I am finally writing about my trip to Europe, almost a year later!!! Last summer, Nate & I went on the trip of a lifetime! We have both always wanted to go backpacking around Europe & we decided to take the plunge & do it! looove researching places to travel, so Nate let me go crazy & plan the whole trip!!!

Here was our itinerary:

France (Paris)
5 days

Germany
7 days


Austria
1 day

Italy
10 days

NYC
3 days

Part I: Paris

We flew out of LAX, had a layover in Copenhagen, & then arrived in Paris at 10pm! I can't sleep on flights at all and thought I would be exhausted after 25 hours without sleep, but once we got to Paris I was wide awake & so excited! We took an Uber cab to the little studio we were staying at. We found all of the places we stayed on airbnb & it was really fun staying at cute, quirky little places. We were staying right by the Pantheon and just a few minutes from Notre Dame!

When we got to the apartment, we threw our stuff down & then ran outside to explore! There was a celebration going on at the Pantheon, which was literally right outside the apartment we were staying at, so there were tons of people & music was blaring. We walked the streets, got nutella & speculoos crepes at a little cafe, & got to see the Eiffel Tower sparkle from a distance! Even though we had been awake for about 28 hours straight, we were so excited & wide awake! After a few hours, we crashed and surprisingly woke up around 8am feeling well rested! I was so glad that the time change never seemed to affect us!



Our 1st day in Paris was my favorite day there! First, we walked down to a cute little bakery and got chocolate croissants for breakfast. We ended up getting those for breakfast every day we were there, they were AMAZING! Then we walked to Notre Dame. Notre Dame was beautiful!!! I love gothic style buildings & it was crazy how every single side of the building looked completely different. I loved the gargoyles and just kept thinking of the Hunchback of Notre Dame the whole time! The inside was also beautiful with lots of stained glass.







Next, we went to Sainte Chapelle, a cathedral commissioned by King Louise IX and said to hold the crown of thorns (I'm not sure about all of the relics different places claimed though, each cathedral seemed to claim they had different things). We had heard from Nate's sister that Sainte Chapelle was here favorite building and was made almost completely out of stained glass so we were very excited to see it. We got inside and I have to admit, I was very disappointed, there was some stained glass, but not near as much as I expected. Nate tried to act like he was still impressed, but we were both a little disappointed. Then we walked out to leave and realized, there was a staircase to go to the top level. The top level was AMAZING!!!!! It really was almost completely made of stained glass & the sun was shining and lighting up the whole room! The stained glass pieces made up thousands of little pictures depicting Bible stories. We stayed there until our necks ached from looking up so much!




One thing about me is that I have very high expectations for holidays & vacations. I get an idea in my head about how things will go and then things must go according to the plan! Poor Nate has definitely realized that! I had pictured getting a fresh baguette & cheese & having a picnic, but for some reason, we could not find a place with baguettes where we were at. We were starving & Nate was getting grumpy & I was getting hangry, as he tells me. We finally found a place and were able to have a picnic! (And then I promised not to plan things out too much in my head... :)

After lunch we walked around by the Seine and put a lock on love lock bridge. Then we headed back to take a nap! Napping on vacation is the best! When we woke up an hour later, I remembered that my cousin had told me about a beautiful opera house that had ballets. We realized if we wanted to go, we needed to run down there and get tickets if they had any left over.



We booked it & ran for about 1/2 an hour to get to Palais Garnier. Palais Garnier is the opera house that inspired The Phantom of the Opera & it is also the most beautiful building every. The outside is gorgeous and then the inside is just to beautiful to describe! The walls are so ornate & covered almost completely in gold, there are hundreds of chandeliers & the ceilings all have the most beautiful murals. We loved just walking around and exploring before going in to the ballet.

We took our seats for the ballet & they were in a little personal balcony. The funny thing about the seats was that with most of the balconies, they were at angles that made it so hard to see! There was a couple in the booth to the left of us and the guy kept craning his neck out sooo far so that we could barely see around him! The ballet was beautiful though and I just loved being there, it was one of my favorite moments of our trip & it was only our 1st full day there!



The rest of our time in Paris was spent eating lots and lots of amazing food and walking around everywhere, exploring the city. On our 2nd day, we walked 13 miles to the Arch De Triumph & Eiffel Tower one day. They looked much closer than they really were!!! The Arc De Triumph was beautiful & much larger than I pictured!




We went to an outdoor market and some cute shops & got a baguette, macarons, sundried tomatoes, cheese, & olives & had a picnic in the field below the Eiffel Tower. It was so fun being able to sit with such an awesome view and hear everyone around you speaking French. After walking so much, we were exhausted! We took the metro back, watched the sunset over the Seine (a view I never want to forget), & had the most delicious french onion soup of our lives.




We went back to our apartment to rest and then headed out again to get a creme brulee from a cafe right below our apartment. It did not disappoint and was amazing. There is something so relaxing about not having anything you have to do and planning your days around your next meal. I love how in France, no one rushes you to finish your food. You are expected to sit and relax for an hour or two. All of the tables are outside and the chairs are all positioned towards the sidewalk so you can people watch for days.

Day 3 was the day of the Louvre. The Louvre covers several blocks and is waaaay larger than I ever imagined! It is beautiful on the outside & we loved just walking around on the grounds and seeing all of the statues and carvings in the walls. On the inside, I kept picturing Mary Kate & Ashley with the paintings swirling around them. My Paris goal was of course to do everything that they did in Passport to Paris.. We spent about 6 hours total in the Louvre. There were so many incredible sculptures, paintings, and artifacts in there. My favorite sections were the Ancient Egyptian, Roman sculptures, and the "Winged Victory of Samothrace" was my favorite sculpture. It was also amazing seeing the "Mona Lisa"- much smaller than I pictured, & the "Venus De Milo" sculpure. We took a break midway through to have a picnic outside and to get hot chocolate at Angelina's. The African Hot Chocolate was sooo rich & velvety & the decorations made me feel like I was at a French tea party. Even the bathroom was decorated so cute!



For dinner we went to a local place called Gladines. It was a little restaurant crowded full of people. We waited about 20 minutes and then our server led us to a table half full of people & had us smoosh in on one side. It was fun being at a local place and hearing all of the French conversations going on. The food was amazing and our favorite place that we ate in Paris! Nate got potatoes with blue cheese and pancetta & I got boscque chicken, chicken and rice in a tomato based broth.



After dinner, we rode the metro to the Eiffel tower and hiked up the the 2nd level. You can take an elevator to the very top, but the wait was 2 hours. It was so pretty seeing all the lights of Paris from so high up. We were also up there on the hour, when the Eiffel Tower sparkled, it was incredible!!! By the time we walked down, it was sparkling again so we got to see the view from above and below.



On Sunday, we found an LDS church to go to. We went to sacrament & even though everyone was talking in French, you could still feel the spirit strongly there. It was Mother's Day in France, so at the end, all of the little kids came up and sang a Mother's Day song and they gave all the women flowers. It was so sweet seeing all of the cute little kids singing! We had a relaxed day, walking around the Luxembourg Gardens and exploring some more. Then we took a train to Germany for the next leg of our trip!



I loved Paris so much! It's funny because I knew that everyone raves about Paris and I was excited to go there but it was 10 times more fun, beautiful, & unique than I thought it would be! There are so many things to do there, the food is delicious, and I just love the atmosphere there!