FRANCE TRIP – June 2018

OMG it’s taken me way too long to blog our France photos! We planned to go to Europe at some point this year, but we took a while figuring out exactly where. It came down to Stockholm and Paris, and honestly, I’m not sure why Paris ultimately won out. I think flight prices were better? Anyways, I’m glad Paris was our final ‘big trip’ just the two of us. Next time we go to Europe, or anywhere far-ish away, we’ll have a baby Julien in tow! That’s kinda crazy to think about.

I was 25+26 weeks pregnant during this adventure. Overall, I found that traveling while pregnant (at least at that stage, late second trimester) wasn’t too different than traveling while not being pregnant. My ankles had a tendency to swell from all the walking, but we made sure we were taking breaks to just sit and chill (whether that was in a park or a cafe or a museum). And I also probably ate more snacks than usual. But thankfully I wasn’t fatigued or nauseous at all during the trip. The funniest pregnancy tidbit was that I developed an intense craving for orange juice. Before we left, I was so excited to try all the French coffee and lattes, but NOPE I just wanted orange juice, everywhere we went.

We split the trip into three parts. Paris for 4 days, Loire Valley for 4 days, and back to Paris for our last 2.5 days. Again, not sure why we did this, but we did and it worked. 🙂 Our first few days in Paris were filled with museums, gardens, croissants and lots of walking. We did the Louvre (not my favorite, but I know that’s an unpopular opinion), the Musee d’Orsay (ABSOLUTE FAVE, 10/10 would live there), Jardins de Luxembourg (gorge), Notre Dame & the Arc de Triumph (at night!). I also experienced my first Parisian crepe and WOW GUYS it was good. (honey and walnuts, can’t go wrong).

I know a ton of people who have been to Paris before, so I asked them for recs before we left, and then we tried to go to at least one of the places they each recommended! Meg aided me in what neighborhood I should book an Airbnb in, and also super encouraged us to explore Montmartre. We ate breakfast at the tiniest coffee shop that Amy told us about. Erica shared her favorite crepe place. Alex told us about a bomb dot com falafel restaurant. Woody recommended we walk around a cute row of streets near the Eiffel tower. I know I’m forgetting someone.. Anyways, thank you all for your awesome Paris advice!!

Our Airbnb was less than a block from the tiniest little corner boulangerie, so every morning one of us would run across the street and get breakfast. It was the best ever. Forget about the history and art and architecture, the daily, fresh croissants alone are a good enough reason to visit to Paris.

We got the cutest ever stuffed animal for Baby K before we left Paris, and just a few postcards from all the castles for ourselves. But my favorite ‘souvenir’ from this (and every) trip is the collection of doodles I brought home in my sketchbook. This time I was smart and brought a small palette of watercolors with me and it was a sketchbook game changer! OMG! Sketching was another way for me to rest my swollen ankles, so the sketches are a little more in depth than usual and I LOVE.

CASTLE COUNTRY.

First of all, let me make it known that we stayed IN A CASTLE. Like, slept there. For 3 nights. In a real castle. Our host, Gregoire, was super fired up about sharing the history of this place and we were all for it. It was built in medieval times by the local farming community, basically as a safe house for the town. It had 3 floors, with two rooms. Gregoire and his family had restored it to its original glory, plus updated with running water and all that jazz. It was musty, and a little cob-webby, but still a really cool experience. Except the part when he said “So, do you believe in ghosts?” WHAT. :O Ha. It was fine, no ghosts were sighted during our stay.

We visited between one and three castles a day, with a total of seven. The Loire Valley is full of them, and I really think it would be impossible to see them all unless you were there for a month! So seven in 3 days seemed like a big accomplishment. My personal favorites were Chenonceaux and Amboise. Chenonceaux was a grand and fancy and sat over the Loire River. There was a gorgeous ballroom with a checkered floor and stunning flower arrangements throughout. Amboise sat high above a cute town. It had interesting architecture and cute gardens. My favorite castle grounds overall were at Riveau. They’ve set it up to make it feel like you’re walking through a fairytale woodland, and had so many variety of flowers. AND a peacock! (The castle itself was a little weird, it’s basically an avant garde art gallery.)

We spent less than 24 hours in Tours on our way back from Loire to Paris. Our Tours Airbnb host spoke about 5 words of English. Somehow, between both mine and Nate’s high school level knowledge of the French language, we had a short conversation with her after breakfast. Those little things will always be the best memories. P.S. Nate’s one wish for this France trip was to walk around town eating a baguette. We made that happen in Tours 🙂

Our last 2 days were back in Paris, where we FINALLY saw the Eiffel Tower. We were walking through some cute streets and all of a sudden there is was looming above us. I will always remember looking up to my right and seeing it RIGHT THERE, basically on top of me. I almost started crying. It was very surreal. I don’t know why, it’s not like I’ve dreamt my whole life of seeing the Eiffel Tower…. but it was definitely a cool moment. 

One thing that struck me as weird was that I was homesick pretty early on in the trip. Getting homesick when traveling is unusual for me, because traveling is way better than being home (sorry, home). I think maybe it had to do with the tiny babe inside me – it had made me longing to be cozy and comfortable and snuggled at home. But I wouldn’t change the trip for anything! We really enjoyed it! The Loire valley in particular surprised us with how much we liked it. If you ever need tips or recommendations for planning a Loire Valley or Paris trip, let me know, I’d love to share!