euro trip: cruise: french ports

thursday, may 31st / barcelona, spain (well, kind of)

we woke up REALLY early on thursday and headed to paris de gualle to catch our flight to barcelona. after getting extremely lost due to the terrible signge (that was also in another language) and some luggage issues, we boarded the plane and took off to spain. once we landed, it was about 1pm and we headed to the ship via royal caribbean bus. we found our parents & grandparents shortly after getting on the cruise and i have never been so happy to see them in my whole life! after we set sail & had dinner and a few drinks, we headed to bed. traveling is exhausting!

friday, june 1st / provence/marseilles, france

before we got on the ship, court & i had picked out our excursions for each port. this day, we had picked out some cute tour that included lunch & shopping. once off the ship, we took a bus to aix, a small town about 30 minutes outside of marseilles. i LOVED this place. it was exactly what you imagine france to be like & the town was so charming. we toured with the group for about 3 hours and then got some free time to shop. our first stop was gelato - i had NUTELLA GELATO and it was seriously the best thing i have ever tasted. we shopped around and bought some gifts and then met the rest of the group back for lunch. they had a prie fixe meal for us and court and i got our own table (and own bottle of wine) in the adorable little restaurant. after lunch we headed back into marseille to la Basilique Notre-Dame de la Garde - it is positioned on top of a mountain & has the most beautiful views. it took us a long time to get back to the ship due to all the traffic & we had just enough time to jump in the shower before dinner.

{aix, france}

{one of my fave shots}

{nutella gelato!}

{our table for lunch}

{basilique de notre dame}

{night 2}

my sweet grandparents came with us on the trip. these are my dad's parents and this august, they will have been married for 65 years. can you imagine?  so while we're at dinner, i asked my grandpa if he remembered what my mema wore on their wedding day. my 85 year old grandpa then replies, "i don't remember what she wore at our wedding but i remember what she was wearing when she came out of the bathroom to get in bed that night." i mean, talk about hilarious.

after dinner we headed to trivia and met two couples from florida who were both on their honeymoons. we hung out with them for the rest of the trip & really enjoyed getting to know them. we hung out for a few more hours and after a late night snack of fries & guacamole - we retreated for the evening.

saturday, june 2nd / nice, france

oh how i loved the french rivera. we had another early morning & full day tour. this port wasn't big enough for the ship - so we had to get on water taxis. once we got to the mainland - we headed to the town of grasse to the famous fragonard factory. after that we took the beautiful highway along the coast back down to cannes - the town where the international film festival takes place every year. we had some free time to shop before lunch, and there just happened to be this fabulous vintage market set up in the middle of town. court & i explored for a about an hour before meeting the group back for lunch. after lunch, we had one more stop in the cutest village - i can't remember what it's called! we explored, ate more gelato & did some shopping. it was so cute & one of my favorite parts of the trip.

{fragonard}

{cannes}

{market in cannes}

{nameless favorite village}

{nameless favorite village}

we got back on the ship just in time to throw our hair up in buns, put on our cocktail dresses and head to "formal night" dinner. i wore this fabulous dress that i got in london - can't wait to wear it again! it was a super fun night with our new friends & our family!

{d & i}

{the whole fam}

euro trip: stop 2 - paris!

tuesday, may 29th

we woke up really early and headed to the train station at st. pancreas. after an unpleasent cab ride and some weird "coffee," we boarded the eurostar to paris. i slept most of the way and woke up as we were reaching the station in paris. once we got off the train around 12pm, we waited in a really long line for a cab and finally made it to our hotel. we walked to cafe jenny and then set off on our tour de paris. we started at notre dame and didn't stop until we reached the eiffel tower about 7 miles later. we saw so much along the way and stopped right before the eiffel tower to have a drink and dessert at this little sidewalk cafe called le relais de la tour.

{notre dame}

{lock bridge)

{the louvre}

after finishing up at the cafe, we grabbed a bottle of wine and headed the the eiffel tower. i was in awe - it is HUGE and amazing. it even sparkles! i saw a group of peopel taking a picture & could tell they were americans so i asked if they wanted me to take a group shot. one of the girls ended up being a senior in the SPTE program at USC. i couldn't believe it! it was so nice to meet someone from "home," and also see some americans. she is doing her last internship with the olympics in london this summer - so neat. for the next 3 or 4 hours, we drank wine and hung out in the lawn at the eiffel tower. it was magical.

{the eiffel tower!!!}

{amazing}

{hilarious germans}

{love}

wednesday, may 30th

wednesday was our 2nd and last day in paris. after breakfast, we took at cab to the louvre. we never tried to ride the metro in paris - the language barrier made it difficult to read the maps and ask for directions, so we stuck with the cabs. the louvre was giant & beautiful. the mona lisa was.... small. but none the less, really cool to see it. we saw the opera house (phantom of the opera) and then hung out on the steps of the museum for awhile. we decided to head back to the hotel and i proceeded to take a 3 hour nap before meeting leigh and derrick for dinner. we got lost for about the 500th time on the way there, but had a great evening with them. their hotel was adorable and dinner at le wilson was yummy. we grabbed a few bottles of wine and hung out on the other side of the eiffel tower with leigh and derrick until about midnight. it was so fun!

{the louvre}

{the louvre}

{there she is}

{love, love, love}

some thoughts on paris:

• they hate americans. if you're planning to go, learn some french. always have directions and addresses of places you want to go in case the cab drivers don't speak english.
• there are a lot of people trying to steal your stuff. this was frustrating and made me feel unsafe most of the time i was there.
• wine is cheap. this rocks.
• the airport is huge and confusing. it think i would have still been confused even if i could speak french.
• the eiffel tower was by far my favorite part. it was beautiful - i am still dreaming of it.
• people really do eat baguettes all the time. i can't tell you the number of times i saw someone pull one out of their bag and just start eating it. it's hilarious.
• we decided that men carry bags (purses) in europe because most people are using public transportation. we throw whatever we need in our cars, most europeans in big cities don't have them.