France Date!

 Jeff and I went on a week-long date trip to southern France! It was our first international trip in four years, and it was everything we hoped for. After the Brown family gathering, we left our kids in Denver with my kind parents and flew to Paris via Chicago and Dublin (not an ideal two-connection journey, but we survived). We left July 10th and got back July 18th. Jeff and I took a total of 760 pictures on our trip (about 30 pictures were Jeff's, haha). The bulk of my pictures from this trip will have to be divided between several posts over time, but here's an overview of the trip with a few photo highlights:

• Monday, July 10th: fly Denver to Chicago to Dublin to Paris. It was a lengthy journey, and we were on a very small plane from Chicago to Dublin. The plane hit every rough patch of wind along the gulf of St. Lawrence and we endured nearly 3 hours of turbulence wherein the flight attendants weren't even allowed to walk around. I was exceedingly thankful for Dramamine. 
• Tuesday, July 11th: Arrive in Paris. We caught the train into the city and then walked the last few kilometers to our hotel to avoid the dread potentially pickpocketing crowds of the Chatelet-Les Halles metro station at rush hour. It was a longer, sweatier walk than we anticipated, but we finally made it to our little hotel next to the Gare de Lyon (train station). We managed to snag a pair of kebabs for dinner before the shop closed, and then crashed hard in our miraculously air conditioned hotel room.
• Wednesday, July 12th: 5 hour train ride from Paris to Perpignan (southwest France, on the Mediterranean near the Spanish border), rent a car, & check in to Airbnb. One of the things we were looking forward to on this trip was taking a long high-speed train ride. It brought back all kinds of memories from when we backpacked around Europe after college 15 years ago.
• Thursday, July 13th: Chateau de Queribus, Lagrasse, and Carcassonne. We drove into the remote foothills of the Pyrenees towards Carcassonne, and made two stops along the 80 minute drive: to explore the ruins of the Chateau of Queribus, and to eat lunch and walk around the darling town of Lagrasse. In Carcassonne, we recreated a picture that we took 15 years ago.
• Friday, July 14th: A walk and hike in and around the hillside village of Eus, lunch in the town of Prades, and a hike up to St. Martin's Abbey, which is on the side of Mt. Canigou. We stopped and bought dinner pastries in Villefranche on the way home.
• Saturday, July 15th: We drove up up up into the Pyrenees to have a picnic and hike around Le Lac des Bouillouses (a reservoir at 6,000 feet elevation in the gorgeous mountains). The 80 minute drive left us marveling at how often terrifying roads go hand in hand with gorgeous scenery.
• Sunday, July 16th: Church at the Perpignan Ward, then a coastal drive to the town of Couilloure to dip our toes in the Mediterranean. We were so hot and tired after our short 1 mile walk to the pebbly beach that we drove back to our Airbnb to rest for the remainder of the hot lazy Sunday. 
• Monday, July 17th: Train from Perpignan to Paris (5 hours). We checked in to a different tiny hotel room that had blissfully cold air conditioning, rested a bit, and then went on a 10 mile walk around Paris, visiting some of our favorite spots and generally soaking up the unique Parisian ambience. We had dinner at a sidewalk café in true Paris style (even though the dinner happened to be handmade fresh Chinese noodles), and then ended our walk at the Eiffel Tower.
• Tuesday, July 18th: I woke up early and went on a run along the Seine River because I LOVE the Seine in the morning. Then we packed up, checked out of our hotel, grabbed breakfast pastries and lunch demi-baguette sandwiches at a nearby boulangerie, and rode the train to the airport to fly home. We flew from Paris to Toronto to Denver and landed in Denver at 8pm local time.

It was an exhausting trip but a glorious trip. I LOVED having my favorite person all to myself in our favorite European country. 

At the airport in Paris--finally!

My watch gave me some very unhelpful feedback after our overnight transatlantic flight: "Your sleep was short and poor quality. You may feel very tired today." Thank you, Garmin. I would never have known that without your help. Haha.

I traveled in a dress and sneakers, and it was the pinnacle of comfort until we walked nearly 3 miles through the heat of Paris to our hotel. Then my cotton maxi dress got all limp and heavy.

Walking along the Seine in belle Paris.

Dinner: classic kebab frite and Oasis. This fills my deepest travel hanger every time.

At the Gare de Lyon: Jeff carried a liter of water in one side pocket and a baguette in the other side pocket. It made me laugh.

Train stations are pretty.

The ticket barrier at the Gare. We used electronic tickets and it was quite convenient.

Playing our old favorite word game, Quiddler, on the train. We played this game dozens and dozens of times on trains across Europe in 2008.

Decathalon is our favorite European sporting goods store.

Our Airbnb was a converted stone cottage in our host's yard. There was a lily pond between our cottage and the host's house, and it was full of the LOUDEST frogs of all time.

That bed felt like a lumpy rock.

Bathroom in our Airbnb.

The cute living area in our Airbnb. That's Jeff, washing our dinner dishes in the background. We had bread and cheese or grocery store pasta for dinner most nights.

Diner: bread, cheese (lactase pills for Shaina), cherry tomatoes, and grape juice (in wine glasses because it felt fancy).

ADVENTURE PICTURES

1. Le Chateau de Queribus: ruins of a Cathar fortress:

2. The town of Lagrasse:

3. Carcassonne:

4. Village of Eus:

5. St. Martin's Abbey:

6. Le Lac des Bouillouses:

7. Church at the Perpignan Ward:

8. The Mediterranean shore next to the town of Couilloure:

9. Belle Paris:

Notre Dame under construction.

Le Tour Eiffel