The Last City of the Trip - Paris

Our final destination was Paris.  We spent 5 nights in the City of Light, enjoying all Paris has to offer - Le Louvre, The Catacombs of Paris, a float down the Seine River, Chateau of Vincennes, Arc de Triomphe, Notre Dame (where we saw a pick pocket - kids were shocked!) and of course the Eiffel Tower.  We also ate like the French, including baguettes, fromage, crepes, croissants and escargots.  The wine was okay too.  :) A highlight included stumbling on the last leg of the Tour de France.  What a once-in-a-lifetime event that we were lucky enough to witness.

Compared to Italy's 35+ degrees every day, Paris was between 18-21 degrees celcius, cloudy and rainy so I was cold.  It was perfect for Todd and Liam though.

Lots of bikes for rent

Notre Dame - the site of the pick-pocket

Rose Window

Saint John Paul II

Lock bridge

Our Canadian family lock

Mmm Nutella crepes

Arc de Triomphe

Unknown Soldier at the Arc

Catacombs of Paris - holds the remains of about 6 million people

Le Louvre

Mona - there were so many people here; I even elbowed a guy that kept pushing me. He backed off.

Empty parts of the Louvre

Here comes the Tour de France cyclists

Eiffel Tower - 2nd level

Eiffel Tower Summit - just a little windy

Notice the tower shadow?

Not sure why we walked down to the 2nd level - 

31,000+ steps this day

Chateau de Vincennes

Charles V's bedroom - Todd, Emily and Liam are standing in the master bedroom's fireplace. We enjoyed being able to walk through the castle and learn about its history.

Empty metro - worth capturing in a picture

3rd Brandy Melville

People along the Seine

Escargot - Todd passed on trying one

Eiffel Tower suckers of course

A neat park we visited instead of fighting the crowds at Versailles

On our way home we had a connection in Chicago.  Unfortunately we missed our connecting flight to Calgary and stayed a night in Chicago.  It could have been worse...

Back on North American soil

Our three week vacation came to an end.  It was a fantastic time and we are so fortunate to have had the opportunity to do such a trip.  Now Emily wants to go to Australia and Liam wants to travel to Japan.  What have we created?  :)