Montmartre

For our final tour with JP's school program, we toured the area of Paris know as Montmartre!

If you follow me on instagram, you already know that this is one of my absolute favorite parts of Paris!

Not only is it the highest point in the city (lending to the best view), but it's got such a "village" feel! This is the area where tons of artists and authors lived and worked (Degas, Picasso, Van Gogh, Gertrude Stein, Toulouse Lautrec, and lots more) and it's still a definite artists quarter, giving the area a really neat hip and edgy feel. It's my dream to buy an original work of art off the streets of Paris, but it's probably not going to happen this trip haha 

We ate at a restaurant up here last week with Eric and Kimmi, and then walked up to Sacre Coeur at about 1 AM! (It was such a 'french meal', we were chatting and eating all the different courses for over 3 hours!) 

Montmartre at night is beautiful, and the experience was also pretty hilarious. There is definitely a different crowd around Sacre Coeur that late at night compared to this time when we finished the tour in front of the church around 7 PM (it stays light in Paris until almost 11 PM on these summer nights, it's crazy!).

 ^^^ The Love Wall! 

"I love you" is written 1,000 times in over 300 languages on this 40 square meter work of art. 

One of the artists said: “The bursts of color on the fresco represent the pieces of a broken heart, the heart of a humanity so often torn apart and which the wall tries to gather together.”

^^^ That right there at the top of the hill is the oldest windmill in Paris!

 ^^^ This means "The Agile Rabbit"

It is one of the oldest cabarets in Montmartre (the Moulin Rouge is in this area too!)

The view!

See if you can spot the:

> Centre Georges Pompidou (the best modern art museum in the world, in my opinion)

> Notre Dame

> & the Pantheon

Sacre Coeur

I don't know how to describe how amazing this church is! It's a stunner for sure, I love it!

Sardinia Part 2!

Our second day in Sardinia was quite the adventure:

JP and Eric decided that we needed to rent a boat, despite the fact that neither of them have really any experience driving a boat... especially in the mediterranean sea... but that didn't deter them! And the man who rented us the boat didn't seem to mind either...?

So needless to say we found ourselves sailing the open sea with JP and Eric as captains and Kimmi and I sitting in the front slightly terrified.

It was totally worth it though! Especially because we didn't die.

We dropped the anchor down whenever we found a beach we wanted to lay out on, and went swimming in the crystal clear water whenever the sun got too hot. It was magic!

^^^ JP jumped off a 40-50 foot arch! Craaaazy boy.

Sardinia: Part 1

Ahh I don't even know what to say about Sardinia. It was magical.

After finding a super good deal on ryanair and a really cheap apartment to rent, we all decided we pretty much had to go ;)

It's a little island off the coast of Italy and it's pinterest come to life!

The clearest water I've ever seen, and it's the most gorgeous shades of blue. 

The white beaches are really that white, and it was perfect weather. 

Sort of felt like I had died and gone to heaven? 

The first day we decided to go to the best beach on the island (of course), and discovered it required an hour hike in! 

But it ended up being quite the adventure: around every bend we were running into lizards, donkeys, wild pigs, or goats (not even kidding!) and during the hike back at the end of the day we got caught in the most massive rainstorm I've ever witnessed haha

Oh, and these pictures aren't edited at all, the water really looks like that!

Vive la France!

July 14 is Bastille Day in France!

It's sort of like their 4th of July...

I had Les Mis songs running through my head all day, (and JP and I might have belted a few duets throughout the afternoon...) and I even wore the colors of the revolution because I was feeling some french pride haha

JP and I joined the rest of Paris (literally, I have never seen so many people in one place) in front of the Eiffel Tower late last night to watch fireworks and they were amazing!! 

Of course the pictures won't do them justice, but I took so many I just have to share them :)

Friends in Paris: Episode 1

After our European road trip, (read parts 1 & 2 here) Eric and Kimmi spent the next week in Paris with us!

We love having friends in Paris.

Anyways, it was such a blast!

We:

> picnic'd in front of the Eiffel Tower

> went on tours with JP's school group of Le Marais (old mansions in Paris!) and the Louvre (obvi)

> stopped by a carnival where I purchased the largest cotton candy of my life and JP consumed more sugar than I thought was humanly possible. 

> strolled along the Champ Elysees and visited the Sacre Coeur

and...

> we ate at some of the best restaurants Paris has to offer, because let's be honest, we're just here for the food ;)

It was the best week, and then we jetted off to Sardinia, Italy for the weekend! 

(and those posts will be coming soon, don't you worry haha)

 ^^^ Stumbled upon some kids playing basketball, right next to the 1000 year old city wall. 

I think moments like this are why I love Paris!

 ^^^ Nike Frees are the best way to walk around Paris. Just swallow that pride and do it! 

 ^^^ I'm not kidding. That thing was ENORMOUS!

 ^^^ So. Much. Candy. 

^^^ Ummm, yeah. Kimmi is a babe!

^^^ A rare, all-four-of-us shot!

 ^^^ Winged Victory. Absolutely amazing.

 ^^^ Mona. She may be small, but da Vinci considered her to be his greatest masterpiece and so do I!