a perfect day

When I went to Europe last month, I had a perfect day. It was our second day in Paris and we had at least five hours to kill during our lunch, so I wanted to go find filming locations from Sex and the City (one of my all-time most favorite shows!) At the end of the series, Carrie goes to Paris to live with Petrovsky, and I found a website that lists some of the different places she is filmed at. So, what better way to spend the day than a scavenger hunt, in a city in Europe, where you don't speak the language, and you don't have wifi and google maps? Adventure!!

It started with a train ride to St. Germain:

We had to go from the center of the city all the way out, but we made it!

It was a super cute little cobblestoned street with shops and bakeries. But first, a Starbucks was necessary to get some wifi and talk to someone who could hopefully point us in the direction of this street:

Do you remember the scene where Carrie is walking down the street, all sad because Petrovsky is always working? It was this day and this ensemble:

(I love Carrie and all her magnificent outfits!)

Anyways, walking down the street, she smiles up at a little girl on her dad's shoulders and then the girl hits her on the head and then she steps in doggie-doo? Well, I really wanted to see a fountain that she washes her beautiful shoes off afterwards...and it said that there were lots of little shops here, too, so the fountain and shops sounded awesome!

We went on this long train ride out to St. Germain, but after talking with the girl at Starbucks, we found that there is also a neighborhood of downtown Paris with the same name, and we were in the wrong spot. Super bummed!

But, the little neighborhood we ended up in was so cute, that we stayed and had a great day!

We found a store with fascinators:

(I bought a red one!) And then this little shop which was like our Crabtree & Evelyn:

Heather got her girls a tea set and I got a little serving tray with the Eiffel Tower on it!

We found a bakery and bought macaroons:

And went into some other shops we found:

The time slipped by so fast, but we thought we could still maybe make it back to the real filming location, so we asked for help on the train:

And toasted our new travel destinations with a little treat:

We headed back to the city and made two transfers on the Metro, but eventually ended up at the right stop. We walked a few blocks at a time, and then would stop to ask if anyone knew where the street was that we were looking for, and eventually, we found it:

I wasn't looking for the street she stepped in the dog poop, but that's what we ended up finding. So after all that work, it was still a little street that Carrie Bradshaw walked down and my best friend and I found it! Definitely worth a photo-op:

Sometimes when things don't go right, the day still turns out awesome. I got to share six whole, uninterrupted hours with my best friend, go on an adventure, *and* have a macaroon from a bakery in Paris.

What could be better?

An InLinkz Link-up

american girl in paris

Good Morning! Sorry for not posting until the morning...the weekend had me busy with my family doing fun things, but hopefully I will be back to scheduled midnight posts beginning with tomorrow morning!

As I woke up today (with not much on my to do list) I was just thinking about my trip and realizing how much I love traveling. So today I will share Paris with you - it really was one of my favorite places on the trip!

We took the Eurostar on a morning train ride from London to Paris. We got off the train, and there was a company there to take our luggage so we could get on with our sight-seeing right away. Our Tour Direcetor took us straight away on the Metro to Centre Pompidou where we got to take an hour lunch:

So this is just like a little square surrounded by cafes and shops. The big building up there, that looks like it's under construction...well, it was built that way as a form of art. (?) Looks like a huge mess to me, but everyone comes to this square to meet with friends, have lunch in the sun, just hang out:

After a quick lunch, we took a walk towards Notre Dame, and stopped along the way at Hotel de Ville:

I didn't write down all the stories that Rosaria told us, but the Mayor lives here and it's a beautiful place!

Kept on walking a little more and quickly found Notre Dame:

It's a beautiful building (like all the others over there!). Rosaria told us about it and then we had time to go in and see the inside. I'll spare you tons of pictures of the structure, but just share one of some stained glass:

This was up towards the ceiling and isn't it absolutely gorgeous? I didn't take pictures of them, but all the stories of the bible were depicted through stained glass and sculpture and what a sight it was to see!

From here we walked towards the Latin Quarter...

Shops, cafes, beautiful fountains...all of this surrounds a university. This area is named the Latin quarter because of all the different people who came to study here - they had to move all instruction to Latin so everyone had a common language to share. Anyways, I'd definitely like more time in the Latin Quarter...there was so much to see in Paris so we didn't get that long here. It was off to dinner shortly after arriving here and then home to rest up for a full day in Paris for the second day!

Our second day started with a sight-seeing tour from our bus and the first awesome thing we saw was the Arc de Triomphe - a beautiful structure in the center of a parkway with cars driving all around it:

It's so amazing how these structures were built so long ago without any of the modern-day technology that we enjoy! Arc de Triomphe stands in the center of a circular street, and funny story: Insurance won't cover any accidents that happen here because there really is no organization or stop lights to direct traffic. It's kinda like a huge free-for-all, but I'm glad we got to see it. It takes your breath away!

We drove on and stopped to see the Eiffel Tower in the morning from the lawn:

One of the two best moments of my trip - made every dollar I spent on this trip worth it! My only wish is that I had said yes to going long ago!

