When we arrived in France, Ben declared that his main goal for our time there was to eat as many crêpes as possible. My Dad decided that sounded like a fantastic idea and said he would match him one for one. And so the crêpe competition began, and in the end, Ben was far and away the crêpe eating champion. There were crêpes in Normandy, Versailles, and several locations in Paris. There were butter and sugar crêpes, sugar and lemon crêpes, and a number of melty hot cheese crêpes. Suffice it to say, this is how Ben spent most of his France vacation.


He was very happy and full of cheese by the time we left.

Besides the frantic crêpe eating, our Paris time was pretty leisurely and relaxing. On our way to Paris from Normandy, we made a short trip to Versailles where, after standing in line forever, we decided to not buy tickets for the palace and just do the gardens, which had a totally different ticket line. They do not tell one this at the beginning of the long ticket line. Or in the middle. Only at the end when you tell them you want to buy tickets to see the garden. Nope.

Luckily the line for tickets into the garden was practically nonexistant so we spent some time wandering around before getting sandwiches from a tourist-trap café (they were good sandwiches though). And Ben and I rented a rowboat and rowed around for a half hour. Or, I should say, Ben rowed for a half hour while I sat daintily in the rowboat pretending I was French royalty and living at Versailles.




From there we headed for Paris, which was a relatively short drive, but really nervewracking because Parisian drivers are craaaazy. They're definitely not as bad as the Roman drivers, but that's not saying much.

Once in Paris, we just relaxed. We sat at our favorite café.


We ate good food.


And we just spent time sitting in front of Sacré Coeur, people-watching and maybe eating a crêpe or two.


We also spent some time in the Louvre this time, something we didn't do last time. It got cold and rainy one morning so we thought it seemed like a nice warm and dry activity. We saw the obligatory Mona Lisa and Venus di Milo, and then wandered for a while until it looked safe to go outside again. And then we resumed the walking, and sitting, and eating. It was magnifique!

Overall, our time in France with my mom and dad was merveilleux! If anyone else feels like coming to visit, the guest room is ready and your friendly Paris tour guides would be happy to travel there again and show you all the best sidewalk cafés.