It's Been a Blur- Part 5

Hi folks! In this last post about our honeymoon, I will be squeezing three days into one post, so get ready…

Days 6, 7, and 8:

During the week, in our exploration of our hood, we came across a beautiful little church, and decided we’d go for mass on Sunday. So, bright and early, we woke up, got ready, and headed out to church. When we arrived, we found out that that day, 3 babies were being baptized.

Happy mom with her beautiful baby

It looked like the Lion King

How do we end up being a part of these once-in-a-blue-moon events? First, the ordination at Notre Dame, then the gay parade, and now a Christening (which out of these three is not like the others…). Although we couldn’t understand the language, the service was beautiful.

The entrance to the church

Angel holding the holy water

Stained glass was exquisite

After church, we went for a Sunday afternoon picnic in the gardens beneath the Eiffel Tower. Talk about perfection.

Ready to eat

Our lunch-time view

Gluten coma

The lunch responsible for said coma: ham, baguette, Camembert cheese, sparkling wine, nutella, carrots, and apples.

This little rabbit was hopping around scaring people off of their blankets. So cute.

We spent about 3 hours just lounging around the gardens, watching people, sleeping, eating, and watching people. It was such a relaxing and interesting afternoon.

In the evening, we headed to the neighborhood over, Anvers, to see the Sacre Coeur. Truthfully, neither Miguel nor I were really sure exactly what the Sacre Coeur was. All we knew was that, almost every day, we saw this gorgeous structure in the distance.

Magnifique!

When we arrived, we trekked our way to the top of the hill where we had the privilege of watching this guy do freestyle soccer. Of course, Miguel was loving it.

Finally, we reached the doors of the building. Inside, everything was silent. I mean, absolutely silent. There were people playing music outside, selling beer, partying, and otherwise piddling about. But it was almost as if there were a barrier between that and the inside of this magnificent church. It was breath-taking, and by far mine and Miguel’s favorite experience of the entire trip.

"For 25 years, here day and night, somebody has been praying to the Lord."

For dinner, we made a rather impulsive and irresponsible decision… We went to McDonald’s.

Big Mac, Coke, fries, frappe, and lots of ketchup

Chowin' down on that gluten

 I can’t remember the last time I had a Big Mac, but all I can say is, it was de-flippin’-licious. And it made me feel like crap. As my mom says, “You play, you pay.”

On Monday, our last full day in France, we spent our time shopping (not like we hadn’t already shopped enough).

Then, for lunch, we headed back to the Montparnasse area of some very well-priced Indian fare. This was my favorite meal of the trip. I got tandoori chicken, salad, basmati rice, veggie curry, naan, and ice cream, all for 10 euros (virtually unheard of). And it was good. Real good.

I wanted to wrap myself up in this blanket of fluffy, yet flat goodness.

Miguel's cucumber yogurt thing

Then we went back to our temporary home, packed up and got some much-needed rest.

For our last night in Paris, we went back to our favorite dinner spot—along the Seine—and ate simple food and waved at passing tour boats as the sun went down (at 10:30 PM).

Typical: cheese, red wine, olives, nutella, carrots, bananas, salami, and the biggest hunk of Pave bread you've ever seen

My personal bottle opener

Notre Dame in the distance

Table for two

Gorgeous sunset

After our dinner, we sat on the banks just enjoying each others’ company. What a beautiful night.

Tuesday was spent just getting our stuff together, walking around the neighborhood, sending post cards, and making the hour trip to the airport.

Here’s the next day and a half in a nutshell: our flight from Paris to Frankfurt was majorly delayed, we missed our connecting flight, Lufthansa put us up in the Sheraton for the night, we got to sleep in, we wondered around the airport, and then FINALLY made it back home a day later than we’d planned.

Our time in France was so amazing thanks to the fact that I am married to the most wonderful man on the planet. Without a doubt, I want to go back as soon as possible. I love the lifestyle, I love the “c’est la vie” mentality, I love the culture, I love the food, I love the architecture, and I love the landscape. The bottom line is: j’adore Paris.

But now, it’s back to the real world…