I love Paris in the Springtime, I love Paris in the FALL!

As the other posts I've already done informed you, we recently took our yearly trip to France! We had a wonderful time as usual, filled with delicious food, awesome sites, and terrific company. This time our friends D & L from Istanbul came along with us! Of course we had a duty to our friends and ourselves to make sure Miles sees all of the Parisian landmarks, so we made sure to include Paris this go round.

Also, to be fair, even though the other boys have been to France multiple times, Porter is finally at an age where he really might remember some of the things we saw! So to him, it was like seeing everything for the very first time!

Our family at one of my favorite places on earth:

VERSAILLES

The grounds were so gorgeous this time! Of course, my camera battery died before I could take any pictures of all the leaves! They were so awesome. It really was so beautiful in the fall. Kicking myself forever for not getting some more pictures of the grounds…:(

Miles was thoroughly enjoying himself as we toured the Hall of Mirrors!

I had to prove that we tried to force feed him some history though…

Daddy and Ronan in the Hall of Mirrors

Outside in the front courtyard

Porter was so excited for weeks before our trip! It was all for this. He couldn't wait to see the Eiffel Tower! He just kept staring up at it! So cute. It really was "SO much bigger" than he thought.

A family shot, although, once again…messed with the settings and we are a bit blurry. The tower itself is crisp for the photo though!

Of course we need a little Notre Dame. I can't have a trip to Paris without some flying buttresses!

Me and Miss L outside the Louvre.

Now, this is my favorite picture. Mommy, Miles and Porter with Mona. Miles hitting Porter in the face was classic. I told Porter that we had to go to this Museum just so he could see this painting. We told him it was a "very important piece of art". So we went, he saw, he got hit in the face and now he recognizes her everytime we see something with her on it! I've done my duty.

BTW, he has noticed her quite a few times in the last few weeks! She is in a lot of different advertisements apparently all around the world!

Ronan preferred to stay outside and do this…

(with Daddy of course)

He could not get enough of those pigeons! He chased them everywhere, tried to feed them, and then he even grabbed one! Yuck! Flying rats I tell you…guuhh. There were multiple handwashings and sanitizings after that incident.

Now my friend L is a genius and found the directions for Debuave and Gallais. The oldest chocolate shop in Paris. It was founded in 1800 to make treats for the King of France! There are more now throughout the world, but this is the original. Everything in the store was beautiful and it smelled wonderful! Definitely the prettiest chocolates I've ever seen!

(they also had a price tag to match though, so we just bought a few treats and called it good!)

L-the genuis behind this adventure

Since it is always expensive no matter where you stay in Paris, we opted to only spend a shorter amount of time, but in our favorite hotel ever! We stayed here once before when we came with our other friends G & M. That time we got a killer deal. This time we didn't get quite that killer deal, but it is definitely better to go in the off season. In any case, it has a fantastic location, easy parking and it is SO beautiful. A littler more than the other hotels, but to us it was SO worth it.

As it turns out, the USA Men's National Soccer Team also has great taste in hotels! They were playing a friendly against France soon after we were there, and they were staying at our hotel! We saw them outside being interviewed, and then later Noah got this pic of Jurgen Klinsmen inside having an individual interview! We are big soccer fans in our house, so this was VERY exciting!

As I mentioned, we only did a couple of days in Paris and then headed on to other adventures in France, like Le Mont St Michel and seeing some family. These boys handled the road tripping like champs though! Here is a picture of all my babies zonked out! Also, we got some Bubble Bums booster seats for the trip and they were awesome!!

Among the other adventures we also hit our favorite ice cream shop in the whole world! Their strawberry ice cream is to die for! The view is beautiful too, being that it is in a little seaside village on the Atlantic! Mmmm, still dreaming about it. Can't wait till next time!

D & L also found these beauties in a little patisserie in Limoges one day while they were exploring! They graciously brought some to us to share and they were incredible. Hands down the prettiest and most delicious one I've ever eaten. I think it was cherry/pistachio. They had sparkly purple dust on them though as well, which was just so gorgeous!

And yes, by the time the end of our trip came I was apparently not so good with getting pictures! I always start out strong…hmm. Anyway, we hit another few castles, did some fun shopping, and enjoyed driving through wine country in the south of France. All of the leaves on the grapevines were changing colors and it was a beautiful drive. Actually, the colors were changing all over France and the entire trip was gorgeous! Here is a picture of Porter in front of the castle in Carcassone from the last end of the trip.

You can just take my word for it though that it was all cool. We had a great time, and will anxiously be awaiting the next trip! France, we love you!