Paris: Day 5 and 6

Today and yesterday? Incredibly relaxing. Yesterday we started the day out with a morning at the local hot springs/spa, which was amazing. It was a 'resort' of sorts, with multiple pools with jets/saunas/steam rooms. Super cheap (at a mere 11 Euros per adult), and with all the mineral water, we left feeling happy and relaxed. Following the soak, we ventured off to a local antique store on Mount Louis (with an incredibly snuggly Great Pyrenees out front-- a Pyrenees in the Pyrenees!), then followed it up with a fancy four-part dinner at the restaurant across the street. Mount Louis is such a small town, the antique owner is also the chef in the restaurant-- go figure! We ended up having a great chat with the waitresses/staff, and a great night overall. Nothing quite like a proper French dinner, followed up with a great espresso and digestive to follow!

Today we first set out to go hiking (I'm not quite sure what the place is called, I will have to check with LD), and after a long and spinny road we arrived at the strongest, most brutal wind we had all ever encountered-- which put us right back on the road! (It was nuts. Rain and wind that pushed us all sideways; poor Anna could hardly stand at one point...)

So after a slight change of plans, we took off back to the actual town of Mount Louis, which is super tiny and fortified (the whole city is behind a large wall with turrets and other neat things). There we visited the bakery, bought *even more* bread and tasty things; then followed it up with another delicious lunch.

Shortly following that, we headed up to another hiking spot-- again, I'm not too sure what it's called ('the gorge' or something similar?) Louis-Daniel is the mastermind when it comes to our outdoor activities. This place was nuts. Straight up a rocky mountainside, no rails, HUGE drops, and amazing view (once again)! Bryan and I at one point had to throw in the towel, because even if you're not a fan of heights; you start to spin a bit in your head when you see these cliffs. Crazy. But gorgeous! (Sadly, we forgot our camera at the cabin for this part; LD has pics on his camera-- in Camera Raw, so too large for our lappy to digest at the moment-- but I will update when I get back!) Anna leaves for home (Vancouver) on Sunday, after our trip to Spain-- which meant tonight was her last night in France with us! We celebrated with lots of beef, blood sausage, BREAD, 23098409234820394 pounds of cheese, and lots of wine. It was a good night.

Tomorrow? Off to one more quick morning hike, then off to Barcelona! So excited!

PARIS: Day 4

(Behold! The view from our hotel room. Great, huh?)

Day four started out bright and early, with a yummy French breakfast (croissants, jam, toasted baguettes and tasty local yogurt) at our hotel, then we went to pick up our rental car. Side note? Driving-- and being a passenger in said car-- are much easier than driving in London-- that is, until we hit the mountains of course-- but more on that later! We arrived to our destination in the afternoon-- to Cirque de Gavarnie. WOW. First of all, the trip is treacherous. I'm talking, "why would anyone ever drive 90km/hour down these roads." We're taking fancy european car test driving commercial, crazy hairpin turns on tiny roads type of scary. It was definitely a hard mix of "sweet lord those cars are insane for even being on here" to "oh my gosh that's the best view I've ever seen." Over the hours, the view definitely won out :) We made it there in one piece, and it was most definitely worth it.

The hike up to the falls took a few hours, and we enjoyed ever step. It's really hard to show in photos how gorgeous this place was! The whole town is in the 'cirque', which is the formation of rocks that forms; which in this case, ended in a super tall series of waterfalls. Our B&B was at the top of one of the hills overlooking everything. Super cool. Also super cool? The guard donkeys that we got to meet on our way down to town.

Overall? Amazing. The hike was beautiful. We climbed things. We played by the super cold snow packs that were still around. We took way too many photos.

We even ate lunch with the local sheep (even more bread, cheese, and local charcuterie. I have no idea how to spell that, but I don't even care. SUPER TASTY MEAT.

We were sad to leave Gavernie, but we finally did super late in the afternoon... we then hopped back in to the car, and on to a four hour drive (after a 7 hour drive yesterday to Toulouse, then to Gavarnie yesterday, the car is still fun... only because the view is so great!), to Mount Louis. The cabin we are currently staying at is in the highest city in France; and is quite neat already. It's a super fun old style cabin that is owned by one of LD's teachers from college, and is such a neat find! We ate and drank till our little hearts content, then are about to go to sleep--and sleep in for the first time in awhile-- so ALAS! This wonderful trip continues.

More later :) Goodnight!

Paris: Day 3

Day three-- Bourges! Bryan and I started out the day by heading to the train to meet Anna and LD, where they were attending a friend's wedding. After about one and a half hours on a beautiful train ride, we arrived in Bourges (also discovering how a mix-up with the car rental timing can affect meeting up-- worrysome, but worked out in the end!) The weather was beautiful (mid 90's that day), and the town was amazing! The whole town is a bit medieval looking; and oddly reminiscent of the French town in Beauty and the Beast, in my opinion. Super cool.

