My parents are coming to visit next month, and our itinerary planning has me daydreaming about visiting Paris, my favorite city. {Sorry Amsterdam, you’re a close second I promise.}
There are so many things I love about the city of love, but today I am focusing on just one: pictures from my fall 2011 visit to Notre Dame.
Have you visited the Crypt? It’s right in front of Notre Dame, underneath the big square in front. It houses remnants dating back to pre-roman times. During the reign of Napolean, these foundations and artifacts were unearthed during the renovation of Paris, which dated back human habitation to the early Paleolithic Period, some 500,000 years ago. 500,000! I’d say it’s pretty interesting & worth your four euros.
Can you believe that Notre Dame is going to be 850 years old in 2013? EIGHT HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OLD. Like over three times the age of the United States, guys. Crazy to think about. But I guess I kinda stole Notre Dame’s thunder with the whole Crypt thing, unearthing artifacts proving habitation from some odd 500,000 years ago.
Moral of the story: Europe is old, man.
Chamonix! What an amazing place.
Mid-mountain pre-apres-ski break’s are always a good idea.
Skiing in the clouds has a whole new meaning.
It was a good, good day.
After successfully navigating the 10 hour drive to Chamonix, we spent Saturday night exploring the town & drinking a few beers. Nothing too crazy, because, well, we would never do such a thing. Really, we were all pretty excited for our first day of skiing the next morning.
Chamonix is part of the French Alps, with a few different skiiable peaks. We took the advice of some locals and headed to Les Grands Montets for day one. The elevation ranges from 1235 meters – 3300 meters, or about just under 11,000 feet for you mathematicians out there.
After piling into the tram & heading up from the town of Chamonix, we snapped on our skis & prepared for our very first run.
We took the gondola, and surprise surprise, the sun was still shining at the top & it.was.gorgeous.
Even with all of our excitement & adrenaline at the peak, it apparently didn’t fuel us for very long:
…since we decided it was necessary to take a break immediately following our first run. I guess you could say we were conserving ourselves, we were going to be skiing all week!
Last week, we flew the coop & headed down south to Chamonix, France. We spent our days skiing, our evenings drinking good drinks & eating good food, going from France to Italy to Switzerland and back again, and of course laughing all the way. It was a pretty perfect trip, and I am excited to share my first experience in the Alps with you.
But…let’s be serious. In order to make all this happen, we first had to drive 10 hours. So with Rox in tow, who isn’t a traveler, we piled into the car & started our road trip. She wanted to share her pictures from the drive, and I figured it would be a good way to start sharing our trip to Chamonix, France, with you. Enjoy!
And just when we thought we were home free, with 30 minutes left in the drive…BOOM. Windy roads. Scratch that, sharp turns, huge inclines, cliff overhangs, and PAB’s gentle driving. That last one, a joke.
Alas, we all made it safe & sound, and Rox is pretty excited she became more wordly after this trip, checking off France, Germany, and Switzerland of her list.
