Hey everyone! I want to start off by thanking all of you who reached out to me this past weekend after the attacks in Paris. I am so grateful for the amazing support system I have in the States. Thank you so much!
We were given two weeks of vacation at the end of October. Drew came to see me the first week and my mom and sister, Angie, came the second week. This post will be about my first week with Drew. My next post will be about the second week.
So it had been about a month and a half since I had last seen Drew. I had never gone that long without him since the day we met. Before I left for France, I expected to be sad sometimes, and that I’d miss him ALL the time, but I really underestimated how bad it would be. I mean I was going to Europe, who wouldn’t be happy, right? Well, after spending almost every day of the last four years of my life with Drew, not having him around at all has been by far the hardest emotional journey I have gone through. You can imagine the joy I felt when I finally got to see him and hug him again at the airport! I was in a dream!!
He arrived Sunday morning in Paris. I had to leave Vichy Friday night to make it there in time. We had 6 days together and I had planned to make the most out of it, but I was so glad just to have him there we could have stayed at the airport all week and I would have been happy!
We headed down to the train station at CDG to catch a train into the city. We had a few hours to kill before we could check in at our hotel, so we went to a cafe at the station in Paris and had some lunch. Unfortunately, Drew still had class at Washburn so he had to work on some homework, but we worked around it just fine. We checked into our hotel late afternoon and decided to roam the area around the hotel. We found this cathedral down the street.
We found a wonderful restaurant for dinner that night. Definitely a lot more food than I expected.
We tried to see as much as we could the following two days. We made it to the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame Cathedral, the Arc de Triomphe, the Louvre, the Luxembourg Gardens, and the Pantheon.
The Eiffel Tower:
The Arc de Triomphe:
The Louvre:
The Notre Dame Cathedral:
The Pantheon:
Luxembourg Gardens
Of course we had to stop by Chipotle for lunch lol.
My absolute favorite part of our trip to Paris was putting our love lock on the bridge and throwing the keys into the Seine. We put it on the 8th panel, 16th row over, 12th row down. That’s our anniversary (8/16/12) so we will always be able to find it.
We tried to make it to the Catacombs, but the line was supeeerrr long so we decided to go back on Friday instead. We headed to the train station Tuesday evening to make our way to Vichy.
We arrived in Vichy around 10pm so we headed straight to my place. It was only a couple minutes away so we were there in no time. I was so excited to show him my home! The first thing he said when he walked in was that it was a lot smaller than it looked in the pictures lol. We had a couple days in Vichy. On the morning of the first day we went to the center of town. We walked by a pastry/sandwich shop and we stopped for brunch. Let’s just say I’ve become a regular customer after I tried that raspberry tartlet! We also had a croque-monsieur and an eclair. We decided we would use most of the first day to finish our homework. That evening we went to the grocery store to buy food to make some dinner. I was so excited to cook him a meal! I think the two things I miss most are cooking and baking for my love.
The next day I showed him my university. We also walked down the Allier river. I was excited for him to see where I take my morning jogs. After that, we headed to the source des Celestins so Drew could try the mineral water. He thought it was pretty nasty. I recorded his reaction and it was priceless! Unfortunately I don’t have the green light on posting it so good luck convincing him lol.
Of course we had to go back to the pastry shop to buy another raspberry tartlet before he left. It was still late afternoon and most of the restaurants in Vichy don’t open until after 7 so we headed back to my room. Another one of my favorite memories, we built a fort to watch a movie! It was an absolute blast!! 🙂
After dinner we headed back home. We were set to return to Paris bright and early in the morning. We headed straight to the Catacombs when we arrived. We got there well before opening time and we still had to wait a couple hours to get in.
It was quite the experience to say the least. I am glad he was there with me walking through there.
The last stop before leaving the city was the Sacre-Coeur. There are MANY steps up to the top. Since we were headed to the airport afterwards we had Drew’s suitcase with us. Talk about a workout! I strongly recommend making it to the top though, the view of Paris is spectacular!
There was a man drawing names out of pictures. It was very creative and we couldn’t pass up such talent.
We headed to the train station afterwards and hopped on a train to the airport. From the airport we took the shuttle to our hotel. We decided to check out the recently built mall “Aeroville”. There was a free shuttle we could take to get there so we decided to have dinner there. I hadn’t had a burger since I arrived so we had American.
It was so nice and relaxing, but so bittersweet knowing it would be our last dinner together. I couldn’t help but look at him and feel like the luckiest girl in the world to have him in my life. I am blessed enough to have someone that makes saying goodbye so hard.
We headed to the airport the next morning. I was sad to see him go, but excited for the week that was ahead with my mom and Angie. It was really REALLY great to have them around. More on that second week soon!
Thank you to those of you who helped make Drew’s trip possible. We appreciate it more than words can say. Thanks for reading!
XOXO-Karen
Karen to France 2015 