Travel Day (Barcelona to Portifino)

(3:00pm Barcelona Time)

Dear Fans,

I’m sorry for neglecting my blog for so long, we’ve been moving faster between cities and it’s hard to find time to write.
We finished finals on the 13th, just in time for Bastille Day celebrations in Paris on the 14th. On Bastille Day. There is a huge concert under the EiffelTower so weheaded there, picnic in hand. The plan was to be there around six, eat our baguets and cheese, and watch the fireworks show at 10:30. The problem was that it appeared everyone in all of Europe had the same plan and the concert was PACKED. So after about a half an hour,David and I left (Lizzie stuck it out and I have to admit I’m a little jealous of the amazing time she had, the fireworks were increadable, you should all go look at the photos on her blog!)

Saddened that we missed out on the biggest event of the year, we soon decided to head over to the second biggest event of the year (also on the same night), the “Firehouses”. On Bastille Day the Fire Stations throughout Paris turn into Night Clubs just for one night. It’s hard to picture if you haven’t seen it, but imagine two courtyards filled to the brim of people (mostly our age), dancing away. As if it’s not strange enough just to be dancing in afire station, the courtyards to lined with little stages on which the firemen are dancing. Now when I say dancing, I mean DANCING, they honestly looked like strippers but without the stripping. Inside the fire station, there were about five different kinds of bars: mixed drinks, Champaign, wine, beer, etc.

The next morning was David’s birthday. Lizzie went out early in the morning and brought back pastries galore while I wrapped his littlepresents in anything I could find – paper, magazine pages and shopping bags. After that we had lunch in the park before heading to the airport to fly to Monaco.

We arrived in Monaco to a beautiful birthday Champaign welcome from Nadine and Mary. After that, we headed out for a late dinner, which our new friend Jon drove us to (thank God) because Monaco is, seriously, the singly most confusing city I’ve ever been in. However, being adults, we decided we could surely use our hotel’s “easy-ten-minute-walking-directions” back to the hotel. The directions were as follows: “walk along the palace, walk around the round-about, walk through a mall, take an escalator through the mountain, cross a bridge…and so on”. Needless to say, we were lost in about ten seconds and had to call a cab.

The next day, we spend the whole day on the beach, building up the courage to try to attempt another walk into the city of Monte Carlo. Much to our delight, we successfully made it to the Casino AND back with only limited assistance from Jon. The highlight of Monaco was simply sittingat a café outside of the Casino enjoying some highly entertaining people watching (or car watching in David’s case).

From Monaco, we made our way to Fontville, an adorable town in the South of France adjacent to the town where Van Gough lived, worked and eventually went insane. Because I have written so much about France, I won’t write much about Fontville besides that it was the cutest place I’ve ever seen (I think the pictures will show you more than I could ever write).

After Fontville, we drove to Barcelona, I expected there to be a lot of young people in Barcelona, but I wasn’t prepared forthe throngs of college aged people in every direction, every street looked like bruin walk ten minutes before class started. I also had no idea how beautiful Barcelona is, the S. Familia Cathedral is one of the most beautiful, creative buildings I’ve ever seen. They started building the Cathedral in 1880, and it’s far from finished today.
We were in Barcelona for two days and we mostly just walked for hours because every corner had something different to see.

This morning we said our sad good byes to Lizzie, we’ll miss you, Blizard!
Now David and I are on our way to meet Mary and Nadine in Italy, so excited!!!

Paris, Day 10

(July 11, 2011)

We have spent the last couple days at some of the most beautiful chateaus in the world! The day before last we went to Vaux le Vicompte at dusk for a picnic dinner. At night they put out thousands of candles that light up the whole garden, it was beautiful!!

Yesterday, we went to Versailles. However, seeing the lines stretching for what seemed like miles we immediately decided to spend the whole day in the extensive gardens and not to go into the palace itself. This ended up being a fantastic plan because the gardens were so large that it took us all day just to meander from one side of it to the other (with breaks for ice cream, lunch, puppies, statue posing and Marie Antoinette’s House).

We also rented a rowboat to paddle around the lake on the far end of the gardens. While struggling to make our boat go in a somewhat straight line, we sang songs, inserting the words “row”, “lake”, and “boat” whenever possible.

Our adventures have been so great and so

many that I can’t possibly write them all now. Plus, technically we have finals the day after tomorrow, Yikes!

Mom and Dad - thanks for answering my call today, I love you both!

Willard and Small Fri – I miss you both! I’m excited to see you in North Carolina!

Everyone else – hugs and kisses!

Paris, Day 4

(7:30pm Paris Time)

Paris is absolutely amazing! Lizzie, David and I would like to thank our parents for giving us these fantastic memories!!
Our days have been a blur of crepes, baguettes, parks, museums, and long strolls along the canal.

However, today we decided to switch it up and go to the Catacombs to see a bunch of bones of dead people (why? I don’t know). I was a little creeped out so to get my mind off of things David decided we should scare Lizzie. So we ran ahead and hid behind one of the corners.

When we heard Lizzie’s voice we jumped out screaming. Our screams were soon joined by more screams, but unfortunately not Lizzie’s. We had accidently scared the lady that had been walking right in front of Lizzie. Not only did she not find it very funny, but we also got yelled at in French by the security guard and we still had to walk the remaining half-mile following the poor scared lady, being tailed by the angry security guard and surrounded on either side by dead people.

After that, we walked to the nearest park, dipped our feet in the pond in front of a gorgeous palace and ate bread - so much for trying to switch things up, I think we’ll stick with this for a while.

So far, our favorite memories are: shopping at the farmer’s market (fresh bed, buffalo mozzarella, tomatoes and basil), making the most delicious sandwiches ever and eating them under the Eiffel tower at night, a canal cruise along the Seine, leaving the catacombs, watching the street performers in front of the Notre Dame, the four-hour walking tour (we walked seven miles, ouch!), and eating. I would like to note here that I had the brilliant idea that I should devote the rest of my blog to food, and just write about what I eat everyday but Lizzie and David talked me out of it. So to those of you who really wanted to hear about the delicious open-face baguette with cheese, tomatoes and black olives cooked to perfection, or the carmel ice cream that rivaled Bi-Rite’s Salted Carmel or the tomato and goat cheese crepe…you have Lizzie and David to blame, sorry!

Love you and miss you all!!