We then drove on and stopped at another location - all I remember is the obelisk that is in the background and I think that's the one that France *didn't steal* - most of them were stolen, but I'm pretty sure that this one was a gift:

After this stop, we were dropped off by the Opera building (which now hosts the ballet):

From here, we had like 5 hours of free time for lunch. The kids went off to explore this area and Heather and I went off looking for the filming locations from the Sex and the City finale episodes. That will be a blog for another day so I can finish up the highlights of Paris!

We met back up for dinner and then got to see the Eiffel Tower by night. Here's a pic of our whole group and I just love it!

We had to hang around for a long time - it didn't get dark until 9:45 or 10 - and I really wanted to stay until it lit up and sparkled, but me being the person who loves to sleep (I know, you're thinking...even in Paris?) I went home. (My feet were also killing me from the flats I wore all day!) Heather stayed with two of the kids and next time I'll do the same. Here's one of heather and I when it was getting a little darker:

We had one more day in Paris which began with a trip to the Louvre:

Once we got inside, we stayed together long enough to find the Mona Lisa, but the kids took tons of pics of everything:

They were having such a great time together as we were trying to navigate this huge museum. We finally found the painting we all wanted to see...which is now well protected:

Everyone is behind the ropes and the painting is also behind glass:

Heather and I stayed in the museum for awhile trying to find some impressionist paintings, but we were mostly lost and there weren't even that many impressionist paintings (they're in another museum - that is on the bucket list for the next time!). We never found them, and then wanted to take a long lunch, so we took a walk across the Seine River and sat down to relax for lunch.

After that, we took a walk and saw the Lock Bridge (more on this in a future post!)

We stopped at some shops and then sat in a cafe and had some coffee before we had to meet up again to board the night train to Venice:

And that was the best of Paris! I'm definitely not done with that city, and I'm hoping to go back in the summer of 2017. I want to take some great kids that I have already taught...and then meet up with Heather and her students.

This city was so special, I actually just bought the Eiffel Tower Pandora charm this weekend:

Well, that's all for today. Hope you had a great weekend! Looking forward to having time to read all the blogs that are linked up today!

One last thing....some notes about the challenge: The Link-Ups don't close until midnight on July 31st, so if you missed a day here or there, it's okay to go back and get linked up for each day! Make the challenge work for you!

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An InLinkz Link-up

sight-seeing in London

Welcome to Big Time Literacy and the #BTBC14! We're celebrating the one year blog-o-versary of Big Time Literacy with a month long blogging challenge. Link up with me each day and network your blog with all those participating, including the seven new D100 bloggers!

It's really been great seeing everyone comment on one another's blogs... If you post at the very beginning of the day, you can always go back to the previous day's blogs and comment on the bloggers who posted late in the evening! Comments are such great encouragement and make blogging really worth it! :-)

Just came back from my first trip to Europe and it was amazing! I went with Education First (EF). They plan trips with teachers and students, and I went with my best friend, Heather, and five of her students.

EF books trips so that there are about 40-45 kids all together, since we share a coach as we travel around some of the cities. Our group included me, Heather, and her five kids from San Diego, a group from Texas, and a third group from North Carolina. Then, all of us together got a tour director to guide us at each city and from place to place!

Rosaria, our director, and our group!

We began our trip in London. Because of some baggage issues, we got off to a late start, but on our first day there, we took a brief walking tour by Big Ben and the Parliament Buildings. We saw the London Eye and then walked to Trafalgar Square. Here's a few pics:

It's Big Ben! (I am pretty sure that name is because of the bell at the top...but maybe I'm wrong!)

Selfie with Big Ben!

And, seeing Big Ben from the London Eye:

Speaking of the London Eye...

It's now actually called something else, because a different company bought it. Kinda like the Sears Tower is now the Willis Tower? (It will forever be the Sears Tower to me, though!) HA --->

I was seeing a lot of red in London!

Mailboxes are easy to find!

And Trafalgar Square:

Okay, going to try and decipher some of the notes about Trafalgar Square in my phone...This is a plaza with a few water fountains and a bunch of statues of monarch type guys - and one big statue of a blue chicken...do you see it in the pic above?

Well, in the square there is a statue of the first monarch of England, Charles the First. This guy ended up getting beheaded, I think when the monarchy was overthrown? So they took his statue down while that was so, but then when the monarchy came back, the statue went back up. Now, the statue faces down the street to the place where King Charles was beheaded. Interesting, right?

So then the blue chicken story --
(Got this pic from Google!)

Not sure who started it all, but some artist was upset that all the statues around this town square were of the monarch-government guys, so this platform now rotates artists who get to display there. Pretty sure they display for a year at a time, and this is the current art that is up there. Not sure why it's a blue chicken or any significance of it, but it's a good meeting place. "Hey, meet me at the blue chicken in Trafalgar Square!"

I guess there was one artist who thought lots of people should have access to the platform, so for his year, he let different groups of people do dance or do similar forms of art each week. Kinda cool, right?

What I didn't know about Europe that I think is so cool are all the town squares. Every city we visited had squares all around for people to gather and hang out or share a picnic or even watch the World Cup! I love the town squares and think it would be cool if we had something like that over here!

Anyways, enough about me. Time for you to link up! Hope you had a great holiday!

An InLinkz Link-up