SOUTHERN FRANCE

Here are some pictures of Vienne and Lyon (move your mouse over the pictures to see captions):

P.S. If the pictures are too small you can click on them to see a larger slide show.

NORMANDY

Pictures of Normandy Beaches (move your mouse over the picture to see captions):

PARIS

Here are a few pictures of Paris:

FRANCE!

Bonjour! Some of you have been anxiously awaiting to see pictures and hear about my trip to France. I have TONS of pictures and I haven't gotten to sorting them all out so you'll have to wait for those, but I can still tell you (in a nutshell) about the trip.

PARIS: Aaron and I left on the 9th, leaving all the kids for the first time with Aaron's step-mom (they were in GREAT hands). We left very early in the morning and arrived in the morning on the 10th in Paris. Needless to say we were in desperate need of some sleep, but the adrenalin kicked in and we were off to see the Arch D' Triomphe and the Eiffel Tower. The following day we went to visit the Chateau of Versailles. Versailles is a little town just outside of Paris. The chateau was filled with amazing French historic paintings and sculptures, but it was the gardens that I loved most. They went on for miles, perfectly manicured with sculptures and fountains. The place where Marie Antoinette lived was the best part. Any way, while we were in the town of Versailles we saw a huge group of people protesting and the police were all armed up in riot gear. We hung around waiting to see some action, but none came :-) On Saturday we went to the Louvre, the the Museum of Modern Art, and Notre Dame. It was neat to see the art in person that I had studied in college. The night life in Paris was so neat. There were street performers on every corner. Our favorites were some break dancers. On Sunday we attended church. That was a neat experience. They had an English meeting besides the usual French meeting because of all the tourists that came through. The man who greeted us was from BENTON CITY! Small world. Everywhere we went in Paris we took the metro. I ate a lot of crepes! J' adore les crepes!!! The outdoor flee markets were one of the best things in Paris.

NORMANDY: After church we rented a car and drove to Normandy. I'm having a hard time remembering what town we were in on what day, but we visited Bayeau, Beavais, and Ferrieres. Aaron started work so Joyce and I (a co-worker's wife also from UT) drove around little towns, attempted parallel parking, and explored the little towns. Every town has at least one cathedral, sometimes more. They all looked like smaller versions of Notre Dame. I really liked them. In the evenings when our husbands returned we drove out to the D-day beaches. We visited Gold Beach and Utah Beach. It was neat to see tributes to US Soliders and see WWII history in person. Normandy had a different feel than Paris. The small towns were so quaint and peaceful.

LYON & VIENNE: So I've lost track of what day it is :-), but sometime in the middle of the week we drove to Paris...Yikes! NEVER drive IN Paris. It is CRAZY! But we made it in one piece, spent the night, and caught a really cool bullet train to Lyon (southern France). We spent the night in Vienne and again we had a rental car. The boys still had to work so Joyce and I drove around some more and explored. We were able to check into our hotels, carry in the luggage, and get around to where ever we wanted to go...thank goodness for the GPS! We did laundry and the next day explored some Roman Ruins. The Rhone Valley was first inhabited by the Romans so the culture there is really cool. We saw an ancient Roman Theater and temple and went to a museum that had a portion of an ancient town. On Friday we went to Lyon and decided to go to Switzerland for dinner. Unfortunately it was rainy and foggy so we didn't see too much of the Alps as we passed through. Dinner was great, and really expensive. The prices were listed in franks so we had no idea until the check came. On Saturday we saw a medieval celebration and then drove south to a colleagues wedding party. He's from Scotland, but lives in France. The drive was absolutely beautiful. We drove through several small villages that looked frozen in time from centuries ago. We also drove through some thick forest. The party was a lot of fun. They were delighted to see Americans at the party. It was 2-3 hours away from Lyon so we had a long drive to get back to our hotel. The next morning Joyce and I flew out of Lyon to Paris to Cincinnati to SLC. I ended up with a 7 hour lay-over in Cincinnati, but I survived.

I was so excited to get home and see the kids. It was hard to leave them for that long. Aaron is still in Europe. He is in Belgium now and will be getting home on the 30th.

Well, there you go, France in a nutshell. There's a ton of things I've left out, but it was a great trip full of adventure and yummy food! But it's nice to be back with the kiddies. I'll post a few pics soon.

Rylie's New Do!

Rylie got her haircut this morning! It was her first professional cut and she was so cute about it. Her hair grows so fast! Just last September I cut it just above her shoulders. I asked Aaron if he had any suggestions before it was cut and he said a 1/4" off would be just fine. Sadly for Aaron, a little more than that was cut off. I think he'll still like it though. Here are her "Before" & "After" shots:

BEFORE:

AFTER: