Christmas at the Wisely's

Now that it's officially December first, I feel no guilt whatsoever in attacking our home with Christmas decorations. A few things though, were different than normal. Note, adorable puppy.

Also note, super tiny tree in the background. This year, since we have Norton (my aunt and uncle's Springer Spaniel) over nearly every day to keep our pup company, we thought the tree carnage would be above normal. (Normal being Walter eating every part of the tree he can reach.)So! Alas! Tiny tree.

I also had to have on record the adorable sweater-Christmas trees and reindeer my sister made us a few years back. They are my favorite, she's so talented!

I love them.

I think I'm a little too excited about Christmas.

Yup.

Too excited.

CHRISTMAS!!

Walter's Second Birthday

Okay... so this post is officially 3 1/2 months too late. Better late than never, right?

Why yes, that's a cake. For my dog. It's actually a 'pup-pie;' yes we are those dog people. Whoops!

Paris: The Louvre, Shopping, and Swingin' Dinner

Friday-- our last whole day in Paris-- we visited the Louvre! It was really quite nice. We were warned by more than a few folks that this could be one of those tourist spots that wasn't worth our while; we didn't find this to be the case however and actually enjoyed ourselves quite a bit! There was no line to get in by some miracle (seriously. One person in front of us), when we were able to hit the famous pieces before it got a bit more crowded. We got to visit Monna Lisa (who was actually pretty neat-- she's bigger than I thought, and only a bit sad-looking because she is super guarded on this huge wall. Which makes sense, because after all-- it's the frickin' Monna Lisa), Venus de Milo, and other neat antiquities from Rome and Ancient Egypt. Certainly neat! The Louvre is HUGE-- seems like it covers nearly four city blocks. So yeah. We probably ended up spending 4 hours there, and only saw maybe 20%. We tried!

Following that, we spent a good time shopping and eating our way through Paris. We found great art prints at little street shops, lots of fancy clothes, and even more food. It was pretty great! (We also had to go visit our lock, to make sure it was still there, and get even more food of course!)

To celebrate our last night, we went to a tiny restaurant that was recommended to us by our host-- Sur un Arbre Perché (which means "Perched on a Tree"). This restaurant featured swings that you sat on while you ate-- it was incredibly charming, and the food was AMAZING. We treated ourselves to a four-course dinner, featuring some of the tastiest soup Bryan or I had ever had-- it was incredible. Totally worth the money, and a great end to a fabulous time in Paris!

Paris: Musee D'Orsay, Catacombs, and New Apartment

Thursday we spent the morning at Musee D'Orsay, which is a museum that holds many of the famous impressionists/art deco stars of the day. Sadly, we couldn't take any photos inside, which was a bummer-- it was neat seeing a lot of the paintings I learned in school (Monet is one of my favorites; getting to see Water Lilies in person was quite cool). Following this, we met up with the owners of our final staying place in Paris-- a sweet little apartment right by Notre Dame. It was spot on in the middle of the city, and right in the middle of a new shopping district to explore.

After our apartment, we took a trip to the famous-- and super creepy-- Catacombs. Paris has a huge underground series of limestone quarries, which was used later on as a housing for the millions of bones that were dug up while the city was being built. It was a bit unreal. There are literally tons of miles of bones lining the paths-- six million people artfully made into patterns. (Definitely one of those places where you have to imagine it being fake to actually view it... it's a bit hard to process.) The entire tour they let you see takes about 45 minutes-- and that's not even 1/800th of the actual size of the Catacombs. Super creepy.

Paris: Versailles

Wednesday we woke up early and took a train to Versailles. The great part about this? Wednesday just happened to be the most beautiful day ever. The skies were filled with beautiful puffy clouds, it was nice and warm-- a perfect day to go roam a palace!

This place was huge. Pretty much a version of Hampton Court (palace we visited in Kingston) on steroids. Which, made sense-- palace is ten times as big as Hampton Court, and the crowds were too! We made quick work of the palace (which was being vastly overrun by tourists) and had fun exploring the gardens.

