The Lehman's in Paris!

Paris was by far the most beautiful city of the three major cities we visited in Europe, however, it was the most difficult to communicate.

We saw so many places via our open tour at the top of a double decker bus. The company provided headphones that plugged in where you sat on the bus. You chose your language and then as you are driving around, you know exactly what you are seeing.

Above: Double Decker Hop-On Hop-Off Bus with the Arc de Triomphe in the back!
Below: Notre Dame (notice the beautiful detail in the actual structure!) It is amazing that they were able to build these structures without the technology we have today.

Below: The world famous Eiffel Tower. The picture does it no justice. It is truly amazing when you see it from a distance, when you are standing at the base of it, and when you climb up it! Josh and I, along with Tony and Michelle paid to climb to the first two levels. Michelle and I stopped at the first level. You would not believe how high up even the first level is. It was quite a workout climbing all those stairs. The boys continued on up to the second level. From there you have to pay more to take an elevator to the very top.

This is the amazing view from just the first level! Can you imagine the second level? Or the very top? It was so windy climbing up to the first level, but absolutely stunning! The weather was just stunning for our entire trip, with only a day or 2 of rain in total of 3 1/2 weeks! The locals said we brought the great weather with us from Phoenix. We sure did feel blessed to have great exploring weather.

Below: The Louvre (famous museum and home of the Mona Lisa!)

After years of seeing pictures of the Mona Lisa in textbooks, I finally got to see it. Would you believe that it is only about the size of an 11x13 frame? It really is tiny! They wouldn't let us use our flashes in that part of the musuem, so it is quite blurry!

Below: The beautiful Sacre Coeur atop a hill and the view once we got to the top!