Winter Recap

I think it's safe to say spring is officially here (knock on wood), and as I look back on pictures from the last few months, I realize I should probably put in writing what else we've been up to around Paris over the past few months.

Winter this year was incredibly warm and mild, which made me far less motivated to blog than last winter!

Free Museum Sundays

We have finally started to really take advantage of Paris's free museum Sundays.  On the first Sunday of every month, *most* of Paris's museums are free.  Of course, that means the lines are pretty long, but we've found going early or late helps quite a bit.

We visited the Pantheon in February, where many of France's famous writers and figures are buried.  It's a pretty impressive and beautiful building.

In April, we visited Musee d'Orsay, which was fantastic.  I think I almost liked it better than the Louvre, perhaps because it's smaller and more manageable.  It's full mostly of impressionist paintings, like VanGogh, Monet, Renoir, etc.  Having a beautiful old train station as a backdrop doesn't hurt either!

We also checked out the top of the Arc de Triomph at night in April, but due to construction, you couldn't get a view of the Eiffel Tower.  Glad I had gone before!

St. Patrick's/Birthday/Engagement Celebrations

St. Patrick's Day weekend was full of celebrations.  My good friend, Michelle's, birthday was on Friday, so I took her to the park for a little afternoon picnic (of course this happened to be the worst day of the record pollution as well).  My picnic had an underlying mission of keeping her busy while her boyfriend, Skee, was cooking a surprise meal for her at home (or so I thought).  Turns out, he was planning a surprise proposal that night, with my fabulous friends Lindsey and Justin!  So glad I could be a part of the special day!

Just a little pollution in the air!

The following night was St. Patty's day, and Skee and Michelle had a party to celebrate, and announce their engagement.  Nick and I definitely got some strange looks on the metro in our green outfits!  Thanks Grandma Guldan, for Nick's pants.  They were a hit!

Wine Festival

Recently, there was an independent wine festival here in Paris, and for 6E you received a glass where you could go taste from the hundreds of wine producers for free!  It was a great afternoon spent tasting, and chatting with the local winegrowers.  We really appreciated that some of them took the time to "dumb down" their French so we could actually have some real conversations.  And of course, we bought some wine too! :)