Paris!

I'm finally getting around to dedicating a post to our trip to Paris in February!

Let's just say it was amazing.

I could just leave it at that, but I'll share a few highlights from the trip, and explain why we were there in the first place (other than when someone offers to fly to you Paris, you say yesssss!)

So Jason works in sales and his company does one big incentive trip a year with everyone who meets their goals. We were so pumped when we found out that this year's trip would be to France, but we also knew that no one had ever reached their sales goal in Arizona -- the area Jason took over -- so it was definitely going to be tough! With a lot of hard work and long days, Jason reached his goal! So off to Paris we went.

Being in the most romantic city with my husboyfriend was a total dream!

I got to go to Paris with my dad once when I was in college and hoped I would be able to go back again with my husband someday.

Who knew it would be so soon?!

On the flight to Paris, I read through an entire two hundred something page travel guide along with plenty of recommendations from family and friends and outlined a few things for us to do each day.

I am pleased to say we accomplished everything we hoped to and then some!

(I outlined each day on my instagram)

Since I feel like I've already journaled quite a bit about the trip, I'll just put down a few of the highlights!

1. I had two things I really wanted to do in Paris, one was hear "La Vie En Rose" somewhere, and the other was to find a sculpture of someone with a veil over their face (random, I know, I've just always admired the skill it would take to do something like that and I had never seen a veiled sculpture in real life!)

As for the first goal, we had just gotten off the airplane and were waiting for our luggage to arrive. I went into the bathroom and right when I walked in I heard the familiar first notes of my favorite song, La Vie En Rose! Suddenly, that public restroom became a very special place to me. Everything is more romantic in Paris! We also ended up hearing a crazy good accordion player on a train playing the song. Double check!

The second goal was accomplished with the assistance of my friend Julie. Her husband works for the same company and we hung out with them, as well as our friends Taylor and Melissa pretty much every waking moment because they are all hilarious and upbeat. Everyone needs friends like that! Anyway, we were at the Louvre and there were dozens of huge marble statues and I was distracted by those ones when she found a much smaller statue of a woman with a veil over her face. That also happened on our first day in Paris, so I was feeling excited and a little bummed that I had already accomplished everything on my to do list. Maybe I should be a more lengthly list maker next time!

2. In my opinion, the best food item Paris has to offer is their croissants! Wow I loved those so much. I think I had one every morning for breakfast, along with a liter or two of fresh squeezed OJ from a little market by our hotel.

Other "food" items I loved:

Sour gummies from the street of course! Our hotel also had an endless supply in the lobby and I ate plenty to keep my sweet tooth satisfied. My favorite treat was the peach sour belts! They get much more creative with their flavors than we do!

Onion soup was also among my favorite meal items! I love it in the states, but it was just extra frenchy there, you know?

A few friends recommended we go to this specific restaurant for steak and fries, and it was an experience! We didn't really understand the non-menu (they just ask you how you want your steak) and then they brought us out salads with a super scary horseradish dressing that made me want to cry. After wiping away my horseradish tears they brought us each a big plate of steak and fries covered in a green mystery sauce, and I must say it was delicious! I did really want some ketchup though, but I was too afraid to ask the lady because she already suspected (hmm, I think she knew) we were confused, silly Americans with no taste. The best part of the meal was when the waitresses came out again and filled up our plates a second time! We were kind of skeptical, hoping they weren't charging us double or something. All in all, a good meal!

Jason and I also had enough ham, egg and cheese crepes to last us until our next trip to Europe (who wants to come?! We're thinking Italy...) but to be honest, I wasn't suuuuper impressed with the dessert crepe options. Basically, you could order nutella banana, but I overdosed on nutella like five years ago so it's not too fancy to me anymore. I was really hoping for some biscoff, strawberries and cream, but they just have crumbled up biscoff cookies which are quite dry. Maybe they only do strawberries seasonally? We also did not find one gelato or berthillon ice cream stand! Maybe that was also seasonal because who wants to eat ice cream in February? Of course not us...

On our last day we had one of Jason's french friends take us to an authentic italian restaurant! The pizza was very good, except we were both very confident that we wanted spicy sausage all over our pizzas. The spicy sausage must be an acquired taste (and look.. it was firecracker red!) because it was pretty unfamiliar tasting to us, which is pretty scary when it comes to meat! Once I removed all the red sausage from my pizza, I was a happy camper.

3. Of course seeing the Eiffel Tower will always be a highlight! There is something so surreal about it. It's much bigger than you imagine, and there is nothing as romantic as watching it sparkle in the evening. 

4. We also really loved spending a few hours at Versailles! Honestly, I'm not too interested in walking through super fancy palaces because royalty just kind of weirds me out, but I love love love gardens! I especially love when hedges are all manicured into shapes. I asked Jason if he could do plant sculptures in our yard someday and I guess he already knows how (he carved "GO PATRIOTS" into his mom's hedges when he was young, never mind that he ended up killing the bushes..) so I'm looking forward to that.

5. How can I forget our boat adventure?! Yes, we stayed on a boat for the last three days. Yes, it was totally awesome. Jason found it on VRBO and surprised me (I never would have predicted that one!) and we had a blast. Just be sure that if you surprise someone with a few nights on a boat, you know whether or not they get sea sick! Luckily, I don't get too sea sick, and we have actually spent a fair share of nights on catamarans and other various boats since being married, so I guess it's kind of our thing. The boat was also docked at a great location, just across the river from the tower and very close to the train, and we could see the eiffel tower sparkling through the window from our bed! 

Overall, we had an incredible time!

Traveling with Jason is one of my favorite favorite things, and I can't wait to continue making memories with our family as we get all old and wrinkly!

 If you want to see a little video of our trip, click HERE!

xoxo