Our Trip to Paris!

So. We are back from Paris. The weekend was quick, but absolutely incredible. And I have so much I want to say, and get down, but this will serve as a start. Believe it or not, this is a small portion of the pictures we took and it was hard to choose what to share. If you are iffy about picture-heavy posts, click away now!

I took this picture of the plane after we landed. I dozed on and off for the duration of the six-plus hour flight and was a bit giddy upon arrival.

Got my passport stamped and I was on my way.

The driver was holding up a sign that said "Mr. Rolet" so there was a bit of confusion, but soon enough we were traveling through the charming 17th Arrondisement, on our way to the hotel.Was pretty pumped to get to the hotel, a "hotel litteraire" where the likes of Hemingway and Sartre used to hang.Our hotel room was on the seventh floor and had two tiny juliette balconies overlooking the city. Walking across the Seine for dinner on the Right Bank. We did a lot of walking which I am hoping canceled out the insane amounts of French bread and rose wine consumed.The Eiffel Tower on our first night. Wow.My favorite thing about the city? The tiny streets.I smiled when I found this Starbucks. Made me feel right at home. The graffiti helped, too.Love this. What's kind of cool is how awake I felt to the details, the names of things.

Took so many pics of Husband snapping away. We were both a wee bit obsessed with capturing things.

How awesome is this? A street sign that says Bon Bon? Pretty much sums up our trip. (As in good good not candy!)Kind of cool to stumble upon the Issey Miyake offices near Les Places de Vosges since I've been wearing the same perfume - L'Eau D'Issey - since high school. Ironically, I left my perfume (and my mascara) at home by accident. I didn't miss them either. We had an active, casual trip.We took a tour of Victor Hugo's house. I snapped this shot of an old newspaper before being reprimanded by an angry guard. Oops.We walked in and out of the coolest galleries. We loved this one. How bizarre is this statue of a man with his middle missing?We visited the "lock bridge" where lovers leave locks with their names on them. If you are a Real Housewives of Beverly Hills fan, you will know what I'm talking about. We didn't bring a lock, but it was still fun to see.Here I am, looking out. We have so many pictures of each other, but very few of the two of us. We did ask one guy to snap a pic of us by the Eiffel Tower but it was beyond blurry. I got a few self-shot candids that make me happy.The Louvre. Love.Here I am, unsurprisingly glued to my phone, at our hotel's bar. Again, this is apparently where the literary greats knocked boots and threw a few back. There was a lot of rain while we were there. But I found the city to be as (or even more) beautiful in the rain.Hotel De Nevers. Wouldn't this be a cool name for a novel?The view again from our room.Hamming it up for my man.The Tower up close. Absolutely awe-inspiring.Ponderous.The view from our cab window one day. It was so rainy and gloomy and this shot is creepy, no?Our shadows. Love this.Happy girl. Very happy girl.Husband walking a small street in Le Marais.Love that Paris has some grit to it. Makes this New Yorker smile.On Sunday, we found this amazingly gritty, local brunch spot in Le Marais called Cafe Charlot. It was noisy and crazy and crowded and we had the most scrumptious and indulgent brunch (think: smoked salmon, Croque Monsieur, Eggs Benedict). No one spoke English at this place and we were just in heaven. Our favorite (and probably cheapest?) meal of the weekend. Go figure.And get this. Our frites came wrapped up in New York Times wax paper!This philosophy-lover couldn't resist.Notre Dame. It was drizzling, but we didn't care.We did a lot of wandering around at night. Some of my favorite moments.Amazing.Notre Dame at night.The little cafe near our hotel where we had our first and last meals of the trip: a late lunch on Friday and breakfast before our flight on Monday. Yum.I will miss this balcony.I will not miss the madness at Charles De Gaulle Airport.Waiting planes.Husband checking out the goods at Duty-Free.Our monster of a plane.Boarding.After a scary landing, we are home.We arrive to sleet that quickly turns to snow. A shot of the messiness out our car window. When we get home, the big girls are still up and attack us with hugs. We are happy and tired, scarf sushi with Grammy, and call it a night. Sleep like babies. Oh, except for the baby who doesn't sleep and whined all night :)Yesterday morning. Business as usual. Home sweet home.Our little Parisian Picnic breakfast. Girls enjoy cupcakes and souvenirs pre-9am. They might want us to go away more often.

They are happy. We are happy.

So so good to get away. So so good to be home.

{Thanks to all of you who followed my incessant Facebook and Instagram updates over the weekend. It's clear I got carried away. What fun it was to keep a real-time record of our trip.}