This place was beautiful. We explored each of the buildings on the property, which included the queens quarters (all four separate buildings of them-- from the mini-palaces to the adorable set of hobbit-style houses), the lakes, paths, and gardens. You could spend days here. It was quite lovely! After returning back to Paris, we met up with Sebastien and Emanuel for a tasty dinner by Notre Dame. It was a great way to end a fun stay with them!

Paris: (You know it's been a great vacation when you've forgotten how many days you've beeeg travelling.)

We started out Monday morning by an exploration of Carcassonne in the daylight, before our seven hour trip up to Vendome. Carcassonne is unlike any other city we've visited on this trip so far, as it's a fortified city-- the whole city lies within the walls of the castle (Okay... there's actually a city outside of that too, but we didn't explore it-- so we'll just leave it at that).

We took a tour of the ramparts, learned a bit about the history, and had a great time for the short time we were able to explore! After that, we hit the road (like I said, seven hours of road) to Vendome, to stay with some friends-of-friends. The drive went pretty quickly, and it was nice once again to see a change of scenery-- country living this time! The house was quaint and the property was full of chickens (which made me VERY happy. And Bryan very suspicious of my plans for the future). We were greeted also by a game... of... again, forgetting the name-- similar to bocce ball? And a lovely dinner outside on the porch! (If you haven't tried cassoulet yet, you should probably plan that. Soon.)

The following day we said (a very sad) goodbye to Louis-Daniel (who was going to the beach with some friends), and we took off by ourselves to Paris once more. Once we got in to town, we explored the city of Monmarte more thoroughly-- including some spots from one of my favorite movies-- Amelie! (Bryan was super sweet and encouraged me to find some of the actual spots from the movie, which was a treat! Colignon's market and the Two Windmills restaurant, as well as the park/carousel that was featured).

Tonight we also went back to Champs Elysse for a bit of shopping, and a very late dinner! Again, we have a bad habit of wearing ourselves out, so we're off to bed! Goodnight!

Spain/Carcassonne: Day 7, 8 and 9

It goes to show how busy we are when we don't have time to post! We wanted to take a quick moment tonight to give you an update on BARCELONA. (Or shall we say, "Bar-thee-lone-ah"-- the lisp is something of a novelty for anyone who's used to hearing Spanish/Mexico, rather than from Spain :) After saying goodbye to our cabin in the Pyrenees, we took off straight to Barcelona, and the beautiful weather as well! We spent our time there at an apartment we found through AirBNB-- which was AMAZING (and very eccentric decor-- but totally amazing to boot)!

We spent Friday night exploring the city-- we were staying right on Rambla del Raval, and super close to the main 'strip'-- La Rambla. (Confusing, but it is what it is!) La Rambla is the main strip of the city, with lots of different neighborhoods nearby. The El Born neighborhood was a favorite of ours, with super tasty food, and amazing nightlife (outdoor concerts start at about 10pm then the whole place becomes a dance party-- also neat, is the fact that the area is totally traditional and beautiful as well!) Saturday we started off by visiting La Sagrada Familia. I would have to say, I'm not personally a Gaudi fan-- but this place was awesome. Even being under construction (still, after over 100 years), it was amazing. Unlike any cathedral we had seen yet. Very very cool, hard to capture in photographs-- we tried regardless. :)

We then spent the day exploring town some more-- from La Boceria (I'm definitely butchering these names, forgive me). Also, please note Bryan's epic 'meat face', and my 'oh-my-gosh-are-those-lavender-cupcake-truffles' face:

After that, we had a blast exploring the city, shopping, and taking tons of pics:

Saturday night consisted of an authentic Flamenco show, which was super neat-- not the best Tapas in town, but definitely worth the show-- it was wonderful!! Hard to take photos of though, so much spinning and stamping (ask me for a rendition. I would be happy to perform a number for you.)

Sadly, this morning we left Barcelona (and Anna, who had to go back to work this week)--after becoming super attached-- and took off to Carcassonne. We hit the beach on the Spanish coastline first, which was awesome! (Jumping in the ocean? Yes please.) A few snapshots of Carcassonne, then we're off to bed! Goodnight!