Paris - The Very Last One

I am so happy to be finishing this mini-series of blog posts! In the past, my family (mainly grandma and mom) have handed me journals before leaving for a big vacation, instructing me to write down anything and everything because I won't remember it later. While I toted those journals along, I don't think I ever once wrote anything down. In a way, I wished had, but we can't go back in time and change the things we didn't do, now can we?

So this is my journal. My goal is to eventually turn this blog into a book (not a published piece of work, but more of a coffee table collection of personal experiences). A journal (this journal) contains the pictures, memories, feelings of excitement/frustration/gain/loss/and happiness of a girl in a country that isn't her own.

These are memories of my first 'grown-up' trip. In the airport on the way home from Paris, I told Stian that I really felt like a "grown-up": we're married, we're taking our first "real" vacation together that we paid for with some of our savings from our full-time jobs (after, you know, paying the mortgage, the bills, setting aside money to replace our rusty little car, etc.). We're grown-ups....on a budget. It's not all it's cracked up to be, folks!

Our last day in Paris was actually just our last morning in Paris. We got up, stored our bags, checked out of the hotel, and got our last cups of coffee and croissants (and with great relief - do people really eat a croissant every morning there? I was so excited to come home to my boring boiled eggs breakfast - full of protein and lacking in sugar).

We had read about a little spot tucked away near our hotel called the Luxembourg Gardens. It wasn't a far walk and I wish we could have spent more time there. The sun was shining on this beautiful Sunday morning in Paris, and there seemed no better place to be than in the vast and beautiful gardens hidden in this part of town.

It was apparently part of the locals running routine - if I lived near there, I might take up running through there as well! It was beautiful. Interesting statues everywhere and lots of flowers in bloom.

What I really loved about this place was that it seemed that the locals brought their mini sail boats to float around in the pond:

And there were ducks! 

I could have stayed in these gardens for hours. What a perfect way to spend a Sunday morning in the Spring. It was quiet, it wasn't crowded, and people were amusing themselves with something other than a computer or phone. How refreshing!

We couldn't stay long...after all, we had macarons to buy before we hopped on the train to the airport!

The perfect airport snack. 

That was it. A short but sweet morning in Paris before heading home to Bergen. 

I just have to share this quote from Betty White: 

"Facebook just sounds like a drag. In my day, seeing pictures of people's vacations was considered a punishment." 

So, sorry if these posts have been torture...but you didn't have to read. With that, I leave you with "Jubilee" from a night walking around in Paris. Watch the dancer. (To be fixed soon: the video is not uploading correctly!).