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France and Belgium - Part Nine

Arc De Triomphe- is an amazing structure situated in the middle of a round about in Paris.

It's right off the Champs Elysee and you have to take an underground tunnel to get to the center so you don't die from the chaos of the cars traveling around it!


As a word of advice - Do not go to the Catacombs and the Arc the same day. They both have an insane amount of stairs that you must climb.


Its Europe so they don't have elevators in national monuments like they do here but it doesn't matter even elderly people still climb up and down. It was one of the aspects that I loved about Europe! I would see very elderly people taking the metro, walking around, climbing monuments!

The Arc is so beautiful. I'm not quite sure what is built out of but it is covered with beautiful carved stone such as this arched ceiling.


There are lots of beautiful sculptures around the base of the arc.

I was particularly fond of this man with such a concerned look.

In my mind he's saying something similar to " What! You ran out of Ham and Cheese crepes?!"

If you make it alive to the top the view is astounding. What's even more remarkable is that the top of the arc is maybe 1/3 the height of the view from the Eiffel Tower.


The arc since it sits on a roundabout offers views of Paris from all sides.


Its beautiful to see the symmetry in the roof lines such as all these clay chimney's.


We spent a good amount of time up at the top and enjoying the views of the city. We never made it over to the area that is oddly very new looking.


We took lots of pictures and video's at the top! Even managed to pose with the Eiffel Tower in the background.

France and Belgium - Part Eight

The food was to die for in Paris. Though when we left I was really craving vegetables. I ate a lot of ham, cheese, butter and carbs but they were delicious.

My favorite part of Paris was that no matter what time of the day ( except I'm guessing very late at night/early morning) there was always somewhere open to get something to eat. I was particularly fond of getting a dessert crepe on our way home from somewhere usually an apricot and sugar crepe. Yum.

Everything was always portable. Like a waffle!

or some of these delicious looking tarts
I was a huge fan of Mich Sandwiches in the background. We stopped there most mornings to order a ham, cheese and egg crepe for me and usually some type of sandwich for Jack.

See the yummy sandwich below. Everything was always made fresh and only a couple of euros for each sandwich.

Sometimes you needed something sweeter like an espresso and a rasin au pain.


Sometimes you forget what you ordered because you aren't that great at french!

Most lunches we ordered consisted of this - 8 euros a person and you got a sandwich, a bottle of water and a sweet.

These sweets were not included but so delicious. The best figs I've ever tasted and that says a lot coming from California where we have great fresh fruit year round!

I do wish we had gone to a fancy restaurant but I was nervous about not speaking very fluent french and I didn't want to go somewhere touristy that they would speak English. I am impressed with how amazing all the food was. We never had anything we didn't like. I highly recommend bringing a pocket full of euro's or small bills and trying a lot of the street food. It's an amazing experience and integral part of traveling to Paris.

France and Belgium - Part Seven

Le Eiffel Tower - is absolutely stunning.

My background is interior design and architecture and while the Eiffel Tower might be one of the most talked about tourist sites I understand why. It is beautiful. The sheer amount of beams and architecture that went into create it is amazing.


I kinda fell in love with the tower. I was told that the top used to be Gustav's personal apartment. How rad is that?



The night we went to the Eiffel Tower it was extremely foggy but I think that it made the tower even more beautiful. The top was hidden in a beautiful layer of fog.

We bought our tickets and rode to the top which takes about 20-30 minutes depending on the line. It was pretty short that evening due to the fog. The bummer part was that you couldn't see out because of the fog. It was also freezing and very windy. We took a few pictures but didn't stay too long. We bought a few souveniors; yes we bought a small Eiffel Tower to take home.

A neat thing to keep you busy when you're waiting inside to ride down is that they have mapped how far every major city is from the Eiffel Tower! We found Los Angeles

This is a picture at the first level of the tower if you're heading up.

Beautiful view of Paris!

Another view of the city


After getting down from the tower we walked over to the little park that is opposite of the tower to get some more pictures from further away. I like to take pictures of Jack taking pictures.
Little did I know that he wasn't looking to swap out lens but he was looking for a ring. I walked over to see what he was doing that was taking so long (hahaha). See this suspicious face. I deffinetly caught him doing something!

In his right hand is the box but I didn't know until he stayed on his knees and asked me to marry him someday. I made it very clear that I didn't want to get engaged at the Eiffel Tower so he was asking me to marry him soon. He gave me a beautiful vintage Tiffany's wedding band that has a tiny diamond in the center.

It was a little big so I wear it on my middle finger right hand. I absolutely love it and wear it everyday.

Needless to say lots of kisses were shared with the Eiffel Tower. Its a beautiful magical place to me.


I will never forget that beautiful night in Paris.

France and Belgium - Part Five

Les Catacombes - are a network of underground tunnels that span a majority of Paris. Only a few hundred feet are actually open to the public. They are situated in a very unpresuming area of the town and you wait for at least an hour to get in! Make sure to arrive with enough time otherwise thirty minutes before closing they cut the line off and you won't be able to get in. Ask me how I know? I waited for over an hour on Halloween and we were about 30 people away from the front when they turned us away. Le sigh. We came back the next day!

Les Catacombes are a bit chilly so bring a long something warm and I would recommend wearing jeans and closed toe shoes. There is water that drips from the ceiling and creates mud puddles which we all know its not dead body juice but I was convinced it might be dead body juice splashing up.


You will have to take a steep incline down and walk for about twenty minutes before you see the actual tombs or bone structures. Notice the black on the ceilings, they painted lines so you could tell where you were going.

Its quite beautiful and they have areas that are organized in a formation. The amazing part is that the bones have been there since the late 1700's and there are many famous people buried there but nothing is marked so you would have no way of knowing who's bones are down there.


There are beautiful carvings down inside Les Catacombes that were created by the people who spent hours down there. Kind of wierd but beautiful!

Another more elaborate carving.

We've finally arrived to the area that houses all the bones.

Just around the corner is hundreds of thousands of just leg, arm and skull bones.


What needs to be remembered when visiting Les Catacombes is that this is a final resting place for many people.

So just as you would be respectful in a cemetery you need to be respectful in Les Catacombes. Apparently, in 2009, people were stealing bones (?!) and graffiting the walls and the exhibit was going to be permanently closed. Thankfully, they did reopen it!

This is one of the many areas to stop and remember your loved ones at. Some areas had benches and beautiful carved plaques.


I also, believe, I remember reading that the tunnels have been used in multiple wars for protection. The entrance we came in was a little un presuming entrance next to a church. Inside the tunnel they have marked areas that have been expanded with dated plaques like this one.

There is also a natural bell that was caused. Usually in a mine when a bell shape like this is caused it means that the cave will cave in but luckily they were able to concrete in the bell an keep the tunnel open and safe.


Last but not least, a video from inside Les Catacombes. Jack thought it'd be really funny to whisper Les Morte in my ear while I was recording. Needless to say, I was a little spooked out with all the bones and DID not find it very funny. Boys are such jerks sometimes!



Up tommorow, Arc De Triomphe!

France and Belgium - Part Six

Reims - is situated a little bit over an hour southeast of Paris by train. It is the champagne region of France. Only in the Champagne region are you able to get true champagne otherwise it is legally just sparkling wine.

So we took a day train out to Reims and wandered around the city.

The champagne houses are pretty far spread out so you'd either need a car or be able to walk a lot. Also, one important detail to note. Champagne tasting is by appointment only. You MUST make an appointment otherwise you'll be SOL. We didn't make an appointment and the only place who had an extra opening was G.H. Mumm. It also could have been because we were in an off season (Late October/Early November). Apparently, G.H. Mumm would also be switching to their winter hours shortly and be only open a few days a week. So just call ahead or make reservations online. All the advice I heard was Vueve Cliquot was very touristy.

The train was quite nice and we occupied our time by taking lots of pictures of ourselves.

G.H. Mumm is one of the older champagne houses in Reims and its very beautiful inside and out.


These are the barrels they used to hold the liquid from the grapes before they switched to the metal barrels.

This was how each city that provided a certain grape was separated. That way when making different champagnes they would use the correct grape.


I loved the cellars and their musty smell. It was quite cool naturally in the cellars and had a beautiful mold pattern that grew on the walls. On the right of the image is the special champagne bottles that need to be turned by hand every day. I can't remember how many it was but it was A LOT. Like 15,000 bottles a day.


This diagram explains how they turn the bottles.


Another view of the cellars


This is the Grand Master's Private Cellar. It houses a limited collection of a couple bottles of champagne from each time they have created a new blend. I think the oldest bottle was from 1877. The grand master is the only person who has a key. Now I was thinking how does the champagne preserve for all these years? Its not red wine! Champagne can be kept in its bottle if it has not reached the 3rd fermenation process. In the third process they add sugar and do the final capping which creates the bubbles in the champagne. So all of the bottles in the Grand Master's Cellar would need to go thru the 3rd fermentation process before he could taste them.

After the one hour tour of the cellars, we went upstairs and had a champagne tasting. We did the highest level which was three glasses of champagne

and we paid for an additional tasting of a special champagne that the name escapes me. It was delicious.

After the champagne tasting we had a bit of time to kill before the train came so we walked to a little bakery and ordered our first Croque Monsieur!. It was delicious.

This was a structure leftover from the 1300's. Amazing to see it still standing.

The town of Reims is small and quaint but charming especially with all of the champagne cellars!