Ma famille in France (Paris, Giverny, Tours)

It's Wednesday now and my mom and Stephanie went back to the US last Saturday. I've just been chilling at Tours :) which I'm sure is not surprising. So this post is dedicated to all things about my family's visit to France (minus the Amiens day because my post last week is about that). *juicy post warning*

I was the mastermind behind the plans, but you know what the say about the best laid plans... XD Well some things went just as I planned and in the end things worked out. But, for example, Stephanie had the hardest time getting here (ever heard of Murphy's law??). To recap: she missed the flight DC to Paris despite being there hours early. Apparently she had asked multiple times if she was in the right terminal but they told her the wrong thing and voila, missed flight. Then when she was able to take another flight a few hours later, it left late. Next, LOST luggage. Cherry on top? When going from the airport to the Paris train station (RER B from CDG to Gare du Nord iykyk) she stood in a long line to get the ticket and at the turnstile, it was rejected (pro tip: don't let your ticket near your phone bc there's a magnetic strip) and she had to stand in another long line to get it switched out. Finally I met up with her at the station and it was smooth sailing other than having to go through extra stress of not having clothes (I shared) and toiletries.... The best laid plans... It was a mega stressful situation and I was sorry Paris did her dirty like that, but thankfully after some rest and logistical consideration, we were able to get the ball rolling. My mom's flight and travel to meet me was comparatively a gentle summer breeze.

[when I picked up my mom from the shuttle]

In terms of what we had planned, it was hard to pick what all to show of the city. I tried to do a mix of museums, landmarks, and food, but you can only do so much in a week! There were some places I wanted to share because I already knew they were good and others that I had heard were good. Even in this trip I discovered places (especially food) that I will have to go back to. It was too bad that more of my family couldn't come on the trip, but traveling with just a few people is easier in Paris. It's been a while since I've seen my mom and sister so it was fun to be all together again. Like my mom said, next time we'll have to get Mary to come too (her work schedule didn't allow for it this time :( ). The pictures speak for themselves I think so I'll leave it there for Paris! We stayed in a really nice airbnb a bit outside of the city but it was a lot of walking. Still, I think my family enjoyed the trip and that's what's most important.

[i will miss french pastry immensely]

[In the modern art museum in Paris there was this really cool and enormous mural. It showed a bunch of scientists from the time and also greek gods (pjo fans rise up)]

[museum highlights]

[for my birthday, stephanie got us tickets to see a ballet at the palais garnier :0 I've never been in the building and it's a really stunning building. I really loved the ceiling. It was done by Marc Chagall and has depictions of different ballets <3 The ballet itself was interesting, there were 3 parts and it was all contemporary. One of them took Carmen but did a modern take I suppose you'd call it. In another one this guy filled a tub with buckets of water and at the end he was dumped in :0]

[montmartre moment, views from the funicular, we went on ascension day so they were actually having a service during in the sacre coeur basilica oops. it was funny though bc tourists were allowed to just quietly continue circulating the perimeter]

[foucault's pendulum out of service :( This was at the pantheon though and I think this is the original pendulum]

[seesters]

[misc: in the 3rd pic is my mom showing the food she took from the neighbor party going on in the courtyard of the apartments with our airbnb, in the last pic was an exhibit where they scraped the bottom of peoples shoes or something and showed what grew]

Giverny - we took a morning trip to the one and only Giverny. Because we had to get Stephanie's luggage and wanted to play it safe on time, we only stayed until about noon, but it turned out being the perfect amount of time to explore Monet's gardens and house. It was also supposed to rain that day and it didn't! So things worked out in our favor this time. I was happy that my mom and Stephanie liked it.

Tours - The last day before when they would have to leave, we spent in H's town, Tours. It actually turned out that even though it was a Friday, no one had work or school in H's family because it was a national holiday. Well Thursday was the holiday, Ascension (just learned this but it's 40 days after Easter, when Jesus goes up to join God for good), and everyone gets Friday off as well just because. So we ended up chilling at H's house. After the activities of the previous days, I think we all needed the r&r. I was nervous for the families to meet, but they got along well :D. Stephanie has learned a bit of French before, but it's been a while, and my mom knows not a lick. H's parents and brothers do speak it so mostly they spoke English and I sometimes did a little translator work. Overall though, everyone made it work. We spent the night there and had very French meals :)

On Saturday, we took the train from Tours to Paris and I helped (as best I could) get my mom and Stephanie back to their respective airports. Apparently there was the League of champions or something (which has also been in the news because there were a ton of people getting in with fake tickets) going on in Paris so Stephanie unfortunately was met with transport troubles. She ended up making the flight still in the nick of time. And she didn't lose her baggage :D

This wasn't the first time in France for any of us. But I hope I gave a different taste of the country to my family! (also stephanie was a baby when she went last time so I don't think that counts much).