paris & mont st. michel...part 2

Just a few more random shots for you to enjoy!

The Eiffel Tower in the rain.

In the garden at the Invalides.

A grumpy old man playing a cool music machine.

Windmill in Montmartre

Gotta have a jumping shot!

The man that got stuck in the wall...or something like that.

Love locks...they were all over Europe!

Some more stain glass windows.

The epitome of all that is French.

Self portrait!

paris & mont st. michel

France....July 20th - July 27th

Our time in France was mostly spent in Paris and just one night over at Mont St. Michel.  During our time in Paris, we rented another apartment that was about a 10 minute walk to the Eiffel Tower.  It was a local parisian neighborhood and again was super convenient and a nice change from a hotel.

Our time in Paris was busy.  We had many long days that had us leaving the apartment early and getting back late in the evening.  Let's just say that we saw a lot during our time in Paris! The first day consisted of checking out the Invalides, the Louvre, the Latin Quarter and Notre Dame, and of course the Eiffel Tower.  The second day was rainy, so we had a late start and just did a walking tour of Montmartre and saw the Place du Tertre, Sacre Coeur, and Le Moulin Rouge.  Our third day was filled with visiting the Palace of Versailles, which is outside of Paris, as well as going up to the top of the Eiffel Tower.  On the fourth day, we went to Champs Elysees to see the Tour de France riders ride into town.  We also went to the movies and watched the last Harry Potter film! The fifth day included going up the Arc de Triomphe and walking over to City Hall.  We then took a boat ride down the Seine River and saw all the major sights from a different perspective.

Paris was truly a spectacular city.  It was beautiful despite the rain and cold.  The people were all very friendly and the food was delicious! We ate a quite a few yummy nutella crepes, enjoyed some expensive (let's not talk about the price) macaroons at a chocolatier, and had some croque monsieurs.

From Paris, we took a train and then a bus over to Mont St. Michel, which is in Normandy.  Mont St. Michel is a rocky island that contains an impressive Abbey built above crypts.  We stayed at the Le Mouton Blanc B&B while on Mont St. Michel.  It was nice to stay on the Mont as all the tour companies left in the early evening which gave us the chance  to stroll around the island and enjoy the small alleyways without the crazy crowds.  The one sad part was that the tide was out during our stay, so we didn't get the whole effect.  That said, it was really nice to be able to walk along the sand and see it all from far away.

The following day we left Normandy for Paris and then hopped on a plane heading for Spain!  Enjoy the pictures from our time in France...

 The Louvre

 Notre Dame

 Le Moulin Rouge

 Sacre Coeur

 Tour de France


Arc de Triomphe

 Eiffel Tower

 This measure how high the tide can get!

 Mont St. Michel

Dusk at Mont St. Michel

honeymoon sneak peak

Three days after our wedding in Chiang Mai, we got on a plane and headed to England for the first stage of our five week long honeymoon.  We went on a really long, extended, and quite extensive honeymoon.  It was amazing, eye-opening, and kind of exhausting by the end of it! We had a fabulous time.

We left Chiang Mai for Bangkok on July 11th and then caught a very late flight to England.  We were in England from July 11th to July 16th.  Then on the 16th, we flew to Holland and were there from July 16th to July 20th.  We took a train on the 20th to France and were in France until July 27th.  On the 27th, we flew into Spain.  We stayed in Spain until July 31st.  Then on the 31st, we flew into Italy.  We spent July 31st until August 14th in Italy.  On the 14th, we flew back to Bangkok, where we stayed for a couple of days until our flight back to Hong Kong on August 16th.  Whew!

We were in a total of 8 countries from start to finish: Thailand, England, Holland, France, Spain, Italy, the Vatican, and Hong Kong.  Even more impressive is the number of places we went to including: Chiang Mai, Bangkok, London, Oxford, Windsor, Aylesbury, Stonehenge, Amsterdam, Paris, Mont St. Michel, Barcelona, Venice, Florence, Cinque Terre (consisting of five villages/towns), Pisa, Sienna, Rome, the Vatican, and of course Hong Kong.  Just writing this makes me tired!

It was an amazing trip and I'm so thankful that we were able to go on it.  I was able to see so much and enjoyed it all.  I loved the sights, the people, the food (although I still can't eat pizza), and most of all the company! :)

On this trip, I took well over 5000 pictures.  Are you impressed? I could have taken so many more, but I did manage to look at some of the sights without a camera lens in front of my eyes.  With all of these pictures, I need to be able to share some of them with ya'll.  Be on the lookout for posts on each country so that I can share even more pictures.  Hopefully these pictures will get you coming back for more! :)

England!

The Netherlands!

France!

Spain!

Italy!