Monday, July 14, 2014

Travelin' to France

Summer has been going really well, and I just returned from a big trip to France. I went with my sister, Stacie, and we were gone almost three weeks. We definitely enjoyed exploring, eating, drinking, walking, and relaxing.


We flew into Toulouse and took a rental car to the small village of Siran. Getting to Siran was quite the adventure in itself, but we finally made it. We spent the first few days relaxing and recovering from jet lag. Once caught up on our sleep, we spent the next week exploring the nearby villages, eating great food, visiting a few markets, and enjoying being in a new place. We stopped at a nearby winery (Chateau de Rieux) twice during our stay, toured the abbey at Caunes de Minervois, and enjoyed the weekday trucks that visited the village. We were invited to a neighbor's house for some appetizers and drinks, and it turned into a fun filled evening talking with people from London, Ireland, and France. After our time in Siran, we ventured back to Toulouse, stopping at Carcassonne on the way. It was an amazing castle where we took hundreds of photos.


We spent the night in Toulouse and enjoyed wandering the city. Then next morning, we had a five and a half our train ride north to Paris. Once we arrived, we spent some time planning out the rest of our stay in Paris. For the first two days, we used our Museum Pass to visit the Arc de Triomph, Musee D'Orsay, the Louvre, Centre de Pompidou, Saint Chappelle, Musee de Moyen Age, and the Pantheon.

Outside the Louvre

Outside the Pompidou

After our busy museum days, we took a few days to just explore the city. We visited a ton of parks and took a day to visit the Eiffel Tower. We also took a Parkour class from ADD Academy. The workout was much more intense and the style was more artistic, but it was fun to try something new.


Each day we visited the patisserie for a baguette and/or desserts. We tried several restaurants and decided the one below our apartment, Le Tournebride, was by far our favorite. It was a new experience and interesting to be in a new country. I was definitely pushed outside my comfort zone when trying to navigate around the country and communicate/order food in another language.

Here is a slideshow with just a few of the hundreds of pictures from our trip:


Last week, we attempted and completed the Tour de Bcycle. The challenge is to check into each of the 83 Bcycle stations in Denver in one day. It was quite the challenge and with the hot day, it was very exhausting. We made it though, and now we will receive a shirt and our names on the Bcycle website. It was a fun way to tour the city and see the most important places in Denver. We even stopped at Civic Center Eats for lunch.

One of the many Bcycles I rode during the day

Page 1 of the order of the stations

Our finishing selfite at Botanic Gardens

While I was gone, Eric spent a ton of time working on the yard. It has come a long way in the past year and it is approaching completion. The deck, wall, patio, and sprinklers are complete. We also have a place for a garden and the grass is starting to come in. Once we buy some patio furniture and put in some plants, we will have a nice outdoor space to hang out in.