore.  We were searching for a true Parisian experience for dinner and a little rest for our tired feet from a day full of walking!

 During our search for dinner, we took a quick detour to the Panthéon.  Recently, we read a biography of Louis Braille with the children, and Jason wanted to take a quick snapshot of his tomb, which is located in the Panthéon.

While the guys went on a scavenger hunt for the tomb, Elisa and I enjoyed a few minutes of girl talk - still in awe of the fact that we were staring at the Eiffel Tower in the distance!

Our day in Paris was everything we hoped it would be and so much more!  We had been looking forward to this day for months.  As you can see from the pictures below, we enjoyed every minute together.  Our day was full of laughter and catching up from all the events of our busy lives over the last year. 

We were able to settle on a small, corner cafe in the Latin Quarter of Paris.  Our waiter was friendly and very forgiving of my attempts at speaking in French.

We walked around the city for just a few minutes after dinner to enjoy the City of Lights earn it's name. 

We hopped on the metro around 9:00 p.m. to make our way back to Gare du Nord to catch our high speed train back to Brussels. 

We found ourselves enjoying the close quarters of the Saturday night metro in Paris!  An appropriate finish to our action packed day in the city.