Awake My Soul: Two Americans in Paris

I don't really know any other way to say this, but our time in Paris was amazing. And no, it is not solely for the cliché romantic scenery and atmosphere that the city has (which was absolutely incredible by the way, so what if I'm a romantic), but it's also because of the people that we had the opportunity to stay with. We stayed with John and Maribeth Hinton, and their two children Charity and Silas. This is just an all-around outstanding family, and we couldn't have possibly enjoyed our time with them any more than we did! John actually used to live in Rolla and went to church with my family, so that is the connection (in case you were wondering). The Hinton's moved to Paris five months ago to become missionaries in the city. Right now he and his wife are taking a year to devote themselves to language classes, which is strenuous work when you consider that they are also learning how to get used to a brand new city in a brand new country AND raise a two and a four year old in the new environment as well.

Anyway it was easy to see how they would have been too busy or exhausted to have time to let us stay in their home, but God was definitely at work, because they graciously gave us a home for five days and we instantly clicked. We got along well and had so much in common with each other, becoming friends in a matter of days. And they're children are so precious! Charity is four and is the cutest young lady in the world. Silas is two and has one of the sweetest smiles I have ever seen. Here are a few pictures:

Silas with Nutella all over his face. Too cute.

Charity is too precious. She wanted to see the flowers.

Silas again...I couldn't seem to capture him smiling. He was quite shy.

Charity, upon being found by Tyler playing hide-and-seek.

Oh yeah, I suppose we also saw stuff in the city as well. I should probably talk about that a little bit, shouldn't I? We arrived in Paris in the evening, coming from London by train. Once we arrived we had to figure out how to get to the Hinton's home, which was actually around 15 miles outside of the city. Doing this allowed us to get used to the train system in Paris which we become pros at by the end of our time there. We got to the Hintons at nine or so and talked the night away. We decided to just take the following day entirely off and sleep in and plan out our route for the days to come. It was a great idea, because we had a bit of an adventurous few days ahead.

Ok, side note. Have I mentioned that we are trying to be really frugal on this trip? Because this day sums it up well. First we decided to see everything we wanted to see in Paris in one day to save money on the transportation into and out of the city. Sound like a busy day? Just wait. Then we decided to save a bit more money and simply walk everywhere we wanted to go once we got to the city. This made for roughly 13 hours of walking around Paris. (About 12 miles or so after we checked where all we went online). But it was so worth it!

We started at the cathedral of Notre Dame, which is celebrating its 850th year in 2013. So old! From there we walked along the Seine River until we got to the Eiffel Tower, enjoying all the sites in between. We had lunch in the gardens in front of the tower, then walked north toward the Arc de Triomphe to see that. From there we walked to the Louvre, whose gardens alone are worth the visit. On Friday nights the museum is open later, and people under 26 years old get in free from 6 to 9:45. Huzzah! Free famous art. It is MASSIVE. Unbelievably so. And we definitely got our fill of classical art and sculpture. After that we walked back towards the Eiffel Tower to see it at night, but it wasn't quite dark yet so of course we stopped at a restaurant and got creme brulee. You can't go to Paris and not get creme brulee. (Don't tell the French, but the creme brulee Tyler made me a few weeks ago was WAY better). The Eiffel Tower is an impressive and unique structure; at night it is a thing of beauty. And every hour on the hour for about five minutes, it sparkles with a light show. Pictures just couldn't quite capture it.

The inside of Notre Dame

One of the world's largest stained glass windows is in Notre Dame

I can't believe people built this 850 years ago with their hands.

You have to be impressed by this.

The Arc de Triomphe is so big! It's also a crazy intersection of at least 6 major roads

Classic Louvre pyramid

The Mona Lisa is actually quite underwhelming. But it's pretty cool to see it anyway, behind bullet-proof glass and all.

Not much more romantic than kissing beneath the Eiffel Tower at night :)

Isn't it beautiful??!

The next day we went out to see the Palace of Versailles, but it was way too expensive to go inside, so we just took some pictures. On Sunday, we had a beautiful walk through the Luxembourg Gardens on our way to church with the Hintons. After church we got to celebrate Father's Day with them at a classic English pub (in Paris) that served very delicious (and very manly) burgers and beer.