After a day of wandering (and taking too many photos of the extremely large cathedral in town), we sat down and had a four hour dinner-- sharing some amazing food, and great conversation! Nothing quite like the French dining experience; I feel like I've finally found the perfect country for my tummy (bread? Wine? Cheese? Ending with a delicious coffee? Yes please). Overall, a great day!

PARIS. Day 2

Day two in Paris; this time Bryan and I were off on our own fending for ourselves-- which went surprisingly well! Today we started off early, dropping Anna off at the train to Bourge, then went inside Notre Dame. After that, we experienced our first Parisian breakfast, pan au chocolate of course (and apple tarts!); we are feeling more stereotypical by the minute :)

(Bryan found the one Canadian bar :)

Following our lovely breakfast, we walked down the Seine towards the Louvre (we just checked out the massively large building today, didn't go inside-- it was too pretty for museums, with clear skies and lots of heat!) then went past the obélisque to arc du triomphe. Following that we continued on our path towards the Eiffel Tower-- and a tasty lunch-- and explored a bit. We didn't go up to the top (Even at the end of tourist season the lines to get on to the top are nuts) so we took the stairs to the second level and took some epic snapshots. And more snapshots. And even more after that. (And even came back after dinner to take pics in the dark... yeah, we like the Eiffel just a bit. It's quite pretty.) We also found a street vendor who was selling keys, so Bryan and I had to make our contribution (with the date of our wedding; after you put the lock on the bridge you throw the keys into the river... aaaw, symbolism :)

...at night

...and sparkly (every hour, on the hour after dark).

Shopping, food and more food... Paris continues to be large, confusing (we did get lost-- just once!), beautiful, and we look forward to finding more things next week! Tomorrow we are off to Bourge to meet LD and Anna once again, and the adventure will continue! Au revoir!

PARIS. Day 1

Today kicks off our first day in beautiful Paris! After a long week of puppy-dander-removing for our dear friend Molly (AKA Housesitter-extrordinaire), we took off this afternoon on a lovely nonstop flight to Paris. This trip we were luky enough to travel with friends, this time mainly Louis-Daniel and Anna. Through them so far we have met a bunch of wonderful people (who are incredibly patient with our teeny-tiny French vocabulary), and have already seen so much! Today we visited Notre Dame, Monmarte, and several places in between (which, Monmarte at night is gorgeous-- next time we will remember to bring our camera!! I only have one photo we got off of our phones). Everything about this city so far is incredibly different, lively, beautiful, and TASTY. We have eaten more than our little bellies can handle already and are excited to try even more things!! (Today's highlights included local seafood and a tasty fois-gras dish-- YUM). Also, I am going to note that today,while sitting outside for lunch at a tiny french bistro in Monmarte; while we were eating our bread and sipping wine, an accordion player started serenading us from the street and we made a kitten friend. Needless to say, we were feeling pretty stereotypically French-- and feeling pretty giddy about it. Here are a few snapshots from our day:

So far it's about 12:00am here (3:00 back home), and we've been up since Thursday morning-- it's time for SLEEP! Here's to many more stories and pics to come-- I won't be posting as often as we did in London, since we are making so many stops. Bon soir!

Thriftin'

Thrift stores are awesome. Why? There are a number of reasons. One of my favorites being you can find epic old paintings that you can refinish into something shiny and new. Some of those old frames are beefy too, let me tell you. Behold! My find:

After attacking it with a bit lot of white primer/paint, and making a stencil out of this nifty ampersand I found:

...And once more after a bit of yellow paint:

Woohoo! Colors ahoy. I'm working on it. Slowly :)

Colors! (Is gray a color? I know teal is definitely a color...)

One of the silly things that came with our tiny 50's house was glossy white paint. A lot of glossy white paint. I'm talking "go ahead and have that spaghetti sauce fight because that stuff will come right off" type of industrial. And don't get me wrong, this is awesome-- but not so friendly looking. Half of our house is painted a nice warm gray, and the other half is still all sorts of glossy. I was lucky enough to have the day off last Monday, so I decided to attack the kitchen/dining room. Behold! Our messy, glossy white kitchen:

We were thinking anything other than white would work; after a few options we decided that a tone of what we had painted in the rest of the house would work best-- just to keep it consistent.

We ended up choosing the color on the left, which looks super noticeable in the swatch, but actually not too big of a difference once everything was said and done. Behold! After:

(Yes! Clean always makes things look better, too. Also note, about 2 minutes after this photo was taken, we attacked it with a delicious breakfast of avocado, tomato and grilled turkey egg sandwiches. Tasty!) This was just about one of the most subtle updates we've done so far. The only real way you can tell is by putting something glossy white over the top of it (like the new painting/framed prints I posted up in the dining room) and the fact that it's missing it's old 'glow'. I don't miss it!

(Teal painting is a knock-off of something I saw DIY over on one of my favorite blogs, YoungHouseLove.) I am slowly in the process of adding a bit of color back into our home- every bit helps I guess! Especially with my neutral tastes!