A Holiday Weekend...in Paris!

Last weekend was a four day weekend {well, if you faire du pont, or make the bridge, with 1 vacation day like Nick did}, and believe it or not, we didn't go anywhere! Instead, we decided to stay in Paris and take advantage of some much needed relaxation time.

We had planned to visit several places still on our "must visit before we leave list" in Paris, but we quickly realized that a holiday falling on Monday/Tuesday makes it very difficult to do this, as most everything is closed either because it's a holiday or because it's always closed Monday or Tuesday. We enjoyed the weekend though, and were able to spend some time with friends, as well.

The one place we did visit on our list was Pere Lachaise Cemetery. Apparently the world's most visited cemetery and also one of the largest, it was our first time exploring inside, despite having walked by several times. It was a beautiful, crisp fall day, perfect for wandering and exploring this massive cemetery and without a handy map, there is no way we would have found all of the graves we wanted to see. The most famous person buried here is of course Jim Morrison, but we also found the graves of Chopin (composer), Edith Piaf, Gertrude Stein, and Oscar Wilde. I'm sure there's plenty more famous people buried here, but we mostly just enjoyed the peacefulness of the walk. There were many beautiful flowers and mums throughout because just a week earlier was Toussaint Day (All Saints' Day), where many people go to cemeteries to honor the dead.

The rest of the weekend was spent relaxing (sleeping in!), eating a delicious, spicy dinner at L'Orient d'Or with some wonderful friends (sadly no pictures), and a Chipotle/Interstellar dinner and movie date with Skee. {I'll let you decide who was the third wheel here...I'm not sure I even know. Michelle, how long till school is over?? :)}

Our "date" culminated with watching the Twinkie eating contest...

Another blind wine tasting was also in order, this time with no restrictions other than it had to be a red wine between 4-20E. We bought Israeli wine for the fun of it, and it definitely came in near the bottom with two Italian wines. The winner was a French one, but the Canadian wine ranked pretty highly as well. A fun night with all of Michelle's classmates.

The fall weather was abundant this weekend, which made it perfect for wandering and taking in the beautiful fall colors. We've also been training for a 10k (about 6 miles) in December, so pretty fall colors help make those runs a bit more enjoyable!