Bonjour, je voudrais duex baggettes, si vous plait..

(View from top of Arc de Triomphe)

OK, so Kathy has been wanting to go to Europe for a long time, and, since her parents are there, and Emily and Nick were willing to watch the kids for us, and flights from the East coast are less than from the West coast, this was the right time to go. I'm glad we did - it was soooo awesome! A little expensive, but awesome. It's fun to see how other cultures do things. American cities are so new compared to European cities, like Paris, which has been around since the Roman Empire!

I couldn't remember very many useful phrases from my high school French class, so we bought a small French/English dictionary that came in handy. That, in combo with a very good (current) travel guide (Rick Steve's Paris 2009 travel guide), and a laminated combination Paris street and metro map made all the difference. French really is not all that hard if you know a little bit of Espanol. Plus, nearly everyone there speaks a little English anyway, so even if you completely demolish the language, they are grateful you tried and will immediately start speaking to you in English instead.

(Looking up the center of the Eiffel tower)

We traveled on the cheap by staying in a cute little mom&pop hotel in the heart of all the touristy places, and using mass transit instead of renting a vehicle. We reserved a studio room on the top/5th floor (89 steps up, every time - no elevator!) for only €75 (about $105 per night, which is VERY good for Paris). The toilet was down the hall, and the shower was down on the first floor (again, 89 steps...). It worked out just fine. We were only a 10 minute walk from Notre Dame and the nearest metro station.

(The original "thinker"...Rodin Museum)

We mostly followed the travel guide's recommended "Paris in 5-7 days" daily interary, and saw just about everything there is to see, buying the "museum pass" which gets you into almost every site and lets you bypass all the ticket lines. We ate local foods (avoided McDonald's) since we like to be a little adventurous and eat local foods. We walked and walked and walked and walked all over that city, and came home totally beat and sticky (hey, it was late June and humid!) each night. About the only thing we didn't do was take the sewer tour, which would have been really cool, but Kathy said "eww, yuk!" (means "no").

(Palace gardens at Versailles)

There are waaaay too many pictures (we took over a thousand) to post here, so instead I'll just direct you to a "Paris" photo album on Kathy's Facebook profile where she uploaded some of the better photos. If you're a FB member, login and comment on the ones you like! Here's the "Denmark" Album. Sometime when we are all back in Utah we can show you all the other photos, if you like slideshows! Barbara and David (and some of their kids) can back me up on how neat some of the sites in Paris are - I know they went when they lived in Scotty land.

(Renoir's "Dance at Le Moulin de la Galette", at the Orsay Museum)

Here's what we saw/did each day (Just in Paris):
Wednesday (June 24th):
Historic Paris walk (3 miles) featuring Ile de la Cite', Notre Dame tour, Sainte-Chapelle tour, St. Michel Place, the Latin quarter, and Pont Neuf. In the evening we took a sunset cruise on the Seine river.

Thursday: Tour of the Louvre Museum, the Tuilleries Gardens, the Orangerie Museum (Impressionist Art featuring Monet), visit the Obelisque (3,000 years old, from Egypt!), Climb the Arc de Triomphe, & finish with evening ride up the Eiffel tower.

Friday: Tour the Orsay Museum (impressionist art), the Rodin Museum (sculptures), Rue Cler walk (an open air market street), tour the Basilica Sacre Couer, and finish with a walk through the Montmartre area (2 mile walk featuring homes of Renoir, Picasso, Toulouse-Lautrec, Van Gogh, and the Moulin Rouge)

Saturday: Take the RER train to Versailles and tour the palace, gardens, and Trianon palaces. Back to Paris and tour the Pompidou center (modern art museum).

Sunday: Tour the Cluny museum of medieval art, Paris Catacombs, Napoleon's tomb and the Army museum

Monday: Fly to Denmark, visit with the in-laws for a few days in Odense and Copenhagen, then fly home. We toured the Hans Christian Andersen museum, a viking museum, and saw the temple in Copenhagen. It was a great experience and worth it. I hope we can do something like this in another 10 years or so (anyone else want to come?!)

...I'm too tired of writing this post to talk about Denmark, but it was fun so check out the Pics and descriptions/captions for each one on Kathy's FB page!