...I realized I had not posted pictures of our trip to Paris yet!

Dan was honored by being asked to be apart of a special team of professions to discuss inclusion and education by all through UNESCO.  http://www.unesco.org. Our family banded together to help watch the girls so we could go together.  This was a trip of a lifetime and we had the most amazing time.  The conference was 2 days and then were able to explore the city for the rest of the week.   It was a 9hr flight there and back, we hopped several trains and rode an open topped bus.  We ate amazing food, lots of bread and had wine every night.  We talked everywhere and were very lucky to have the sun shining every day.  We were about 5 blocks from the eiffel tower which we made sure we saw almost every night.  And of course saw so many amazing buildings, churches, bridges and art.  

These pictures are in no particular order.  I took about 700 (ha!) on our trip...so it was hard to scale down for the blog.  Warning- there are a lot :) Enjoy! 

Notre Dame 

The stain-glassed windows were amazing! If you look at the first picture, you can see the where the windows are on the outside.  Below this circle shaped window were the long narrow ones below 

The sculptures and detail on this church was absolutely amazing!

Inside was just as beautiful.  It was so hard to capture everything inside.  You stand there and think, how did they ever build this? Especially so long ago? It is truly amazing

                            

Dan is standing on "Point Zero."This small octagonal brass plate (see image) set in the ground marks the exact spot from which all distances from Paris are measured. http://www.frenchfriends.info/travel-paris/visit-cathedral-notre-dame

Back on the bus and traveling around the city....here is a view of the back side of Notre Dame. 

There was such amazing detail on so many buildings in Paris 

Walking down a street...they all seem to be buzzing

Here is the Arc de Triomphe.  When we first arrived there we could not figure out how everyone was getting across this CRAZY round-about.  Then we found out there were stairs to an underground tunnel.

http://www.arcdetriompheparis.com/

Detail on the side of the arc

Might be hard to see these solders....but they were so neat! Again, you stand there and wonder how did they do this so long ago.  It is amazing.

AND....the tower.  We were not far from the tower, in fact we were thankful for it because it ended up being a guide for us...so we knew which  way to go.  All the building are about the same height and color so it was hard to get our bearings around the city.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_lyG91sefs

These pictures do not do justice when it twinkles.  It is so breathtaking.  On the hour for about 10 mins the tower sparkles with twinkle lights.  We made a point to walk past the tower a few nights on our way home knowing it would be twinkling 

Lots of tower pictures.  I had had to show all of these...because I just loved them all :)

This is a picture of the  bus that we took for two days.  It was great. You could get on and off when ever you wanted and it took you all over town.  We sat on the top every time and froze!! But it was the best seat on the bus.  

Yummy dinner one night

Tiny elevator in our hotel 

Tiny hallway in our hotel.  I should have gotten some pictures of the room.  Oh well, next time :)

Quick picture of "The Thinker" while we were on the bus 

An amazing bridge

Opps, few more pictures of Notre Dame.  There was a priest  giving a sermon while we were there too 

We went to the Loure.  It was overwhelmingly big! 

You enter through this glass pyramid 

We loved the statues 

Hard to see, but this was the Mona Lisa.  It was crazy the amount of people around it.  There was a guy in front of is who put his child on his shoulders so he could see better and the security guard to the dad to get his son down.  They were super serious around this painting

HUGE painting.  It was so cool to see all the works of art there. 

David and Goliath 

Each room was so unique.  

One night we headed back to the tower because we knew it would be twinkling soon....and then we decided to head up it.  So at 9:30pm one night on a whim, we headed up.  We were so glad we did this at night because a- we only had to wait 20 mins in line (verses 2 hr average) and it was breathtaking at night.

Views from the very top floor 

Our hotel.  We had a fun breakfast every morning.  

yum...and a cappuccino every morning  

Bread shops everywhere 

And the train that took us to and from the city back to the airpot.  We had such an amazing time! It is such an incredible experience to travel to a different country.  Italy....you are next!