A Waking Dream

My Dad, Sister and Kim left early Sunday morning. I was sad to see them go; their trip went by way too fast.
We took the first few days easy while they adjusted to the time change by staying close to home and exploring my neighborhood. We did go on Friday to Trocedaro that has a famous view of the Eiffel Tower and took some shots; including a "Wear in the World" Blazer t-shirt photo with the Eiffel Tower behind us. I sent in two photos with the hope of them being shown during one of the next Blazers games!

On Saturday, my sister and Kim went to Salvokia for four days to visit a friend of theirs who studied abroad at their high school last year. So it was just me and my dad left to explore the city. We were going to try and go to the Loire Valley on Saturday after dropping the girls off at the airport but were exhausted from our five a.m. wake up call and fell asleep for a few hours instead. We ended up going for a tour around the out laying country side around Paris and saw a few Chateaux and an Abby. The Abby was by far my favorite!

For some reason it reminded me of the secret garden and I kept expecting to find a half hidden door behind some ivy.
I took tons of pictures and even imagined having my wedding there...unfortunately, my fiance seems to think that the Abbaye des Vaulx de Cernay is too far for our friends and family to travel. So I spent that afternoon day dreaming and wandering through the green gardens taking photos.


We spent a leisurely Sunday walking through the Jardin de Tuileries starting from the Louvre and going to le Grand Palais. We even stopped to cross the kissing bridge so I could show my dad the spot where Nick proposed.

On our walk, we came across several artists selling their paintings along the river. My dad found one artist in particular that he liked and bought several paintings. We ended our walk at a cafe called Chez Francis that had a lovely view of the Eiffel Tower, and enjoyed some Pierre and home made ice cream.

On Monday, my dad came with me to school to experience the joy of teaching English in a foreign country! We got there and turned out our first class was canceled...of course..so we walked around the little town looking for something to do for an hour and a half. We got back and taught for a half an hour and then found out that the last class was also canceled. So it was back to Paris after a three hour commute for a half an hour class. Oh the joys of being an English assistant. On a positive note they did inform that they would be on strike the next day and I had the day off (yippie)!